XGIMI has become a major household name in the world of projectors, with their wide range of products catering to different scenarios.
They have already wowed consumers this year with their Halo+. But it doesn’t end there as XGIMI has another projector that looks to elevate the home cinema experience.
XGIMI’s Aura is an ultra-short throw laser projector with a 4K display and built-in audio designed by Harman Kardon.
It’s a massive device measuring 61 x 40 x 14cm and weighing a hefty 11kg, its huge size means it's not suitable for portable use.
The projector is housed in a very tough plastic case that not only feels durable and robust but looks highly premium.
The speakers located on the front of the projector are protected by fabric mesh that also adds to its exceptional design.
The rear panel is home to the projector’s input connections and there’s a wide selection of them. The projector has two big fans at either end, which are protected by a plastic grill. The fans go hand in hand with the project's overall aesthetic and don't compromise its look.
Like other Ultra Short Throw projectors, the Aura’s lens is situated within its concave body as opposed to being situated on the front.
The positioning of the lens does limit its versatility however the Aura will serve more as a replacement for a TV, so it will rarely need to be repositioned.
For its size and weight, the Aura is an elegant device that will fit most home decor and has been cleverly crafted to maximise its purpose of becoming the consumer's main medium for visual entertainment.
The Aura is built with an ultra-short throw DLP laser system that has a ratio of 0.223:1 allowing it to produce up to a 150” display from 44cm.
I found that the optimum resolution was 120”, as beyond that there will be a noticeable dip in colour saturation and sharpness.
The Aura is a powerful device packing a bulb of 2400 ANSI lumens with a life expectancy of 20,000 hours. This is very bright but the projector has a detector that will lower its power if something obscures the lens.
I was impressed with the quality of brightness when projecting on a wall at all times of the day, but for the best quality, it is better to purchase an extra ALR screen.
The Aura comes with a native 4K UHD resolution and supports HDR 10. The projector boasts astounding detail and clarity that was a pleasure to watch from a wide range of sources.
Its colour accuracy covers 90% of the Rec 709 colour gamut, which is pretty good but still slightly below some of its competitors.
There were some instances where the colour accuracy was a little bit off, but this was more prevalent when watching SDR content.
It handles HDR content amazingly with adequate tone matting and fantastic blacks which other DLP projectors have struggled with.
I did notice when using external sources, the picture quality wasn’t as rich as the native apps, especially with 4K HDR films which had way more contrast which affected shadow details and highlights.
The Aura is one of the best DLP projectors around and for its price bracket, the consumer is getting more than their money's worth. It’s not all plain sailing, but most of the lapse in quality was an easy fix.
One of the distinctive features that makes the Aura stand out from its competitors is its four 15W Harmon Kardon speakers. It supports a massive amount of audio codecs including DTS-HD, Dolby Audio and even Dolby Digital Plus to name a few.
This is amazing elevating the viewing experience with immersive audio that matches the quality of high-end sound bars.
I was very impressed with how the Aura performed with not just movies but with music tracks, surprisingly making it a good replacement for your everyday speakers.
Through its Bluetooth 5.0 it can connect to other audio devices for extra sound support which is a great inclusion, but it probably won’t be needed.
The Aura comes with five different picture modes including Movie, Football, Office, Game and Custom.
There wasn’t a significant difference between the modes with only Custom and Game allowing further customisation.
That being said the Game mode delivers great low latency making it a fantastic choice for gaming, however it can only work once an external device has been connected via the HDMI port.
The Aura runs on Android TV 10 which grants access to various apps such as Amazon Prime, Disney Plus and more which all worked exactly as they would on a TV.
It has a boot time of twelve seconds which is the fastest I’ve seen on any device let alone a projector. The main omission is Netflix, which I could only get to work by plugging in my laptop via the HDMI port.
The Aura has a plethora of input connections that include three HDMI ports, two USB 2.0, a LAN port and even a 3.5mm jack. This extensive amount of ports increases the projector’s versatility making it more of an all-in-one media device.
It also has 32Gb of internal memory allowing files to be stored which is handy when WiFi connectivity is low.
XGIMI Aura Verdict 4 / 5
The XGIMI Aura is an amazing ultra-short throw projector that offers stunning picture quality at various different lengths.
Its audio capabilities are outstanding, especially the fact that it supports a huge list of premium codecs.
The Aura is also one of the best gaming projectors on the market at the moment with its low latency being superb for fast-paced games.
It comes at a competitive price but consumers will probably purchase an additional ALR screen and TV stick which can be costly.
XGIMI's Aura is available from their website for £2,099.00
