The Epson Home Cinema 3800 is a 4k HDR LCD projector. It projects an 80" image at a distance of approximately 8 feet, 100" at a distance of ~10 feet, and 120" at a distance of ~12 feet. The projector has Epson's 4k PRO-UHD technology with a 3-chip design, allowing it to project colorful and sharp images with double the resolution of 1080p. It's fully 10-bit HDR capable and has manual focus and lens-shifting settings. The projector has two HDMI 2.0 ports for full 4k @ 60Hz gaming, Bluetooth with aptX support, and two integrated 10W speakers.
Our Verdict
The Epson 3800 is great for watching movies. It's very bright, so it performs well in bright rooms, and it's even better when the lights are dimmed due to its great contrast. While it doesn't have a wide color gamut, colors pop due to the projector's brightness. The 3800's color accuracy is excellent out of the box, and it looks fabulous after calibration due to the projector's 11-point white balance and full-color calibration features.
- Very bright projector with excellent brightness uniformity.
- Great contrast for a pleasant viewing experience in dark rooms.
Excellent color accuracy nearly out of the box, which you can improve even further with calibration.
- Doesn't have Wi-Fi and lacks a smart interface.
Doesn't have Dolby Vision or HDR10+.
The Epson 3800 is okay for casual big-screen gaming. It's extremely bright, and it also has great contrast, providing very solid image quality overall, even though it's not the most colorful projector at its price point; thankfully, its colors are very accurate out of the box. It accepts 4k @ 60Hz, but it tops out at 60Hz at every resolution. Unfortunately, while the unit's latency is okay for slower titles, it's not quite fast enough for twitch shooters or for platformers. There's also no Dolby Vision support for Xbox gamers and no true 1440p support.
- Very bright projector with excellent brightness uniformity.
- Great contrast for a pleasant viewing experience in dark rooms.
Excellent color accuracy nearly out of the box, which you can improve even further with calibration.
No 120Hz or true 1440p support.
Relatively high input lag even when set to its 'Fast' preset.
Doesn't have Dolby Vision or HDR10+.
Changelog
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Updated Oct 03, 2025:
We made some minor adjustments before our official TBU 0.10 launch.
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Updated Oct 03, 2025:
We've added text to the Imaging, Optics, Noise, Supported Resolutions, HDR Format Support, 3D, Input Lag, and Audio Passthrough boxes as a result of our latest test bench. We've also added Gaming and Game Mode Responsiveness usages in the Verdict section.
- Updated Oct 03, 2025: We've converted the review to Test Bench 0.10, which updates our Design tests, and adds a whole new suite of Inputs tests. We also added new gaming-oriented usage scores in Our Verdict. See the 0.10 changelog.
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Updated Aug 13, 2025:
We mentioned the newly reviewed Epson Home Cinema 2350 and added a mention of it in the Differences Between Sizes and Variants section.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Epson Home Cinema 3800 sits within Epson's upper mid-range 3LCD home theater line. It uses pixel‑shift, has HDR10 and HLG support, and has Bluetooth with aptX support. In Epson's lineup, it slots above the basic Epson Home Cinema 1080 (which lacks HDR and smart streaming) and the Epson Home Cinema 2350 (which has HDR support and comes with an Android TV dongle), but below the premium Epson Home Cinema 5050UB (with motorized optics, superior contrast, and enhanced color performance). Here's how they stack up:
| Model | Native Resolution | Pixel-Shift (4K PRO-UHD) | Brightness | HDR Formats | Lens / Optics | Smart / Wireless |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Epson Home Cinema 1080 | 1080p (3LCD) | No | 3,400 lm | None | 1.2× manual zoom; Throw 1.02–1.23; No lens shift | Built-in Wi-Fi 5 with Miracast screen mirroring; no Android TV |
| Epson Home Cinema 2350 | 1080p (3LCD) | 2-phase (1920×1080×2) | 2,800 lm | HDR10, HLG | 1.62× manual zoom; Throw 1.32–2.15; Vertical lens shift ±60% (manual) | Android TV dongle (Chromecast built-in); Bluetooth audio; HDMI ARC |
| Epson Home Cinema 3800 | 1080p (3LCD) | 2-phase (1920×1080×2) | 3,000 lm | HDR10, HLG | 1.62× manual zoom; Throw 1.32–2.15; Lens shift ±60% V / ±24% H (manual) | No Android TV; Bluetooth (incl. aptX) for audio |
| Epson Home Cinema 5050UB | 1080p (3LCD) | 2-phase (1920×1080×2) | 2,600 lm | HDR10, HLG | 2.1× motorized zoom/focus/shift; Throw 1.35–2.84; Lens shift ±96% V / ±47% H; lens memory | No built-in smart features |
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Popular Projector Comparisons
The Epson 3800 projector is a great model. It's pricey but offers some of the best performance in its class. It's almost as good as the more expensive Epson Home Cinema 5050UB, making the 3800 a better buy for most people. The XGIMI HORIZON Ultra has more features than the Epson, like an integrated smart OS and full Wi-Fi 6 support, but the Epson, in turn, has much better image quality. Overall, if image quality is what you care about, it's hard to beat the Epson 3800.
