XGIMI HORIZON Ultra 4K Projector, Dolby Vision, 2300 ISO Lumens, 2 x 12W Harman Kardon Speakers, Home Theater Projector with WiFi and Bluetooth, Dual Light, Active 3D, 200"

Just got this projector a couple of days ago. With it all set up and aligned to my screen (easier to do on a coffee table versus a ceiling mount for sure), I'm very pleased with it for the sale price. Also, I really lucked out on the height of the coffee table with the relation of the projector to the screen. I'm coming from an Optoma UHD51A. (History - an Optoma HD33 way back in the day and before that various Panasonic, Samsung and Mitsubishi rear projection DLP TVs). Just to say I already know all of the pros & cons of DLP very well. Right out of the box: System Update V3.22.314 From the start, I felt right at 'home'. Brightness is about the same or better than the UHD51A to my eyes. Focus is sharp across the entire screen, uniformity is great, and the colors really pop. Now I finally have Dolby Vision to go along with my Dolby Atmos audio after many, many years without. I have now taken down the Optoma and the 2 mounts I had in the ceiling. The light border (when not using Keystone Correction) is well within the black felt border of my screen. The UHD51A's was far outside it. I will not miss having to change out lamps for sure. I was finally able to center my screen to the wall it's on which is nice too. Didn't really make too many settings adjustments. Turned the volume all the way down (no way I found to disable it completely). The speakers sounded good but I'll only every be using the HDMI 1 input. Also, no way I could find to have Android TV go to HDMI 1 automatically after booting up. I'm not using eARC. Within the Dolby Vision settings a selected a 130" screen with 1 gain. I haven't felt a real need to changing any of the IRIS or Picture settings so far with the content I watch and with the room conditions I have. Also, I switched to Dolby Custom to turn off the Motion Smoothing. I could post screen shots, but they would all look good. Every 4K HDR great looking YouTube video I've ever played to evaluate a display ALL look great. About the best compliment I could give this or any projector at this price & performance level is that it produces the best (Dolby Vision in the case) image possible and it looks great. Sure, my MiniLED TVs can blow it out of the water, but they aren't 135". But taking the image in context of DLP and its environment, I'm blown away with how great it looks overall. Dark horror movies not withstanding of course. :) My primary sources with this projector: onn. 4k Pro Google TV, Fire TV Cube 3 and Apple TV 4K (all 'locked' to always HDR - Dolby Vision) and a Nintendo Switch - looks good at 1080p. The power brick is pretty huge.

After a somewhat convoluted setup process, and getting used to some system-related integration quirks, I got this rather plain looking box up and running in my home theater, primarily powered by my Apple TV 4K... and was sufficiently blown away. A "DolbyVision" notification flashed on the screen, letting me know that the viewing mode would be modified, and after some time of viewing, I realized I was hopelessly addicted. I was literally not prepared for how good the image was going to look on my 100-inch screen. The last time I remembered seeing a projected image that clear was a special digital screening of "The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug" at a movie theater. It was as if I was watching the output of a digitally shot video file directly from the server. I browsed through several other films in my Apple TV library, and I almost broke it with so much jumping around from movie to movie that they wouldn't start up anymore (I must have overloaded the streaming capabilities of my router). Fortunately a quick shut down and restart remedied the issue, and I proceeded with more caution going forward. I will mention (and your mileage may vary, depending on your home setup), that I ran into some glitches in the process of making my upgraded theater system run more smoothly. Since my media sources are channeled through my Onkyo receiver and out to the projector, I had to be mindful of the behavior of my HDMI data integration. When I start up my Apple TV 4K box, it automatically powers up both the receiver and the projector. After a brief appearance of the Google Play interface (the projector's native operating system). HDMI takes over, does a brief search, and switches to Apple TV, which becomes the primary media source. For awhile, my Sony Blu-Ray player also switched on automatically, and the HDMI in turn switched over to the Blu-Ray as media source, which was annoying until I discovered how to disable that function in the player's settings. Suffice to say, this has been a good education for me in HDMI dataflow! I can now watch Blu-Rays by switching it over manually, and they look almost as wonderful as the streamed DolbyVision output from my Apple TV 4K. One of the features that exceeded my expectations (aside from the astounding image quality) is the manual keystone adjustment. Since my setup dictates I keep my projector on a stand, one thing that was problematic with my previous projector was having to leave the stand in the middle of the floor at a fixed distance from