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XGIMI MoGo 4 Portable Projector Review | Sight, Sound, and Mood?
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Jul 31, 2025
The XGIMI MoGo 4 is their newest portable projector...and vibes machine.. Is it worth buying? Find out in Dustin's review! | | Purchase the XGIMI MoGo 4 @ XGIMI US: https://tidd.ly/458oyNW | Amazon https://amzn.to/4fewLoi 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]
0:08
[Music]
0:10
Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today
0:12
to give you a review of the XGI Mo 4
0:16
portable projector. This series, the Moo
0:19
series, has been a very popular one for
0:21
XG, which is itself perhaps the most
0:25
popular uh projector brand in the world
0:27
in terms of units moved. And so this is
0:31
obviously an incredibly important device
0:33
for them because it allows they're
0:36
really trying to capture a vibe for a
0:37
young hipster type crowd, you know, of
0:39
which I'm an obvious member. uh with
0:42
features that are designed around, you
0:44
know, being able to create atmospheres,
0:45
parties, and then of course just a lot
0:47
of flexibility and being able to view
0:49
and display content either in the way
0:52
that it's streamed, but also in the way
0:53
that you can position and use the
0:55
projector to use that. Now, obviously,
0:57
I'm not shooting in a dark environment
1:00
today. There's plenty of ambient light
1:02
here and I am using just a a a white
1:06
backdrop for projection here just so I
1:09
can kind of get everything on set here
1:10
at the moment. So clearly not the
1:13
optimal settings for actually viewing
1:15
video content here. However, you can see
1:18
that while this is portable, it still
1:20
has a a reasonable amount of projection
1:22
light to view even in these kinds of
1:25
lighting conditions in a screen that
1:27
looks about about 40 between 40 and 50
1:31
in I would estimate compared to a
1:33
typical TV type setting. So, we're going
1:36
to dive in and we're going to look at
1:38
some of the specifications. We're going
1:40
to look at the various ways that I've
1:41
used it and the opinions that I have
1:43
drawn as I've used it along the way.
1:46
Now, starting with some of the
1:48
specifications here, one of the main
1:50
things obviously that they are
1:51
emphasizing is the portability of it.
1:53
And so, they've even put a a wrist strap
1:56
for you to carry it around. I don't know
1:57
who's running around with the projector
1:59
hanging off their wrist, but I mean,
2:00
it's the vibe, I guess. But it is
2:02
compact. It is 28 mm in length and then
2:07
96.5
2:08
mm in uh it in its diameter and uh its
2:13
its height. you know, it's basically
2:15
round and it weighs in at 1.3 kilos and
2:19
so right under 3 lbs and so definitely
2:24
fairly lightweight and of course it has
2:25
that integrated built-in stand that
2:27
allows you to rotate it 360°
2:30
and uh and so and it it's a nice stable
2:33
base. So whatever view or angle that you
2:35
have it pointed at, it's going to stay
2:36
stable. And so even if you're just
2:38
carrying it around and you're just using
2:39
the device itself, you are going to be
2:41
able to put it on a stable surface.
2:43
though, as we'll get to in a moment. Uh,
2:45
obviously this power stand is a really,
2:48
really useful accessory for a lot of
2:50
reasons that we'll detail in just a
2:52
moment. Now, this technology here is it
2:54
is an LED projector. It is rated at 450
2:58
ISO lumens. And I do want to emphasize
3:00
that is ISO uh not an lumens. Any lumens
3:03
has often been the standard in the past
3:06
and those um over oversell the
3:08
brightness. Whereas this is isol
3:12
complex um process or certification
3:15
process, but it also means that if it's
3:17
isol.
3:20
So 450 doesn't sound high until you
3:22
consider that in this class that is
3:24
right at the top of the class. And the
3:26
fact that it is the isol means that it's
3:28
probably going to be brighter than any
3:30
of the competing portable projectors
3:32
with a built-in battery that you might
3:34
run into. Now there is a caveat to that.
