The Theater That Fits in Your Hands – XGIMI H1 Review
Hands down the best home projector ever created – XGIMI H1 Review
I worked for Magnolia at Best Buy for a number of years, so please believe me when I say I know home theater systems. I have a Panasonic VT20 with a Pioneer Elite Receiver and Mirage 5.1 Sound systems, with the patented omnidirectional subwoofer. My home theater is off the hook. I love home theater equipment. I never liked projector set ups, unless you have the space for them. That not only means a large enough room but a room completely devoid of natural light. Then there’s the whole issue of a good enough projection screen that will allow you to get a decent black level. I could go on, but the gist is, projectors are generally a lot of work and not worth the hassle.
The XGIMI H1: 300″ 3D Smart Projector, with harmon/kardon sound, is the exception! This amazing piece of technology removes the hassle and delivers amazing picture quality without the need of a high-end projector screen. I’ve broken down my review into 3 parts: use, picture quality, value. Use will include ease of, setup, and general usage. Picture quality will talk about the picture/video quality it produces. Lastly, value will cover the combination of the first 2 and comparison to like products. I will not talk much about sound, as I do not count it as a home theater system if it is not a surround sound set up. I will talk about the sound quality in the value section though, in compared to other built in sound units.
Use
XGIMI’s H1 is ready to go right out of the box, as long as you have a Mickey Mouse power chord for American sockets. Unfortunately, it does not come with one, so you will need to get one to use it. Once you have that, power up the H1 and it is ready to go in a manner of seconds. Set up the wifi and you can instantly begin watching YouTube videos or download apps to play video from other sources such as Netflix. This is probably the only other bummer of the H1, because it has problems playing videos from other apps. YouTube works fine, but everything else has problems. Netflix will not display the program unless you back up then play and Hulu won’t even run. The H1 seems to have built in Roku/Amazon Fire -like features but does not work out all too well app wise. Also, connection wise as well. Casting and Air Play also do not work very well with the H1. However, the internal video player for stored files internally or via USB works flawlessly. So if you’re like me and have a bunch of digital files on your iTunes, you can pop those on a thumb drive and play them directly through the H!.
The H1 works well on any flat surface. I started by playing it on the side of the box it came in, before turning it to the side of my couch, and even against my popcorn ceiling. The image had no trouble rendering on any of the surfaces. So there’s no need to worry about spending extra on a projection screen, though it probably would still enhance the image. Lastly, the fine tuning controls, like trapezoid correction, are simple and intuitive. Fixing the image to look right, despite having a weird angle, is incredibly simple, and does not require expertise or paid professionals to do. I believe it is simple enough for grandparents who complain about technology to figure out.
Picture Quality
Projectors are usually very hit or miss with their picture quality. The lumens and contrast ratio used to measure picture quality have no standardization across brands, so unless you see it you’ll never be able to gauge the quality. Then you’ll also never know if the quality will be the same in home because stores that display projectors have it professionally set up for it to look good. Like I said, projectors are a lot of hassle. I do not think anyone will have that problem with the H1, I tried it on multiple surfaces and with varying sizes and it always looked good. The H1 is rated to go as big as 300 inches, I say it’s running at about 150″ on my wall. From the pictures or the video, you can see that it gives cinema quality image on a wall last repainted about 10 years ago. The wall also has clear thumbtacks on it that you can’t notice. The picture quality does not quite match up to my VT20, even at 4K, but projectors cannot hit the black levels of plasma on their own. But the picture quality is definitely in the higher tiers and easily compares to the televisions inside Best Buy’s Magnolia section. Also, the screen size. So it is great quality, not the best, and way more quantity. I happily take 3x more quantity at only 80% of the quality in this case. The only real downside to the picture is how it is affected by other light sources. You can run it at full bulb brightness and have it legible, but it still loses a considerable amount of quality. It is, however, not as bad as having light reflecting off the screen. Direct light does diminish picture quality but it is still watchable, whereas reflecting light on a television screen makes it impossible to see.
Value
The XGIMI H1 has an MSRP of $919. You can likely find 60″ LED’s around that price, but those will be the lowest end models available. To compare the picture quality you will get out of the H1, as well as comparable screen sizes, you’re looking at about $1500. for a 70″ Samsung 4K LED (UN6500 series). I would say the H1 has a noticeably better picture than the UN6500 series, but I’ll lowball it there. Even considering the extra stand or rig you would need to set up the project behind you and the extra remote accessories to control your home theater without having to turn around and point at it, you would still be saving few hundred dollars for an overall better experience. If you do not plan on connecting it to a surround sound system, the built-in harmon/kardon speakers are far better than any sound system built into even the highest end televisions, as well as being better than most sound bars on the market. The one downside to that is having all of the sound come from behind you, but that has little to no effect on most people. Value wise, it is not just the best bang for the buck, but it’s one of the biggest and best bangs on the market.
