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XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro Projector Review: Compact & Feature Packed 1080P Projector

XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro Review

While TVs are great at displaying sharp and fluid visuals, they are often bulky and can get quite expensive if you want a large 85-inch display. Moreover, our media consumption behaviour has changed, as we look at smartphones and tablets more than our TVs in the living room. More often than not, you will find your TV out of reach when you need it, resorting to viewing content on your laptop or smartphone. Hence, many are opting for portable projectors that can be placed as the centerpiece of the living room when they are at home, and carried along for travels and road trips.

Now in its second generation, the XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro continues the legacy of offering a great balance between portability, convenience, and image quality. Not only it is lightweight, it also offers loads of smart features for those who are new to projectors.

XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro Specifications

Display TechnologyDLP
Brightness400 ISO lumens
~ 500 ANSI lumens
~ 15,000 light source lumens
Lamp Lifespan25,000 hours
Image Size & Resolution40″ – 200″
1080P
Speakers2 x 8W
Dolby Audio
Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital Plus
System2GB RAM + 16GB ROM
Android TV 11
Chromecast Built-In
FeaturesISA 2.0:
Intelligent Obstacle Avoidance
Intelligent Screen Adaptation 2.0
Uninterrupted Auto Keystone
Uninterrupted Autofocus
Eye Protection
ControlsRemote Control
ConnectivityUSB Type-C x 1
HDMI 2.0 x 1
USB 2.0 x 1
AUX 3.5mm x 1
WiFi 5, dual-band 2.4/5GHz, 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth 5.0
Power Consumption65W
Dimensions161 x 119 x 108mm
1.1kg

What’s In The Box?

The XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro came in a minimalist packaging, with adequate foam padding for added protection. Inside the box, I had everything I need to set up the projector, which includes a power adapter, Bluetooth remote control, AAA batteries, and user manual.

Design

XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro Front View
The XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro viewed from the front. The Auto Keystone sensor is located at the bottom.

The XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro measures at 16.1cm tall, 11.9cm deep and 108mm wide. It also weighs only 1.1kg, making it easy to carry along for road trips or travel. While I won’t consider chucking it into my backpack due to its thickness, I could easily store it in my hand carry luggage or a gym duffel bag.

When looked from afar, the XGIMI Mogo 2 Pro looks exactly like its predecessor. It has a rounded rectangular design, with a mesh design wrapping the front and sides of the device. It comes in only one colour option, which is Mocha Gold. The sandstone-like matte finish definitely makes the projector feel more premium to touch and hold.

XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro Top View
The top of the XGIMI MoGo 2 is relatively bare with only a button and an LED indicator

At the top, you will find a XGIMI logo and an on/off button. The lamp and 3D ToF module occupy the top front of the projector, while the auto keystone camera is placed at the bottom.

Compared to the XGIMI MoGo Pro, the current model lacks an internal battery. In its place are larger and more powerful speakers. The XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro has two side firing speakers, and a transparent bass diaphragm window at the back, allowing users to get a glimpse at the internals. We’ll go into detail on how it sounds later.

The I/O are all located at the rear under the air exhaust vent. While the I/O options are not plenty, you do get all the essentials. You get a USB Type-C power port, a USB Type A port, a HDMI 2.0 and an 3.5mm AUX connector. However, keep in mind that the USB Type-C only works as a power connector, so you are limited to the USB Type A port to connect to flash drives or SSDs.

At the base, you will find a rubberised ring to stop the projector from moving. There is also a standard tripod mount, which I think is a nice touch. XGIMI does have a an official stand that allows it to tilt freely while staying level on the horizontal plane, however that is an additional purchase. You could use your own tripod stand as well, provided it is strong enough to support the weight of the device.

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Projection Performance

Image Quality

Now onto the most important aspect of the XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro, the projection quality. In terms of brightness, the XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro is capable of 400 ISO lumens. While this seems small in comparison to other projectors in the market, that is actually not the case.

You see, there are a few standards in the market to indicate projector brightness, with the most notable ones being ANSI lumens and ISO lumens. 100 ISO lumens equates to 125 ANSI lumens, which means that this projector has about 500 ANSI lumens.

