Best of Home Entertainment: Readers’ Choice series

LG remains a strong challenger with OLED expertise, but its share of voice hardly changed and almost all other contenders dipped in vote share, other than Hisense and Xiaomi. Both these Chinese brands are gaining vote share, and it’s not surprising considering Hisense has been more active promoting its brand over the last year, while Xiaomi has been opening up several new physical stores to further entrench itself as a credible home appliance and home entertainment brand besides its mobile phones. Discerning and value-conscious shoppers have more options now besides the local brand Prism+, and our polls reflect this as well.

Looking ahead to 2026, competition may intensify as manufacturers expand miniLED and OLED price accessibility, while Dreame is moving up and beyond just robot vacuum cleaners and wants to conquer your living room with their new TVs. With Samsung expected to roll out more AI-driven image processing and hybrid panel technologies, the brand appears well-positioned to defend its throne. The key question is whether LG’s OLED innovations or local players’ pricing strategy can meaningfully shift voter sentiment next year amid stiff competition.

Best Soundbar Brand 2025 – JBL

The results for this category align with broader consumer trends observed over the past year, where JBL has aggressively expanded its soundbar lineup across multiple price tiers, offering strong bass performance, reliable tuning, and easy TV integration. For many Singapore households, JBL’s balance of power, value and wireless connectivity has made it the go-to option for upgrading personal and room audio entertainment without breaking the bank, and this has worked in their favour to also steal consumer sentiment as a credible living room audio solution.

Bose’s slip to second place can be attributed to pricing and product segmentation. While Bose still dominates premium compact soundbars with superior clarity and dialogue enhancement, its lineup evolves more slowly, and remains positioned for buyers willing to pay for refinement rather than raw output or immersive formats. In contrast, JBL’s portfolio now supports Dolby Atmos as standard, has gamer-friendly modes, and wallet-friendly entry systems, allowing it to capture a wider base of voters.

Looking ahead, the category is set for more volatility as spatial audio, wireless satellite expansion, and ultra short-throw (UST) projector pairing gain momentum. If JBL continues pushing accessible Atmos systems while Bose sharpens its premium offerings, 2026 could see another close contest between value innovation and high-end acoustic engineering.

Best Mini Projector Brand 2025 – Lumos

Lumos takes the top spot once again, but this time with a larger vote share at 18.0%, outperforming global heavyweights such as Samsung (11.9%), Epson (11.2%), and BenQ (10.4%). 

The home-grown brand’s win is largely attributed to its strong resonance with Singapore buyers, who value compact, room-friendly entertainment solutions without premium-brand pricing. Lumos’ formula of affordable projectors with built-in speakers, modern UI, short-throw convenience, and frequent local promotions seems to hit the sweet spot of Singaporeans.

Samsung and Epson, while technically stronger in image performance and reliability, didn’t manage to grow their vote share, possibly due to their premium price and positioning. Many of their portable models still skew toward expensive price tag territory, where consumer expectations demand near-TV-like performance (check out our story on consumer behaviour and needs between TVs versus Projectors). As the category shifts toward value-driven lifestyle use rather than traditional projection, Lumos’ marketing and brand familiarity give it a decisive edge.

The broader category has also seen rising fragmentation. Brands like Xiaomi, ASUS, and Nebula (Anker) gathered competitive mid-tier vote share, but none managed to consolidate enough top-of-mind presence. For 2026, we could see new technologies like laser-based portable projectors, higher-lumen units in compact form factors, and, hopefully, more true cordless portable projection with better battery life shaping the winners.

Best Home Theatre Projector Brand 2025 – Samsung

Samsung narrowly clinches the Best Home Theatre Projector title with 21.5%, edging out Sony (21.2%) by a razor-thin margin, similar to last year’s standings. 

This is one of the closest races in the Home Entertainment category, reflecting how rapidly the premium projection market has evolved. Samsung’s rise is directly tied to the popularity of its 4K ultra-short-throw (UST) projectors, which have become a favourite among condo and HDB homeowners seeking big-screen experiences without ceiling mounts or complicated setups.

Sony’s near-tie shows its loyal base remains strong, especially among cinephiles who value its SXRD technology and contrast performance. However, the market momentum has shifted toward lifestyle-friendly UST systems, where Samsung’s marketing, retail accessibility, and sleek industrial design gave it a slight advantage.

Epson and BenQ tied at 12.6%, maintaining respectable positions due to their strong legacy in lamp-based and 3LCD systems, though they may be losing ground as UST lasers outpace conventional long-throw projectors. Looking forward, Samsung’s challenge will be sustaining innovation while competitors accelerate their own laser-UST offerings. Epson released new laser-based projectors this year to much fanfare, and this tightly contested category could see one of the biggest shake-ups in the 2026 awards.

That wraps up the Readers’ Choice voting segment for the Best of Home Entertainment 2025, but don’t forget to check out the results in these other categories too:-

Lastly, don’t forget that we’ve also published our Editor’s Choice results here to help you get the best of the best gear.