Perhaps he came to visit us the most top representative of home projects called XGIMI Horizon Ultra. This compact device is enough to install against a white wall (or a screen that costs mere pennies) to get:
▸ a bright picture, visible even during the day with the curtains open
▸ screen size up to 200 inches diagonally (!)
▸ Great surround sound from Harman/Kardon
▸ a full-fledged TV with Android on board
Main – This device allows you to create a real cinema in any room without any hassle with wires, additional accessories and setup. Because XGIMI Horizon Ultra configures everything itself, and all you have to do is choose a movie and enjoy the juicy image in 4K resolution.
Briefly
Appearance
Porty
Lamp and remote control
Turning on and setting up
Sound. No, SOUND!
Impressions, price
Just look at this compact yet functional projector:
Appearance
Rounded edges and smooth lines.
We’ve already tested XGIMI home projectors, such as the portable XGIMI Elfin or the futuristic XGIMI Aura. But the design of the XGIMI Horizon Ultra clearly makes it clear that you’re looking at a flagship, premium product.
The main material of the case is light beige plastic. The side walls are trimmed with eco-leather inserts, the front panel is partially covered with fabric, partially made of metal with perforation for the speakers. When turned off, I did not immediately understand how this thing would show anything, the lens is not visible.
But once you plug the projector into the socket, the panel smoothly lowers down, revealing the lens and decorating the speaker holes with fabric. It looks mesmerizing, check it out for yourself:
There are no physical controls on the projector body. There is only one small power button on the back wall and that is enough. After all, as I noted above, XGIMI Horizon Ultra caused damage itself, without human assistance.
On the back of the device there are ventilation holes and ports for connection, more about them below. The weight of the project is 5.2 kgAt the same time, the dimensions are quite compact – 265 x 224 x 170 mm.
The bottom part is a platform with a rubberized frame. It is stable and does not slip. The only downside is that the XGIMI Horizon Ultra does not have any retractable foot for adjusting the tilt.
Lots of holes for airflow. The projector works almost silently.
There is a threaded hole through which the tripod is screwed, or you can use improvised means to raise the front part to the desired height.
I would like to point out the large power supply unit that comes with the projector. This thing weighs just over 1 kg and has a power of 300 W. It looks reliable.
Complete 300W power supply unit – my mail.
Overall, the XGIMI Horizon Ultra’s design allows the projector to fit into almost any interior as a decoration. This cube gives away style and looks laconic, but at the same time rich.
As for the light plastic and white eco-leather panels, you don’t have to worry about them getting dirty: after all, this is not a portable device, but a decent home projector that should be placed on a shelf, on a tripod, or screwed to a wall/ceiling once, and not touched again.
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Porty
A scattering of ports for connecting any devices and flash drives.
XGIMI Horizon Ultra offers a wide range of connectivity options thanks to its wide range of inputs and outputs. Here is a list:
• USB input x 2
• LAN input
• HDMI input
• HDMI input with eARC support (Improved Audio Return Channel with support for 32 channels of audio, including 8-channel uncompressed streams with up to 24-bit/192 kHz and up to 38 Mbps.)
In addition, there is an optical output and a headphone jack nearby (or acoustics) via a 3.5 mm jack. The leftmost round connector is used to connect power to the projector.
Wireless capabilities The XGIMI Horizon Ultra is a dual-band (2.4/5 GHz) Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth for connecting a game controller and the included remote control. Built-in Chromecast/Airscreen are used to broadcast images from mobile devices.
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Lamp and remote control
Stylish look from any angle.
XGIMI Horizon Ultra is not only a premium project due to its appearance. This device has a developed combined Dual Light technology, when the image is responsible for color saturation using a laser LED lamp.
Thanks to this coincidence, the image looks bright and rich even in a room with the lights on or with the curtains open on a sunny day. And even on a gray wall.
Had to rewatch Despicable Me 4. Can’t tear myself away.
In technical terms, the projector’s picture brightness can reach 2,300 lumens. During the day, this is enough for comfortable viewing, and in a dark room, this brightness surpasses even many modern TVs.
The image is displayed in 4K resolution (3840 x 2160 pixels), with an aspect ratio of 16:9. Since the LED lamp changes during the display process, it has a service life of 25,000 hours.
This is about three years of continuous operation, so you don’t have to worry about the lamp’s shutdown parameter at all. The colors won’t fade for a very long time.
The lens has an optical (non-digital) zoom.
For greater contrast and color saturation of the image, the projector supports Dolby Vision technology, as in today’s cinema, as well as the more common HDR10.
The lens is equipped with an optical zoom, so that the visible shape of the area can be changed physically without losing image quality. The minimum image size is 40 inches, the maximum is 200 inches. In Russian, the picture can be diagonal from 1 to 5 meters.
