XGIMI Horizon 20 Pro Review | A Home Theater Giant!

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[Music]
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X Genie's lineup of high-end long throw
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pro home theater projectors has moved to
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the next level with their Horizon 20
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series. I'm going to be reviewing the
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Horizon 20 Pro which is the midline of
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the three options. These three options
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come with the standard at 3200, not anti
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but ISO lumens. So, a massive amount of
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output. The Pro Series that I'm
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reviewing is 4,100 lumens, and then
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there is a max unit available that will
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take you all the way up to a whopping
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5,700 ISO lumens. These are very
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high-end, highquality projectors that
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are able of putting out an amazing
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picture, even in a brighter room like
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what I'm displaying here right now with
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a spotlight on myself. and they are the
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first projectors, at least I've
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personally reviewed that I look at and
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say, "Okay, how can I reconfigure my own
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home theater to match around these
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projectors?" It's a huge step forward
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for the Horizon series. And today, we're
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going to dive in into what makes the
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Horizon 20 Pro such a special home
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theater projector. Now, setup was nice
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and easy for everything here. The main
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thing I want to highlight is that there
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is an improvement to their floor stand.
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Previously, there was no place to hide
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your power brick, and so you would have
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a stand, but you'd still have a power
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brick somewhere. Now, they have this
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where you can remove the top. You can
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put the power brick down inside there.
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Then you have cable routing where it
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comes up and it plugs into the stand
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here rather than into the projector
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itself, which is great. And also then
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you just have the the end of the power
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cable coming out that you can plug in.
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And you have roughly around 5 ft to work
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with. After that, it's just a simple a
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matter of mounting the actual projector
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onto the stand itself with its
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integrated stand, which is really as
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simple as just tightening down, you
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know, lining it up and then tightening
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down a tension knob there until you have
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a very stable surface where it's not
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going to be easily knocked over and
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protect your expensive projector. One
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final thing that I really like is that
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the power does not actually come into
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the back of the projector itself, but it
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goes into the base of its integrated
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stand. And so that obviously allows you
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to hide away the power cable down into
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the stand if you're using that. But it
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also means even if you're not, you're
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just setting this on something else, it
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allows you to freely rotate this without
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power in the way. It also just produces
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a cleaner overall look uh for the actual
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unit itself and that there's nothing
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sticking out of the back of the
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projector.
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So, let's talk ports. Here on the back,
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we have a variety of different inputs
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and outputs for both the video and
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audio. So, let's start by taking a look
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here on the bookends, which are the
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audio connections. We have an optical
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out which I really like because you can
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send a 5.1 surround signal or 7.1
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surround signal to older receivers
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whereas if you go over HDMI you might be
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stuck with just getting stereo PCM and
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so I like having that option because not
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all of the new receivers can encode all
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the formats over the PCM formats and so
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it's great for that. Also, you have a
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3.5 millimeter output that you can just
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run just stereo level, but at least
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gives you an option of connecting just
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to speaker or soundbar directly through
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that. We have a couple of USB ports, USB
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2.0, USB 3.0. The 3.0 is obviously
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important if you're needing to transmit
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data at a faster rate or you're
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connecting something like a laptop to it
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for one reason or another. We also have
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two HDMI ports. And so one of those is
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going to be the ERC which will allow you
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to uh have all the ER communications and
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you know unified remote control things
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like that, audio, all of those things.
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And then a secondary HDMI port and so
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you can have multiple things attached,
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multiple devices attached at the same
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time. Then finally we just have here
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just our basic power button. Now, what
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isn't here is any kind of actual
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physical controls for controlling uh
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play, pause, things like that are
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integrated onto the actual chassis of
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the uh projector itself. And so, you're
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going to have to rely on the remote. All
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right, let's talk specifications for
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this bad boy here. Main thing that is
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the highlight here is that we have a
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huge upgrade when it comes to the lumen
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output, the overall intensity of the
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projector itself. Relative to previous
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units in the Horizon series, uh for
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example, the previous uh Horizon Pro
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unit, not the Horizon 20 Pro, but the
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Horizon Pro unit, it was able of
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outputting somewhere, I think, in the
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range of 1,800 lumens. Whereas here, the
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Pro unit is now all the way up to 4,100.
