LG Cinebeam HU915QE: one-minute review

A great many of the best projectors are turning up ultra short-throw (UST) models. These can combine powerful light engines with handy smart TV functions and potent speakers all in a system that sits conveniently at the front of the living room. The LG Cinebeam HU915QE is a new addition to the world of UST projectors, and it’s a fabulous one. But at $5,999 / AU$9,999 (about £5,600), this is not the most casual home theater purchase.

The LG Cinebeam HU915QE costs more than almost every other projector we recommend, save for the hugely expensive JVC DLA-NZ8 and Samsung The Premiere. 

You get plenty for the money though. The LG Cinebeam HU915QE is exceedingly bright and richly colorful, which all gets put on display with a massive 90-120 inch picture. Even with ambient light or daytime viewing, the projector is more than bright enough to create a pleasant picture in a well-lit environment, and just a little bit of ambient light control goes a long way in allowing it to display exceptional cinematic visuals.

With potent speakers, a handy smart TV system, the convenience of a manual focus wheel, and an image that’s hard to find many faults with, you’d be getting quite a lot for your money with the LG Cinebeam HU915QE. The Hisense L9G is great and cheaper, but less flexible, meanwhile the Epson LS12000 is more impressive but far less convenient to setup and use day-to-day. Ultimately, LG is adding a new option to the high-end of the market, though we see diminishing returns at this point. 

LG Cinebeam HU915QE review: price and release date

• Release date:  June, 2022
• Price: $5,999 / AU$9,999 (about £5,600)

The LG Cinebeam HU915QE lists for $5,999 / AU$9,999 (about £5,600), but typically sells for less than that amount. The slightly dimmer but higher contrast LG Cinebeam HU915QB lists for $6,499 (about £6,070, AU$10,060).

LG Cinebeam HU915QE review: Specs

LG Cinebeam HU915QE review: design and features

• Built-in speakers and LG webOS
• Ultra-short throw makes 100-inch image at 3.9 inches
• Hidden manual focus wheel

The LG Cinebeam HU915QE joins the fleet of high-quality UST (ultra short throw) projectors hitting the market lately with a wonderful marriage of built-in speakers, a smart operating system, and a big image all coming from a small box that can live at the front of the living room instead of at the back. 

Sitting at the front of the room, it has to put a little extra effort into style, and it has a retro sort of chic to it with a tweed-like front cover over the speakers, and a nearly perfectly rectangular design. However, the white top is a magnet for smudges, smears, and anything that can make it look discolored. 

The LG HU915QE is on the larger side of the USTs we’ve tested, measuring 26.8 inches wide and 13.7 inches deep (a touch larger than the Hisense L9G) but is just 5 inches tall. Despite being a bigger UST projector, the LG HU915QE is diminutive next to the 100-inch TVs it's competing with, and at just 26.9 pounds, it’s infinitely easier to move around.

While some UST projectors have a fixed focus, such as the Hisense L9G, the LG HU915QE supports projecting an image from 90 to 120 inches in size. A rather large, manual focus wheel hides under a panel on the top of the projector. It provides focus adjustment that’s much quicker and easier than Hisense PX1 Pro, another UST with adjustable focus, which handles it electronically. 

One thing we still regret not seeing on this (and many other UST projectors) is any sort of lens cover. It’s almost baffling how many standard projectors have covers for their lenses, meanwhile UST projectors, with their lens glass just asking to gather dust, lack covers.

The projector’s built-in speaker system delivers 2.2 channels at 40W, pumping out enough sound to readily overwhelm a 200 sq.ft. room. The projector also offers Bluetooth, optical digital audio, and HDMI eARC for connecting to external audio sources. LG advertises pairing the projector with a duo of LG Bluetooth speakers to create a surround setup, but we were unable to test this. 

Controlling the TV is easy with the same webOS as found on LG’s TVs and the same Magic Remote. The motion controls of the remote can be a bit obnoxious — it’s not super accurate — but the remote lighting up its buttons whenever it moves is handy in a home theater that’s liable to have the lights dimmed.

• Design and features score: 4.5/5

LG Cinebeam HU915QE review: picture quality

• Wonderfully bright and colorful
• Crisp and sharply focused 4K images
• Select Filmmaker mode for best pictures

At $6,000, the LG HU915QE can’t afford to be a slouch when it comes to image quality, and it isn’t. With a 3,700 ANSI Lumen brightness coming from a three-laser light engine, this projector absolutely crushes it with bright, colorful pictures. While the nature of a projector rules out wanting to use it in a bright room for some media, this projector doesn’t struggle in the slightest with presenting a bright picture for content like cartoons or sitcoms even when we haven’t done anything to cut down on ambient light.

