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For the past couple of years, I’ve been reviewing Ultra Short Throw Projectors and have come around to how great they indeed are. I always thought they were not very bright, and the resolution wasn’t good. But as I’ve used and reviewed more and more, that’s proven not to be the case. And the AWOL Vision LTV-3500 Pro fixes one of the last grievances I’ve had with UST projectors – that’s the brightness.
With the LTV-3500 Pro, AWOL is touting about 3500 lumens (3300 ANSI), which makes this one of the brightest UST laser projectors on the market today. That should, in theory, anyway, make it perfect for use in a room with plenty of ambient lighting.
On top of all of that, AWOL is packed in 4K resolution and Dolby Vision, as well as 3D, like it’s 2010 all over again. But is that enough to make this $5,999 projector worth your hard-earned money?
Table of Contents
- Unboxing
- Design and Build Quality
- Picture Quality
- 3D Viewing
- Gaming Performance
- Sound Quality
- Should you buy?
AWOL Vision LTV-3500 Pro Review: Unboxing
The Unboxing experience with the AWOL Vision LTV-3500 Pro is pretty much what you would expect. You get the projector, of course. As well as the remote, a few cables, and the 3D glasses. That’s right; this projector does have 3D included, but more on that later.
When DHL dropped off the LTV-3500 Pro, I got right into setting it up in my bedroom – where I test all of the projectors I review. It was around 4 PM in late October. So not quite pitch black yet, but the sun was definitely getting ready to go down in another hour or so. That means there wasn’t as much ambient lighting in that room as there could have been.
But the moment that I turned on the LTV-3500 Pro, I was amazed at how bright it was. Just to give you a bit of backstory, when you turn on the projector, it jumps to a white screen, with the AWOL logo front and center. So you can immediately see how bright it is. So, in a room without an ALR screen and ambient lighting, along with a lamp turned on, I was able to see the picture as well as I would have with an actual TV. From that moment on, I had big expectations for this projector.
Setting up the LTV-3500 Pro is pretty simple. The operating system is not very well built. Instead, AWOL is relying on you having a streaming device in your home that you can plug in. Even if you don’t, AWOL does include a Fire TV Stick 4K Max. Honestly, I did not even use it since I had just finished reviewing the new Fire TV Stick 4K Max, and this was the older model. Instead, I plugged my Apple TV into the projector.
Credit where credit is due. Good on AWOL for including a Fire TV Stick 4K Max with their projector. Sure, it’s a $60 streaming stick being included with a projector that costs 100 times as much. But that’s still a good look for the company.
AWOL Vision LTV-3500 Pro Review: Design and Build Quality
With the design on the LTV-3500 Pro, AWOL isn’t doing anything spectacular. It’s a plastic shell that really looks like a big Xbox lying on its side. And that’s fine. The design isn’t that big of a deal on a projector. Honestly, you do want it to really blend into the rest of your home instead of standing out. I have definitely seen better-looking projectors, but I never once thought, “This is an ugly projector.” in fact, the way it looked never really crossed my mind.
Along the back of the LTV-3500 Pro, you’ll find all of the ports, and there’s plenty of them, too. On the back right side, you’ll find the power outlet. Above that are two HDMI ports, including one that does e-ARC, as well as an AV in, LAN, USB-A, an Optical port, and a service port. Now, to the left of that array of ports is a door that can pop off. Inside that door, you’ll find the third HDMI port, as well as a USB port for plugging in a streaming device – like the Fire TV Stick 4K Max that I mentioned earlier. Not only can you plug it in, but it can get power right there in that little compartment.
I know it’s a pretty minor thing, but that is by far my favorite design feature on AWOL’s projectors. I loved it on the LTV-3500 and am glad they’ve decided to keep it for the Pro model. If you’re like me and are only plugging in a single streaming device, that means far fewer wires, and it makes for a much better-looking setup.
