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Business  |  Jul 31 2023

How to Choose a Presentation Display for Your Meeting Spaces

Choosing the best presentation display for your business’s meeting spaces can be overwhelming. With so many different options ranging from projectors all the way to 163” video wall displays, finding the best solution can take time.

This is why we’ve created this comprehensive guide to all types of presentation displays commonly used for meeting spaces in business settings. If you are ready for a great investment in your business, you might want to read our complete strategies for business solutions .

Modern meeting spaces are becoming much more than old-fashioned meeting rooms or conference rooms. They have become areas for teamwork, brainstorming, active collaboration, and other problem-solving activities. And thanks to evolving technology, this is all possible. With a variety of all-in-one solutions that fit your company’s needs, it’s possible to make an amazing investment for you and your team. It can be difficult to know where to start, however, which is why we have produced this guide.

Using presentation display systems such as projectors, wireless presentation displays, and interactive flat-panel displays are the best solutions to consider if you want to create a more collaborative and engaging meeting space.

Learning about the different usages for different types of displays, their pros, and their cons, will help you make an informed investment for your business.

Interactive Flat-Panel Displays (IFPD) for Collaborative and Huddle Meeting Spaces

Interactive flat-panel displays are large-format touchscreens displays. They are like wireless presentation displays but offer built-in software for high levels of collaboration and brainstorming. The advanced touchscreen interactivity is perfect for all types of meeting spaces.

Using interactive flat-panel displays creates more collaborative workspaces with improved convenience and higher-performing productivity. They are even great for huddle spaces. However, these displays can be more difficult to operate which might present a learning curve for those who are not as tech-savvy. Not to mention that some boards do not come with installed software, causing incompatibility issues later.

Interactive flat-panel displays (IFPDs) are perfect for meeting spaces of various sizes looking to make the upgrade. IFPDs are for those who want to connect not only in the office but also with remote coworkers. Thanks to the technology that allows for writing, editing, and other collaborative features, you can make any meeting more engaging and productive.

Collaborative workspaces are becoming more and more popular among meeting spaces and business organizations. They allow for brainstorming and idea creation. These devices also secure a smooth discussion without the hassle of finding previous notes or sharing files on the device itself.

ViewSonic’s interactive flat-panel displays, called ViewBoards, are perfect for those wanting to make the switch to IFPDs. And for any business use, we recommend our flagship ViewBoard: the IFP8670 .

For additional insights, you might want to discover IT World Canada’s rundown of the features offered on the ViewBoards we offer here at ViewSonic.

Huddle room solutions are becoming increasingly needed, too. They are great for building teamwork and bringing coworkers together for an effortless organizational spirit. But it can be difficult to keep record all your information easily. IFPDs still assure flexibility while providing secure ways of teamwork in a less formal environment.

If you are interested in working with your team on multiple devices, we recommend the IFP5550-3 . And if you want to scale down your collaborative display, the VBH100 is great for easy sharing among huddle rooms to get started.

High-performance is important for any collaborative space. Nobody wants to write on a board that lags or spend time trying to remember the correct word spelling. With a high-performing IFPD, you can be sure that regardless of usage, your board will retain clarity and prove its durability.

If you need a reliable, high-performing 4k touchscreen, explore IFP9850-4 bundle to solve the problem.

Convenience is one of the hidden benefits of installing an IFPD. Outside of saving all work or notes done on the board, many of them use fewer cables for a neater appearance. You can simply walk into a room, plug in the device, and begin sharing with your team.

Even better, the ViewBoards use a single USB Type-C cable, which makes sharing even quicker. With quick 60W charging and touch pass-through, they greatly leverage the meeting time.

Factors to Consider

Learning curves can be difficult for some users. IFPDs might seem daunting, especially if you purchase the wrong one. They may not always be intuitive for the user and may even have functionalities you’ll never use. Nothing is worse than wasting half of a meeting just trying to turn on the display!

Thankfully, ViewBoards are easy to use and quick to learn. Forbes wrote an interesting article about when designers should choose intuitive vs. learned software systems. Making sure you choose a company that has your best interest in mind is vital.

Troubleshooting is another big challenge for those who may not be as tech-oriented. Some boards may require you to download certain software or use a certain browser, but it uses mysterious codes and keywords you’ve never seen before.

ViewSonic provides a solution for this. From troubleshooting FAQs , online training courses , and contact services , you never have to face another IFPD problem again.

Incompatible software can be a huge issue if you’ve already made your purchase. Every IFPD has different requirements and compatibility specifications. For example, maybe some only connect with laptops while others allow for mobile devices. For complete and easy collaboration, it’s important to double-check specs and installed software.

So, if compatibility and versatile device usage are important for you, don’t worry! All our ViewBoards come with the myViewBoard software preinstalled.

Wireless Presentation Displays (WPDs) for Remote Meeting Spaces

Wireless presentation displays are hardware solutions for integrating multiple other devices into a single wireless system. Oftentimes these WPSs are external boxes that connect multiple devices, but standard wireless presentations have them built-in. This allows for an easy and cableless connection for all devices involved.

These devices pay for themselves with a lower total cost of ownership and allow for smarter and more collaborative meeting spaces. However actual device size and limitations on interactive features are something you should consider when creating the perfect meeting space solution.

Wireless presentation displays are wireless all-in-one presentation displays. These also allow for screen sharing and integrated multimedia display. They also do not require dongles or app installation and provide you with instant casting just by using opening a browser.

These are perfect for meeting spaces with high levels of sharing involved inside or outside. Wireless presentation displays, or WPD, for short, are also great for businesses that have remote participants, and even commercial screens. It is easy to connect single content to all displays for effective multi-group environments.

The total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is lower than that of projectors or the like. TCO refers to hidden costs such as maintenance or replacement parts. Unlike projectors, there is no need to replace lamps or do constant deep cleaning.

Typically for these devices, you install the device then you are good to go.

Smarter meeting spaces are key for efficient business and organization. With options for remote and group sharing, you don’t have to worry about making sure everyone gets the correct information on time. This can allow for better time management which in turn allows for more collaboration on ideas or projects.

Workplace communication can be hard to maintain. However, with WPDs you can easily display things like schedule changes, important information, announcements, and more on a single commercial display. You can also have options for remote control meaning you can update information from anywhere in your business or at home.

Career Addict offers a great list of reasons why you need to start using good workplace communication strategies in your meeting space. If this sounds perfect for your business, we recommend checking out CDE7530 to learn more about its features.

Mobility is one of the main pros of having a WPD. Despite the awesome cordless option, this also means you can easily move these displays to other areas of your business. You can either have them mounted to the wall, placed on a trolley, or have an e-poster system for even more mobility of the display.

If mobility is important for your business, we recommend checking out our wheeled stand for your display monitor.

And if you still aren’t convinced, check out Cision PR Newswire ’s news about our latest technology for large interactive display solution at ISE 2023.

Size may be an issue if you are working with limited space. In this case, you may consider using projectors. While sharing information and remote collaboration are possible with projectors, unfortunately, they are not recommended for brainstorming.

There are no touch-enabled screens or pen features for writing on the screen. If you feel like touch screens and more interactive meetings are needed for your conference room, refer back to our interactive flat panel displays to see if there is a better option for you!

Projectors for Any Meeting Space

Projectors are optical output devices that project an image onto a surface. They can also be used with projector screens for the best image production, offer a great image production, fit both smaller spaces and large spaces, and are sometimes even portable!

Projectors are great solutions to meet the needs of all kinds of businesses. The best business projectors are suited for well-lit, smaller office spaces but have the capacity to even work in large venues. For companies that are starting up, or those who may need a budget-friendly solution, projectors are great. With options from ProAV power for large installations or portable for on-the-go, there is bound to be something for your business.

Price is always one of the most important factors to consider. Projectors are typically cheaper than other types of presentation displays. However, budget-friendly should not mean lower quality and bad functionality.

Standard throw, short throw, and ultra-short throw refer to how far away your projector needs to be to project the optimal picture. The standard throw is perfect for larger areas where space isn’t a concern. This means they are great for presentations that require movement and action. You won’t be cramped to a small section of the room.

Short throw and ultra-short throw projectors are perfect for areas with limited space. These projectors only require a few feet from the wall or screen to be effective. With crystal-clear imaging, you will not feel like you are missing out.

Knowing the difference between standard, short, and ultra-short throw projectors is critical for making sure your projector will be the best solution for your meeting space. Also, if space with solid imaging is a priority in your conference room, we recommend checking out this line of projectors.

High brightness and high resolution give the luxury of a wider choice of environment. Many old-school projectors are difficult to see in dark rooms or when placed directly in window light. Having high brightness and resolution allows for effortless presentations without the hassle of people having to move to better see the screen.

Portable projector features allow you to present in multiple locations. With a lightweight build and plug-and-play USB capability, using portable projectors is perfect for those always on the go or have multiple meeting spaces but not the budget for multiple projectors.

If you need a reliable performance solution for on-the-go, we recommend one of our portable projector .

Projection is not suitable for every environment . While many of our projectors allow for high-brightness and other features to ensure the best presentation, sometimes a room is just simply not suitable due to lighting.

In this case, it is important to make sure your meeting rooms have the right dimensions and suitable lighting environments.

If you feel that lighting may become an issue for your projector, consider purchasing a projector screen . While not always necessary, they can help enhance the image and give a clearer picture.

They are not touch-enabled, and this can hinder types of collaboration. While having solid projection can give your meeting space more structure, not having a touch-enabled display can mean using pens and paper for note-taking or brainstorming.

If you feel that interactive collaboration is a priority during your meetings, consider looking at other products like the IFPDs or even WPDs.

Replacement lamps need to be purchased to maintain your projector. Typically, it is suggested to change lamps every three years depending on your level of usage. This can become a hidden cost and burden for some if you do not do things like letting fans cool down or keeping the ventilation clear of heavy dust.

Direct View LED for Outside the Meeting Space

Videowall displays are often multi-monitor sets that consist of many different parts put together to create one very large screen. Because of this multi-monitor setup, you can often see the bezels between each screen.

Direct View LED displays are some of the most impressive displays offered at ViewSonic. While they are not interactive, they are great for commercial displays as well as for investing in something nice and beautiful for the business. They are also perfect for cost-effective, all-in-one video wall solutions, and large venue solutions.

Even larger vivid and high-quality imaging is possible with the ViewSonic Direct View LED. With an impressive 120% rec., 709 color accuracy, and an ultra-fast 3,840Hz refresh rate, the images produced are lifelike and just stunning.

Seamless integration and automated control are also possible for this device. Compatible with professional AV control systems such as Crestron , Extron , and AMX , it is easy to present any information or image that you want. Having this control makes using the ViewSonic Direct View LED simple and intuitive.

Cost is quite high for these types of devices. Because of this, it may not be possible for every business to have the device. Thankfully, there are plenty of alternatives like projectors, IFPDs, and WPDs.

But, if you can afford it, they are certainly worth the investment. The ViewSonic Direct View LED is certain to wow anyone who walks into your business or meeting space.

Maintenance can be difficult for such a large piece of technology. With so much space to cover and the sheer size of the device can be intimidating for anyone looking to upkeep.

Thankfully, ViewSonic’s Direct View LED has an easy installation with a multi-panel modular design. This means that it only requires two people and takes roughly about 2 hours. With that, it is easy to troubleshoot potentially broken pieces or keep the technology clean.

Limited usability may be a factor to consider if you are working on a budget. Due to their large size, these kinds of devices are best used for commercial display or other display-only alternatives. It is not ideal to use these for highly important information sharing or for collaboration.However, its larger-than-life display capabilities can spice up any presentation used for professional settings and more.

GES has provided 9 ways to make your video walls work if you are still worried that cost may outweigh the potential benefits in your investment.

(NEW) Portable Monitors for One-on-One Meetings

The difference between a portable monitor and a normal monitor typically relates to the size and weight of the monitor. Sometimes it also relates to the features offered on the device. With a portable monitor, you can get all the benefits of a second screen but on the go!

Being creative and productive anywhere, you can also use it for one-on-one meetings. Some portable monitors are touch-enabled too, which can be very helpful to get your point across quickly.

But you should also be aware that some types of portable monitors may experience bad input lag. Not to mention, some of them really aren’t that portable due to their fragile design and heavyweight.

Portable monitors are becoming increasingly more popular among businesses and professional people. Modern meeting spaces are nowhere near what they used to be. Nearly everyone can be included in collaboration now. Thanks to this, businesses are saving a lot of time, and this leaves them with more opportunities for development in other areas.

One byproduct of this is the potential for more one-on-one meetings. With a portable monitor, it does not matter if the meeting was scheduled or not. You can quickly pull out your monitor and allow for quicker setup and easier screen sharing. Rather than just using a single laptop that can be difficult for both parties to see, you can use the portable monitor as a miniature display fit for almost any environment.

Touch-enabled portable monitors are awesome for one-on-one conferences. Being able to interact with notes, edits, and data can help more effectively get your point across. It is basically like having a mini IFPD in the palm of your hand.

Portability is in the name! Having portable options is severely undervalued when it comes to the workplace. Being able to quickly attach and present is important for one-on-one meetings where you may be working on an even stricter time schedule than usual. With impromptu meetings, maintaining professionalism and readiness is key.  Plus, so much modern work benefits from a second screen, it’s great to get the extra productivity without being tied to a desk.

Expanding creativity is possible by using a portable monitor. For example, ViewSonic’s portable monitors have an advanced in-cell 10-point capacitive touchscreen. This allows for an ultra-responsive touchscreen experience that reacts to a stylus, tap, pinch, swipe, and scribble. A quick and easy solution for productive brainstorming.

In case you weren’t convinced, here are 7 reasons why you need a portable monitor .

Extra devices to carry can be burdensome. It also means more opportunities to break the device. Some portable monitors are even more fragile than a standard tablet.

However, ViewSonic offers an ultra-lightweight option for those worried about damage. Outside of durability, our portable monitor has a thickness of 6 in. and a weight of less than 2lbs.

Smaller screens can be a deal-breaker for some job fields. Even more so in a one-on-one conference. If both parties cannot see the screen, then you should opt for a bigger touchscreen monitor or a wireless presentation display if interactive features are required.

Input lag can be higher on portable monitors than on standard tablets. Because of this, connectivity between the computer and the portable monitor can be slow and have a low refresh rate. It is also possible that the monitor itself causes lag for your laptop devices as well.

ViewSonic ensures you none of these issues with USB-C Connectivity and the 10-point Touch capacitive. With USB-C connectivity, it is a dual-port that allows for rapid delivery of data, audio, video, and charging all over a single cable. These monitors can also be powered directly from a laptop as well.

If all of these features sound like the perfect solution for you, check out the VG1655 or the TD1655 to learn about all the specs and benefits.

Final thoughts

Picking the perfect presentation display solution for your meeting space has never been easier. With projectors, wireless presentation displays, interactive flat panel displays, large-scale video wall displays, and so much more on the way, there is bound to be something for your office.

If you still aren’t sure of what type of presentation display is the best fit for your company’s meeting space, you can learn more about them here .

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11 screen-mirroring devices for presenting wirelessly

Wirelessly sending presentations and videos from your laptop, phone, or tablet to the big screen is a breeze with one of these mirroring devices..

Whether you’re leading a sales call, a training session, or that hoped-for breakthrough presentation to the higher-ups, why not wow them by wirelessly connecting your laptop, tablet, or phone to the room’s projector or large display? With the right gear, it’s easier than you might think.

What’s that? No one at your company has been to the office in the past 10 months because of a global pandemic? The good news is that some of the same inexpensive devices that stream entertainment media over a home Wi-Fi network — Chromecast, Apple TV, Roku, and others — can also be used in the boardroom. You can practice now while you’re working from home, then be ready to hit the ground running later on when vaccines finish rolling out, the pandemic recedes, and offices reopen.

These 11 devices plug into a projector, large monitor, or TV to mirror the display of a laptop, tablet, or smartphone so you can make presentations from your own device — and from anywhere in the room. Some use an HDMI cable for connecting to the display or projector, while others resemble a large thumb drive that plugs directly into the screen’s HDMI port.

Even the largest can travel with you or be permanently (and unobtrusively) installed to a display in a conference room, or even a TV in the den for the work-at-home crowd. Then, all you need do is walk in, tap the device or a few keys, and you’re on the big screen. (See some typical setup instructions .)

All of the mirroring devices in this roundup support HD resolution of at least 1920 x 1080 pixels, the standard for business graphics, and some of the newer listed here can handle 4K resolution of up to 3820 x 2160 pixels, showing four times as much detail. To many this will seem like overkill, but it’s perfect for a company for going over the architectural renderings of a new factory, previewing a UHD commercial, or zooming in on a high-resolution image.

The bad news: Most of these devices do not fit all business situations. Consider:

• The Apple TV 4K connects with MacBooks, iPads, and iPhones, but not Windows, Chrome OS, or Android products.
• Miracast devices, like Microsoft’s 4K Wireless Display Adapter, work with Windows systems as well as Android tablets and phones, but not Apple products or Chromebooks.
• Chromecast can directly mirror Android screens but relies on Chromecast apps rather than true mirroring for other device types.

That said, a few newer devices do mirror a broader range of systems. If you’re really serious about accommodating all types of laptops and mobile devices, you should consider getting a device with broader support. Otherwise, choose the one that best suits your needs based on what people use at your office. After all, with a multitude of choices, there’s never been a better time to present wirelessly.

Apple TV 4K / Apple TV HD

Based on Apple’s AirPlay 2  technology,  Apple TV 4K wirelessly mirrors material on a Mac, iPhone, or iPad in super-sharp 3840 x 2160 resolution. Unfortunately, you have to stay within the Apple ecosystem to use it, so forget about Androids, Chromebooks, and Windows devices.

They may look the same, but the Apple TV 4K (left) supports super-sharp 3840 x 2160 resolution, while Apple TV HD (right) tops out at 1920 x 1080 pixels. (Click any image in this story to enlarge it.)

With hardware similar to an iPad, the Apple TV 4K has an A10X Fusion processor and either 32GB ($179) or 64GB ($199) of storage for presentations, videos, and the occasional movie or game. It uses the 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi bands or a wired Ethernet LAN, has an HDMI port, and is powered by an AC cord.

The Apple TV can be controlled from across the room with its Siri Remote, which listens for commands. At 3.9 x 3.9 x 1.4 in., the Apple TV 4K is likely too big for the back of a TV, but third parties, such as Innovelis , make wall-mounting brackets.  