These two recognised standards should not be confused with lumens. As you may have noticed some projectors have 6000, 8000 or even 10,000 lumens. Those are likely to be light source lumens, which can be quite misleading as it allows manufacturers to inflate the actual brightness figures. However, for the sake of comparison, 400 ISO lumens is about 15,000 light source lumens.

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The XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro at approximately 120 inches still has decent sharpness and brightness

Now that we got the numbers out of the way, lets focus on the real world performance. Like most projectors, you get can the best viewing experience when it is dark with low ambient light. Images look crisp and clear at up to 50 inches. Going beyond that, the visuals still look decent at up to 150 inches, provided I am sitting at a reasonable distance away. While the XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro can project up to 200 inches, I find that to be too dim to my liking and had to make sure my room is pitch dark to have a decent viewing experience. I’d say the sweet spot between sharpness and projection area would be at between 100 to 120 inches.

Colour Gamut

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The XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro is excellent at displaying bright and vivid colour tones

Colour gamut wise, it has a 90% DCI-P3 colour gamut along with a D65 colour temperature standard. While most conventional displays cover the sRGB colour gspace, DCI-P3 is the colour space standard for cinema and video production and covers a larger colour space than sRGB. The D65 colour standard displays visuals according to daylight conditions for a more natural look. It also has HDR 10 enhanced colour contrast, allowing the projector to retain detail in high contrast scenes.

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Dynamic range is above average for a portable projector of this price range

In real performance terms, the colours pop and look vivid, even when in high contrast scenes. While it is by no means as good as OLED TVs that can display true blacks, it is still pretty impressive for a device this tiny, as dark and bright scenes don’t look washed out. Colour temperature is spot on, resulting in visuals that don’t look overly saturated nor cold.

Image Correction Features

The XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro comes with a suite of image correction features, which the company calls ISA 2.0, which includes automatic uninterrupted keystone correction, uninterrupted autofocus, Intelligent Obstacle Avoidance, Intelligent Screen Alignment, and eye protection.

While most projectors have automatic vertical keystone correction, the MoGo 2 Pro takes it another level, capable of peforming automatic horizontal keystone correction as well. It will start to perform automatic keystone correction and autofocus every time it detects that it has been moved. The correction can be done without disrupting my viewing experience, as it uses its own sensors to perform the correction instead of relying on a black and white keystone screen.

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The XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro can perform auto keystone correction, even at extreme angles

Even in extreme cases where the image is heavily skewed, the projector was able to correct itself, albeit resulting in a small projection area. In terms of accuracy, I find that it can correct itself 95% of the time, and in rare moments of inaccurate keystone correction, all I had to do is to reposition it for it to re-perform the auto correction.

Aside from that, ISA 2.0 features Intelligent Obstacle Avoidance, which automatically shifts the projection area to avoid obstacles such as wall paintings, photo frames and wall clocks. If you have a projector screen, the XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro comes with Intelligent Screen Alignment to fit the projection area into your screen. These features can come in handy to help users nail the right projection without requiring too much human intervention.

The XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro also comes with an eye protection feature, where it dims the light automatically whenever it detects movement in front of the lens. This is a great safety feature as it can protect the eyes of children and pets from looking directly into the lamp at full power.

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Overall, ISA 2.0 performed well, doing most of the heavy lifting and alleviating most of the common issues faced by users.

User Experience

Initial Setup

The XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro is quite easy to setup. It only took about 5 minutes to setup the device and register my Google account. It supports Android Quick Start, allowing me to just scan a QR code using my phone to get everything setup and running.

Netflix however, required extra steps as I had to sideload the installation file via Desktop Launcher. Luckily, XGIMI did provide a guide on how to install Netflix, and I did not experience any hiccups.

User Interface

The XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro comes with Android TV 11, which supports more than 5,000 apps on the Play Store, including streaming services such as Prime Video, Youtube, Disney Hotstar, TikTok TV and more. It does have 16GB of built-in storage, so you could install quite a lot of apps as long as you don’t store any video files or download offline files for Spotify.

