The Ricoh UHL3660 is a 4K ultra-short-throw (UST) laser projector with a sharp 3840 x 2160 resolution and a bright 6,500-lumen output. It uses DLP technology and can project images from 80 to 160 inches diagonally while sitting just inches from the screen. It’s priced around $6,000.
Building on Ricoh’s professional projector lineup, the UHL3660 combines powerful features with the convenience of a 4K UST design. With an ultra-short throw ratio of 0.24, it can create an 85-inch image from less than one inch away or a 160-inch image from under 15 inches.
This projector delivers vivid, sharp images thanks to Ricoh’s OptiBright laser engine, covering 87.8% of the DCI-P3 color space for great color accuracy—even in rooms with lots of ambient light.
Installation is flexible, supporting standard and portrait modes, plus full 360-degree rotation. It also includes keystone and geometric correction tools for projecting on uneven or oddly shaped surfaces.
Built for heavy use, the UHL3660 runs 24/7 with a long 40,000-hour lifespan in LONG LIFE mode. It’s also dust-resistant with an IP6X rating, making it ideal for indoor spaces, covered outdoor areas, and public venues like stores, conference rooms, and museums.
Let’s take a closer look at Ricoh’s only ultra-short-throw 4K projector in their current lineup.
+ 6500 ANSI Lumens of Brightness
+ 0.65-inch DLP Panel
+ Covers 87.8% DCI-P3 Color Gamut
+ Good HDR Image Quality
+ High Quality Ricoh Optics
+ Excellent Build Quality and Design
– 36 dB of Fan Noise
– Limited WiFi Functionality
– No ultrawide (21;9) Web Meeting Mode
– Small Hotspot in Upper Right Corner
OVERVIEW
The Ricoh UHL3660 is the company’s first professional 4K ultra-short-throw, high-brightness projector.
Ricoh, a well-known name in projectors, brings its global experience to this model. Among their 2025 lineup of eight professional projectors, the UHL3660 is the only one with 4K resolution—offering nearly four times the detail of the others. This makes it perfect for showing crisp, high-res content on very large screens.
Like the rest of Ricoh’s 2025 pro series, the UHL3660 is designed to meet the needs of business and education customers by focusing on strong specs, great picture quality, and reliability.
The Ricoh UHL3660 uses a 0.65-inch DLP chip that delivers top-notch brightness and vibrant colors.
Thanks to Ricoh’s OptiBright technology—which stacks multiple laser diodes and phosphor wheels—the UHL3660 has two laser light sources that work together to boost picture quality and reliability.
OptiBright combines light from two powerful laser diodes through phosphor wheels to create a single, super-bright laser beam. This lets the projector reach a rated brightness of 6,500 lumens, so it can show clear, vivid images even in bright rooms like lecture halls, boardrooms, museums, and stores.
The twin laser setup also adds reliability. If one laser diode fails, the projector keeps running without interruption, just at a bit lower brightness. This dual-laser design is built to last, with a guaranteed light source life of up to 20,000 hours in CONSTANT POWER mode (even running all day, every day), and up to 40,000 hours in LONG LIFE mode.
The UHL3660 also offers a solid 5,000,000:1 contrast ratio. While deep cinematic blacks aren’t its main focus, it still performs better than most professional projectors in its class.
Ricoh designed the UHL3660 with a focus on brightness and vibrant colors. It can show up to 1.07 billion colors, creating lifelike images that work well even in rooms with lots of ambient light. While it’s not the most color-accurate projector by home theater standards, it offers more than enough color quality for classrooms, boardrooms, trade shows, and events.
The UHL3660 supports HDR, which means it can show a wider range of brightness than regular projectors. This improves contrast and reveals more details in both dark and bright scenes. HDR helps deliver more accurate and vivid colors, making presentations and videos look more realistic.
