Xgimi Horizon 20

[Paul Heroy]

I have been using a little LG 1080p LED projector in my office / man cave for 11 years, the PF1500. It was a great deal then for my purpose, a solid state lamp based, small and bright enough for an 83" screen for watching lots of football and a few other things at night. I've been waiting for things to advance enough for there to be a clear upgrade, and with some of the latest laser illuminated 4K options such as the subject Xgimi Horizon plus a few others, I felt this was the time to jump. It occasionally goes on sale for $1199 and did again during the recent Prime Day event, but I grabbed it from B&H Photo b/c their card gives you the choice of no sales tax, or a 12 month no interest payment plan. 

From the reviews I read, on the surface, the Horizon 20 (not the Max or Pro version) is fantastic for my purpose. It's specced at 3200 lumens, reviews say it has good color and contrast for the price, and importantly has probably the best placement flexibility due to generous zoom range AND optical shift, a rarity in this price range. So I grabbed one, and in the last day finally got around to setting up to check it out.

Uh... I might not get very far. There are 2 big issues I've run into right from the start. 1) This is an Android based device, so it forced me into a series of Google sign ins and info screens. Really not a fan of this, but it looks like you can probably defeat it after the initial setup if, by nothing else, disconnecting it from wifi. 2) The remote is BlueTooth. It will not work with my beloved Harmony Elite, from what I can tell. This may be 2 aggravations that are collectively "too much". I got so annoyed I pulled the power cord mid setup. 

But I'm not sure if there are any really good alternatives out there that won't have these or other hurdles for me. I don't follow the projection market super closely but do occasionally glance around at Projector Central & Projector Reviews at least, and this seemed like by far the most compelling unit for the reasons above. It's also got a decent built in speaker which could make for a fun portable experience. 

Maybe I need to chill and work out my issues with this nascent relationship, lol. I do have 12-13 days to return if need be.

[SRW1000]

I have been using a little LG 1080p LED projector in my office / man cave for 11 years, the PF1500. It was a great deal then for my purpose, a solid state lamp based, small and bright enough for an 83" screen for watching lots of football and a few other things at night. I've been waiting for things to advance enough for there to be a clear upgrade, and with some of the latest laser illuminated 4K options such as the subject Xgimi Horizon plus a few others, I felt this was the time to jump. It occasionally goes on sale for $1199 and did again during the recent Prime Day event, but I grabbed it from B&H Photo b/c their card gives you the choice of no sales tax, or a 12 month no interest payment plan.

From the reviews I read, on the surface, the Horizon 20 (not the Max or Pro version) is fantastic for my purpose. It's specced at 3200 lumens, reviews say it has good color and contrast for the price, and importantly has probably the best placement flexibility due to generous zoom range AND optical shift, a rarity in this price range. So I grabbed one, and in the last day finally got around to setting up to check it out.

Uh... I might not get very far. There are 2 big issues I've run into right from the start. 1) This is an Android based device, so it forced me into a series of Google sign ins and info screens. Really not a fan of this, but it looks like you can probably defeat it after the initial setup if, by nothing else, disconnecting it from wifi. 2) The remote is BlueTooth. It will not work with my beloved Harmony Elite, from what I can tell. This may be 2 aggravations that are collectively "too much". I got so annoyed I pulled the power cord mid setup.

But I'm not sure if there are any really good alternatives out there that won't have these or other hurdles for me. I don't follow the projection market super closely but do occasionally glance around at Projector Central & Projector Reviews at least, and this seemed like by far the most compelling unit for the reasons above. It's also got a decent built in speaker which could make for a fun portable experience.

Maybe I need to chill and work out my issues with this nascent relationship, lol. I do have 12-13 days to return if need be.

I haven't been following that closely either, but the XGIMI Titan Noir Max is getting all of the attention right now.  It's more than 3x the price of the Horizon and I don't know if it would still give you the same headaches.  

[Paul Heroy]

Looks like it's in a Kickstarter campaign? Though it looks like you're probably right about the interface - per this review https://www.projectorjunkies.com/xgimi-titan-noir-max-in-depth-review/, which says it does NOT "include a built-in smart interface". 

The Titan Noir looks pretty amazing but I'm looking for a small projector that can be ceiling mounted, more of an "entertainment" oriented design and under $1500. I am not necessarily sending the Horizon 20 back, but the remote issue is a pretty big one as I went through a lot of hassle to get my Harmony Elite working (had 2 spares I grabbed when Logitech announced the demise, and had to do a lot of research on how to update the f/w to get the hubs & remotes to even work) and I'm not very interested at the moment in switching to a $350 Sofa Baton. It's also not really designed much for being ceiling mounted but just tossed on a coffee table and let the projector auto focus, keystone etc for folks who don't want to get involved at all in setup.