The XGIMI Elfin is a lightweight 1080p HDR projector. It's small and light, making it easy to carry around, and it's easy to install and use with Auto Keystone correction, intelligent obstacle avoidance and screen alignment, and an autofocus. The projector uses an LED bulb as its light source with a rated lifespan of 25,000 hours. It can project an image between 40" and 200", although XGIMI recommends that users stick to 60-120 inches for optimal image quality. It has a slew of smart features with the Android TV smart interface, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and an Auto Game Mode for gaming. Finally, it has two built-in Harman Kardon 3W speakers.
Our Verdict
The XGIMI Elfin is passable for watching movies. It's not bright but has passable contrast, so it looks fine with the lights off. It has a wide color gamut but isn't bright enough to make colors pop. Thankfully, its image accuracy is decent out-of-the-box, and you can easily improve it by changing just a few settings.
-
Decent image accuracy out-of-the-box.
-
Full suite of smart features.
-
Small and light, and has a slew of image correction features for a quick install.
-
The projector is dim, and struggles when any lights are on in the room.
- Movies
- Updated May 21, 2024: Updated text throughout the review according to Test Bench 0.9, mainly in the Verdict, Compared To Other Projectors and Contrast sections.
- Updated May 21, 2024: We've converted this review to Test Bench 0.9. We've overhauled our Contrast tests, as we now measure contrast at various average pixel levels (APL). You can see the full changelog here.
- Updated Feb 19, 2024: We confirmed that Netflix doesn't work on this unit's smart OS and updated the Smart Features & Sound text box with the relevant information.
- Updated Feb 13, 2024: Review published.
Compared To Other Projectors
The XGIMI Elfin is a small and lightweight projector, and it's a good value in its category. The XGIMI Halo+ projector is a bit better and has an integrated battery, making it even more portable, but it's more expensive than the Elfin. Ultimately, if you're looking for a cheap and portable projector and you don't need the integrated battery, it's hard to beat this projector.
Check out our recommendations for the best portable projectors and the best outdoor projectors. If you'd prefer to shop for another product in the same price range, look up the best projectors under $1,000 instead.
The XGIMI Elfin is a bit better than the XGIMI MoGo 2. The Elfin is the much more accurate of the two projectors, and it can also passthrough advanced audio formats through its eARC port, while the MoGo 2 Pro is limited to ARC.
The XGIMI HORIZON and XGIMI Elfin serve different purposes, with the Elfin being much more portable due to its size and weight, although the HORIZON can also be moved around easily if need be. The HORIZON is much brighter, so it can handle a few lights in the room. Unfortunately, the HORIZON is also wildly inaccurate out-of-the-box and doesn't have the required calibration options to make its image accurate.
The XGIMI Halo+ is a bit better than the XGIMI Elfin, but unfortunately, the Halo+ really needs to be calibrated if you care about image accuracy, as it is inaccurate otherwise. Still, the Halo+ has better brightness and contrast than the Elfin, a slightly wider color gamut, and is even more portable due to the inclusion of an integrated battery.
The XGIMI Elfin is better than the Samsung The Freestyle 2nd Gen as the XGIMI is brighter and has better contrast. The Samsung does have a slightly wider color gamut, but it doesn't really matter, as it's just not bright enough to make colors pop.
The XGIMI Elfin is better than the XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro. The Elfin is a bit brighter and is the much more accurate of the two projectors. The Elfin can also passthrough advanced audio formats through its eARC port, while the MoGo 2 Pro is limited to ARC.
The Epson EpiqVision Mini EF12 is better than the XGIMI Elfin, but the XGIMI is easier to carry due to its smaller size. Otherwise, the Epson is a bit brighter (but they're both pretty dim) and has much better pre-calibration image accuracy, although the XGIMI closes the gap somewhat after calibration. The XGIMI has a wider color gamut but isn't bright enough to make its colors pop.
The XGIMI Elfin is better than the Anker Nebula Capsule 3 Laser, although the Anker is slightly more portable due to its more compact size and integrated battery. Still, the XGIMI has superior image quality, with better brightness, contrast, colors, and image accuracy.
The XGIMI Elfin is better than than BenQ GV30. It's brighter, has better contrast, and is much more accurate than the BenQ. The BenQ has two advantages over the XGIMI: it has an integrated battery and can rotate vertically on its stand. That does make it slightly easier to carry around than the XGIMI, but the XGIMI is even smaller and has a full suite of automatic correction features, so it's equally, if not more, portable than the BenQ if you have access to an outlet.
The XGIMI Elfin is vastly better than the KODAK LUMA 150. The XGIMI does everything better, and while it isn't as portable as the KODAK, it's no slouch in that department due to its compact size and 2.2 lbs weight. The KODAK does have an integrated battery, but its image quality is so abysmal that it's hard to recommend it over the Elfin only for that feature.
The ViewSonic PX701-4K is better than the XGIMI Elfin, although the XGIMI is smaller and has significantly more features than the ViewSonic. However, the ViewSonic projector is particularly interesting to gamers, as it has 1080p @ 240Hz support. The ViewSonic is also significantly brighter and has slightly better contrast, but it has truly terrible colors. The XGIMI is dimmer but doesn't have the ViewSonic issues with colors. It's much smaller, more portable, and has a smart interface with full Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support.
The BenQ X3000i is much better than the XGIMI Elfin, although the XGIMI is a much smaller projector that is much easier to carry around. The XGIMI even comes with full auto keystone and autofocus technologies, making it much easier to set up. Otherwise, the BenQ is much brighter with slightly better contrast, is noticeably more accurate, and has more advanced gaming features with its full 1080p @ 240Hz support.
Test Results
The XGIMI Elfin has a compact design and weighs only 2.2 pounds, but it doesn't have an integrated battery, so you still need to plug it into an outlet. It has full Auto Keystone correction and autofocus, so it's easy to set up. The projector has two integrated speakers, so you won't need to worry about connecting it to a soundbar or audio system when bringing it with you.
This 1080p DLP projector uses an LED bulb as its light source, and it is rated for up to 25,000 hours by the manufacturer, so you likely won't ever have to worry about replacing it. As it's a 1080p projector, it's limited to a 1080p @ 60Hz resolution.
The XGIMI Elfin is a dim projector, so you need to turn off the lights for a pleasant viewing experience. It does have stellar brightness uniformity, so there's little variation in brightness between the sides and the center.
This projector has a passable contrast ratio, so its blacks look fine, albeit noticeably raised when watched in a dark room. The unit's contrast is also hampered by its low brightness.
The XGIMI Elfin projector has decent pre-calibration accuracy. Bright content is overbrightened, and its colors aren't very accurate, especially its blues and pinks. There are some white balance accuracy errors, but it's not too bad. Thankfully, the projector's color temperature is fantastic, even if slightly on the warm side.
This projector's color accuracy is great after calibration. Its white balance and color temperature are now almost perfect. Sadly, its color accuracy doesn't improve much with calibration, as blues and pinks are still inaccurate, although slightly less so.
The projector has a wide color gamut. It covers nearly all of the Rec. 709 color space used with SDR content, although its blues and pinks are inaccurate. It does an okay job with the wider Rec. 2020 color space.
- Power cable
- Power supply
- Remote control
- 2x AAA batteries
- User documentation
This projector has the Android TV smart OS with full casting support, so you can share your phone or laptop screen directly to the projector. Unfortunately, Netflix doesn't work on this device. The projector has two built-in 3W Harman Kardon speakers.
The projector also supports Bluetooth 5.0/BLE.