Because of HDR, the UHL3660 can reach higher peak brightness than standard content, keeping images clear even in bright rooms. Besides entertainment, this projector works great for HDR content created specifically for education, retail, events, and museums—helping grab attention exactly when and where it’s needed.
The UHL3660 uses a large 0.65-inch Texas Instruments DLP chip with a native 1920 x 1080 resolution. By shifting the image in four directions, it creates a sharp 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) picture. This bigger chip gathers more light than the smaller 0.47-inch chips found in many home theater and some pro projectors, helping it deliver better black levels and more detail in dark scenes.
Since professional projectors are often used in places like convention centers or even outdoors, they can be exposed to dust and dirt, which can shorten their lifespan. To prevent this, Ricoh sealed the UHL3660’s light engine, earning it an IP6X dustproof rating. This means the projector is well-protected even in very dusty conditions—perfect for rental setups or tough environments.
In professional video production for trade shows and events, speed is key—faster setup means lower costs. The Ricoh UHL3660 helps with this by offering flexible installation options, including 360-degree mounting. You can install it on the ceiling, floor, or wall at any angle to fit your space perfectly.
Thanks to its ultra-short 0.24 throw ratio, it can project a huge 160-inch image from less than 15 inches away. This is great for conference rooms, classrooms, or digital signage because it avoids shadows from people walking in front of the projector and saves space.
The UHL3660 delivers sharp, vibrant 4K UHD images with HDR support and accurate colors. It supports multiple aspect ratios: 16:9, 16:10, and 4:3. It has strong connectivity options, including HDMI 2.0, HDBaseT, and wireless Miracast for easy content sharing from Windows and Android devices.
Ricoh offers a free management tool that lets you remotely control and monitor up to 100 projectors. Using PJLink, it provides real-time status, performance updates, and alerts to help keep everything running smoothly.
Need an even bigger display? You can easily combine two UHL3660 projectors. Built-in image correction makes multi-projector setups simple—no extra gear or special software required.
HARDWARE
CHASSIS
The Ricoh UHL3660 is an ultra-short throw projector that’s a bit bigger and heavier than typical home theater models—but not by much. This makes sense since it houses two laser light sources with phosphor wheels and a strong cooling system to support its bright 6,500 lumens. In terms of noise, it’s actually quieter than some home projectors I’ve tested—more on that later in the review.
The projector measures 20.87 inches wide, 18.5 inches deep, and 5.47 inches high (530 x 470 x 139 mm), and weighs 25.4 lbs (11.5 kg). Compared to the Nexigo Aurora Pro, a home ultra-short throw projector I recently reviewed, the Ricoh is an inch narrower, two inches deeper, and only three pounds heavier.
Like most ultra-short throw models, the lens and sensor sit on the top. The front panel faces the audience and includes an air intake, exhaust vent, and three indicator lights visible from the front and top. Next to the lights is a full control panel, so technicians can adjust settings without a remote.
On the left side, you’ll find another air intake and a built-in three-speaker sound system. The bottom has five threaded mounting points compatible with Ricoh and third-party mounts. There are also two adjustable feet that extend up to 20 mm and allow a tilt of up to 3 degrees.
All the input and output ports are on the right side of the UHL3660, along with a second cooling exhaust vent. This panel includes two RJ45 network ports, two micro USB service ports, two USB Type-A ports (one powers external HDMI devices), a nine-pin RS-232 port, two HDMI 2.0 inputs, and one HDMI 2.0 output.
The projector has built-in WiFi, but it’s mainly for IP-based control rather than streaming. It does support wireless screen mirroring via Miracast. There’s also a hidden compartment underneath the projector to safely hold external devices like digital signage modules or HDMI sticks (such as Fire Stick, Roku, or Google TV). This keeps these devices tucked away, avoiding any dangling cables or damage.
The remote control has several sections. At the top, you’ll find buttons for POWER, ECO mode, and input selection (including WiFi and HDBaseT). The middle has standard navigation buttons plus quick-access keys for INPUT, AV MUTE, PICTURE, and MENU around the D-pad.
