The Philips Screeneo UL5 Smart isn't the only mini ultra short throw (UST) projector—or even the first. However, it's the first we've been able to get our hands on for testing. (The second should be the AAXA M8 Ultra Short Throw Projector, which we are expecting at this writing to arrive shortly.) How does it stand up to the closest products on the market, then? The UL5 doesn't deliver the high brightness level or robust audio typical of more common UST models like the Hisense PX3-PRO, one of our top picks, so it can't give you as large a picture in any given room brightness, or the same high-volume audio to fill a large room. But its UST lens lets it sit a few inches from a wall or screen, just like bigger models, with the added convenience of being easily portable. For some applications, that will make it an attractive choice, particularly at its much lower price of just $999 list.

Design: Bringing UST Down to a Smaller Scale

As with most UST projectors we've reviewed, the UL5 is built around a DLP chip. Unlike most, it claims a native resolution of 1080p (1,920 by 1080), and it uses a 960-by-540-pixel chip along with TI's XPR pixel shifting to generate the full 1,920-by-1080 image on screen. When connected to a 4K (3,840-by-2,160-pixel) source, it negotiates a 4K connection and downconverts the image to 1080p. In essence, it behaves like a 4K projector with soft focus. However, note that the brightness is a relatively low 550 ANSI lumens. Depending on the ambient light level for the room you're in, it may not throw a large enough image size at a comfortable brightness for you to see any difference between 1080p and 4K resolution, in any case.

The chip is paired with a tricolor red-green-blue laser light source, a fairly common choice today for its wide color gamut. Philips rates it at 108% of REC.2020 (aka BT.2020), the standard for 4K projectors and TVs, and it rates the lifetime at 20,000 hours.

(Credit: M. David Stone)

At just 3.4 by 3.7 by 8.1 inches (HWD) and 2.3 pounds, the UL5 is easy to move into place. It also automatically focuses, and it uses a LuminOS system for streaming, which offers a straightforward, easy-to-use menu structure for setup. The OS also requires less setup than some more common streaming interfaces.

Unfortunately, LuminOS is built on Android version 9, which is known for having apps that either don't stream smoothly or are clumsy to use. The Netflix app, for example, is really designed to take commands from a mobile device's touch screen. The UL5 substitutes a hard-to-use air mouse for giving commands, which requires waving the remote around to move the mouse pointer, and it doesn't track with the pointer very well. Sometimes it lets you aim at the pointer to move it; sometimes you have to point in a different direction. If Netflix is one of your go-to destinations, and you're not comfortable dealing with the air mouse, you'll want to add a third-party streaming dongle, and the second remote that goes with it. The good news is that I didn't see any issues with the streaming itself in my tests.

The projector comes preinstalled with Netflix, Disney+, YouTube, and a few more apps, as well as the usual option to download more. The unit I tested also included an Apple+ app on the Home screen, but Philips says it's no longer supported and will be removed in a firmware update. The company does note that it may be restored in the future.

(Credit: M. David Stone)

In addition to connecting to the internet for streaming via a Wi-Fi connection to your network, the UL5 offers ports for an HDMI source and USB memory on the right side of the projector (as viewed when facing the screen) and two USB-C ports on the left—one for AC power and one for a data source, to mirror your phone, tablet, or laptop. You can also mirror mobile devices wirelessly, using Miracast (for Android) or AirPlay (for Apple).

The stereo audio system, built around a pair of 3-watt speakers, delivered easily good enough sound quality for casual viewing and high enough volume to fill a small to midsize family room. If you want to use an external sound system, the only connection options are ARC—which uses the HDMI port—and Bluetooth.

Performance Testing and Quality: Decent Color for Casual Viewing

The UL5 offers five predefined picture modes, including one called User mode. For any of the modes, you can adjust brightness, contrast, saturation, hue, sharpness, and gain for each primary color (red, green, and blue). You can also tweak color temperature for most modes. User mode doesn't offer any real advantage over the others for customization.

The menus use the same names for the HDR10 and HLG picture modes as for the SDR modes. However, the projector saves the settings for each HDR and SDR mode separately, so you can use the picture mode of the same name for all three kinds of input and have different settings for each, according to Philips. (My tests confirm that for HDR10 and SDR. I didn't test using HLG input.) Note also that the choice of settings for each HDR picture mode is essentially the same as for SDR, as well, except for an added HDR Brightness setting for HDR10.

(Credit: M. David Stone)

I chose Presentation picture mode for our official viewing tests for both SDR and HDR movies on disc. For SDR input, color tended to be oversaturated with default settings; simply dropping the saturation level largely solved that problem. Likewise, I raised the brightness a tad to improve shadow detail. For HDR10 input on disc, though, I needed to raise the saturation instead. I also set HDR Brightness to the highest level to avoid overly dark images with our test clips; however, that's a built-in issue for HDR10. Keep in mind that projectors offer what most call an HDR Brightness setting precisely because the best setting can vary both from one source to the next and with the level of ambient light in the room.

(Credit: M. David Stone)

After my adjustments, image quality for both SDR and HDR movies on disc delivered suitable color accuracy by most people's standards and good contrast. I saw some loss of shadow detail, and no obvious difference on that score between HDR and SDR versions of the same scenes. But in both sets of tests—SDR and HDR—the shadow detail held well enough so I could make out what was happening even in the darkest scenes in our test clips.

As with some other projectors we've tested that are designed primarily for streaming, the UL5 delivered a better quality image straight out of the box in my ad hoc tests with FiOS and various streaming sources than it did with movies on disc. Color accuracy was good enough with default settings that most people wouldn't see any reason to adjust it. And although it's hard to compare how well shadow detail holds without having the same scenes to look at from all sources, it appeared to hold better for streaming than for movies on disc, as well.

One potential issue for the UL5 is rainbow artifacts—the red/green/blue flashes that single-chip DLP projectors can show. I saw them more often than is typical with today's models, and each flash lasted longer than for many models. I didn't notice any of the laser speckle that tricolor laser projectors can show, but I don't see speckle easily. If you're concerned about either issue, follow our usual advice of buying from a dealer who doesn't charge a restocking fee.

For 3D aficionados, the UL5 supports full HD 3D using DLP-Link glasses in side-by-side and top-bottom formats, including working with a Blu-ray player. However, you'll have to manually choose 3D mode in the menus to use it. I didn't see any crosstalk in my tests, and 3D-related motion artifacts were at the low end of typical for today's projectors.

(Credit: M. David Stone)

Input lag was appropriate for casual gaming. My Bodnar 4K Lag Tester measured it at 27.2 milliseconds for 1080p/60Hz input.

The rated 550 lumens should be bright enough—based on the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) recommendations—to light up a roughly 90-to-125-inch, 1.0-gain, 16:9 screen in a dark room. For the settings I used, I found it a little dimmer than I prefer for my 90-inch screen, but keep in mind that I chose settings based on best quality, not highest brightness, and for any given projector brightness, I tend to prefer the brighter image at the smaller end of the recommended size range.

After some experimentation, I wound up with a roughly 70-inch diagonal as my preferred screen size in a dark room for both SDR and HDR. In a family room on a bright day, the image was watchable, but it looked noticeably washed out at roughly 65 inches; night scenes in movies were almost completely washed out.