XGIMI’s Horizon Pro 4K Projector is bright and compact with a sharp picture, extended color, HDR and a 25,000-hour LED light engine.

XGIMI Horizon Pro 4K Compact Projector

With integrated Harman Kardon speakers and solid build quality, it’s a fair competitor in the compact projector genre.

XGIMI’s Horizon Pro 4K Projector is bright and compact with a sharp picture, extended color, HDR and a 25,000-hour LED light engine. With integrated Harman Kardon speakers and solid build quality, it’s a fair competitor in the compact projector genre. I’ve looked at many such displays from BenQ and others and XGIMI looks like a contender for those seeking a 4K projector that’s easy to set up and enjoy anywhere.

Highlights

XGIMI Horizon Pro 4K Compact Projector

  • Compact DLP projector with built-in Harman Kardon speakers
  • 4K resolution with extended color and HDR10/HLG support
  • Bright and sharp picture
  • Solid build quality
  • Easy setup with autofocus and auto keystone
  • Integrated Android TV and Google Assistant
Introduction

With projectors being marketed as television replacements, two distinct sub-categories have emerged. One is ultra-short-throw displays that sit below the screen on a credenza or media bench. These lifestyle components employ impressive optical trickery to create their pictures, but they also cost more than traditional projectors. For those looking to maximize the price/performance ratio, compact models are much more affordable. I’ve looked at several over the years from Epson and BenQ and today, there’s a new player vying for attention, XGIMI. The Horizon Pro 4K is their flagship display with a DLP chip and LED light engine, built-in Harman Kardon speakers, integrated Android TV with Google Assistant, HDR10/HLG support, and premium build quality. It’s all packed into a tiny cube-style chassis that’s less than six inches high. Let’s take a look.

XGIMI Horizon Pro 4K Compact Projector SPECIFICATIONS
Type:

Single-chip DLP 0.47”

Native resolution:

3840×2160 with TI shift & X-Vue 2.0

Light source:

LED

Service life:

25,000 hours

Light output (mfr):

2,200 ANSI lumens

Throw ratio:

1.2:1

Lens offset:

100%

Lens shift/zoom:

No

Image size:

30-300 inches

Video connections:

2x HDMI 2.0

Audio connections:

1x optical out, 1x 3.5mm out

Additional connections:

2x USB 2.0, RJ-45

Wireless:

Dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 5.0

Speakers:

2x 8 watts

Dimensions:

8.2” x 8.6” x 5.36” (H x W x D)

Weight:

6.39lbs

Warranty:

1 year

Price:

$1,699

Website:

us.xgimi.com

Company:

XGIMI

SECRETS Tags:

Projector Reviews 2022, xgimi, horizon pro 4k, 4k projector, ultra hd, dlp projector, led projector, portable projector

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Design

XGIMI Horizon Pro 4K Compact Projector

The XGIMI Horizon Pro 4K is tiny by projector standards but leaves almost nothing out. It uses a single 0.47-inch DLP chip with 1920×1080 native resolution and TI’s shift technology creating an addressable resolution of 3840×2160. It can accept signals up to 4096×2160 at 60Hz. X-Vue 2.0 is also part of the processing suite. It helps improve color accuracy and contrast. It also accepts 10-bit signals with HDR10 or Hybrid Log-Gamma metadata. An LED light source provides a claimed 2,200 lumens of output and is rated for a service life of 25,000 hours. That’s over 13 years of viewing if you watch for five hours every day.

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Audio support comes in the form of two integrated 45mm diameter speakers by Harman Kardon. They are rated for eight watts apiece and provide a reasonably expansive sound stage with good response in the middle and upper frequencies. There isn’t a ton of bass but there is just enough impact to make movies enjoyable. They cover enough of the spectrum to produce clear and uncolored dialog which is ultimately the most important thing in any soundtrack. The Horizon Pro 4K can also be used as a Bluetooth speaker.

XGIMI Horizon Pro 4K Compact Projector Remote

The Horizon Pro 4K fulfills its television replacement mission by including Android TV and Google Assistant. A dedicated remote button and microphone in the handset let you issue voice commands to the projector to do things like change inputs or search for content. The remote also has basic functions for projector options and navigation of the Android interface with transport controls. The wand feels high-end with a slick metal finish and more heft than one would expect from such a small device. My only complaint is that it’s not backlit.

