NothingProjector 120 inch Fresnel UST Screen Review

I always enjoy testing new products related to video projection, especially those that truly promise to improve the overall viewing experience in my living room. Having tested several UST projector screens over the past few years, I’ve become quite familiar with how screen fabrics have evolved, whether we’re talking about lenticular materials with horizontal ridges or Fresnel-based designs.

However, what I experienced with the screen I’m about to present genuinely surprised me. Hands down, this is the best screen I’ve ever tested, regardless of price.

Let’s start this article with a clear statement first. As with every review you read on Projectorjunkies or watch on our YouTube channel, this one also is not sponsored. No one pays me, no one tells me what to write, and I don’t promote products by writing nonsense just to convince people to buy them and earn profit. If that’s the kind of review you’re looking for, you’re in the wrong place, I’m sure you can easily find plenty of those out there.

NothingProjector

This company has been active in the projection industry since 2018, specializing in UST projectors as well as the design and production of projection screens. Recently, they’ve significantly expanded their screen division, offering a wide variety of options and introducing innovative fabric technologies such as the ALR “Black Series,” which I reviewed previously here.

With excellent prices, great customer service, and reliable after-sales support every time I’ve needed it, Nothingprojector has become my go-to destination whenever I’m looking for a new screen or want to explore the latest products to test and share with you. I believe we should always acknowledge companies that respect their customers and provide quality service, it’s our duty to do so.

Unboxing & Build Quality

The screen comes packaged in the same exceptional all-in-one box I had encountered with the Valerion Fresnel screen. Everything inside is neatly organized within the hard cylindrical case that holds the rolled-up fabric. The package also includes double outer cardboard boxes, providing one of the best levels of shipping protection I’ve ever seen for any product. This screen will never arrive damaged to the buyer, even if someone were to throw it out of an airplane without a parachute.

Assembly requires time and patience, but it rewards you with the perfect alignment of its aluminum frame and the outstanding quality of every single component. Even the accessories (screws, tension plates, etc.) are top-shelf in quality.

The fabric itself is quite thick and rigid, as it consists of multiple layers, and you simply can’t create wrinkles on it like you can with standard ALR screens, even if you try. The good part is that the front surface is covered with a hard matte translucent film that protects the internal layers and allows you to clean the fabric with water or a mild cleaning solution without causing any damage whatsoever.

Tensioning such a stiff and thick fabric results in a perfectly flat surface with zero chance of developing wrinkles either during assembly or in the future. Once the screen is fully assembled, you end up standing in front of a flawlessly flat and perfectly uniform projection surface.

The tensioning mechanism uses metal plates that screw directly into the frame, rather than the spring-mounted design found in most ALR screens. I consider this approach by far the best and most reliable solution. It’s also practically impossible to make a mistake during installation or to damage the fabric in the process.

Once assembled, the screen weighs 18 kg (about 39 lbs), and its dimensions are 268 × 152 × 37 mm. The packaged weight exceeds 30 kg, reaching around 34 kg (≈ 75 lbs)!

I forgot to mention that this screen comes with super-slim 8.5 mm bezels, something I’m a big fan of as it gives a fantastic sense of immersion while watching your movie.

The Technology Behind

Behind this fabric lies the latest generation of Fresnel screen technology. The design follows the half-circle Fresnel lens structure, consisting of eight layers, each responsible for a specific optical function contributing to the final image performance. Among these eight layers, in addition to the Fresnel, reflecting, and diffusion layers, there’s also a newly developed next-generation anti-speckle layer, greatly improved over older fresnel designs.

The arrangement of the half-circle Fresnel stripes allows them to receive and reflect light only from below at a steep angle. This means the screen can be paired with UST projectors featuring throw ratios from 0.16–0.17 up to 0.25–0.27, covering practically every UST projector currently on the market.

It’s also important to mention that this model features a highly advanced columnar layer, consisting of micro vertical columns (imagine them as tiny, densely packed micro-walls that act like miniature window blinds). This structure blocks light coming from above or from the sides (basically from everywhere), providing ambient light rejection from all directions except the lower one, where the projector is positioned. The overall ambient light rejection reaches an impressive 95%, and that number is absolutely real.

The protective film layer is also, in my opinion, a very important part of the design. It gives you a sense of confidence about the screen’s longevity, since it eliminates the worry of getting it dirty, you can simply clean it like a simple glass surface.

The screen’s gain has been reduced compared to earlier generations, now rated at 1.25 instead of the 1.6–1.8 of older models.

Overall, we’re looking at a state-of-the-art Fresnel screen, representing a major leap forward in this technology and further improving on the already impressive performance of previous fresnel designs.

Measurements

I performed a series of measurements to give you a clear picture and let you draw your own conclusions.

This is the calibration on a white gain 1.0 screen, used as the reference.

And this is the behavior of the Fresnel screen compared to the white one. As we can see, and quite surprisingly, unlike all the ALR screens I’ve measured so far, the Nothingprojector screen actually makes the image warmer instead of cooler, something I definitely wasn’t expecting!

