The answer — one pick, priced
Get the
Hisense PX3‑Pro
no budget ceiling
The best ultra-short-throw for a TV replacement — throws 80-150 inches from inches of wall, with Designed-for-Xbox 240Hz gaming built in.
Fit ledger — need → measured evidence
■ The catch — co-equal billing, always
It is not done at $2,998. A UST projector needs a matching ALR (ambient-light-rejecting) screen to look its best — that is another $500-$3,000 on top, and without one a bright room washes the image out. Budget for the screen or do not buy UST.
Dealbreaker? Runner-up №1 (Hisense PL2) is the same UST idea for $1,200 less ↓
■ Every product has a catch. Verdicts that hide it are how bad buys happen.
Runners-up — if your needs differ
Adjacent verdicts — same method
Traps — this verdict avoids
The native-4K tax
True native 4K panels start at ~$5,999 (Sony VPL-XW5000ES). Every serious sub-$4,000 projector uses pixel-shifting — which reviewers rate indistinguishable from native at normal viewing distances. Paying for native is a luxury, not a necessity.
The screen you forgot to budget
The picture is only as good as the surface. A $2,000 projector on a painted wall looks worse than a $1,000 one on a real screen — budget $200-$500 for a standard screen, and $500-$3,000 for the ALR screen a UST model requires.
The brightness and HDR ceiling
No consumer projector exceeds ~3,000 nits peak, and HDR is limited versus a TV. Match lumens to the room: a dark theater needs far fewer than a sunlit living room, so buying on lumens alone picks the wrong projector.
Provenance — 9 sources, dated
Winners are picked from the full research dossier at knowledgelib.io. Prices, stock and listings are re-verified monthly.