Main Interface and Settings

Out of the box, the XGIMI Horizon still shows the old school Android TV interface, but functions perfectly fine. The OS also reminds you in the settings to rename it to something more appropriate, which includes the units actual product name at the top of the list.


XGIMI advertises the use of an official Google Play Store app called "DesktopManager" to essentially side-load Netflix automatically. While that Manager app installs without any additional intervention, you do have to turn on the unknown sources flag to install the Netflix APK it provides. There are actually two Netflix variants - with the cleaner looking one being the web interface. Besides that, it just works, so once you go through these hoops, you can watch the entire Netflix catalogue natively on the XGIMI Horizon.


After a bit of playing around with the UI, Google updated it to the latest, unified Google TV interface automatically. Here you can also see, that the Horizon ships with a File Manager and XMusic Player pre-installed.


Under settings, most of the elements you will find are your usual Google TV entries, but there is a menu entry specifically to the the fact that you are using a projector. You get access to a brightness, keystone, focus and placement settings.


Under the Brightness entry, there is not too much, as XGIMI ships the unit with several presets and the ability to set up a single custom profile. While this is the brightness entry, selecting any of the options does actually also change the color temperature, which feels a bit heavy handed. That said, the default setting feels most balanced. Under the Keystone setting you can adjust the area boundaries to line up with your projection surface. You have a choice between automatic and manual settings. On top of that, there is an Image Zoom functionality which allows you to reduce the overall size of the projected image at its current keystone setting.


In terms of focus, the XGIMI Horizon pushes the user towards its autofocus feature which ensures you get a sharp image during every startup of the device. This is useful if the projector is on something that could move if bumped - for example a coffee table. As we learned during the initial setup, you may also press and hold the focus button on the remote to enter a manual focus mode if need be. The last two entries under Projector Settings revolve around general placement setup of the unit as well HDMI eARC hidden in the "Other" section. Last but not least, this is also where you find the ability to calibrate the gyro, focus and keystone functionality as well as toggle the Bluetooth discoverability of the XGIMI Horizon on or off. In general it feels like XGIMI could be a little clearer with its menu structure and break the elements under the "Other" section into their own menu points so that they are more easily discoverable to the user.


All three calibration features on the other hand go into sufficient detail with animations, to let you know what you are about to calibrate. We did trigger all three, but since we had no issues with the Horizon to start with, there was no tangible improvement after the process.


As the rest of the menu is what you would find on essentially all Google TV equipped displays or projectors, the only other entry that was a bit different was a Temperature setting buried under the Settings > About entry - at the very bottom.