Viewing cinematic content calls for some ambient light mitigation, but even just dimming the lights at night is enough to make for a downright luscious, colorful image. The bright spots in the visuals are matched with a strong enough contrast ratio to create the perception of darkness even if the projection surface isn’t actually that dark. Shutting out all ambient light just drives the experience home even further. 

All that light and color is matched with exceptional visual clarity, and the benefits of a 4K picture make all the more sense when it's stretched out to 100-plus inches. I felt like I could reach out and snatch one of the chin hairs right off Duke Leto Atreides in Dune. Making that image look great is easy with the focus wheel and 4-, 9-, or 15-point keystone adjustment.

However, LG has some ideas about how a picture should look that often get incredibly distracting. Its automatic brightness and contrast settings caused some dramatic shifts right before my eyes, creating chaotic jumps in brightness and seeing colors jump around in unintended ways. The motion smoothing is also persistent, making film visuals video-like while creating all sorts of artifacts in cartoons. Filmmaker Mode is salve for these things but can also strip some of the extra vividness offered by the projector away.

One handy feature, ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode) helps ensure all the extra processing steps out of the way while gaming, and I was able to carve through enemies in Ghost of Tsushima without noticeable input lag – a crucial thing during all those samurai standoffs.

For now, at least, the LG Cinebeam HU915QE only supports HDR10 and HLG. Its representation of HDR content is stunning, to be sure, with the explosions raging through brightly amidst the nighttime scenery during the Harkonnen raid in Dune, but Dolby Vision is absent. We’ve seen Dolby Vision in action on the Formovie Theater 4K, and it continues to show its worth in the cinema.

• Picture quality score: 4.5/5

LG Cinebeam HU915QE review: value

• Pricey compared to competition
• High light output enhances value
• Can use a less expensive model for dim room viewing

With many other good ultra short throw projector options to choose from, the LG HU915QE’s value rating takes a hit given its comparatively high price. Having said that, with its high light output, LG’s UST should be at the top of your list if you’re seeking a projector that can be used for viewing sports in a bright room during daylight hours.

The HU915QE’s ability to deliver high contrast images in dim room environments for movie viewing balances its value, making it a good all-around projector choice. But if you’re mainly interested in movie viewing, you could easily spend less and get a less bright model that will perform comparatively well in a dim or darkened room.

• Value score: 3.5/5

Should I buy the LG Cinebeam HU915QE?

Buy it if...

Don’y buy it if… 

Also consider...

LG's G3 is the company's flagship 4K OLED TV series for 2023, and one that brings a number of improvements over last year's LG G2 series. The G3 OLED TV uses a new α9 Gen6 AI Processor packed with features to enhance high dynamic range images with OLED Dynamic Tone Mapping Pro, which divides pictures into 20,000 blocks and optimizes each one in real time, and HDR Expression Enhancer, a tech that recognizes important aspects of pictures – a face, for example – and then uses deep learning to apply tone mapping and enhance sharpness on that area.

But the more attention-grabbing news about the LG G3 series is Brightness Booster Max, a trio of refinements that serve to increase peak light output on LG's top TVs by 70% over regular OLEDs such as the also-new B3 series models. That feature alone puts the new G3 in the running for our list of the best 4K TVs for 2023, and would rank it among the best OLED TVs as well.

LG invited me to a viewing session where I had the opportunity to get an in-depth briefing and a close look at its new G3 series TV (second screen in from left in above image). We'll dive into the details of that session, and also discuss Brightness Booster Max in more detail, below, but let's first list the new G3 series screen sizes, along with pricing for each when they arrive sometime this month.

• 55-inch: $2,499 / €2,800 / around £2,100
• 65-inch: $3,299 / €4,000 / around £2,760
• 77-inch: $4,499 / €6,300 / around £3,770
• 83-inch: $6,499 / €8,700 / around £5,440

One thing that followers of LG's OLED TV output over the past few years will note is that the company's new models are priced higher than last year's G2 series offerings. That's most likely due to the new brightness enhancing tech included in each, the 83-inch G3 excepted. (That model is priced the same as 2022's 83-inch G2.)

What Brightness Booster Max brings to the table is a new "light control architecture", includes the technology known as MLA. This is actually a structural enhancement to the OLED panel that adds an uneven, "bubbly" lens-like surface that transmits light from the display’s individual pixels more effectively and with less loss than previous OLED models.

Alongside MLA, G3 series OLEDs with Brightness Booster Max feature a light-increasing algorithm called META and a heatsink arrayed across the full expanse of the TV to increase panel efficiency. LG's AI Picture Pro, a feature found in previous models, now also offers improved upscaling of regular HD sources according to the company, while the new new α9 Gen6 AI Processor also powers AI Sound Pro, a tech that delivers virtual 9.1.2-channel audio from the TV's built-in speakers.

