RS Recommends: The Best Mini Projectors for Apartments, Studios, and Outdoor Movie Nights

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At a Glance: The Best Mini Projectors

A blank projection screen, a pair of speakers and a mini projector are the only pieces of gear it really takes to turn your living space into a full-functioning home theater.

The best mini projectors are more portable — and affordable — than many standard home theater projectors, or your big-screen smart TVs. Most of the top mini projectors are simple to control, and pair easily with your favorite streaming devices, too. Plus, their lightweight designs make them easy to set up and start streaming both in your apartment or outdoors in minutes.

Before you start planning what you’re going to stream next, read on for our guide to the best mini projectors to buy right now.

In This Article

What Are the Best Mini Projectors

From XGIMI to Samsung and Anker to Kodak, here are our top picks for the best portable mini projectors to upgrade your movie nights, whether you’re in a studio apartment or projecting on a bedsheet outdoors. All picks are sold at reputable retailers and feature at least a 4/5-star rating from online shoppers.

1. XGIMI MoGo 2 Portable Projector

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For excellent performance with vivid picture quality, the XGIMI MoGo 2 Portable Projector is our pick for the best mini projector — especially for its impeccable color contrast and long-lasting brightness in a small and compact size at just over six inches in height. It can handle movie nights outdoors since it’s also battery-powered, while it serves well in casual everyday TV use when plugged into a power source like a wall outlet.

The projector runs Android TV access to popular streaming apps, like Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, and more, while it also has built-in Chromecast to stream videos and music straight from your smartphone, tablet, or laptop. It has just about everything you’d want in a mini projector.

Promising Customer Feedback: “This is a remarkable little projector. It is usable during the day in a fairly well lit environment. When dark, it shines. I was concerned about it not being high definition but it seems very clear to us. The auto-focus and auto-keystone are quite magical at this price point. And this thing is small…” —Vermontman

2. Hisense C1 4K Ultra HD Mini Projector

The Hisense C1 4K Ultra HD Mini Projector is a must for pristine 4K Ultra HD picture quality, thanks to bright and vivid colors with triple pure color lasers, deep and dark black levels, and top-of-the-line Dolby Vision HDR (High Dynamic Range) with Dolby Vision support. It’s ideal for small spaces, like an apartment or studio, while the mini projector’s auto-keystone settings lets you easily adjust the picture up to 300 inches, or 25 feet, high onto a wall or projection screen with sharp and precise focus. The mini projector creates a real immersive experience with a very large picture and rich JBL-tuned audio with Dolby Atmos built-in.

Promising Customer Feedback: “The best 4K projector under $2,000 on the market. Clarity is impeccable. Adjust settings to fit your viewing style and you’re golden. The auto-adjust feature is great, snapped to my 110-inch screen size within a few seconds, while focusing to its sharpest picture. UI (user interface) is quick and mirroring is seamless. HDR looks great…” —Harry Adams

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3. Samsung The Freestyle

For entertainment and gaming, The Freestyle (second generation) from Samsung is unmatched. The mini projector is best for a versatile home theater with stunning and bright Full HD projection that produces high quality picture quality and immersive audio. Out of the box, it can stream your favorite movies and TV shows via Samsung’s Tizen OS with access to Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, Disney+, and more, but it can also stream video games from popular cloud gaming platforms, such as Amazon Luna, Arcade Antstream, Nvidia GeForce Now, Xbox Game Pass, and others. There’s no need to hook up a streaming device or a gaming console. Just login and start watching or playing.

Not only does it have an impressive design that’s flexible with a 180-degree rotation, but it’s also compact at just under four inches tall and just under two pounds in weight.

Promising Customer Feedback: “Best portable projector! It’s perfect for any occasion, from movie nights with friends to gaming marathons. Plus, I can take it anywhere, it’s so small and portable. I can take it with me camping and have an outdoor movie nights with my family or set it up in the kids room.” —Z Customer

4. Kodak Luma 450

The Kodak Luma 450 portable projector might be able to fit in your pocket or pack, but it’s more than capable of casting a theater-like picture on a screen or your wall. It can project up to a 100-inch display that you can see even in dim lighting, and it can stream in 1080p HD, which is on par with your phone or TV’s screen resolution.

It also comes with both HDMI and USB inputs for connecting to your streaming gadgets, like your iPhone, Google Chromecast or Roku Stick. While it has a built-in speaker, you can also plug in a speaker using the 3.5mm input on the back of the projector.

Promising Customer Feedback: “This is great for camping and outdoor use in the dark. It has good user interface that is easy to navigate and use. The keystone correction is a nice addition, but lacks autofocus. The colors are great and vibrant…” —Paul M.