If the Apple TV 4K’s price tag is out of reach or you don’t have a display or projector that supports 4K, the company’s $149 Apple TV HD is a step down with 1920 x 1080 resolution, an older A8 CPU,

Apple TV 4K at a glance

• Price:  $179 (32GB), $199 (64GB)
• Compatibility:  Macs, iPads, iPhones
• Resolution: 3840 x 2160 pixels
• Size: 3.9 x 3.9 x 1.4 in.
• Pros:  4K resolution; includes voice remote control
• Cons:  Not compatible with Windows, Android, or Chrome OS; big device; expensive
• Who it’s best for:  Offices full of Mac and iOS users who demand 4K-resolution video

Apple TV HD at a glance

• Price:  $149
• Resolution: 1920 x 1080 pixels
• Pros:  Comes with remote control; includes voice remote control; HD resolution
• Cons:  Not compatible with Windows, Android, or Chrome OS; big device; pricey; older tech
• Who it’s best for:  Apple shops that need HD-resolution imaging

Google Chromecast / Google Chromecast with Google TV

Rather than mirroring the screens of every computing platform, the third-generation Chromecast and newer Chromecast with Google TV take a different approach. They allow Android phones and tablets to wirelessly share their screens, but Windows PCs, Macs, Chromebooks, iPhones, and iPads need to use one of the thousands of Chromecast apps available to “cast” to the big screen . The range of supported Chromecast apps includes the ubiquitous Chrome browser, YouTube, and Google Slides but ignores corporate mainstays like PowerPoint and Keynote.

The Chromecast (left) and Chromecast with Google TV (right) mirror Android devices and “cast” from other platforms via Chromecast apps.

Both Chromecast devices are small with flat HDMI cables for plugging into a display and take advantage of the 2.4 and 5GHz bands of a Wi-Fi network. The USB port of a newer display or TV should be able to power either device, but they each include an AC adapter, just in case.

The two Chromecast devices diverge when it comes to resolution, with the Chromecast putting out 1920 x 1080 pixels and the Chromecast with Google TV showing the ultra-sharp resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels. Instead of the basic black Chromecast device, the Chromecast with Google TV is available in white (a.k.a. Snow), light blue (Sky), or salmon (Sunrise) and includes a voice-activated remote control.  

The HD-based Chromecast sells for $30, while the UHD Chromecast with Google TV costs $50, making them screen-sharing bargains.

Chromecast at a glance

• Price:  $30
• Compatibility:  Android devices, plus Windows PCs, Macs, Chromebooks, iOS devices via Chromecast apps
• Size: 6.4 x 2.0 x 0.5 in.
• Pros:  Tiny device; HD imaging; inexpensive; can be display-powered
• Cons:  Only mirrors screens on Android devices; Chromecast apps are needed for other platforms
• Who it’s best for:  Offices with lots of Android devices

Chromecast with Google TV at a glance

• Price:  $50
• Size: 6.4 x 2.4 x 0.5 in.
• Pros:  Small; 4K resolution; can be display-powered
• Cons:  Can only mirror Android devices, others require Chromecast apps
• Who it’s best for:  Setups that use Android systems and those willing to put up with Chromecast apps

IOGear Wireless Mobile and PC to HDTV Screen Sharing Receiver (GWAVRC)

IOGear’s  Wireless Mobile and PC to HDTV Screen Sharing Receiver is a mouthful, but thanks to the use of a high-power proprietary chipset and high-gain antenna design, it offers the bonus of being able to stay connected from up to 50 feet away, according to the company. Better known as the GWAVRC, the IOGear receiver is for those who have large rooms to fill with wireless presentations and video.

IOGear’s GWAVRC can stream content from Android and Windows devices from up to 50 feet away.

Based on Miracast technology, the GWAVRC can share the screens of Windows PCs as well as Android phones and tablets over a Wi-Fi network using either the 2.4GHz or 5GHz band. It can’t connect with Chromebooks, Macs, iPhones, or iPads and tops out at 1920 x 1080 resolution.

At 3.4 x 2.6 x 0.6 in., the GWAVRC device can sit next to or behind the TV or display. It comes with a USB AC adapter, but recent TVs and displays should be able to provide enough power for its operation. With the ability to send signals across more space, the IOGear GWAVRC could be the long-distance mirroring champ for your office.

IOGear GWAVRC at a glance

• Compatibility:  Windows PCs, Android devices
• Size: 3.4 x 2.6 x 0.6 in.
• Pros:  Has a long range; can be display-powered
• Cons:  Large size; doesn’t work with Macs, iPhones, or iPads
• Who it’s best for:  Businesses that use Android and Windows devices with a large room to fill

Microsoft 4K Wireless Display Adapter

The third-generation Microsoft 4K Wireless Display Adapter  picks up where the company’s earlier mirroring devices left off, allowing 4K-resolution screen sharing in a small package.

The Microsoft 4K Wireless Display Adapter can be powered from a display via its USB plug.

Happily, it retains the unique design of its predecessor, featuring a 21-inch cable with an HDMI plug at one end and a USB connector at the other. In between is a small box of electronics. This design lets you plug both ends into the back of a TV or display, so the display is both receiving a signal via the HDMI plug and supplying power through the USB plug. The device doesn’t include an AC adapter for displays without a USB port.

Officially, it can mirror a variety of Microsoft Surface devices, but it should work with just about any recent Miracast-enabled system, like Windows 10 PCs or Android phones and tablets. It ignores Apple gear and Chromebooks, though.

Capable of wirelessly mirroring up to a 3840 x 2160 resolution stream, the 4K Wireless Display Adapter uses the 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi bands. Easy to set up, the device makes it a snap to quickly put a 4K presentation or video in front of your colleagues without a cable in sight. The device lists for $60, but we’ve seen it for about $20 less at online retailers.

Microsoft 4K Wireless Display Adapter at a glance

• Price:  $60
• Compatibility:  Windows 10 PCs, Android devices
• Size:  3.5 x 0.8 x 0.4 in.
• Pros:  Small; easy setup; can be display-powered
• Cons:  Doesn’t work with Macs, iOS devices, or Chromebooks
• Who it’s best for:  Windows-based offices that also have Android users

MiraScreen G9 Plus 5G

With one of the smallest footprints of any mirroring device, the MiraScreen G9 Plus 5G plugs right into a display or projector and can mirror what’s on the screen of a wide variety of computing devices, from Windows PCs, Macs, and Chromebooks to Androids, iPhones, and iPads.

With support for numerous connection protocols, the MiraScreen G9 Plus 5G can connect to a wide range of systems.

The key to its compatibility is the G9 Plus’s support for Chromecast, AirPlay, Miracast, and other connection protocols.

The wealth of connection possibilities doesn’t come at the cost of complexity, thanks to its simple step-by-step on-screen connection instructions. The device uses the 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi bands and can even act as a wireless Wi-Fi extender.

Happily, it yields up to 3840 x 2160 resolution for pinpoint presentations, videoconferences, and even the occasional lunchtime episode of “The Mandalorian.” The G9 Plus has a 1.6GHz dual-core processor and can be powered by the USB port on many newer TVs and displays; it doesn’t, however, include a USB AC adapter for use with older displays. Still, at 2.4 x 1.5 x 0.5 in., it’s a small wonder that can connect an office of gear.

Note that you can probably save about $15 off the $45 list price if you shop around online.

MiraScreen G9 Plus 5G at a glance

• Price:  $45
• Compatibility:  Windows, Macs, Chromebooks, Android devices, iPhones, iPads
• Size: 2.4 x 1.5 x 0.5 in.
• Pros:  Tiny device; up to 4K resolution; wide range of compatibility
• Cons:  Might need a USB AC adapter
• Who it’s best for:  Offices with variety of computing devices to connect

Roku Express / Roku Express+ / Roku Streaming Stick+

Roku’s devices are best known for streaming TV and movies at home, but the Roku Express , Express+ , and Streaming Stick+ also work well for screen mirroring with a variety of price, resolution, and compatibility options. The Express and Streaming Stick+ are sold directly from Roku and at a variety of outlets; the Express+ is a Walmart exclusive.

The Roku Express (top) supports HD resolution and works with Android and Windows devices, while the Streaming Stick+ (bottom) supports 4K resolution and works with Apple devices too.

The $30 Express and $40 Express+ are packaged in small boxes and use Miracast to connect over Wi-Fi’s 2.4GHz band. They support HD resolution and mirror Android and Windows systems; they won’t work with Apple gear or Chromebooks. By contrast, the $50 Streaming Stick+ is the size of a large flash drive, supports 4K resolution at 3840 x 2160 pixels, uses both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi bands, and adds Apple’s AirPlay technology to mirror Macs, iPhones, and iPads (but not Chromebooks).

Any of the Roku devices can be powered by the USB port from a recent TV or display or with the included AC adapter. Instead of an ordinary power cable, however, the Streaming Stick+ requires you to use the included proprietary power cable, which has what Roku calls a long-range wireless receiver to boost its Wi-Fi signal.

To control the show from across the room, the Express has a traditional remote control with buttons. The Express+ and Streaming Stick+ go a step further with an Alexa-based voice response system and a phone or tablet app that turns its screen into an alternate remote control to eliminate juggling (and likely dropping) devices while presenting.

Roku Express at a glance

• Price:  $30
• Resolution: 1920 x 1080
• Size: 3.0 x 1.5 x 0.75 in.
• Pros: Includes remote control; can be display-powered
• Who it’s best for:  An office that uses Windows and Android systems and that doesn’t need a voice remote control

Roku Express+ at a glance

• Price:  $40
• Pros:  Can be powered by display; voice-activated remote control
• Cons:  No compatibility with Macs, iOS devices, or Chromebooks
• Who it’s best for:  An office that uses Windows and Android systems and wants to use a voice remote control

Roku Streaming Stick+ at a glance

• Compatibility:  Windows PCs, Macs, iPhones, iPads, and Android devices
• Size: 3.7 x 0.8 x 0.5 in.
• Pros:  4K resolution; small size; supports a variety of systems; voice-activated remote control
• Cons:  Proprietary power cable
• Who it’s best for:  Office situations that require devices on multiple platforms to share a mirroring system

StarTech.com Wireless Display Adapter with HDMI

If you want to connect wirelessly to an older display, you’re out of luck with the other 10 units here — but StarTech.com’s  Wireless Display Adapter with HDMI (product ID WIFI2HDMC) delivers both analog and digital video signals. In addition to its HDMI digital connector, the StarTech unit comes with an AV cable that has plugs in for an analog display’s composite video and audio connectors.

StarTech.com’s Wireless Display Adapter can connect to older displays with analog video ports.

The Wireless Display Adapter works with Miracast systems, including Android and Windows systems, but it snubs sharing the screens of Macs, iPhones, iPads, and Chromebooks. The device is on the large side at 3.3 x 2.6 x 1.0 in. It can be powered by recent TVs or displays but comes with a back-up USB AC adapter.

It receives its video signal over a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi connection and does without the higher throughput of a dual-band network link. The Wireless Display Adapter’s resolution is limited to 1920 x 1080 pixels, but it does offer a bonus for ultra-mobile workers: It has a USB port for instantly playing audio, video, or images in a wide variety of formats from a USB drive.

It’s definitely worth shopping around online for this device; we’ve seen it for $30 off the $91 list price.

StarTech.com Wireless Display Adapter with HDMI at a glance

• Price:  $91
• Size: 3.3 x 2.6 x 1.0 in.
• Pros:  HDMI and analog composite video output; USB port
• Cons: Pricey; doesn’t work with Macs, iOS devices, or Chromebooks
• Who it’s best for:  Offices that rely on older displays and don’t use Apple gear or Chromebooks

How to set up a mirroring device

Wirelessly mirroring your system on the big screen is no longer a hit-or-miss chore that can make you the butt of watercooler jokes. Today, sharing your screen with the group can be as easy as tapping a couple of keys, choosing the receiver, and getting down to business.

The instructions are slightly different for each device, but the steps for setting up Microsoft’s 4K Wireless Display Adapter, which is based on the Miracast protocol, are representative. It took me about 20 seconds to set it up to mirror my ThinkPad T470’s screen.

• Plug the 4K Wireless Display Adapter into an HDMI port on the display, TV, or projector.
• Either press the Windows key + K or go to Settings > Display > Connect to a Wireless Display .
• Pick the Microsoft Display Adapter from the pane that appears on the right.

Select the Microsoft Display Adapter to initiate the connection.

• Both screens will show that the connection process has begun and when they’re linked.
• When your screen shows up on the big display, start your presentation and prepare to wow them.

If you like, you can leave the 4K Wireless Display Adapter (or other mirroring device) permanently attached to the display. To use it later on, just switch to its input and follow steps 2 through 5.

This article was originally published in October 2014 and updated in January 2021.

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Brian Nadel is a contributing writer for TechHive and Computerworld and is the former editor-in-chief of Mobile Computing & Communications magazine.

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• Electronics
• Home theater

The Best Projector Screen on a Budget

By Adrienne Maxwell and Chris Heinonen

A good projector screen is an essential complement to a home video projector. It provides a smooth, color-neutral surface, and it preserves image brightness—so you can be sure you’re getting the best performance that your projector is capable of.

Though you can easily spend four figures on an extra-large screen for a high-performance home theater, our tests showed that you don’t necessarily have to. If you’re assembling a more modest front-projection system, we have recommendations for good fixed-frame, pull-down, and DIY screens available at a much lower price.

Everything we recommend

Silver Ticket STR Series (White Material, 100-Inch)

Best fixed-frame screen.

This fixed-frame screen offers performance comparable to that of screens costing seven times as much, plus it’s easy to set up and install.

Buying Options

Elite Screens Manual Series (100-Inch)

Best pull-down screen.

This pull-down screen has good color accuracy and better build quality than similarly priced competitors. But the material is not as smooth as that of a fixed-frame screen.

Goo Systems GooToob

Best diy screen.

This build-it-yourself screen, which you can make as large as 128 inches, delivers a clean, neutral image, but it’s hard to install and nearly impossible to move.

What you need to know

A good screen provides a smooth, color-neutral surface that helps preserve your projector’s brightness and overall image quality.

The larger your screen size, the brighter your projector needs to be to produce a satisfying, well-saturated image.

We looked for 100-inch, 16:9-shaped screens with standard reflectivity, minimal color shift, no noticeable texture, and easy setup.

We used a colorimeter and Calman video-calibration software to assess each screen’s color accuracy and brightness retention.

You’d have a tough time finding a better fixed-frame screen than the Silver Ticket STR Series without paying a premium. Other screens may be better or cheaper, but none match this Silver Ticket screen in achieving that perfect balance of better and cheaper.

Despite its lower price, this screen performed just as well as much more expensive screens, including our high-end reference model, the Stewart StudioTek 130 . It offered sharp image quality with a minimal amount of tint, and we found it easier to assemble than many of the other screens we tested.

The Silver Ticket STR Series is available in a variety of shapes and sizes; in the standard 16:9 shape that’s ideal for HDTV and many movies, you can get it in sizes from 92 to 200 inches (we tested the 100-inch size). Because it’s a fixed-frame design, it requires a large, empty wall to hang on—so it’s best suited for dedicated theater spaces.

If you prefer a screen that rolls up into a case when you aren’t using it‚ we recommend the Elite Screens Manual Series . In our measurements, this pull-down screen proved to be even more color-neutral than our top pick, but because the material hangs down from the case (which you can mount to the wall or ceiling), it isn’t as taut and smooth as what you can get from a fixed-frame design.

The Elite Screens Manual Series is available in assorted shapes and sizes—it ranges from 80 to 150 inches in the 16:9 shape—and you can order the metal casing in black or white to suit your room. It feels sturdier than other inexpensive pull-down screens we tested and comes with a two-year warranty.

If you’re okay with a do-it-yourself project and don’t plan on moving your screen once you’ve installed it, the Goo Systems GooToob kit is an excellent choice. In fact, according to our measurements, this DIY option offered the best objective performance overall, regardless of price.

The GooToob kit includes a roll of reflective substrate and black border tape, both of which you must cut to match the exact size of your projected video image. Then you stick them on the wall using the supplied adhesive.

The DIY design gives you flexibility to match the screen to your exact needs. However, as with a fixed-frame screen, it requires a large, empty wall space to work with, and it’s even less portable.

The research

Why you should trust us, who this is for, how we picked and tested, best fixed-frame projection screen: silver ticket str series, best pull-down projector screen: elite screens manual series, best diy projector screen: goo systems gootoob, other good projector screens, the competition.

Chris Heinonen did the original testing of fixed-frame screens for this guide, and supervising editor Adrienne Maxwell took over in 2023 to test pull-down screens. Both are ISF-certified video testers and calibrators who know how to assess screen performance using video-calibration software, light meters, and test patterns.

If you have a projector, you should get a screen. Most modern home theater projectors are bright enough to throw a decent image on just about any close-to-white surface, but if you’re still using a white-painted wall, you really should upgrade. A screen has less texture and shows more accurate colors, and it adds pop to the image—paint, in contrast, almost always reflects less light than a good screen.

If you ask a home theater expert or aficionado what to choose, more often than not, they’ll recommend something that costs more than the projector itself. Our picks are aimed more at someone looking to put together a casual home theater on a budget or just wanting to upgrade from a living room wall. A good screen should last a long time, so it’s worth investing the money up front on a screen that will help you get the best performance from your projector.

The ideal projector screen would deliver exactly the same image—in color, brightness, and contrast—as what’s coming directly from the projector, on a surface that is perfectly smooth and free from any noticeable defects. That screen doesn’t exist, at least not in the price range we focused on, but that’s the target.

To explain how we picked screens, we must first explain some technical parameters we considered:

• Gain and brightness: Gain is a measurement of how much light the screen reflects. A gain of 1.0 means it reflects the same amount of light as an industry-standard white magnesium-oxide board. Screens can reflect less light and have a gain of less than 1.0, or they can reflect more light and have a gain higher than 1.0. A lower gain produces deeper, darker black levels but reduces overall image brightness. A higher gain reflects more light back toward the center of the room; this creates a brighter image, but if the gain is too high, it can reduce viewing angles and introduce hot spots, areas of the image that are noticeably brighter than other areas.
• Viewing angle: A screen’s viewing angle dictates how widely off the screen’s center you can sit before the light noticeably drops off. It’s tied closely to the screen’s gain. With a standard gain of 1.0, the viewing angle can be close to 180 degrees, since the screen reflects everything more or less equally in all directions. With a higher gain, the viewing angle gets smaller, as the screen is in essence “focusing” the reflected light more toward the center of the room. With a high-gain screen (over 1.3), you should put seats closer to the center of the screen.
• Color accuracy: A neutral screen introduces as little color shifting as possible, compared with what the projector is putting out. In testing, we consider two different color elements: color temperature (whether the overall tone of the image is more red, green, or blue) and color points (how accurate the individual colors are within the image). We also check to see whether the screen adversely affects gamma , a measurement of how quickly a projector transitions from absolute black to peak white.
• Texture: If a screen’s texture is evident from a standard seating distance, it alters the image quality and possibly affects your enjoyment. If, on the other hand, the screen material is very fine, you don’t see any texture from a normal viewing distance, so the image appears smooth. Also be sure to choose a screen material that is as taut and smooth as possible, since the projected light will accentuate any waves or wrinkles.

For this guide, we chose to focus on 100-inch-diagonal, 16:9-shaped screens that are close to the standard 1.0 gain. We’ve found that 100 inches is an average size that works in a variety of rooms and with a variety of projectors. You can certainly go larger, but the image gets dimmer, by an amount equal to the increase in screen area. Many modern home theater projectors have ample-enough light output to produce a bright image on a 100-inch screen, so we chose to stick close to a 1.0 gain to ensure a wide viewing angle. And finally, since most HDTV content and many movies are in the 16:9 shape, that was our preferred aspect ratio.

