LG's new projector turns your lounge into a cinema, and you'll hardly know it's there

With the 2022 Oscars season upon us, and more and more of the best streaming services putting the latest silver screen releases into our homes at the same time as they hit the multiplexes, there’s never been a better time to buy a projector. LG’s latest CineBeam short throw projector fits the bill nicely.

The LG CineBeam HU715Q 4K Ultra Short Throw projector makes use of a laser projection system to throw images as large as 120-inches onto your walls or projection screen. Thanks to its short throw design, it can do this relatively discreetly too – it needs just about a 22cm distance from your wall to create an image 100-inches in size. 

In other words, you can use it on a TV stand just like you would a regular television set up, compared to the projectors of old that had to be set up meters away from where the eventual images were going to be beamed in order to hit those cinema-baiting screen sizes.

With a 4K resolution and 2,500 ANSI Lumens brightness, you should be able to comfortably watch the CineBeam HU715Q in daylight hours. HDR with a Dynamic Tone Mapper works in tandem with an adaptive brightness and contrast sensor to ensure you’re not left fiddling with the image settings too much during different times of the day.

LG’s webOS interface is built in, giving you access to all the major streaming services, as well as support for Apple AirPlay 2 and HomeKit, making the projector a hub for your smart gear as well as a ready recipient for any videos or songs you want to beam from your Apple device. Even if you don’t have a dedicated soundbar or home cinema system, the HU715Q should make a good account of itself sonically too, with 2.2 channel stereo speakers for an overall 40W output.

Finally, a trio of HDMI outputs, one supporting eARC are onboard for your sources. No mention of HDMI 2.1 across the three – we’ll get confirmation on this as soon as possible from LG.

Big screen, little room

With the allure of in-the-home viewing only having grown in popularity due to the stay-at-home nature of the ongoing pandemic, the thought of having a huge screen at home is becoming more and more attractive.

But the larger the TV the more room you’re going to need to house it, as well as having to accept that for much of its life its going to exist as a powered-down black slab dominating your room.

Some TV manufacturers, like Samsung with its The Frame series, have looked to alleviate this issue by giving the screen an aesthetic purpose even when not in use – displaying handy calendar info or artworks, for instance. But a short throw projector feels like a more efficient way of getting the screen size without losing room space. Indeed, the CineBeam HU715Q features a fabric cover designed by Danish textile company Kvadrat to further soften the impact its footprint has on your living room.

Pricing is set at $2,999.99 / £2,998.98, and will go on sale during the “first quarter” of 2022.

• Best 4K projectors: get the cinema experience at home