the screen, and it was never 100% fit into the viewing area. With the XGIMI HORIZON Ultra's manual keystone capabilities, I can have the projector moved over against the wall, projecting from an angle, and can distort the image to fit perfectly on the screen by dragging the 4 corners of the projected image INDEPENDENTLY up, down, left, and right. You can also zoom in and out to refine the fit, after which the image auto-focuses itself using a projected pattern. No more tripping over the wide-legged projector stand, moving it back and forth into the room, and making endless adjustments that were never perfect. (I would install a ceiling mount, but I don't think my landlady would be thrilled about more holes in the ceiling and walls than I already have). A couple of minor complaints, nothing that would diminish my 5-star rating: I made a point of purchasing a projector that was 3D capable, and this one is, even though it's not overly emphasized in the product description. My complaint is the 3D mode has to be selected manually by opening a menu and choosing the proper method, which is kind of a hassle. I'm hoping a future firmware update from XGIMI will remedy that, since I can't imagine people having any use for multiple 3D modes other than one that utilizes active lenses. Also, you can only use lenses that were designed for this specific projector. I discovered other standard active lenses don't work... but when you get the right ones, it's worth the expense IMO. The other change I'd request would be the ability to deactivate the default Google Play/Android operating system that launches at startup, which (as an Apple user) I would never put to use. I also have Amazon Prime, which runs through my Apple TV 4K. How many operating systems can one need?? Aside from these trivial quibbles, I couldn't be happier with this addition to my home theater. I just wish I had more time to spend using it, more people around I could show it off to, and especially wish I didn't share a wall with a neighbor so I can crank up the volume on my Onkyo Dolby Atmos receiver without disrupting his life (he's a really nice guy, already tolerates me enough with my music practice). I honestly wasn't ready for how fantastic this projector would turn out to be, not to mention how smoothly it integrates with the rest of my setup.

Note: This would be a solid 5 stars if not for ONE issue, which I hope is rectified by firmware-- or a replacement. TLDR: The Xgimi Horizon Ultra is... here comes that overused descriptor (I'm so sorry)... a GAME CHANGER. Regardless of if it works for your particular use case or not, I think you'll come away very impressed with what Xgimi has accomplished with this projector. While I've had several projectors over the past 16 or so years, from dedicated home theater models to a few of the now ubiquitous "lifestyle" projectors, my main viewing these days has been centered on 4K and an LG Oled flat panel, which I love. BUT... I've missed the big screen experience and the look of light beaming through the room, so I started looking. This would not be easy-- I have downsized tremendously, cannot black-out the room, and I have a WAF that is through the roof. Also, my audio is now all Sonos based instead of the traditional receiver and speaker set-up. So, my list of requirements was: Must be 4k (or whatever voodoo is done to "make" the image 4K), must have a fairly high lumen output to deal with ambient light, must have ARC/eARC (to connect to Sonos Beam without additional components), must be small and attractive. Nice to haves would be zoom and lens shift, as well as decent onboard audio and an internal streaming OS. Since 2023 qualifies as "what a time to be alive," there are a few small, lifestyle projectors (I hate that term) that do some of that, though fewer still can achieve most of it. The Xgimi Horizon Ultra clicked every single box except for lens shift. And AFAIK, none of the lifestyle projectors have true lens shift. I *think* the Xgimi is the only one that offers true optical zoom of any kind. I tried the Formovie X5, and it almost passed the test. Very bright, great sound. In the end, I had to return it. The image degradation when employing the required keystoning, while not horrible, was too noticeable to ignore (though I am working to have exact placement and not use keystoning at all. Still...) The Chinese OS was not great and there was no optical zoom. As for looks, it was... fine. I was very interested in the MGO N1 Ultra, but once I saw the propensity for the sparklies, it was a "no." Plus, the look of it wasn't really going to work for us. Enter the Xgimi. SOOO much hype and early buzz on this thing. It sounded too good to be true. As I was about to abandon my whole small scale home theater project, I figured, what the heck. I mean, it has an optical zoom, fer cryin' out loud! Suffice it to say, the reviews are factual. First off, it's beautiful and unassuming in a way I have never seen a projector pull off. Turn it on and it's super bright, has great color, and very good black levels. Is it as inky black as my Oled? No. Do I pay any attention to that when watching the projector? Also, no. The Xgimi has DolbyVision, which I tested with the latest Indiana Jones movie.; it made the movie LOOK great! However, it