XGIMI AURA 4K
ENTERTAINING SHORTTHROW PROJECTOR WITH PUNCHY COLOURS AND SOUND
If you’re on the hunt for convenient and accessible home cinema solutions, ultra short throw (UST) projectors such as the Xgimi Aura can seem like an obvious choice. With built-in sound and streaming capabilities, these smart projectors can simplify a home theatre set-up, instantly eliminating extraneous cables, soundbars and streaming dongles.
Thanks to advanced lens technology that allows them to throw huge images from short distances, UST projectors remove the need for complicated installation or rear positioning, extending the possibility of giant cinema screens to those in smaller homes.
But convenience can be a double-edged sword, and what UST projectors give with one hand, they take away with the other.
Those specialised lenses are pricey and, unfortunately, don’t yet deliver the overall picture quality you would expect from an equivalently priced conventional long-throw model. And then there’s positioning which, while easy in theory, can actually be fairly involved in practice.
With all that in mind, it’s remarkable that the Xgimi Aura puts in a thoroughly entertaining big-screen performance that is more impressive than the sum of its parts.
While, at £2399, it is not cheap by any means, the Aura is considerably more affordable than most other similarly sized and specified 4K laser ultra short throw models such as the Benq V6050 and Samsung LSP9T The Premiere.
It measures 61 x 40 x 14cm and weighs 11kg, so it is pretty likely you will want to leave the Aura in position even when not in use, rather than constantly manhandle it into and out of a cupboard.
ROOM-FILLING SOUND
Across the front of the projector, a fabric mesh covers the Aura’s four Harman Kardon speakers (powered by 15W of amplification), capable of handling DTS HD, DTS Studio Sound and Dolby Audio. Maybe we have been conditioned to expect the worst from in-built projector speakers, but we are pleasantly surprised to discover that the Aura delivers a warm, room-filling sound similar to that of a decent-sized budget soundbar. While it doesn’t leave us scrambling for an alternative, you can enhance it by connecting an external system via either HDMI ARC, optical, 3.5mm headphone jack or Bluetooth, though it’s worth noting there is no setting to adjust audio delay.
It is possible to stream content directly to the Aura using Bluetooth or
Chromecast; however, those tempted to use it as a wireless speaker when not projecting should be warned that its internal processing, while competent enough when handling film sound, can add unwelcome, muddy reverb that is quite pronounced when playing music.
Alongside the single HDMI ARC, the rear panel houses two additional HDMI 2.0 ports capable of handling 4K signals at up to 60Hz with support for HDR10, HDCP 2.2 and 3D content. There are also three USB 2.0 inputs and an ethernet connection.
Unlike the Samsung Premiere, the Aura doesn’t have an internal TV tuner, but with its wi-fi connection and Android TV 10 OS, it offers access to most major streaming services, including Disney Plus, HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video. Despite appearing as an available app, Netflix is not supported, nor are popular Uk-specific TV apps such as iplayer or All 4. .
BIG SCREEN THRILLS
With a screen size of up to 150 inches, the Aura is made for those who worship at the altar of the big screen and is most likely to be used specifically for movies rather than as a TV replacement. It doesn’t have native 4K support, but it uses Expanded Pixel Resolution (XPR) tech to cycle each pixel through four slightly shifted positions to create those 3840 x 2160 pixels.
The Aura uses a phosphor laser source which, according to Xgimi, produces up to 2400 lumens of brightness with a life expectancy of up to 25,000 hours – or four hours a day for 17 years.
Colours are produced using a colour wheel, and Xgimi claims it achieves a gamut of 90 per cent of BT709 and 80 per cent of DCI-P3. As is often the case with projectors that use a colour wheel, some rainbow artefacts are noticeable, though they don’t prove to be very pronounced or distracting during testing.
Focusing, using the electronic calibration wheel, is pretty straightforward. Still, it feels as though it falls slightly short in terms of crispness, and the projector’s default settings seem to compensate for this by overly sharpening the image. In general, we find that options to calibrate and refine the image are limited.
The Aura offers five default picture modes: Movie, Football, Office, Game and Custom; however, only Custom and Game offer options to further adjust settings.
Starting with the Blu-ray of Ready Player One in Custom mode, we find that the image is relatively noisy, with noticeable speckling on the grey sheen of the Sixers’ uniforms. But with a bit of tweaking, we are able to refine the image substantially.
The Aura isn’t the most subtle and authentic when it comes to colours, but the opening race scene in the rusted neon wasteland of New York, which features both natural and artificial elements, feels true to life and vivid. The motion of the vehicles is handled well out of the box, and there is minimal juddering as the cars fly past each other. There is a Motion Compensation setting that can be applied in levels of strong, medium or weak but, while it generally works well, our preference is to turn this off entirely for a slightly more juddery but less overtly processed image.
Switching to the opening of No Time To Die, the Aura differentiates details well within the snowy, all-white Norwegian landscape. As the figure of Lyutsifer Safin appears on the horizon, the image feels solid and precise with a sophisticated level of depth, despite the gleaming brightness.
CONTROLLED HIGHLIGHTS
When the action moves to Southern Italy, the colours feel mostly authentic, although skin tones are just a touch overcooked, giving Daniel Craig a slightly leathery look when compared with images produced by rival projectors.
The golden-hour light as Bond drives Madeleine back to the hotel produces some nicely controlled highlights, but in the darker scenes of hilltop town Matera, it is apparent that the Aura doesn’t have exceptionally detailed blacks. While dark areas such as the long shadows of the buildings and the bell boy’s uniform are reasonably dense, there is little subtlety in them. Despite this, it is still an arresting and dramatic picture complemented by a decent sound system that gives threatening weight to the gunshots and explosions that ensue shortly after.
With SDR content such as Frasier and Big on Apple TV, there is noticeably less punch to the colours, but the upscaling produces an uncluttered, bright, accurate representation that doesn’t require a whole new batch of settings to be immediately enjoyable to watch.
For serious home cinema fans for whom crisp, detailed textures and deep, detailed blacks are non-negotiable, the limitations of a UST projector will always be a turn off. That said, it’s hard to imagine anyone not being thoroughly entertained by this product. It throws big with a dramatic, vibrant picture bolstered by streaming smarts and the best-quality sound system we have yet to hear in any projector. It may be bulky, but if it fits in your room, the Xgimi Aura offers a quality UST performance that undercuts its competition.
“It’s an arresting and dramatic picture, complemented by a decent sound system that gives threatening weight to gunshots and explosions”