Since this guide is intended for people looking to put together a casual home theater on a budget or just wanting to upgrade from a living room wall, we further narrowed our search to more value-oriented 100-inch screens priced under $350 .

However, in our original testing of fixed-frame screens, Chris also brought in a high-end Stewart StudioTek 130 screen as a reference for what you get when you pay substantially more. Stewart is one of the big names in custom home theater screens, and the StudioTek 130 is a neutral screen that many video reviewers are likely to recommend if you ask for a single suggestion.

In each round of tests, we set up the screens and made note of any issues we saw in the build or the ease of installation. Then, using a colorimeter along with Portrait Displays’s Calman color-calibration software , we measured the image directly off the lens of our reference projector (an Epson 5020UBe in our first round, a BenQ HT4550i in our second) to get baseline numbers for brightness, contrast, gamma, and color performance.

We then projected the same-size image, with the exact same projector settings, onto each screen and measured the results to see how the screen affected performance. We also watched a variety of content to look for sparkles, hot spots, texture, and other issues.

The Silver Ticket STR Series is the best fixed-frame screen on a budget because it has good image quality that introduces only a small amount of tint, it’s easy to build, and it just plain looks nice.

This screen performed as well as much pricier options. At the time of our original testing, the Silver Ticket screen was the cheapest fixed-frame screen we called in, yet it wound up performing as well as options that cost seven times as much.

It maintained the contrast ratio of our projector and had good color accuracy. In our measurements, it introduced a bit of blue tint to the image (which can make the picture seem a little brighter to the viewer’s eyes), but less than other budget screens did. To most people, this effect isn’t visible.

While some other fixed-frame screens had better results in our measurements than the Silver Ticket model, they were either many times more expensive (such as our reference Stewart StudioTek 130 screen) or time-intensive do-it-yourself projects (like our DIY pick from Goo Systems ), which most people aren’t up for. You can see our original measurement results down in the Competition section .

In real-world use, the Silver Ticket screen just looked good. The screen did a very good job of showing the detail and texture in the image. The material itself exhibited neither sparkles nor hot spots during our viewing, and it had a very wide viewing angle.

While watching Skyfall , Harry Potter , or Star Trek , we never thought that we were missing anything from the picture. The images consistently appeared sharp and showed the texture of a character’s suit or the wrinkles in someone’s skin. Even while sitting at the edge of the screen, we were still able to see a very good picture devoid of any additional color shift.

We calculated a gain for the STR Series of around 0.95, which is all you need for a modern projector. But note that it falls short of its claimed gain of 1.1, which means it is a bit less reflective than Silver Ticket claims it to be.

Assembly is an easy task. A fixed-frame screen generally requires assembly unless you go the custom-installation route. The Silver Ticket STR Series package consists of a stretchable screen material and a sturdy aluminum frame held together with screws.

The top and bottom rails of the frame come in two pieces to make the box size more manageable. Tiny tension rods slide into the screen material’s borders and loop around pegs in the frame to hold the material in place—a design that we found easier and less labor-intensive to put together than screens that snap into place.

Overall, assembling the screen took us about 30 minutes total, one of the quickest times for the screens we tested. Chris didn’t need help from anyone else to build or hang it, proof that it can be done solo. You probably won’t be caught cursing and sweating heavily while building it (something that cannot be said about every screen project).

In comparison, the Elite Screens Sable Frame 2 costs more for the same size and offers similar performance, but Chris ended up with bruised thumbs after spending almost three times as long to build it. The end result was similar, but getting there took more effort and time.

It looks well made. Once we hung the STR Series on the wall, it had no visible flex in the top or bottom rail, thanks in part to the stabilizing bar that runs vertically down the back of the frame. The rod-tension system keeps the screen taut and smooth, and the 2.38-inch-wide, black-velvet-wrapped frame looks classy. The black border also helps to provide a visual break from the surrounding wall and improve perceived contrast.

Considering the price of the Silver Ticket STR Series, which you can assemble yourself and hang in less than an hour, you have little reason to build your own screen instead. Building your own screen with blackout cloth, wood, and felt can easily cost $100—if you already own all the tools you need (staple gun, saw)—and you can’t take that screen apart later or move it easily. The small savings from building your own aren’t worth it, especially when the image quality is likely to be worse overall.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The Silver Ticket STR Series’s color is not perfectly neutral. The Goo Systems GooToob screen measured more neutral, as did our reference Stewart screen. But everything else we tested, including Chris’s personal $2,700 screen, had a color tint equal to or worse than what we saw on the STR Series. The tint this screen introduces is low enough that, with most projectors, it isn’t noticeable to the naked eye.

A retractable (aka pull-down) screen is a good choice if you’d rather not have a large, white screen hogging space on your wall when you aren’t watching anything—perhaps because you use the projector only on occasion, or you use it in an everyday-living space where the decor matters. All budget pull-down screens come with compromises, but the Elite Screens Manual Series is better than other low-priced models because it’s more color-neutral and has a slightly better build.

Compared with the Silver Ticket screen, this model’s material is even more color-neutral. Even when eyeballing the Manual Series next to our fixed-frame pick , the STR Series, we could see that the material on this screen had a warmer color profile, with less blue tint.

Our measurements confirmed that this ISF-certified screen came closer to our projector’s off-the-lens performance in color temperature, color saturation, and miscellaneous color comparisons than the Silver Ticket STR Series and the other two pull-down models we tested. The differences between the Elite Screens and Silver Ticket models were quite small; the differences between the Elite Screens model and the other pull-down screens were somewhat more pronounced.

All of the pull-down screens we measured performed similarly in preserving our projector’s brightness and contrast. In this respect, the Silver Ticket screen held a slight advantage over all of them—slight enough, however, that you likely couldn’t discern the difference with your eyes.

The Elite Screens Manual Series has a rated gain of 1.1. In our viewing tests, it had a wide viewing angle and did not exhibit any blatant issues with hot spots or sparkles.

This screen feels better-built than other affordable pull-down models. None of the pull-down screens we tested felt as well constructed as our fixed-frame choice. The screen material of such models feels more like thick paper, and based on owner reviews we’ve read, the quality of these screens seems to vary greatly between samples.

Obviously, on a pull-down model you don’t get the nice black-velvet borders found on the Silver Ticket STR Series, which you wouldn’t see when the screen is retracted anyhow. But the Elite Screens Manual Series does have about 1.5 inches of black border on the sides and 2 inches at the bottom. (One of the other pull-down models we tested had no black border around the sides or bottom at all.) This border gives you some leeway in positioning the image and helps improve perceived contrast.

There’s also black backing on the other side of the screen material to minimize light pass-through and help preserve projector brightness. Many super-cheap projector screens lack this extra layer.

We ordered all our test samples from Amazon, and the Manual Series was the only one that arrived with no dents in the metal casing. The metal seemed a bit stronger and heavier.

The screen material has a pretty tight weave. When you view it up close, you can see that it’s more textured than the stretchable material of the Silver Ticket screen. But the weave is smaller than the pixel structure in a 1080p projector, so it doesn’t introduce additional texture. From a standard viewing distance, we did not see distracting imperfections with a 4K projector, either.

The pull-down mechanism has controlled retraction, so when you give the handle a tug, the screen slowly rolls back up into the case—as opposed to some others, which whip back up.

It’s available in a lot of sizes. You can get the Manual Series in sizes from 80 to 150 inches in the 16:9 shape. You can order the metal case in black or white to suit your room, and you can order certain sizes in longer lengths to accommodate higher installations. In contrast, the other budget models we looked at were often limited in size options and came only with white casings.

The installation process was pretty much identical for all of the pull-down screens. All came with the needed wall screws and anchors, but not all of them came with installation instructions. The Elite Screens package was thorough in this respect.

This pull-down screen isn’t as taut as a fixed-frame screen. Because a pull-down screen like the Elite Screens Manual Series hangs freely and has to be flexible enough to roll up into a case—and generally remains rolled up a lot of the time—the material will never be as smooth and taut as that of a good fixed-frame model such as the Silver Ticket STR Series.

If a pull-down screen has major waves, the result will look like it has uneven brightness fluctuations when the projector shoots light at the screen. We saw some waves in all three of the pull-down screens we tested, but the Elite Screens model’s slightly thicker material looked a bit smoother than the others. On our sample, the side edges (which consist of black border) curved in slightly; this actually helped to smooth out the primary viewing area and wasn’t noticeable in a darker room. The waves we saw were not substantial enough to cause brightness fluctuations when we were watching video content. We mostly saw them in a bright room with the projector off—and that’s when the screen is likely to be retracted anyhow.

To get a smoother-looking retractable screen, you’d have to spend a lot more money on a screen with finer material and more advanced bracing techniques.

A pull-down screen is less precise in placement. It’s challenging to hit the exact same mark every time you manually pull down a screen, so you may have to adjust your projector’s image positioning for each viewing session. This can be especially challenging if your projector is wall- or ceiling-mounted and has fewer image-placement tools.

If you’re okay with a semi-DIY approach, and you’re confident that you won’t need to move the screen, Goo Systems’s GooToob kit delivered the best color accuracy of any screen material we tested.

Setup requires a lot of measuring, cutting, and adhesive. The GooToob package we ordered included a rolled sheet of substrate paper large enough to make a screen as big as 128 inches in a 16:9 format. Each kit also includes black border tape and the necessary adhesive to stick it all up on the wall.

If you want something smaller than 128 inches, or even a different aspect ratio, you can trim the screen material to a more appropriate size. The company recommends that you install your projector first and cast the exact image size and shape you want on the wall, after which you customize the GooToob screen to fit.

It was the most color-neutral screen we measured. The GooToob screen presented an almost flawless image, with practically no color shift, an even gain (0.95 as measured, very close to its 1.0 rating), and a pleasingly clean, smooth surface overall. It delivers performance that even the most critical viewer would be happy with.

The Goo Systems approach isn’t right for everyone. You can’t easily install the screen by yourself, and you must affix it to the wall—so if you move to another house or even change the location of your projector, you have to start over. And transferring it to a new wall is certainly not easy.

If the Silver Ticket STR Series is sold out: The Elite Screens Sable Frame 2 is a suitable fixed-frame replacement. It typically sells for a bit more money, and the assembly is harder, but the performance levels were very close in our measurements. The main difference lies in how the screens attach to the frames. In our experience, the STR Series came together much more easily, and although its material didn’t look as taut as that of the Sable Frame 2 during use, the difference was minor.

For our most recent round of testing, we focused on manual pull-down screens. Elite Screens is the only big-name screen manufacturer offering more-affordable pull-down models through major online channels. The next closest in affordability is Da-Lite with its Model C Series , which is still more than twice the price.

We pitted the Elite Screens Manual Series against two value-oriented 100-inch screens from Jwsit and Khomo , sold primarily through Amazon. You can find a ton of similar options on Amazon, so we focused on these top-rated screens. The two screen materials delivered similar results in our measurements: They weren’t quite as color-accurate as the Elite Screens model, but the errors weren’t egregious, and they both did a solid job of preserving the projector’s brightness and contrast.

However, their screen material wasn’t as firm as that of the Elite Screens Manual Series, so it didn’t hang as smoothly. Both screens are available in fewer sizes and only with white casings. The casings arrived with multiple dents from shipping; their metal seemed less sturdy.

The Khomo screen emitted a strong chemical odor and had no control mechanism to slow down the screen’s retraction. The Jwsit screen had no black border around the sides and bottom; this hurts perceived contrast and can make setup more challenging because you have to size the image perfectly to the screen.

In our original tests, we focused on fixed-frame screens. Chris’s testing notes are available in this document , and here’s a quick overview of his color measurements:

This article was edited by Grant Clauser.

Meet your guides

Adrienne Maxwell

Adrienne Maxwell is the supervising editor of Wirecutter's audio/video team, covering everything from headphones to TVs. She has been a writer, editor, and reviewer in the consumer electronics industry for 20 years, and previously served as the executive editor of Home Theater Magazine and the managing editor of HomeTheaterReview.com.

Chris Heinonen

Chris Heinonen is a former senior staff writer who covered TVs, projectors, video sources, and audio gear for Wirecutter.

Further reading

The Best Projectors

by Adrienne Maxwell

We reviewed every type of projector to find the best projector to fit your needs, whether it’s for a home theater or a home office.

The Best Budget Projector for a Home Theater

The BenQ HT2060 ’s good contrast, bright output, and impressive color accuracy make it our pick for the best budget home theater projector.

Is an Ultra-Short-Throw Projector a Good Substitute for a Big-Screen TV?

by Geoffrey Morrison

Ultra-short-throw projectors can deliver a big, bright image in your living room, but for most people a big-screen TV is a better choice.

The Best 4K Projector

The Epson LS11000 4K laser projector delivers a big, beautiful image, works well in a variety of lighting conditions, and has most of the features you need.

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What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

• Carmine Gallo

Five tips to set yourself apart.

Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).

I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.

• Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman  (St. Martin’s Press).

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The 15 Best Screencasting and Online Presentation Tools

April 18, 2017 by Tom Pick

Revised June 29, 2022 Revised September 1, 2021 Revised August 12, 2020

Screencasting tools are great for explaining how a software application works; demonstrating how to use it; or illustrating any online process. Combined with presentation tools, they’re also ideal for enhancing online meetings, as well as broadcasting and recording presentations.

Which tool is “best” depends upon your specific needs. Some are designed primarily for creating software demos and tutorial videos, while others offer more sophisticated functionality for developing graphically rich marketing content.

Whatever your objectives, here are 15 of the best tools for recording onscreen actions, editing the screen video, adding text and other graphical elements, converting among screen capture video formats, and sharing the final output with your target audience.

Screencasting Tools

1) CamStudio Google Review Count:  206

CamStudio can record screen and audio activity on your computer as AVI or SWF video files.  You can add screen captions to recordings, use custom cursors, and record your whole screen or just a portion of it.

Sample review:  “CamStudio is a free software solution for creating on screen tutorials and other types of screencasts. CamStudio allows you to generate optimized streaming Flash videos — SWF files — of your recordings.” — Web Marketing Today

Pricing:  free

Showcase reviews: Web Marketing Today

2) Screencast.com Google Review Count:  200

A screencast storage and sharing site. Upload and store high-quality screen capture video, share via link / widget / RSS feed, host in any format (Flash, WMV, Quicktime, etc.). Owned by TechSmith, works well with Jing and Camtasia (see below) as well as SnagIt .

Sample review:  “Screencast.com is a resource for sharing your tutorials and demonstrations once completed. A free account allows for 2 gigabytes of storage, and 2 gigabytes of monthly bandwidth transfer.” — Web Marketing Today

Pricing:  free or $10 per month

3) Jing Google Review Count:  196

Jing has been eliminated as a standalone product and absorbed in to TechSmit’s SnagIt screen capture tool .

4) Camtasia Google Review Count:  192

Record your screen actions or import camera footage then edit with the drag-and-drop video editor. Add titles, animations, music, animated backgrounds, icons, and transitions.

Sample review: “A really powerful and intuitive video screen capture platform that allows you to easily edit your videos to zoom in on certain areas of the screen, add annotation, callouts, and voice over, among other options.” — SnapApp

Pricing:  $199 per license; discounts for volume purchases

Showcase reviews: BuzzBlogger, RazorSocial (Online), SnappApp

5) ScreenFlow Google Review Count:  182

Sample review: “Screenflow (is a) powerful video editing tool…best for a Mac…When you record, you can easily add in an introduction slide at the start and the end, add in music, cut out clips, combine clips and much more.” — RazorSocial (Online)

Pricing:  $99

Showcase reviews: RazorSocial (Online), RazorSocial (Social)

6) Wink Google Review Count:  154

Wink is presentation creation software, primarily for creating tutorials on how to use software (like a tutor for desktop or web apps). You can capture screenshots, add explanations boxes, buttons, titles, etc., and generate a highly effective tutorial for your users. Exports in a variety of static graphic formats (e.g., BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG) but only Flash for motion video.

7) Screencast-O-Matic Google Review Count:  151

Record screen or webcam video up to 15 minutes long, and with the Pro version, edit video, draw and zoon, and publish to Google Drive, Vimeo, and/or Dropbox.

Pricing:  free or $15 per year

8) Ezvid Google Review Count:  135

Free screen recorder software to capture, edit, and share on-screen action video.

9) Webinaria Google Review Count:  121

A tool to record software demonstrations and how-to tutorials, publish in Flash, and share and receive ratings. Add narration, save and edit recordings, and optionally add text.

10) Freeseer Google Review Count:  80

A free, open source, cross-platform application that captures or streams your desktop. Though originally designed for capturing presentations, it can also be used to capture demos, training materials, lectures, and other videos. It’s most useful for presenters at events, conference staff (for recording presenters), and instructors.

11) RecordIt Google Review Count:  62

Simple, downloadable, screencast recording tool. Record all of the action on your entire desktop or select just a specific area of your screen for recording.

Sample review: “Make your content stand out with animated screencasts. Record quick videos with Recordit and then turn them into animated gifs that you can put in your blog post. It’s a great way to make your article stand out from the rest. These also work well on Google Plus.” — BuzzBlogger

Pricing:  free or $29 one-time

Showcase reviews: BuzzBlogger, HubSpot (Animated)

12) whatfix Google Review Count:  17

Create interactive guides for training programs to get employees or users up to speed more quickly on software workflow processes. Design your guide, insert pop-ups and instructions, and measure effectiveness with analytics.

Sample review: “WhatFix lets you create quick flows showing steps users should take. You can embed the widget on your web page or send your users to the “live” version of the link that will play all the steps on your actual web page…the process is so easy. Just click the links on your page and type in the instructions for each link. The extension will record everything and immediately put together a widget for you.” — HubSpot (Animated)

Pricing:  contact vendor for pricing

Showcase reviews:  HubSpot (Animated)

Presentation and Screen Sharing Tools

1) Prezi Google Review Count:  243

Deliver dynamic, engaging virtual presentations with Prezi Video by showing you and your content together on screen in live video conferences and recorded video. Start from an existing Prezi Present or PowerPoint presentation and interact with your content as if you were presenting in person. Easily create and add your own custom charts, images, infographics, and more with Prezi Design.

Sample review: “Prezi has become very popular as a way to visually enhance your presentations and make them more dynamic. While it can take some planning and creativity to create a truly effective Prezi presentation, this could be a great tool for re-purposing existing presentations into something more interesting.” — Online Marketing Institute

Pricing:  individual version at $5/$13/$20 per month; business team version starting at $2,400

Showcase reviews: Online Marketing Institute

2) join.me Google Review Count:  194

Host meetings, share your screen, conduct webinars. join.me lets you present an interactive whiteboard, and integrates with popular tools for scheduling, productivity, sales and CRM.

Pricing:  free, $20 or $25 per user per month

Showcase reviews:  Johnny Lists, Siasat

3) Haiku Deck Google Review Count:  184

Create presentations on the web, iPad or iPhone. Choose from a large collection of predesigned templates, photos, fonts, and image filters.

