If you want to turn your living room into a compact home theater without an elaborate setup, the AWOL Vision Aetherion Pro is built with exactly that goal in mind. It is an ultra short throw DLP projector that pairs a laser light source with pixel-shifted 4K resolution. Its biggest practical advantage is that it can sit right next to the wall or screen, so unlike a traditional long throw projector it does not need to be placed in the middle of the room. That makes it far easier to slot into a media console or TV unit.
The unit includes a manual IRIS system and an Enhanced Black Level feature, giving users control over the balance between brightness and contrast. On the gaming side, it supports 4K @ 60Hz, high refresh rate 1080p modes, and VRR.
No Shortage of Ports and Connectivity
When it comes to connectivity, this projector leaves little to be desired. It offers three HDMI 2.1 ports, USB data ports, optical audio out, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Ethernet. There is also a DisplayPort input through USB-C. It supports HDMI eARC for sending audio to a soundbar or AVR, and it can even handle 3D playback. Wireless conveniences such as a smart OS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth round out the package.
Great for Movies, Best in a Dark Room
For watching movies, this projector is excellent. Its standout strength is contrast: dark scenes have impressive depth without the raised, grayish blacks you often see on other projectors. It also has an exceptionally wide color gamut, so films look rich and saturated.
That said, its brightness is only decent, which makes it best suited to a dark or very dim living room rather than a space with a lot of ambient light. The manual IRIS lets you adjust the balance between contrast and brightness to match your particular room. It does need to be calibrated for an accurate image, but once it is dialed in, it is a strong home theater projector.
A Powerful Performer for Gaming Too
For gaming, the AWOL Vision Aetherion Pro is fantastic. With its gaming features enabled, input lag is very low, so controls feel responsive, and it supports a wide range of resolutions and refresh rates. VRR support helps reduce tearing, though there can be some artifacting within specific refresh rate ranges.
Its excellent contrast and wide color gamut make games look punchy and vibrant, especially in a darker room, since the brightness is just decent. Its one real weakness is poor image accuracy out of the box. If accurate colors matter to you in games, calibrating the unit is the way to go.
Balancing Brightness and Contrast
Brightness here sits at a decent level. It is bright enough for a dark or very dim living room, and its uniformity is excellent, so bright full-screen content looks even across the entire image. However, it is not the best choice if you need to fight much ambient light. Even so, the IRIS settings let you trade brightness for better contrast, so you can tune the image to your room and screen size.
Contrast is where it truly shines. Very dark scenes look deep and convincing, and it holds up extremely well in brighter and mixed scenes too, keeping good depth across a wide range of content. It is one of the projector's biggest strengths and a major reason it works so well for movies and cinematic gaming in a light-controlled room.
Pros
- Outstanding contrast.
- Very colorful in all content.
- A ton of gaming features with very low input lag at any resolution.
- A ton of wireless features, such as a smart OS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth support.
- A ton of ports, including multiple HDMI 2.1 inputs and DisplayPort through USB-C.
Cons
- Brightness is just decent, although you can adjust it with the IRIS setting.
- Not accurate out of the box.
- The VRR feature is nice, but has artifacting.