These are the measurements after calibrating the projector directly on the Fresnel screen.

And now we get to the interesting part of the measurements, because not only does the Vividstorm screen enter the game, but so does ambient light. So, I calibrated the projector separately for each screen, achieving a deltaE error below 2 in all three cases, and then I took measurements with the room lights turned on.

The white screen showed the worst performance, not only destroyed the RGB balance of the white point but also completely ruining the gamma.

The Vividstorm demonstrated noticeably better performance overall, delivering more accurate white balance, a lower deltaE error, and a smaller shift in the gamma curve.

And now we get to the Fresnel measurement. As you can see, if I hadn’t taken these readings myself, I would hardly believe that this level of performance was achieved with the room lights on. There is practically no shift in white balance or gamma, a truly remarkable result that exceeded all my expectations.

Final, the brightness measurements for all three screens.

From these measurements, we can see that the Fresnel screen delivers a gain of 1.39, while the Vividstorm measures at 0.57. The difference in brightness between them is truly enormous. The Fresnel screen produces about 40% more brightness than the white screen and more than 140% higher brightness compared to the Vividstorm. Truly impressive results.

Performance

Where do I even begin? Anyone who sees this screen in person will be left absolutely speechless. The viewing surface, as seen from the front, is darker than any other screen I’ve ever tested, almost black.

Even compared to a Vividstorm screen, the difference is so obvious.

This extremely dark surface helps the human eye perceive deeper black levels, even from a low-contrast UST projector, as if you were looking into a black hole. Blacks are truly black, in-scene contrast skyrockets, and colors pop off the screen as if the image has come to life.

The performance of this screen is simply breathtaking and difficult to put into words.

Without a doubt, this is the best-performing screen I’ve ever tested, in fact, the best screen I’ve ever seen overall, period.

What’s even more impressive is that, with the 1.39 gain I measured, it provides a noticeable boost in brightness during bright scenes. You’ll honestly think you’ve changed your projector for one with an extra 2,000 lumens once you see it in action in your living room.

My biggest surprise, however, came when I tested the NothingProjector Fresnel screen side by side with the Vividstorm, a screen already known for its excellent contrast boost performance. The result truly speaks for itself. No screen stands a chance next to this Fresnel, none.

When it comes to ambient light rejection, things get even more interesting. And I don’t just mean the lab measurements, which are already almost unbelievable, I mean real-world use. No matter how I tried to challenge the screen with different lighting conditions (natural daylight, side lighting, ceiling lights, even a direct LED flashlight aimed from the viewing position), I simply couldn’t make it lose composure. Under any condition, the screen never dropped more than 5–10% of its total performance, not even once. Simply astonishing.

As for laser speckle, I know that for many of you this is an important factor when choosing a screen (luckily, I’m one of those who aren’t bothered by it at all). I have good news, laser speckle on this Fresnel screen is very limited, almost invisible in practice. It’s on a completely different level compared to all other ALR screens I’ve tested.

The only drawback of this screen is the somewhat narrower viewing angle compared to a traditional lenticular UST screens. It’s not as noticeable as on my Valerion Fresnel screen for instance, but it’s there, and I had to mention it.

I tested the screen with the Nexigo Aurora MKII, in my opinion, the ultimate UST projector when it comes to contrast and black levels. The combination of these two is truly explosive. The extra gain gives the MKII’s image an added punch, while the incredible contrast levels of this unique projector are showcased on this Fresnel screen in a truly exceptional way. Honestly, this combination delivered one of the most complete and satisfying projected images I’ve seen in recent years.

As always, I’ve prepared a short video so you can see this Fresnel screen in action and draw your own conclusions. Enjoy!

Conclusion

After spending several weeks testing and measuring this screen, I can confidently say that it delivers something truly special. This Fresnel screen isn’t just an upgrade, it’s a major leap forward in projection screen technology overall. Its ability to maintain accurate color balance, stable gamma, and outstanding brightness even under ambient light conditions is simply unmatched.

From the moment you unbox it to the final image on your wall, everything about this screen radiates precision and quality. The build is excellent, the materials are top-class, and the optical performance borders on unbelievable. Whether you pair it with a mid-range or a high-end RGB laser UST projector, the improvement in contrast, black level, and perceived image depth is instantly visible.

If you’re serious about UST projection and want the absolute best visual performance currently possible, this is the screen to get, hands down.

It’s a premium and expensive screen, produced exclusively in a 120-inch size, but trust me, it’s worth every single cent.

Here is the official link of the screen https://nothingprojector.com/products/nothing-projector-120-inch-fresnel-optical-screen-for-ultra-short-throw-projector

Don’t go anywhere, explosive comparisons and many exciting reviews of new models are on the way, and I’m sure you’ll find them very interesting!

Until my next review, enjoy your home cinema to the fullest my friends!

Nikos Tsolas