The XGIMI HORIZON Ultra is a long-throw 4k HDR projector. It features a hybrid Laser-LED Dual Light Technology, which leverages the strengths of both technologies to its advantage, and its light source is rated to last for 25,000 hours. The projector comes with a full suite of image correction technologies, including autofocus and auto keystone correction with object avoidance, so it compensates for any geometry errors in the image automatically and adjusts itself when it detects objects in the frame. It comes with Android TV 11.0 with Chromecast and AirScreen built in and supports Bluetooth 5.2/BLE and Wi-Fi 6. It has two HDMI ports, each capable of 4k @ 60Hz, and can passthrough advanced audio formats from DTS and Dolby through eARC. Finally, it has two integrated 12W Harman/Kardon speakers.
Our Verdict
The XGIMI HORIZON Ultra is decent for watching movies. It's quite bright with spectacular brightness uniformity, so it looks great even in rooms with a few lights. Unfortunately, its contrast is subpar, so it doesn't look as good in dark rooms due to it projecting noticeably raised blacks. This projector's color accuracy is very good, but calibrating it doesn't further improve its accuracy. Finally, it has a good color gamut, and the projector is bright enough to make them pop.
- Bright projector with fantastic brightness uniformity.
- Very good color accuracy.
Supports Dolby Vision.
Sub-par contrast leads to raised blacks.
- The color calibration mode isn't working properly, so the projector's colors can't further be improved.
The XGIMI HORIZON Ultra is an alright living-room gaming projector that favors image quality, especially brightness, over raw speed. Brightness is ample, and the hybrid LED-laser engine produces saturated color, so games look vivid with a couple of lights on. However, contrast is subpar; blacks lift noticeably in very dark scenes. The projector supports Dolby Vision, which is nice for Xbox gamers. As for responsiveness, there are no high refresh rate modes, so plan on playing all of your games at 30 or 60Hz. Input lag at those refresh rates is unremarkable, so the projector is truly better suited for playing slow single-player titles versus faster competitive titles.
- Bright projector with fantastic brightness uniformity.
- Very good color accuracy.
Supports Dolby Vision.
Sub-par contrast leads to raised blacks.
No high refresh rate support.
Input lag is unremarkable overall.
The XGIMI HORIZON Ultra is bright enough to look punchy on a big screen in a living room. It easily handles movie nights with the lights dimmed and still holds up with a bit of ambient light, so scenes don't look dull or washed out. Brightness is very even across the image, so you don't see distracting dark corners or hotspots.
Bright enough to look good in a moderately lit room.
Good color brightness, so colors still look fairly vivid when you turn the light up.
Fantastic brightness uniformity.
The XGIMI HORIZON Ultra's contrast is sub-par. In a fully dark environment, blacks and letterbox bars look more gray than black, and very dark scenes lack depth. With some lights on or in typical living-room conditions, the raised black level is less noticeable, but it won't satisfy someone chasing a true home-theater look with deep, rich blacks.
Blacks look more dark gray than truly deep in a dark room.
Struggles with near-dark content.
Changelog
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Updated Jan 20, 2026:
We mentioned the newly reviewed XGIMI HORIZON 20 Pro in the Contrast section of this review.
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Updated Jan 16, 2026:
We mention the newly reviewed Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus in the Portability section of this review.
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Updated Jan 14, 2026:
We updated the Native Contrast results after a recent adjustment to our testing. We also touched up the Our Verdict section and the Popular Projector Comparisons box.
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Updated Jan 14, 2026:
We've modified the text in our Brightness and Native Contrast text boxes as a result of our latest test bench and added a Sequential Contrast test. We've also added Brightness and Contrast performance usages in the Verdict section.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the XGIMI HORIZON Ultra 4K. It now sits alongside the XGIMI HORIZON S Max at the top of XGIMI's HORIZON lineup. Both the Ultra and S Max use XGIMI's hybrid Dual Light engine (laser + LED), with the S Max using the newer Dual Light 2.0, while the XGIMI HORIZON Pro and XGIMI HORIZON are LED-only models. The Ultra adds a motorized 1.2–1.5:1 zoom, whereas the S Max has a fixed 1.2:1 throw with a built-in rotating stand; both support Dolby Vision/HDR10/HLG, while the older HORIZON models top out at HDR10/HLG.
