I’ve reviewed projectors from a number of different brands over the years, but never before have I started strategizing how to reconfigure my whole home entertainment system around one of the them. The XGIMI Horizon 20 Pro has done just that, however, delivering visuals and versatility that have completely upended my entertainment paradigm. This is a IMAX-certified projector that can display up to 26% more area for IMAX scenes, and also supports Dolby Vision, HDR10, Filmmaker Mode, 3D, and more. This beast has a RGB triple laser design that outputs a whopping 4100 ISO Lumens (more than double the Horizon S Pro) while backing that up with surprisingly potent sound from the integrated 24W Harmon Kardon speakers. There are three different levels of the Horizon 20 – Standard, Pro (the one I’m reviewing), and the Max lineup. The single biggest area of distinction between the three models is the brightness, with the Standard clocking in at 3200 ISO lumens, the Pro at 4100, and the Max at a whopping 5700 lumens. The one you’ll need really depends on the typical lighting conditions in your viewing space and the size of your desired screen. The Horizon 20 series isn’t cheap, but it delivers high end picture quality on a bigger screen than a typical TV can match, and if you’re pricing 100″ size TV screens (they will typically cost 2-3x as much), it will suddenly look like a really solid value. Is this the projector you’ve been looking for? Check out my video review to find out, or read on in this article for a summary of my findings.

Specs

• RGB Triple Laser = 4100 ISO Lumens (3200 S | 4100 P | 5700 M)
• Native 4K = 3840 x 2160
• IMAX certification (+26% area), Dolby Vision, HDR10, Filmmaker mode (adjusts to original frame rate, aspect ratio, colors, and brightness)
• 20,000:1 contrast ratio
• Eye Protection
• Uninterrupted Auto Keystone
• Intelligent screen alignment and obstacle avoidance
• Has OPTICAL zoom
• Throw ratio 1.2-1.5:1
• Image size 40-300”
• 4GB RAM | 128GB storage
• 24W Harmon Kardon sound
• Supports casting and mirroring
• Supports 3D
• Latency (in Game Mode) = 1ms at 1080P/240, 2.2ms at 1080P/120, 3ms at 4K60
• Weighs 4.9kg/10.8lb
• Remote is backlit(ish)

Test Scenarios

• Home theater conditions
• Living room in brighter conditions

PORTS

• HDMI x 2 (1 eARC)
• USB 3.0
• USB 2.0
• Optical out
• 3.5mm audio output

Assembly and Setup

The primary aspect of assembly was with the included floor stand. There had been some complaints about the previous stand in that it didn’t really include any provision for cable management. That’s all been changed now, as there is room in the base of the stand to hide the power brick. You can route the power cable to the projector up through the leg of the stand and then plug it into the integrated stand of the Horizon 20, which leaves the rear of the projector nice and clean even when being powered. The AC portion of the cable extends out of the stand roughly 5 feet, leaving enough room for potentially plugging it in directly but not so much cable as to make storing/wrapping it difficult.

The base of the stand is quite heavy, assuring that this won’t be easy to tip over and potentially damaging your expensive projector. It does mean that moving it can be a bit awkward, but if you want a small, portable projector, the Horizon 20 isn’t really what you you should be looking at.

Mounting the projector itself is a simple matter of lining up the tension knob with the proper spot on the base. Once mounted, you can rotate the projector side to side on the stand, and the built in stand allows you to rotate the projectors angle up and down. On the software side of things you have the ability to zoom in to fill the screen (the optical zoom allows for a throw ratio 1.2-1.5:1), while real time uninterrupted auto keystone and things like intelligent screen alignment and obstacle avoidance help the physical adjustments out. I love that the keystone correction is uninterrupted rather than a big performance. There’s even a setting to allow an auto white balance correction if you are displaying on a wall.

The projector itself is still relatively compact for all that is packed into it. It measures at 249 × 298 × 190 mm (H x W x D), or 9.8 × 11.7 × 7.5″. It weighs 4.9 kg (10.8 lbs).

After that, all that’s left is pulling off the protective film, plugging it in, and getting started with the setup.

Anyone who has ever set up any Google TV device will be instantly familiar with this process. You pair the remote (which thankfully now has some backlighting), connect to your network, and login to your Google account. This can be done on the remote, though often it is faster to use your phone or tablet as typing information is quicker. Before too long you will be in the familiar Google TV main menu. This is nice, as you don’t have learn new menus for every new device. You’ll have a choice during setup to select which of the most common apps to have installed, and pretty much anything else can be quickly installed from the Google Play store after this. This is the first XGIMI projector that I’ve tested that has moved to the newer WiFi 6 standard, which I’m happy to see.

