The Xgimi Horizon 20 Max is a 4K projector with a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality. For example, it claims a 5,700 ISO lumen brightness thanks to a single picture mode that you probably won't ever want to use. (More on why later.) But even ignoring that mode, it's one of the brightest room-to-room models on the market. Likewise, its menus make it hard to adjust some settings, but—as just one example—gamers who learn how to change the right settings will see remarkably short lag times. The Mr. Hyde quirks keep it from being an Editors' Choice award winner, but the Dr. Jekyll pluses make this $2,999 model a strong contender in a premium class that includes the JMGO N1S Ultimate and two of our Editors' Choice picks: the Hisense C2 Ultra and the Anker Nebula X1.

Design: A Portable Light Cannon

The physical design is similar to that of many other high-end room-to-room models: a near-cube with a permanently attached gimbal mount. With the projector pointed straight ahead, the body measures 9.8 by 11.7 by 7.5 inches and weighs 11.9 pounds, making it roughly the same size as its closest competition and about 2 pounds lighter than the heaviest in the category.

As with every current room-to-room 4K projector, the display is a 1,920-by-1,080-pixel DLP chip that uses TI's fast-switch pixel shifting to put 3,840 by 2,160 pixels on screen. The increasingly common choice of an RGB triple laser light source offers a wider color gamut (range of colors) than most alternatives. Xgimi rates it at 110% of the UHD 4K TV standard (BT.2020, aka REC.2020). The rated lifetime for the laser engine is 20,000 hours.

(Credit: M. David Stone)

The initial setup is typical for this kind of projector. Turn on the unit and follow the on-screen Google TV setup instructions, including selecting Wi-Fi as your only network for streaming. You can also optionally connect video sources to the two HDMI ports on the back panel and to the USB Type-A ports. One is USB 2.0, and one is USB 3.0; both support reading files from USB memory.

All but standard for the category is the Horizon's full set of auto-adjustment features. Most are digital, and using them will lower the brightness at any given image size and can introduce artifacts. But with this bright a projector, a few lost lumens won't necessarily be an issue, and if you're going to take advantage of the mount's tilting (over 135 degrees) or swiveling (a full 360 degrees) to position your projected image, the auto adjustments are the easiest way to square off and resize the picture.

That said, if you're willing to take the time for manual setup, you can usually match the picture to the screen without digital adjustments. The Horizon 20 Max offers two key features that are rare in room-to-room portables. The first is a 1.25x zoom lens, so you can change the picture size optically. (A digital zoom is there, as well, if you need it.)

(Credit: M. David Stone)

The second—even less common in this category—is lens shift, which lets you move the picture optically rather than tilting or swiveling the projector. (Those manual movements tend to distort the picture into a trapezoid.) According to the spec sheet, the available shift from the vertically and horizontally centered position is 45% of the image width left or right, and 120% of the image height up or down.

Xgimi stood by those numbers even after I told them I measured only half that amount for each axis. However, the key point is that even the lower numbers I got offer substantial flexibility for moving the image without having to swivel or tilt the projector. Note also that when using these manual adjustments, you can still take advantage of auto focus and auto wall-color correction. Neither one creates the same issues as digital geometry corrections.

(Credit: M. David Stone)

The Harman Kardon audio system—built around two 12-watt speakers and support for DTS-Virtual:X, DTS-HD, Dolby Audio. Dolby Digital, and Dolby Digital Plus—offers high enough volume to fill a large family room at good enough quality to serve most purposes. If you want higher volume or better quality, you can connect an external sound system to the Horizon's 3.5mm stereo jack or S/PDIF audio out port, to the one HDMI port with eARC support, or over Bluetooth. Conversely, you can use the projector's Bluetooth speaker mode to let the Horizon's audio system play audio from other sources.

Image Quality: Turn On and Watch, or Tweak to Taste

The menus offer six predefined picture modes for SDR, including a High Power mode, which is the only mode that comes close to the rated 5,700-lumen brightness. Unfortunately, in addition to being brighter than the other modes, it has an obvious, if arguably tolerable, green tint—a common issue for the brightest mode in many projectors. And because the mode needs high power, it cranks up the fan (and, with it, fan noise) to a distracting level. It's not a mode you'll want to use if you can avoid it.

All of the remaining modes offer a long list of settings that let you fully calibrate the projector if you know how, or simply adjust it to taste, and all deliver acceptable or better image quality by most people's standards straight out of the box. My preliminary testing quickly showed that Movie mode had the best color accuracy, while Standard—the default picture mode—was second-best on that score, while offering better contrast. Either one is a reasonable choice if you don't want to adjust settings. For my viewing tests, however, I changed Standard's color temperature setting to Movie, which kept Standard's better contrast while giving it essentially the same color as Movie mode.

