Cheap Projectors (Sub $100) – 2024 Edition

It’s November 2024 and I bought every projector on Amazon priced less than $100 so we can sift through the marketing and occasional flat out lies on their listings. Unfortunately, for the most part, you guys are buying the wrong stuff. But it’s not your fault. In this video, we’re going to actually test their brightness, contrast, fan noise, focus, and resolution, put them side by side to test their picture quality, and last, I’ll do more in depth input lag and speaker quality testing of the best ones to figure out which projectors are worth your money and which are mostly just e-waste. As always there are no sponsored reviews on this channel, and I bought all these projectors with my own money.

Brightness and Contrast Testing

Starting with brightness, it’s still pretty common for these projectors to list ridiculous brightness numbers like 15000 lumens (Toptro TR23). While that’s technically not a lie, that’s just the brightness of the LED light source inside the projector and isn’t anywhere close to the amount of light that reaches the screen. I tested each projector using the ANSI standard where you take nine individual brightness readings and multiply that average brightness by the screen size in square meters.

Unsurprisingly, none of the projectors had 15000 lumens, but the brightest projector by a significant margin was the $99 Groview JQ818C measuring 492 ANSI lumens. Then a big chunk of these projectors were around 200 ANSI lumens and unfortunately, three of the most purchased cheap projectors on Amazon were under 100 ANSI lumens.

I also measured their contrast by dividing the brightness of a pure white screen by the brightness of a pure black screen and found that the $99 Onoayo AY2Pro came out on top with a very impressive 4500:1 contrast ratio. But overall, the contrast on most of these projectors is very good and a large majority were over 2000:1, which is extremely competitive even with much more expensive projectors.

However, one area where these cheap projectors struggle is in brightness uniformity where the center of the image is significantly brighter than one or all of the corners. Unsurprisingly, the second dimmest projector, the $59 iGRR, had the highest uniformity at 72.7%, but amazingly the brightest projector, the Groview JQ818C had the second highest at 69.9%.

Fan Noise

Another issue that these cheap projectors struggle with compared to more expensive ones is fan noise since projecting a 15000 lumen light source through an LCD screen that absorbs 97% of the light generates a lot of heat. I measured each projector’s fan noise from a distance of 12” and found that the quietest was the $89 ONOAYO AY3 with a fan noise of 39.9 dB, but some other notably decent performers were the VOPLLS N3, ONOAYO AY2Pro, and Happrun H1 which had high lumens but low fan noise. The loudest projector was the extremely popular HY320 series that is all over the TikTok store which came in at an overwhelming 51.6 decibels.

Throw Ratio

Next, I tested the throw ratio, which is the distance required for your projector to produce a certain size of screen. Here are the throw distances for a 100” screen with some notable measurements being the Happrun and Groview that need between around 125 and 135 inches for a 100” screen, which is longer than most projectors, and on the other end of the spectrum, the small HY300 only needs 79 inches to produce a 100” screen which technically classifies it as a short throw projector.

Resolution

Another place where these companies try to trick you on their Amazon listings is by putting things like 1080p or 4K supported in their titles. All that means is that you can input 1080p or 4K content, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that their screens can display that resolution, which is called their native resolution. Usually a quick search of the listing will show you the true native resolution, but I have suspicions that even those numbers can’t be trusted since this extremely popular projector from PENSABA that sold 6000 units last month claims to be 1080p, but in the side-by-side testing, you can see that it can’t properly display 1080p content and squishes the entire image vertically, which is usually a sign that it’s not in its native resolution.

Focus

Along with resolution, I tested their focus quality when lined up perfectly with the screen. I started by projecting this image and focusing the center perfectly, and then I inspected the text in all four corners and rated their quality from 1-10. I found that the best focus uniformity was from the ONOAYO AY3, Groview JQ818C, DragonTouch LO-12, and the Salange HY320, which are all true 1080p projectors.

And usually combining brightness, contrast, and resolution together will give a good indication of the projector’s overall image quality, but there’s only one way to know for sure. So, I set up two 100” screens and put the projectors head-to-head going from least expensive to most. 