Sample review: “If you’ve ever had to create a PowerPoint or SlideShare presentation in a pinch, you’ll wish you knew about Haiku Deck. This tool helps you quickly find simple layouts, beautiful images, and great fonts.” — HubSpot (Content)

Pricing:  $10 or $30 per month for individuals; $500 per year for teams

Showcase reviews: HubSpot (Content), Kathryn Aragon Media, Quick Sprout

AnyMeeting Google Review Count:  208

A full-featured platform for hosting conferences of two to 30 people or webinars of 30 to 2,000 attendees. Functions include HD video broadcasting, video and screen sharing, slides, event registration, surveys, and recording. The company was acquired by Internmedia in September 2017.

Pricing:  four levels from $78 to $298 per month

Xtensio Google Review Count: 136

Pricing: free; $15/$25 per month; enterprise pricing by quote

VideoSolo Google Review Count: 123

A suite of tools for converting video and audio files between different formats; capturing PC screen activities as video; converting DVD and Blu-ray discs to digital video files; cloning DVD discs; and burning DVDs from digital video files. All programs are available in free trial versions, so you can try them out before buying.

Pricing: tools pricing individually or bundled from $25 to $97

Digideck Google Review Count: 94

A cloud-based presentation platform that enables users to easily add rich multimedia such as video, motion graphics, animated GIFs and high resolution images to increase engagement, while enforcing brand design standards. For sales presentations, it alerts sellers the minute a prospect opens their sales presentation or proposal and can choose to engage in a chat, video conference, or co-browsing experience with them within minutes.

Pricing: contact vendor

My Screen Recorder Pro Google Review Count:  87

Pricing:  $130 (one-time purchase)

StoryXpress Google Review Count: 42

Pricing: free; $8/$15/$45 per user per month

CloudApp Google Review Count: 40

Screen recording software that lets you record your screen as a video with your face and voice; capture and annotate a screen shot image; or record a GIF to instantly share. Add a human touch to your digital content by adding your face and voice to screen recordings. Create a video with your webcam to make any communication more personal. Easily upload and share large files.

Pricing: free; $10/month (individual); $8/user/month (teams); enterprise pricing by quote

RecordCast Google Review Count: 24

A free online screen recorder and video editor, with no watermarking and nothing to download. Capture your whole screen, an application window, or any browser tab. Record on-screen actions with audio. The built-in video editor lets you add titles, annotations, effects, and more.

Pricing: free

Simple Slides Google Review Count: 7

Get access to a large library of professionally designed infographics and slides, thousands of icons, plus world-class training. Slides and templates are optimized for use with PowerPoint, Google Slides, and Keynote, enabling you to quickly create professional-looking presentation decks. Templates and infographics can be easily edited to fit your brand and presentation.

Pricing: $15/$30/$40 per month

Fatcap Google Review Count: N/A

A mobile-native app (iOS and Android) that enables users to create visual slide decks in minutes. Presentations can be viewed on desktops or mobile devices and easily shared. Fatcap integrates with Slack and Dropbox, and can save presentations to PDF files.

Showcase Reviews

BuzzBlogger HubSpot (Animated) HubSpot (Content) Johnny Lists Kathryn Aragon Media Online Marketing Institute Quick Sprout RazorSocial (Online) RazorSocial (Social) Siasat SnapApp Web Marketing Today

This was the 41st post in the Best Online Business Tools series.

#1: Best Online Business Tools Series Kicks Off Today #2: The 12 Best Competitive Intelligence and Benchmarking Tools #3: The Nine Best Facebook Marketing Tools #4: The 14 Best Content Planning and Research Tools #5: The 23 Best Content Ideation Tools #6: The 24 Best Online Writing Tools and Apps #7: The Six Best Google+ Marketing Tools #8: The Four Best Online Education Tools For Business Pros #9: The 14 Best Marketing Automation Tools #10: The 17 Best Keyword Research Tools for SEO and SEM #11: The Seven Best File Sharing Tools #12:  The Five Best Infographic Creation Tools and Services #13: The 28 Best Influencer Marketing Tools #14: The Five Best Pinterest and Instagram Marketing Tools #15: The 24 Best Visual Content Creation Tools #16:  The Six Best Online HR, Payroll, and Employee Scheduling Tools #17: The 20 Best SEO Rank Tracker Tools #18: The Six Best Screen Capture Tools #19: The 15 Best Special-Purpose SEO Tools #20: The Four Best Online Survey Tools #21: The 26 Best All-in-One SEO Tool Suites #22: The 32 Best Twitter Marketing Tools #23: The 29 Best Web Analytics Tools #24: The 24 Best Email Marketing Tools #25: The 28 Best Web Design Tools #26: The 29 Best Social Media Monitoring Tools #27: The 17 Best Project Management Tools #28: The 21 Best Content Curation Tools #29: The 26 Best WordPress Plugins #30: The 14 Best Personal Productivity Tools #31: The 11 Best Social Media Campaign Builders and Ad Monitoring Tools #32: The 12 Best Landing Page and Form Builders for Conversion Rate Optimization #33: The 17 Best Photo Editing Tools #34: The Six Best Accounting and Finance Tools for Small Business #35: The 15 Best Content Distribution and Amplification Tools #36: The 17 Best Social Media Management Tools #37: The 23 Best Google Chrome Extensions for Digital Marketers #38: The 15 Best Audio and Video Editing Tools #39: The Eight Best Social CRM Tools #40: The Nine Best Reputation Management, RSS, and Social Search Tools #41: The 15 Best Screencasting and Online Presentation Tools

April 18, 2017 at 5:57 am

Just after downloading camstudio i captured one small video and it worked but in the next attempt the file was crashed and did not worked

April 18, 2017 at 7:49 am

Yikes, that’s not good! Sorry to hear that. Did you contact the vendor?

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RS Recommends: The Best Office Projectors for Presentations

By Joshua Kanter

Joshua Kanter

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.

Not all projectors can work in any situation. Finding the right one that’ll make your presentations pop and keep your audience engaged takes a bit of research. A good projector unit is going to be an investment, but a worthwhile one if giving presentations is a major part of your job. Plus, when work is done, these can just as easily double as a makeshift home movie theater, creating an instant big screen on any blank wall (or ceiling) in the house.

Office Projector Buying Guide

Here are a few things we recommend looking into before purchasing an office projector for presentations.

Portability: If you’ll be taking this to and from the office, or on the road, a heavy and bulky projector won’t work. Instead, there are plenty of lighter, smaller options that are still powerful enough to get your image up clearly for everyone to see, then pack it up afterwards.

Screen Size:  The main benefit to having a projector is an instant boost to a bigger screen for all to see, and these can get seriously large, stretching all the way up to 300 inches. For a typical office presentation, or even home movie night, it’s unlikely you’ll need that size. And in order to get it, the projector unit needs to be far, far back. If your conference room is large enough, a “long-throw” projector might be fine. But if it’s a small space, a “short-throw” model is an option too, allowing you to be mere centimeters from the wall and still see the big picture. You can also often move the picture without moving the projector with a horizontal and vertical lens shift option.

Audio:  If your presentation will need sound with it, such as a video or accompanying song, having some good built-in speakers can take it up a notch. Lower-grade speakers can sound tinny and garbled, distracting from the main focus of the visuals you’re trying to present. If your office already has a sound system, a simple audio-out jack or HDMI cable can carry the sound as well, so you can bypass the projector speakers and go straight for the big ones.

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Resolution:   This determines the clarity, and 720p is around the lowest we’d recommend going. Small projectors often don’t have the power of their bigger counterparts, which can result in a dimmer, duller picture. A projector’s brightness is determined in lumens, and the brighter a room, the more lumens you’re going to need. Over 2500lm is a safe bet for a room with average lighting, and lower for darker rooms at about 1200lm and under. When portability is the biggest factor, there are still some lightweight ones that display an impressive picture quality too (we’ve selected our favorite below).

Fans: Nothing distracts from an otherwise perfect presentation like a whirring and loud fan inside the projector unit. This can get annoying and is absolutely worth checking how noisy it gets before buying. But a fan does still serve an important purpose, and having a projector overheat mid-presentation is a real possibility too. A recommended range of temp is a projector that can be comfortable between -41 to 104°F (5 – 40°C).

Ports: Connecting a laptop, or a smartphone and tablet, is easy and can often even be done wirelessly. HDMI is a must, and if possible, having two of them is a big help. Same goes for a USB port for things like flash drives, and a microSD card slot. Make sure you won’t need a separate additional dongle or converter in order to hook up your desired device.

Home Use: It makes sense to get the most use out of a projector, both at the office and when you get home. Movies and games are usually a snap to set up, but take note of your space first. If you don’t have a clear wall, some models let you project over curved surfaces along with other ways to play with how the screen folds and contorts to match the surface.

What Are the Best Projectors for Presentations?

We picked the top projectors worth your money, from brands including Kodak, Epson and more.

1. Epson Pro EX10000 3-Chip 3LCD Laser Projector

Epson is a trusted brand when it comes to business equipment, and the Pro EX10000 is a beast of a projector that’s packed with practical options and awesome features.

Its laser-light sourced projection can project an image up to 300 inches, creating a theater effect in any conference room, even when the lights are on.

Inside, Epson’s 3LCD laser tech is able to crank out 4500 lumens of brightness, in full HD 1920 x 1080p resolution. Outside, manual focus and zoom knobs let you adjust them fast without digging deep into a digital menu. There are many ports, with two HDMIs, RCA, USB-A, USB-C, audio outs, and even a LAN.

The picture quality, brightness, and color pops, and things like automatic keystone correction save you time and the awkwardness of fumbling around in front of an audience trying to get the screen right.

Buy Epson Pro EX10000 3-Chip 3LCD Laser… $1,613.00

2. ViewSonic (PX748-4K) 4K UHD Projector

The PX748 can stretch a screen up to 300 inches and still be colorful and bright, with 4000ANSI lumens and 4K UHD resolution.

Connecting up most devices is easy, as this has two HDMI ports, as well as a USB. Lag is kept to a low on activities like gaming, with a 240Hz refresh rate, while the speakers are audible and clear. Anti-warping stabilization and keystone adjusting means you can set up the screen pretty much anywhere — even on curves.

You won’t be spending lots of money on replacement bulbs either — thanks to its reduced power consumption and SuperEco mode, this can handle 20,000 hours, or up to 10 years with average usage.

Buy ViewSonic (PX748-4K) 4K UHD Projector $899.99

3. KODAK Luma 150 Ultra Mini Pocket Pico Projector

For traveling light, this Kodak is by far the lightest of the bunch at just one pound.

But small doesn’t have to mean sacrificing convenience and quality. This unit still boasts a 1080p resolution, 3,000 hours of use, and 16.7 million colors. Connection is quick via a microUSB or HDMI cable, and the built-in 1.5W speaker is loud enough for everyone at the conference table to hear.

Buy KODAK Luma 150 Ultra Mini Pocket Pico… $219.99

4. DBPOWER Native 1080P WiFi Projector

This 1080p HD projector has a brightness of up to 9500 lumens and connects up through a USB, VGA, HDMI, AV or even wireless screen mirroring over WiFi. The lens has multi-coated layers of glass that improve picture quality, and the dual 5W stereo speakers are enough that everyone in a small to mid-size room can hear clearly.

It’s also light enough to be carried around, at just over 7 pounds, and has an advanced dual fan cooling system to prevent overheating at inopportune times.

Buy DBPOWER Native 1080P WiFi Projector $149.98

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The Best Projectors (and 2 Great Screens)

If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more . Please also consider subscribing to WIRED

Best for Most Optoma UHD55 Read more

Also Great BenQ TK860i Read more

Easiest Setup Hisense PX1-Pro Read more

High-End Pick Epson LS12000 Read more

There's nothing like watching your favorite films in a dark room on a massive screen. For that authentic movie theater experience at home, you’ll need a projector (and a popcorn maker ).

You used to have to shell out more than $10,000 to get an excellent projected experience, but you can now get a massive, beautiful picture for less than the cost of a flagship TV . Projectors are also much more portable and easier to set up than ever. And if you have space, there are excellent pocket-sized and short-throw models that make lawn-side movie nights as easy as finding an extension cord and a level chair to set them on. Below are our favorite models and a couple of screens to pair with them.

Working on a total home-theater overhaul and need some help? We've got an entire guide to How to Set Up a Projector . Also, be sure to check out our buying guides to the Best Soundbars and Best 4K Streaming Devices .

Updated September 2023: We added the Optoma UHD55, BenQ TK860i, and BenQ W4000i.

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Best for Most

The previous Optoma model, the UHD50X ( 9/10, WIRED Recommends ), offered one of the best pictures you'll find at a reasonable price, and the newer UHD55 keeps with that tradition. At 3,600 lumens, this projector is now bright enough for even lit rooms, and the image quality and ease of setup are directly comparable to the BenQ model that follows it on this list.

Plug in a gaming computer with a good enough video card and it will offer a 240-Hz refresh rate and low enough response time that you can play most online games. The high refresh rate also makes the UHD55 great for sports, which often look weird on projectors. I also like that this model supports Alexa, so you can literally ask your phone to turn the projector on.

If you want an upgrade, check out the UHZ50 ($2,800) , which uses laser projection, which makes it faster to turn on and off, and quieter for smaller rooms.

The latest bright-room projector from BenQ is another solid option for most people. With 3,300 lumens, the TK860i is more than bright enough for lit rooms, and it makes the thing positively gleam in the dark. This projector also comes with Android TV, which makes it easy to stream your favorite shows and movies instantly, no other streaming device is required.

It's light and easy to position. The projector can be placed between 9.9 and 12.8 feet from the wall, with up to 120-inch screen size. The Optoma above gets a bit brighter, but this has a bit better color and is still an excellent projector for most people. My advice? Go with whichever is cheaper at the moment.

Easiest Setup

Most traditional projectors require a significant distance between the device and the screen you want your image on, but not this laser projector. This all-in-one device ( 8/10, WIRED Recommends ) sits right on a traditional TV stand and projects an image upward onto an up-to-130-inch screen. It comes with a Dolby Atmos soundbar built in, which means you don’t even need to splurge for better sound until you really want to. Best of all, the setup couldn’t be easier, with a built-in Android TV interface and laser projection system that will be projecting your favorite shows and movies in no time.

High-End Pick

Epson's flagship 4K projectors have always been some of the best that money can buy. It feels like every generation builds in more value. It's hard to perceive value when it comes to a $5,000 projector, but this thing looks like a $20,000 (or more!) projector would have 10 years ago.

This three-chip laser projector is capable of 2,700 peak lumens for a bright picture in even moderately lit rooms, and it's so precise with color that it can do full 10-bit high dynamic range. It's also decent for gaming and watching sports, thanks to a 120-Hz refresh rate. If you have a theater room and need a new projector, this is a solid option.

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Best for Gamers

Our top pick is good for most casual gamers, but if you demand an even shorter lag time, the UHD38x from the same company is your best bet. Projectors have always had slower input response times (the time it takes your motion on a gamepad to react onscreen) than regular TVs, but the UHD38x fixes this with a superfast 240-Hz refresh rate at full HD resolution. That lowers the input latency to a mere 4.2 milliseconds, compared with 16 on the UHD55X—more than good enough for all but the most competitive gamers.

When you're not using it to play Tears of the Kingdom on an up-to-300-inch screen, you can watch all your favorite films and TV shows in 4K. At 4,000 lumens, it's also bright enough for medium-lit rooms. The one thing I don't like about it? You can't shift the lens inside if you want to reposition it, so you'll want to make sure you have a proper mounting solution planned before you pull the trigger.

Best Under $3,000

This bright 4K projector from BenQ has two names: It's called the W4000i in the rest of the world, the HD4550i in the United States. Regardless of the model number, it looks and acts the same, with the best picture quality I've seen this side of three thousand bucks.

This projector meets 100 percent of DCI-P3 and Rec. 709 color standards (read: colors look bright but not washed out), and the black levels are also pretty awesome for a projector. I also like that this model comes with an Android TV system, which allows you to easily stream your favorite shows and movies in no time. With 3,200 lumens it's bright enough for even lit rooms, with 4 LEDs rated at 20,000 hours of viewing time before you'll need to think about replacement. Another benefit to spending a bit extra? It does a 240-Hz refresh rate at 1080p, which means this projector is shockingly adept at gaming and sports.

The Smartest Projector

This gorgeous 4K laser projector from LG ( 8/10, WIRED Recommends ) is also beautiful to look at when media is playing, and it's just about the easiest to use when it comes to finding stuff to play. It has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and LG’s TV operating system built in, including the awesome Wiimote-like LG Smart Remote. That means you can access everything from Netflix to Apple Airplay casting.

It’s a bit cumbersome to mount (you’ll want two people), but once you do, vertical and horizontal adjustments for the lens make lining it up with your screen a breeze. It even has HDMI eARC, which makes it easy to connect to soundbars and other modern receivers. The projector’s remote can control them.

A Portable Smart Projector

If you have Wi-Fi in your back yard, this portable little model from LG is a great way to have movie night. It has a built-in smart TV interface that features all the biggest apps, and the onboard speakers are loud enough for a small gathering (though you might want to consider speakers or a soundbar if you're playing for more than a few.

I like how easy it is to set up and get things streaming on this model, which easily focused in seconds using the slider on the top of the device. The screen size gets up there, too, with this little thing capable of 450 lumens (you'll want it to be night to watch outside) and up to a 120-inch screen. It's full HD (1080p), and though it will go that big, I found this model best for a normal-to-large TV-sized screen (about 80 inches in diameter). Be aware: It wavers in an out of stock on Amazon but can be found elsewhere regularly.

Best for Phones

The CineBeam PH30N is a blast. It has two hours of battery life, so you can watch a short movie anywhere (plug it in for longer sessions), and you can even stream things straight from your cell phone—no cables required. With 720p resolution and up to a 100-inch image size all from a projector that fits easily in a purse, you'll be watching Netflix in the woods in no time. Just wait until it's dark, because portable projectors aren't nearly as bright as their beefier, cabled counterparts.

Best Indoor Screen

If you're gonna splurge on a projector, you should snag a screen to go with it. You'll get better colors, sharper highlights, and have a more cinematic experience overall. My favorite is this Silver Ticket model, which looks as good as screens that cost much more. It's also super easy to mount.

Best Outdoor Screen

Outdoor movie nights shouldn't rely on an old white sheet or the scruffed-up wall of your garage. Instead, grab the Yardmaster 2 from Elite Screens, which assembles in minutes and comes with a carrying case for storage between events. Don't want two screens in your life? Do what I did and just move it inside during the cooler months.

Tips and Tricks

Projectors offer larger screen sizes and a more cinematic viewing experience than their TV counterparts, but that doesn't mean they're easier to set up. That's why we have an entire guide to How to Buy a Projector to check out!

Unless you're going for a portable option, you'll want to make sure you have a projector mount ($24) and audio cables properly routed to the location of your projector. This is because setting up full-size projectors to fit your screen, be in focus, etc., can be a pain, so once you get everything dialed in, you'll want to leave it as-is.