3:37
Now, you can even on its its base
3:40
battery level, just the device alone,
3:42
you can run it at its standard
3:43
brightness rather than the eco mode.
3:45
However, all the the runtime
3:47
specifications that they're giving you
3:49
are going to be for the eco mode. So, it
3:51
has a built-in 71.28wh
3:54
hour battery around 20,000 mAh if you're
3:57
kind of thinking in those terms. And so
3:59
they will market that that gives you 2
4:01
and 1/2 hours of run time, but that is
4:04
in eco mode, which is significantly less
4:07
bright. And so what I found that if I
4:09
was running in standard brightness, uh,
4:11
with just the built-in battery, you can
4:13
probably about half that time for the
4:16
amount of run time you're going to get.
4:18
I went for about an hour and 20 minutes,
4:21
and I was I was under 25% at that point.
4:25
And so you might get right over an hour
4:26
and a half, but not much more than that.
4:29
So just so you're aware of that.
4:30
However, if you uh use the built-in
4:33
power stand, the power power base stand
4:35
itself has another 20,000 mAh or 72 watt
4:38
hours of battery built into it. And so
4:40
basically, you're going to double your
4:42
run time. And so if you're using eco
4:44
mode, you can run up to 5 hours. If
4:45
you're running in the standard
4:46
brightness, I'm going to guess you're
4:48
probably going to be able to get
4:49
probably around 3 hours or slightly more
4:52
than that. So certainly that definitely
4:54
gets you into very useful territory.
4:56
However, another added benefit here is
4:59
the fact that it does run off of USBC.
5:01
You can also just connect it to a
5:03
portable power bank and as long as it
5:05
has a 65 watt output standard, uh you
5:08
can use that to power it as well. So, I
5:10
mean, the amount of options for powering
5:13
the Mogo 4 are far greater than a device
5:16
like the Halo Plus that I reviewed last
5:19
year because the Halo Plus is or only
5:22
allows you to run it off of its own AC
5:24
power if you're going to, you know,
5:26
power it from a power source. And so, it
5:29
just gives you a whole lot less
5:30
flexibility in terms of the option. And
5:31
it means you're stuck with the power
5:33
brick itself. This does come with a
5:35
power brick. You know that it looks kind
5:37
of like an old like Mac um MacBook type
5:40
power brick about that size, but
5:42
obviously you don't have to use it
5:44
unless you want to. And so it does give
5:47
you some flexibility. So I love that
5:48
it's centered around that USBC port.
5:51
This is a native 1080p projector. It can
5:54
do HDR10 and so you can get a little bit
5:57
more pop out of that. As far as the
5:59
inputs on it, it does have an ARC rated
6:01
HDMI and so you can transmit audio over
6:04
that. Also, you know, HDMI control. ARC
6:07
gives you just a lot of different
6:08
compatibility things or flexibility I I
6:11
should say for doing different things
6:13
over that HDMI standard. It has a USBA
6:16
port and so that you can put in like a
6:18
flash drive for example and run content
6:20
off that. And by the way, it does have
6:22
32 gig of internal storage. So, even if
6:25
you're wanting to transfer some um you
6:27
know, maybe movies or whatever off or
6:29
photos off of a flash drive into the
6:32
internal memory, you do have the option
6:33
of doing that. It also has a USB C port,
6:36
though the USBC port is not for
6:39
connectivity, but rather for powering.
