5 Top Projector Brands You May Not Realize Are Owned by Chinese Companies

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It used to be that buying a projector meant mounting a giant, noisy gray box to your ceiling. However, in recent years the spotlight has become much more interesting. Between sleek portable cylinders that double as Bluetooth speakers and short-throw consoles that project a 100-inch screen from your coffee table, home theater setups have become very practical and much more affordable. If you’re shopping for a new projector, you’ve probably seen options from major projector brands, like Sony and Epson.

However, there may be other spotlights catching your eye that you may not know are actually from China. The country has become more than a parts assembly hub, with manufacturing hubs like Shenzhen, Chengdu and Hangzhou becoming places of origin for both high-end and more affordable projectors.

When you see many of the top-rated projectors on Amazon and Best Buy with names that sound vaguely international, you can probably trace their ownership back to Chinese tech companies. A few started as scrappy software stores, others as budget-friendly e-commerce storefronts, and some are multibillion-dollar e-empires. If you’re planning to buy a new projector, here are five top Chinese projector brands worth checking out.

During your shopping journey, if you’ve seen a portable projector that looks more like a designer bookshelf speaker than a media gadget, chances are it’s from XGIMI. Operating in Chengdu since its founding in 2013, the company has spent a lot of time rethinking how everyday projectors look and behave. Instead of creating a mundane case and letting users play with a multitude of settings, XGIMI has built stunning, compact metal and fabric cases with features like autofocus sensors and built-in Android TV. This is an easy-to-use design philosophy that will look great on your modern coffee table even when you’re not using it.

This focus on plug-and-play convenience has allowed XGIMI to stand out in Western projector markets. By partnering with Harman Kardon for onboard audio, models like the Halo and Horizon series have avoided the tinny, unusable audio that tends to plague small projectors. Its automatic screen alignment, which detects obstacles on your wall and resizes the image around switches and photo frames, turns a notoriously tricky setup process into one that takes just seconds so you can actually enjoy your movie.

In 2021, XGIMI went public on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, and its momentum has only increased since then. While older AV enthusiasts might still look to more established brands for dedicated, darkened movie theaters, XGIMI has managed to capture the casual crowd who wants a massive, sharp picture in their living room without turning the installation into a full weekend construction project.

Most buyers know about Hisense from the budget TV aisle of major electronics stores. The Qingdao-based manufacturing giant began life in 1969 as a state-owned radio factory. But since then, Hisense has grown into a global brand with a strong supply chain and some premium models. Rather than competing in the field of ultra-portable projectors, Hisense has bet big on ultra-short throw projectors. These units sit inches from a wall and bounce bright laser light upward to create images measuring more than 100 inches.

Today, Hisense offers projectors that look great even in broad daylight, especially if you pair them with a few tricks to make a cheap home projector look better. Because Hisense controls its hardware manufacturing and optical engineering, it offers complex tri-color laser engines in stores at affordable prices that are significantly lower than many other home theater projector brands. This approach reflects Hisense’s TV strategy: adopting expensive display technology, scaling up production, while making it practical and affordable enough for anyone’s living room, anywhere on the planet.

Search online stores for a projector (especially when there are good deals, like on Black Friday), and the Vankyo brand will almost certainly appear. Founded in 2017 and based in Shenzhen, this brand has chosen not to chase after home cinema purists. Instead, Vankyo built a customer base by offering basic but functional projectors; they were priced low enough to easily be an impulse buy for users like students or even casual backyard movie nights.

Vankyo can attribute his popularity to his Leisure series. The company has kept these projectors affordable by combining single-panel LCD technology with inexpensive LED lamps and omitting more expensive components such as laser light engines or sophisticated audio partnerships. And of course, the picture quality of the Vankyo line probably won’t rival a true 4K cinema setup any time soon; it offers exactly what casual buyers want: a simple, cost-effective way to project a movie. Vankyo may not win any awards for its optical advancements, but it has made good quality projectors available to buyers who wouldn’t normally go near the gadgets, as they can potentially cost thousands of dollars.

Setting up a portable projector can sometimes involve awkwardly trying to balance books, tripods, or whatever else you have on hand to get the lens pointed in the right place and at the right angle. But Shenzhen-based JMGO, founded in 2011, has finally solved this puzzle. Instead of sticking to a boring, hard-to-level plastic rectangle, JMGO experimented with cylindrical and spherical designs, and even motorized housings.

The most striking example of this fun design philosophy is the brand’s N1 series, which mounts the entire projector in a two-axis gimbal base. This means you can gently tilt the projector with one hand to direct the beam anywhere from the baseboard to your ceiling, then its software will automatically handle any necessary adjustments, even moving it around switches for a clear image. It’s the kind of feature that makes it easier for people to switch from TV to projector.

And behind the gimbal is some serious optical technology. JMGO uses proprietary triple-color laser light engines in its projectors, which then give you wide color gamuts and punchy contrast levels typically reserved for commercial-level projectors. By placing quality hardware in a chic and user-friendly chassis, JMGO has established itself as a go-to Chinese projector manufacturer.

Many large hardware companies struggle to create equally good software. Often, this can leave users struggling to navigate through cumbersome settings menus and buggy interfaces. But Hangzhou-based Dangbei has made sure that’s not the case with its gadgets. It started in 2013 as a software platform developing software for smart TV operating systems. With this, the company was able to gain a good understanding of user interfaces and streaming habits long before integrating an optical lens into a projector.

When the company finally entered the hardware market, this experience gave it an immediate advantage. Dangbei’s projectors, particularly its flagship Mars Pro series, have earned praise for pairing high-brightness laser light engines with vivid, clear interfaces that avoid lag and other problems often found in budget projectors. To build its reputation outside China, Dangbei has also introduced global sub-brands like Emotn to target budget-conscious international buyers.

There, the combination of excellent in-house software and access to high-efficiency laser components has made Dangbei an exceptionally well-rounded competitor. Although hardware tends to outpace software in the projector business, this Hangzhou company has proven that a good interface is just as important as the lens in front of it. No matter which brand of projector you choose, just make sure to pair it with some interesting accessories that will enhance your home projector setup.