On the hunt for a wireless projector!

March 18, 2018 10:40 AM

I’m looking for a decent projector that can connect (via WiFi? That’s a thing, right?) to an iPad and older MacBook Pro with no HDMI port. The projector will be about 10 feet away from the wall (which is 6 feet wide) and be bright enough to see during the day. I’m in the US and would prefer to buy it on Amazon if possible. Recommendations or guidelines to chose one would be appreciated!
posted by ananci to Technology (3 answers total)

Mirroring or casting your screen from an Apple device uses what Apple call AirPlay. There's a rundown of the best projectors with built-in Airplay support (from 2016, mind you) here - alternatively, and this is what I'd probably recommend, you could buy an Apple TV from Apple and plug that into whatever projector you like, which will let you AirPlay to your heart's content from pretty much any Apple device running an up-to-date operating system.

Buying the Apple TV separately is more future-proof - since it's an Apple device, it'll receive support and updates from Apple for a long time, and is almost guaranteed to work with new and improved Apple devices and new versions of the AirPlay standard. None of these things are guaranteed if you buy a projector with AirPlay support baked in, and the projector itself won't be as good as spending the same amount of money on a regular projector.

If you do buy an Apple TV, you can use that with pretty much any projector on the market. Here are a few recent rundowns from reputable websites - I haven't checked, but I would expect all of these to be available on Amazon.
posted by spielzebub at 10:59 AM on March 18, 2018

I'm with spielzebub here: as far as I know, there are relatively few AirPlay-enabled projectors out there. A quick glance at The Wirecutter suggests a couple of BenQ models are good options in the < $1000 space.
posted by Making You Bored For Science at 11:10 AM on March 18, 2018

Best answer: Another option - any old projector with an HDMI port, and then a Chromecast (or Apple equivalent) to plug into it.
posted by alexei at 3:01 PM on March 18, 2018