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And that's not ANI lumens. That is isol.
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And the isol standard is far more
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exacting than what the ANI standard is.
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And so that means that if you're talking
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an LUM, it would be even brighter.
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Basically, the three models are scaled
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above all else by their output. And so
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the basic Horizon 20 has an output of
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3200 lumens, which is still basically
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double what the units had previously.
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This pro unit has 4,100 ISO lumens. And
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then if you go to the max unit, the most
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expensive and the most powerful, you're
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talking 5700
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ISO uh lumens of output, which is truly
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extraordinary, particularly in a
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projector this size. As as you can see,
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it's really not all that physically
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large. So very impressive in that
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regard. Native uh resolution here is
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3,840
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by 2160 or 4K. It does have the IMAX
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certification as you can see which means
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that you are able to display uh up to
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26% more area and so certain content
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that has been filmed in IMAX you're
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going to be able to see it as the
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director intended as it was shown uh in
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the theater as opposed to the way that
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it's typically shown on home theater. So
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that's very cool. It supports Dolby
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Vision HDR10 plus. There's a filmmaker
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mode which will adjust if it's encoded
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will adjust to the original frame rate,
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aspect ratio, color, brightness, all of
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those things to give you a look at how
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the director intended the uh movie to be
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viewed. Now, the threshold for your
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basic kind of lowlevel uh contrast
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ratios for projectors is 1,00 to1 or
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2,000 to1. Midle is considered anywhere
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between 3 and 5,000 to1 ratio. And then
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high-end projector is considered to be
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10,000 to1 or better. In this case, we
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have a contrast ratio of 20,000 to1. And
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so this is able to produce really really
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impressive uh just gambit of brightness
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here uh and and contrast which is really
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impressive. Now you know there's a
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dynamic contra contrast ratio of a
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million to one. I consider those figures
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to be more marketing. It's relying on
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software and you know certain kind of
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measurements. It's not really the native
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performance, but the native performance
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here is very, very impressive. It does
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have eye protection, and so if you have
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that enabled, if someone walks in front
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of the projector, it will dim down and
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so it's not damaging to the eye. This is
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really, really bright, remember? And it
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also has something really cool, and that
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is that it is an uninterrupted auto
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keystone. And so, as you can see here,
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as I move the the picture around, it is
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automatically adjusting as it goes,
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rather than having to have some separate
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sequence with a grid pattern where it
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makes that adjustment. So, I found that
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to be very cool. It also has things like
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an intelligent screen alignment and
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obstacle avoidance to help you to get
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the the best picture. Also here is we
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have this new um red ring which kind of
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neat sounds like Canon L series to me
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but they have a newly designed red ring
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lens here which has a number of optical
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elements. It's just like a typical lens
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design but what it's givingven you is an
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actual optical zoom that will allow you
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to adjust according to your uh you know
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to be able to scale in and out to make
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sure that you're getting the proper
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framing for your screen. So giving you
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some flexibility as to where you place
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the projector, but doing that without
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any loss of quality. There's also a
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digital zoom as well, but that optical
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zoom is really a difference maker for
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that. So we have a throw ratio of 1.2 to
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1.5 to one. And so uh some flexibility
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with how you're going to scale the image
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that way. They say that this can throw
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an image anywhere between 40 in up to
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300 in inches. You can see the breakdown
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here of, you know, the kind of lighting
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conditions where they claim that can can
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work. This is the first projector that
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I've personally tested. I think can
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exceed my uh 100 in screen and could
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actually probably go up to that 200 in
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frame. Typically the 300 in um you know
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or whatever is the top figure thrown out
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by a projector manufacturer. I kind of
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disregard that because that's only in
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maybe the most optimal conditions and if
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you're willing to accept a reduced
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picture quality to get a bigger picture.
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So, in this case, however, I think that
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you very legitimately could do the uh
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200 in. And maybe if you went up to the
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the max, you probably could do even up
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to that 300 in. Pretty impressive there.
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In terms of the processing inside, we
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have 4 gig of RAM. We have 128 gig of
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storage and running a high-end processor
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to make sure that everything is nice and
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snappy. Up front here, we do have uh
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built into it, we have two Harman Carden
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speakers built in, rated at 24 watts.