The bottom section is a number pad, with each button doubling as shortcuts for popular features like VOLUME, FOCUS, MAGNIFY, ASPECT, and DISTORTION (image geometry). I’m glad Ricoh included dedicated volume buttons on the remote—it’s a nice touch.
The projector’s lens offers excellent focus from corner to corner, which is important for big images up to 160 inches. This sharp focus also helps when blending images from multiple projectors, creating smooth transitions where they overlap.
With a 0.24 throw ratio, the lens can project images between 85 and 160 inches. Ricoh provides several alignment tools, including a geometry adjustment that lets installers fine-tune the image using four-corner or six-point grid controls. There’s even an advanced grid option with 2,000 adjustable points, perfect for projecting on curved or irregular surfaces—not just flat screens.
For quicker setups, Ricoh also offers keystone corrections: up to 5 degrees up, 20 degrees down, and 15 degrees left or right. These tools make installation faster and easier, saving both time and money.
Ricoh offers easy focus adjustment on the UHL3660, which you can control using the remote, the top control panel, or Ricoh’s software tools.
The projector’s menu is designed for professionals, with main categories listed on the left and sub-menus on the right. It’s straightforward to navigate, giving quick access to common settings as well as advanced options.
The menu is well-organized and responsive, with almost no delay between pressing buttons and seeing changes on the screen.
PERFORMANCE
COLOR REPRODUCTION
We don’t usually expect great color from professional projectors because they focus mainly on brightness to handle tough lighting environments like rooms with harsh fluorescent or sodium lights. So when I say the Ricoh UHL3660’s color performance is good, that really means something—especially compared to others in its class.
The UHL3660 covers about 87% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is solid for a professional projector. It’s not ideal for a home theater, but it’s a great choice for places like houses of worship or retail spaces where you want your digital signs and displays to stand out. Ricoh’s Natural Color Enhancer (NCE) technology is a big part of this. Turn off NCE, and the colors look like a typical professional projector—less impressive. So, well done, Ricoh! This is a big step up from their previous models.
Overall, the image looks natural with no annoying greenish-blue tint you often see on professional projectors—except in the BRIGHT mode. The UHL3660 offers five picture presets:
BRIGHT: For super bright rooms with lots of ambient light. The picture is cool-toned with muted colors and contrast. Think of this as an emergency mode.
STANDARD: A nice balance between brightness and color, perfect for presentations in schools or offices.
VIVID: Boosts colors, great for venues with some light that might wash out the image. Makes slides and graphics pop without being overwhelming.
NATURAL: The most color-accurate mode, warmer and ideal for HDR and color-sensitive content. This is the closest thing to a “cinema” mode on a professional projector.
DICOM-SIM: Designed for medical images like X-rays and MRIs. Perfect for medical teaching, though not for actual diagnostics.
Out of the box, the UHL3660 produces great images for presentations and graphics. It can also handle entertainment content well. With some calibration, you can sharpen the image even more. This projector is built for business and education, not as a dedicated home theater device.
All five presets can be customized and your settings will stay unless you reset the projector.
BRIGHTNESS
The Ricoh UHL3660 is the company’s first ultra-short-throw 4K projector in its new lineup. Like other Ricoh models, it’s very bright and can easily project larger images than its official maximum of 160 inches diagonal.
Brightness is one of the UHL3660’s standout features, along with its 4K resolution and ultra-short-throw design. During testing, the projector showed a sharp, clear image, especially with 4K content. The brightness was even across the screen, except for a small hotspot in the upper right corner. I only noticed this when displaying very bright white images—it was subtle and didn’t show up with most other content.
Ricoh rates the UHL3660’s maximum brightness at 6,500 lumens. To check this, I measured the brightness in the projector’s BRIGHT mode, the brightest preset, taking readings slightly off-center.