XGIMI Horizon Pro 4K Compact Projector Front

Physically, the Horizon Pro 4K is one of the smallest projectors I’ve reviewed. It’s basically a cube with gently rounded corners that’s just under six inches tall and a bit over eight inches wide and deep. A fine grill goes completely around the front and sides with a louvered vent in the back. The lens is offset to one side with a sensor array opposite. You also get autofocus and auto keystone. The Horizon Pro can be set up to 45 degrees off center though I don’t recommend this because the resulting image is very soft. The autofocus is very precise and runs every time you turn the projector on. It shows a target on the screen and adjusts in a few seconds. The total startup time is around 10 seconds.

XGIMI Horizon Pro 4K Compact Projector Inputs

On top, you’ll find a power button and keys for volume and playback. In back, there are two HDMI 2.0 inputs along with two USB 2.0 ports that accommodate thumb drives or external hard discs. There’s also a LAN port, or you can use the built-in Wi-Fi which conforms to the 802.11a/b/g/n standards. It’s dual-band so the throughput of 4K streams is plenty quick. You can also connect external speakers using either the optical or 3.5mm outputs.

Setup

I was surprised to find the Horizon Pro 4K has no leveling feet. Most projectors have at least one threaded foot so you can get the image perfectly straight when placing it on a table. But there is something cool here, a tripod lug. While this isn’t the first time I’ve seen one on a compact projector, it’s the first time I took advantage of it. I pulled my old Bogen camera tripod out of the closet, it’s beefy enough to hold a TV camera, and attached the XGIMI to it. This let me set image geometry with great precision. In a few minutes, I had a perfectly squared picture on the screen. The lens offset is 100% so you’ll need to get the lens axis in line with the bottom edge of the screen. There is no shift but there is a digital zoom. With a 1.2 throw ratio, I had to set up about nine feet back to fill a 92-inch Stewart Filmscreen Luminesse with Studiotek 130 material.

Upon initial powerup, the Horizon Pro 4K played a soothing tune as if to say, “Don’t worry friend, setup will go fine and be completed in a few minutes.” I was prompted to connect to my home’s Wi-Fi network and log into Google. I was then greeted by the familiar Android TV interface. As with every other display I’ve seen this on, it works fine for most popular providers like Hulu, Amazon, or YouTube. But Netflix users will either have to use a bodge to access HD streams only or connect an external device like an Apple TV. For convenience’s sake, I did the latter. Android TV works fine and it’s nicely integrated into the Horizon Pro 4K. But an Apple TV is better. If you turn on an external device like a streamer or disc player, the Horizon Pro will automatically switch to the correct input which is something I haven’t seen before.

The autofocus and auto keystone are undeniably cool. Autofocus runs every time you turn the Horizon Pro 4K on and sharpens the image in a few seconds using an internal target pattern. Auto keystone is for situations where you can’t set the projector parallel to the screen. It has a large adjustment range which makes the projector very flexible but even a tiny use of keystone correction will reduce the resolution. You can literally place the projector up to 45 degrees off-center and get a square image but it’s not one you’d want to watch.

For image enhancement, the Horizon Pro 4K includes frame interpolation to smooth out motion from 24fps film content, raising its frame rate to 60fps. While it does improve motion resolution, the effect is a bit unnatural. It’s commonly known as the soap opera effect. For me, it’s good for sports but not movies or TV shows. Your perception may differ.

In Use

I calibrated the Horizon Pro 4K before watching any content and noticed a few things. First, though it is compatible with HDR10 signals, it makes no indication that it is switching to HDR mode. The Panasonic UHD Blu-ray player I used for testing confirmed that the display was processing HDR but aside from a little more color saturation, the image looked the same as SDR. This is not to say it wasn’t good, quite the opposite actually. I also discovered the Local Contrast feature was different than anything I’d seen before. I expected it to change the light level dynamically like an iris, but it worked more like a Darbee processor by changing gamma at the pixel level. It’s one of the best contrast enhancers I’ve seen on any projector at any price, and it really makes a positive impact on image quality with no apparent downside.

XGIMI Horizon Pro 4K Compact Projector Movies

Denis Villeneuve’s Dune is an expansive telling of an epic story that’s filled with vast desert landscapes, blockbuster special effects, and environments rich with detail. Watching the film in 4K HDR was a treat. The Horizon Pro 4K is super-sharp, especially with brighter material. Like most DLP projectors, intra-image contrast increases with overall picture level. Scenes in the desert were bright with deep black shadows that offset specular highlights. The image quality here is easily on par with more expensive displays. Darker material never quite went to true black but remained a dark gray. This is DLP’s one weakness. The Horizon Pro 4K is no different than any other compact DLP in this regard. Shadow detail was always clearly rendered.