6:42
Wi-Fi standard remains at Wi-Fi 5. Now,
6:45
there's lots of different bandwidths
6:46
that are there, so that's all good, but
6:48
it's unfortunately not Wi-Fi 6 standard,
6:50
which I would love to see them up that
6:52
standard to the next level. the LED uh
6:56
lamp, they're rating it at 25,000
7:00
um hours. And so that gives you, you
7:02
know, running four hours a day at 17
7:04
years worth of use. So these days, I
7:06
find that you're far more likely to
7:08
become technologically obsolete with a
7:10
projector than you are to actually have
7:12
the lamp burn out. And so things have
7:14
certainly changed from the early days
7:16
days of projectors. Now, they say that
7:18
you can project anywhere between 40 to
7:21
200 in with this. I would take the 200
7:24
in as pure marketing. In fact, if you
7:26
look into the fine print, they don't
7:27
recommend going any bigger than
7:30
120 in. And so, I would say if you're in
7:33
a dark room, you might be able to pull
7:35
off 120 in. I think around 100 in looks
7:38
good. And so, just, you know, be aware
7:41
of that. Don't try to go 200 in with
7:42
this. It has a one or 1.2 to one throw
7:46
ratio on that. It does have autofocus
7:48
and auto keystone corrections that are
7:51
uh fulltime. if something moves, it'll
7:53
automatically readjust and it does a
7:55
very good job. I actually find that it
7:56
works much better than what the Halo
7:58
Plus did for me. Uh the game mode
8:01
latency here for those of you that might
8:02
want to use it for gaming is under 20
8:05
milliseconds. And so, you know, fast
8:07
enough that it's probably going to be in
8:09
the range that you would want. So, let's
8:10
talk about another aspect of what
8:13
they're marketing with this, and that is
8:14
their creative filters. Again, they're
8:17
marketing this not just as a portable
8:18
projector, but as kind of a mood setter.
8:21
And so you have an included filter in
8:24
the box. They call this the sunset
8:25
filter. And all it requires is just
8:27
magnetically attaching that to the front
8:29
of the projector. And uh it will
8:31
automatically switch into the creative
8:34
mode. Now the first time that you use
8:37
it, you are going to once you tap it on
8:39
there, pull it back off because you're
8:40
going to need to install an app and it
8:43
will automatically prompt you to do
8:44
that. So it's a very easy and quick
8:46
process. But you do need to I don't know
8:48
why they don't have that app natively
8:49
installed but it's not for whatever
8:52
reason. And so uh you'll do that and
8:54
then after that all because it's
8:56
magnetically attached anytime you attach
8:57
it on there it will automatically cycle
8:59
over into that mode. And so it's a
9:02
really really interesting thing because
9:03
it allows you to to do a variety of
9:08
things. And so the the sunset one uh you
9:10
put it on there it's going to have mood
9:12
music. It's going to have, you know,
9:14
different effects that you can do
9:16
projecting onto a screen or a wall or a
9:18
ceiling. You pass your hand in front of
9:20
it or you cycle on one of the remotes,
9:23
including the attached mini remote. It
9:25
actually comes with two remotes and it
9:27
will automatically switch through.
9:29
There's usually about six, seven, eight
9:32
options for each one in terms of the
9:34
different kind of moods that it's going
9:36
to create. But then they have an
9:37
optional threeack of other filters,
9:40
including the lunar that looks like
9:42
this, showing you the different phases
9:44
of the moon, and it's cool. There's one
9:46
called Ripple that kind of just has kind
9:48
of fractured light going everywhere and
9:50
just kind of moving. And really my
9:52
favorite of these three is called
9:54
Dreamscape. And Dreamscape just kind of,
9:57
you know, does kind of shifting colors
10:00
and music along with it. And they are
10:02
great mood setters. um you know they're
10:04
kind of showing advertising people using
10:06
it for meditating or you know for
10:08
parting parting or posing in front of
10:10
for shooting selfies. Um it's also even
10:13
a a nice mood setter for let's say even
10:15
other things you might want to do and
10:17
setting up the mood in your bedroom for
10:19
example. So pretty cool. You have the
10:21
