XGIMI HORIZON Ultra 4K Laser Dolby Vision Smart Home Theater Projector

I have used a JVC D-ILA projector for many years and the quality has obviously been extremely high, it goes along with the price. However, I was looking to upgrade to Laser source rather than Bulb and had more or less decided to buy a Sony VPL-XW5000ES which is fairly state of the art, and comes in at roughly £5,000. Then on Prime Day I happened to see this XGIMI Horizon Ultra for sale at a bargain basement price of £1,399. It seemed to tick all the boxes and had some great reviews, so I bought in on impulse.And boy is it impressive! The projector starts almost instantly, is effectively silent, all the adjustments are electronic ie you don't need to touch the projector to change the focus, keystone, zoom etc. Some such as the focus are automated, and almost instant. It's just beautiful to watch it do its stuff. The proof of the pudding though is in the eating, and the picture does not disappoint. It is superb. If I was being superb picky I'd say the Sony probably has more subtlety in the picture, but then it costs 4x as much! If you connect up an Nvidia Shield and fire up Netflix with a 4k Dolby Vision source you will not be disappointed! It is so impressive.This won't be good enough to watch in a brightly lit sunny room, but few people want to do that with a projector. If you're watching a film with shades/blinds down, or in the evening, this will give you a luscious picture that will beat any TV hands down (yes, I have several LG OLEDs and their picture is better, but they're not 120 inches wide!)I won't comment on the sound, I doubt anyone is going to buy this and use the built in sound for anything other than exceptional circumstances.I can't overstate how impressive this is, it is a tiny little box compared to the leviathans that Sony and JVS produce. No doubt some will quibble that this is Pixel Shifting, not true 4k, but I can't for the life of me tell the difference. Basically the world has moved on, you don't need to spend £5k+ to get a decent projector, you can if you want, but honestly you'd be wasting your money.

Okay, this is a 4k Projector reviewed by What Hifi back in 2023 at a price of £1700, they gave it 4 stars, and now are saying at the sale price of £800/£900 is the deal for the ages. WIth it's on board auto setups and auto focus this will blow any projector out of the park at £1000 price. To be picky, if you were to compare at the £1500 price you'd need another makes projector side by side to see any true comparisions and this will still hold it's own. It's a projector, the Blacks/contrast are what I'd expect and never tv standard, this is more than adequate For some reason reviewer are using this as the must sell point which is just wrong as there is nothing wrong with it, but it is a projector and will never be a tv..but is very close in Projector worlds.I have just replaced my Epson EH-TW7000 4k with this and sold the Epson, so I will have a far better comparison experince than most..The colours are striking and 4k content is crystal with colors so striking that are a pleasure!If you move this around then it'll set up autmatically and such it's great to have the auto everything setups.. I have set this into a permanent location and now have it pretty much dialled in so here are my tips for a permanent set up:1. The auto keystone can set the picture where it is needed but can have large areas of wasted display overshoots. I tend to use the zoom and manual key stone using "restore" to fill the display picture for full screen viewing area, with no overshoot of light outside picture area. I also turned off "auto key stone at power on" as you'll have to faff with this again to setup you permanent screen. Leave the Autofocus on at power up on. I've turned off the Wall colour adjustment as it's in a permanent position that I don't need and is manually dialed in.2. I don't use the apps, they are permanently in Dolby Vision/HDR with some series content poor with a low level colour display using dolbyvision (althouth movies tend to be better). Instead, I use a 4k Fire stick max and turn the HDR off on the fire stick for straight 4k signal, as the fire stick is bad at HDR/dolby vision greying out the colors on projectors. The 4k pictue is then stunning. This was similar with the Epson 4k. This may be why some are experiencing low blacks etc. I can't find a way to turn the dolby vision off on it's own apps but I haven't had this long.3. Turn off "Motion compensation", and turn Noise reduction to either auto or Medium produces a much better film like picture and not "video" look.4. Set "picture " to custom, bright to 51, Iris enhnce to 8 or 9, Contrast to 51, leave colour as standard, but you may need to back the reds off if desired in custom area. There are a ton of adjustments that are best left for permanent set ups.5. Using a Sony UBP-x700 4k player turn the dolby vision/hdr "on", this handles the hdr/dolby vision much better than the apps/fire stick and the projectors own apps. The picture generally is far better on movies than series, but $K discs are amazing as is upscaling of bluray to Doldy vision.I cannot notice any Rainbow on this which is great. I used to have a Benqw1070 that I did notice occasioinally but zoned out of this.Any projector needs to have a decent time to set up, it is far easier to achieve the deisred picture when permanently placed, Otherwise the auto set up versatility for moving around is great for casual viewing or portability.I'd have liked some preset saving options for differnt viewing content, but its quick to use the adjustments, as my wife rolls her eyes!I hope that helps!