Make sure you get enough lumens (how bright your projector will get at its peak, the higher the number the better). Over 2,000 lumens is a good starting space for any kind of lit viewing, but we recommend 3000 or above if you're viewing in a bright room.

Another thing to bear in mind before you get a projector is just how much space you'll need to properly set it up. In most cases, you'll need 10 to 15 feet between the screen and the projector (be sure to check the “throw distance” listed by the manufacturer in the manual) to achieve screen sizes over 100 inches.

Without a completely dark room, the image can look washed out and be hard to see. If you don't have a room without windows, consider getting blackout curtains. For more detailed information on how to set up a projector after it arrives, I highly recommend this video .

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The best presentation software in 2024

These powerpoint alternatives go beyond the basics..

The latest presentation apps have made it easier than ever to format slides and create professional-looking slideshows without giving off a "this is a template" vibe. Even standard PowerPoint alternatives have updated key features to make it easier than ever to collaborate and create presentations quickly, so you can spend more time prepping for your actual presentation.

If, like me, you've used Google Slides unquestioningly for years, it's a whole new world out there. The newest crop of online presentation tools go way beyond the classic slideshow experience, with new features to keep your audience's attention, streamline the creation process with AI, and turn slide decks into videos and interactive conversations.

I've been testing these apps for the past few years, and this time, I spent several days tinkering with 25 of the top presentation software solutions out there to bring you the best of the best.

The best presentation software

Beautiful.ai for AI-powered design

Prezi for non-linear, conversational presentations

Powtoon for video presentations

Pitch for collaborating with your team on presentations

Gamma for conversational AI features

Mentimeter for audience engagement

Tome for generative AI features

What makes the best presentation app?

How we evaluate and test apps.

Our best apps roundups are written by humans who've spent much of their careers using, testing, and writing about software. Unless explicitly stated, we spend dozens of hours researching and testing apps, using each app as it's intended to be used and evaluating it against the criteria we set for the category. We're never paid for placement in our articles from any app or for links to any site—we value the trust readers put in us to offer authentic evaluations of the categories and apps we review. For more details on our process, read the full rundown of how we select apps to feature on the Zapier blog .

When looking for the best presentation apps, I wanted utility players. After all, slideshows are used for just about everything, from pitch decks and product launches to class lectures and church sermons. With that in mind, here's what I was looking for:

Pre-built templates. The best presentation tools should have attractive, professional-looking templates to build presentations in a hurry.

Sharing and collaboration options. Whether you plan to share your webinar slides later, or you just want to collaborate with a coworker on a presentation, it should be easy to share files and collaborate in real-time.

Flexibility and customization options. Templates are great, but top presentation apps should enable you to customize just about everything—giving you the flexibility to build exactly what you need.

Affordability. Creating compelling presentations is important, but you shouldn't have to bust your budget to make it happen. With capable free tools on the market, affordability is a top consideration.

Standalone functionality. There's no reason to use multiple tools when one can do it all, so I didn't test any apps that require and work on top of another presentation app like PowerPoint or Google Slides.

Familiar, deck-based interface. For our purposes here, I only tested software that uses slides, with the familiar deck-based editor you expect from a "presentation" tool (versus, for example, a video creation app).

While most apps now offer AI features in one way or another, it isn't a universal feature yet—and some apps' AI features leave a lot to be desired. For that reason, I opted not to make AI features a strict must-have for this year (though it probably will be a requirement next time I update the article). That means I've still included some apps that don't offer AI—if you opt for one of those, you can still easily get AI-generated images and text from a separate tool and copy them into your presentation app of choice.

Beyond that, I also looked for presentation apps that brought something unique to the table—features above and beyond what you can get for free from a legacy solution like PowerPoint or Google Slides.

Here's what my testing workflow looked like:

I went through any onboarding or guided tutorials.

I created a new deck, scanning through all available templates, noting how well-designed they were (and which were free versus paid).

I added new slides, deleted slides, edited text and images, and played around with other content types.

I changed presentation design settings, like color schemes and background images.

I reviewed and tested the sharing and collaboration options.

I tested out presenter view (when available).

After my first round of testing, I went back into the top performers to test any unique or niche features, like AI, brand settings, and interactive content. With that, these are the best presentation apps I found—each one really brings something different or radically easy to the table.

The best presentation software at a glance

The best free presentation software, canva (web, windows, mac, android, ios).

Canva pros:

Excellent free plan

Tons of amazing templates for all use cases

Feature-rich

Canva cons:

The AI tools aren't groundbreakingly useful

Canva offers one of the most robust free plans of all the presentation apps I tested. The app delays account creation until after you've created your first design, so you can get started building your presentation in seconds. Choose from an almost overwhelming number of beautiful templates (nearly all available for free), including those designed specifically for education or business use cases.

Anyone who's accidentally scrolled too far and been bumped to the next slide will appreciate Canva's editor interface, which eliminates that problem altogether with a smooth scroll that doesn't jump around. Choose from a handful of preset animations to add life to your presentations, or browse the library of audio and video files available to add. And Canva also has a number of options for sharing your presentation, including adding collaborators to your team, sharing directly to social media, and even via QR code.

Present directly from Canva, and let audience members submit their questions via Canva Live. Once you share a link to invite audience members to your presentation, they can send questions for you to answer. As the presenter, you'll see them pop up in your presenter view window, so you can keep the audience engaged and your presentation clear. Alternatively, record a presentation with a talking head bubble—you can even use an AI presenter here—to share remotely.

Canva has added a number of AI-powered tools , but I wasn't super impressed by them yet. The Magic Design tool, for example, isn't much more useful than the many pre-designed templates already available, while Magic Write is basically just white-labeled ChatGPT. These features will likely improve in time, but for now, you're better off starting from one of Canva's many great templates.

Canva pricing: Free plan available; paid plans start at $120/year for 1 user and include additional features like Brand Kit, premium templates and stock assets, and additional AI-powered design tools.

If you're looking for a capable free presentation tool with a more affordable upgrade, Zoho Show is worth a look. It's completely free for most features, offers a clean, intuitive editor, and includes a number of great templates. Plus, you can automate Zoho Show by connecting it with Zapier .

The best presentation app for AI-powered design

Beautiful.ai (web, mac, windows).

Beautiful.ai pros:

True AI design

No fussing around with alignment

Still allows for customization

Beautiful.ai cons:

No free plan

If you're like me, editing granular spacing issues is the absolute worst part of building a presentation. Beautiful.ai uses artificial intelligence to take a lot of the hassle and granular design requirements out of the presentation process, so you can focus on the content of a presentation without sacrificing professional design. If I needed to make presentations on a regular basis, this is the app I'd use.

Many apps have recently added AI design features, but Beautiful.ai has been doing it for years—and they've perfected the experience of AI design, ensuring the tool's reign as the most streamlined and user-friendly option for AI design.

The editor is a little different from most presentation apps, but it's still intuitive—and you'll start off with a quick two-minute tutorial. When creating a new slide, scroll through "inspiration slides" to find a layout you like; once you choose, the app will pull the layout and automatically adapt it to match the design of the rest of your presentation.

With 10 themes, several templated slides, over 40 fully-designed templates, and more than 20 different color palettes to choose from, Beautiful.ai strikes a perfect balance between automation and customization.

While Beautiful.ai doesn't offer a free plan, paid plans are reasonably priced and offer sharing and collaboration options that rival collab-focused apps like Google Slides. And speaking of Google, you can connect Beautiful.ai with Google Drive to save all your presentations there.

Note: I re-tested the generative AI feature (called DesignerBot) this year. It's great for adding individual slides to an existing presentation—automatically choosing the best layout and matching the design to the rest of the deck—but as with most other apps, it struggled to pull in relevant images.

Beautiful.ai pricing: Plans start at $12/month for unlimited slides, AI content generation, viewer analytics, and more. Upgrade to a Team plan for $40/user/month to get extra collaboration and workspace features and custom brand controls.

If you're a founder looking for an AI presentation tool for your pitch deck, Slidebean is a great Beautiful.ai alternative for startups. The app offers a number of templates; a unique, content-first outline editor; and a generative AI tool that builds a whole pitch deck based on your website. I didn't include it on the list mainly because of the price: the free plan is quite limited, and the paid all-access plan can only be billed annually.

The best presentation app for conversational presentations

Prezi (web, mac, windows, ios, android).

Prezi pros:

Doesn't restrict you to standard presentation structure

Lots of customization options

Prezi Video lets you display a presentation right over your webcam video

Prezi cons:

Steep learning curve

Struggling to squeeze information into a basic, linear presentation? Give Prezi a try. Unlike nearly all other presentation apps on the market, Prezi Present doesn't restrict the structure of your presentation to a straight line. The editor focuses on topics and subtopics and allows you to arrange them any way you want, so you can create a more conversational flow of information.

With the structural flexibility, you still get all the same customization features you expect from top presentation software, including fully-editable templates. There's a learning curve if you're unfamiliar with non-linear presentations, but templates offer a great jumping-off point, and Prezi's editor does a good job of making the process more approachable.

Plus, Prezi comes with two other apps: Prezi Design and Prezi Video. Prezi Video helps you take remote presentations to a new level. You can record a video where the presentation elements are displayed right over your webcam feed. Record and save the video to share later, or connect with your video conferencing tool of choice (including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet) to present live.

Prezi's generative AI feature works ok, but it's more useful as a wireframe. When I asked it to create a presentation about the Stanley Cup Playoffs, for example, the resulting content read a lot like a student writing a term paper in the broadest strokes possible to avoid doing any actual research.

Prezi pricing: Free 14-day trial and a free plan that includes up to 5 visual projects; paid plans start at $7/month and include additional features like private presentations and Prezi Present.

The best presentation app for video presentations

Powtoon (web, ios, android).

Powtoon pros:

Timing automatically changes based on the content on the slide

Can toggle between slideshow and video

Can orient presentation as horizontal, vertical, or square

Powtoon cons:

Limited free plan

Powtoon makes it easy to create engaging videos by orienting the editor around a slide deck. Editing a Powtoon feels just like editing a presentation, but by the time you finish, you have a professional video. 

You can edit your slides at any time, and when you hit play, a video plays through your deck—the feel is almost like an animated explainer video. Each slide includes the animations you choose and takes up as much time as is needed based on the content on the slide. Powtoon figures the timing automatically, and you can see in the bottom-right of the editor how much time is used on your current slide versus the total presentation. If you ever want to present as a slide deck, just toggle between Slideshow and Movie.

You'll likely need to subscribe to a paid plan to get the most out of Powtoon—like creating videos longer than three minutes, downloading them as MP4 files, and white-labeling your presentations—but doing so won't break the bank. Plus, you'll unlock tons of templates complete with animations and soundtracks.

One of my favorite Powtoon features is the ability to orient your video: you can choose horizontal orientation (like a normal presentation) or opt for vertical (for mobile) or square (for social media). When your presentation is ready, you can publish straight to YouTube, Wistia, Facebook Ads, and any number of other locations.

Powtoon pricing: Limited free plan available; paid plans start at $15/month and include white-labeling, priority support, additional storage, and more.

The best presentation app for collaborating with your team

Pitch (web, mac, windows, ios, android).

Pitch pros:

Google levels of collaboration

Assign slides to specific team members

Excellent generative AI feature

Pitch cons:

User interface is a little different than you're used to

Need to collaborate on presentations with your team? Pitch is a Google Slides alternative that gets the job done. As far as decks go, Pitch includes all the beautifully-designed templates, customizability, and ease of use you expect from a top-notch presentation tool. But the app really shines when you add your team.

The right-hand sidebar is all about project management and collaboration: you can set and update the status of your deck, assign entire presentations or individual slides to team members, plus comment or add notes. Save custom templates to make future presentations even easier and faster.

You can also invite collaborators from outside your company to work with you on individual decks. And if you opt for a paid plan, Pitch introduces workspace roles, shared private folders, and version history.

Pitch also offers one of the most impressive generative AI features on this list. It still struggles to pull in relevant images, but I found the AI-generated written content and design to be top-notch.

Pitch pricing: Free plan offers unlimited presentations, custom templates, and live video collaboration; paid plans start at $22/month for 2 users with additional workspace features, presentation analytics, and more.

The best presentation app for conversational AI

Gamma (web).

Gamma pros:

Creates fully fleshed-out presentations from a prompt

Conversational chatbot-like experience

Can still manually edit the presentation

Gamma cons:

Not as much granular customization

I tested a lot of apps claiming to use AI to up your presentation game, and Gamma's conversational AI features were head and shoulders above the crowd.

Simply give the app a topic—or upload an outline, notes, or any other document or article—approve the outline, and pick a theme. The app will take it from there and create a fully fleshed-out presentation. It's far from perfect, but Gamma produces a very useful jumping-off point. (Last year, it was by far the best, but this year, other apps are catching up.)

Here's the key: Gamma is much more geared toward the iterative, chatbot experience familiar to ChatGPT users. Click on the Edit with AI button at the top of the right-hand menu to open the chat, and you'll see suggested prompts—or you can type in your own requests for how Gamma should alter the presentation.

Once you've done all you can with prompts, simply close the chat box to manually add the finishing touches. While you do sacrifice some granular customizability in exchange for the AI features, you can still choose your visual theme, change slide layouts, format text, and add any images, videos, or even app and web content.

Gamma pricing: Free plan includes unlimited users, 400 AI deck credits, and basic view analytics; upgrade to the Plus plan for $8/user/month to get unlimited AI credits, remove Gamma branding, and more.

The best presentation app for audience engagement

Mentimeter (web).

Mentimeter pros:

Tons of audience engagement features

Simple for participants to interact

Mentimeter cons:

Less granular customizability

Bit of a learning curve

If you need to engage with an audience during your presentation, Mentimeter makes that easy. The app is designed around interactive elements like quizzes, surveys, Q&As, sliders, and more (even a Miro whiteboard!).

Each of these is included in a number of different, professional-looking templates, so you can build a fully interactive presentation super quickly.

When it's time to present, your audience members can scan the QR code with their phone cameras or type in the URL and access code to participate. There's one code per presentation (so they won't have to do this on every slide), which gives access to each slide as you move through the presentation.

There are two main drawbacks to this one, though. First, there's a bit of a learning curve and less familiar editing interface (but I found it pretty easy to learn with some practice). The other drawback is that you can't get as granular with the visual customization as you can with many other presentation tools.

Mentimeter pricing: Free plan includes 50 participants per month and 34 different slide types; upgrade to the Basic plan for $11.99/presenter/month to get unlimited participants and slide types, private presentations, and more.

The best presentation app for generative AI

Top-tier generative AI features

Simple, customizable templates

Intuitive doc-style editor

There's definitely a learning curve

Tome is one of the new additions to this list that I'm most excited about. If you're looking for generative AI that just genuinely works , it's definitely worth a look. The editor is a bit more stripped down than most presentation apps but intuitive nonetheless—it's almost a cross between your standard deck editor and a Notion-style doc.

To generate an AI deck, click Generate with AI in the top right, and either write your own prompt or choose from the example prompts that cover a handful of common use cases, like sales enablement and company pitches. Edit or approve the suggested outline, then generate the full presentation.

From there, you can edit each slide as a doc via the right-hand menu—without limits on how much information you can include. During the presentation, you simply size down any slides that take up more than the standard amount of space. It's super simple but somehow feels revolutionary in a presentation app.

Tome pricing: Free plan available for manual editing without AI; upgrade to the Professional plan for $16/user/month to use the generative AI and design tools, plus engagement analytics, branding tools, and more.

What about the old standbys?

You might notice a few major presentation players aren't on this list, including OGs Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple Keynote, and Google Slides. These apps are perfectly adequate for creating basic presentations, and they're free if you have a Windows or Mac device or a Google account.

I didn't include them on the list because the presentation space has really developed in the last several years, and after testing them out, I found these behemoths haven't kept pace. If they weren't made by Microsoft/Apple/Google, I might not even be mentioning them. They're pretty basic tools, they're behind the curve when it comes to templates (both quantity and design), and they don't offer any uniquely valuable features like robust team collaboration, branding controls, video, and so on.

Some of these companies (think: Microsoft and Google) are openly working on some pretty impressive-sounding AI features, but they haven't really been focused on their respective presentation solutions just yet. Rest assured, I'm watching this space, and the next time we update this article, I'll re-test tools like Copilot for PowerPoint and Gemini for Google Slides to see what new features may be available.

In any case, if you're reading this, you're probably looking for an alternative that allows you to move away from one of the big 3, and as the presentation platforms featured above show, there's a ton to gain—in terms of features, usability, and more—when you do.

What about PowerPoint and Google Slides add-ons?

While I focused my testing on tools with full feature-sets—those that can serve as your sole presentation tool—there are a ton of add-on tools you can use atop big name tools like PowerPoint and Google Slides.

If you're looking to expand what you can do with PowerPoint or Google Slides, apps like Marq (formerly Lucidpress), Plus AI , Slidesgo , and Simplified can help you do things like access additional templates, save branded assets, and generate AI presentations from the app you're already using.

Related reading:

Canva AI tools to improve your design workflow

The best online whiteboards for collaboration

How to share a presentation on Zoom without sharing your browser tabs and address bar

This post was originally published in October 2014 and has since been updated with contributions from Danny Schreiber, Matthew Guay, Andrew Kunesh, and Krystina Martinez. The most recent update was in April 2024.

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Kiera Abbamonte

Kiera’s a content writer who helps SaaS and eCommerce companies connect with customers and reach new audiences. Located in Boston, MA, she loves cinnamon coffee and a good baseball game. Catch up with her on Twitter @Kieraabbamonte.

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April 4, 2024

11 Best Websites for Making a Presentation (And How to Choose One For Your Needs) 

Here are 11 of the best websites and programs to create free presentations online

Co-founder, CEO

The best websites for making presentations equip you with all the tools needed to build a professional, attractive, and informative slide deck quickly and efficiently. But with dozens of slide makers claiming to be the best, it’s hard to choose an app that suits your needs best. 

We’ve done the legwork for you and scoured the web for the best presentation websites. We based our evaluation on factors such as functionality, ease of use, AI sophistication, collaboration tools, and value for money. Below is the result — a comprehensive overview of the 11 best web-based slide creation apps based on our findings.  

Short on time? Summary of the best sites for making a presentation

1. plus ai — best all-round presentation maker.

Key Features

• Adds easy-to-use AI to Google Slides
• Affords customization options for slide templates, colors, and logos 
• Allows slide deck generation via different methods 
• Facilitates collaboration within teams on Google Workspace 
• Features a setting-rich but straightforward user interface
• $10/month for Basic and $20 for Pro versions when billed annually ($15 and $30, respectively, with monthly billing)

Plus AI is a powerful and user-friendly presentation maker that’s suitable for any purpose, whether you’re a professional, student, or amateur user.  

Plus AI gives you a robust selection of AI slide creation methods. You can generate presentations straight from text, work on them slide-by-slide, design them from scratch, or use existing templates. Regardless of the method, the tool’s AI technology does all the heavy lifting design-wise and the interface is a breeze to navigate, so you can sit back and focus on the content. 