option also to uh to use a Bluetooth
10:24
connection. You can use this as a
10:26
Bluetooth speaker and you can then um
10:29
just play your own music back through it
10:31
along with the kind of light show that
10:33
comes with it. On the note of these
10:35
speakers, it does have two uh six watt
10:38
Harman Carden audio speakers in it. The
10:41
audio quality is actually surprisingly
10:44
good. Now they talk about room filling
10:45
bass. No, it does not fill the room with
10:48
bass. I would say bass is the most
10:49
lacking part of it. However, it does
10:52
have surprisingly clear and room filling
10:55
sound, and I was really surprised by
10:57
that. You do have the ability to connect
11:00
um uh other audio via either the HDMI
11:04
and sending it over that or you have the
11:07
option of a Bluetooth connection. And I
11:08
did note, by the way, that there I
11:10
didn't note any Bluetooth lag. And so, I
11:12
think that that's also a very good
11:13
option if you want to expand your sound
11:16
through other means. So, what is great
11:19
about this? Well, first of all, I would
11:22
say that of the sub 500 lm projectors
11:24
that I've tested, this is definitely the
11:27
brightest and has the best picture
11:28
quality. The picture quality under
11:30
optimal conditions, namely a dark room,
11:33
are impressively good. It is very easy
11:35
to set up. If you're familiar at all
11:37
with doing the Google um setup when it
11:40
comes to the Google TV interface, it's,
11:43
you know, it takes minutes and most of
11:44
the time you're not really having to do
11:45
much of anything. just kind of studying
11:47
along the way and doing some loginins
11:48
periodically. It took just a few minutes
11:51
to get logged into the various streaming
11:53
apps that uh that I might use. So, all
11:56
of that is good. Um, again, under
11:58
optimal situations, color and contrast
12:00
is really good and it does have better
12:02
color accuracy than cheap projectors.
12:04
The picture can be surprisingly crisp
12:06
off of it and so that was impressive to
12:08
me for a portable type projector. HDMR,
12:11
HDR performance looks uh good if you
12:15
have HDR10 and definitely adds a little
12:17
bit of extra pop to it. The battery life
12:19
is sufficient to watch a a shorter movie
12:24
um if it's an hour and a half or so. Um
12:26
if you're watching at that standard
12:28
brightness level and of course if you're
12:29
using the power base stand, which by the
12:31
way, it attaches so easily to this. Um
12:34
it allows you to do easy full 360°ree
12:36
rotation on that. This thing is really
12:38
cool and obviously just has the tripod
12:40
feet at the bottom. And by the way, it
12:42
all will kind of break down into small
12:45
pieces. You can screw all these pieces
12:47
apart and so then it's going to occupy a
12:50
small footprint. You know, looks like
12:52
that. So, very easy to do. So, you can
12:54
throw that into a backpack or something
12:55
like that. But obviously, all of that is
12:58
useful as well. And if you're using
13:00
that, the battery life is going to be
13:02
long enough even to watch getting close
13:04
to Lord of the Rings level uh length of
13:07
movie. The um sound quality as noted is
13:11
is quite good. It's not room filling
13:13
bass, but it is room filling sound
13:15
generally. Everything feels tough. And
13:17
one of the things I've noted about the
13:19
XG projectors that I have reviewed to
13:21
this point that they definitely have a
13:22
premium feel and build to them. You can
13:24
tell that they're nicely made units and
13:26
everything here in terms of the
13:28
rotation. Um, by the way, you can just
13:30
rotate this projector to point it down
13:32
and click it down into place. It'll auto
13:34
automatically power off. You can do the
13:36
same and ro lifting up and rotating it
13:38
on and it will quickly have picture
13:40
going and it will boot you into the
13:43
Google TV app uh really quickly. And so
13:46
all of that is good. It has a a stylish
13:48
visual aesthetic to it and so definitely
13:50
win style points and that's clearly the
13:52
market that they're going for. I do love
13:54
the power stand integration and how well
13:56
it works. Uh there's one caveat that
13:58
I'll get to on that in just a moment.