This projector is fantastic, it’s a long throw projector, so you’ll need the projector In The middle or the back of your room, if you have a small bedroom like me.What I like:Dolby vision, Dolby Atmos capabilityBuilt in speakers, decent enough, though you can tell there is no stereo separation with the sound.Reasonable contrast ratio and brightness levels in candle lumens, cd/Colour pops outBlacks levels are decent enough.Quality in HD and 4K is great, has good upscaling.Sources that look good with the projector.720P, 1024 x 768. 1280 x 720, 960, 1360 x 768 1080i, 1440 x 768, 1080P, 1920 1080.And especially 4K, 2160P or 3840 x 2160 or known as ultra HDAll those look great. With high fidelity, great definition and great colours.I like the auto focus, it makes images look great and is quick to do, by pressing the black circle once on the remote calls it up.I like that it has hdmi 2.0 EARC or Extended audio return channel. So you can connect sound bars and home cinema setups.It has Bluetooth, which I find can be made to sync the audio well on your audio device, but you need to adjust the audio or wireless audio sync on your set top box or streaming device, Apple TV 4K, for example or Amazon firestick 4K.I find that Sky Q has adjustable audio sync with 0 MS, so it syncs up well, with mouths, teeth, lips and different sound effects. As well as syncs up well with music.What I don’t like:Standard definition sources look poor on this projector, 360P, 480P and 576i.But you expect that.The contrast and brightness could be a lot higher for a LED, and Laser projector.It’s not a ultra short throw, so you have to place it a long way from the wall or surface.The price is too high at £1299 including VAT, 20%It doesn’t have IMAX support like the latest projectors.Continuing what I like:The colour, the fidelity, the sound with a JBL bar 800 sound bar and subwoofer system I’m using with 10 inch sub, 300 watt, and sound bar, 720 watt RMS. And two 80 watt rear speakers, it produces great sound, and Dolby Atmos. As well as Dolby digital DTS sound.The fidelity, the clarity, the ease of use, the compatibility, and the functionality.And the overall stunning quality of sound and video as well as the definition.Thankyou for reading my review, and thankyou XGIMI, for making such an amazing projector.Another thing to note it has, 25000 hours lamp life, it’s a laser and LED projector.It should last for many many years.

What an amazing piece of equipment. Firstly if like me you have a temporary setup with a foldaway screen which comes out as needed, then this is absolutely the projector for you. It finds the screen itself, uses optical zoom to fill the screen (as opposed to digital which loses picture quality) then allows you manual keystone correction if needed. The 4K picture quality is stunning. Great in daytime light but as with all projectors it really comes into its own in a darkened room. The settings are all super easy. It detects Dolby Vision and HDR itself and adjusts settings automatically. For the few of us who love 3D Blu-rays the 3D is absolutely excellent and easy to set up. Plays 4K UHD files from a USB stick and even from an external hard drive but will also stream them perfectly from a PC or Laptop using Plex. I got this at the Black Friday price of just over fifteen hundred and it's worth every penny. Don't hesitate. Also with my setup the projector is right next to my head and is virtually silent. With TV or a film on I can't hear the fan at all.Update:I've had this projector eight months now and cannot fault it! It's array of settings are fantastic for getting the best picture. I have a temporary setup but mostly end up leaving my 100" screen up and using this as my TV evening and daytime. 4K UHD films look incredible on this. It's very rare to find a tech item which after eight months you still don't have any cons about.

