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XGIMI Halo+ Netflix 2025 Review | Best Portable Projector?
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Mar 16, 2025
The XGIMI Halo+ (New) with Netflix is the 2025 update to XGIMI's popular premium portable LED projector. Is it worth buying? Find out in Dustin's review! | Purchase the XGIMI Halo+ New @ XGIMI US: https://tinyurl.com/HaloPlusUS | XGIMI CANADA: https://tinyurl.com/HaloPlusCA Check out the DA Merch here: https://bit.ly/TWIMerch | Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/dustinabbott | On the Web: http://dustinabbott.net/ | Sign up for my Newsletter: http://bit.ly/1RHvUNp | Instagram: http://bit.ly/DLAinsta | Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1nuUUeH | Flickr: http://bit.ly/1UcnC0B | 500px: http://bit.ly/1Sy2Ngu Follow Craig @ https://www.instagram.com/craigstoffersen/ Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo: http://bhpho.to/1TA0Xge Adorama: https://howl.link/nt4zdz1goa7ql Camera Canada: http://bit.ly/DLACameraCan Sony Canada: https://www.thesonyshop.ca/?ref=abbott Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HrY64d Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/3qG1p18 Ebay: http://bit.ly/DustineBay Into the AM Clothing: https://bit.ly/intotheAMda and use code DUSTIN10 for 10% off Fioboc Clothing: https://tinyurl.com/FiobocDA20 and us code DUSTIN20 for 20% off Make a donation via Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/dustinTWI ============================= Table of Contents: ============================= 0:00 - Intro and Concept
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:06
[Music]
0:10
hi I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today
0:12
to give you my review of the XG Halo
0:15
Plus news/ Netflix which is an end of
0:19
2024 beginning of 2025 release from xgy
0:23
now in 2024 Netflix changed its
0:25
protocols licensing certification Etc
0:29
which meant that all of of a sudden a
0:30
lot of existing uh units like projectors
0:33
on the market that had been able to
0:35
display Netflix content in the past now
0:37
no longer could do it natively so it
0:40
required using a third-party app app or
0:43
or attachment like an Amazon fire stick
0:45
or something similar one of the
0:47
projectors that was affected by that was
0:49
xj's existing Halo Plus projector and so
0:53
they have solved it this time back with
0:56
a new version and unfortunately the new
0:59
version while there's a lot of it's
1:01
great as we'll get to in just a moment
1:03
the naming convention is a little bit
1:05
confusing because rather than giving it
1:07
a whole new name they now are calling it
1:09
the Halo Plus bracketed new or maybe
1:13
Halo Plus Netflix either way it's a
1:16
little bit confusing but what we have
1:18
here is an officially licensed product
1:21
that is natively compatible with Netflix
1:23
and it's also one of the better portable
1:25
projectors on the market even if it's a
1:27
little bit pricier at about $800
1:30
so what sets it apart from the others
1:33
well today we're going to dive in and
1:34
try to find out I will give a little bit
1:37
of caveat is while I am displaying from
1:39
the projector behind me at the moment
1:41
I'm filming in the middle of the day and
1:43
also I'm just filming to a you know a
1:47
painted wall instead of a project or
1:50
projection screen of any kind at the
1:51
moment so obviously I'm not putting a
1:53
portable projector at its most
1:55
significant Advantage but it does give
1:57
you a little bit of an idea that while
1:59
you could theoretically watch that in
2:02
the middle of the day you're unlikely to
2:03
be happy with it portable projectors
2:06
like this really work best in either dim
2:09
or dark conditions but let's jump in
2:12
let's take a look at the specifications
2:14
of this particular unit as you can see
2:16
it is very Compact and that's one of the
2:18
things I do love about it obviously I
2:20
have tested smaller units than this
2:23
however uh the smaller units that I have
2:25
tested in this always come at a much
2:27
lower Lumen rating and have a much more
2:29
limited
2:30
uh spectrum of applications as a result
2:32
and so this unit is 6.75 in tall or
2:37
171.5 mm it is 4.46 in or 113.5 mm wide
2:44
and it is A45 mm or 5.7 in deep it
2:50
weighs in at 1.6 kg or about 3 1/2 lb it
2:54
doesn't have an actual carry handle
2:56
built onto it however it's small enough
2:58
that it's it's quite quite easy to move
3:00
around and to carry it is an LED based
3:03
projector and it is rated at 700 anzy
3:06
lumens now there's a little bit of a
3:08
contradiction on what the previous Lumen
3:11
rating has been on the existing Halo
3:13
Plus or the older older Halo Plus unit
3:16
and so it would seem in some ways that
3:17
this is down but I don't think that
3:18
that's actually the case and we'll
3:20
explore that a a little bit more in just
