Although best suited for night-time viewing where you’ll have no problems getting a 100-inch picture, the Elfin offers powerful sound and accurate colors, combined with some clever auto-setup options that makes it a treat to use anywhere in the home. The XGIMI Elfin has a single HDMI 2.0 input on the rear that can take a full 4K input with HDR, so you can plug in external devices, too. It isn’t an HDMI ARC input, so if you want to use external speakers, you’ll need to use the 3.5mm audio output or connect the projector to a Bluetooth speaker.

The XGIMI Elfin mini projector offers a lot on paper that you might not expect from a relatively cheap, small model, like HDR10, intelligent screen adjustments, Harman / Kardon sound and 800 ANSI Lumens, together with a Full HD image. In my 1080p SDR viewing tests, the Elfin delivered good color accuracy, including for flesh tones, and good contrast in bright scenes. It lost some shadow detail, even after I adjusted the brightness properly, but held it well enough for me to easily see what was happening in the dark areas with lights off. In a low level of ambient light, with one floor lamp on, the image was a little washed out, but I could still make out details in dark scenes. For Android users, the XGIMI team is currently working on updating this feature; please stay tuned. A lot of the competition, such as the Anker Nebula Capsule Max, run a custom version of Android. I prefer Android TV, since it’s smoother and is designed for remote use.It can make films sound a little flat, more like watching on a regular TV. Still, having the option of clear audio wherever you go is still welcome, and in instances you want better sound you can connect more powerful speakers or even use a soundbar. From past experience with other small projectors that claim “Full HD”, I wasn’t expecting much from the Elfin, but it actually blew all my expectations out of the water, giving an image that doesn’t just match what the specifications would have you believe, but even seems to exceed it.

The design of the Elfin – a thin, square box – means that you can easily fit it in a bag to take from place to place. The Halo has an onboard battery and produces 600 ANSI lumens while operating on battery power and 800 ANSI lumens while plugged into an electrical outlet. The Horizon is bigger and heavier, but it also has the best sound and image out of the three. The Elfin shines in its slim form factor; it is just plain easier to take on the go.The XGIMI Elfin also offers one HDMI port for external connections, making screen mirroring much easier for daily usage. XGIMI makes every effort at the time of publication to ensure the accuracy of product information it provides. Due to subsequent changes involving product batches, production, and supply factors, it may be necessary for XGIMI to make changes and adjustments to text and images so that they match the performance, specifications, indexes, and components of the actual product. Product information is subject to such changes and adjustments without notice. But, the Elfin suffers in the same ways as the XGIMI Halo when it comes to darker content. It doesn’t provide a lot of detail in the dark, making it hard to see. And, for static areas in the dark, it has the same dithering issue we’d seen before, where we see a color rapidly switching between shades to simulate a color but failing to switch fast enough to be imperceptible.