How Are the Cheap Projectors (Under $200)

China manufactured products made an entry of all types of things to almost anyone’s home. Our readers are intelligent, some know DIY works but their budget to buy any luxury product is less. A good, branded projector will cost no less than $1500 and will produce video near equivalent to a modern movie theatre.

These cheap projectors are good as a secondary display device or second home or for testing a setup during development. 43″ smart TVs are cost-effective and have at least a life of a decade. Of course, a 43″ smart TV does not come within $200 budget but there are no hidden expenditures. One hidden expenditure of the projectors is the need of purchasing a screen. A decent quality “wall-hung” projector screen will cost you at least $30. The second hidden matter is the need for regular replacement of the projector bulb/LED. An entry-level projector bulb will cost you $50 and the help of a technician. The long term experience with a cheap projector possibly not smooth because of the lack of dedicated official repair support. We guess they are cheaper because they invested minimum behind product support.

Zebronics is an Indian company with price tags of the products slightly more than the Chinese brands. They have a decent website and existing service centres in India. We are not sure about their worldwide presence. For the safety of the invested money, you should look at your country’s local brand like Zebronics. We guess, these brands import certain parts from China and assemble themselves. We tested a smart plug from Zebronics and it was decent at that price with English documentation. Keeping Zebronics outside our scope, we will briefly discuss why they cost 1/20th of the established brands.

All of these cheap projectors tout themselves as 4K to 1080P, sometimes 3D with lots of lumens and a long 30,000 hour LED lamp life. These claims are essentially fraudulent. A lot of customers seem to be quite happy with them–lots of 4 and 5-star ratings can be seen on Amazon, eBay like sites.

If you are not picky about the crispiness of 4K OLED screen then you can live with these projectors with 480p -ish display. Their brightness ranges from 90 to 150 Lumens (they claim as 3000 Lumens). That means you can show some video on a larger screen at dark or night. If you can solve the issue of servicing, they are not just bad at that price tag. At $100 price tag, a thing which can show video on a 90-inch screen is enough “modern”. The best use of this kind of device is for any occasional enjoyment. Your compromise is obvious.