What 79 projectors tell us about throw distance
We analyzed throw ratio, brightness and price across 79 projectors from 16 brands. The data behind room-size and brightness myths, with citable numbers.
Across 79 projectors from 16 brands, the median throw ratio is 1.20 (range 0.16–2.09). 66% are standard/long-throw, 9% short-throw and 25% ultra-short-throw. For a 100-inch screen the throw distance ranges from 1.2 to 15.2 ft (median 8.7 ft), and 92% fit a room only 10 ft deep.
How projectors split by throw type
Most projectors are standard-throw — they need real room depth. Short- and ultra-short-throw models trade that for tight placement, but they’re still the minority of the market in our dataset.
| Throw type | Models | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Ultra-short-throw (< 0.4) | 20 | 25% |
| Short throw (0.4–1.0) | 7 | 9% |
| Standard / long throw (> 1.0) | 52 | 66% |
Key findings
- The median throw ratio is 1.20, so a typical projector needs about its screen’s full width in distance — a 100-inch (87-inch-wide) screen sits roughly 8.7 ft back.
- 92% of projectors can fill a 100-inch screen from a room only 10 ft deep — placement is less of a constraint than people assume.
- Brightness spans 230–5,000 lumens (median 2,500); the brightest model we track is the Optoma UHZ65LV at 5,000 lumens.
- Among models with a tracked price (79 of 79), street prices run from $379 (XGIMI MoGo 3 Pro) to $27,999 (Sony VPL-XW7000ES) — a wider spread than most categories.
The room-size myth
The common belief that projectors need a huge room is mostly wrong: at the median throw ratio of 1.20, a 100-inch screen needs about 8.7 ft of throw, and 92% of the projectors we analyzed manage a 100-inch image from 10 ft. The real placement question is throw type, not room length — pick a short- or ultra-short-throw model only if you genuinely can’t put the projector back a few feet.
Every figure is computed from our projector dataset. See how we source and compute the data on our methodology page. About →