XGIMI Mogo Pro+ review: Portable cinema without the fuss

Bright, with decent sound and fantastically clear pictures, the XGIMI Halo+ is one of the finest portable projectors around. However, it’s not for everyone. At £750 it’s a bit more expensive than other models like the Anker Nebula Capsule Max or Viewsonic M2 and it’s also a fairly hefty unit, weighing in at 1.6kg.

Luckily, XGIMI has a more affordable, lighter alternative. Like the Halo+, the Mogo Pro+ is a full HD projector, but it’s roughly £200 cheaper and sneaks in at just under 1Kg. And while there are a few caveats about its performance, it’s surprisingly strong in the ways that count.

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XGIMI Mogo Pro+ review: What do you get for the money?

This is a compact, portable projector standing just under 15cm tall. You could easily mistake it for a pint-sized smart speaker and, at 0.9kg, it’s light enough to be lugged around if you’re going away.

Despite this, its 0.23in DLP chip gives it a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution, and that’s a native optical resolution rather than the claimed or processed resolution you’ll see from some budget projector brands. With a throw ratio of 1.2:1, you can get a 100in image if you have 2.7 metres to play with, and that’s about as far as I’d want to push it.

What’s more, it packs in a built-in Android TV streamer, a 3W stereo Harmon/Kardon audio system and HDMI and USB connections. It also has a lithium-ion battery XGIMI says lasts up to four hours, meaning you can head out and stream movies from anywhere with Wi-Fi with just this box. For best results, though, you will need a screen.

Where’s the catch? Well, as with most portable, battery-powered projectors the Xgimi Mogo Pro+ uses a low-power LED array as its light source. Where the Halo+ could output a maximum 900 ANSI lumens, the Mogo Pro+ is limited to 300 ANSI lumens. That’s not a disaster given some portables achieve decent results with 100 to 200 ANSI lumens but you need to be realistic about what can be achieved. The big positive, though, is that it should be good for 30,000 hours of viewing.

XGIMI Mogo Pro+ review: What does it do well?

First, it’s incredibly simple to get up and running. Place the projector on a flat surface pointing at something that approximates a screen and it’ll do its best to give you a decent, well-focused picture without any keystone or trapezoid distortion, using an optical sensor and a basic test chart. Once that’s done, you simply go step by step through the Android TV setup, add any streaming apps from the Google Play store, and enter your login details for each one. After that, you’re good to go.

I can’t praise the Mogo Pro+’s auto-setup highly enough. On proper projector screens and white walls, sitting on a dining table, coffee table or the floor, it came up with the goods each time. There’s even a little fold-out stand in the base to angle it upwards; something some more expensive projectors might want to copy. Having said that, it is worth using it and taking a little care to make life as easy as possible for the Mogo Pro+ as there’s a little softness in the corners and the focus falls off slightly if you put it at silly angles. All the same, for sheer convenience, it’s hard to fault.

What’s more, the picture quality is often surprisingly good. It’s no match for the Halo+’s superlative clarity but it’s still pretty crisp and sharp. Watching Tenet on Amazon Prime Video or The Mandalorian and Lightyear on Disney+, it’s hard not to be impressed with the level of texture and detail in the image, while black actually looks quite black. Most of all, colours are richer and more natural than I might expect from a 300 lumens portable. According to my tests, the Mogo Pro+ reproduces nearly 76% of the sRGB colour palette and 66% of DCI-P3, which isn’t bad at all for a projector in this class. By eye, though, I’d put it even higher.

There’s also much to like about the sound. There’s some weight and body in the output, but also some nice detail and a reasonable stereo spread. No compact, single unit like this is going to convince you that you’re in the cinema but, at close range, I found the audio fairly immersive. It’s easily good enough for casual viewing or if you’re setting up a quick ad-hoc home cinema in your living room or garden.

Finally, battery life isn’t bad at all. XGIMI’s quoted four hours is a best case scenario figure but, on the Standard setting, I was able to hit around three hours without any trouble – long enough for a watch through of a Lord of the Rings movie, Avengers: Endgame or even Avatar.

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XGIMI Mogo Pro+ review: What could it do better?

There are some issues with brightness and contrast. Even at the Bright setting, you’ll have limited luck getting a good picture during daylight hours without closing all the curtains. Even then, you’ll lose most of the colour and contrast. I also found that in movies with a lot of dark or gloomy scenes, it can be hard to pick out detail in the background or even separate characters from scenery. If you’ve found yourself muttering about poor visibility in Game of Thrones or The Batman, consider yourself warned.

I’m also not completely sold on the Android TV implementation. It seems very close to stock Google, but some apps installed from the app store won’t run, including Netflix. You can work around this by casting or installing a third-party app, Desktopmanager but it’s arguably easier to just plug in your choice of streaming stick.

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XGIMI Mogo Pro+ review: Should you buy one?

The XGIMI Mogo Pro+ is definitely one of the best portable projectors for around £500, with many stuck at 480p or 720p resolutions and lower brightness levels. Picture and sound quality are well above average and the built-in streaming isn’t bad, Netflix aside.

However, the Viewsonic M2 is even brighter and better, while not costing substantially more, and the Anker Nebula Solar FHD is another good option that costs slightly less. Neither has the Mogo Pro+’s built-in battery, though, and there’s much to be said for the Mogo Pro+’s more vertical design. If you’re willing to trade a little picture quality for convenience, then this is the portable to buy.