3:22
a moment it is a native 1080p display so
3:26
4K content is going to be scaled down to
3:29
1080p however it is 1080p native not a
3:32
lower 720p rating it supports um some of
3:36
the uh HDR protocols like hdr10 and hlg
3:39
and by the way it does that quite well
3:41
it has uh HDMI ports and that is Arc ra
3:46
it has usba a unfortunately not USBC and
3:49
it does have a headphone Port which I'm
3:51
always happy to see because while you
3:53
can connect Bluetooth it's nice to have
3:56
some options of how to Output audio and
3:58
just gives you a little bit more
3:59
flexibility in case you're you know what
4:02
you're using is not Bluetooth rated um
4:04
it has dualband Wi-Fi so 2.4 GHz and
4:09
then five but it is Wi-Fi 5 and not the
4:11
newer Wi-Fi 6 protocol it does have 16
4:14
GB of internal storage so you can
4:17
actually put a memory stick in there and
4:19
and then copy over um content onto the
4:22
actual device itself which makes it you
4:24
know even more portable still so that's
4:26
pretty cool the lamp life is rated at
4:28
$25 ,000 hours so to give you
4:31
perspective that is if you're using it 4
4:33
hours a day that's enough to last you
4:34
for about 17 years so you'll probably be
4:37
uh tired of it by that point and ready
4:39
to move on anyway this is operating the
4:43
standard Google TV menu and thus the
4:45
setup is the standard uh Google TV setup
4:48
which is quite simple if you have any
4:50
familiarity with it at all you can do
4:53
with the included remote control you can
4:55
do things like handsfree and then so you
4:58
can you know either search for Content
5:00
or select content by just using your
5:02
voice it has built-in speakers that are
5:05
from Harmon Carden which is a very
5:07
high-end audio brand and so you have two
5:10
uh speakers that are rated at 5 Watts
5:13
not a huge amount but uh a decent amount
5:16
of sound can come out of this very
5:18
compact unit and you can use it as a
5:19
Bluetooth speaker as well it does have a
5:22
built-in battery life and so about 15
5:25
and a half Watt hours of battery and so
5:28
that will give you about 2 and 1/2 hours
5:30
of video content now that is running in
5:33
the Eco Mode which is not as bright and
5:35
if you want to listen to Just audio use
5:37
it like a Bluetooth speaker it'll give
5:39
you about 5 hours off of that battery
5:41
life you have you know a good amount of
5:44
flexibility on the size projection you
5:46
can do anywhere between 40in display all
5:48
the way up to 200 in display obviously
5:51
the smaller the display the more bright
5:53
it's going to be and so I don't think
5:56
that I would experiment with this at 200
5:58
in however uh in the right conditions on
6:01
my 100in screen it did just fine and
6:04
displayed a nice amount of light so it
6:06
has a 1.2 to one uh throw ratio if that
6:09
helps you to understand the kind of
6:11
space that you're going to use it in it
6:12
does have autofocus and auto Keystone
6:15
Corrections though as we're going to see
6:17
the ladder doesn't work perfectly on the
6:20
unit that I'm testing so I've used it in
6:22
a couple of different applications I've
6:24
used it as a portable unit for
6:26
displaying photos I had a recent trip to
6:28
Japan and so I shared um some of my
6:31
content from that while kind of giving a
6:33
little bit of speech of about it I've
6:34
used it for movie Nights which is the
6:36
most common application I haven't done
6:38
anything outdoors because it's been um
6:41
either snowing or about minus 20 outside
6:43
so not exactly what anybody's looking
6:45
for for movie night but certainly a very
6:48
very common application for this will be
6:50
people that are either camping or doing
6:52
a beach some kind of outdoor movie night
6:55
and this is going to be great
6:56
application for that and we'll see why
6:59
so let's talk about the things that I
7:01
like what I consider to be great about
7:03
this as noted this is rated at 700 an
7:06
lumens but it seems to be brighter than
7:09
the other units that I have tested in
7:11
that range and for example uh two years
7:14
ago I tested a unit that was actually r
7:16
a little bit higher at 800 lumens and
7:18
there's no question that this this unit
7:20
is significantly brighter and so it's
7:22
making very very good use of those
7:25
lumens it is very easy to set up and if
7:27
you've ever done the Google TV setup you
7:29
can get up and running within minutes
7:32
and that's not an exaggeration I
7:34
actually find in the right viewing
7:36
conditions either dim or dark conditions
7:39
that the color and contrast is very good
7:41
the color is obviously better than some
7:44
of the cheap projectors that I've tested
7:46
you can tell that this is just a more
7:48
sophisticated unit and the color output
7:50
is just richer and deeper contrast
7:52
levels are better again you need to be
7:54