There always the chance for some technical glitches during the setup process of any new device, but I think that most everyone will find the physical and software setup processes pretty simple.

The projector itself has a retro-futuristic vibe that looks very cool in a room. If the Jetsons had a projector, it would look like this one.

Picture Quality

Here is where the Horizon 20 absolutely shines. Most of the projectors I have tested are typically being used near their limits. You have to maximize brightness to allow maximum compatibility with lighting conditions…or even to get to acceptably bright conditions. The Horizon 20 comes with the brightness preset to 50%, and, if anything, you might tune that down depending on your lighting conditions.

The RGB triple laser design absolutely pumps out the light through a high end “Red Ring” lens which is very similar to camera lens in reverse. Instead of capturing light to the sensor through the lens, this is focusing the three laser beams through the lens elements to project the picture. I couldn’t help but wonder if the “red ring” wasn’t a nod to Canon’s L-series lenses.

The end product of all this technology is a picture that looks amazing out of the box but also has the deepest amount of picture controls that I’ve seen in any Google TV device (not just projectors). There are kinds of ways to tweak and calibrate the picture quality to get the absolute best of performance.

This is the first time that I’ve ever been truly impressed with the black levels from a projector, but that’s in large part because you achieve great black levels by first having enough brightness to create that contrast. Whereas most projectors have a contrast ratio of 1000:1 or 2000:1 (the latter being the baseline for decent performance), and mid-tier projectors will have a 3000:1-5000:1 range, the Horizon 20 has a 20,000:1 ratio, which is well above the 10,000:1 ratio considered to be a high end number. I wonder if that is where the Horizon 20 name comes from?

The “Dynamic Contrast” ratio is 1,000,000:1, though I take DC figures as more marketing, as that is generated through software enhancements that typically actually reduce the visual quality of the picture if you enable all of those. I typically go through and disable all those software “enhancements” on either my cameras or my projectors and only rarely enable specific ones to address some need.

I was blown away not only by how deep the blacks looked, but also by how much detail is revealed in the shadows. And the brightness! The flickering torches on “House of David” were so bright as to be almost painful (in the best kind of way!).

I was also pleasantly surprised by how rich the picture still looked in a brighter room. I’m accustomed to having to really work in a dim environment to get a pleasing picture from a projector, but the Horizon 20 (on my 100″ screen) had no problems with brighter conditions. XGIMI says that you can display a picture anywhere from 40″ to 300″, and while I typically disregard the top end figure as marketing, I would say that you should have no problems with a massive 200″ image from the Horizon Pro and even with the 300″ size if you buy the Max (or display the Pro in a completely dark room). My 100″ screen is easy in all lighting conditions.

Colors are also fantastic. I’ve sometimes found colors to be less than accurate with some projectors, but the Horizon 20 makes everything feel richer and more engaging. I went through years when my kinds were growing up when I rebought the same Disney movies on DVD, then BluRay, then 3D, and then 4K because I was so excited to see how much better familiar content looked in the new technology. My kids were always excited about how “cool” those films would look in each new iteration, but probably not as excited as me. I feel that way again, though life has gotten busy enough that I probably won’t be rewatching most of them.

Those looking for color accuracy will be very pleased with the Horizon 20, as it is able to achieve outstanding color accuracy.

You can choose your color space, be it BT.2020, DCI-P3, Rec.709, or AdobeRGB. I appreciate the latter option as it is the color space I prefer in my cameras, which means that I can more accurately match what comes out of my own cameras.

Support for Dolby Vision and HDR10+ is great, and the superb picture quality is going to make a lot more of your content feel like it is HDR10 even when its not. I’ve only had a few weeks with the projector, but I look forward to diving deeper into more of the features that are there. But the bottom line is that I’m blown away by what I’ve seen so far.

I’ve streamed content from the GoogleTV apps (native), sent content over HDMI (two HDMI ports), and cast it from a phone. Everything worked seamlessly. You could also easily use the USB 3.0 or 2.0 ports to connect a camera or stream from a USB flash drive.

