Hear the word "throw" and immediately think "ball"? You don't spend much time with projectors. A projector's throw—the distance between it and the screen—defines a projector and its lens: long, standard, short, or ultra short. Want a big image in a small room, but can't position the projector far back? You need a short throw projector. Want a TV replacement without running much cable? An ultra short throw (UST) projector can sit atop your entertainment console and beam to a screen on the wall above it. PCMag has tested projectors for decades, and we evaluate models based on image quality, feature set, input-lag performance, ease of use, and value. Our current overall favorite UST projector is the Epson Pro Cinema LS12000, but we stand behind the other models here for different needs and budgets. Read on for these recommendations, plus all the advice you need to make a smart buy.

If you're considering buying a projector with a shorter-than-standard throw distance, it helps to understand the categories of short throw and UST in the context of all four throw ranges on the market.

What's deemed a standard throw is what you'll find on most projectors. Long throw lenses and short throw lenses are harder to manufacture well enough to project a high-quality image, which makes them, and the projectors that use them, more expensive. But if you have to put the projector far away from the screen—as in, say, a movie theater—you need a long throw lens to get a small enough image to fit the screen. Short throw lenses do the opposite, giving you a big image from close to the screen, while UST lensing systems (which usually add a mirror to the mix of optical elements) will fill any given screen size from even closer. That brings us to the question of why you might want a short throw or UST projector in the first place.

What Are Short Throw Projectors Good For?

Any number of situations make being able to get a big image from close to the screen useful or even necessary. If you're setting up the projector in a small room, for example, or for a retail store window display, you may not have enough room with a longer throw to get the size of projected image you want. And even when the space is large enough for a standard or long throw to give you the right image size, you may not have the option of mounting the projector on the ceiling. In those cases, keeping the projector close to the screen may be the only way to avoid the possibility of people casting a shadow if they stand up during a presentation, for example.

UST projectors can sit even closer to the screen than short throw models, delivering images up to 120 inches (measured diagonally) from just inches away. So if you want to use a projector to replace a large TV at home, and you don't want to deal with mounting it on the ceiling or running cables through walls, UST is what you want.

(Credit: Hisense)

UST models can also be useful in business and education settings. Mount one just above a screen, and you can get close enough to the image to point to text or graphics you want to draw attention to without casting a shadow, much as you would with a whiteboard. You can even buy an interactive UST projector with sensors that let you draw on the image and give commands as if you're reporting the weather on TV.

How Do I Choose Between a Short Throw and an Ultra Short Throw?

Both short throws and USTs are good choices for a room that's too small to let you put a standard throw projector far enough away from the screen to give you the image size you want. Either can help avoid the problem of people standing up and casting shadows on the screen in situations where a standard throw projector can't be positioned to avoid that—a common issue not just for rooms with low ceilings but also for ad hoc setups for gaming, home entertainment, or presentations. To choose between them, however, it helps to know a little about their different designs.

It's hard to tell a short throw model from a standard throw model without seeing the lens (or even with seeing the lens, if you don't know what a short throw lens looks like). In fact, some standard throw and short throw models from the same manufacturer are literally the same projector with different lenses. You can usually spot these near-twins, because they typically have almost the same model name—except that one includes "ST" in the name and the other doesn't. The only other difference is that the short throw version will cost more, because of the more expensive lens.

In contrast, most UST models are easy to spot. The vast majority are designed with the lensing system at what you would probably think of as the back of the projector, meaning the side facing away from the screen, but which manufacturers insist on calling the front. (That's because projector makers define the front by where the lens is.) In most designs, the optics are fully contained inside the box, with a depressed area on the top surface near that side containing a glass window that the image shines through to go directly to the screen. Other designs have a raised lens on that side pointing to the screen, or a mirror, so the image will bounce off the mirror before going to the screen.

Some projectors with lenses on the side facing the screen are listed by their manufacturers as UST models, but are—at best—on the borderline between short throw and UST. (We'll come back to this issue in the next section.) However, those projectors give up one of the big advantages of putting the lens on the other side, namely: If the image emerges from the side farthest from the screen, the projector itself is closer to the screen, with nearly the entire depth of the projector sitting between the lens and the screen. So while a UST lens lets the projector sit closer to the screen than a short throw lens, the most common UST designs put it closer still. And the less distance you want between the projector and the screen—whether simply to save space or to avoid the need for running cables over or through walls, ceilings, and floors—the more likely you want a UST model with the more typical UST lens placement.

What Is the Shortest Throw Projector?

The projector industry posits no firm definitions for each level of throw—or at least no universally accepted ones—which means manufacturers' marketing departments are free to draw the line between categories wherever they like. But one related standard spec, called throw ratio, can help, and you can get an idea of which throw ratios fall in which category.

Throw ratio is the ratio between the distance to the screen and the width of the image. So, for example, if the lens needs to be 100 inches from the screen for a 100-inch-wide image (the approximate width of a 115-inch-diagonal 16:9 screen), the throw ratio would be 1.0. (That will show as "1.0:1" in some spec sheets, and just "1.0" in others.) Similarly, if the distance were 200 inches, the throw ratio would be 2.0 (200/100), and for a 50-inch distance, it would be 0.50 (50/100).

The range from 1.0 to (but not including) 2.0 is a standard throw by anyone's definition. But while some peg a long throw at 2.0 and above, others draw the line at a higher number. Similarly, many manufacturers call anything below 1.0 a short throw, and anything below roughly 0.4 a UST, while others call anything below 0.5 a UST. Most of the current UST models we've tested—and all of the UST models mentioned here—offer throw ratios of 0.28 or lower. Specs for the short throw models included here range from 0.49 to 0.7, but again, some manufacturers would call a projector with a 0.49 throw ratio a UST model.