Head-to-Head Testing

I’ve got 25 projectors here, which means 24 rounds so I’m going to move quickly through any rounds that weren’t close, like round 1 that had the ARTSEA YG210 on the left and the VOPPLS N3 on the right, and neither of them look great, but the ARTSEA is essentially garbage with 25 ANSI lumens and 480p native resolution, so the N3 easily moved on.

Round 2 brings in the PANSEBA HI-04 on the left vs the VOPPLS N3 on the right. You can see that the PANSEBA actually does a better job with color, but as I mentioned earlier, it squished the aspect ratio of the video and the brightness was still too low at just 76 lumens, so the N3 moved on again.

Round 3 then put the CiBest W13-S on the left and the VOPPLS N3 on the right, and similar to the last round, the W13-S did a good job with color, but the focus was soft, and brightness was low, so the N3 took this round also.

And that meant that round 4 was the ELEPHAS BL128 on the left and the VOPPLS N3 on the right, and you can tell that the BL128’s color was much better than the N3, which was bright, but pretty washed out in bright scenes, and to me it seemed like the increase in color performance was worth the decrease in overall brightness, so the BL128 moved on.

Which made round 5 the ELEPHAS BL128 on the left and Nisoo M10 on the right, and while not quite as bad as the ARTSEA from round 1, the Nisoo was pretty terrible with just 74 ANSI lumens, and an incorrect aspect ratio that squished the entire image vertically, and this round wasn’t close.

So round 6 then put the ELEPHAS BL128 on the left and the Visspl V16 on the right and this round was pretty close with both projectors doing a decent job with colors, but I thought that the Visspl looked a little bit too harsh in bright scenes, and in darker scenes the ELEPHAS had much brighter highlights making the image more contrasty and easier to watch, so the ELEPHAS moved on again.

Round 7 then put the ELEPHAS B128 on the left and the Happrun H1 on the right, and the Happrun really showed off why it has been my pick for the best projector under $75 for the last two years, with nice, saturated colors, good brightness, and excellent contrast easily beating the ELEPHAS and moving on.

And that made round 8 the Groview B20 on the left and the Happrun H1 on the right, and honestly the B20 looked pretty good, but ultimately, not anywhere close to the Happrun H1 which was brighter with better color and better contrast in both bright scenes and dark scenes.

So round 9 put the DragonTouch LO-12 on left and the Happrun H1 against on the right. This round wasn’t close, and the LO-12 had splotchy color skewed heavily towards blue, and pretty bad contrast with milky gray blacks, so the Happrun easily moved on again.

Round 10 was then the Beejovial HY300 on the left and the Happrun H1 on the right, and honestly, for a 720p projector with 144 ANSI lumens, the HY300 actually didn’t look bad at all, with good color and decent contrast, but again, not anywhere close to the quality of the Happrun.

Round 11 then put the OPOQO B158 on the left and the Happrun H1 on the right, and for two projectors with pretty similar stats, I didn’t think that this round was as close as it should have been, with the OPOQO looking pretty dull and lifeless in both light and dark scenes, meaning the Happrun moved on again.

So round 12 was the iGRR V220 on the left and the Happrun H1 on the right, and the fact that a 52 lumen 480p projector costs more than the Happrun makes you realize how impossible it is for the average consumer to pick a projector. In addition to poor brightness, bad color, and low resolution, the V220 also didn’t display the aspect ratio properly.

Round 13 is past the halfway point and puts the ClokoWe M8 on the left and the Happrun H1 on the right. Again, this was not close at all and not only did the M8 have poor colors and contrast, but it also had a bright white spot on the bottom middle of the screen probably from some internal reflections.

Round 14 has the Halimomo H500 on the left and the Happrun H1 on the right. As noted previously, the Halimomo’s focus uniformity is atrocious, but even more than that it seemed like the Halimomo was trying to do some kind of motion processing which caused stuttering and tearing that I’ve never seen in these cheap projectors before. So, in spite of decent resolution and brightness, the Halimomo was one of the worst performing projectors yet.

Round 15 had the very popular MagiCubic HY320 on the left and the Happrun H1 on the right, and again, a combination of bad color and low contrast made this no contest at all, and an easy win for the Happrun.