could not make the movie any good, so I only watched about 1/3 of it. The Harmon Kardon sound will make a lot of people happy-- clear, crisp, and plenty loud without distorting. I'll still hook up to my Sonos system, but it isn't bad as is. I've watched in ambient light and in darkness-- it does very well with the former and it excels at the latter. I'll be getting an alr screen shortly and will report back how much difference that makes. Also, I could detect no degradation of the image after keystoning, which blew my mind. It has AndroidTV 11 (no Netflix without a workaround at present-- that may be a dealbreaker for some) and is *mostly" snappy. And there's the issue that costs a star: at times, it goes full Mitch McConnell and just freezes until the 3 or 4 clicks you've made all kick-in in rapid succession, making it seem possessed. Related to this is the fact that I have experienced some pauses and stutters on almost all the content I've streamed via the onboard Android system. Everything from Plex and Apple TV to Amazon and Tablo. Oddly, Youtube has not exhibited this. Using the projector with a Firestick doesn't have these issues, so it's something in the projector itself. I'm going to contact Xgimi and see what's what. I'll report back once I hear something. I really want to give this 5 stars-- and I REALLY want to keep it, so... fingers crossed!

First projector I own (also first review I've ever written, but this product deserves it). I recently finished building my workshop/office (quonset) and have a big nice end wall (24ft wide, 14 high) with drywall painted in matte ultra white. Building doesn't have any exterior light, so I thought it would be the perfect environment for a projector with a 200inch screen size capability. I did my homework learning about the different technologies available, the important features to look for, etc. Decided to go with this brand and model. It comes very well packaged. Set up is ridiculously quick. First time I turned it on, I was confused. My mind couldn't understand what I was seeing. Played a 4k video and was mesmerized. Then comes my wife. I play Barbie trailer (very colorful). Same effect. Her brain couldn't process it. She as well was astonished by what she was looking at. The quality of the image, the colors, the detail. It is incredible what human kind has achieved in terms of technology. This projector is a clear example. BUY IT. You won't regret it at all. The problem I have now is that my kids are hooked to watching their movies and cartoons and play videogames on it. They refuse to watch anything on OLED tv now... In regards to screen, I project directly on a superflat white drywall, no screen. It works perfect. It even has a feature that analyzes the color of your wall and adapts the color of the image it emits. Haven't tried that feature though. PROs Quality /price is unbeatable. Vivid colors Refresh rate for videogames Dolby Vision Intuitive UI Auto focus and keystone CONS If you are a pro in projectors, maybe you'll see contrast on dark colors could be better although I'm perfectly ok with it. Sometimes UI gets lazy and lags. Autokeystone can be tricky. Sometimes doesn't do it right. Move the projector a bit and let it try again. You need a proper dark room to truly appreciate its performance. Integrated speaker is quite good, but nothing out of the ordinary, regardless of what other reviews say. BTW, image posted it's not very good but you can appreciate some details. Capturing a decent pic with an iphone of a projected image is almost impossible.

I don't write a lot of reviews, but I felt compelled to write one on this product. First off, I have never owned a projector. I've always had a flat panel tv. Some of my friends have projectors set up in their homes, and they swear by it, so I thought it was a cool idea to try one in mine. After researching different brands, I settled on this product because it was loaded with so many features like 4K, Dolby Vision, Android TV, Google Voice, built in Harmon Kardon speakers, high lumens, etc. But the biggest deciding factor is that it was so much cheaper than other brands with similar features. (almost half the price!) I also liked that it was smaller and more sleek looking than other large bulky units I saw, which allows me to take it outside or travel with it, if I wanted. When it arrived, I was pleasantly surprised at the packaging. It had a very premium, luxury feel to it. The projector feel and look was much more sleek than I expected. A lot of thought and care went into the customer experience. The setup was super easy and literally took less than 5 min. All I had to do was plug it in, connect to wifi, and that was it! I had all the streaming apps at my fingertips. Where I became astonished, was the quality of the picture. I was expecting there to be some loss of definition in the image, but I couldn't believe how unbelievably great the picture was. It was better than my flat panel tv! The definition is so good that I can actually see the individual hair follicles on the actors skin! Are you kidding me??? I'm astonished at how amazing this product is. I'm astonished at how big of a screen I have now with such high definition and picture quality. I'm astonished that I didn't make this switch sooner!