14:00
However, uh it does have a more in-depth
14:03
picture controls than what most cheap
14:05
projectors do. You have more finite
14:07
control over the picture quality if you
14:09
want to, you know, kind of dive in and
14:11
tweak everything like that. Uh it didn't
14:13
seem to have any kind of lag while using
14:15
Bluetooth for audio, which is great. As
14:18
noted, the auto keystone and autofocus
14:20
works better than what it did on the
14:22
Halo Plus. I often felt like I needed to
14:24
tweak things for the key stoning with
14:26
the Halo Plus. I find that this does a
14:28
very good job. And you know, if you move
14:30
it around, it's going to quickly uh do
14:33
that actual keystone process. And
14:34
usually by the time that it's done, I'm
14:36
happy with the result that it gave.
14:38
Let's see if we can shift that back onto
14:40
our set here. And so, you know, it'll
14:42
quickly go through that process and, you
14:44
know, it squares things off as it
14:46
should. And one of the things that is
14:48
very fun about this because you can
14:49
easily rotate it up is that even if you
14:51
don't have a wall that's clear, you can
14:53
project right up onto the ceiling, which
14:56
uh my wife and I did several times just
14:58
at night, you know, watching something
14:59
before bed. And it was kind of a unique
15:01
and fun experience to just lay back and
15:03
and watch looking up. And so again,
15:05
because it has good keystone correction,
15:08
you could just kind of tweak the angle
15:09
to get it to where you want and get a
15:11
nice picture up above your head. So all
15:13
of that was cool. I like the fact that
15:15
it has this attached. Now, you can
15:17
remove it, but it does have that
15:19
attached integrated mini remote. And so,
15:21
all of that is good. And I will note
15:23
that finally on the actual main remote,
15:26
at least some of the buttons are now
15:28
back lit. And so, that is a big step in
15:31
the right direction. I really knock the
15:32
Halo Plus for not having a backlit
15:34
remote. And so, that was good. The
15:37
magnetic creative filters are
15:39
interesting. And I don't think they're
15:41
going to be for some people, they're
15:42
going to be totally a gimmick. For other
15:43
people, they may really enjoy them just
15:45
for setting a mood in the room and, you
15:47
know, kind of transporting yourself into
15:49
a a different kind of space in your head
15:51
and in your atmosphere there. I love the
15:53
fact that casting is native on this. And
15:55
that was again another thing that I
15:57
docked on the Halo Plus that I actually
15:59
had to download the Miracast app to do
16:02
casting to it from an Apple device. You
16:04
could do it from an Android, but in this
16:05
case, even from my Apple device, it was
16:07
instantly there when I popped up to see
16:09
just like from the NBA app, for example,
16:11
and it was right there, ready to go, and
16:13
I clicked on it, and it immediately
16:15
started casting. So, no problem there.
16:17
And then finally, a big deal these days
16:20
is the fact that this does have built-in
16:23
Netflix certification. And so, you can
16:26
jump right into Netflix natively.