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That's 12 watts each. That doesn't sound
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like a lot, I understand. But the for an
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actual projector sound, the sound is is
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surprisingly robust and room filling.
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Bridge is over.
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[Music]
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You and I are the only two of our line
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who will survive.
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Part of that is it will go down to 55
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Hz, so you get a little bit more
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low-end. not the room shaking subwoofer
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20 Hz type level, but at 55 Hz, it's
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enough to get a little bit of fullness
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rather than a tenny sound. And so I'm
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actually quite impressed, you know, if
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you have no other audio solution, which
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is unlikely if you're spending this much
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on a projector, but hey, who knows? And
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so anyway, the audio is surprisingly
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impressive there. It does support all
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the things like casting and mirroring
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things that you would expect there. It
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does support 3D as well. And then uh
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importantly for those that are into
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gaming in the game mode which you can
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switch into it has latency ratings of 1
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millisecond and that's at 1080p 240
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frames per second. If you go down to
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1080p 120 frames per second it's 2.2
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milliseconds and then at 4K 60 it is 3
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millisec seconds. And so this is a
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relatively lagfree performance. And so
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those of you that are gamers this is
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very much designed with gaming in mind.
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and so might be what you're looking for
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there. The projector weighs in at 4.9
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kilos or 10.8 lbs. And I will note that
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the most recent generation of XG's
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remotes. Basically, in 2025, they
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finally have some backlighting. And not
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every single button is back lit, but the
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main ones are. The remote itself is very
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sleek. It does feel like a premium
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remote, as it should in a projector at
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this level. And I like the fact that it
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there is some room to slide that in
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there. and it almost feels like it it
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not quite magnetically holds it, but it
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feels like it keeps it. If you're moving
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the projector around, this remote isn't
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going anywhere. So, overall, uh, pretty
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high-end specs as we look at those basic
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features. So, let's talk about what's
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great and what's not. The first big area
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that I think is fantastic about this
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projector, which is the most important,
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is the picture quality. I remember back
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in the day when my kids were young that
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we went through a a season there where
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it seemed like every few years there was
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a new format that came out. The VHS's
11:49
moved to DVD and then from DVD we moved
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to Blu-ray, from Blu-ray to 3D and then
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ultimately to 4K as far as physical
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media and its progression. And I
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remember buying some of the same Disney
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movies over and over as a kid growing up
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cuz we'd be so excited to see them in
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their newly upgraded form. We've never
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seen it like this before. And it was
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exciting. They were excited. I was
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probably more excited because I was, you
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know, essentially geeked out by the
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improvements in the quality that was
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available. While while I don't have the
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time that I used to, I feel like there's
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something about this projector that
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inspires that same kind of feeling
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inside me that even the familiar content
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I know is going to look so much better.
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It's the first time that I'm able to
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scale up to the big screen and actually
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get picture quality that not only
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matches but exceeds what I've been able
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to get from, you know, LED type screens
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or plasmas in the past. This is a really
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really impressive result. And so most of
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the time, you know, you're having to
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operate, at least I've had to operate
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projectors somewhere near their limits
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and so that you can get a bright enough
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picture. In this case, however, you're
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able to operate well beneath that, which
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means you can actually calibrate the
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picture because there is so much light
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available. You can really calibrate the
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picture to get something that's
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fantastic. For the first time, I've been
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impressed by the black levels on a
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projector. And that is because you're
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able to achieve such amazing brightness
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that it means that the resulting black
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levels, which are really just the absent
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absence of light in that particular
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space, are really, really impressive and
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there's not that kind of bleeding over
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into them. At the same time, however,
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while the black levels are nice and
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inky, there's also a lot of detail in
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them. I feel like I'm seeing things that
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the director intended to be a part of
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that maybe you won't see on a lesser
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screen or a lesser projector. And that
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to me is really, really impressive.