The UHL3660 reached 6,973 ANSI lumens in BRIGHT mode—almost 500 lumens brighter than Ricoh’s rating, which is impressive.
Brightness by Picture Mode:
| Picture Mode | Brightness (ANSI Lumens) |
|---|---|
| BRIGHT | 6,973 |
| STANDARD | 6,649 |
| NATURAL | 6,046 |
| VIVID | 6,437 |
| DICOM-SIM | 6,049 |
BLACK LEVEL AND SHADOW DETAIL
The Ricoh UHL3660 doesn’t deliver the deep blacks and subtle shadow details you’d expect from a dedicated home theater projector. Even in ECO mode with lower brightness, blacks look more like dark grays. But for a professional projector pushing 6,500 lumens, it still offers impressive black levels and good detail in dark scenes.
Most professional users probably won’t worry too much about perfect black depth. In fact, those who do care might be pleasantly surprised by how well the UHL3660 performs for its class. For example, a modern art museum using it for digital exhibits would find it more than capable.
Business projectors like this are built to fight against ambient light, which can wash out colors and contrast. The UHL3660’s bright 6,500 lumens easily overpowers most room lighting.
Being an ultra-short throw projector, it also pairs well with ambient light rejecting (ALR) screens. This combo can boost perceived black levels without losing any of the projector’s brightness — which it has plenty of.
As expected for a bright DLP projector with a large 0.65-inch Texas Instruments chip, blacks lean toward dark gray, but still look good.
Ricoh also lets you adjust brightness, contrast, and color temperature, so you can fine-tune the picture to fit classrooms, boardrooms, or any professional space.
HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE
The Ricoh UHL3660 supports High Dynamic Range (HDR), which boosts contrast, brightness, and color depth for a richer, more lifelike image. HDR content shows deeper blacks and brighter highlights than standard video.
You can adjust the main picture settings even when using HDR, so the image can be fine-tuned to your liking and the content you’re showing. The projector works with popular HDR formats like HDR10 and HLG, supporting a wide range of HDR sources.
When playing HDR content, the UHL3660 shows better detail in dark areas and deeper blacks, especially in the NATURAL picture mode. This mode seems designed to make the most of HDR’s benefits.
TEXT AND PRESENTATIONS
For this review, I connected my computer to the Ricoh UHL3660 using HDMI. Text looked sharp and easy to read throughout, even in smaller font sizes.
Interestingly, the sharpness setting is turned down by default in all preset picture modes—but the image still looks clear. I didn’t feel the need to adjust it, even when projecting at the full 160-inch screen size. On a 100-inch screen, text was still readable from 25 feet away.
Among the presets, STANDARD mode gave the best balance of color, brightness, and contrast for everyday use. That said, all modes handled slides, documents, and graphics well. Even spreadsheets looked crisp, so this projector should perform great even at large screen sizes.
SOUND
The Ricoh UHL3660 comes with a built-in sound system that includes two 3W stereo speakers and a 5W subwoofer. It gets loud enough for most classrooms, boardrooms, or meeting spaces. For larger venues or events where audio quality matters more, using an external sound system is a better choice.
In testing, the built-in speakers delivered clear sound at various volumes, with only slight distortion at the highest levels. The small subwoofer even added a bit of mid-bass, which is rare for projectors in this category. Overall, the audio works well for presentations and signage in medium-sized rooms.
As for fan noise, it’s noticeable but not distracting—especially in professional environments. Ricoh rates it at 36 dB in NORMAL mode and 27 dB in ECO mode, which is pretty quiet for a projector this bright and even comparable to some home models.
SUMMARY
The Ricoh UHL3660 isn’t the only ultra-short throw (UST) projector in the professional space, but it stands out in some important ways. In our tests, it exceeded Ricoh’s rated 6,500 lumens, meaning it can easily handle bright environments while still delivering vibrant, high-quality images.