in the right viewing conditions for that
7:57
I also was impressed with the difference
7:59
in running HDR content and I felt like
8:01
it does quite good with hdr10 and it
8:03
definitely makes a difference in the pop
8:05
of the image on that battery life is
8:09
sufficient to watch the typical movie
8:11
that is if they will quit making movies
8:14
ever longer and so uh if you're running
8:17
under more normal conditions and you up
8:19
that brightness and the sound a little
8:20
bit I would revise that down to closer
8:23
like 2 hours and so I mean you probably
8:26
can get through a full movie during that
8:28
amount of time I like it best when it's
8:30
plugged in because you're getting the
8:32
maximum amount of brightness out of it
8:33
and you're not worrying about that the
8:36
build quality here is fantastic um it
8:39
seems to it has a very nice build feel
8:42
to it it feels to me like an aluminum
8:44
alloy Chassy on it and and so that is
8:48
great and uh and the overall visual
8:50
aesthetic I think is really really great
8:52
it looks like a premium product and it
8:54
feels like a premium product so that's
8:56
great as you can see it's got the
8:58
quarter inch mount on the bottom it does
8:59
have a little bit of a kickstand if
9:01
you're putting on it a flat surface and
9:02
so you can adjust some up and down uh
9:04
the best thing for these smaller units
9:06
like this is they're quite easy to just
9:08
throw onto a a tripod you know just
9:10
thread it up into that and that gives
9:11
you some flexibility in terms of your
9:14
height up and down and so I appreciate
9:16
that very much what I also found is that
9:18
there is more precise picture controls
9:21
than what I find on cheaper units and so
9:23
because this is a more premium product
9:25
you have more flexibility in actually
9:27
doing user settings and calibrating it
9:30
to your application so I appreciated
9:32
that uh Bluetooth lag is minimal enough
9:36
to be not noticeable if you're actually
9:39
connecting to an audio Source via
9:41
Bluetooth and so that's great sound
9:43
quality is is decent again you got to
9:45
you have to have realistic expectations
9:47
this is a compact unit however that's a
9:49
pretty decent amount of uh audio output
9:52
and the quantity is good it's not going
9:54
to like Rumble the room with any kind of
9:56
lowend base and if you expect that you
9:59
probably don't have realistic
10:01
expectations but you also always have
10:03
the option of hooking up a higher-end
10:06
soundbar or other audio either through
10:08
the quarter inch output or through HDMI
10:10
for even better audio output it does
10:13
include some basic controls on the top
10:16
that's mostly limited to play PL pause
10:18
and then turning the volume up and down
10:20
but at least you do have that option it
10:23
also has a very fast processor and uh
10:26
they say that it's about 6 seconds to
10:28
boot it uh I would say that that doesn't
10:30
seem far off to me it's seems like from
10:32
the moment you turn it on you are very
10:34
quickly booted into the main menu and
10:37
moving on to your content that's great
10:39
particularly compared to older units
10:41
that took forever to boot in and so
10:43
you're even booting into Google TV very
10:45
very quickly and obviously it does have
10:47
the Netflix certification and so that's
10:50
obviously the the kind of key thing here
10:52
for this particular unit and having a
10:54
new one at this point so some things
10:57
that I'm not so crazy about
10:59
unfortunately for size constraints it
11:02
has an external power brick and my least
11:04
favorite thing about that is the fact
11:07
that number one it means that I'm not
11:08
going to be able to run it off of
11:09
something like USB C which you I would
11:12
prefer because it gives me more options
11:14
on how I'm going to power it and that
11:17
would be great and so external power
11:19
brick means you're working off AC it
11:21
also means that because there is this
11:23
brick and the actual cord that runs from
11:26
the brick to the actual unit is about 5T
11:30
long um little over a meter long what
11:33
that means that in in some applications
11:35
you might find that your cable routing
11:37
is a little bit of a pain if you need to
11:39
get to a higher application than that so
11:41
anyway I don't love that one thing I'm
11:43
really surprised by in a more premium
11:45
product like this considering how many
11:47
of the cheaper um remotes do include
11:51
this feature is that this remote is not
11:53
back lit which to me seems a little bit
11:55
criminal in something that is designed
11:58
for using in a dark dark place so you
12:01
know it's a fairly standard Google TV
12:02
layout though not identical to some of
12:04
the others I've used does have some
12:06
different button placement and the fact
12:08
that it's not B back lit I think that
12:10
