‘Insane’ living room item will save you $3500 a year

A new projector is on the market with all the trimmings you could want and powerful sound and vision, but is there a catch?

REVIEW

There’s something about watching movies and live sports on a projector that just hits different - and with gross weather outside and the Euros, State of Origin and Olympics on it’s certainly a good time of year to wheel one out.

There’s a stereotype about them that you need heaps of space, a screen and a particularly dark environment - which with Australia’s level of sunlight can be a bit of a turn-off.

This is where Xgimi’s Horizon Ultra steps in. It’s billed as the world’s first 4K long-throw home projector with Dolby Vision.

Retailing at $3,374, it costs more than your average living room TV. However there are a heap of features that make it an excellent choice if you want to take your movie and sports nights to the next level and save a bunch on cinema tickets.

We just stuck ours on a small coffee table and wheeled it out when needed.

Straight off the bat, this thing is easy to use. You don’t need a screen. Just point it against a wall and it will auto adjust and focus. Setting up all your apps and streaming services is easy too.

There’s voice control, you can connect it to your wifi, download your apps and do an easy login using your smartphone.

The quality of the image is insane and truly like going to the cinema. You also don’t need a super dark room as it features ultra-high brightness, providing incredible image detail morning, day, and night - although it’s probably a bit much for the kids’ cartoons during breakfast.

We just mounted ours on a small coffee table and wheeled it out when we wanted it for those big screen occasions and blasted it straight onto the wall. You could easily pick up and take it to a mate’s house too.

The reason it works so well without a screen is that it has something called Intelligent Screen Adaption - which means it smoothly optimises environmental adaptability and boasts wall colour adjustment and an optical zoom.

Footy nights are next level.

There’s no drama in trying to hook the projector up to speakers too.

Combined with DTS Studio Sound Technology, Horizon Ultra’s two full-range built-in speakers provide three-dimensional surround sound and an unforgettable theatre experience.

Fire up the popcorn-maker and it’s like you’re at the cinema.

All-in-all, this projector is pretty much faultless. It’s easy to use, portable and boasts great picture and sound.

The only downside is that it costs over $3000. However, with the average cinema ticket costing $17 (often much more) you would only need to use it once a week to justify the cost.

If you were to go to the cinema every week with a family of four over a year you would spend over $3500, not to mention the cost of popcorn, drinks and travel expenses.

Watching sports on it is also a hell of a lot cheaper than going to the pub too and your mates will think you are awesome.

Originally published as ‘Insane’ living room item will save you $3500 a year