Amanda Brown
Active member
My brother asked me to find him a projector under $500 for his basement, and after an hour of scrolling I noticed something: two of these three listings are terrified of telling you how bright they are. The Epson says 3000 lumens. The TOPTRO and the ONOAYO say nothing about brightness at all, but the ONOAYO title leads with "4K" and the TOPTRO title leads with "4K Support." That word "support" is doing a lot of work. A $440 projector is not throwing a native 4K panel, and nobody selling one at that price is going to quietly admit it. Same with the ONOAYO - "Outdoor-Projector-4K" in the listing name, no resolution in the specs I could find.
The Epson is the boring pick and I mean that as a compliment. $329.99, 4.3 stars from 1190 ratings, and 400+ bought in the past month. That rating count is the number I trust most in this whole comparison, because it's hard to fake a thousand reviews into a 4.3. It's 3LCD, which means no rainbow effect, and 3000 lumens color and white is a real, checkable claim from a company that makes industrial projectors. Downside: it's a portable business-first unit. There's an HDMI port and a built-in speaker and that's basically the whole story. No smart OS, no streaming apps, no auto focus mentioned. You're plugging a stick or a laptop into it. For a basement with a fixed screen and a soundbar, that's fine.
The TOPTRO is the gamble. $439.99, 4.4 stars, but only 56 ratings and it's listed as new on Amazon in the past month. The pitch is Google TV 14.0 bundled as a stick, 10,000+ apps, voice control, auto focus, short throw, HDR10, Dolby. That's a lot of boxes ticked for $110 more than the Epson, and the bundled stick is genuinely a smart way to handle streaming instead of building a bad OS into the projector. But 56 ratings is not a track record, it's a first impression. If you buy this you are the beta tester.
The ONOAYO sits at $493.99 with 4.2 stars from 1121 ratings and 500+ bought last month, so it clearly has a real following. The hook is the dual 60W Dolby audio, and honestly that's the most believable claim on the page - 60W of drivers is a physical thing you can put in a chassis. If you want one box, no soundbar, and you're watching outside where a tinny speaker gets eaten alive, this is the one with an actual argument. But "Official Licensed Apps" and "4K" in the title with no brightness or resolution figure anywhere is the kind of vagueness that makes me assume the panel is 1080p at best.
So: Epson if you want the known quantity and already own a streaming stick. ONOAYO if the audio matters more than the picture specs. TOPTRO only if you're comfortable being an early adopter for the sake of auto focus and a bundled Google TV stick.
Question for anyone who's had the ONOAYO for a few months: does that 60W audio hold up outdoors, or does it start clipping once you push it past half volume?
What the listings say (as of Oct 16)
The Epson is the boring pick and I mean that as a compliment. $329.99, 4.3 stars from 1190 ratings, and 400+ bought in the past month. That rating count is the number I trust most in this whole comparison, because it's hard to fake a thousand reviews into a 4.3. It's 3LCD, which means no rainbow effect, and 3000 lumens color and white is a real, checkable claim from a company that makes industrial projectors. Downside: it's a portable business-first unit. There's an HDMI port and a built-in speaker and that's basically the whole story. No smart OS, no streaming apps, no auto focus mentioned. You're plugging a stick or a laptop into it. For a basement with a fixed screen and a soundbar, that's fine.
The TOPTRO is the gamble. $439.99, 4.4 stars, but only 56 ratings and it's listed as new on Amazon in the past month. The pitch is Google TV 14.0 bundled as a stick, 10,000+ apps, voice control, auto focus, short throw, HDR10, Dolby. That's a lot of boxes ticked for $110 more than the Epson, and the bundled stick is genuinely a smart way to handle streaming instead of building a bad OS into the projector. But 56 ratings is not a track record, it's a first impression. If you buy this you are the beta tester.
The ONOAYO sits at $493.99 with 4.2 stars from 1121 ratings and 500+ bought last month, so it clearly has a real following. The hook is the dual 60W Dolby audio, and honestly that's the most believable claim on the page - 60W of drivers is a physical thing you can put in a chassis. If you want one box, no soundbar, and you're watching outside where a tinny speaker gets eaten alive, this is the one with an actual argument. But "Official Licensed Apps" and "4K" in the title with no brightness or resolution figure anywhere is the kind of vagueness that makes me assume the panel is 1080p at best.
So: Epson if you want the known quantity and already own a streaming stick. ONOAYO if the audio matters more than the picture specs. TOPTRO only if you're comfortable being an early adopter for the sake of auto focus and a bundled Google TV stick.
Question for anyone who's had the ONOAYO for a few months: does that 60W audio hold up outdoors, or does it start clipping once you push it past half volume?
What the listings say (as of Oct 16)
| Spec | Epson Store | TOPTRO Store | ONOAYO Store |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $329.99 | $439.99 | $493.99 |
| Amazon rating | 4.3 (1190 ratings) | 4.4 (56 ratings) | 4.2 (1121 ratings) |
| Bestseller rank | #18 | #17 | #14 |