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Colors are also really, really rich. And
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there's just as you watch content on it,
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it just stands out as being vibrant and
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alive, but also accurate at the same
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time. you do have a tremendous amount of
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control, more so than I've seen on any
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projector before. And so, you really can
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get in there and you can customize and
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tweak those. Obviously, there's a lot of
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the the electronic
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aids you can you can put on, you know,
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that's going to reduce noise or going
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to, you know, give you local contrast or
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local dimming or all of these different
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things. Sometimes, not sometimes, but
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most of the time, those are not really
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the path to getting your best picture
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quality. But here you do have a lot of
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finite controls over color calibration,
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over controlling the amount of of light
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and contrast and brightness and the ways
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of getting to that that are going to
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allow you to tweak the picture quality
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until you look over as I am right now.
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It's something that you say, "Wow, that
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looks really, really fantastic." And so,
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above all else, it was that picture
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quality that stood out to me. I also
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found that with the HDR type content
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that you really are able to get an
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amazing amount of of variation of
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luminosity there. In watching House of
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David, for example, there was torches
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flickering in some night scenes. And not
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only did the night scenes look nice and
14:56
inky black, but those as those torches
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or the fire would flicker, sometimes it
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would be so bright that you're almost
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blinking from it. And you know, it's
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kind of like overpoweringly bright in
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the best kind of way. not blown out but
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with great intensity that makes that
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content come alive and you know feel
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more cinematic which is really the
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reason why you're investing in something
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like this and so above all else it is
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the picture quality that really really
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impressed me on it. Also too really the
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sound quality is quite impressive as
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well. Now hopefully if you're going to
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invest in this kind of projector, you do
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have a higherend uh you know audio um
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options available to you. But even if
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you don't there the two uh 12 watt
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Harman Carden speakers in here and then
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the the design of the acoustic chamber
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makes for a a surprisingly good sound
15:43
experience that does fill the room quite
15:45
well. And that ability to go down to 55
15:48
hertz. It's not going to get you to the
15:50
room shaking 20 hertz of a a typical
15:53
subwoofer, powered subwoofer, but what
15:55
it is going to do is to give you enough
15:57
of that sound fullness to where it
16:00
doesn't sound tiny. I found that pretty
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quickly I stopped thinking about the
16:04
audio when we, you know, tested it using
16:06
that and that to me is impressive in and
16:08
of itself. During the same period of
16:10
time, I actually bought a Yamaha
16:13
soundbar off of Amazon just to kind of
16:15
play with and I I listened to it for a
16:18
couple of hours and I returned it
16:19
because frankly it didn't sound any
16:21
better to me than what the sound coming
16:23
out of this is. And so I mean obviously
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to have that kind of sound quality in a
16:28
projector is it's pretty nice. And so I
16:30
appreciate that. I also appreciate that
16:32
this upgraded floor stand, which is
16:34
included at the moment, has the ability
16:36
to do all of that cable routing and make
16:39
for a really clean looking experience,
16:41
which makes the projector itself look
16:43
like a nice, clean addition to the room.
16:44
I also appreciate the styling of the
16:46
projector itself. When I saw it,
16:48
particularly in person, I kind of got
16:50
this vibe almost like this is the
16:52
projector that the Jetsons would have
16:53
owned. It's kind of that retro look
16:55
that's also futuristic at the same time.
16:57
This is what the home of tomorrow should
16:59
have had. And and so it does actually
17:02
have a cool looking aesthetic that you
17:04
know may actually add rather than
17:05
detract from a room. You're not going to
17:07
feel embarrass embarrassed by this
17:09
hideous projector that you have set up
17:11
in your room. And so I appreciate that
17:13
as well. Setup is easy. Of course, the
17:16
fact that most of these these days are
17:18
running the Google TV interface, that's
17:20
actually really nice because it, you
17:22
know, it's it's familiar and it's easy
17:23
to work with. And so I appreciate that.
17:26
I also appreciate the fact that we've
17:28
actually got this high-end lens in it
17:30
and it does have an optical zoom. That
17:32
helps a lot in being able to to scale
17:35
your picture to where it needs to be to
17:37
fill your screen, but without relying on
17:39
something like a digital zoom or just
17:41
having to move the projector to achieve
17:43
that. And so that is always well
17:45
appreciated as well. It does have a
17:48
decent warranty for a projector.
