TVs are great if you use it a lot, whether it be for playing games or watching movies, but when it’s not in use, it can take up a lot of space. It can also be rather unsightly to have this huge black rectangle mounted on your wall or sitting on top of a cabinet, which is why some people choose to use projectors instead.
Projectors have come a long way from back in school where they were used as a teaching aid. These days, projects have the ability to display images that are considerably higher resolution than before, and in some cases, might actually look better than cheap, entry-level television sets.
Some also have the added advantage of being portable, meaning that you can place it wherever you want in your home, even take it with you on a camping trip. If you’re convinced that maybe you should invest in a projector instead of a TV, then maybe you might want to take a look at Xgimi’s Halo portable projector.
When it comes to the design of the Halo, we think that Xgimi actually did a pretty good job on this front. It looks classy, sleek, and not at all like what you might think a projector would look like. Its size and weight also put it on par with some bigger portable Bluetooth speakers out there, so if you have no problems moving that around, then the Halo shouldn’t pose a problem either.
Speaking of speakers, Xgimi has also built speakers into the projector itself, 2x 5W Harman Kardon speakers to be exact.
While you could hook it up to your own HiFi system, the Halo is about portability, so having a projector with its own speakers will no doubt come in handy when you’re outdoors and want to watch a movie or just play music.
Of course, the larger the projection the lower the sharpness, but at least you have a wide range to choose from so we imagine you should have no problems finding that sweet spot.
According to Xgimi, the bulb used for the projection in the Halo has been rated for 30,000 hours, which means that there is a very good chance that other components in the projector will fail before the bulb does, so you don’t have to worry about it dying on you in the next 2-3 years.
As for its battery life, the Halo will last you about 2-3 hours in standard use. This means that don’t expect to do a back-to-back Lord of the Rings marathon, but if you’re just hanging out in your backyard with friends, it’ll be good enough for one full movie to help you cap the night.
This means that you’ll be able to access a bunch of apps through the projector, such as games, as well as stream content from video apps like YouTube and more. It should be noted that there are some streaming apps such as Netflix that won’t work with the Halo, but with there being hundreds, if not thousands of apps to choose from, you should be able to find something else.
There is support for Chromecast so if you want, you can just mirror what’s playing on your phone to the Halo projector, so don’t worry about having a lack of options when it comes to finding content to stream.
The Xgimi Halo projector is priced at $799. While it might not necessarily be the cheapest projector around, the fact that it is portable, runs on Android TV, comes with Harman Kardon speakers, and is one of the brightest portable projectors we’ve seen, it’s not hard to see why this price might be justified.
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