The Xgimi Elfin ($599) delivers lots of capability for its size, price, and 2-pound weight, including built-in streaming courtesy of Android TV 10 and a highly watchable image for movies and video. Unlike the similarly priced Anker Nebula Solar Portable, our top pick for a fully portable palmtop or mini projector, it doesn't include a built-in battery. But not using batteries frees it from a design requirement to conserve power, which lets it offer an 800 ANSI lumen brightness rating. That's twice the rating of the Nebula Solar, enough to it make it one of the brightest projectors for its size. It's our new top pick for a non-battery-powered mini projector.

Portable, But Needs a Power Outlet

The Elfin pairs a 1080p DLP chip with a four-color red-green-blue-blue (RGBB) LED light source. More precisely, and importantly, the projector uses one of TI's Manhattan chips, with a rectangular array rather than the diamond array that's common in small projectors. Diamond arrays have low power consumption, but add artifacts to some images. The light source is rated at 25,000 hours.

As with the Nebula Solar Portable and some other 1080p projectors that can accept 4K input and support HDR, the Elfin behaves much like a 4K projector with soft focus, establishing a 4K (3,840-by-2,160-pixel) HDR connection by default, and falling back to 4K SDR or 1080p SDR only if 4K and HDR aren't available. Its HDR support includes both HDR10 and HLG HDR.

The 800 ANSI lumen rating is particularly notable, especially since the Elfin's actual brightness in my tests was close to what I expect for the rating. Most projectors in this category are rated in LED lumens, which are often significantly inflated and not a standard measurement. (We'll come back to brightness later.)

The Elfin weighs 2 pounds, not including its external AC adapter, and measures 2 by 7.6 by 7.6 inches (HWD), making it easy to carry in a briefcase or backpack. Xgimi doesn't include a protective case, however, so you might want to get one separately if you plan to carry it anywhere beyond one room to another or to the backyard.

Physical setup is easy. Connect an image source to the HDMI port (optional), turn the power on, and adjust the image size, preferably by moving the projector as needed. Focus is automatic, and worked nicely in my tests. Horizontal and vertical keystone correction, as well as digital zoom, are also available, but better avoided since they reduce brightness and can introduce artifacts. There's also an automatic obstacle avoidance feature which can fit the picture to the screen, or a blank section of a wall—to avoid projecting part of the image on a framed picture or light switch for example. However, it's generally better to avoid using it, since it will give you a dimmer image than if you reposition the projector to get the smaller picture size.

As is typical for projectors with Android TV, you have to sign in to Google to set up streaming before you can use another video source. There's no Ethernet port, leaving Wi-Fi as the only choice for connecting to your internet-connected network.

The audio is impressive for such a small projector. The dual 3-watt Harman/Kardon speakers take advantage of DTS-HD, DTS-Studio Sound, Dolby Audio, Dolby Digital, and Dolby Digital Plus to deliver high enough volume for a large family room and sound quality that's a match for many TVs. For even higher quality and volume, you can connect an external sound system using the 3.5mm stereo output, the HDMI port's ARC support, or Bluetooth.

Testing the Elfin: Good Color Accuracy, High Brightness

The Elfin offers five picture modes and five power modes, all of which affect color accuracy. Among the power modes, Standard and Eye Protection delivered the most neutral color, and were roughly equal brightness. For my tests I used Standard, because it's the default setting

For picture mode, I also chose the default setting—Movie—which was essentially tied with Football, Game, and Custom picture modes for both color accuracy and highest brightness. Each mode offers different options for customizations, and Custom offers the longest list of choices. However, the only changes I found worth making were both available in Movie also. Based on preliminary tests, I boosted brightness just enough to improve shadow detail without raising the black level, and I turned off frame interpolation for watching movies. Frame interpolation smoothes motion, and can improve the look of video, but it also adds what's called a digital video or soap opera effect to filmed material, literally making a movie look like live video.

In my 1080p SDR viewing tests, the Elfin delivered good color accuracy, including for flesh tones, and good contrast in bright scenes. It lost some shadow detail, even after I adjusted the brightness properly, but held it well enough for me to easily see what was happening in the dark areas with lights off. In a low level of ambient light, with one floor lamp on, the image was a little washed out, but I could still make out details in dark scenes.

As with many native 1080p projectors, image quality with 4K HDR material was disappointing. The Elfin accepted and downconverted the 4K HDR input well enough, but the image showed a green bias and low overall brightness. It also lost more shadow detail than with SDR input, and when using the same 90-inch diagonal image size I used for 1080p SDR viewing, even a low level of ambient light completely washed out the HDR image in dark scenes. Given the choice, it's better to limit the input to SDR only.

For 3D, the projector supports DLP-Link glasses and is limited to top-bottom and side-by-side formats. I didn't see any crosstalk in my tests, and saw just a hint of 3D-related motion artifacts. I measured the input lag in Game mode at 26.8 milliseconds using a Bodnar meter. That's a little slow for serious gaming, but most casual users will find it acceptable.

Using the Society for Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) standards, 800 ANSI lumens is bright enough for a 130-inch 16:9 image in a dark room using a 1.0 gain screen. In my tests, using Standard power mode and Movie picture mode, which deliver lower brightness than the Elfin's maximum, the image was easily bright enough to light up my 90-inch screen in the dark and in low levels of ambient light. In a family room with lots of windows, it was suitably bright to fill an 80-inch screen in moderate ambient light at night and remain watchable—if somewhat washed out—on a bright afternoon.

Verdict: The Elfin Finds a Sweet Spot

The Xgimi Elfin arguably offers the most bang for the buck we've seen in a mini projector. The AAXA M7 Pico Projector, for example, is a bit less expensive, similarly bright, and also offers 1080p resolution, while the AAXA 4K1 Ultra HD  offers 4K resolution and similar brightness at a much higher price. But both lose points for color accuracy, due to a slight green bias.

The 1080p Nebula Solar Portable is directly competitive with the Elfin in price, and offers similar value, but based on different features. It came in well behind the Elfin for brightness and color accuracy in our tests. And it even weighs more, largely due to its battery. If you need a mini projector that includes a built-in battery, it remains our top pick. But the Xgimi Elfin's better color accuracy and higher brightness makes the Elfin our Editors' Choice honoree for those who need a mini projector for AC power only.