(Credit: M. David Stone)

The only other change I made was to turn off frame interpolation (listed as "MEMC" on the menu). The default setting added a noticeable soap-opera effect to filmed material, making it look like live or recorded video. Note that to change the setting, I had to first turn off the automatic low-latency mode feature (on the menu as "ALLM"), even though I could turn ALLM back on afterward and still have frame interpolation off.

This is one of the menu quirks I mentioned earlier that keeps the Horizon 20 Max from earning an Editors' Choice nod. Tracking down the linkage between the two settings took some trial and error. And I repeatedly ran into the same basic issue—the need to find the right feature to turn on or off so I could change the setting I wanted to adjust. Xgimi says it's aware of this problem and plans to update its user guide to provide clear instructions for changing settings.

After my adjustments, the projector scored well on color accuracy in SDR, as well as on contrast, shadow detail, black level, and three-dimensional depth in dark scenes.

The menu for HDR10 input is similar to the SDR menu with one extra picture mode. Six of the modes use essentially the same names as for SDR, adding "(HDR10)" at the end. The seventh mode is Imax Enhanced (HDR10). Similarly, the seven modes for HDR10+ use all the same basic names with "(HDR10 Plus)" tacked on, and the five for HLG use a subset of the SDR names, but with "(HLG)" appended. A Dolby Vision setting offers only two picture modes: Dolby Vision Dark, and Dolby Vision Bright.

(Credit: M. David Stone)

For my formal viewing tests using HDR10 versions of movies on disc, I used essentially the same settings as for SDR: Standard (HDR10) mode, Color Temperature set to Movie, and frame interpolation set off. Image quality was the same as for SDR, at least in general description. Much the same is true for my informal tests with streaming material, using HDR10+, HLG, and Dolby Vision input.

The Horizon 20 Max supports Full HD 3D with DLP-Link glasses in three formats: side-by-side, top-bottom, and frame packing. However, it didn't automatically recognize 3D input from my Blu-ray player. Instead, I had to change a menu setting, including picking the right format, to turn it on. Keep in mind, also, that once you've turned it on, you can't change picture modes until you turn it off, so make sure you pick the picture mode you want to use before turning 3D on. As with most 3D projectors, the Horizon showed no crosstalk. Very much on the plus side, I saw fewer 3D-related motion artifacts than most current 3D projectors show.

In all the viewing tests, red/green/blue flashes (rainbow artifacts) appeared frequently and were noticeable, though less often than with many current models. I didn't see any of the speckling that tri-color lasers can produce. How readily you see either issue varies from person to person, however. If you're concerned about either, it's always best to buy from a source that allows easy returns without a restocking fee, so you can judge the projector yourself.

(Credit: M. David Stone)

The Horizon 20 Max isn't a gaming projector, and it lacks some of the features you'd expect from one, but gamers should know it has shorter lag times than any gaming projector we've tested. For 4K/60Hz input, I measured it with my Bodnar meter at 10 milliseconds (ms). For 1080p input, it came in at 9.9ms for 60Hz, 5.3ms at 120Hz, and 2.7ms for 240Hz.

Each of these measurements redefines what "state-of-the-art" means at each of these combinations of resolution and refresh rate. Unfortunately, finding the right settings to get the shortest lag isn't easy. Simply switching to Game picture mode and low latency gave times for the various combinations in the range of 35ms to 53ms, and even ultra-low latency clocked in at 18ms to 35ms. After a lot of brute-force, trial-and-error testing, I found several settings that need to be set differently for each resolution/refresh-rate combination, and some that require being changed before you can reset another one. Xgimi is aware of the potential problem, and says it is "working with Google TV to develop a quicker shortcut and clearer navigation path to simplify this process."  In the meantime, it's "actively guiding users" through customer support and various online forums. So if you want short lag times, check in with Xgimi for details.

The brightness for the settings I used was consistent with what I expect from roughly 3,000 to 3,300 lumens. According to the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) recommendations, 3,000 lumens is enough, in a dark room, to light up a 1.0-gain 16:9 screen measuring 202 to 273 inches. In my testing, the image was uncomfortably bright for my 90-inch screen, forcing me to lower the Projector Light Output setting from its default 10 (full power) to 4, which was still easily bright enough for viewing in a dark room. I could have used a still-lower setting, but I prefer the brighter end of the recommended range for image brightness. For daytime viewing in a family room, raising the power level delivered a quite-watchable picture at the same size.