Meanwhile, the customization options allow you to tailor the slides to your desired aesthetic, content type, and audience, and you can create your presentation in 80 languages. The resulting slide decks are elegant, professional, and appropriate for any use case. 

Plus AI is an affordable presentation maker, with pricing that starts at $10 per month with annual billing, or $15 when billed monthly. Each of the plans includes an AI extension for Google Docs; this feature helps you compose and edit text. If you’d rather not spend money without taking the tool for a test drive, Plus AI offers you a 7-day free trial.  

Here are the key pros and cons of Plus AI — they should help you decide if this presentation maker is right for you: 

• Generates professional and visually appealing presentations in minutes — no design skills needed
• AI function allows you to edit and format slides without manual effort
• Lots of ways to customize the presentation
• Vast selection of templates and example presentations  
• Text-to-slide and from-scratch creation
• Allows team collaboration in Google Workspace 
• Integrates with Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint
• Budget-friendly plans and a 7-day free trial 
• Plus creates presentations in Google Slides or PowerPoint format, which may be harder for newer users to edit

2. Canva — Best free presentation site 

• Offers mobile presentation templates 
• Web- or mobile-based Canva app supports collaboration 
• Remote Control feature lets you run the presentation from your smartphone
• Canva live feature allows viewers to join QA sessions during a presentation  
• Presenter mode lets you see your speaking notes and upcoming slides while you present 
• AI assists in slide creation and can present on your behalf
• Individual Free Plan: $0 per month
• Individual Pro Plan: $14.99 per month
• Teams Plan: $29.99 per month

Canva is a web-based template editor with graphics creation tools and a powerful presentation builder in its free plan. Canva offers you an array of slide templates designed for virtually any purpose, along with a suite of customization tools to tailor the presentation to your topic and setting. 

Canva has made a noticeable effort to optimize presentations for the smartphone. The app’s most striking feature is its selection of mobile presentation templates, which don’t lag their desktop-based peers in either aesthetics or utility. But whether or not your presentation is designed for a mobile screen, Canva lets you run it right from your smartphone, with a presenter view that shows your notes and upcoming slides. The audience can likewise engage with your presentation from their mobile devices during Q&A sessions.     

Depending on your use case, you may be able to get away with Canva’s comprehensive free plan. The free Canva has presentation creation and editing tools and gives you access to a huge selection of professional templates. However, it’s the $14/month Pro plan that lets you unlock all the premium tools and graphic assets. And if you need Canva to collaborate with teams, you’re looking at $29.99 per month for the first 5 users. 

To help you decide whether Canva is worth trying out, we’ve made this quick summary of the app’s pros and cons: 

• Solid free plan with basic features and a large selection of graphic assets 
• Optimized for mobile presentations 
• Elegant templates for any use case 
• Intermediate design skills required 
• No direct integration with Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 (possible through third-party apps)

3. Prezi — Best slide tool for creative users

• Web-based tool for creating presentations, videos, and infographics 
• Asset library includes templates, ready-to-use story blocks, and stock images from Unsplash and GIFs from 
• Integrates with Webex, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and other video conferencing apps to show presentations and the presenter on the same screen 
• Lets you convert PowerPoint presentations to Prezi

Pricing (all plans are billed annually)

• For students/educators: $3-8 per month
• For individuals: $7-19 per month
• For businesses: $15-29 per month

Prezi is a web-based tool for creating presentations, videos, and infographics that are suitable for business and educational settings. The tool offers a wealth of image and icon assets, as well as templates to get you started on your slide deck. The templates do not constrain your creativity with linear slides the way PowerPoint does — you can create your presentations on an open canvas. Prezi even lets you import and customize PowerPoint presentations in its app. And, with the help of Prezi’s new AI tool, you can create and edit entire presentations quickly. 

One of Prezi’s most defining features is its integration with popular video conferencing apps, such as Webex, Zoom, Teams, and Meet. Crucially, Prezi lets your slides appear on the same screen as your own video feed while you’re presenting. 

Prezi offers three pricing tiers. Students and educators get the least expensive options, with plans that range between $3 and $8 per month. For individual users, plans cost $7-19 per month, while business users pay between $15 and $29 per month. All of Prezi’s plans are billed annually, but you can try the tool for 14 days without committing to a subscription. 

If you’re not sure whether this presentation tool is right for you, consider Prezi’s pros and cons below: 

• Design freedom and for creating unique and attractive slides
• Graphic assets are readily available
• Integrates with video conferencing apps 
• AI assistant generates and edits presentations 
• Inexpensive plans for students and educators 
• Video and infographic creation part of each plan
• 14-day free trial 
• Design skills required to create quality presentations 
• Lack of integration with Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint
• No monthly billing options 

4. Visme — Best for graphics and special effects

• Tools for creating special effects and animating graphics 
• Ability to import and edit Microsoft PowerPoint presentations 
• AI designer helps create a presentation draft 
• Integration with Google Drive, DropBox, Mailchimp, Slack, and other apps 
• Presentation analytics tools 
• Basic package: $0/month 
• Starter package (individual): $12.25/month 
• Pro package (individual or team): $24.75-$79+/month

Visme is a web-based app for producing various types of visual content, including presentations. The app’s most distinct feature is its suite of special effects you can use to make the slides’ content and graphics more engaging. The app also lets you animate the images and insert video and audio features into the slides. 

Visme integrates with a whole host of other platforms and apps. These integration options are largely designed to let you import content seamlessly into Visme. For example, you have the option of importing your PowerPoint files into Visme, enhancing them there, and exporting them back in the .ppt format if you like. That said, Visme does not work as an extension in popular slide makers, like Google Slides or PowerPoint. 

You have three main pricing options with Visme. The Basic plan is free, but you’re limited in access to collaboration tools, assets, interactive, and AI features. The more comprehensive Starter plan costs $12.25 per month (billed annually), and equips you with Visme’s more premium tools. Finally, the Pro team plan sets you back $79/month for a team of 5 and lets you use Visme’s entire suite of interactivity and collaboration functions.     

Here are a few vital pros and cons if you need help deciding whether Visme is right for you: 

• Vast selection of special effects 
• Ability to animate graphics on the slides 
• Simple file movement between different web-based apps
• Free plan available 
• Free plans extremely limiting 
• No direct integration with Google or Microsoft slide tools 

5. Powtoon — Best for slides with animation

• Templates with configurable graphics and animation
• Customizable fonts, colors, and logos
• Access to stock images, videos, and soundtracks 
• Lite plan: $50/month ($15/month when billed annually) 
• Professional plan: $190/month ($40/month when billed annually) 
• Agency: $117/month (annual billing only) 

Powtoon is a visual web-based content creation platform with tools for making videos, animations, and presentations. The app’s presentation function lets you build slides using professional templates, in which you’re free to customize the fonts, colors, logos, and graphics. You can even animate the graphics and build custom avatars to present on your behalf — it’s one of Powtoon’s unique selling features. 

Powtoon’s suite of slide tools includes a database of royalty-free stock images, video footage, and music. You can use all of these assets in your slides, or upload your own as you see fit. However, how much of these shiny tools you can use in your slide decks depends on the chosen plan. 

There are three pricing plans available, and the discrepancy between monthly and annual payments is striking. Most presentation sites charge a few dollars more if you opt for monthly instead of annual billing, but Powtoon’s monthly prices easily triple and quadruple. For example, the Lite plan costs $15/month with annual billing, but $50 if you wish to pay every month instead. You get very basic features with this plan, especially as far as animation and interactivity are concerned. Likewise, the Professional plan jumps from $40 to $190 if you choose monthly payments. You get a bit more for your buck, but some rudimentary features are still absent (like font uploads). Meanwhile, the Agency plan costs a whopping $1400 annually (no monthly option), and this plan gets you all of the app’s bells and whistles. 

Not sure if investing in a product like Powtoon is worth it? Consider its pros and cons below: 

• Comprehensive animation and video creation features 
• Graphic and audio assets available with subscription 
• Fonts and logos can be uploaded
• Most customization, animation, and AI features only come with the expensive Agency package
• Monthly payment options are not reasonable 

6. Haiku Deck — Best site for image editing options 

• Minimalistic interface 
• Graphic design tools for improving slide aesthetics 
• Pre-loaded templates and image assets 
• Cloud-based file sharing for team collaboration 
• AI presentation builder (Haiku Deck Zuru)
• Pro plan: $9.99 per month billed annually, or $19.99 monthly
• Premium plan: $29.99 per month, billed annually

Haiku Deck is a web, desktop, and mobile-based presentation builder with a significant focus on design aesthetics. The app’s design tools allow you to refine the graphics in the preloaded templates and images you’re using in the slides. You can source the images right from Haiku’s repository, which boasts over 40 million assets. 

To help you create your slide decks, Haiku offers its AI assistant. The AI feature can create new presentations from your outline, or enhance your existing drafts. Since the AI learns from other Haiku users, its algorithms are now trained to outfit slides with contextually relevant imagery and graphics.    

Haiku Deck’s pricing has two tiers: Pro and Premium. The Pro plan costs $9.99/month when billed annually and affords full access to the slide creation tools. Meanwhile, the Premium plan will set you back $29.99/month (again, billed annually), and equips you with features such as analytics, live web tracking, and priority support. 

Here’s a summary of Haiku Deck’s most prominent pros and cons: 

• Visually appealing slides 
• Large database of graphic assets 
• Advanced tools for editing images 
• Capable AI-powered slide builder
• No free plan
• No integration with Google Slides or Microsoft PowerPoint 

7. Zoho Show — Best presentation site for budget-minded users  

• Clean interface with tools changing depending on the task 
• Library for templates, slides, and fonts to facilitate team collaboration 
• Over 100 templates 
• Imports/exports PowerPoint files 
• Presentations can be controlled from smartphone or smart watch
• For individuals: Free
• Professional Plan: $2.50/month and up (billed annually)
• With Zoho Workplace Standard: $3.00/month (billed annually) 

Zoho is a web-based suite of business tools, and Zoho Show is its slide creation app. Zoho Show is a straightforward, inexpensive, yet fully functional slide maker that offers most of the same features you’ll get from pricier presentation sites. You can build your decks using over 100 preloaded templates, work on PowerPoint presentations before exporting them to their original file format, and run your slideshow from a smart device. Show’s most unique feature is its clean, contextual interface that only displays tools that are relevant to your current task (whether that’s handy or limiting depends on your preferences). 

Zoho Show’s pricing has three tiers. First, there’s the Free plan. This package lets you build basic presentations, but you miss out on key collaboration features and have limited access to graphic assets. Next, you get the more comprehensive Professional Plan, which costs $2.50; you must sign up for Zoho WorkDrive and have a team of 3 people to get this plan. Finally, you can get the entire Zoho Workplace suite for $3/month — this option unlocks the full functionality of the Show app and lets you use other Zoho tools, such as their Office Suite, Mail, and Workdrive. 

Have a look at Zoho Show’s pros and cons below to see if this presentation website is right for you: 

• Interface automatically shows tools relevant to the task
• Ability to add custom fonts and embed files into slides
• Templates, graphic assets, and collaboration tools included
• Supports PowerPoint file formats 
• Subscription to Zoho Workdrive or Workplace required to access paid plan — unnecessary if all you need is a presentation tool
• Some plans require a minimum of 3 users 
• Free individual plan limits use of graphic assets, templates, and collaboration tools 
• No direct integration with Google Slides 

8. Pitch — Best presentation site for use in business and sales 

• Lets you build presentations with AI, from a template, or from scratch 
• Supports custom fonts and colors 
• Provides team collaboration tools 
• Allows you to embed presentations on the web 
• Offers engagement analytics tools 
• Pro plan: $25/month
• Business: $100/month 

Pitch is a web-based presentation maker designed primarily for business use. The app helps streamline slide deck creation with its AI tool, which generates a first draft based on your prompts and leaves your team with the task of refining the slides to your liking. The slides have shareable links, so your entire team can collaborate on the slide deck. You can even invite consultants from outside your workplace to edit the presentations. 

Once your slide deck is complete, Pitch allows you to embed it on the web in your CMS — much like you’d do with a YouTube video. And to give you a feel for how audiences engage with your presentation, Pitch equips you with engagement and analytics performance tools.  

There are three pricing options with Pitch. The free plan comes with all the presentation creation functions, but you get no tracking and limited collaboration tools. The Pro plan costs $25/month (or $22 per month when billed annually), and gives you more freedom to use Pitch in a team environment. Finally, the Business plan costs $100/month (or $85/month with yearly billing) and gives you access to the full suite of features. 

Can’t decide if Pitch is the best presentation website for your team? Have a look at its most vital pros and cons: 

• AI slide creation feature 
• Performance analytics tools 
• Integration with various productivity and collaboration apps
• Media asset library 
• Engagement tracking only available in paid plans
• No integration with Google Slides or Microsoft 365

9. Beautiful.ai — Best site for no-frills AI-generated presentations

• AI-powered presentation maker 
• Slide creation from user’s prompts 
• Automated slide formatting 
• File sharing within the team (requires Team Plan) 
• Graphic assets database 
• Pro: $144 per year  
• Team: $40/month per user with annual billing ($50 with monthly billing)
• Enterprise: Pricing available on request 

Beautiful.ai is an AI-powered presentation builder that leverages full automation to make slide creation quick and easy. All you need to do is enter a prompt for your slide deck, and beautiful.ai will generate your first draft. These AI-generated drafts are quite simplistic in terms of both content and graphics, but they serve as a good starting point. Moreover, beautiful.ai’s presentations are formatted consistently, which should save you time as you edit each slide. 

You get three pricing options with beautiful.ai — Pro, Team, and Enterprise. The Pro package is meant for individual use, and costs $144 per year (there’s no way to pay monthly). The plan equips you with the AI slide maker but limits your use of assets and team collaboration features. The Pro plan costs $50/month for each user, or $480 annual for each license you purchase. This plan affords access to more customization and teamwork functions and lets you use graphic assets. Finally, the Enterprise plan includes all the features of the Pro plan, but with more dedicated training and support for your team. You’d have to reach out to beautiful.ai’s sales team to get a quote for the Enterprise plan. 

Beautiful.ai helps create slides quickly and with little skill. However, if you’re not sure this app is right for you, consider its most vital pros and cons below. 

• Quick way to create and format slides
• Inexpensive plan for personal use
• Elegant slide templates
• No integration with Google Slides or Microsoft 365 
• Slide content is very basic 
• Limited customization and branding options 

10. Google Slides — Best for Google Workspace Users With Basic Presentation Needs 

• Basic presentation creation tool 
• Limited selection of templates, fonts, and colors 
• Supports import/export of PowerPoint files 
• Allows collaboration within the Google Workspace
• Free with a Google account 

Slides is the web-based presentation tool you get with your Google account. This rudimentary app features a limited library of templates, fonts, and colors, along with a basic suite of tools for formatting the text and graphics in your slides. You can insert your own image, video, and audio files into the slides, but there is no access to a library of royalty-free assets. 

Despite its functional constraints, Google Slides is a useful app because it lets teams using Google Workspace collaborate easily on presentations. To get the most of Slides, though, you need to boost its functionality with a suitable extension. Google Gemini now works as an extension within the app, but for the $30 it costs you, the output is disappointing. All Gemini knows does is generate simple, low-quality images; it won’t help you produce, format, or edit presentations. 

In contrast, an app like Plus AI leverages artificial intelligence algorithms to give Google Slides powers it lacks on its own. By using the Plus AI extension, you can create entire Slides presentations from a single prompt, automate slide editing and formatting, and access a rich library of templates and ready-made slide decks. Meanwhile, Plus AI’s customization features help you brand your presentations with custom fonts, colors, and your company logo. 

Not sure if Google’s slide creation tool is right for you? Have a look at its pros and cons below. 

• Allows collaboration in the Google Workspace 
• Compatible with PowerPoint files 
• Supports AI-powered slide-creation extensions, such as Plus AI
• Free to use with a Google account 
• Limited capabilities without third-party apps 
• No library with image, video, or audio assets

11. Microsoft PowerPoint — Best For Highly Skilled Presentation Designers 

• Vast library of slide themes, variants, and layouts 
• Database of stock images and videos 
• Massive array of slide editing, formatting, and customization tools 
• Supports collaboration in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem 
• As a standalone product: $159.99 (one-time fee) 
• With Microsoft 365 apps, for home use: $6.99-$9.99/month 
• With Microsoft 365 apps, for business use: $6.00-22.00/user/month 

PowerPoint is one of the world’s oldest presentation builders that’s been part of Microsoft’s arsenal since the early 1990s. To this day, PowerPoint has been the most commonly used presentation app. But there’s a reason we’ve ranked it last on our list. Buoyed by its popularity, PowerPoint hasn’t evolved much over time; you won’t get anything beyond the most basic and uninspired presentations out of it unless you’re an advanced user with lots of time on your hands. 

The app’s user interface immediately overwhelms you with options and settings. Some of these seem similar in how they function, and you won’t know which tool to use until you’ve experimented with them all. Apart from the cluttered interface, PowerPoint disappoints with its simplistic selection of templates and designs. 

You can use Microsoft’s Copilot to forgo the tedious task of creating your own PowerPoint presentation, but beware: like Gemini, Copilot is still limited in its slide-making abilities. You can get it to create a slide deck from a single prompt, but the output will feature basic and repetitive along with lifeless images. 

PowerPoint’s pricing is a bit convoluted at a glance — you get different options whether you want the standalone product ($159.99) or the entire Microsoft 365 suite. If you choose the latter, the Home options range in price between $6.99 and $9.99 per month, while the Business plans cost between $6.00 and $22.00 per month per user. 

We don’t believe that PowerPoint is worth your time considering the vast selection of more powerful and user-friendly presentation apps on the market. However, you can review the app’s pros and cons below and decide for yourself. 

• Massive selection of design and customization tools 
• Integrates with Microsoft Copilot 
• Lets team members using Microsoft 365 work on the same presentation simultaneously  
• Overwhelming user interface 
• Very basic templates and designs
• Creating professional presentations is a challenge for novice users
• AI assistant cannot produce elegant, content-rich slide decks 

How we ranked the best presentation sites 

To make your selection process simple and effective, we ranked the best presentation websites based on these vital criteria: 

• Functionality
• Level of AI sophistication
• Ease of use
• Collaboration options

Integration with popular slide creation tools 

Value for money, functionality .

The best presentation sites are loaded with handy functions that enable you to make visually appealing, info-rich, and engaging presentations with little effort and minimal editing. These include customization tools, templates, image assets, and graphics refinement features. 

Level of AI sophistication 

AI technology is at the forefront of slide makers’ drive to create the best product for their clients. AI-powered presentation sites save you from spending long hours on writing content, digging up graphics, and then formatting every slide — AI handles these tasks for you. But not all AI slide creators are made equal. Some leave you with rudimentary decks that feature repetitive content and unrelated imagery. Others give you a solid starting point for an informative and captivating presentation. 

