XGIMI HORIZON 20 Max  Projector Review

The XGIMI HORIZON 20 Max's brightness is fantastic. It has no real weaknesses; white and color light output are high, so images stay vibrant instead of washing out in brighter modes or in rooms with a few lights. Still, the extremely high light output on this unit can make DLP rainbow artifacts more apparent for RBE-sensitive viewers; using a lower power mode helps.

This projector's native contrast is excellent. It holds onto shadow depth very well, even as the scenes get brighter, and dark scenes look convincing and deep for a projector. Of course, like with any projector, contrast tapers off as the APL goes up, but it still performs very well. Overall, this unit looks great in dark rooms.

Out of the box, the projector is quite accurate in SDR in its 'Movie' Picture Mode, but it's far from perfect. Grayscale is a touch cool, as it has too much blue in most whites, and not enough reds, and is noticeable on whites and skin tones as they veer slightly blue. Outside of that, colors are very accurate, as they track closely to the Rec. 709 standard without obvious oversaturation, and gamma is close to the 2.2 target, but most scenes are a bit too bright.

After calibration with the projector's 11-point white balance and color calibration settings, the XGIMI HORIZON 20 Max is extremely accurate. Grayscale lands right on the D65 white point, with a neutral balance, neither too cool nor too warm. Colors are mostly exactly as they should be outside of pure whites, which still lean a bit blue. Gamma is also now right on the 2.2 target.

This projector covers all of Rec. 709, so SDR looks fully saturated without pushing colors out of bounds. It also reaches very wide coverage of Rec. 2020 for a projector, which means HDR titles can show richer reds and greens than most competing DLPs.

The XGIMI HORIZON 20 Max uses a single-chip 0.47-inch DMD with XPR pixel-shifting, so it isn't native 4k, but it still looks noticeably sharper than a standard 1080p projector. It's driven by an RGB (tri-laser) light engine with an expected ~20,000-hour lifespan. XGIMI doesn't list a user-replaceable laser module for this model, and the manual advises against disassembling or repairing it yourself.

This single-chip DLP design uses color-sequential primaries, so some viewers may see rainbow artifacts (RBE), especially on high-contrast edges and subtitles. Because the 20 Max is very bright, the effect can be more noticeable than average. There's no true fix beyond lowering brightness/contrast.

The XGIMI HORIZON 20 Max has a ton of features to make it easy to place and run. You get a motorized 1.25× zoom with autofocus, plus a wide lens-shift range, up to ±120% vertical and ±45% horizontal, so you can center the image without tilting the chassis. Auto keystone is also available. For exact screen sizes and distances, use our Throw Calculator.

Although the XGIMI HORIZON 20 Max isn't a travel projector, it's easy to place. The rotating base and swivel body let you aim the image up or down quickly, and setup is mostly hands-off thanks to autofocus, auto-keystone with obstacle avoidance, and smart screen alignment. The motorized zoom also helps you fine-tune framing without nudging the chassis. That said, it's a chunky home-theater unit (about 11 lbs) with no built-in battery, so it's best for moving room to room rather than true portable use.

This projector is reasonably quiet in its regular picture modes, with a steady, low-pitched fan whoosh. Flip on Luminance Boost or High Power, though, and the fan ramps up a lot; you'll hear it clearly even from the couch during quiet scenes. If you're sensitive to noise, stick to the standard lamp settings, without Luminance Boost or High Power.

This projector gives you a straightforward I/O layout: two HDMI inputs (one HDMI 2.1, one 2.0), with eARC on the 2.1 port for sending audio to a soundbar/AVR. There's also USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 for local media, a 3.5 mm jack, and an optical output for older audio gear. Wireless is modern, with dual-band Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2, but there's no Ethernet jack.

The XGIMI HORIZON 20 Max accepts 4k signals up to 60Hz, and it will take 4k120 and 1440p signals but scales them internally. If you want true high-refresh gaming, run it at 1080p, as 120Hz works properly, and it also supports ultra-high refresh up to 240Hz. To unlock the higher refresh modes, enable Projector Super Frame in Picture → Advanced Settings, with the HDMI EDID Version set to 'EDID 2.1.'

The projector's latency feels pretty snappy at 120Hz and especially at 240Hz. Unfortunately, it feels noticeably slower at 60Hz, although it's still good enough for most slower single player titles. Still, for the best experience, stick to 4k/1080p @ 120Hz, or 1080p @ 240Hz for PC gamers. Just remember that the unit downscales 4k @ 120Hz to 1080p @ 120Hz.

The XGIMI HORIZON 20 Max offers a ton of audio passthrough options. With eARC, it passes Dolby Atmos (both DD+ from apps and TrueHD from discs), DTS:X, DTS-HD MA, Dolby Digital Plus, and up to 7.1 LPCM. Over regular ARC (and optical), you're limited to Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1, so there's no lossless formats or multichannel LPCM. Overall, you won't have any issues passing through your audio format of choice when watching content.

The XGIMI HORIZON 20 Max supports 3D, including Side-by-Side, Top-and-Bottom, and Frame Packing formats.

• Power supply
• Power cable
• Remote control
• 2x AAA batteries
• User documentation
• Carrying case

The XGIMI HORIZON 20 Max runs an Android TV smart platform with Google Play app support and built-in Chromecast. There's a built-in 2 × 12W Harman Kardon speaker system (24W total), so you can watch without an AVR or soundbar, and ARC/eARC on HDMI makes it easy to hand audio off to a better setup later.