| Model | Light Source | Resolution | Brightness (ISO) | HDR Formats | Setup / OS | Ports (highlights) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HORIZON S Max | Dual Light 2.0 (RGB laser+LED) | 4K (XPR) | 3100 | Dolby Vision, HDR10, HLG, IMAX Enhanced | ISA 5.0; Android TV 11 | HDMI (eARC)×1, USB×2, Wi-Fi 5 |
| HORIZON S Pro | Dual Light 2.0 | 4K (XPR) | 1800 | Dolby Vision, HDR10, HLG | ISA 5.0; Android TV 11 | HDMI (eARC)×1, USB×2, Wi-Fi 5 |
| HORIZON Ultra | Dual Light (Laser+LED) | 4K (XPR) | 2300 | Dolby Vision, HDR10, HLG | ISA 3.0; Android TV 11 | HDMI×2 (1×eARC), USB×2, LAN, optical out, Wi-Fi 6 |
| HORIZON Pro | LED | 4K (XPR) | 1500 | HDR10, HLG | ISA (earlier gen); Android TV 10 | HDMI×2, USB×2, LAN, optical out, Wi-Fi |
| HORIZON | LED | 1080p | 1500 | HDR10, HLG | ISA (earlier gen); Android TV | Typical: HDMI×2, USB×2, LAN |
Our unit was manufactured in July 2023.
Popular Projector Comparisons
The XGIMI HORIZON Ultra 4k projector has a good mix of image quality and smart features. It is bright, has very even illumination, and its colors appear rich and saturated, making it a suitable choice for a living room projector. Its main weakness is contrast, which keeps blacks looking more gray than inky. If pure image quality is all you care about, especially for dark-room movie watching, the Epson Home Cinema 3800 is a much better choice for a similar price. However, the XGIMI HORIZON Ultra counters with a more modern package, featuring a compact chassis, full Wi-Fi 6 support, an integrated smart OS, and advanced image-correction features that simplify setup in challenging spaces.
Check out our recommendations for the best 4k projectors and the best projectors for home theater. If you prefer to shop for a projector that can be used outdoors, look for the best outdoor projectors instead.
The XGIMI Horizon S Max is better than the XGIMI HORIZON Ultra. While the Ultra is brighter overall, the Max fights back with deeper blacks and a more colorful image. It's also more portable due to its vast image correction features and fully rotating stand.
The Hisense C2 Ultra is noticeably better than the XGIMI HORIZON Ultra. While the XGIMI matches the Hisense on brightness and out-of-the-box SDR accuracy, the Hisense is far easier to calibrate, slightly more portable, has noticeably deeper contrast, and has a far wider color gamut. Plus, the Hisense is the superior performer when it comes to gaming, as it supports gaming at 240Hz in 1080p and 1440p, while the XGIMI is limited to 60Hz at all resolutions.
The XGIMI HORIZON Ultra is much better than the XGIMI HORIZON Pro. The Ultra is significantly brighter than the Pro and has better pre-calibration color accuracy. The Ultra also offers more modern smart features, including Android TV 11, Bluetooth 5.2, and Wi-Fi 6, as well as a more powerful integrated sound system.
The Hisense C1 and the XGIMI HORIZON Ultra are both good all-in-one projectors with Dolby Vision support. The Hisense has better overall contrast and more vibrant colors, thanks to its triple-laser design. On the other hand, the XGIMI gets notably brighter, making it better for setups with ambient light, and its optical zoom gives you more placement flexibility.
We've independently bought and tested over 60 projectors, and we've published all the detailed results for each so you can decide which one to buy. These have all been tested under the same standardized methodology, allowing you to compare them side by side. We still have all these projects in our lab so we can continually go back and compare them to ensure our reviews are still accurate. All our test methodology is also public on our website, so you can validate the results yourself.
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Test Results
This XGIMI HORIZON Ultra 4k projector's peak brightness is great in its High Color Accuracy mode. In this mode, it's easily bright enough for a 100-inch screen in a moderately lit room, and brightness uniformity is fantastic, so the image looks very even with no obvious dim corners. White and color light output are also almost identical, so colors stay rich instead of washing out when you turn up the brightness.