Ease of use 

The best presentation sites greet you with an intuitive and uncluttered interface that takes you minutes (if not seconds) to master. But usability goes beyond navigating the UI. That’s why we also assess the simplicity with which you can actually produce presentations. Simply put, how easy is it to create and edit slides? Do you need advanced design skills to manipulate the graphics and give the slide deck your desired aesthetic ? The best slide makers take these questions into account, so that their product makes presentations a breeze. You worry about the content, and let the app do the rest. 

Collaboration options 

High-quality presentation apps allow team members to create, edit, and give feedback on presentations remotely. That’s because today’s business needs, along with hybrid work arrangements, mean that more and more teams are forced to collaborate electronically. Features such as cloud-based file sharing and integration with communication platforms help different members of your team work on the presentation from wherever they are. 

Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint are the most commonly used presentation programs in the world. These two giants are the natural, go-to option for slide creation in the corporate, educational, and institutional world. Any presentation app that’s worth its salt should integrate with at least one of these tools. At the very least, a quality independent slide app should be able to import and export files that can be used in Google Slides or PowerPoint. 

The best presentation apps are usually not free, but the money you pay for them should be worth the features and benefits you get in return. That’s why we’ve evaluated each of the slide makers above based on the balance between their price point and their offerings. 

How to choose the best presentation website for your needs? 

You can’t really go wrong by opting for any of the 10 presentation sites above; however, to get a tool that’s tailored to your use-case, you’ll have to do a bit more research and analysis. The four steps below should help you zero in on the optimal presentation maker for your needs.   

• Consider the purpose of the presentation. Some slide tools cater to sales teams (think Pitch), others to graphic-minded users (Haiku Deck comes to mind), while others, like Plus AI, are excellent all-rounders. 
• Decide on the level of customization you need. How concerned are you with personalizing and branding your slide decks? If a generic, templated presentation is all you need for a school project, investing in a feature-rich, customizable tool may be overkill. But if you need your slide decks to feature custom colors, fonts, and convey your brand identity, opt for a tool (and pricing package) that has this functionality. 
• Decide if you want AI help. Unless you’re a skilled designer with a passion for creating and formatting slides, AI can be incredibly useful. Consider this: would you rather spend hours on refining your slides and ensuring consistency, or have the AI tool produce a uniformly formatted first draft? Check out the best AI presentation makers here.
• Factor in your budget. Most presentation sites have similar pricing, with monthly plans ranging between $0 and $40. However, some charge more — much more. Of course, the higher price points generally translate into richer offerings that may include other apps for visual content creation. Consider whether you need these extras or if a capable slide creation tool will suffice. 

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Screen sharing a PowerPoint presentation

There are three methods you can use to screen share a PowerPoint presentation in a Zoom meeting. If you have dual monitors, you can share a slide show while viewing the presenter's notes on another monitor. If you have a single monitor, you can also start the slide show in a window so you have access to other meeting features while sharing your presentation. 

If you have other participants presenting portions of the PowerPoint, you can give them slide control in Zoom, so that they can control the slideshow on their end, without needing to ask you to move the slides forward. Additionally, PowerPoint slides can be shared as a Virtual Background for a more immersive sharing experience. 

This article covers:

Dual monitors with slide show and presenter's views

Single-monitor setup with slide show view in a window, single-monitor setup with slide show in full screen.

Follow these steps if you are using multiple monitors and want to present your PowerPoint in one monitor, while viewing the presenter's notes in another monitor.

• Open the PowerPoint file you want to present.
• Start or join a Zoom meeting.

• Select your primary monitor then click Share . If you are not sure which monitor is your primary, select the one that PowerPoint opens in.

• Switch back to Powerpoint and click the Slide Show tab. 

Follow these steps if you have a single monitor and want to share your PowerPoint presentation in slide show view, but have it contained in a window rather than in full screen. This is useful if you need to access meeting features, such as in-meeting chat or managing participants, while sharing your PowerPoint presentation.

• Click the Slide Show tab and then select Set Up Slide Show .
• Under Show type , select Browsed by an individual (window) and then click OK .

• In Zoom, start or join a meeting .
• Select the PowerPoint window and then click Share .

Note : Be sure you select the PowerPoint window, not the entire screen. Sharing the PowerPoint window only will allow you to use other features without interrupting the view of the presentation. 

• Select your monitor then click Share . 

Best free screen recorders of 2024

Explore the best free screen recorders for PC and Mac

• Best overall
• Best for simplicity
• Best with annotation
• Best small business
• Best for non-editors
• Best for live footage
• How we test

1. Best overall 2. Best for simplicity 3. Best with annotation 4. Best small business 5. Best for non-editors 6. Best for live footage 7. Best webm 8. FAQs 9. How we test

The best free screen recorders offer a way to capture what's on your monitor completely free of charge. But with so many options around, we wanted to know which ones were worth downloading on your PC or Mac. 

Free screen recorders are a really inexpensive way to try out capturing your screen for presentations, piece-to-camera videos, and live-streaming. And the best free screen recording software packs in loads more tools that let you create seamless transitions, titles, video editing tools, and even 4K capture. 

We tested the best screen recorders - but these completely free alternatives offer a great to capture desktop, windows, and webcam footage without breaking the bank. As part of our review process, we've looked at how easy the software is to use, how it performs, and what extra production and post-production tools are on offer. We've also looked at any limitations on the free screen recording apps and included any optional pricing plans where available. 

The best free screen recorders of 2024 in full:

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Below you'll find full write-ups for each of the best free screen recorders in our list. We've tested each one extensively, so you can be sure that our recommendations can be trusted. 

The best free screen recorder overall

1. OBS Studio

Our expert review:

Specifications

Reasons to buy, reasons to avoid.

If you’re looking for free game recording software, OBS Studio is easily the best free screen recorder for you. Unlike the hugely popular FRAPS (which only lets you record for 30 seconds at a stretch unless you’ve bought a license, and applies a watermark to the resulting footage), OBS Studio is open source, and completely free to use without restrictions.

OBS Studio supports both streaming and recording in high definition, with no restrictions on the number or length of your creations. You can stream live to Twitch or YouTube gaming, save projects and come back to them later, or encode your footage in FLV format and save it locally.

Because OBS Studio can record directly from your graphics card, it’s able to screen capture games running in full-screen mode (many other screen recorders can only record if the game is windowed), with customizable hotkeys to control the recording. OBS Studio can also make full use of multi-core CPUs for improved performance and can record at 60FPS (or even higher).

However, all those fantastic features come at the cost of a steep learning curve. Newcomers may be baffled by the often overwhelming interface. When we tested out OBS Studio, we found a few glitches and frustrations, while "it might feel a bit overwhelming when you get started, it possesses many tools to help you create great content. You just need to get used to the interface." For a simpler take on OBS Studio however, we recommend checking out Streamlabs. 

Still, it's a minor gripe for an otherwise top-free screen recording software. OBS Studio might take a little while to set it up exactly how you want, but the incredibly powerful tool is by far the best free screen recorder for gaming.

Read our full OBS Studio review .

• ^ Back to the top

The best free screen recorder for ease of use

2. debut video capture.

NCH Software’s Debut Video Capture is one of the best free screen recorders  - for home users, at least. Commercial users will need to pick up a lifetime license or a subscription that, compared to similar products from rivals, is at the inexpensive end of the spectrum.

Debut is a multi-platform screen recording tool to capture your computer’s screen, and other connected and compatible devices. And, in the main, it delivers precisely the experience you’d expect. 

During our testing, we felt the screen recording software worked very well, letting users capture audio and video from multiple sources with relative ease. 

The interface might feel a little antiquated, but it comes with a wealth of features and customization options. The screen recorder app captures all selected devices separately, making it much easier to edit afterwards. However, you’ll have to do that with video editing software, as Debut offers little in the way of editing capabilities, aside from trimming. 

There is a downside to the tool. While reviewing Debut Video Capture, we sadly encountered a major issue on the Mac, unable to find a way to directly record the system audio. Every option we tried failed, aside from recording it via a microphone - which led to much lower quality. We did not encounter this problem on a PC.

Read our full Debut Video Capture review .

The best free screen recorder with annotation

ShareX is a free PC-only screen recorder and capture tool, and you’ll definitely get Millennium Falcon vibes when using it: it may not look like much, but it's got it where it counts. Underneath a sparse interface lies numerous tools that can help you make your screenshot shine.

These include being able to select the exact part of the screen you’d like to preserve, by using rectangle, ellipsis, and even freehand tools. You also have a myriad of options for marking and annotating your captured images. These include coloured borders, lines and arrows to point to specific areas, text boxes, sequential numbers, etc. You even have the ability to pixelate or blur sensitive sections you’d rather not share, or use a magnifying tool to zoom into a designated area.

Screen capture is also possible, but you have to download specialized software first, and the audio settings aren’t switched on by default. Shame the interface is so sparse and unappealing. But it’s a small price to pay for so much power and versatility.

Read our full ShareX review .

The best free screen recorder for small businesses

4. easeus recexperts.

EaseUS RecExperts is one of the best screen recorders for Windows and Mac on the market. It’s quick, it’s easy to use, and it’s full to the brim with professional screen-capture features. 

When we tested out the software, we were impressed that RecExperts effortlessly captures your screen, webcam, system sounds, and audio from built-in and USB microphones. And it’s simple to select what you’re recording during set-up. 

Offering up to 4K/60fps captures, the free screen recorder has plenty of utility for delivering webinars, presentations, and even recording games. 

However, while we highly rated the features and tools, we found the editing abilities were lacking. Once you’ve recorded your clip, basic options include trimming and watermarking clips, and adding intros and outros. In this area, it’s not unlike FlashBack Express.

But the big issue is the limitation imposed on the free version. 

Without a subscription, RecExperts recordings are capped at one minute. And useful tools like the excellent recording scheduler are locked behind that paywall. Great, then, for quickly showing a friend or colleague how to perform a particular task, but not for longer videos.

Read our full EaseUS RecExperts review .

The best free screen recorder for non-editors

5. screencast-o-matic.

Screencast-O-Matic’s Screen Recorder is an interesting free screen recorder as it offers a lot for free: you can easily record your screen, webcam or both with just a few clicks, and apply callouts live, as you perform your talk. The editing is extremely minimal, mind. 

We found the screen recording app simple to use. Unfortunately, the post-edit and export experience is a bit of a let down. After editing and exporting your screen capture, the footage is automatically and instantly discarded as the app shuts down. It’s an unnecessary flaw in an otherwise easy-to-use screen recorder for your browser. 

The free screen recorder should service the needs of most casual users. However, three monthly and annual subscription packages are available, adding more functionality for professional or commercial use. 

These paid-for upgrades let you remove the watermark from screen recordings, as well as the time -limited captures. You’ll also be gaining more video editing tools, and access to an online media library. The more you pay, the more you get. 

Higher subscription plans add stock media, unlimited cloud hosting, video quizzes and polls, and premium content from Shutterstock. If you need online collaboration tools, there’s Team Business for commercial use. 

Read our full Screencast-O-Matic free screen recorder review .

The best free screen recorder for live footage

6. flashback express.

FlashBack Express offers users a free screen recorder for PC without a watermark. We found the tools work exactly as you’d expect. The interface is pared back and easy to understand, with a big ‘Start Recording’ button when you’re ready to begin. 

You can also record your webcam at the same time as your screen, as well as external audio. You even have the ability to crop what you’d like to record, or just choose a specific window.

There are limitations (it is free, after all), such as the recording size (only 720p), and your post-editing capabilities are practically non-existent: all you can do is trim the start and end of your video. 

During our review, we found this the real low point of otherwise acceptable software, saying, “calling that editing is a pretty generous way of referring to trimming. That’s right: you can trim the start and end of your recording and that’s it. These are the only options at your disposal. At this point, you can understand why FlashBack Pro might become a tempting alternative.”

When it comes to exporting, you have access to the usual online storage options such as Google Drive and DropBox, and you also have the ability to upload straight to YouTube. You can also save the file to your computer.

If you need to record something quickly and don’t mind the lack of bells and whistles, we found FlashBack Express is one of the best free screen recorders on the market.

Read our full FlashBack Express review .

Best free screen recorder for .webm exports

7. apowersoft free online screen recorder.

No prizes for guessing what Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder does. The tool offers an interesting take on the screen-recording concept: capture and control recordings direct from your browser. Everything from screen, webcam, microphone and system audio - from it. It sounds great in theory, and would make this a multi-platform tool.

Sadly it doesn’t work as well in practice. When we tested the free screen recorder online, we encountered problem after problem across multiple browsers on Mac and PC. In our review, we felt that “when it works, it records well, but the file format causes headaches.” 

Lack of default .mp4 exports, no editing tools, and means ultimately, it’s great in a pinch - if you can get it working - but we don’t think it’s ready for primetime: it’s too glitchy in its current iteration. And that’s a shame, because its promise of an easy-to-use online screen recorder is appealing.

The company also offers ApowerREC, a screen recorder app for Mac and PC. This fixes most complaints we have with the online version. But, like EaseUS RecExperts, the free trial only lets you record one-minute long videos. 

To make longer recordings, you’ll need to take out a monthly or annual subscription, or buy a lifetime license. The lifetime license offers the best value for money for heavy users, as the one-off payment includes perpetual free updates and technical support.  Read our full Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder review .

We've listed the best business webcams .

Best free screen recorders: FAQs

How to choose the best free screen recorder for you.

When choosing which free screen recorder is best, make sure to look out for:

+ Easy experience - make sure the video recording software is straightforward to set up and use, no matter how advanced. Don’t let it get in the way of your workflow.

+ Resolution - the best free screen recorder software will output in high-definition.

+ Recording - not all screen recorders are equal. For example, the best free streaming software for gaming might not work as the best video conferencing tools.

+ Editing - if you need more post-production polish, some free screen recorders have video editor capabilities, and even the best video editors for beginners like Clipchamp include built-in screen recorders. 

+ Output - even free screen recorders should offer a range of file formats, like MP4, MOV, and GIFs. 

Start by understanding what it is you’re going to capture. Is it a professional video capture for meetings, a screen recorder for YouTube, or even streaming via game recording software? 

Decide if you need proper, professional-grade software, like OBS Studio, or whether recording from your browser will suffice. Next, consider what devices you’re capturing from - you’ll find loads of screen recorders for Windows and Mac, but also Android and iOS apps. Some of the best free screen recorders effortlessly capture webcam footage, too. Ideal for streamers and webinar hosts. 

Finally, think about long-term use. If you’re likely to outgrow free options, it might be worth choosing a package that lets you upgrade to a screen recorder without watermarks, like FlashBack Express or Debut Video Capture. 

What is the best free screen recorder?

OBS Studio is our pick for best free screen recorder and streaming software overall. After testing, we found not only can the open-source software record everything happening on your desktop, but also capture footage from your webcam and use it for picture-in-picture video, and even record audio from a microphone. This free screen recording software gives you the option to save captures in a format of your choice, or stream them via the service of your choice.

For a long time, it’s been one of the best free screen recorders for Windows 10 - and it’s also available on macOS and Windows 11 , through the redesigned Microsoft Store. While OBS Studio is an ideal choice for professionals and gamers alike, however, it’s worth exploring which other free screen capture tool is best for your needs. So, let’s say you only need to capture a few minutes of footage - more straightforward free screen recorder software might serve you just as well. 

Whether you're making an on-screen tutorial, recording a Let's Play video, or capturing a video conference call, there are solutions for everyone.

How we test the best free screen recorders

When we review the best free screen recorders out there, we evaluate the user experience, the performance, the output, and the audience and use. 

Even if the learning curve is steep, it should be clear how users can start recording their screens - with additional support if necessary. Upon export, we test the quality of outputs, reviewing the video resolution, file formats, and overall quality for lags or stuttering. 

Free screen recording software must be unambiguously free. Users shouldn’t have to navigate complex charges and hidden fees. 

The very best screen recorders are versatile tools, letting you capture and record everything from meetings to gaming. However, we recognize that individual screen recording apps may be built for specific purposes, and judge these tools on how well they deliver for, say, professionals in a business environment or YouTube creators and streamers.

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Steve has been writing about technology since 2003. Starting with Digital Creative Arts, he's since added his tech expertise at titles such as iCreate, MacFormat, MacWorld, MacLife, and TechRadar. His focus is on the creative arts, like website builders, image manipulation, and filmmaking software, but he hasn’t shied away from more business-oriented software either. He uses many of the apps he writes about in his personal and professional life. Steve loves how computers have enabled everyone to delve into creative possibilities, and is always delighted to share his knowledge, expertise, and experience with readers.

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Best Portable Projectors of 2024

Like so many other forms of technology, projectors have gotten smaller, while their resolution, brightness, and the overall viewing experience they’re able to provide have improved rather dramatically.

The latest portable projectors we considered for this buyer’s guide, including our top pick, the Nebula Cosmo Laser 4K , all weigh under 12 pounds and offer either 1080p or 4K resolution. All can be set up in just minutes and allow content to be streamed directly from the internet via Wi-Fi, or from a mobile device or computer using a wireless or wired connection. This buyer’s guide will help you choose the best portable projector to meet your needs.

Table of Contents

• Best Portable Projectors
• Things To Consider When Buying
• How We Chose

Nebula Cosmos Laser 4K  »

4K resolution using laser technology

2,200 ANSI lumens

1.27 Throw Ratio

High dynamic range (HDR) and Dolby Audio support

Only one HDMI port

60Hz refresh rate

No internal battery

The Nebula Cosmo Laser 4 is our top pick, as it’s currently one of the most advanced projectors of its kind. It can be used indoors or outdoors, transported easily, and set up in minutes. You get native 4K resolution, HDR support (HDR10), and a brightness of 2,200 ANSI lumens, which is great for a portable projector; you’ll see a sharp and bright picture, even if there’s ambient light in your viewing space. We’re also fans of the projector’s compact, lunchbox-like design that includes a built-in handle.

The Cosmo Laser 4 is more sophisticated than other portable projectors. For example, you can watch your favorite movies and video content on a screen that’s up to 150 inches. Plus, using your home’s Wi-Fi, the projector’s AndroidTV OS gives you easy access to popular streaming services. It’s just as easy to connect your mobile device or computer to the projector – either wirelessly or using a cable – and then view content stored on or being streamed from that device.

Out of all the portable projectors we looked at, this one has the best speaker system and the most robust feature set, combined with really impressive picture quality.

Ultimea Apollo P40  »

Affordable at about $200

1080p resolution

700 ANSI lumens brightness

Autofocus and Auto-keystones

No built-in handle

This five-pound projector offers 1080p resolution and is easy to carry from room to room. It can be set up very quickly and connect directly to your home’s Wi-Fi. However, it’s just as easy to connect it via a cable to your mobile device or computer.

For such an inexpensive projector with a street price of about $200, we love that it offers a brightness of 700 ANSI lumens. This means you can enjoy good picture quality even if there’s some ambient light in the viewing space. (We don't recommend using it outdoors or in a very bright room.) Plus, this projector can be set up for front or rear projection and will automatically adjust the picture dimensions if it's hung from the ceiling.

While this is a native 1080p-resolution projector, it can accept 4K content and generate an enhanced picture that looks even higher resolution than 1080p (but really isn't). If you’re on a tight budget, this projector is a good value, but it doesn't offer the high-end picture quality and brightness you’d get from a more expensive model.