17:50
Projectors are not necessarily known for
17:51
having the world's longest warranties,
17:53
but this has a 2-year warranty, which is
17:55
about twice as long as what you're
17:57
typically going to get. And again, it
17:59
shows that XG is invested in this as
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their flagship product. And I think it
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shows. So, let's talk about what's not
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so amazing. Well, obviously, the number
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one takeaway from a projector like this
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is you you're buying it because the
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specs are incredible, and you know,
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thankfully, it lives up to that. The
18:17
trade-off, however, is that they tend to
18:19
be more expensive. And so, we're talking
18:21
about in this range anyway anywhere from
18:24
1,700 to about $3,000 in that range. So,
18:28
I will note that early adopters, there's
18:30
a current discount, I believe, that gets
18:31
you $500 off, which helps that price to
18:34
become, you know, much more comfortable.
18:35
I suspect there'll be similar promotions
18:37
in the future as well when there are
18:39
sales on at the various times of the
18:41
year. But there's no question that this
18:43
is a significant investment. If you're
18:45
wanting to move to a higherend uh
18:47
projector like this, it does come at a
18:49
cost. And so that's certainly going to
18:51
be a deterring factor for many. I will
18:53
also note that if you're thinking about
18:55
this as also being something that's
18:56
portable, particularly if you're using
18:58
the stand, it's really not all that
19:00
portable. The standby design is heavier
19:03
in the base and by the time you put the
19:05
power brick in there and then you mount
19:07
a you know 5 kilo essentially projector
19:10
on top of it. You you've got what is a
19:13
you know a fairly heavy and somewhat
19:14
clumsy thing to move around. It's fine
19:17
for kind of sliding. I've been sliding
19:18
in and out of the space where I'm using
19:20
it because I don't have a permanent
19:22
setup for a projector-based home theater
19:24
yet at this point and it's fine for
19:26
that. But don't look at this as being
19:28
something portable and easy to move
19:29
around. It's going to the best case
19:31
scenario is if you can have a space in
19:33
your home where you can set it set it up
19:35
and you can leave it there. It's
19:36
obviously a little bit more portable if
19:38
you take it off the stand and move it
19:39
around. And it does have, you know, a
19:41
bit of a a foam case that comes with it.
19:44
And so that's fine. But don't think of
19:45
this so much as being a portable
19:47
projector. Think of it as being a more
19:49
of a high-end highowered type unit. And
19:52
so those are really to me the primary
19:54
kind of negatives that I've come up with
19:56
at this point. So, my conclusion is that
19:58
the Ajimi Horizon 20 is, put simply, the
20:01
best home theater projector that I have
20:03
ever used before. It combines amazing
20:06
picture quality with impressive sound
20:09
quality as well. And it has a brilliant
20:11
execution of all of the details. There's
20:13
just a lot of little areas where you can
20:15
tell careful thought has gone into the
20:17
engineering things that I really
20:19
appreciate Ford. It's expensive at
20:22
basically $2500 US. So obviously you can
20:24
get that discounted, but you can
20:27
actually display a 200 inch screen with
20:29
this and actually be happy with the
20:31
picture quality. And that in and of
20:33
itself is amazing. And if you want a lot
20:35
of these same features, but you don't
20:37
need that kind of maximum brightness,
20:39
you can get the Horizon 20 with that
20:41
3200 ISO lumens and it cost around
20:44
$1,700. And if you want to scale up even
20:47
more, you can get the Max unit at 29.99
20:50
and it comes with that whopping 5700 ISO
20:54
lumens, which is probably enough to even
20:56
give you that 300in display, assuming
20:59
that you've got a room that is 22 feet
21:02
wide and over 12 ft tall to be able to
21:04
fit that 300 in screen into. The Horizon
21:08
20 has the potential to completely
21:10
transform your expectation of what is
21:12
possible with a home theater projector.
21:15
it certainly has mine. And so at the end
21:17
of the day, this is a unit that I'm
21:18
very, very impressed with and is very
21:21
likely the projector that I've been
21:22
looking for now for years as something
21:25
that could be the center of a home
21:27
theater setup for myself. If you want
21:29
more information, you can check out the
21:31
description down below where I have
21:33
linked to a full review article on my
21:35
website and also links to the XGen site
21:37
where you can check things out a little
21:38
bit more further there and decide
21:39
whether or not this is the projector for
21:41
you. As always, thanks for watching.
21:43
Have a great day. And let that light
21:45
out.
21:47
[Music]

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