5 Great Portable Projectors for Under $700

It’s no secret that a high-quality home entertainment projector can be an expensive purchase. It’s easy to spend thousands of dollars on a projector, and sometimes it seems like you have to if you want one with the latest technology and best image quality. While there are less costly projectors out there, it can be difficult to discern which ones skimp on quality to achieve a lower price, and which ones are able to offer an excellent viewing experience for less. ProjectorReviews.com has done the research for you and found five of the best high-quality, lower-cost projectors, all for less than $700.

AAXA P300 NEO

The AAXA P300 Neo is a pico projector, meaning it is extremely portable and small enough to fit in your hand. At $294.99, it is very affordable and usable. It’s highly recommended for travel as it has a 2.5-hour battery life, allowing you to watch a full movie without needing to recharge. This is longer than the 90-minute battery life that most picos have.
The P300 NEO is best for those not looking for the highest quality image or sound, but something that gets the job done for a low price. It’s recommended for children, as their personal home theater or to use in hotel rooms while traveling. This projector’s best features include its small size and portability, allowing you to carry it with you in your purse or carry on, its battery life, and its ability to project up to 120” without any blurriness. It also has a USB port and on-board media capabilities so you can play videos, view pictures and listen to music directly through the projector without using a cord.

A few of the features leave something to be desired, but that is to be expected in this price range. The P300 NEO claims 420 lumens, but emitted closer to 200 lumens. This means that the NEO is best used in a room with little ambient light, or projecting at a smaller size to combat moderate ambient light. The built-in speaker is weak, so in louder environments, it’s best to either hook up the projector to external speakers, or utilize the headphone port if only one person is watching. Overall, this projector is the best you can buy for less than $300. For its low price, the picture quality, color, and overall viewing experience is superb.

AAXA M6

The AAXA M6 is a $599 LED pocket projector and a fantastic pick for those looking for something portable, versatile and high-quality. It’s a good option for casual gamers, as the input lag time is within the acceptable range. Few projectors of this size and weight also have 1080p resolution, making this projector a bargain. At 2.5 lbs, it is easy to carry around, and even includes a carrying case.

The M6 can be used in many settings due to its 1,200 lumens, 2,000:1 contrast ratio and good color capabilities. It’s appropriate for both business use as well as casual home entertainment. It’s bright enough to use in rooms with some ambient light, though the picture quality is best when you have some control over the lighting. Like many other projectors of this size, it has a built-in media player and great light engine life of 20,000 hours – it’ll be a long time before that light engine goes out.
This projector has very few cons, especially for its price. While it’s portable, it would be best to also use an external speaker for improved sound quality, though not totally necessary. The zoom lens ratio is fixed, and there is no keystone correction, so the projector doesn’t have a lot of placement flexibility. It does have the ability to attach to a tripod, however. While this projector likely wouldn’t impress a projector purist, it is ideal for those new to projectors looking for something basic and good quality.

ACER K138ST

Of the five projectors on this list, the Acer K138ST is the best one for true gamers who are looking for a high quality, big screen, gaming experience. Another pocket projector, this $599 Acer is extremely portable, weighing only 1.65 lbs and comes with a travel case for convenience. The highlights of this projector include its incredibly minimal lag time of just over 16ms, comparable to that of $1,000+ projectors, and its ability to project up to 100” diagonally from a short distance, making it perfect for city dwellers and for those with tight spaces.

At 800 lumens, it’s brighter than most pocket projectors and has a 10,000:1 contrast ratio, which is fantastic for a projector of this size and price. The K13AST is also Bluetooth compatible, allowing you to connect to Bluetooth speakers wherever you bring your projector, perfect for movie nights and game marathons at friends’ houses.

While this projector doesn’t have Full HD, it has WXGA resolution which is equal to 720p resolution, lower on the HD spectrum. The K13AST also comes with 3D capabilities, manual focus, 10X digital zoom and wireless capabilities so you can go cordless. This is truly the perfect projector for the young, budget conscious gamer looking for bells & whistles that many of the other projectors in this price range don’t have.

Optoma ML750ST

This $549 Optoma ML750ST was given a rave review by a true millennial living in NYC as the perfect projector for your new-to-projectors, small living, on the go, young professional. At 0.9lbs, it is incredibly light and small and it comes with a soft carrying case so you can toss it into your bag and carry it with you easily. The keystone correction feature automatically corrects distortion, regardless of where the image is being projected and its adjustable focus gives the user control to improve the crispness of the image.

The ML750ST is incredibly simple to set up and use. It takes less than 15 seconds to power up, and is a short throw projector, meaning it’s able to create a large image when set up close to the screen. With 700 lumens and 1280x800 resolution, its brightness and crispness is pretty good, and better than most at this price. This projector can be hooked up to your smartphone or computer and also has an SD card input to easily pull up and share your latest vacation photos. It has 3D capabilities, and while its speakers won’t work if you’re hooked up through the VGA, you can purchase an inexpensive HDMI cord through Amazon or use external speakers. Ultimately, the ML750ST specs are all good enough and when combined with its ease of use and versatility, it’s hard to beat at this price.

ViewSonic PJD7828HDL

Last, but definitely not least, the award-winning ViewSonic PJD7828HDL projector is the real deal. This $679 ViewSonic is a genuine multi-use projector appropriate for home entertainment, business use, education and gamers, one of the many reasons it was awarded Best Value Home Entertainment Projector in the Under $1000 Class in our 2018 Best Home Theater Projectors Report. This projector has a lot going for it, with 1080p Full HD resolution, 3D capabilities,10-watt speakers and still only 5.3 lbs.

The ViewSonic has unique features that make it particularly appropriate for both gamers, business, and home usage. Its remote mouse, microphone input, presentation timer, and laser pointer make it the perfect projector to use for business, particularly if you travel frequently and present in a variety of environments. It has a 16ms lag time, which is considered an excellent lag time by gamers, and has 3D capability as well. For home theater users, it boasts 2,300 lumens, making it perfect for rooms both with and without ambient light and 2 HDMI inputs allowing you to easily hook up your Roku or Chromecast.

The few drawbacks to this projector include its minimal zoom, and lack of complete color control, but for an entry level projector, and one that can sit near your screen and still project a large image, it is as close to perfect as you can get at this price point.

The Bottom Line

Each of the five projectors on this list were selected because of their superior quality compared to others at similar price points. We know that projector shopping can be confusing, especially for those new to projectors, and we hope that this post helped you select the perfect projector for your uses and budget.

5 Great Portable Projectors for Under $700

AAXA P300 NEO

AAXA M6

ACER K138ST

Optoma ML750ST

ViewSonic PJD7828HDL

The Bottom Line

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