The Verdict
The XGIMI H1: 4k 300″ 3D Smart Projector with harmon/kardon sound is one of the best home theater experiences you can get. Not only does it easily have one of the better high-end picture qualities of home projectors and home televisions, it undoubtedly has the best built-in sound and an incredibly unbeatable price. Not only that, it is the easiest and most versatile projectors I’ve ver used. Other than the slight inconvenience of having to get a chord, the XGIMI H1 is undoubtedly the best home theater experience you can get at the price. Unless you are willing to spend at least double, there is no better home theater experience you can get. My XGIMI H1 Review gets a 4.5/5
Sound specifications can be reviewed on https://caraudiologic.com/best-6-5-speakers/
You can order your H1 on their IndieGogo page.
***Update because I’m too lazy to look for all the times I say 4k. It is not a 4k Projector. It will only display 1080p. It will give you all the features and benefits of a 4k monitor, but it is absolutely not a 4k image. I dragged it out as long as I could. My ability to utilize a 4k workspace on a 150″ image made me willfully unaware that I was only looking at a 1080p image. Thank you to the adamant community, I concede my defeat and admit I am wrong. I tip my hat to you all.
It is still a beautiful projector with great sound and defintely the best bang for the buck.
XGIMI H1: 4K 300" Smart Projector
- Use
- Picture Quality
- Value
The Verdict
The XGIMI H1: 4k 300″ 3D Smart Projector with harmon/kardon sound is one of the best home theater experiences you can get. Not only does it easily have one of the better high-end picture qualities of home projectors and home televisions, it undoubtedly has the best built-in sound and an incredibly unbeatable price. Not only that, it is the easiest and most versatile projectors I’ve ver used. Other than the slight inconvenince of having to get a chord, the XGIMI H1 is undoubtedly the best home theater experience you can get at the price. Unless you are willing to spend at least double, there is no better home theater experience you can get.
Probably an odd question, but can the Xgimi H1 be mounted from the ceiling? Most of the videos I’ve found online only show it on a table or tripod. I ask cause I know some projectors don’t have a “flip” feature to invert the image for being hung from a ceiling.
Hi Brandin,
It does have a flip feature and can be mounted on the ceiling. In terms of image adjustments, the H1 has the most intuitive and comprehend I’ve options I’ve seen.
hi, thanks for the in depth review. just 1 question.. does it have a zoom function or you will have to manually move the projector distance forward or backwards to adjust the size of the image? thanks and keep up the good work.
Hi Carl,
I’m sorry, my information might not be 100% accurate because I no longer have the H1 to check. But from what I remember, there was a manual zoom wheel that allowed for some size adjustment as well as focus and a GUI fine tuning mode to correct the shape, angle, and fine focus. You do not have to physically move the projector for most adjustments. Unless you were trying to drastically increase or decrease the size. I hope that answers your question, thank you for your support!
Play YouTube 4k on it it’s definitely 4k
Hi Kevin, I have just purchased a H1 and love it. In the projection settings menu, would you set the luminosity to 0 for best picture quality (in a suitably dark room)?
Hi Jimmiy,
I personally do, but it’s because I find the light to be a bit harsh at the distance I view it at and I project right next to a mirror that reflects the light all throughout the room. But if you’re far enough away and projecting over 150″, I think adding a bit to the luminosity can help give a better contrast ratio.
It’s not a 4K projector, 1080P max.
Hi Robin,
Here are some pics of the projector pushing 4K:
And here’s the exact pixel ratio I am pushing out to the projector
If you are having trouble adjusting your settings to reach 4K I am more than happy to help.
Its native resolution is 1080p. It can accept a 4K source doesn’t mean it’s a 4K projector. Oh well, but you already know that.
Are you talking about an image standard like Sony 4K Theaters? Because in that case the H1 does not match that quality; those are laser projectors and can do quite a bit more.
What you said is correct the projector is 1080p Native and optimized for that signal source. But it can also project 4096×2160 which is 4K resolution, which is what I mean by 4K projector. Are you suggesting I’m lying about the resolution being displayed?
It can’t project 4K resolution. It can input 4K material and output 1080 resolution (MAX). The resolution being displayed on the wall is therefore max 1080P.
So you’re saying with the video card saying it is outputting 4k, giving me the extra workspace that doubling the resolution does for your screen, it isn’t 4k, it is simulating having a 4k screen on a 1080 image?
There is no simulation. What this means is that the hardware supports 4k sources on the input, so you get to choose 4k on a computer. But it is downsampling this to 1080 because this is the max output resolution. Get it? 🙂
The image is 1080, but I get to use the 4k workspace outputted by my video card because of 4k support. So I still have all the benefits of having and working on a 4k monitor, but the image is only 1080.
So I’m wrong, it is not a 4k projector. It does give you the benefits of having a 4k monitor through 4k support, but the image is only 1080p.
Hey Kevin,
How is the picture quality on this thing? The colors seem a little washed out in your pictures. Can this replace my tv?
The picture quality is great. It’s in the same realm as the televisions in Best Buy’s Magnolia department. The biggest downside will depend on your room’s lighting. If there’s too much light, it will look a bit washed out. But if you can control the light, I would highly recommend it as there is not better picture for the price point. You’d easily have to spend at least 50% more to get a comparable picture quality.