Sound Quality

While sound quality is less important than picture quality, there are going to be situations where potential buyers either A) don’t have access to better sound options or B) care more about picture than sound. I definitely prefer high end sound, and the best ways to achieve that are to output high quality audio via HDMI or the optical port. I like having the latter option, as some older home theater receivers can receive only a stereo PCM audio feed from TVs or projectors via HDMI, whereas you can get a full surround signal via optical. Newer receivers will support receiving 5.1 or 7.1 PCM audio over HDMI. Supported surround codecs include DTS-Virtual:X, DTS-HD, Dolby Audio, Dolby Digital, and Dolby Digital Plus.

You can also output audio to receivers or speakers via a 3.5mm headphone style output, though that signal will be limited to stereo. Likewise you can pair Bluetooth speakers via Bluetooth (5.2).

But if you rely on the built in speakers, you will find a surprisingly strong performance from the two Harmon Kardon speakers that are driven at 12W each for a total of 24W. Those figures aren’t impressive in and of themselves (though this is higher than any of the previous XGIMI projectors I’ve tested), but the sound belies those figures. I recently purchased (and subsequently returned) a Yamaha soundbar that I would swear sounded worse than these speakers. They can reach down to a surprisingly low 55Hz, and while that isn’t going to give you the room vibrating explosions that a dedicated subwoofer going down to 20Hz is going to provide, it is still deep enough to make the sound engaging and not feel “tinny”. We streamed something off my daughter’s laptop and didn’t want to mess with sending sound on to another device, and I was surprised to realize a little later that I quickly forgot the pedestrian source of the audio.

No, it isn’t going to match my 7.1 architectural setup in my great room (not even close), but it is definitely the most engaging audio experience I’ve had on a projector.

Gaming

These days I’m not a big gamer, mostly because I just don’t have the time, but I do have an Xbox Series X that is a great match to the Horizon 20 Pro. XGIMI is leaning into the high end gaming crowd with the Horizon 20, building an alliance with Ubisoft and their Assassin’s Creed Shadows game (early purchasers get an included game code for the Standard version sent to their email). The Horizon 20 has a Game Mode where you can actually select the style of game you are playing and get customized picture settings for Assassin’s Creed, FPS, RTS, RPG, and Sports style games.

Perhaps most important is that you can get input lag levels at only 1ms at 1080P/240, 2.2ms at 1080P/120, or 3ms at 4K60. VRR and ALLM technologies reduces screen-tearing and stuttering, and you can even elect to have virtual crosshairs enabled for your first person shooters.

Games look amazing, as you might imagine, with unbelievable detail and that grander sense of engagement that comes with playing on a truly big screen.

What’s Great:

• Picture Quality is stunning
• First time that I think picture quality is better than a TV
• Torches flickering on House of David almost painfully bright (brightness under 50%)
• Comfortably bright even in a bright room at 100%
• Colors look gorgeous
• First time I’ve been impressed by black levels on a projector
• Amazing detail in shadowed areas
• Tons of picture customizations
• Audio is surprisingly rich down to 55Hz.  Filled a living room space with good sound without distortion.
• Upgraded floor stand hides the power brick
• Easy to set up
• Has a Jetsons retro-futuristic vibe – looks expensive
• Optical zoom allows you to hide the projector more and zoom in.
• 2 year warranty

What’s Not:

• Expensive – this is a premium product at $2500
• Floor stand is intentionally heavy…but can be awkward to move

Conclusion

This is, put simply, the best projector I’ve ever used.  It combines amazing image quality with great sound quality, quality of design, and brilliant execution of the details.  It’s expensive at $2499, but you could actually display a 200” inch screen with this and be very happy with the picture quality – try doing that with a TV!  Early adopters *before Nov 25th, 2025, can the use code H20PLD500 to get $500 off.

Want a lot of these same features but don’t need this much brightness?  The Horizon 20 has 3200 ISO lumens and costs just $1699.  Want even more?  The Horizon 20 Max has a whopping 5700 ISO Lumens and costs $2999.  These three tiers are well executed in both performance and price, and I would argue for a home theater setup that a 300” screen (that’s 22 feet wide and over 12 feet tall!) is completely achievable with the Max version.  The Horizon 20 has the potential to completely transform your expectations of what is possible with home theater projection…it certainly has mine!

Purchase the XGIMI Horizon 20 Pro https://tidd.ly/4n9Z4GL | Horizon 20 Standard https://tidd.ly/4qksq86 | Horizon 20 Max https://tidd.ly/4o2nseX

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