***Origional Review:*** I REALLY wanted to like this product. They took a success in the Horizon Pro and added Dolby Vision, Dual Light and the promise of much higher light output. I will say that the packaging was outstanding and the presentation was top notch but you buy a projector for the video quality and this has one major flaw. The projector forces you into Dolby Vision (a majority of quality streaming content is now Dolby Vision) and unfortunately the MEMC is disabled while utilizing Dolby Vision. I confirmed this with XGIMI as well to make sure I wasn't missing something. One of the major reasons for using XGIMI projectors is the smooth video output and that is just not possible with this projector. The auto keystone also didn't work as well as the Horizon Pro. All and all it is a quality made product but it is not able to perform at its most basic task. I also did a side by side comparrison with the Horizon Pro and for a significantly lower cost, the brightness and picture quality almost seemed identical (minus the lack of MEMC of course) The colors actually popped a bit more with the Pro, so I would suggest going that route even without the MEMC issue. I would avoid this product and go with the Horizon Pro until XGIMI can figure out something with the MEMC. ***In the image, Horizon Pro up top and Horizon Ultra below using very simliar settings*** ****UPDATE**** Xgimi has been great to work with and asked that I re-test the projector after they updated the firmware to enable their MEMC with Dolby Vision. I can report that they did add another option to enable to the custom setting to enable MEMC while viewing Dolby Vision content. It would have been nice for this to work with the DV Bright or Standard settings but this work around at least solves the basic problem. With the new testing of this device, additional problems were discovered and verified by Xgimi. There are major compatibility issues with major Apps like Disney+ and Prime that cause a buffering or "glitching" of the video that almost seems like there is a processing issue with the video. The brief hangups or pauses are extremely distracting. There is also audio sync issues that cause the dialog to not match the video. You would expect this with an external audio source and most AV receivers allow you to adjust this. There is no such adjustment with this for the Ultra and really there shouldn't be a sync issue for an all in one solution. The last issue discovered was the poor internet/wi-fi connectivity. When comparing the Ultra to the Pro and both models sitting side by side connected to the same network, the Ultra was a bar or two weaker in signal strength compared to the Horizon Pro. I'm not sure if that had any thing to do with the video and audio issues, but Xgimi was able to replicate the issue and assured me they were working to resolve the compatibility issues. As mentioned before, they have been very responsive and have shown a great interest in improving their new product but as it stands now, the Ultra just isn't a great option and not worth the expensive price tag. I will udpate again should this product change my mind.

After 6 months it still rocks, • I side loaded Xfinity app now I have access to all my cable TV contents wirelessly on the projector. • I installed Xplore app now I have access to all my 3TB external hard disk wirelessly by SSH server through my laptop. I researched for a long time until I found this XGIMI Elfin best for this price and my needs. First thing caught my attention was the ability to run Android TV 10.0 I've never used Android phones or TVs but I know the most expensive part in projectors are their processors chip if it can run the latest of a operating system it means they have most up to date processor chip and its expensive, there are other big brand name projectors similar size that only run on Android TV 6.0 and its because they have used processors from people old phones that they have thrown away and these companies recycle old phones and take out their processors not to pay any money for the processor, and its not a software update that you can load newer version of Android TV, the processor is weak and that old version of Android TV is all they can handle, so that's that, this projector is much faster than my XFinity ( the future of awesome ) TV Box. Durability, I know XGIMI is into making projectors and didn't see complaints about durability, most of other cheap projectors don't last more than a few months if they have a very good specs. This is a good projector good brightness, sharpness I watch 120" dimension and it's much better than my 43" LG tv. fan noise is low and its good for many aspect one is that obviously the noise doesn't bother you, next is that it means they have well manage heatings ventilation which leads to more durability ( just make sure you don't cover around the projector ) heat is a menace for electronic devices and chips, the better heat management leads to more longevity of the chips. Keystone correction not available in Gaming and 3D mode is because of hardware limitation not that they forgot or they didn't want to give it, if they make that available it would cause lower frame rates, considering their processor chip supports Android TV 10 and they weren't cheap about that, still couldn't handle that extra load of geometric transforming output on the processor, and I assume it wouldn't worth adding a couple of hundred dollars to the price of the product adding stronger processor just to support Keystone adjustments for Gaming or 3D. Fun fact : This is my first projector for a long time, believe or not my previous projector was Canon-1000 Super8 film projector 😊 which I loved but had to give it away since there was not enough films to watch on it, but still checking eBay to possibly buy one again 😊 but I had projection TV 55" ( before LCD TVs came around ) which is not quite the same thing. So this projector based on the technology, electronic chips and engineering has gone through very well worth the money, I'll post some picture later.