Design Details 

Each G3 series model provides four HDMI 2.1 (48Gbps bandwidth) ports and supports 4K 120Hz, VRR, FreeSync Premium, and Nvidia G-Sync for gaming. A Game Optimizer on-screen menu lets users easily switch between game genre presets, including a new customizable User option. According to LG, G3 OLEDs are also the first sets to be certified by the HDMI organization for Quick Media Switching Variable Refresh Rate (QMS-VRR), a feature designed to eliminate the "black screen" that can pop up when switching between different HDMI-connected sources.

G3 models will also be outfitted with an ATSC 3.0 tuner for pulling in over-the-air next-gen digital broadcasts in the US.

LG’s "ultra-seamless One Wall Design'' for the G3 models lets them be wall-mounted with no visible gap, and the sets are constructed from a new, lightweight composite fiber material (83-inch model excepted). They also feature Super Anti Reflective technology to reduce screen glare and come with a five-year panel warranty to ease owners' anxiety about OLED screen burn-in, though part of the LG G3 presentation I attended was dedicated to explaining how its WOLED (white plus red, green, and blue pixels) tech is less prone to that issue than competing QD-OLED tech.

A new feature of the webOS 23 smart interface found on G3 models is a Quick Settings menu that provides quick onscreen access to frequently used adjustments (contrast and brightness for example) and also lets users edit the settings located within. Another new feature is Quick Cards, which provides easy access to apps and settings for categories such as Music, Sports, Smart Home, and Home Office. That last Quick Card option will be a good fit for LG's new optional Smart Cam, which can be used for video chats and meetings.

Along with AI Sound Pro, audio features of the G3 series include integration with the company's soundbars, which support Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, and IMAX Enhanced. WOW Orchestra combines an LG soundbar's output with the TV's built-in speakers to widen the soundstage – something it does very effectively in a demo I heard of it – and WOWCAST uses Wi-Fi to make a wireless audio connection between the TV and an external device.

Eyes-on with the LG G3 OLED TV 

LG's briefing and viewing session arrayed a 65-inch G3 model alongside the company's G2 OLED, Samsung's S95B QD-OLED, and Sony's A95K QD-OLED (all 2022 models). Each TV was set to its default Filmmaker mode (except for the Sony, which was set to Custom mode) according to the LG rep who conducted the demo.

The comparison started out with a screening of the montage section from the Spears & Munsil UHD HDR Benchmark, with the disc's 4,000 nits option selected. Along with those clips from the S&M montage, LG also screened some of its own test material mastered at 2,000 nits that was designed to stress-test a TV's HDR tone mapping capability.

In each sequence I viewed, the G3 had both better peak and overall brightness than the other three TVs in the comparison. A full white screen test pattern also showed the G3 to have superior white uniformity, something the company attributed to the TV's MLA tech.

The G3's HDR tone mapping of high peak luminance clips was also better than last year's G2 – that new OLED Dynamic Tone Mapping Pro in action – and a significant improvement on what could be seen on both the Samsung and Sony QD-OLED screens. A clip that showed sunlight reflected on the surface of water made for a compelling demonstration of the new G3's capabilities, with highlights showing a wide range of detail that was absent on the G2, and all but obliterated on the two QD-OLED TVs.

Ramp patterns mastered at a low brightness level designed to test a TV's ability to display dark colors also showed the G3 to advantage, with the new LG OLED easily showing red, green, and blue hues descending from dark to near-black. On the Samsung and Sony QD-OLED TVs, these same dark ramp patterns had a pale, washed out appearance.

Another observation I had when viewing both video clips and test patterns in LG's comparison was that the new G3 excelled in delivering light colors in image highlights, performing notably better than last year's competition and the company's own G2 in that respect. It also showed a higher degree of picture detail without coming across as unnaturally crisp or enhanced. These advantages are most likely due to LG's new α9 Gen6 AI Processor, which is only found on the company's 2023 G3, LG C3, and Z3 8K models.

Is LG's new G3 series OLED as good as the company makes it out to be? Given what I saw in LG's comprehensive demo and comparison, it would be hard to argue that it doesn’t crush the existing OLED TV competition. Then again, it was a controlled demo conducted by LG with no hands-on component, so it's impossible to say if the G3 is as demonstrably superior to current models on the market as it appeared to be. It will also face tough competition this year from the Samsung S95C and Sony A95L QD-OLED models, both of which will arrive with improved brightness among other enhancements.

Any final G3 conclusion will come with our own full review, so stay tuned to read that in the near future.