The latest installment of 007 in No Time To Die was rich with bright primary colors which I especially noticed in Daniel Craig’s piercing blue eyes. The warm shades of Cuba’s nightlife were also on display. I experimented a bit with the frame interpolation. The weak setting created perfect motion resolution with no hint of stutter or breakup. I found the effect a little strange but that is a personal perception. There is nothing wrong with smooth motion, I’m just not accustomed to it when watching films shot at 24 frames per second. XGIMI has implemented the feature perfectly so if you want to use it, you’ll definitely enjoy the result.

Ghostbusters Afterlife gave me a chance to compare Ultra HD and HD versions of the same movie. The difference, in contrast, was negligible. I turned Local Contrast up to its maximum setting to create the sharpest possible image. The Ultra HD disc definitely looked sharper, as expected. But the HD version wasn’t far behind. It was hard to choose a favorite because the HD disc showed warmer color thanks to its use of the Horizon Pro 4K’s native DCI-P3 gamut. While this isn’t strictly accurate, it is a pleasing effect. I’m finding more and more displays today that dispense with Rec.709 entirely and show all content, SDR and HDR, in the extended color space. Personally, I’d rather have the correct gamut for each format, but I doubt many viewers will agree with this.

XGIMI Horizon Pro 4K Compact Projector Streaming

While the Horizon Pro 4K’s integrated Android TV apps worked fine, I found I could not do without Netflix, so I connected an Apple TV 4K to watch a couple of streamed shows.

Locke & Key is a favorite of mine and it looked great on the Horizon Pro 4K. Though it didn’t employ HDR for the season one episodes, there was plenty of contrast in the brighter material. Outdoor scenes looked natural and realistic with warm tones in the morning and evening hours and cooler hues in the afternoon. The actors’ faces were realistic without any obvious makeup and the show’s excellent lighting design was clearly rendered. The Ultra HD feed was sharp and looked about equal to an HD Blu-ray which is impressive given the huge difference in bandwidth.

Formula One Drive to Survive is a feast for the eyes with the third season shot in Dolby Vision. Sadly, the Horizon Pro 4K doesn’t support this format so I had to settle for Ultra HD SDR. It looked great anyway with superb color rendering and sharpness. The cars are all rolling billboards and I had no trouble reading the text and logos emblazoned on them. Interviews with drivers clearly showed their beard stubble and sweat. Flesh tones were accurate despite the extra color volume.

Audio Quality

The Horizon Pro 4K has two built-in speakers by Harman Kardon each powered by eight watts of amplification. There was plenty of volume available and I could turn it up quite loud with no audible distortion. You’ll have no trouble filling a large room. The sound stage was a bit narrow due to a lack of bass but surround effects sometimes sounded like they were to the sides or behind my chair. The dialog was crystal clear. Once I had watched a few clips, I was able to perceive the sound coming from the screen rather than the projector in front of me. Comparing XGIMI’s audio to that of other projectors with integrated audio, it is on par. If they could get another driver in there for some bass, it would be better. But it’s more than adequate for a fun night’s entertainment. You can also use the Horizon Pro 4K as a Bluetooth speaker by connecting a phone or tablet.

On The Bench

To test the XGIMI Horizon Pro 4K, I set up my usual suite of benchmarks using the latest version of Calman from Portrait Displays. To measure color, I used an X-Rite i1 Pro Spectrophotometer and for luminance, an X-Rite i1 Display Pro tri-stimulus colorimeter. Signals were generated by an Accupel DVG-5000. HDR signals were generated by the same unit with an HD Fury Integral in the signal path.

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The Horizon Pro 4K’s calibration options are limited to a single picture mode labeled Custom. It has a one-point white balance along with a saturation slider as its only method of adjusting color. There are no gamma presets. The only available gamut is the projector’s native color space which covers most of DCI-P3. It is used for both SDR and HDR content.

XGIMI Horizon Pro 4K Compact Projector Grayscale and Gamma Pre Calibration

The Custom color temp, as well as the Standard one, runs distinctly blue with visible errors throughout. This makes the picture somewhat flat with little depth or impact. Gamma is a bit light but tracks straight which is a good thing since there’s no way to alter it.