The table below shows how the other picture modes behave if you do not mind trading some accuracy for more punch: TV, Sport, and especially High Power are significantly brighter than the High Color Accuracy mode, and in every case, the color light output closely tracks the white light output, so you keep strong color even in the brightest presets.
| Picture Mode | WLO | CLO |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | 1252 lm | 1268 lm |
| TV | 2043 lm | 2055 lm |
| Sport | 2021 lm | 2046 lm |
| Brilliant | 1171 lm | 1190 lm |
| Custom | 1245 lm | 1257 lm |
| High Power | 2537 lm | 2573 lm |
The XGIMI HORIZON Ultra has sub-par native contrast overall. In very dark scenes with only a few small highlights, blacks look noticeably raised, so shadow detail and letterbox bars never get truly inky in a dark room. It looks more consistent in brighter scenes, but the elevated black floor still puts a hard limit on that 'home-theater' look.
If you're primarily looking for a projector for use in dark rooms, consider the BenQ X3100i or the XGIMI HORIZON 20 Pro instead.
The XGIMI HORIZON Ultra has a good color gamut. It covers most of the Rec. 709 color space used with SDR content, although it struggles with displaying the wider Rec. 2020 color space. If you're looking for a projector with better Rec. 2020 coverage for HDR content, check out the Hisense C1.
If you truly want the widest color gamut possible from your projector, consider the Anker Nebula X1 instead.
This XGIMI HORIZON Ultra projector has very good pre-calibration accuracy. Its color accuracy is great, and its color temperature is excellent, even though it leans slightly towards the warm side. What lets the projector down is its white balance; it's decent overall, but reds are overrepresented in bright whites.
While the projector does have a color calibration mode and 2-point white balance calibration, adjusting these settings in the 'Custom' picture mode results in overall worse picture quality as the color space settings don't work properly in that mode, and the color temperature isn't anywhere close to what you get in 'High Color Accuracy.'
The XGIMI HORIZON Ultra is a dual-light source projector that utilizes both an LED lamp and lasers to create its light source. The projector's light source is rated to last for 25,000 hours. The projector doesn't do true 4k, as it uses pixel shifting to create a higher-resolution image. This offers better quality than 1080p but doesn't look as good as native 4k.
The SPD matches a hybrid LED + laser light source: narrow spikes in red/blue with a broad green section. This provides vivid primary colors, a long light-source life, and stable color without lamp swaps, with less speckle than pure-laser USTs.
The projector has motorized zoom/focus and full auto, but there's no lens shift; center the lens and leave keystone off for best sharpness and lowest possible input lag. The throw ratio is 1.20–1.50, and here are a few typical throw distances:
- 80″ → ~7.0–8.7 ft
- 90″ → ~7.8–9.8 ft
- 100″ → ~8.7–10.9 ft
- 120″ → ~10.5–13.1 ft
- 150″ → ~13.1–16.3 ft
- 200″ → ~17.4–21.8 ft
The XGIMI HORIZON Ultra isn't designed to be portable, as it's decently heavy and doesn't have a battery, so it needs to be plugged in. However, the projector features full auto keystone correction with object avoidance, which detects objects in the frame and adjusts accordingly. It also features autofocus, eliminating the need for manual image corrections, making setup easy. It has two 12W Harmon/Kardon speakers, so you won't need to worry about connecting it to a soundbar if you move it.
If you prefer a more portable unit, consider the Hisense C2 Ultra, or the Epson Lifestudio Flex Plus if you're looking for a smaller, more lightweight portable projector.
Fan noise is well-controlled even at max brightness, and it's easy to mask with a soundbar/AVR at normal listening levels.
The projector features two HDMI 2.1 ports, one of which also serves as the eARC port. It also has Bluetooth 5.2/BLE and Wi-Fi 6 support.
The projector supports most common resolutions at 60Hz, but there's no 120Hz support. This limits the unit for competitive gaming, making the projector a better fit for single-player titles that run at 30 or 60 fps.
With Game and Boost enabled, the XGIMI HORIZON Ultra 4k projector's latency is rather unremarkable; you can get away with it if you like to play slow single-player titles, but anything faster than that doesn't feel great on this projector.
The projector has eARC, but multichannel PCM is limited: Atmos via Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 pass, but LPCM 7.1 is downmixed to 2.0. Dolby TrueHD / DTS-HD MA / DTS:X aren't passed, which is a bummer for anyone who likes to play the best audio tracks from their Ultra HD collection; of course, you can bypass that with a receiver. At least ARC and optical carry legacy Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1, so your old-school DVDs are covered.