I have a bedroom that is dedicated to being a home cinema/media room so it is completely dark with no ambient light. The Horizon Ultra sits on a tripod or table top and there isn't a ceiling mount for this projector yet. The projector was well packaged and was smaller than I expected which was good. If like me you want to put the projector behind the sofa (even a low back sofa like mine) on a tripod of surface in a normal sized room (my room is 14ft x 10ft 2" x 7ft 2" ceiling) straight on to the wall without keystone correction, you won't be able to unless your room is much longer and have a higher ceiling than mine. The height from the floor needs to be quite low which would go behind the sofa blocking the view (my sofa is 2ft 4" high). If you have a really long room then it could go on a coffee table in front of you. For a 100" image size it needed about 9.5ft from the screen. Raising it slightly above head height while sat on the sofa, pointed slightly down so the picture is below ceiling height with keystone correction will cause massive light spill around the image, tapering at the top and widening at the bottom and even with a dark wall, it's hugely distracting. This projector does not have lens shift sadly. With the projector giving a 100" image aimed straight on over your head while sat on my sofa, I'd estimate your ceiling would need to be at least 12 or 13 feet. I was able to get a 133" image moving the projector back to about 12.5ft in my 10ft 2" wall but it wasn't a very bright image.Another disappointment I had was that the interface was not sharp. The icons for the apps were blurry, clearly a scaling issue due to them not being suitable for a 4k resolution. You can get this incompatibility between certain apps and all 4K displays so it's not really the fault of the projector. The image was sufficient while watching a 4K film but not as tack sharp as I expected or hoped and as some reviews stated. Also, once you set custom settings of your colour, gamma etc. they are stored - unless you unplug the projector and they are all lost and you have to set it up again. It used 1.5W per 24 hours on standby leaving it plugged in so it's fine. The custom settings are quite good when in custom mode but it was difficult to adjust settings which were not available when choosing presets such as movie. I found movie mode too saturated for my taste, skin tones were not natural, so got the best colour results in custom mode and setting the colour space to DCI-P3 rather than Rec709 for films and Rec709 everything else and playing with the settings. There is no option to set profiles, you just have to change the settings for different usage. The auto keystone and auto focus worked well, except that the picture wasn't that sharp once it finished focusing. The projector doesn't play native 24fps films, it is fixed at 60fps which gives a soap opera effect so it relies on it's motion compensation settings to control that. I tried all settings and turned it off but found the low setting worked best as the high setting made it worse. Still, the image didn't look cinematic and the effect was there to some degree. Neither my wife nor I noticed any rainbow effects at all.I couldn't find a way to use the projector without registering it with Google first during setup. It forces you to connect to either Wi-fi or Ethernet with no option to tell it that you don't have internet. As someone who hates Google and owns a de-googled phone, it was annoying. I created a Google account, set it up and then you can delete the account from the projector and turn off Wi-fi. You won't be able to use Play store, but you can side load apps from other sources. The Wi-fi worked well streaming 4K video on Prime 10-13ft from the router. I liked that the projector could play video from a USB stick plugged directly into it's USB port and had no issues playing MP4, MKV and other formats that I tried. I did have files that included Dolby vision but the projector did not detect it. Maybe it only works with Dolby vision Blu-rays? I couldn't try it as I don't have a player currently.It's not a bad projector at all, it's sold as a portable media projector, but it's not a great home theatre projector for a permanent setup. The lack of lens shift by itself prevents that but if it were possible to ceiling mount it, it might be better. For a dedicated cinema, I'd look elsewhere. It's lovely looking, solidly built too. I would like to have seen more mounting options other than a single tripod thread.Sadly, I sent it back and eventually got a refund. I just want to point something out. Amazon used to send a courier to collect expensive or large items and heavy items (the total weight was over 12Kg) but if you return this, it's via the Royal Mail at the post office with a QR code. After 6 days of it not arriving, a notice appeared on my Amazon account that my projector may have been lost in the post. This caused me panic and anxiety. I rang customer services to which the agent told me "wait for 30 days and get back to us and we can guide you on what you can do next". It didn't inspire me with confidence and he wouldn't tell me what would happen if it were lost and if I would get a refund. The experience has put me off buying expensive items from Amazon if there is any chance that I may need to return them.

