Xgimi Halo+ Review

Aside from its tower shape, the Xgimi Halo+ has a lot in common with the less expensive Xgimi Elfin—an oversize palmtop projector, and our top pick for a 1080p mini model for use under AC power only. But it's also a notable step up from the Elfin in almost every way, from its higher price ($802 list), to a slightly higher brightness rating (900 ANSI lumens), to a slightly heavier weight, due in part to the addition of a built-in battery. Most important, it delivered a highly watchable image in our tests with both SDR and HDR input, rather than SDR only. The Elfin is enough cheaper for it to remain our top pick in its niche. But the Halo+'s color accuracy and ability to handle HDR reasonably well justify it replacing the Anker Nebula Solar Portable as our new Editors' Choice pick for a 1080p mini projector with a built-in battery.

Among the design features the Halo+ shares with the Elfin is that it's built around a 1080p (1,920-by-1,080) DLP chip and a red, green, blue, blue (RGBB) light source. (The second blue LED serves to boost brightness.) The imaging chip uses TI's Manhattan, or rectangular, array with its rectangular pixels, rather than a diamond array, which offers lower power consumption, but adds artifacts to some images. The light source's life is rated at 25,000 hours.

For input, the Halo+ can accept up to 4K (3,840-by-2,160) resolution content, and it supports both HDR10 and HLG HDR. As is becoming increasingly common for 1080p projectors that support 4K and HDR, it negotiates a 4K HDR connection by default, downconverting 4K images to 1080p, and effectively behaving like a 4K projector with soft focus.

The claimed 900 ANSI lumens is among the highest ratings for this weight class of projector. The image brightness in my tests using the Standard power setting (which is both the default and my preferred choice) was closer to what I expect to see from about 600 lumens, but that's still high for the weight. (The Performance setting boosted brightness, but it added a green bias.) As is typical for projectors with built-in batteries, the brightness dropped noticeably when switching to battery power, with the lower power delivering a battery life rated at 2.5 hours on a full charge. Keep in mind that these comments refer to ANSI lumens. Many of the projectors in this category claim brightness in LED lumens, which are often inflated and not a standard measurement, and so can't be used for comparison.

The Halo+ weighs 3.5 pounds, not including its external AC adapter, and measures 6.9 by 4.5 by 5.7 inches (HWD). Unlike some competition that's also too large to hold comfortably in one hand, it doesn't include a handle or a carrying strap. Xgimi does sell a carrying case for the unit; although it's normally $89, at this writing it's included in the price.

Physical setup is straightforward. Optionally, connect an image source to the HDMI port, and turn the power on. The automatic focus worked nicely in my tests. You can also take advantage of the automatic or manual horizontal and vertical keystone correction, digital zoom, or automatic obstacle-avoidance feature. The last is designed to automatically fit the picture to the screen or a blank section of a wall (say, to avoid projecting part of the image on a framed picture or light switch). The price, however, for these digital conveniences is reduced brightness and the potential for introducing artifacts. It's best to avoid them, and adjust image size and geometry by repositioning the projector instead.

The Android TV setup is standard and limited to Wi-Fi as the only choice for connecting to your internet-connected network. Note that Android TV does not include a Netflix app.

The audio is among the best I've heard—possibly the best—from a projector in this size and weight class. The dual 5-watt Harman/Kardon speakers and sound system (with support for DTS-HD, DTS-Studio Sound, Dolby Audio, Dolby Digital, and Dolby Digital Plus) deliver high enough volume and audio quality for a large family room. For still-higher quality and volume, you can connect an external sound system using the 3.5mm stereo output, the HDMI's port's eARC support, or Bluetooth. You can also use the projector as a Bluetooth speaker for other devices.

The Halo+ offers four predefined picture modes with limited settings options, plus a custom mode for those who want to adjust the image. Colors tend to be a touch oversaturated in all the modes, and hues a little off, but the color accuracy is good enough in each mode for most people to consider the image highly watchable with default settings.

After some preliminary testing, I chose Game mode for 1080p SDR input. It delivered acceptably good color accuracy, particularly for flesh tones, and solid contrast for brightly lit scenes. Contrast was a little wanting in dark scenes, but shadow detail held well enough that I could make out what was happening even when I turned on a floor lamp to add a low level of ambient light in the room. Very much on the plus side, I saw far fewer rainbow artifacts (red/green/blue flashes) than typical for this class of projectors, and they were fleeting. If you tend to not see these kind of artifacts easily, you probably won't see them here at all.

Game mode doesn't support HDR, which translates to color accuracy being way off with HDR input. Movie mode did far better on that score, but lost too much shadow detail in dark scenes. Switching to Custom mode, which looked identical to Movie mode straight out of the box, let me tweak the image. Raising the brightness setting just a bit largely solved the problem in dark scenes without washing out brighter scenes.

Even after adjustments, however, SDR versions of the same movies on disc delivered better color accuracy and shadow detail than HDR versions. So while the Halo+ earns kudos for delivering a watchable HDR image—something that many 1080p models that accept 4K HDR can't do anywhere near as well—the HDR image quality isn't good enough to justify using 4K HDR input instead of 1080p SDR when you have a choice between the two.

The Halo+ also supports 3D, using DLP-Link glasses, in top-bottom and side-by-side formats, and it also offers options to convert 3D input in those two formats to 2D. I didn't see any crosstalk in my 3D viewing tests, and saw just the typical level of 3D-related motion artifacts for current projectors.

As for gaming, I measured the input lag with a Bodnar meter at 28.3 milliseconds at 1080p/60Hz in Game mode. Serious gamers would call that a little slow, but casual users should find it acceptable.

Based on the Society for Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) standards for a 1.0 gain screen, 900 ANSI lumens is bright enough for a 135-inch 16:9 image in a dark room. In my tests, using Game picture mode and AC power, the image was bright enough to light up my 90-inch screen in the dark and in low levels of ambient light. It was also suitably bright to fill an 80-inch screen in moderate ambient light at night, as well as remain watchable (if somewhat washed out) on a bright afternoon in a family room with windows. Note also that the drop in projector brightness when using the battery instead of AC power means you need a smaller image size to get the same image brightness.

At this writing, the Xgimi Halo+ delivers the most impressive balance of features of any mini projector or oversize palmtop we've seen—as it should, considering it's one of the priciest. If you'd rather save a little, or prefer an oversize palmtop to a tower shape, consider the Anker Nebula Solar Portable if you need a projector with a built-in battery, or the Xgimi Elfin if you want a brighter image than the Anker model offers and don't need a battery.

But if you want the most capable projector in its class, the Xgimi Halo+ should be on your short list as the model that others need to beat. Its combination of high brightness, robust audio, and better-than-typical image quality for SDR—and even more so for HDR—earn it our Editors' Choice laurels for a 1080p mini projector or oversize palmtop with a built-in battery.

Packing a bright image and robust audio for a mini projector, the 1080p Xgimi Halo+ delivers film and video quality easily suitable for casual viewing, plus integrated Android TV and a built-in battery.

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