The glossy panel next to the lens contains several sensors that change the image. For example, the ToF sensor determines the distance to the ground and adjusts the focus and image size.
All sensors are located to the right of the lens.
In general, all functions related to automatic projector adjustment are combined into one technology Intelligent Screen Adaption 3.0, developed directly in XGIMI. Here are some examples of its use in XGIMI Horizon Ultra:
▸ Automatically corrects trapezoidal changes, so the projector does not necessarily have to be placed directly opposite the wall or screen. You can connect it at an angle, the picture will still be perfectly adjusted. And if you use a special screen for the projector, the sensors themselves determine its boundaries and adjust the image exactly to the size of the canvas.
If something is not right, you can adjust these parameters manually via the menu. But we were not able to do this even once, the sensors coped with automatic tuning perfectly.
▸ The projector itself, using a sensor, detects objects that interfere with the projection of the image (a picture on the wall, for example) and automatically reduces the image to record it on a flat surface. Also protect your eyes: if a person accidentally ends up in front of a bright projector lamp, it will immediately turn it off until the person moves away.
The battery compartment is conveniently released by pressing on the bottom end of the panel.
The XGIMI Horizon Ultra comes with a panel with a floor microphone for communicating with the Google voice assistant. The remote control is made of plastic inserts, it fits comfortably in your hand.
The buttons are the most minimal, pressed with a light click. If desired, you can quickly activate the virtual assistant using a separate button.
The remote control operates on two AAA batteries, included.
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Turning on and setting up
The impression is that it’s as familiar for communication as any Android TV.
XGIMI Horizon Ultra runs on the Android TV 11 control system, so the initial setup and interface are exactly the same as on TVs with a modern operating system. You need to go through several steps, including connecting the remote control with the projector, logging into your Google account, and if you want, you can also link an Android smartphone.
One of the interesting features of the software is the cancellation of the surface change function (thanks to ISA 3.0), on which the image is projected. During the initial setup, the projector itself will offer such a correction, in the future it can be found in the settings menu.
In terms of other settings, everything can be changed to your taste, including brightness, contrast, and so on.
There is even a dedicated gaming mode if you want to connect your console to the XGIMI Horizon Ultra. This mode has a minimum image output lag of 18ms.
All image settings are in the menu.
Even more settings and modes.
I can’t help but mention the presence of several 3D modes such as Top and Bottom and Side by Side. If you have glasses, you can request the pleasure of 3D movies and games.
Inside the XGIMI Horizon Ultra is a quad-core Cortex-A55 processor with a frequency of 1.9 GHz, there is a whole 2 GB of RAM. For loading media files directly into the projector, there is a 32 GB drive built in.
This also means that external apps can be stored on the projector via APK files. Rejoice, Kinopub fans.
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Sound. No, SOUND!
The built-in speakers from the cult audio studio are impressive.
Let’s say you’re watching an epic movie on a 5-meter screen. But for maximum effect, you need sunny and surround sound, and that’s where XGIMI Horizon Ultra can really surprise.
Inside the projector, there are two speakers from the famous audio studio Harman/Kardon with a total power of 24 watts. So it is impressive, loud and with a really good panorama.
The bass is present, but not too much. somefull-fledged, goosebump-inducing. No additional acoustics are needed, and this is a huge plus for XGIMI Horizon Ultra.
The device offers two preset sound modes: DTS Virtual X (from Dolby) and Harman/Kardon. In the first case, the low frequency sounds “fatter”, in the second, the sound is more neutral, with a clear emphasis on the midrange.
The balcony headroom is more than enough for a small hall, not to mention a good room. Personally, for maximum pleasure, 35% of the upper door was enough for me. It is important to note that even if you turn the volume up to maximum, the speakers sound clean, without rattling or wheezing.
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Impressions, price
It’s not a pity to spend money on such a projector. Even though it is a bit expensive.
This projector left an indelible impression on the entire editorial staff, thanks to its appearance, rich image in almost any lighting conditions and incredibly voluminous sound. At first glance, you wouldn’t think that such a small “cube” could make such an impression.
XGIMI Horizon Ultra can rightfully be considered a flagship among home projects. Such are taken only by true fans of cinema or those who want to adapt to their favorite game with maximum comfort.
There is no point in buying such a projector if you have a small apartment. It needs space to squeeze out the maximum image size. Then you will simply soar re-watching your favorite films, as if for the first time, feeling like a visitor to a real cinema at home.
The price of XGIMI Horizon Ultra is also not for everyone. In Russia, this projector is sold for 224,990 rubles, but if you have the opportunity to buy it, you will not regret it for a second.
You simply won’t have time to regret it, because every evening XGIMI Horizon Ultra will enchant you with excellent picture and sound. We have already felt this magic, now it’s up to you.
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📸 All photos in the article:
Source: Iphones RU
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