This projector combines powerful brightness with a large 0.65-inch DLP chip and 4K resolution (via Texas Instruments’ XPR technology). While the native chip resolution is 1080p, it uses fast pixel shifting to display true 4K (3840 x 2160). Many competing projectors in this class only offer WUXGA (1920 x 1200) or use smaller 0.47-inch chips. The larger 0.65-inch chip has real advantages: better contrast, deeper blacks, fewer visible pixels (thanks to reduced screen door effect), and improved heat management—which is great for long or 24/7 operation.
At the time of writing, there’s really nothing quite like the UHL3660 on the market for under $6,000 from a well-known brand.
Beyond the hardware, Ricoh includes its Natural Color Enhancement (NCE) tech, helping the UHL3660 reach up to 87.8% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. The five picture presets are surprisingly well-tuned for a pro projector, and there’s also a full color management system for more advanced adjustments—like gamma, black levels, and wall color correction.
Connectivity is strong, with two HDMI 2.0 ports, HDBaseT for long cable runs and control, plus wired/wireless LAN, RS-232C, and a dedicated HDMI/audio output. Miracast is supported for wireless screen sharing, and there’s a built-in compartment to house streaming devices or media players, perfect for digital signage or retail applications.
The Ricoh UHL3660 is a compelling 4K UST projector for professionals. Its ultra-short throw design makes it ideal for tight spaces, and the combination of brightness, sharpness, and color quality is impressive. With solid connectivity and advanced color tools, it’s a great option for businesses, schools, museums, and more.
Yes, $6,000 might sound steep—but considering the specs and performance, it’s a strong value in the high-brightness pro projector category.
Thinking about buying the Ricoh UHL3660?
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✅ Pros
Great value at a $6,000 MSRP
Exceeds Ricoh’s 6,500-lumen brightness rating
Laser light source lasts up to 20,000 hours (NORMAL mode)
Fully enclosed light engine – no filter changes needed
High-quality Ricoh lens with easy digital focus via remote, panel, or IP control
Built-in geometric correction, warping, and edge blending for faster setup
360° installation + Portrait mode for flexible mounting
Edge blending supports side-by-side projection setups
Designed for 24/7 operation
Quick resume (fast on/off)
Works with RS232, AMX, Crestron RoomView, and Extron IPLink systems
❌ Cons
No 3D support
Wi-Fi is Miracast-only – no built-in streaming apps
Remote control isn’t backlit
Slight hotspot in the upper-right corner when showing very bright white content
JVC DLA-NZ500 – SPECIFICATIONS
| Full Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Projector Model | UHL3660 |
| Price (MSRP) | $6000 |
| Imager Type | DLP 0.65 inch |
| Displayed Resolution | 3840 x 2160 pixels |
| Native Resolution | 1920 x 1080 pixels |
| Brightness (Manufacturer Claim) | 6500 Lumens |
| Light Source Type | OptiBright Dual Blue Laser Phosphor |
| Contrast Ratio | 5,000,000:1 (∞:1 Dynamic) |
| Lens Throw Ratio | |
| Power Zoom/Focus | No |
| Lens Shift | No |
| Interchangeable Lens | No |
| Ultra Short Throw | Yes |
| Native Aspect Ratio | 16:9 (Widescreen) |
| 4K/120 fps | No |
| 3D | No |
| Speakers | Yes |
| Noise Level (-db) | 27 dB/36 dB |
| Low Lag Gaming | No |
| Smart Functionality | No |
| Business | Yes |
| Classroom | Yes |
| Portable | No |
| Special Features | HDR10, 6500 lumens, Ultra Short Throw |
| Networking | Dual RJ45 Lan |
| Dimensions (WxDxH) | 20.87″ W x 18.5 “D x 5.47” H (530 x 470 x 139 mm) |
| Weight | 25.4 lbs (11.5 kg) |
| Warranty | 3-year Limited |