2025 has been a vintage year for projectors.
We’ve had Sony’s super-premium Bravia Projector 8 taking on (and ultimately defeating) the awesome JVC DLA-NZ800; the slightly less premium Bravia Projector 7 bringing Sony’s most advanced picture tech to a more accessible level; and we’ve looked at next-gen portable and coffee table models, from the Xgimi MoGo 4 to the Hisense M2 Pro and Anker Nebula X1.
But the brand that has really impressed (and surprised) me the most is Epson.
While Epson has fared exceptionally well in the fairly recent past, with its EH-TW7100 and EH-TW9400 models having won a combined 10 What Hi-Fi? Awards between 2019 and 2024, the transition to laser lighting and new form factors, such as UST and coffee-table designs, has proved a challenge.
Of the nine new Epson projectors we reviewed between 2021 and the end of 2024, just one received a 5-star rating – the EH-LS12000.
This year, though, the brand has launched two five-star projectors, and one of those has essentially redefined expectations in its price category.
Traditional home cinema designs meet next-gen laser lighting
Those two new five-star stunners are the EH-QB1000 and EH-LS9000, and it’s perhaps unsurprising that they are both closely related to the EH-LS12000 mentioned above.
The QB1000 takes the LS12000’s excellent performance and elevates it. So much so that Epson places it in another class, hence the ‘QB’ rather than ‘LS’ product code.
This so-called ‘Pro’ model has awesome brightness (a claimed 3300 lumens at its peak) and Epson’s more advanced picture processing. And the result is a projector that is capable of taking advantage of HDR content in a way that very few rivals can match.
It also makes it a particularly strong model for mixed-use rooms, where its superior brightness can punch very effectively through ambient light – though I like to think that if you’re spending this sort of money on a projector, it’s for a room that can be blacked out for serious movie-watching.
As brilliant as the QB1000 is, it isn’t quite the very best projector available at its level. That’s because its £4799 / $7999 / AU$11,900 price puts it up against some really serious competition, including, most notably, the imposing Sony VPL-XW5000ES.
But while the Epson QB1000 isn’t quite able to topple Sony’s multi-Award-winner, which produces deeper blacks and leverages Sony’s legendary picture processing to deliver movies with even greater detail and sharpness, it’s an excellent alternative and superbly talented in its own right.
A performance-per-pound champ
But it’s the EH-LS9000 that has really rocked my world this year.
It’s not as good as either the QB1000 or LS12000, but by offering a surprisingly large percentage of the performance of both, while coming in at a much lower price of £2999 / $3999 / AU$7299, it frankly stuffs the competition at its level.
Even during the midst of our Awards testing – our busiest period of the whole year – senior staff writer Lewis Empson and I took extra time out of our day to spend more time with the LS9000, feeding it more of our favourite test scenes and hooking up a PS5 for a spot of super-punchy Ratchet & Clank action.
As reviewers, we of course love spending time with the very best, most premium products out there – it’s one of the greatest perks of the job. But being wowed by a device that costs surprisingly less than expected is a real joy, too.
That’s why it’s Epson, rather than the usual Sony or JVC, that is the projector brand that has most impressed me in 2025.
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Here are all of the best projectors you can buy right now
If you're not sure which one to buy, check out our Epson EH-LS9000 vs EH-QB1000 comparison