Used this for bedroom viewing pointed at the ceiling, paired with a Roku plugged in via HDMI. First the good: very quiet fan - the quietest among the projectors I’ve used, which include the Vankyo E30T (also known as a 530W), Nebula Mars II Pro, and Nebula Capsule Max. For the curious, the 2nd quietest is the Capsule Max, 3rd is Mars II Pro (both Nebulas have low fan noise, very tolerable), and the worst was the Vankyo - far louder, very annoying. More good points for the Elfin: nice bright image, very cool auto keystone feature, 1080p resolution, cool hardware design. Now the bad: an only average speaker, which takes away from the enjoyment of the material being watched (of course you can plug any projector into external speakers, but I’m comparing it to the other said projectors’ built-in speakers and it was the worst - specifically, due to a lack of bass frequencies as well as insufficient volume). More bad: you have to log in with a Google account at setup, even if you only intend to use your own streaming device and not rely on the built-in apps. Now the worst: the unit did not retain my keystone and projector placement settings after a reboot. Worked with XGIMI support and they could not resolve this - and some of the steps they mentioned didn’t make sense - the menu options they pointed to either did not exist or were hidden away. If XGIMI resolves this issue in the future, this would make a good projector when paired with external speakers. As it is, it falls behind the overall experience I got with the Nebula projectors - even the Capsule Max ($360 Amazon renewed) which was buggy and got returned; the Mars II Pro ($348 on sale at Amazon) won in my unintended long and winding road to finding the best projector for my situation); but definitely sits above the Vankyo ($90 amazing sale on another site). For $600 which included a coupon, I can’t recommend the Elfin, though, even if the settings issue were fixed.

Me gusto es un buen producto y de buena calidad tanto del diseño como de la imagen hubiera estado mucho mejor que fuera inalámbrico también

Purchased this projector in October 2022 and am writing this review after a lot of use and testing. I should note that all the tests happened outside, projecting onto a 120 inch Yardmaster 2 screen, per the photo. First off, the picture quality is great. Brilliant auto screen detection and auto focus. Clear, sharp image, even at 120 inches. Sports look fantastic. Movies look incredible. When you're sitting on a camping chair, enjoying an adult beverage, in the middle of the forest watching the Canucks beat the Bruins 3-2 in overtime, with a nice campfire in the foreground, who's going to be counting pixels? This little projector packs a punch. Pulls about 63 watts and is perfectly bright enough come dusk to be viewable. Like most projectors in the 600-800 ISO lumen range it is not viewable in daylight. You'd need to triple those numbers in order to realistically use it in daylight and even then it would be washed out. But why even bother. If you don't drag your TV into the garden on a sunny day and moan at the reflections, you wouldn't expect a projector to be better. If using outside, save yourself the agony of choice. Pick your moments. Pick your time of day (sunset onwards). Pick your projector (this one) and have an epic time. We've had a year and a half of fun with this Xgimi Elfin.

Great quality product, one of the best projectors I have used till now.

Acaba de llegar el proyector, la verdad me sorprendió todo, desde la caja, el empaque y la calidad de los materiales. Al conectarlo la verdad me lleve una grata sorpresa. Creo que el Android TV que viene incorporado en el proyector no le ayuda mucho y no le podrías sacar todo el jugo que tiene, yo lo conecte a mi AVR Onkyo y a una smart box 4k HDR y saque lo mejor del proyector, junto al audio de mi sistema de sonido Onkyo fue de lo mejor. Creo que sí solo quieres ponerlo como una TV normal sin un sistema de audio o un AVR no le veo caso, creo que una pantalla te dará más por tu dinero, pero si ya tienes todo el sistema y quieres tener un cine en casa, es un exelente producto.