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Android TV 11 home screen

The user interface is intuitive and arranged in a logical manner. The top row lies the favourite apps, which can be added or removed by the user. You can also assign specific channels at subsequent rows for quick access to video or song recommendations.

There is noticeable input latency from when I pressed a button to it being registered on the projector. This is especially apparent when I had to use the on-screen keyboard to type into the search bar, often resulting in mistyping. The XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro also has Google Assistant, allowing me to use voice commands instead. While the user experience is not the most responsive, it is within my expectations for this price point.

Remote Control

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XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro’s remote control

The XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro comes with a Bluetooth remote control that requires 2 AAA batteries to work (included). You get access to the essential settings such as a quick autofocus button, Google Assistant, home and back buttons and volume control.

There is also a quick menu button that lets users perform keystone correction, setup image modes and clear apps when the UI felt too slow.

While having the remote controller can be handy, I hoped that the projector itself have its own set of controls on top of an on/off button. That aside, fortunately I can control the projector using my own smartphone with Google Home installed.

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Connectivity

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The rear features an exhaust vent, I/O and transparent bass diaphragm window.

I/O wise, the XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro has everything you need. The USB Type A port can be used to plug in flash drives or portable SSDs, and can be accessed using a file manager app. There is also an HDMI input, allowing you to hook up gaming consoles or PCs. If you want to connect the MoGo 2 Pro to external speakers or a soundbar, you can do so with the included 3.5mm port.

If you want to pair the projector with Bluetooth speakers or headphones, the XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro has Bluetooth 5.0. While pairing it with my earbuds, I didn’t notice any audio latency issues, which is a plus point for me. I could also pair my phone to the projector and use the built-in speakers to play audio instead. It also works with other accessories, such as a Bluetooth handheld touchpad with keyboard.

The MoGo 2 Pro uses dual band WiFi 5, allowing users to connect to 5Ghz channels. This allowed me to stream high quality content from Netflix without encountering any buffering issues throughout my review.

Audio Quality

XGIMI seems to have ditched Harman-Kardon in favour of its own in-house audio tuning. The changes don’t stop there however, as the MoGo 2 Pro boasts a dual 8W stereo speaker with a bass diaphragm, which is a significant upgrade over the MoGo Pro’s 3W speakers.

The bass diaphragm has a transparent acrylic window, allowing me to see how it vibrates when producing sound, though I find this to be a gimmick at best as it is difficult to see the internals with ambient lights off.

The sound quality, while not mind-blowing is actually decent. The side firing speakers allow for the audio to bounce off the walls and fill the room rather than just firing forwards toward the user. I could get a pseudo surround sound with much better soundstage over other mini projectors in a medium sized room. The bass diaphragm, which works like a bass reflex port, extends the mid bass frequency response to a reasonable thump. The volume is also decent, good enough to fill a small apartment.

While you can get a decent listening experience out of the box, just don’t expect a home theatre like experience. That being said, if you do bring it out for road trips or tend to have a more intimate movie binging experience, the volume and audio quality is more than adequate to serve your needs.

Power Delivery

The XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro supports USB Type-C power input, allowing users to use any USB charger or power banks with at least 65W of power delivery to run the projector. While this is an added convenience for some users, you are limited to fast chargers or fast-charging power banks with Power Delivery, but still at least

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XGIMI has also stated that the MoGo 2 Pro will run on ECO MODE when used with third party chargers to ensure that it won’t suddenly shut off. I tried using OnePlus’ 100W charger and did not face these issues during the review, however your mileage may vary.

Final Thoughts

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XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro

The XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro is probably the portable projector to beat in 2023. It is relatively compact, lightweight and has tons of creature comforts for a plug and play home projector experience thanks to its automatic image correction features. The display quality is also excellent for its class thanks to its wide DCI-P3 colour gamut and above average brightness.

While there are more portable options out there in the market, but there will be compromises in the visual and/ or audio quality department. On the other hand, there are projectors that offer superior image quality at the expense of bulk and are not as smart. All in all, the XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro is a great in-between option that offers the right balance between portability and visual experience.

For more information on the XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro, please visit XGIMI’s official website, or the XGIMI official Amazon Store.

Written By

Part-time gamer, writer, & full time weird coffee person.

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