5. Anker Nebula Capsule

Instead of a flat, square shape, the Anker Nebula Capsule wireless, soda-can-sized mini projector comes with its own 360-degree speaker. The built-in speaker makes it easy for an entire group to hear the movie, no matter where you’re sitting. And thanks to its impressive four-hour battery runtime, it’s ideal for streaming outdoor films or anywhere you’re not near a power source.

Like the Kodak projector, it can project a bright, 100-inch display. Meantime, you can stream everything from what’s on your phone to your Netflix queue using Bluetooth or Airplay, and it’s also equipped with an HDMI input. You can even control the setup all from your phone using the Nebula Connect app.

Promising Customer Feedback: “Great speakers! I showed videos to groups to over 30 people in an outdoor setting and no one had any trouble hearing clearly” —Safari Man

6. Vamvo Mini Projector

Unlike other projectors on the market, you can use the Vamvo Mini Projector to stream a show on a wall and on the ceiling using the included tripod.

With a 3 x 5.8-inch frame, this tiny projector can produce a 130-inch screen for streaming your favorite films, though the brand suggests using it within five feet of your screen for a clear, 80-inch projection. It’s seriously portable and lightweight, weighing just over half a pound, and it ships with both a power cable and remote, though you can control everything using the buttons on top of the projector.

The projector has an audio port for headphones or a speaker, as well as HDMI and USB ports to connect DVD players, your Fire TV or Roku sticks and even your smartphone.

Promising Customer Feedback: “The Vamvo Portable Projector is a compact wonder! Its stylish design and 1080p (Full HD) support create a cinematic experience up to 200-inch. Effortless connectivity with phones, tablets, laptops, and more. Perfect for on-the-go entertainment, this mini projector is a versatile delight.” —Tom

7. PVO Mini Portable Projector

While it might not be the slimmest or most portable projector in this guide, the PVO Mini Portable Projector gets top marks for its affordable price tag and easy-to-operate design. It has a 4.2-star rating (out of 5 stars) on Amazon right now, with nearly 11,000 user ratings. In short, it’s a popular choice for an outdoor movie setup that won’t break the bank.

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Now, it isn’t wireless and doesn’t have Bluetooth, so if that’s important to you, you may want to consider one of the other projectors above. However, it’s still simple and straightforward to project, and it comes with an array of ports, including HDMI, USB and a headphone jack for pairing with an external speaker or your wired headphones. To use it, you simply need to plug in the power adapter that comes included with the projector.

Promising Customer Feedback: “I love how compact and easy it is to set up, the images are good quality and it has great sound… It was a great buy for our kid.” —Mitch R

Buying Guide; How to Pick the Mini Projector

How much space do you have? Are you going to mount your projector or put it on a bookshelf? Can you connect a speaker to the projector? These are just a few of the most important questions to ask when you’re choosing the best new mini projector for your home theater. Here’s what we looked at when researching this buying guide.

Size and Weight: Taking the mini projector’s size and weight into consideration is one of the most important shopping decisions to make. Before you buy your mini projector — sometimes also referred to as a pico projector — make sure it can fit in your space, but also pay close attention to how much it weighs if you’re planning to use, say, a hanging shelf to support it. Luckily, most of the mini projectors you can buy online are lightweight enough that you shouldn’t need to worry about it.

Mount: Where are you going to watch a movie or show with the projector? Think about where you’re going to put your projector, and make sure there’s a clear, unobstructed line from the projector to the wall or screen.

If a side table or bookshelf are too low to place the projector on, a wall mount or floating bookshelf might be your best bet. There are a handful of mountable projectors out there, but a quick, easy solution is to use a floating shelf that you can buy online at Target, Amazon, or Walmart. Floating shelves give you a bit of extra flexibility in your living space, letting you remove the shelf whenever you’re not using your projector. This is also a great option if you want to watch videos in your living space, but don’t want to mount a TV on the wall.

Connectivity: We’ve included a range of mini projectors in this guide, from wired models that require a power source, to wireless projectors that feature HDMI connections and Bluetooth connectivity. Depending on the projector, you may need to adjust where you place it in your room or home theater to move it closer to a power source.

Sound and Speaker Volume: The last thing you want while projecting your movie is hearing the projector’s fan over the speaker volume. Some projectors have built-in speakers, though we recommend going with a projector that can connect to an external speaker or sound system. That way, you’ll be able to hear what you’re streaming, almost like you would in the theater.

Customer reviews have been edited for length and clarity, and size availability is posted at the time of publication.