that is a a big misstep on their part
12:13
one thing I ran into when I was trying
12:15
to uh cast photos to it is it coming
12:18
from IOS it's because it's you know it's
12:20
running a Google Google TV and thus it's
12:23
running Android as the the background
12:26
there that you it's easy to cast from a
12:30
a Android device but I found that the
12:32
iOS initially I couldn't cast and it
12:34
turns out that there is a an app you
12:36
need to install to the projector itself
12:37
that's called Magic cast and the Magic
12:40
cast you can just kind of have it run in
12:41
the background you don't have to load it
12:43
up every time and once you install that
12:45
which it's not a big deal it took just a
12:47
couple of minutes to achieve this but
12:49
then after that it does allow you to
12:51
natively cast from IOS along with
12:54
Android as well but anyway it does
12:56
require an additional app to be
12:57
installed I don't actually know why they
12:59
don't just include that app installed
13:01
natively and so that you could actually
13:04
accomplish that as noted when you're
13:06
running on the internal battery um you
13:08
do uh default to an eco mode and so it
13:12
isn't as bright in the Eco Mode one
13:14
other thing that I found is that the
13:16
auto Keystone for me doesn't always work
13:19
right and it seems like it tends to bias
13:21
it to where it's low on the left side
13:23
and so I do feel like I need to go in
13:25
and manually correct it afterwards
13:27
because the keystoning is is not proper
13:29
that could be specific to this unit cuz
13:31
I've not read of other people
13:33
complaining about it however on this
13:34
unit it is something that I have
13:37
observed the other thing that is a
13:39
negative to me is that both the Wi-Fi
13:41
and the USB specs to me feel a little
13:43
bit outdated for a unit being released
13:45
end of 2024 beginning of 2025 I think
13:48
that this should be USBC back here and
13:50
then also it should be Wi-Fi 6 at the
13:53
same time I have found that I've had
13:54
zero problems in terms of streaming
13:56
content and there's no problem in terms
13:58
of getting enough speed however again
14:00
it's an outdated spec at this point
14:03
finally there is no case included and
14:05
again because it's a a you know a
14:07
premium product you probably want to
14:09
protect it and unfortunately that means
14:11
an ex an additional cost which I would
14:14
prefer that to be included in the
14:15
package itself so my conclusion is this
14:19
projectors like the xgi Halo Plus news/
14:24
Netflix they occupy somewhat of an
14:26
interesting Niche obviously there are
14:28
more port options for those for whom
14:31
that's the greatest priority and then of
14:33
course on the other end of the spectrum
14:34
there are much brighter units than this
14:37
but I think that the Halo Plus it fits a
14:40
sweet spot for a couple of specific
14:42
applications first of all if you're
14:44
looking for something for portable movie
14:46
watching you know camping on a beach uh
14:49
for travel things like that I think it's
14:51
a it's a great application because it's
14:53
definitely upscale in terms of picture
14:55
quality uh compared to the more compact
14:58
units and as far as portable units go
15:00
this one is pretty close to the top of
15:01
the Heap in terms of the picture quality
15:04
the brightness and what you can put out
15:06
and then the second application is if
15:08
you're looking for a very compact
15:10
application and something that's got
15:11
enough style that you can leave it you
15:13
know set maybe on a nightstand in a
15:15
bedroom and it would look fine there and
15:18
of course able to then project properly
15:20
on a wall in the room um I think that in
15:22
a watching in a mostly dim room it
15:24
actually works pretty great and and
15:26
frankly it works better in many ways
15:28
than the larger uh unit that I have been
15:31
using recently for that application 700
15:33
lumens isn't a lot but the Halo Plus
15:36
does seem to be maximizing those lumens
15:39
and frankly it doesn't seem much dimmer
15:41
than the much larger unit that I have
15:44
been using That's rated at 1,600 lumens
15:46
in terms of the actual brightness of
15:48
output there are cheaper out or cheaper
15:50
options out there but this is one of the
15:53
best portable projectors that you can
15:55
get the fact that it does have n Netflix
15:57
certification is obviously a bonus thus
16:00
it is well worth considering in 2025 I'm
16:03
Dustin Abbott if you want more
16:04
information I do have links in the
16:07
description down below where you can
16:08
explore get more details some buying
16:10
links there if you'd like to purchase
16:11
one for yourself as always thanks for
16:13
watching have a great day and let the
16:15
light in
16:17
[Music]
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