Ease of use

How easy are they to set up, and to get the perfect picture from?

The Epson has an obvious advantage, as it’s intended to work up against a wall

While all projectors benefit when used with a dedicated screen, most manufacturers are canny enough to realise their models will mainly project onto a matt-white wall.

All three models employ similarly unfussy, tabbed menus which offer straightforward image presets. Just line up the image, keeping the projector square to your wall or screen, and you’ll minimise any potential distortion.

The Ultra Short Throw Epson EH-LS100 has an obvious advantage, as it’s intended to work up against a wall. This means you won’t cast shadows when walking around your room. Setup is easy: just position the projector and use the focus lever. From 50cm, you’ll get a sharp 130-inch image. With a little bit of manoeuvring, you may be able to fill an entire wall. Picture modes comprise Dynamic, Bright Cinema, Cinema and Game. For sports, use the generic Cinema setting, or Bright Cinema if ambient light is high.

You need 3m to throw a seriously big image with the Optoma HD39Darbee. In addition to a 1.6x zoom, there’s a generous amount of vertical lens shift and keystone correction, while a test pattern grid helps lock focus. The manual zoom and focus ring are easily accessible. Menu navigation can be carried out from the top of the chassis, but the projector also comes with a remote control.

In addition to familiar image adjustments such as brightness, colour, contrast and sharpness, there’s variable gamma and Dynamic Black. The latter exaggerates contrast, but seemingly adds noise.

The BenQ W1050 has a 1.2x zoom and is able to cast a 100-inch image from between 2.8m and 3.36m. Manual zoom and focus controls are intuitive to use, while vertical keystone correction is provided to fix any weird trapezoid errors.

Images presets include Bright, Vivid TV, Cinema and Sport. In addition to the top level picture adjustments (Brightness, Contrast, Colour, tint and Sharpness), there’s a good selection of deep tweaks too.