I tested Epsons top portable projector, and its got a fun design but average performance

Date:
Wed, 15 Oct 2025 21:00:13 +0000

Description:
The Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus has a fun, all-in-one design and 4K
resolution, but better options are available for nearly the same price.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus: One minute review

The Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus follows up on last year's Epson EpiqVision
Mini EF22 portable projector, but this time, Epson is leaning far more into the lifestyle aspect of the design with a more extensive fabric wrap,
colorful LED underlighting, and a funky monopod stand.

Under the hood, the Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus offers a sizable upgrade over the EF22 thanks to the 4K projection system, but otherwise still uses the
same 3LCD tech and has the same 1,000 ISO lumens brightness spec.

Its nice to see the 4K resolution since larger images really benefit from it. But picture quality with the Lifestudio Flex Plus otherwise isnt terribly impressive, with weak contrast, minor ghosting and motion hiccups, and a brightness level that really requires a dark room.

As for the rest of the package, having only one HDMI port is a limiting
factor and the built-in Sound by Bose speakers provide just average sound quality. And even though the stand allows for flexible aim, it doesnt offer anything that other examples of the best projectors with built-in stands
dont.

While the $999 price tag puts the Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus on the
affordable side for a 4K projector, it still has to square off against the oft-discounted price of the brighter, more colorful JMGO N1S Pro 4K and the slightly brighter, slightly more expensive, but more versatile Hisense M2 Pro . Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus review: Price & release date The Lifestudio Flex Plus has built-in lighting that can change colors and lets it do double-duty as a mood lamp (Image credit: Future) Release date: September 2025 MSRP: $999.99 / 1,149.99 / around AU$1,536

The Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus has just launched, and it lands with a retail price of $999.99. Given its newness, its unlikely to see any considerable discounts in the near term. This puts it in a tough spot as it has to face
off against pricier rivals like the JMGO N1S Pro 4K , which has a retail
price of $1,999 but has seen discounts as low as $1,099 since its launch. Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus review: Specs

Screen sizes supported:

30-150 inches

Brightness (specified):

1.000 Lumens

HDR support:

HDR10, HLG

Display technology:

RGB LED, 3LCD

Smart TV:

Google TV

Connections:

1x HDMI (with eARC), 3.5mm audio out, USB-A, USB-C (supports 100/140W PD input)

Dimensions (H x W x D):

7.5 x 7.5 x 9.7 inches (190 x 190 x 246mm)

Weight:

8.8 pounds (4kg) Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus review: Design & features Ports include HDMI with eARC and USB-C for powering the projector with a portable battery pack (Image credit: Future) All-in-one system Integrated stand with a unique lamp feature Quick, automatic adjustments

Epson has attempted to make the Lifestudio Flex Plus a bit more than a simple piece of tech. While the main portion of the projector is a little box thats pretty typical of lifestyle projectors, it sits on a unique pole stand that allows for flexible aim and raises it to showcase the bottom-mounted LED
lamp.

With taps on the top of the projector, the lamp switches its lighting scheme, offering some fun and colorful light shows or settling into a basic white.
Its a kind of fun gimmick, though with ambient light being the enemy of
dimmer projectors, its also an odd choice. Even more odd, theres no controlling the LED lamp with the remote, so youll have to touch the
projector if you want to turn it off while watching.

The projector has a stylish design with a fabric wrap on its lower half and a wood-grain top, leaning more into accent furniture than a typical piece of tech. Still, it looks a little awkward standing on its monopod leg.

The stand is functional with a sturdy base, easy rotation, and a 105-degree vertical tilt. This lets you aim the projector straight up to project on ceilings (though it requires moving a small plastic panel on the rear that doesnt serve much purpose other than aesthetics). The stand can also tilt
down slightly if you need to project from a high-up place.

While its nice to have an integrated stand, this one doesnt prove as helpful as some of the others Ive seen lately. The Hisense M2 Pros stand, for instance, provides similar vertical shifting but also allows the projector to flip upside-down, which is even more convenient for projecting from high places than having the ability to tilt down, as it can avoid keystone adjustment.

The Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus can make it easy to get up and running. It has automatic focus, keystone adjustment, and obstacle avoidance. This squares
the image with the wall and crops it into the available space on your wall or screen. Cropping the image this way isnt entirely ideal, as it sacrifices resolution and overall brightness in the process, but its quick and
convenient if you move the projector around often.