XGIMI Horizon Pro 4K Compact Projector Chroma Pre Calibration

The default color gamut is much closer to the DCI-P3 specification than Rec.709 which is used for SDR content. That means all SDR videos will be oversaturated though not too much. Many modern displays have dispensed with the Rec.709 or sRGB gamut in favor of the extended color users seem to prefer. While not strictly accurate, it looks good with most material. Before calibration, the Horizon Pro 4K is a little off in hue in all colors, mainly due to the grayscale inaccuracy. Red straddles the line between DCI-P3 and Rec.709 targets which is a good thing. This provides a more balanced image for SDR content.

XGIMI Horizon Pro 4K Compact Projector Grayscale and Gamma Post Calibration

The RGB controls are very precise and allowed me to get the grayscale errors below the visible threshold. Gamma is about the same as before. I had to lower the contrast control as well to prevent clipping at the 100% brightness step.

XGIMI Horizon Pro 4K Compact Projector Chroma Post Calibration

Calibration brings most of the color points closer to their targets. Red becomes more saturated, and all hues are reasonably accurate. Green comes up a bit short of the full DCI-P3 spec but that is typical of extended color displays. The picture now has far more pop and depth with rich detailed color that looks natural and correct. This is a respectable performance.

XGIMI Horizon Pro 4K Compact Projector HDR Grayscale and EOTF

The Horizon Pro 4K automatically detects HDR signals and switches to its HDR mode though no indication is made when this occurs. The same settings I used for SDR carry over to HDR. It is not possible to create independent calibrations for SDR and HDR. That being said, grayscale isn’t too bad with slightly visible blue errors in the brighter part of the image. This doesn’t have too much impact on picture quality. There is, however, no more contrast available. The EOTF curve shows why this is so. Black levels are far too high, even with the dynamic contrast turned to its maximum setting. That means HDR and SDR content looks similar.

XGIMI Horizon Pro 4K Compact Projector HDR Color DCI P3 Within Rec 2020

HDR color tracking is similar to what I measured in SDR mode. With my custom RGB values in place, hue targets are close to the mark and color is slightly under-saturated. The overall effect is OK but as I said above, HDR doesn’t offer any more impact than SDR. The Horizon Pro 4K is a bright and colorful display but it looks about the same showing all content.

Brightness and Contrast Measurements

The XGIMI Horizon Pro 4K is very bright for a compact projector. Its LED light engine runs at maximum output for all content, there is no iris or light power option to reduce output for completely dark environments.

After calibration in SDR mode, I measured a peak white level of 171.6011 nits, a black level of .3662 nit, and a contrast of 468.6:1. This is the projector’s native dynamic range in a completely dark environment.

The Local Contrast option does not alter the results of my static contrast test. Though I can see an improvement when watching real content, its effect cannot be measured with traditional test patterns.

In HDR mode, I also found similar results with a peak output of 170.8793 nits, a black level of .366 nit, and a contrast of 466.8:1. This is with Local Contrast set to its most aggressive option. My test patterns could not trigger the effect, but I could see a slightly deeper image when watching familiar demo material in both SDR and HDR. As I stated earlier, it appears to alter gamma at the pixel level on the fly like a Darbee processor.

Conclusions

Projector side profile

The XGIMI Horizon Pro 4K Compact Projector is a worthy television replacement. It costs the same as a 70-inch flat-panel but delivers a bright and colorful image up to 300 inches diagonal.

Likes
  • Sharp and bright image
  • Excellent Local Contrast option enhances picture depth
  • Precise autofocus
  • Easy setup
Would Like To See
  • Backlit remote
  • More calibration options like gamma presets and selectable color gamuts
  • Better HDR contrast

The XGIMI Horizon Pro 4K is an impressive display. Though diminutive in size, it pumps out a bright picture with some of the sharpest detail I’ve seen from any projector. Its large color gamut is reasonably accurate and nicely saturated which brings lots of vibrancy to both SDR and HDR content. My only wish in the image department is better luminance tracking for HDR. Black levels were not low enough there which made it look similar to SDR. I’d also love to hear a little more bass from the integrated speakers.

For those seeking a well-built portable projector that’s easy to set up and enjoy, the XGIMI Horizon Pro 4K stands out in the category. It’s a decent value and will satisfy those wanting a big-screen experience. As a television replacement, it excels. Highly Recommended.