An LED 4K Outdoor Projector That’s Small Enough to Fit in Your Backpack
Enjoy your favorite shows and movies outdoors during the day—or even at night while camping—with this portable projector. It’s small enough to fit in your backpack and can beam an image up to 100 inches.
Light and sound pollution can affect viewing quality, so look for a model that’s brighter than 10,000 lumens (or 4167 ANSI lumens). It should also have a variety of image correction features that automatically adjust to obstacles.
1. XGIMI HORIZON Ultra
The XGIMI HORIZON Ultra is the first long-throw LED 4K projector we’ve seen to support Dolby Vision. It also features hybrid laser and LED lighting that delivers an impossibly bright and colour-accurate image for the price. projector movie outdoor And, thanks to a smart suite of image correction technologies, it’s just as easy to set up as it is to use.
I found the XGIMI Horizon Ultra to be one of the most impressive projectors I’ve tested. Its brightness and colours are exceptional, even when you leave ambient light in the room. Its dark scene performance is more of a concern, though, as it can’t control ambient light enough to deliver convincing black levels. Nonetheless, it does better than most other recent projectors in this respect and is able to offer a Dolby Vision Bright mode that preserves shadow detail.
It’s a good choice for watching movies, TV and sports with its Movie mode enabled by default. I found it to be the most accurate for both colour and contrast, although you can select Vivid or Bright options if you want a more punchy image or a wider color gamut. Its excellent brightness uniformity and very good contrast mean it can cope well with ambient light, but it won’t be suitable for demanding gamers due to its 60Hz refresh rate and high latency.
2. XGIMI MoGo Pro
The XGIMI MoGo Pro is the company’s first portable projector to enable power supply via a 65-watt power bank, and it raises the bar for what you can expect from an inexpensive, lightweight, easy-to-use LED projector. It delivers a bright image with excellent color balance and has very advanced auto-setup options, including keystone correction and automatic focus. It runs on a version of Android TV 11 that’s simple and well-established, with access to the full Google Play store and a good range of programming, including Netflix (although the app isn’t certified to run on it).
Setup is fast and straightforward, although it’s slowed by having to manually enter Wi-Fi and Google account passwords with the remote. It supports Bluetooth headphones and includes a built-in speaker. It has a MicroSD slot, as well as an HDMI port and a powered USB-A port.
The XGIMI’s most impressive feature is its time-of-flight digital image adjustment system, which automatically focuses, corrects for keystone distortion, and aligns the projected image to whatever surface you have it on. It activates automatically when you turn on the projector and each time you move it, without the need for a test pattern. It also has a nifty auto keystone calibration feature that adjusts the image each time you dump it onto an uneven surface. This greatly simplifies jockeying the projector back-and-forth and side-to-side, which is necessary when setting up a large projection for a home theater setup.
3. XGIMI MoGo Pro+
The XGIMI MoGo Pro+ is smaller, lighter and less expensive than our top pick but still packs some serious punch. It takes the tower shape of Xgimi’s previous portable projector but has a higher ANSI lumen rating and supports a maximum 4K resolution. The Pro+ also has a handful of notable features that set it apart, starting with multi-angle automatic keystone correction and auto focus. This means you can dump it on a wall or screen roughly square and it will automatically adjust to give you a properly focused image. It also has intelligent obstacle avoidance that resizes the image to bypass objects such as picture frames, plants and wall sockets.
The MoGo Pro+ comes with two integrated 3W Harman/Kardon speakers that are surprisingly good given the size of the device. They deliver balanced and rich sound quality, without being tinny or distorting. If you want more audio oomph, you can pair it with an external Bluetooth speaker and play your video or music content through that.
The MoGo Pro+ runs on the latest Android TV OS which gives you access to all the usual native apps you’d expect, plus many of the major streaming services too like Netflix, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu. You can even control the device with voice commands using Google Assistant.
4. Optoma UHD38
The Optoma UHD38 is a budget-minded projector that’s not afraid to throw light around. It offers a huge 300-inch image (at close range), a claimed 15,000 hours lamp life and a full suite of colour and gamma controls backed by ISF calibration certification.
It’s an impressive performer and sits just below the top rated 4K UHD projectors such as the Epson HC2350 and BenQ HT2060. It’s a great choice for bright rooms, high frame rates and high-resolution gaming.
Like the XGIMI HORIZON Ultra, it has a 1.5:1 throw ratio and needs to be placed at least 3m from a 100-inch screen for a usable picture. Its setup is a wifi projektor little clumsy and lacks manual lens shift levers and a full suite of digital keystone correction controls, but a ring around the lens provides a simple focus adjustment.
While it does a fine job with movies and TV shows thanks to its vivid colours and efficient HDR management, it’s particularly convincing with video games thanks to its low input lag. It also supports HDR at up to 240Hz for those that like to challenge their friends to multiplayer games.
While it can’t match the dynamic range of a good OLED TV, it still delivers a very good image with deep shadow detail and a wide colour gamut. It also has a decent amount of contrast and is not overly washed out by ambient light.