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1 PHILIPS SCREENEO UL5 SMART
Around £590, ul5.screeneo.com
We may be reaching the tipping point for home projectors, where the impractical and awkward room layouts dictated by traditional models are banished by the increasing power and practicality of short throw devices. Why go to the effort of screwing something to your ceiling when you could just place your projector on a flat surface half a metre from the wall? It doesn’t make sense.
The Philips Screeneo UL5 Smart could just be the device which skews the scales in the direction of ultra short throw projectors, somewhat ironically given its svelte form. Heck, let’s start with the looks: it’s an undeniably handsome device, partially cloth covered and far smaller than Screeneo’s previous widebody U5. That narrow form makes it super-portable, and it even manages to squeeze in stereo speakers.
The new narrowness is, we suspect, a result of some slight downgrades in this model – it’s 1080p rather than 4K, and the lensing maxes out at a 120-inch picture rather than the 150 inches of the U5. But the price is right: starting at ¤699 (about £590) through its instantly-funded Indiegogo launch, the UL5 Smart is about a quarter the price of its predecessor and arguably – for most folks, at least – slightly more practical.
Essentially, it may not be the burliest, but we don’t care: this is the projector that we want. It’s the projector for the kitchen wall, the bedroom, the space where the TV used to be in the lounge. What else is that flexible?
POWER OF THREE The triple lasers of the UL5 Smart can reach a reasonable 550 lumens, meaning it’ll be best in a dark room – though beaming it onto the right screen could make all the difference. Colour-wise, it’s well equipped, compliant with HDR10 and covering 108% of the Rec.2020 colour gamut.