Nighttime Use

With the XGIMI Horizon Pro put through the paces in a sub-optimal setting, we waited until it was dark out, and it is at this point that the 4K projector really managed to flex its muscles. The Android TV as well as Google TV interfaces were bright, with all the dark areas clearly visible as well. Sitting on the couch around 140" away from a 90" screen was quite the experience, and as you can see, the glass top of the table manages to reflect an illuminated image as well.


Looping back to the Top Gun Maverick trailer in 4K, the screen where Tom Cruise's silhouette is placed in sight has the lit frame of the hangar doors provide plenty of detail in the dark. The hangar door to the right of him has clearly visible elements, more than a shot of the camera can provide. The in-flight shot and more diverse third screen grab are both so much nicer to look at as well. The XGIMI Horizon Pro does an excellent job with 4K footage.


Circling back to Amazon TV playing parts of the most recent Tom Clancy: No Remorse movie, the darker scenes are presented extremely well without blowing out the bright spots of the scene. Of course, another trailer of Rick and Morty does just fine as well, with simply much more luminance in dark surroundings.


Lastly, we fired up Death Stranding on the PC in all its 4K glory and picked a scene from the prologue where the main character is standing at the edge of a cave entrance, with colorful, well-lit elements in the center and dark cave walls all around. With the dark room, you can even make out the texture of the stone walls well.

AV Quality

Before diving into the conclusion, let's talk about the general picture quality. As mentioned, 4K content looks great on the XGIMI Horizon Pro. Upscaling does as well for the most part, but native definition content still takes the cake in terms of quality. X-VUE 2.0 Image Engine does a great job, and the resulting picture quality in HDR and its subjective color accuracy further add to the overall excellent viewing experience. While motion compensation seems to better deal with simpler video, like cartoons or even sports like soccer, more elaborate scenes get that odd artifact around the edges. This happens when using all types of sources. In the Top Gun Maverick trailer, this was almost always reproducible exactly where the jet rolls towards the beginning of the trailer. Turning motion compensation off solved the issue, but XGIMI should really work on that, so here is to hoping future updates improve on things.

Beside that, colors are vivid and to our untrained eye spot on for the most part. While there is a definitive warmer tone to them, this is mostly owing to the slightly yellow wall of the apartment the Horizon Pro was used in.

The two 8-watt speakers actually managed quite the nice punch, and we frequently had to turn the volume down as it was louder than one would expect. With them situated on either side within the Horizon Pro, the audio is dispersed well in a larger room with the unit in a central location. Naturally, it takes some getting used to having your audio not come from the screen you are looking at, but thanks to Bluetooth 5.0, you should be able to connect a sound bar to solve that issue.