16:30
There's that room filling sound right
16:32
there. And so you don't have to use some
16:34
kind of workaround to get to Netflix if
16:37
you so desire. So lots of stuff that I
16:39
like. So what don't I like about it? I
16:43
always find that the external power
16:45
bricks are a little bit big. Now I'm
16:47
less put off here because you have the
16:49
options of running it off of USBC and
16:52
through other means and so you don't
16:53
have to use that power brick whereas
16:55
with some other devices you were tied
16:57
right into doing that. I don't
16:59
necessarily love that it will
17:01
automatically default to eco mode when
17:03
you're just running off the internal
17:05
battery. I like to have an option
17:06
because I find that it sometimes isn't
17:09
quite straightforward to find where to
17:11
switch it into standard mode. And so
17:13
there may be some people that are robbed
17:14
of getting the full brightness out of
17:16
their projector because they're, you
17:18
know, maybe unaware that they're in eco
17:19
mode or don't know how to switch it into
17:21
standard mode. So I'd like to see them
17:22
tweak that in the UI to where it's just
17:24
a little easier access accessed. I also
17:27
would like to see the, you know, the
17:29
Wi-Fi standard updated. And I think even
17:31
with the USBC or USBA port at this
17:34
point, I I think it's time to move on to
17:36
USBC for just even for a communication
17:39
standard at this point. Uh, another
17:41
thing that I don't love is that there is
17:43
no case that is included for this. And
17:45
so, yeah, I mean, there's a lanyard for
17:47
hanging it around your wrist, but let's
17:49
let's be real, that's not the way that
17:50
people are going to be transporting
17:52
this. So, I would love to see even some
17:54
kind of case included with it. and ditto
17:56
for the, you know, the power base as
17:58
well. Um, just something to slip that
18:01
into even just a nylon bag would be nice
18:03
to have. The other final thing that I'll
18:06
say that is a potential negative is that
18:08
this is a premium product. And so in the
18:11
US, it's definitely even there. It's on
18:14
the upper end of these portable
18:15
projectors. So, it's about $500 without
18:19
the stand, $550 with the stand. But here
18:22
in Canada, for some reason, the numbers
18:24
are really out of whack here. Uh here in
18:26
Canada, it runs about $1,000 without the
18:28
power base, about 1,100 with it. And so
18:31
those prices are way like basically
18:33
double that of the US, which is
18:35
unusually high. Usually it would be a
18:37
few hundred more here in Canada, for
18:39
example. And so I don't know if that's a
18:42
quirk that will get solved when we get
18:43
to more retail pricing, but anyway, just
18:45
something to bear in mind there. My
18:47
conclusion is this. Depending on your
18:49
market, this is either a slightly
18:51
premium in price product or it's a
18:54
really premium uh product in terms of
18:56
cost, but it may just be worth it. It is
18:58
definitely a premium package. And it it
19:02
just works better than other portable um
19:04
devices I've used like this. And the
19:06
fact that it's got that built-in stand
19:08
that allows you to rotate and project in
19:10
so many different ways easily, even onto
19:11
the ceiling. That's huge because I think
19:14
for a portable projector, often one of
19:16
the big challenges is that you've got
19:17
the projector there, but you don't
19:18
really necessarily have a good way of
19:20
something to set it on and to aim it
19:22
where you want it to go. And so that can
19:23
be a really frustrating process. This
19:25
does solve a lot of those frustrations.
19:27
So, you're not worrying about putting it
19:29
on a tripod or something similar. Um,
19:31
you can do that. And of course, if you
19:32
do get the the power base stand, then
19:35
obviously you've got an even better
19:36
thing to just set it on and, you know,
19:39
away you go. So, I think it's a great
19:41
package as far as that. The picture
19:42
quality for this class of projector is
19:44
good, particularly in optimal
19:46
conditions, you know, and if you're
19:47
using it, you know, outdoors camping,
19:49
maybe at night, I think it would look
19:51
fine there. Don't try to do it during
19:53
the day unless you're projecting in a
19:54
really small area. But, uh, if you're
19:57
working in dim conditions, you have a
19:59
pretty good amount of flexibility on how
20:01
big of a picture you can throw and still
20:02
look definitely very watchable. So, at
20:05
the end of the day, for this class
20:06
projector, this one is really, really
20:08
cool. And I actually said yes to doing
20:10
this review because I am going to send
20:12
this with my youngest son who's about to
20:14
head off to university. And so to me,
20:16
it's a great university room type
20:19
product to where you can display on the
20:21
ceiling, display on a wall and have fun
20:23
with it. So at the end of the day, if
20:25
you are in the market for a portable
20:27
projector and you want one with high
20:29
style points, and maybe even you're
20:30
looking for some creative moods, then
20:33
check out the Ajimi Mo 4. It could be
20:36
the projector for you. As always, thanks
20:38
for watching. Have a great day and let
20:40
the light in.