Valerion's VisionMaster Kickstarter campaign raised more than $8 million in 2024, making it the most-funded campaign on the platform that year. After spending a few weeks with the flagship VisionMaster Max, Wired's reviewer is confident there are plenty of satisfied backers - which is convenient, because the projector itself seems less sure who it's for.

At $3,999, the VisionMaster Max costs far more than excellent point-and-play rivals like the Nebula X1 (9/10, WIRED Recommends), but considerably less than native 4K home-theater projectors from brands like Sony and JVC. That leaves the Max straddling two very different camps - a premium lifestyle projector on one side, a serious home-theater machine on the other.

Its compact design, built-in Google TV, and automated setup suggest the former. Optical zoom, vertical lens shift, a mechanical iris, and sophisticated black-level processing point toward the latter. It's easy to use and almost too pretty to ceiling-mount, but arguably too sophisticated to spend its life propped up on a side table. So the question remains: Who is the VisionMaster Max actually for?

The 16.5-pound unit is simple to get up and running. Google TV grants instant access to many streaming services, while auto-keystone and autofocus make positioning a frictionless process. (Because keystone correction digitally reshapes the image, heavy use can reduce resolution - but that's true for all devices with the feature.) Optical zoom, with a 0.9 to 1.5:1 throw ratio, lets you resize the picture without moving the projector, and vertical lens shift moves the image up or down without resorting to digital correction. All of which means that if you've got a blank wall and five minutes, you can stream Emily in Paris on a 90-inch screen in no time.