XGIMI HORIZON Ultra

Global experience We have been using it for two weeks now, tried different types of media, films, anime, games, and basically everything works great. It is a wonderfully self-adjusting device, the automatic keystone and color correction works very well, the optical zoom ensures the correct adjustment without loss of quality, and even the sound is surprisingly capable, even though it is a subwooferless little speaker.

The sound of the device's cooling is so quiet that we do not hear it, not during the movie, but also not when we pause the movie. We only hear it if we pay close attention, but it also helps that it is on top of a cupboard behind us. That also isolates the sound a bit.

The interface is sometimes a bit slow, and typing with a remote remains annoying, but you can connect a Bluetooth keyboard to it, and the voice recognition actually works quite well. We have voice recognition turned off by default, but it only turns on when we ask for it.

Image quality The most important thing is of course the image quality. I have once rented projectors to watch a movie during a movie weekend, but that was hit-or-miss with whether the image would be sharp, and every projector responds differently to ambient light. We do not have a heavily darkened room, but just a living room with curtains. Light continues to enter through the kitchen on the other side. Nevertheless, this projector is able to produce a decent image even in daylight, although it seems on the low side with 2875 ANSI lumens, it does better than a 4000 ANSI lumens projector we have ever used.

The image is razor sharp, in an episode of The Boys we could just see the makeup.

Sound When we purchased this projector, we were already busy figuring out what kind of soundbar setup we were going to get, but to be very honest, if you are not an audiophile, the speakers of this projector are on par with a normal television. As long as you don't tilt your head, your brain somehow still translates the sound from the front, even though this thing is behind you. Of course, there is hardly any bass in the sound, but if you think "I'm going to build this up step by step" then you certainly don't have to immediately purchase an expensive sound system. That can also be done a little later.

Installation & Setup The unboxing experience was funny. We received a large brown box, containing... another large brown box, containing... the box of the projector itself. We think it would have been fine with one less box, but the cat now has 2 extra boxes to play with. The setup of the device was quite simple and easy, place it somewhere, plug it in, switch it on, tilt it slightly, enter the WiFi password, and it's ready to use. From box to film less than 5 minutes.

Apps The proposed Netflix app is a little bit out of date, works fine, but cannot get the highest quality out of the device. Casting or streaming from another system works fine.

We also see this in other apps. Apps that run natively such as Amazon Prime and Disney work really well, respond quickly to input and image quality is perfect. Apps that clearly have no license or run in a roundabout way are sometimes better to cast than to use them directly. The CrunchyRoll app is unusable, you really have to cast it, because that app is so slow that even the movies stutter.

It's a small frustration, but not much different than working with ChromeCast on a TV without smart integration. Hopefully XGIMI can one day be licensed to run Netflix natively.

Conclusion In any case, we are extremely satisfied with this projector. The minor software problems are a bit of a shame, but in theory they can be solved with updates in the future, but it is also easy to work around them. The device looks great in the living room and does its job excellently. A perfect start for a home theater setup in your living room, especially for the price!

This gives you a 4K (Pixel Shift) projector with a beautifully clear image. A pleasure to watch 4K images! These automatic image settings are super useful if you do not have the projector in a fixed location. The device supports AndroidTV for all streaming apps... except Netflix. Even casting Netflix to the projector does not work, because it is simply not blocked (by the Netflix app on your Smartphone, for example), the rest works.... The detour to install Netflix on the projector via a Desktop App does work, but... The Ultra HD and Dolby features will then not be passed on. You just watch that in HD quality. So I connected my ChromeCast 4K to the HDMI-eARC port to enjoy the 4K series on Netflix.

I can't find any clear info on what a good setup is. It projects diagonally upwards, so in my case I prefer to mount it as high as possible and then turn the projector upside down. You can tilt the image, so in that respect it is possible, but then the warm air flow goes past the connections and perhaps this is not good internally... The further you can project, the larger your image size, which you can then make smaller via settings, but if If you project close up, you cannot enlarge the image and you end up looking at the device because it is in front of you. Via the built-in YouTube app, the sound lags behind the image annoyingly. With Chrome Cast that problem is virtually nil, but it is still quite strange because it requires an additional purchase and an extra remote control. It took quite a while to install everything according to my wishes... Being able to darken well remains desirable, but that is quite logical.