Pros: Bluetooth and Wi-Fi built-in Small and lightweight Android TV Quiet HDR-ready No Cons XGIMI Elfin 1080P DLP Projector Our Take With its 800-lumen rating, XGIMI's Elfin packs a good punch in a compact, lightweight, and feature-laden projector. Pros Bluetooth and Wi-Fi built-in Small and lightweight Android TV Quiet HDR-ready Cons AC adapter gets hot No battery playback XGIMI Elfin front top One of the smallest and lightest portable projectors in its brightness class, the XGIMI Elfin is also one of the most capable with everything from the ability to make the most of HDR programming to built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. With the Android TV 10 operating system, the Elfin provides access to a lot of apps and programming. It may not have perfect color balance, but for the casual viewing it's intended for, this 1920x1080 resolution projector should be just as good in the den at home as in the classroom or at the office. Barco The projector's LED light engine is capable of putting over 700 lumens on screen, just off the Elfin's 800 lumen rating but more than enough for most uses, particularly at night or with the shades down. It lacks the flexibility to run on battery power, but its $650 price tag seems a reasonable amount to spend on a projector with so many personalities. Features The compact and easily transportable XGIMI Elfin lives up to its name, measuring just 7.5 x 1.8 x 7.5 inches (WHD). Its matte white case, rounded corners, and ring of soft rubber underneath make it look like it emerged from Apple's design studio. It would make a great visual compliment to a Mac Mini desktop computer. The Elfin doesn't include a carrying case but protects its delicate lens behind a transparent window. At 2.2-pounds, it is three-quarters of a pound lighter than AAXA's M7 projector but lacks the M7's ability to run on battery power. Still, it can be moved around as needed, whether that's for a night of binge watching Manifest in the basement, running digital lessons in a repurposed room at school or setting up a Zoom video conference for a small group at work. Elfin lifestyle1 Inside, it has TI's latest 0.33-inch DLP 1080p imaging chip and can handle 4K input. Relying on four banks of LEDs, the system has lighting sources for red, blue and green as well as an extra blue pump LED. This extra component can add as much as 12% to the projector's output but pushes the color balance towards the green end of the spectrum. The Elfin doesn't need a color wheel. As is the case with most other LED projectors, its lighting components are rated to last 30,000 hours of use, which translates into 10-plus years of use for eight hours a day. Rated to produce 800 lumens, the Elfin is the rare pico projector that comes close. My testing showed it capable of putting out more than 700 ANSI lumens. In comparison with some other popular compact portables we've tested, it's ahead of the Viewsonic M1 (measured at 140 lumens), AAXA M7 (599 lumens), XGIMI Halo (642 lumens), and AAXA P6X (698 lumens). XGIMI As with XGIMI's new Horizon models, including the recently reviewed Horizon Pro, it adds an element of artificial intelligence that makes setting it up quicker and easier. The Elfin scans the scene and resizes the image to give you the largest possible picture for your available projection area while avoiding intervening items like light switches and things hung on the wall. It worked like a charm when I put a lamp on the side of its projected image and ran the automatic keystone correction routine with the remote control. In a second, it cut the image's size by 30 percent to avoid the obstruction. By the same token, its electronic auto-focus takes a moment to work. Like other auto-focus projectors, it defocuses the image, analyzes the projected target with a forward-facing sensor and then sharpens the image. It can be manually focused with the remote control but it works so well you don't need to. XGIMI Elfin remote Because the Elfin lacks any onboard control panel, all the adjustments have to be done via its small remote control. It uses two AAA batteries. There's an on/off button and keys for selecting the HDMI input, going to the Android TV's home screen, and adjusting the volume. There's a key for activating the remote's mic for spoken commands, but more on that later. Along with Wi-Fi connectivity to its Android platform, there is one HDMI port for video input and a USB port that allows you to play media from a flash drive. Its Harman Kardon-tuned speakers are surprisingly good and have settings for Movie, Music and Sport. The projector recognizes both Dolby and DTS soundtracks. If you want to skip the internal speakers, the HDMI connection offers ARC capability, or you can take audio from the 3.5 mm headphone jack or go Bluetooth out to a speaker or pair of wireless headphones. Android TV 10 web-streaming can show anything from TED Talk lectures and YouTube videos