Though the Lifestudio Flex Plus doesnt have an internal battery, it does encourage portability with its small size and ability to run off a USB-C charger battery pack with 100-140W of USB PD output.

The projector features an eye-protection feature to avoid harming anyones eyes, pets included, if they walk in front of the projectors path. While many projectors have similar features, on the Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus, they are quick to activate and conveniently pause video playback so you dont miss a beat.

The Lifestudio Flex Plus integrates Google TV for easy streaming, and with Wi-Fi 6, it can get a consistent, high-speed connection. Google TV was generally responsive during my testing, though it had the occasional hitch when loading up video. The system includes its own stereo speakers as well
for a complete all-in-one package.

If you dont want to rely on the Lifestudio Flex Pluss built-in streaming and speakers, the projectors single HDMI port supports HDMI eARC to send out audio. Theres a 3.5mm audio port on the back as well, and a USB-A port to
play back local media. If you plan to connect a game console to the
projector, ALLM is supported, which automatically switches the projector to a low-latency Game picture mode.

The Lifestudio Flex Plus comes with a basic remote. It has the standard
Google TV control wheel, which makes navigation pretty simple. Brightness and volume controls are on their own pill-shaped buttons that make them easier to locate. There are also a few app shortcut buttons and an input-selection shortcut, though that might as well just be a shortcut to HDMI. The remote doesnt include any backlighting, which makes it harder to use in a dark home theater environment. Design & features score: 4/5 Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus review: Picture quality 4K resolution Limited brightness, color gamut, and contrast Some motion handling issues Image 1 of 2 The projector's color balance is natural, but blacks can look elevated in dark movie scenes (Image credit: Future) Image 2 of 2 (Image credit: Future)

The Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus is a fine projector, but it doesnt offer a remarkable home theater experience. With a brightness level that hits just 1,000 lumens, its simply not up to the task of delivering a dazzling picture, and it especially struggles with ambient light. To make the most of the Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus, youll need to turn out the lights and get blackout curtains or use it at night.

Even in the right conditions, picture quality with the Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus is still just average, though its 4K picture has impressive detail.
Color looks fairly natural, though the projectors color gamut isnt as wide as with some triple-laser models Ive tested in recent years. The plus side is that, with Epsons 3LCD tech, there are none of the rainbow artifacts youll find with DLP projectors.

Blacks on the Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus are rather elevated. When watching relatively dark movie scenes, it fails to reach very dark levels, even with active contrast enabled. This harms the overall experience as dark scenes simply lack richness, and letterboxing is all too visible.

The projector also suffers a bit from ghosting. This doesnt rear its head
much in brighter scenes, but it shows up in darker ones. Watching Warfare ,
it cropped up big time after the IED explosion during the teams first evac attempt, with the soldiers moving through the explosion of dirt and sand, followed by ghosting trails that made the scene a blur. The projector's
Google TV smart TV interface (Image credit: Future)

Motion interpolation is enabled by default on the Lifestudio Flex Plus. This can be useful in some limited contexts, such as panning shots, but it makes for unnatural motion from people and inaccurate smoothing in animation.
Though its generally better with the feature disabled, the projector can stutter from time to time during panning shots, even with just light motion.

The mixed projection experience is matched by the middling Sound by Bose speakers. They can put out enough volume to get by in a 150-square-foot room without distortion. But, they suffer from the typical TVwq speaker issue: if the volume gets loud enough to hear the dialogue, the action and music are
too loud. Conversely, if the action and music are at the right volume, the dialogue becomes too quiet to hear clearly. Picture quality score: 3/5 Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus review: Value Epson's remote control is serviceable but lacks backlighting (Image credit: Future) High price tag Price is still competitive for category Performance equivalent to competition

The Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus puts everything you need for a modest home theater into a single, $1,000 package. Its performance is generally good, and while that would have gone a long way a couple of years ago, the portable projector space has gotten incredibly competitive since then.