Check out our recommendations for the best home projectors and the best projectors for home theater. If you'd prefer a cheaper unit, look up the best projectors under $1,000 instead.
The Epson Home Cinema 5050UB is slightly better than the Epson Home Cinema 3800. The 3800 has higher peak brightness than its more expensive sibling. Still, the 5050UB has slightly better contrast and a noticeably wider color gamut, so it's the better-looking of the two projectors when watching movies in a dark room.
The Epson Home Cinema 3800 is much better than the BenQ HT3550. The Epson is much brighter and has way better contrast with significantly brighter colors. It's also vastly more accurate before calibration and has near-perfect accuracy post-calibration. The BenQ is smaller and lighter and has auto keystone correction on the vertical axis, so it's easier to carry around and faster to install.
The Epson Home Cinema 3800 is noticeably better than the Epson Home Cinema 2350. The 3800 has far deeper blacks, with better contrast and accuracy than the 2350. The 2350 does have a slightly wider color gamut, but it doesn't have the necessary punch to make them look very vibrant. Still, the 3800 doesn't come with a smart OS and is rather barebones when it comes to features, while the 2350 comes with an Android TV dongle.
The Epson Home Cinema 3800 is better than the Hisense C1. The Epson has a more traditional design, while the Hisense is aimed at those who want an all-in-one projector; that is, it's more compact and has a smart OS for built-in streaming. The Epson gets much brighter, making it better suited to rooms with ambient lighting, and its optical zoom gives you more flexibility with placement. However, in a dedicated room where you can control its placement, the Hisense has much to offer, including a sharp, vibrant image and Dolby Vision support.
We've independently bought and tested over 60 projectors, and we've published all the detailed results for each so you can decide which one to buy. These have all been tested under the same standardized methodology, allowing you to compare them side by side. We still have all these projects in our lab so we can continually go back and compare them to ensure our reviews are still accurate. All our test methodology is also public on our website, so you can validate the results yourself.
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Test Results
This projector's peak brightness is excellent. It's extremely bright, uniform, and has vibrant colors. It's bright enough to look good in bright rooms, but like other projectors, it looks best when you dim the lights.
This projector has great native contrast, leading to a pleasant viewing experience in dark rooms.
The Epson Home Cinema 3800 4k has excellent pre-calibration accuracy. There are minor accuracy errors in its white balance and colors, but they're not noticeable. Its color temperature leans slightly on the cold side, giving everything a subtle blue tint.
This projector has full 11-point white balance calibration and color calibration. It looks spectacular after calibration, with fantastic color and white balance accuracy, and its color temperature is exactly on target.
The Epson HC3800 has a decently wide color gamut. It does an excellent job with the Rec. 709 color space used with SDR content, although it struggles with the wider Rec. 2020 color space. If you'd prefer more saturated colors at the cost of color accuracy, setting the projector's color space to Rec. 2020 does result in a wider, but less accurate, color gamut in the Rec. 709 space, as seen here.
This 3LCD projector uses a lamp light source rated roughly 3,500–5,000 hours, depending on mode, after which you'll replace the lamp. It isn't a native 4k projector; Epson's pixel-shifting places more addressable pixels on screen for higher apparent detail than 1080p, but it's not as crisp as true 4k. Its lamp-driven SPD is broad and continuous, so wide-gamut coverage and HDR color volume are more limited than tri-laser models.
The Epson 3800 is a standard-throw projector with manual zoom/focus and manual keystone, but keep the lens centered and avoid digital keystone when possible for the cleanest image. Here are some real-world 16:9 throw distances, to help you with placement:
- 80″ → ~7.7–12.5 ft
- 100″ → ~9.6–15.6 ft
- 120″ → ~11.5–18.7 ft
- 150″ → ~14.4–23.4 ft
- 200″ → ~19.2–31.2 ft
This projector isn't meant to be portable as it's quite heavy and lacks an integrated battery, so you need to plug it in. The projector lacks auto keystone correction, so you'll need to adjust the image geometry manually, and it also doesn't have autofocus. It does have two 10W speakers.
If you'd prefer a more modern and portable unit, check out the Anker Nebula X1 instead.
At maximum brightness, the fan is plainly audible in quiet rooms.
The Epson Home Cinema 3800 projector has a 2.0A DC Out USB port for power delivery, like for a streaming dongle or something of that nature. It also has a 12v trigger out port to connect your screen to it; this allows you to signal the screen to unfold when the projector powers on and inversely retract the screen when it's powered off. Unfortunately, the projector doesn't support Wi-Fi, but it does support Bluetooth with aptX.
The projector accepts 4k @ 60Hz and 1080p @ 60Hz (including full 4:4:4 at 1080p/60). There's no 4k @ 120Hz or 1080p @ 120Hz, and the projector is effectively limited to 60Hz across the board; 1440p isn't natively supported.
The projector's input lag is on the high side for any serious gaming, even in its 'Fast' image processing preset. The speed difference between 'Fast' and 'Fine' is rather small, but it'll be noticeable for twitch gaming. Still, the input lag is alright for slower single-player titles.
There's no ARC/eARC or optical output on the projector, so it can't pass digital surround formats. Route sources into your AVR/soundbar first and then send video to the projector.