Nebula Mars 3 Air  »

1080p resolution with HDR support

Lunchbox design with integrated handle

Netflix app pre-installed

Carrying case ($50) and mount stand ($40) sold separately

Best used in very dark viewing areas

Not to be confused with the Nebula Mars 3 (which is more expensive with more features), the Mars 3 Air is much more affordable, lighter weight, and has a built-in handle for easy transport. In addition to 1080p resolution, this projector supports HDR to display a wider range of highlights and shadows for a more realistic picture.

The Mars 3 Air can connect directly to a Wi-Fi signal and take advantage of its smart TV capabilities to provide access to streaming services. It even comes with the Netflix app pre-installed. Alternatively, the projector offers multiple ways to connect a mobile device or computer, either wirelessly or using a cable.

In terms of picture quality, the Marts 3 Air supports 1080P resolution and HDR. It covers an impressive 89.3% of the sRGB gamut and 72.3% of DCI-P3. Designed for indoor use, it can be set up in any room within a minute or so. Overall, it offers a really good value.

Kodak Luma 450  »

Up to 3 hours of battery life

Displays 16.7 million colors

Travel-friendly design with included mini tripod

Works with the Kodak Luma smartphone app

Low-quality, weak speakers

Not very bright

A pico projector is one that fits in the palm of a hand and can be carried in a pocket. For this type of projector, the Luma 450 offers a nice collection of features, including 1080p HDR resolution with good color saturation. You also get good battery life for a projector this small if you keep it in eco mode, which reduces brightness to conserve battery power. In normal mode, you get around 90 minutes of battery power, which is still decent.

With any pico projector, you’ll need to make a few sacrifices. In this case, the tiny stereo speakers only provide one watt of audio power, so you’ll want to use the projector with wired or wireless headphones or an external speaker. In addition, the brightness is only 200 ANSI lumens in normal mode or about 130 ANSI lumens in eco mode. Thus, to experience good picture quality, you’ll need to use the projector in a very dark viewing space.

We like this projector’s extra-small form factor and the fact that it can be set up just about anywhere. It’s able to project a picture between 10 and 150 inches and can easily be connected to a small external power bank to extend its battery life.

BenQ GS50  »

Stereo audio with a 10-watt subwoofer

A good option for camping or RVs

Easy to carry “lunch box” design

IPX2 (Splash-proof), 2.3-foot drop proof

Just 500 ANSI lumens brightness

AndroidTV dongle (included) and internet connectivity required for smart TV functions

In the sub-$1,000 category, this model from BenQ checks off all the key boxes for what you’d look for in a projector that can be used outdoors. It’s splash-resistant and can survive an accidental drop from 2.3 feet. It’s easy to transport and can be set up quickly.

With direct internet connectivity, it offers smart TV functionality via a supplied streaming dongle that needs to be plugged into the projector. And thanks to AirPlay and Chromecast support, it’s easy to wirelessly stream content from a mobile device or computer, although an HDMI cable connection can be used instead.

In addition to offering 1080p resolution with a 60 Hz refresh rate, the GS50 has two integrated 5-watt stereo speakers and a 10-watt subwoofer. As a result, the audio quality is impressive for a portable speaker, especially if you sit close to the projector as you’re watching the up to 100-inch picture.

Since the projector has a maximum brightness of just 500 ANSI lumens, the viewing space needs to be very dark to experience a bright and clear picture that doesn’t look washed out. For outdoor viewing at night, it’s plenty adequate.

The Bottom Line

The best portable projectors are compact, lightweight, easy to transport, can be set up quickly, and allow you to enjoy a cinematic viewing experience with a projected video picture up to between 100 and 150 inches. We chose the Nebula Cosmos Laser 4K as our top pick because it offers a high-end laser projection system, 4K resolution, 2,200 ANSI lumens brightness, and an easy-to-transport, lunchbox-style design.

Things To Consider When Buying a Portable Projector

Overall Design: A “lunchbox” design for a portable projector means it has a box-like shape with an integrated handle to easily carry it, while a “pico” projector will easily fit in a hand and is incredibly lightweight. There are also more rectangular-shaped projectors that have no handle but weigh under 12 pounds, which makes them easy to transport and set up. Choose the most convenient model, based on whether you’ll be moving the projector from room to room or packing it up to take on the road.

Resolution: While you can find extremely inexpensive projectors with 780p or lower resolution, we highly recommend choosing one with a minimum resolution of 1080p. That said, a 4K Ultra HD projector with support for HDR will provide a significantly better picture.

“A projector's resolution tells you how sharp the picture will look," explains Asher Weinstein, a Projection Specialist at ProjectorScreen.com . "A 4K resolution image has four times more pixels than a 1080p image, so it showcases much greater detail.”

Brightness: A projector’s brightness is measured in ANSI lumens. If “ANSI” isn't listed by the manufacturer in conjunction with a projector’s brightness, it doesn't meet the standards of the American Standards Institute and will likely not be as bright as you’re being led to believe.

A very small or inexpensive portable projector usually won't be as bright as a larger and more expensive model. Anything less than 400 ANSI lumens will require the projector to be used in an extremely dark viewing area to achieve a bright picture that doesn't look washed out.

With all of this in mind, we recommend a brightness of 800 to 1,000 lumens for a portable projector and at least 2,000 to 3,000 lumens for a regular projector that will be used in a viewing space with ambient light.

Maximum Projection Size: Based on where you’ll be using the projector, select one with a projection size that can maximize that space and that will work with the screen you plan to use with it.

Connectivity Options : Most projectors offer a variety of wireless and wired options for connecting them to a computer or mobile device. Most can also stream content from the internet directly via Wi-Fi. The most common connectivity options are Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, HDMI, and USB.

Speakers : If you’re looking for truly immersive audio, consider a projector that allows you to pair wireless headphones, earbuds, or a high-quality Bluetooth stereo speaker with an integrated subwoofer. The speaker(s) typically built into portable projectors aren't high quality or very loud. Some don’t even generate stereo sound. Only a few offer true stereo with the addition of a built-in subwoofer and enough audio power to fill a room with robust sound.

How We Chose The Best Portable Projectors

Our contributor, Jason R. Rich, conducted extensive research to compile this buyer’s guide of the best portable projectors. He considered things like each device’s overall design, brightness, speaker quality, battery life, connectivity options, maximum projection size, and price. He also focused on what set each portable projector apart from its competition.

To help with his research, Jason conducted in-depth interviews with David Davis, founder of Davis Audio & Video ; and Asher Weinstein, projection specialist at ProjectorScreen.com .

Why Should You Trust Us?

Jason R. Rich is an internationally recognized consumer technology expert with more than 30 years of experience as a writer, journalist, and photographer. In addition to the U.S. News 360 Reviews website, his articles and in-depth product reviews continue to appear on CBS Essentials, Forbes Vetted, and within AARP The Magazine and AARP Bulletin .

Portable Projectors FAQ

The key things to consider when choosing one are the overall design, portability, resolution, brightness, light source (laser or LED), and speaker system. These are the main things that affect picture quality, sound quality, and price.

The brightness of a projector determines how vibrant and clear an image it’s able to produce, especially if there’s ambient light in the viewing space. The brighter the projector, measured in ANSI lumens, the better. Anything less than 500 lumens will require near-total darkness to avoid a washed-out picture.

A portable projector’s resolution (measured in pixels) determines how detailed the picture will be. Choose a projector that produces a picture of at least 1080p (1,920 x 1,080 pixels). A 4K (3,840 x 2,160 pixel) projector with HDR support uses about four times as many pixels and will generate a much higher-quality image.

All portable projectors can be plugged into a traditional power outlet or external power bank. In this case, you’ll need to make sure to have an extension cord handy if the outlet isn't close by.

Some portable projectors have integrated rechargeable batteries, but these tend to offer no more than two to three hours of video playtime in normal mode, or between three and five hours of playtime in eco mode at the most.

Note that when a portable projector is used in eco mode, it automatically reduces the brightness of the projector by around 35% to conserve power, which means the picture quality will suffer, even in a really dark viewing space.

Virtually all of the portable projectors available, including those featured in this buyer’s guide, offer at least one HDMI and one USB port for a wired connection between the projector and a mobile device or computer. Many of these projectors also offer Wi-Fi connectivity to connect to the internet and stream content directly from popular streaming services like Netflix .

A projector’s Bluetooth support can typically be used to establish a wireless connection with headphones, earbuds, or an external Bluetooth speaker, which is better than relying on a portable projector’s internal speakers.

Any portable projector can project its picture onto a white wall or a white bed sheet that’s hung on a wall. However, to achieve the best picture quality and better manage ambient light, you’ll want an appropriately sized screen that’s designed for use with a projector.

“The screen is extremely important – it's not just white fabric," Davis says. "Today’s screens are engineered to reflect or absorb light to better control the ambient light in the room. They also can add contrast to a projected picture. I recommend using an Ambient Light Rejecting screen. These are designed to reflect the light coming from the projector while rejecting other ambient light. This means that sunlight and downlighting from ceiling lights will have little impact on picture quality.

About Our Team

Contributor

Jeff Kinney

Senior Editor

U.S. News 360 Reviews takes an unbiased approach to our recommendations. When you use our links to buy products, we may earn a commission but that in no way affects our editorial independence.

New iPad Pro 2024 boasts first-ever tandem OLED display — here’s why it’s a breakthrough

The iPad Pro goes double OLED

Apple is finally bringing OLED technology to its M4 iPad Pro lineup with a first-of-its-kind engineering feat that stacks two OLED screens together for amplified brightness potentials and longer lifespans. 

Called “tandem OLED,” Apple’s new design aims to bring the best of both worlds in higher brightness and gorgeous color accuracy to the iPad . The new product was announced at its virtual “Let Loose” event on Tuesday, highlighting a purported 1,000 nits of full-screen brightness in both HDR and SDR content, and a peak HDR brightness of 1,600 nits. 

Thanks to leveraging OLED screens, the new iPad Pro can deliver exceptional luminance, deeper blacks for higher contrast, and improved motion processing, as well as true HDR. This is due to improved handling on each pixel’s color and brightness at a pace of under a millisecond, altering saturation and volumes to better serve what’s on the screen at a moment’s notice. 

This new technology, which Apple is coining the Ultra Retina XDR, was made in partnership with both LG Display and Samsung Display, costing Apple as much as a purported $2.9B to produce . For iPad customers, it’s potentially worth every penny as it claims to bring to market the only device that delivers this quality in display brightness and color saturation.

The iPad Pro will come in two main sizes, a 13-inch and 11-inch model, both equipped with the new tandem OLED structure. They will also be among Apple’s thinnest devices yet, with the 13-inch model measuring at 5.1mm thick and the 11-inch model resting at 5.3mm. You can even get a nano-texture glass add-on for reduced glare, but it's only available on the 1TB and 2TB options.

The 13-inch iPad Pro will start at $1,299 while the 11-inch iPad Pro is just $999. Orders for both new OLED Apple iPads officially kick off today on Apple's online store . 

More from Tom's Guide

• iPad Air 2024 release date, price, specs and latest news
• Apple announces Apple Pencil Pro with barrel roll and squeeze capabilities
• Forget the $1,299 iPad Pro — this iPad just got a permanent price cut to $349

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Ryan Epps is a Staff Writer under the TV/AV section at Tom's Guide focusing on TVs and projectors. When not researching PHOLEDs and writing about the next major innovation in the projector space, he's consuming random anime from the 90's, playing Dark Souls 3 again, or reading yet another Haruki Murakami novel. 

iPad Pro and iPad Air 2024 have a hidden upgrade iPad users have needed for years

iPad Pro OLED already has a screen issue but Apple says there’s a fix in the works

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Seth meyers skewers peacock, paramount and linda yaccarino during nbcuniversal upfront set.

"Peacock continues to prove that the easiest way to make a billion dollars, is to spend eight," the 'Late Night' host joked during NBCU's Radio City Music Hall advertising presentation.

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After the Writers Guild strike derailed his annual routine last year, Late Night host Seth Meyers returned to the stage of Radio City Music Hall Monday morning during NBCUniversal ‘s upfront presentation, where he took aim at the entertainment industry, and his own company.

Here are some of Meyers’ top jokes from the event.

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Seth meyers renews nbcuniversal pact through 2028, inside the nbcuniversal upfront: snoop dogg, penguins and a top secret 'wicked' trailer.

On advertising: “Good time to be me. Let’s be honest, it’s a great time to be you. It must feel so gratifying that eventually everyone comes back to advertising. Remember when streamers told you we’re gonna do television a new way, so I’m afraid we won’t be needing your little commercials anymore.’ Cut to a few years later, every episode of Shogun is interrupted by ‘Whopper Whopper Double Whopper.'”

“If this is your first time at upfronts, I am so sorry. You’re probably so excited, someone in the office pointing to you and said ‘Sheila’s never been to upfront, Should we send Sheila this year?’ and when she got on a plane to New York and she came to Radio City, I’m guessing like an hour ago you started to think ‘what in God’s name is this.'”

“Allow me to explain, the upfronts are where we sell ads for NBC’s amazing lineup of shows, well, not my show. My show is on at 12:30 in the morning, so instead of the upfronts we sell ours at the outbacks. Looking to get into Late Night ? Come see me out back.

“With a name like upfronts, you’d think we’d be honest and upfront about everything but that tends not to be the case. For example, I’m gonna let you guys in on something: Not every branding opportunity is unique. Sometimes it’s just a regular old branding opportunity. When you say unique branding opportunity you sound like the guys in Glengarry Glen Ross .”

On Peacock: “Peacock continues to prove that the easiest way to make a billion dollars, is to spend eight.”

“ Law and Order SVU has been renewed for its 25th season and — this is cool — It’s been on so long, the criminals from season one are now eligible for parole.”

“There’s an exciting new show, NBC has announced a new drama called The Hunting Party . It stars South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, and the dog from Frasier. I’d say Kristi Noem would make a good Real Housewife, But Andy Cohen told me she’s a lot and if he says it…”

On Bravo: “Bravo announced the Vanderpump Rules spin off The Valley has been renewed for another season. They’ve also picked up something from Tom Sandoval and are waiting to learn if it’s contagious.”

On Linda Yaccarino: “NBC is launching a new adventure competition series called Destination X , or as it was originally titled The Linda Yaccarino Story .”

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Paramount+ lands ‘we will dance again’ documentary about oct. 7 hamas terrorist attack, darren dutchyshen, longtime canadian tv sports anchor, dies at 57, ‘bridgerton’ season 3 boss on why this was the right time for polin and what’s to come in part 2, ‘abbott elementary’ and the glow up of janine teagues, ‘superman & lois’ final season gets fall spot on the cw, alfie allen, shazad latif, samira wiley to lead sky original nuclear bomb adventure series ‘atomic’.

OpenAI debuts GPT-4o ‘omni’ model now powering ChatGPT

OpenAI announced a new flagship generative AI model on Monday that they call GPT-4o — the “o” stands for “omni,” referring to the model’s ability to handle text, speech, and video. GPT-4o is set to roll out “iteratively” across the company’s developer and consumer-facing products over the next few weeks.

OpenAI CTO Mira Murati said that GPT-4o provides “GPT-4-level” intelligence but improves on GPT-4’s capabilities across multiple modalities and media.

“GPT-4o reasons across voice, text and vision,” Murati said during a streamed presentation at OpenAI’s offices in San Francisco on Monday. “And this is incredibly important, because we’re looking at the future of interaction between ourselves and machines.”

GPT-4 Turbo , OpenAI’s previous “leading “most advanced” model, was trained on a combination of images and text and could analyze images and text to accomplish tasks like extracting text from images or even describing the content of those images. But GPT-4o adds speech to the mix.

What does this enable? A variety of things. 

GPT-4o greatly improves the experience in OpenAI’s AI-powered chatbot, ChatGPT . The platform has long offered a voice mode that transcribes the chatbot’s responses using a text-to-speech model, but GPT-4o supercharges this, allowing users to interact with ChatGPT more like an assistant. 

For example, users can ask the GPT-4o-powered ChatGPT a question and interrupt ChatGPT while it’s answering. The model delivers “real-time” responsiveness, OpenAI says, and can even pick up on nuances in a user’s voice, in response generating voices in “a range of different emotive styles” (including singing). 

GPT-4o also upgrades ChatGPT’s vision capabilities. Given a photo — or a desktop screen — ChatGPT can now quickly answer related questions, from topics ranging from “What’s going on in this software code?” to “What brand of shirt is this person wearing?”

These features will evolve further in the future, Murati says. While today GPT-4o can look at a picture of a menu in a different language and translate it, in the future, the model could allow ChatGPT to, for instance, “watch” a live sports game and explain the rules to you.

“We know that these models are getting more and more complex, but we want the experience of interaction to actually become more natural, easy, and for you not to focus on the UI at all, but just focus on the collaboration with ChatGPT,” Murati said. “For the past couple of years, we’ve been very focused on improving the intelligence of these models … But this is the first time that we are really making a huge step forward when it comes to the ease of use.”

GPT-4o is more multilingual as well, OpenAI claims, with enhanced performance in around 50 languages. And in OpenAI’s API and Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service , GPT-4o is twice as fast as, half the price of and has higher rate limits than GPT-4 Turbo, the company says.

At present, voice isn’t a part of the GPT-4o API for all customers. OpenAI, citing the risk of misuse, says that it plans to first launch support for GPT-4o’s new audio capabilities to “a small group of trusted partners” in the coming weeks.

GPT-4o is available in the free tier of ChatGPT starting today and to subscribers to OpenAI’s premium ChatGPT Plus and Team plans with “5x higher” message limits. (OpenAI notes that ChatGPT will automatically switch to GPT-3.5 , an older and less capable model, when users hit the rate limit.) The improved ChatGPT voice experience underpinned by GPT-4o will arrive in alpha for Plus users in the next month or so, alongside enterprise-focused options .

In related news, OpenAI announced that it’s releasing a refreshed ChatGPT UI on the web with a new, “more conversational” home screen and message layout, and a desktop version of ChatGPT for macOS that lets users ask questions via a keyboard shortcut or take and discuss screenshots. ChatGPT Plus users will get access to the app first, starting today, and a Windows version will arrive later in the year.

Elsewhere, the GPT Store , OpenAI’s library of and creation tools for third-party chatbots built on its AI models, is now available to users of ChatGPT’s free tier. And free users can take advantage of ChatGPT features that were formerly paywalled, like a memory capability that allows ChatGPT to “remember” preferences for future interactions, upload files and photos, and search the web for answers to timely questions.

We’re launching an AI newsletter! Sign up  here  to start receiving it in your inboxes on June 5.

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The top AI announcements from Google I/O

Google’s going all in on AI — and it wants you to know it. During the company’s keynote at its I/O developer conference on Tuesday, Google mentioned “AI” more than…

Uber has a new way to solve the concert traffic problem

Uber is taking a shuttle product it developed for commuters in India and Egypt and converting it for an American audience. The ride-hail and delivery giant announced Wednesday at its…