I’ve had numerous projectors over the years, including some of the really cheap ones you see on here. However, the last one I had was an xgimi polar z1 and that’s still a cracking projector, so when I saw the horizon ultra 4k on sale for £750 i hit buy as i had been researching it for a while but couldn’t justify the cost. Right now I’ve had this for 6 months and it’s replaced my old xgimi projector.The pros:Incredibly bright imageIt’s 4kGood colours and hdr supportLow latency for gamingDecent soundThe cons:Very slow OS, not buggy so much as laggyPoor contrast, compared to how vivid the colours are the blacks are terrible, more a murky grey.Auto keystone isn’t great, my projector is static it doesn’t move on a mount, but the auto keystone is always a tad off whenever it’s activated.Its super bright mode is really really loud. Switch that on and all you can hear are the fans over the speakers.Right if you read this you may think I’m unhappy with it, I’m not its picture is great even if I’d like more contrast. Is it worth the 1600 full price? No for that money look at a dangbei or Hisense, and if I’m honest had I the money I’d have gone that direction, this is worth the £750 I paid though. If you can find this on sale it’s a good deal but not at full whack.

At the time I purchased this projector it was the best option on the market at its price point, by some margin. Newer projectors from XGIMI have now been released, but I would strongly advise considering this model for a home projector over the more expensive options. I have the auto calibration set to run automatically on every restart, the manual alignment tool is best if you have a fixed screen like we do. I have this projector mounted to the ceiling with all cables run through the ceiling/walls/flooring, this way I am able to run an Xbox Series X, PlayStation and surround sound with all devices easily accessible on a unit beneath the screen. This is marketed for being easily used anywhere, which I suppose you could do but you won't get the cinema experience that I think alot of people want when paying this money.There is an optical zoom function on this projector which means great versatility being able to place the projector where it works for you in your room and you won't have reduced visuals when you zoom the picture down like other digital zoom functions.The inbuilt speaker is OK, again if your using in a home cinema then I would advise getting surround sound anyway.I use the projector for gaming which is amazing on a 120 inch screen, but be warned even in gaming mode the response rate will not be suitable for competitive gaming and won't compare to using a gaming monitor. For me it works perfectly though and most won't notice this.If you watch alot of Netflix then be warned that it won't run natively on a projector, this is not XGIMIs fault but how Netflix works on different devices, so you will need a dongle. When I purchased this was included free, it works and is easy to set up but only runs 1080p, so you miss out on the glorious 4k that you will have gotten used to.I have had this for over 2 years and I still use it almost daily, there have been some bugs that I have experienced which I will list below> on occasion the cover will not open when the projector is switched on, turning off at the plug then restarting after 10 seconds always fixes this.> the remote does feel slightly cheaper than you would expect for a projector of this price, mainly due to the directional buttons not always returning to their normal position> on occasion when you start the projector the image will be strangely misaligned, opening the manual alignment and simply making one adjustment fixes the whole image straight away.> the auto switch to HDMI upon receiving an input, such as turning your Xbox on, typically doesnt work. This isn't a great issue but there isn't a button on the remote to cycle the input sources, so you have to navigate across the top menu of the home screen each time.

I had a mogo 2 pro for the bedroom, just trying the technology really and was impressed with that so I tried the halo plus in the living room, with a proper screen and although it was brighter it just wasn’t bright enough (bigger room and distance to screen), so I returned it and went for the Ultra - difference was like night and day. So much brighter that it doesn’t seem like it’s being projected, it feels more like your just watching a really big tv. Very quiet too. The auto framing and focus stuff is good but I just set it up once in the corner of the room and turned all that off so it stays set, it’s fairly substantial and is something you want in one place.Picture quality is great. Sound very decent, but I did cable the sound through to my sound bar set up, mostly to get the sound up where my screen is but also to get the improvement in sound; doing that gives a theatre like sound that matches the picture.DVD works great too although as there are only 2 hdmi sockets and one is being used for sound setup, the other had to be shared between my dvd and Apple TV using a switching device I got off Amazon.3d movies work well but you do need a different set of glasses from those you might have for your tv - 2 different systems I guess. The Xgimi ones work well, just a bit fiddly to get everything synced up initially.Enjoyable watching anything on this; tv shows now look like movies, and football matches look great.Worth waiting for a discounted price, as it drops quite a bit during Black Friday or other sale events. Even discounted it’s an expensive option but if you want to go big and have a bright high quality picture I think this is the way to do it. But get a decent screen as well - motorised with a remote control makes like a lot easier. When you drop the screen down and get this working it does make visitors jaws dop!