At CES 2024, Xgimi launched its brightest projector yet, the Horizon Max, and Aladdin, a ceiling-lamp/speaker/projector. We had to see them for ourselves.
Chinese projector maker Xgimi makes some pretty great portable and premium projectors and somehow does it without charging a fortune for them. At CES 2024, the company showed off two new upcoming projectors: the IMAX Enhanced certified Horizon Max, the company’s brightest projector to date that features a neat precision gimbal system for auto keystoning and some smart screen adaptation tech, and the unique Aladdin, a 3-in-one smart home ceiling lamp, speaker, and projector. I checked it all out at the company’s busy CES 2024 booth.Xgimi Horizon Max
Building off of the success of last year’s Horizon Ultra 4K projector that boasted support for Dolby Vision, Xgimi (pronounced “ex-jeemee”) hopes to strike gold again with the Horizon Max. Xgimi says the Horizon Max is the “World’s first long-throw projector to feature the IMAX Enhanced certification.”
So, what does that mean, exactly? Well, it can be applied to streaming services (Disney+, for example, has several of its movies viewable in IMAX Enhanced formats, and the Horizon Max can play them), and devices such as TVs, AV receivers, speakers, and, in this case, projectors. It means that the folks at IMAX get together with some technical folks from Hollywood to determine if the devices live up to IMAX’s standards for resolution, color, contrast, brightness, and DTS:X’s (both IMAX and DTS are owned by parent company, Xperi) immersive sound. The Horizon Max does.
When I reviewed the Horizon Ultra projector last year, I was impressed with its quick and easy auto keystone and alignment features and configurable picture settings, and the Max takes this to a whole new level.
With something Xgimi calls ISA 5.0 (intelligent screen adaptation), Horizon Max uses a motorized gimbal system driven by automated software. Using 3D ToF (time of flight) detection, the projector scans the space, adjusts to the room and the wall or screen you’re using, and configures the settings accordingly.
The CES demo was impressive. In a three-walled demo room with obstacles on the walls (such as a framed picture), the bottom gimbal turned the projector horizontally while the side stand-attached gimbal moved the projector vertically as the image floated its way across the wall. Upon hitting the framed picture (where the 3D ToF comes in), the image just continued to the next wall where it settled on a clear, optimal viewing space — all the while automatically adjusting keystone as it moved, nearly instantaneously.