(Credit: Epson)

Zoom lenses add a twist to all this. Because an optical zoom changes image size, projectors equipped with zoom lenses have a range of throw ratios. One projector we've tested (but not included here) has a range of 0.9 to 1.08, for example, barely qualifying as short throw at the low end of its range. However, the manufacturer calls it a short throw projector. Some manufacturers also list a range of throw ratios for digital zooms, but keep in mind that digital zooms that affect image size should be ignored, if at all possible. They can only shrink the image from the full size the lens allows, and they do so by using less of the imaging chip, which also lowers brightness and can add artifacts.

The moral here? You can use manufacturer claims for the throw category as a starting point, but you should also look at some numbers. At the very least, comparing the throw-ratio specs for two projectors will tell you which one has the shorter throw, which will let you put it closer to the screen for any given size image. Often, the manufacturer will have a chart in its marketing material showing the distance for common screen sizes, particularly for UST models. And in virtually all cases, the information should be in a user setup guide available for downloading from the company's website.

If you can't find the information, you can easily calculate how far the projector will be from the screen for a given image width if you know the throw ratio for the projector (Distance = Throw Ratio times Width). For UST projectors, keep in mind that you are calculating the distance to the lens, not to the projector body itself. To find the distance to the projector, you'll also need to know the distance from the lens to the side of the projector closest to the screen.

What Are the Advantages of Short Throw Projectors Over Ultra Short Throw Projectors?

Short throw projectors are less expensive than equivalent UST projectors, which means that unless you have a compelling reason to pick a UST model instead, a short throw is usually the obvious choice. You can also find types of short throw projectors that are either not available in UST models yet (as with gaming projectors), or may never be, as with compact short throw projectors for road warriors. (See our separate guide to portable projectors.)

Still other types of projectors are available in UST form but are rare—for example, portable projectors that are larger than mini projectors but small and light enough to bring with you if you need to, or at least carry easily from room to room or to the backyard for a movie night. Because short throw projectors sit farther from the screen than UST models, they're also easier to position and focus, an important consideration for any application that requires repeated setup, even if you're just moving the projector from a shelf to a conference room table.

What Are the Advantages of Ultra Short Throw Projectors Over Short Throw Projectors?

The two key advantages for UST models are both already mentioned above. They let you position the projector much closer to the screen than short throw models can without risking casting shadows, and when used as TV replacements, they don't demand any more effort to hide power and data cables than any other TV does.

(Credit: Epson)

Both of these characteristics are essential to the relatively new category of UST projectors that are specifically designed to replace TVs. Most of these models use lasers as their light source and include fully integrated smart TV features. Some include TV tuners, as well, and some manufacturers even tout them as "laser TVs" rather than projectors. All of the UST models included here are TV replacements.

Other Projector Specs: What Else to Pay Attention to With Short Throw and UST?

One spec, in addition to throw ratio, that you should check for short throw and UST models is the supported image size for the lens. All lenses have a maximum size image they can throw without distortion or other image-quality issues, and both the maximum and minimum are usually listed on the projector's spec sheet.

With standard throw lenses, the maximum image size is typically larger than you'd consider using with most of the projectors that we cover, given their brightness. But the shorter the throw, the less likely that is to be true. Projectors at the lower end of the short throw range or in the UST range can easily be bright enough to throw a bigger usable image than the lens can handle well, especially in a dark room. Manufacturers tend to be conservative on this front, so you can often get away with slightly larger images than the spec says, or see only a hint of a problem if you opt for a somewhat larger size. But don't count on it.

What Is the Lifespan of a Short Throw Projector?

Almost all other issues about the projectors themselves—from contrast and brightness, to imaging technology, to connection options, and more—are the same for short throw and UST models as for standard throw projectors. However, one issue worth particular mention is lifespan. As with most projectors, short throw and UST models will typically last long enough that you're more likely to replace them because you want new technology, like higher resolution when it becomes available, than because something goes wrong with the projector. That's not to say that a fan motor can't burn out or a chip can't fail, but its no more likely than for a computer or a flat screen TV.

More and more projectors today use solid-state light sources—like LEDs or lasers—which typically aren't meant to be replaced. Typical lifetime for either type of light source is 20,000 to 30,000 hours, which translates to approximately seven to 10 years, if you keep them running eight hours a day, seven days a week. If you pick a projector that uses a lamp instead, the lifetime for the lamp can vary from just a few thousand hours to as much as 10,000 hours. Unlike LEDs and lasers, however, lamps are meant to be replaced. (For lots more detail on other specs that apply to all projectors, check out our roundup of top overall projector picks.)

The one other issue you'll want to consider is the screen to pair the projector with. In particular, for UST projectors that you plan to use in rooms with ambient light, you'll want an ambient light rejection (ALR) screen, and you'll need one that's designed for UST models, as discussed in our guide to How to Choose the Right Screen for Your Projector.

So, What Is the Best Short Throw or Ultra Short Throw Projector to Buy?

The list of projectors we started with, and the spec breakout for them below, covers our picks for some of the best short throw and UST projectors available for some of the most common usage cases. For more tips about features to consider before buying, and also some additional top-pick projectors we've tested, see our screen and general-projector guides mentioned above, as well as our roundup of best home projectors.