If you’re on the hunt for a truly amazing OLED TV deal during Amazon’s ongoing Spring Deal Days sale, apart from a couple of exceptions, you will largely have been out of luck thus far.
I have spent the past couple of days looking at price history charts and spreadsheets full of all the deals running and found woefully little to report.
To quote Michael Caine's Alfred in The Dark Knight Rises, “I’m so sorry, I failed you.”
As a minor recompense I am pleased to report I have found three solid discounts on projectors that are worth considering.
Here they are in price order, starting with the cheapest.
1. The Samsung Freestyle 2nd Gen
The Samsung Freestyle 2nd Gen is a portable projector designed for people who want an affordable, flexible beamer they can take camping, use for impromptu movie nights or to entertain the kids on the fly.
You can currently buy the Samsung Freestyle 2nd Gen on Amazon for £411, an £88 pound saving on its regular price.
The What Hi-Fi? team has not reviewed the Freestyle 2nd Gen, but we have had plenty of hands-on time with it at various demo events.
That does mean that we haven't had a chance to check if our main issue with the original Samsung Freestyle – its black levels – has been fixed.
During those demonstrations, however, it did leave a positive impression, offering a similarly bright, sharp, colourful picture and nicely reactive auto-focusing to its four-star predecessor.
So, with its handy discount, I am happy to flag Amazon's current Freestyle 2nd Gen deal to buyers on a budget.
At this price there is very little else to compete with it that we recommend, despite our ongoing efforts to find another five-star hero to sit at the top of our best portable projectors guide.
2. The Xgimi Horizon Ultra
The Xgimi Horizon Ultra is a mid-tier “home cinema in a box”. This is a growing category in the projector space that aims to offer a single-box home cinema solution that doesn’t need fancy placement, excessive cable management, or oodles of space.
The Ultra is a small box that you can get up and running within minutes of unboxing it, thanks to its in-built speaker system, short throw distance and reliable auto keystone correction.
You can currently buy the Xgimi Horizon Ultra for £1319 on Amazon – a £330 saving on its regular price and best price I have seen it sell for.
For your money you get an atypically bright 4K projector with streaming support and a surprisingly capable Harmon Kardon-assisted sound system.
The only big caveat is that the projector has a tendency to crank its contrast a little too high, which can lead to a noticeable loss of dark detail in some scenes. This is what led our reviewers to give it a good, not perfect, four-star rating.
Despite this, it remains one of the best options in its class – especially at its current price.
3. The Epson EpiqVision EH-LS800W
The Epson EpiqVision EH-LS800W is an ultra short throw (UST) projector designed for people who want a 80-150-inch home cinema experience, but don’t want to contend with a giant TV or ceiling-mounted long-throw unit.
You can currently buy the Epson EH-LS800W for £2599 on Amazon. This is the cheapest I have seen the unit sell for and a healthy £600 saving on its regular £3199 price.
We gave the Epson four stars when we reviewed it last year, with its high price tag and average black depth stopping it achieving perfect marks.
But at its current price, you’ll struggle to find a better performer. For your money you get a solidly built UST that can sit surprisingly close to the screen it is projecting onto and requires minimal fuss setting up.
Its high 4000-lumens brightness also means it can contend with difficult ambient light conditions surprisingly well – a big bonus considering a UST projector's likely role as a main TV replacement.
To put that figure in perspective, its main rival the, Hisense PX3 Pro, offers 3000 lumens of brightness.
For gamers, the Epson also is capable of 4K/120Hz, an essential feature for any PS5 or Xbox Series X/S owner looking to run their console at full speed.
My only word of caution is that there are other options out there; we just haven’t tested them yet, so can’t recommend them.
For example, the Hisense PL2 is also currently on sale at Currys, where it retails for £1599 (save £200).
We are currently reviewing that unit; it is a direct successor to the Award-winning Hisense PL1, which was a staple sight in our best projectors guide for quite some time before being retired.
So unless you need a UST now, it may be worth waiting and seeing how the cheaper unit performs before parting with your cash.
MORE:
These are the best surround sound systems we have reviewed
We rate the best Mini LED TVs
Our picks of the best AV receivers
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