to Prime Video and a variety of sports apps. The one thing it lacks, like a lot of other projectors in its class that share the otherwise solid Android platform, is an operating Netflix app. So you can forget about watching Trailer Park Boys unless you connect an outboard streaming player like a Roku stick or Apple TV. The Elfin's built-in Wi-Fi supports Chromecast to receive video streams from a phone, tablet or Windows computer. It requires using the Chrome browser or any of hundreds of Chromecast-compatible apps. The projector does not come preloaded with a Web browser, but I installed the Puffin TV Browser and it worked fine over two weeks of daily use. The projector includes a voice-activated version of the Google Assistant app that works through the remote control, so all you have to do—theoretically—is tell it what to do. It was effective for things like "change to the Prime app" but couldn't handle things like "open CNN.com." XGIMI Elfin top As well thought-out as the Elfin is, it lacks a slot for a micro SD card seen on some competitors, such as the AAXA M7. The USB media player can play music and stream video from a flash drive as well as arrange photos into a slide show. On the downside, it can't directly display Office or Acrobat pdf files when it's time to get down to work the way some other portables can (for example, Optoma's ML750). The Elfin offers HDR compatibility to enhance contrast with 4K HDR programs, and even recognizes HDR10+ content. The contrast enhancement can be set to Auto or turned off when the programming allows it. In a sequence of a river flowing, HDR made the difference between a dull scene with washed out greens and a brighter overall look with lots of highlights and depth. On the other hand, it can make a scene look too good to the point of looking artificial. All the picture modes allow HDR use except for Game, but Movie mode adds the ability to locally boost the contrast with three different enhancement levels as well as two levels of motion compensation. In most cases the best setting was either Low or Off. On the downside, the projector doesn't allow directly adjusting the color temperature to tune the image. XGIMI Elfin lifestyle2 Setup Unlike other pico projectors that have several mounting options underneath, the Elfin has a single threaded hole for a tripod or ceiling mount. It can sit on its own but lacks adjustable legs. I used a few old school DVDs to level and tilt it to fit the screen. As with most picos and portables, there's no zoom lens, so framing the screen is best done by moving the projector toward or away from the screen to avoid processing and retain the best image quality. XGIMI does provide digital zoom through its obstacle avoidance, however. Furthermore, the Elfin's vertical and horizontal keystone correction can handle an upward or downward tilt of up to 40-degrees as well as frame a perfect rectangular image even if the projector is off center by as much as 40-degrees. The best part is that the Elfin's interface lets you pull or push corners out or in to tweak the image's shape. On the downside, correcting for an upward tilt of 15-degrees translated into a light loss of 25 percent—huge compared to the light loss of about 10 percent for the AAXA M7, for example. While XGIMI engineers designed the Elfin to be able to create a 16.7-foot image, it is more appropriate for projecting an image of up to 7.5 feet or so, and it was at its best with a picture between 4 and 5 feet. It created a rich and bright 54-inch image from 59 inches away. (Check out ProjectorCentral's XGIMI Elfin Throw Distance Calculator for placement measurements.) As easy as the hardware was to set up, getting the Android programming online took another few minutes. After linking the projector to my home Wi-Fi network and pairing the Bluetooth remote control to the projector, I had to speak "OK, Google set up my device" into my Samsung Galaxy S9 phone. After that, I needed to verify a projected code sent by Google and authenticate my identity through a Gmail email. A word of advice, if you don't have a Gmail account before starting, get one. Next up, I needed to accept the Google Android license and allow the use of location data. Finally, I added a few apps, like MLB.TV and set it up to use my Nord VPN account. It provided a tour of the software's major features, but all I wanted to do at this point was view something more compelling. But, before I could watch anything, I needed to do two more things. First, I connected the projector to my phone using Bluetooth and fired up the Android TV app. This lets me control the action. Second, I plugged the USB transmitter of my Air Flying Mouse remote control with mini keyboard to the projector. Both worked on the first try and provided more services than the stock remote control. Like the company's Halo projector we tested a while back, the Elfin's menu is split into two groups. That can make