Rivals from JMGO, Xgimi, Hisense, and Dangbei provide a ton of new options, while older projectors have had discounts. Some of these offer similar features and higher brightness without costing much more, and that reality hurts the Epson Lifestudio Flex Pluss value. Value score: 3/5 Should I buy
the Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus? The monopod stand provides upward and
downward tilt motion (Image credit: Future) Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Design and features

Fun design with a useful stand that makes it easy to aim at a wall or
ceiling. Its an all-in-one device as well, giving you speakers and a
streaming platform. While it has its own DC power adapter, it can also run on USB-C power

4/5

Picture and sound quality

Natural-looking color and a 4K resolution. But the brightness and color gamut are underwhelming, an an elevated black level limits contrast. Sound quality too is just average

3/5

Value

While its nice to get an all-in-one package, the picture and sound quality isnt impressive compared to some recent competitors that fall in the $1,000-$1500 price range

3/5 Buy it if...

You struggle with rainbow artifacts
If you look at projectors and see a frequent blend of rainbow colors, youre experiencing a common issue with DLP projection technologies. Epsons 3LCD
tech avoids this issue entirely. View Deal

You like the style
The Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus puts its best foot forward with a kind of fun and funky look. Its part projector, part party lamp. View Deal

You want a projector that can run off USB-C power
While USB-C ports are becoming widespread, very few projectors have used it. The Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus is one of the few to let you power it from USB-C, giving you a convenient option for pairing it with a portable battery pack, even if most wont be able to run it for very long. View Deal Don't buy it if...

You dont have a dark viewing space
Limited brightness holds the Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus back. If you want a good viewing experience, youll need a very dark space, and even then the contrast on this model is weak. View Deal

You want vivid colors
Color on this projector looks natural, but triple laser projectors have a big edge when it comes to color gamut coverage, which especially benefits 4K HDR content. You can find similar models with triple laser tech at competitive prices. View Deal

Your projector placement is strict
This projectors automatic software adjustments are useful for frequent repositioning, but it doesnt have optical zoom or lens shift, so youll sacrifice resolution and brightness if you cant set the projector in the
ideal spot and have to instead rely on its software correction. View Deal
Also consider Comparison: projectors

Epson LifeStudio Flex Plus





Epson EpiqVision Mini EF22

Anker Nebula Mars 3









JMGO N1S Pro 4K

Price:

$999











$999













$1,049

$1,099

















Screen sizes supported:

90 to 130 inches

30 to 100 inches

30 to 200 inches

85 to 180 inches

Brightness (specified):

1,000 ISO lumens

1,000 ISO lumens

1,000 lumens

2,400 ANSI lumens

HDR support

HDR10, HLG

HDR10, HLG

Dolby Vision, HDR10, HLG

HDR10, HLG

Optical technology:

3LCD, LED

3LCD, LED

LED DLP



RGB laser DLP

Smart TV:

Google TV

Google TV

Android TV

Google TV

Connections:

1x HDMI (with ARC), 1x 3.5mm

1x HDMI (with ARC), 1x 3.5mm

1x HDMI, 1x 3.5mm

HDMI x2 (1 w/ eARC), USB-A (powered), 3.5mm

JMGO N1S Pro 4K

With its far brighter and more colorful picture, the JGMO N1S Pro 4K is a serious threat to the Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus. It may have a list price double that of the Epson, but recent discounts bring it to a much more competitive $1,099.

Read our JMGO N1S Pro 4K review View Deal

Epson EpiqVision Mini EF22

A predecessor to the Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus, the EF22 is still flexible, equally as bright, and has mostly similar picture quality. It may not offer
4K resolution, but as an older model, it should be easy to find at a
discount.

Read our Epson EpiqVision Mini EF22 View Deal

Anker Nebula Mars 3

If the USB-C capabilities of the Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus catch your attention, then the Anker Nebula Mars 3 may be even further up your alley. Instead of convenient charging for on-the-go use, it has its own built-in battery. For home theater use, it falls a bit behind, though, with just 1080p resolution and a mono speaker.

Read our Anker Nebula Mars 3 review View Deal How I tested the Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus (Image credit: Future) Tested at home in multiple, real-world viewing conditions Presented the display with a variety of media and formats I have tested numerous projectors and displays over the last half-decade

I tested the Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus at home, in real-world conditions. This saw it faced with ambient light coming in from numerous windows, in-room lighting, as well as ambient noise that both the projector and speaker
systems had to overcome. The projector was tested both with a bare, white
wall and an Akia Screens CineWhite screen . It was presented with streamed content, both HDR and non-HDR.

My testing evaluates the projectors performance with respect to its price and competition from other models I and colleagues at TechRadar have tested.

I have been testing projectors since 2021 and displays for even longer. First reviewed: October 2025 Read TechRadar's review guarantee



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