Let’s talk about the specs for a little bit here. The LTV-3500 Pro runs at 4K resolution. This is being done with a Texas Instruments 4K DMD chip. It’s not a native 4K resolution, but the 1080p image is being shifted around so fast that it is able to produce 4K pixels. As mentioned, this runs at a maximum brightness of 3300 ANSI. That comes out to about 1,000 nits of brightness. Which is fairly similar to many high-end TVs. Like Samsung’s QD-OLED TV is right around 1,000 nits. So that is rather impressive, to say the least.
The LTV-3500 Pro uses a tri-chroma laser here, which means that there are individual lasers for red, green, and blue. This is different from cheaper UST projectors that would use a phosphor wheel to produce the colors. And that results in a much more vibrant, distinct, and accurate color gamut. AWOL Vision claims that it can cover 107% of the REC.2020 color space and 149% of the DCI-P3 color space. Meaning that these colors are very impressive for a laser projector.
Like with most projectors, AWOL does not offer HDMI 2.1 for gaming at 4K120. So you’d have to be happy with 4K60 here; really, it’s more like 1080p60. And where I’m only playing my Nintendo Switch OLED on this projector, that’s not a big deal for me.
AWOL Vision LTV-3500 Pro Review: Picture quality
In my bedroom, I have a chalk-painted wall, which gives me a relatively similar experience to using an ALR (Ambient Light Reflecting) screen for a projector. This is the best case for someone like me who lives in an apartment and can’t hang up an ALR Screen, and the floor-rise screens are also pretty expensive. It does result in the picture being a tiny bit darker, but it’s not a huge problem.
AWOL did offer to send their own screen, which I declined because I wanted to put this projector in the same space as the last few I’ve reviewed. That way, the testing was as similar as possible. And I have to say, this is by far the brightest projector available, by a large margin too. As I mentioned already, I knew it would be bright right away when the screen turned on and nearly blinded me.
I watch TV quite a bit in my bedroom over the weekend with plenty of ambient light in my room, and sometimes it can be a tough experience, depending on if the show or movie I’m watching is pretty dark. Like Ruthless or Manifest. But, with the LTV-3500 Pro, that has not been an issue at all. Even with the ceiling light on in my bedroom, I could still see the picture almost perfectly. It really is pretty impressive, to say the least.
Basically, if you’ve been holding out on getting a UST projector because of the brightness, that hold-out is over. This projector is brighter than my Amazon Omni QLED TV that’s in the living room.
When it comes to the actual picture here, AWOL does give you quick access to make adjustments to the images. Whether that’s adjusting the hue, saturation, or brightness of each color or any other aspect of the picture. You can do this all without going back to the home screen. This is clutch, especially if you’re an image snob and want the best possible picture on each video you watch.
Unlike regular projectors, UST projectors don’t usually have keystone correction included. And that’s because it’s sitting right in front of the wall or the screen. Instead, it has four feet that can be adjusted to get the straightest picture possible. This can take some time to set up, but it does work. And you shouldn’t need to adjust it again unless you move it somewhere. But you are able to adjust the focus in case things seem to be out of focus. It can happen, but will be pretty rare. It’ll only really happen if you move the projector at all.
This projector is able to output up to a 120-inch picture. In order to do that, you’d need to put the projector on the floor unless you have really high ceilings. And it needs to be about 13.6 inches away from the wall. This is an ultra-short throw, but it does still need a bit of space. Honestly, unless you have a huge space for this, you don’t need to go to the full 120-inches. Keep in mind that the smaller the picture, the better the details are in the picture.
Dolby Vision is included, along with HDR, which helps to give you a great experience with this projector. To really take advantage of this, I watched a few titles on MAX that were shot in Dolby Vision. I watched The Dark Knight, which if you’ve seen that movie, you’ll know that it is very dark, but more importantly, it is shot in Dolby Vision. On this projector, it looks truly amazing. It’s dark; however, thanks to the extra brightness here, it is not hard to see at all. I never had issues seeing the movie, and that was with some ambient lighting going on in the room.