Round 16 then put the Yaber E1 on the left and the Happrun H1 on the right, and this was definitely closer, but for some reason the Yaber E1 made everyone’s skin look weird and bumpy. I’ve watched this same scene hundreds of times in 4K and on projectors that cost thousands of dollars, and I can tell you it’s not supposed to look like that, so the Happrun H1 moves on again.

Round 17 put the TMY SPP on the left and the Happrun H1 on the right, and again, this was much closer than some of the previous rounds but to me, the TMY was a little dull and undersaturated, so the Happrun also won this round.

In round 18 the PANSEBA QK06 was on the left and the Happrun H1 was on the right. This was maybe the closest round yet, but I thought the QK06 made skin tones a little too orange in bright scenes and in dark scenes the contrast and gamma on the Happrun were easier to watch, so I also picked the Happrun in this round.

Round 19 was then the Salange HY320 on the left and the Happrun H1 on the right. Again, a pretty close round in bright scenes, but the Happrun’s color was definitely still more accurate and saturated, and in darker scenes it was no contest and the HY320 was way too dim compared to the punchy highlights on the Happrun.

And that made round 20 the Vamvo VF320 on the left and the Happrun H1 on the right. In bright scenes the Vamvo was slightly less saturated than the Happrun, but I felt like that actually led to a little bit better color accuracy. I was also impressed by the sharpness of the VF320 which very confusingly is a 720p native projector, so you wouldn’t expect great sharpness. But it seemed to show more detail in faces and skin without looking bumpy like the Yaber a few rounds earlier, and in dark scenes the VF320 had great color and great highlights, and I would have never expected a 720p projector to take down the Happrun after 14 rounds, but I think the Vamvo earned the win.

So round 21 was the Vamvo 320 on the left and the ONOAYO AY3 on the right, and again the Vamvo was just so much sharper in bright scenes, and the AY3’s black levels were a little bit muddy and gray, so the Vamvo moved on easily through this round.

In round 22 the Vamvo 320 was on the left and the ONOAYO AY2Pro was on the right. In bright scenes they were both very similar with the Vamvo’s sharpness sticking out to me again, but the dark scene performance of the AY2Pro was the best we’ve seen yet. It managed to get great bright highlights while maintaining excellent black levels due to its huge 4500:1 contrast ratio. So, with similar performance in bright scenes and dominating performance in dark scenes the AY2Pro took this round.

And that meant that in round 23 the Toptro TR23 was on the left and the ONOAYO AY2Pro was on the right. Unlike the last few rounds, this one wasn’t particularly close, and while the TR23 wasn’t bad by any means, it was 70% as bright as the AY2Pro with only about 25% of the contrast, so it didn’t really have a chance and the AY2Pro moved on again.

Which made the final round the Groview JQ818C, which just recently started to regularly sell for less than $100, on the left and the ONOAYO AY2Pro on the right. The Groview is over two and a half times brighter than the ONOAYO, which in person makes bright scenes seem much more vibrant, though you can tell the colors weren’t nearly as accurate as the AY2Pro. That brightness also helped scenes with medium lighting appear to be higher contrast on the Groview, but in the darkest scenes the AY2Pro did have better black levels and overall contrast. Ultimately, I picked the Groview, but if color accuracy is more important to you then the AY2Pro would probably be the better pick.

And here are the overall rankings for picture quality. From this point on, I’m going to narrow my tests down to just the top five and do some additional testing.

Input Lag

Starting with input lag which is the delay between when the video signal goes into the projector and when it gets shown on the screen. In general, input lag numbers under 20 ms are very good for gaming, between 20 and 50 ms is acceptable but not great, and anything above 100 ms won’t work for gaming. 

Of the top five projectors, the Vamvo had by far the best input lag, locked in at 19.3 ms for perfect 1080p60Hz gaming, followed by the Groview and Happrun which bounced between around 35 and 45 ms depending on the frame, which as I said is acceptable, but not great. The Onoayo AY2Pro bounced between around 65 and 78 ms, which would start to feel a little strange trying to game on it, and the Toptro TR23 was well above 100 ms, meaning you can’t really use it for gaming.

Speaker Quality

I also tested the speaker quality and volume of each of the top five projectors and here they are from quietest to loudest, with my subjective audio quality score overlayed.