it frustrating to use sometimes. The main menu has everything from Keystone Correction, Image Mode and Aspect Ratio to Sound Settings, HDMI Version and 3D Video Setup. At the bottom is an oddly named All Settings link to Network & Internet, Accounts & Sign In, Apps, Device Preferences, Remotes & Accessories and Projector Settings. The final item is key with selections for Brightness, Keystone Correction, Focus Settings and Projector Placement. The bottom line is that to adjust the brightness and image quality, I needed to jump back and forth between the two menus. XGIMI Elfin left facing In addition to projection modes for Movie, Office, Football and Game, there's a custom setting. The projector has four brightness levels but no Eco setting, which is just as well because it doesn't really have the brightness to spare. The output settings range from Bright and Standard to Eye Protection and Performance; the last one is the brightest but blasts the projector's green LEDs at the expense of better color balance. Performance The Elfin is able to get started quickly with its solid state light source, so it's good for stop and go meetings, class lessons and TV-show watching. It put an image on-screen in 7 seconds and shut its fan off about 1 second after turning it off. Rated at 800 ANSI lumens, the Elfin came close in the real world, with 712 ANSI lumens available in its Performance brightness mode and Movie picture settings. That's 89% of rated output and well within ANSI tolerance. Let's Talk Projectors! The ProjectorCentral Forums is a great place to chat with other projector enthusiasts about all things projectors. Join the Discussion At this maximum output the color balance was heavily skewed towards green, however. Images of people and natural scenes took on a ghostly appearance. They looked better using the Football and Office settings, which lowered the green level relative to reds and blues. The brightness levels for Football and Office were 708 and 702 ANSI lumens. Dropping to Bright mode reduced the Elfin's output by about 11 percent, and using the Eye Protection mode, which lowers the blue light level, reduced output by 26 percent. Finally, the Standard mode's brightness was also off by 26 percent versus the maximum output. The projector's lowest brightness level was 316 lumens (Eye Protection/Game), though that's better than some other small pico projectors. In Standard and Movie modes, I watched the "Dawn of Man" opening scenes from 2001: A Space Odyssey and saw rich and vibrant colors that weren't oversaturated. There was just enough brightness to reveal details in the cave scenes. For such a small projector, the Elfin can be a stand-in for casual TV viewing, though it will not satisfy home theater enthusiasts. AAXA M7 2001 There was enough light output from the Elfin that the interior cave detail in the opening scenes of 2001: A Space Odyssey was visible. (Photo Credit: Warner Bros.) Later, when I watched the Chicago Cubs play the White Sox on MLB.TV in Football mode, the view was startlingly good. The colors felt right and the contrast between the grass, dirt and cloudless sky were eye opening for such a small projector. The projector's 92 percent brightness uniformity is on a par with other pico projectors, like the AAXA M7 and P6X. The projector's peak power use was 59 watts and it used 0.3 watt in idle mode. That adds up to an annual expense of $13 if it's used for eight hours a day for 200 days out of the year and you pay the national average of 13 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity. It has a dust filter but it has been designed to last the life of the projector and might just need the occasional cleaning. With a large heat sink and fan in the back, the Elfin didn't break 105-degrees Fahrenheit while being used. Its AC adapter did heat up significantly and hit a peak of 130 degrees, something we've seen in the power supplies of other pico projectors. Still, the Elfin projector was one of the quietest projectors available. In its hottest mode, the device only emitted 40.3dBA of fan noise in a room that had a background of 34.7dBA. This makes it significantly quieter than some lower output projectors, such as the AAXA M7. Conclusion The XGIMI Elfin is a touch larger than some pico projectors, but with over 700 lumens of light at its disposal, it leaves most of them in the dark. Its 1080p HD resolution is a significant benefit from such a small projector, and the Elfin is capable of making the most of 4K HDR material from its Android 10 platform. Furthermore, it's flexible, also connecting via its built-in Wi-Fi to Chromecast apps on your mobile device, or directly to wired HDMI or USB sources. At AED 2500, it squeezes a lot of projector into a small and light package with an attractive, modern design that looks straight out of Apple. For schools, offices and at home, the Elfin just might be the right projector at the right price.