AWOL Vision LTV-3500 Pro Review: 3D Viewing
3D, in my experience, has always been a bit of a gimmick. Especially in movie theaters, it’s just a reason to get you to pay more to watch a movie. But with the LTV-3500 Pro, it’s a bit more than just a gimmick. It actually works really well. In the box, AWOL does include a pair of 3D glasses. Now, these aren’t those flimsy ones that you’d find at a movie theater. These are pretty good quality and, in fact, need to be charged. Sadly, these do use a micro USB charger. Maybe we need to get the European Union going on that, too. But you turn them on with a power button right above the lenses and play some 3D content on the projector, and that’s it. Pretty easy to set up.
Now, how well does it look? Honestly, I didn’t notice a huge difference with the sample 3D videos that AWOL included on a USB stick. I am someone who wears glasses, so I was trying them over my glasses and also without my glasses. I did notice a bit more of a difference with them over my glasses, as I could actually see what was going on, obviously. But it’s not something I’d use all that often, unfortunately. It’s a cool feature, but not something I’d buy this projector specifically for.
I still think that for most people, 3D video is going to remain on virtual reality headsets and not a 100-inch projector.
AWOL Vision LTV-3500 Pro Review: Gaming
So, as mentioned before, this is not going to be a “gaming projector.” It doesn’t have HDMI 2.1; it doesn’t even have a native 4K resolution. So if you’re thinking of buying this for the ultimate gaming screen for the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X, you might want to think again. There’s no 4K120 here. There is 4K60, but it’s really more like 1080p60. And, to be honest, it did not matter to me. I plugged in my Nintendo Switch OLED to the projector, and worked like a charm. Played some Splatoon on this massive screen, which was pretty hilarious to me.
I also used it to play some Apple Arcade games on my Apple TV 4K, which also performed quite well. Of course, the majority of those are not super graphic intensive. So they should still look pretty good. This isn’t a projector that should be centered around gaming, but it can do some gaming. So you’d want to buy it for your living room or home theater and then play some games like Cyberpunk 2077 when you want on it.
AWOL Vision LTV-3500 Pro Review: Sound quality
Typically, in TVs, the TV is so thin that there’s not much space for a speaker. So the sound quality sounds pretty bad. Even on the more premium TVs, you’d get a better experience with a cheap soundbar. That’s not always the case with projectors since there is more space available. However, with the LTV-3500 Pro, it’s still not perfect. It sounds decent enough, but I’d still plug in a good soundbar to it. I’ve been using it with the Sonos Beam Gen 2.
The bass is decent. It’s not quite underwhelming, but it’s not going to be shaking your home either. Which, if you’d prefer that, then this is a good thing for you. The mids and highs are pretty crisp and clear. All around, the sound is not bad by any means. But those audiophiles out there will definitely not like this one. You can still plug in a soundbar to it, thanks to the HDMI e-ARC port and the optical port available on the back.
AWOL does have Dolby Atmos included in the LTV-3500 Pro, so as mentioned, you will get some good audio here. But I still believe that a soundbar is going to be better. It won’t look as great in the setup, however. So that is something else to keep in mind. If you’re putting this in a bedroom, then it might not need a soundbar. However, if you are putting this in a home theater or a living room, where you’re going to spend a lot of time watching content, then you will want a soundbar.
Should you buy the AWOL Vision LTV-3500 Pro or stick with an actual TV?
If money wasn’t an issue, I’d definitely use this to replace my Amazon Omni QLED TV in the living room. However, this projector is not mine to keep, and it’ll be going back to AWOL in a couple of days. So I’ll be sticking with my TV. But I will definitely miss this projector. I’ve absolutely loved using this projector over the past month and a half. It’s such a great experience, and even though it is $5,999, I still think this is a really great value. You could definitely spend more here on a UST projector and get a far worse experience. Currently, you can get an AWOL ALR Screen included with your purchase, which is a $1,400 value, making this an even sweeter deal.
Obviously, a TV at this price is likely going to be just as bright and just as large. It’ll also likely have HDMI 2.1 for 4K120 gaming as well as VRR and ALLM, making it a much better gaming experience. But for those who are just couch potatoes and watching Netflix or Hulu all day, this is a really good value.