The best projectors of CES 2026: brighter portables, big-screen gaming, and a Dolby Atmos home theater on wheels

Big screen beamers to ring in the new year

10 Jan 2026, 03:00 · TechRadar

Features By Al Griffin published 10 January 2026

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New projector launches typically happen at industry shows such as CEDIA and IFA that land in the September timeframe, but there has been a growing projector presence at CES over the past few years. Multiple projectors were announced at CES 2026, and some were even seen in action, beaming images to the best of their ability beneath the bright show-floor lighting.

Several of these projectors are portable, lifestyle-oriented models designed to be broken out and set up on demand when the need for a big-screen image arises. But others are sophisticated home theater models designed to compete with the best projectors and deliver the real deal for movie watching or gaming. Below are the six top projectors I saw at CES.

Samsung The Freestyle+

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Samsung doubled the brightness to 430 ISO lumens
Auto Wall Calibration compensates for uneven wall surfaces

The first two generations of Samsung’s The Freestyle portable projector impressed us with a super-compact design and flexible installation features. It's a projector that’s easy to just plop anywhere and start streaming movies or playing games, and it automatically configures itself for the best picture quality once powered up.

Samsung's new The Freestyle+ takes picture quality and auto calibration to the next level, doubling brightness to 430 ISO lumens and adding an Auto Wall Calibration feature that digitally compensates for uneven wall surfaces. Bottom line: you don’t have to worry about finding a perfectly smooth, white surface to project on with this new version of Samsung’s portable projector.

Samsung says that new AI features in The Freestyle+ help with keystone adjustment and focus, so you’ll get a crisp, rectangular picture anywhere you point the projector. It also now supports the same Samsung Q-Symphony feature found in Samsung TVs to enhance sound, though we’ll have to see how effective it is on such a small projector.

Hisense PX4-Pro

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Brightness boosted from 3,000 to 3,500 ANSI lumens over the PX3-Pro
New IRIS system adjusts the lens aperture and exposure based on ambient lighting conditions to maximize contrast

The Hisense PX3-Pro currently ranks at the top of TechRadar’s best ultra short throw projectors guide. But as good as it is, the new Hisense PX4-Pro looks to be an even better offering from the company.

The PX4-Pro steps things up with a brightness boost from 3,000 to 3,500 ANSI lumens. It features a new IRIS system that adjusts the lens aperture and exposure based on ambient lighting conditions to maximize contrast and, like its predecessor, uses a trichroma laser light engine to deliver full BT.2020 color space coverage.

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