With Sony, BenQ, LG and Epson taking up the projector spotlight, it’s easy to forget that Xgimi has been working in the background for quite some time now. The current range includes eight projectors, varying in price and form factor. They also vary in quality: while the compact Halo projector didn’t fare as well when it came to our review, the ultra-short-throw Aura model performed more impressively.
But will that continue with the Horizon Pro, Xgimi’s latest compact projector that aims to combine the home theater experience with sleek and hassle-free hardware? The Horizon Pro looks good on paper, but in this case the cover is a lot better than the book.
Price
The Horizon Pro usually sells for £1649 / $1699 / AU$2599, competing with Epson’s award-winning EH-TW7100. For your money, you get 2 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage to support the Android TV operating system and download movies; things the Epson doesn’t offer.
To build
The Xgimi makes a positive first impression with its solid construction and tasteful aesthetic, even down to the premium unboxing experience that sets it apart from its peers. The rounded cube-shaped case consists of black and gray metal and sturdy plastic that looks as luxurious as it feels.
And at just under 3kg, the lunchbox-sized projector is light enough to pick up and place just about anywhere. You may want to place it somewhere out of earshot, though, as the fan is shockingly loud considering the projector’s compact size. Xgimi says the fan noise is about 30 dB, but it’s even noticeable through the built-in speakers.
Xgimi Horizon Pro technical specifications
Original resolution 4K (3840×2160)
HDR HDR10, HLG
Light source Lamp (DLP)
Operating system Android TV
Photo format 40 to 200 inches
Bulb life 30,000 hours
Brightness 2200 ANSI lumens
HDMIs 2xHDMI 2.0
The sides of the unit are mostly clean, with a grille that wraps around the unit for cooling and the Harman Kardon speakers. There are plenty of connections on the back of the projector, including two HDMI 2.0 ports (one of which supports eARC), two USB 2.0 connections, an optical output, a 3.5mm headphone jack and LAN for wired internet. As for wireless connectivity, you’ll find dual-band 2.4/5 GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0.
One thing this projector doesn’t include is adjustable feet. Instead, image positioning is done almost entirely through software-based auto-adjustment and focusing, as well as some physical repositioning if necessary.
Functions
The installation process for the Xgimi is both joyfully hassle-free and frustratingly limited. The projector has auto-focus, auto-keystones and gyro correction to ensure a sharp and straight image without the need for manual adjustments, which is great because there are no manual lens adjustments to be found. The same can be said for picture settings. There are only five presets (Movie, Game, Sports, Office and Custom) with very few options to adjust unless you choose Custom – and even then there’s not much to change other than color temperature, sharpness and brightness.
While we appreciate this simplicity and understand the appeal for casual projector users, we also feel limited by the projector’s controlling approach to adjusting the image. The Horizon Pro offers HDR support in the form of HDR10 and HLG, which is appreciated, although HDR10+ or Dolby Vision would have been welcome additions.
The biggest appeal of the Horizon Pro is that it’s an all-in-one home theater solution, complete with built-in speakers and built-in streaming apps. Starting with the Harman Kardon tuned speakers, it’s a pleasant surprise that they are, in fact, more than usable. When it comes to most projectors with built-in speakers, we often find them sounding thin and lacking in dynamics, but this isn’t the case with the Horizon Pro.
While we’d appreciate a slightly wider dispersion of sound, the speakers themselves are fairly loud and clear, with enough power and weight to provide a sufficiently cinematic-sounding experience. Connecting a soundbar via the eARC port improves the audio experience, but for occasional use the built-in speakers are acceptable.
Another uncluttered aspect of this projector (though perhaps not in an ideal way) is the minimalist remote control, which arguably reduces the number of buttons too far. The remote includes navigation controls for the Android TV system, access to the Google Assistant, and buttons to control volume level and settings – that’s your lot. There’s no direct access to switch between HDMI inputs, picture modes or shortcuts to access streaming services. They are barebones, to say the least.
Coming back to the Android TV operating system, it’s mostly good and doesn’t stutter or stutter during use, but it has one odd omission: while it includes Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, and even Paramount+, Netflix isn’t. supported. We can install the app, log in and even browse the app, but when we try to play content, an error code flashes. Xgimi acknowledges this both on its website and in its user manual, which states that you must connect a suitable streaming device via HDMI to access Netflix. It’s unclear why Netflix isn’t supported on the projector’s Android TV system, despite it being pre-installed, but it’s frustrating either way.
Image
Starting with the positive image aspects, the Horizon Pro has a mostly clean and well-defined image. The 4K resolution is achieved by pixel shifting and it uses a DLP chipset that produces an impressive claimed brightness of 2200 ANSI lumens. It’s a seriously bright and punchy image that impresses with the right source material. Given that this is a coffee table-facing projector, we think it will do well in a living room scenario thanks to its high brightness.
The projector also handles motion well, with minimal stuttering in the opening shot of No time to die. As the camera pans overhead, the trees pass with very little tremor. Here we can also see the sharp outlines of characters as the menacing masked villain Safin stands in the foreground of the image with clean and well-defined edges.
These properties also work well when it comes to animation. A quick visit to the bustling world of Toy Story 3 shows the projector in its best light, with the bright and vibrant image complementing the bold animation style and exaggerated colors. Another bonus here is that finer details and skin tones aren’t as important here as they are with live-action content, so the vivid image is really nice when you’re watching animation.
Switch to Dunkirk, we also appreciate the black depth and the projector’s ability to blend bright elements in dark scenes while maintaining plenty of punch. Even bright highlights don’t detract from the depth of blacks in dark scenes, which is a common problem at this level.
That’s about where the Horizon Pro’s strengths end, as there are some key aspects of image performance where this projector falls short of the standards we expect at this level. First, there are colors, which range from slightly off to completely unnatural. When set to default in the color mode settings, there is a yellowish cast across the image that results in overcooked skin tones and makes colors appear too warm. Cooling this back in the settings menu fixes this somewhat, but it takes a lot of the punchiness out of the image and leaves skin tones looking a little pale and washed out. In general, certain colors don’t look natural under any setting, with a particularly shocking blue vest worn by a young Madeleine Swann standing out in the opening scenes of the latest Bond film.
Speaking of contrast, the projector seems to lack any subtlety when it comes to balancing light and shadow, as it only seems to work in absolutes. Subjects on screen are either bright or dark with little subtlety in shadows. This is especially evident in the abandoned ship scene in Dunkirk where a beam of light penetrating an open hatch seems to illuminate the faces of all the soldiers in the ship, while the background remains almost entirely pitch black. Few details can be seen in the interior of the boat or on the over-exposed faces of the soldiers. This extends to an exterior shot of a sinking medical boat, where the poor handling of contrast makes the ship appear like a featureless white object with minimal shadow detail. This binary approach to lighting reduces any depth the Xgimi might produce in its image and compromises dark detail.
Finally, while the 4K resolution helps keep the edges tidy, we’ve seen more nuance from similarly priced rivals. Skin and clothing textures don’t show much thoughtful detail, and overall the image is lackluster compared to other 4K projectors at this level.
Pronunciation
Despite strong first impressions and an admittedly decent feature set, the Xgimi quickly loses us with a view that’s limited compared to its Epson rival.
If you want a largely hassle-free plug-and-play projector then the Xgimi might win you over with its intuitive setup and ease of use, but if you’re a novice home theater enthusiast you can do much better for the money.
TO SCORE
- Image 3
- To build 4
- Functions 4
MORE:
Read our review of the Epson EH-TW7100
Also consider the Ben Q W1800
Read our BenQ X3000i judgement
Best projectors: Full HD, 4K, portable and short-throw