September 2024 saw the release of a handful of affordable portable projectors and an update to the Aura ultra short throw projector from XGIMI. The EISA award-winning XGIMI MoGo 3 Pro is a $449 1080p portable lifestyle projector with native Netflix support thanks to its Google TV operating system and DLP technology. It can connect to a PowerBase stand (sold separately) for outdoor or travel use and features a unique industrial design. The projector itself can connect with an external power bank. Its multi-angle base acts as a power switch by rotating the body of the projector out of the base, and its tilting action coupled with automatic obstacle avoidance and geometric correction offer a decent amount of placement flexibility.

Direct competition to the MoGo 3 Pro is the Anker Nebula Mars 3 Air, a lightweight and portable 1080p projector with an LED light engine, like the XGIMI. While both projectors feature native Netflix support and additional streaming apps via Google TV, automatic obstacle avoidance, Google Assistant, and HDR10 support for the same price, the Mars 3 Air offers 400 ANSI lumens to the MoGo 3 Pro's 450 ISO lumens and has the bonus of a built-in battery that lasts 2.5 hours. The Nebula Mars 3 Air received a Highly Recommended Award in our review, which was generally positive. Both projectors claim to reach 90% of the expanded DCI-P3 color space.

Features

The XGIMI MoGo 3 Pro delivers 450 ISO lumens and a crisp 1080p resolution image for a $449 list price. Featuring a 0.23-inch DMD DLP chip, the MoGo 3 Pro is powered by an LED light engine that's rated to last up to 25,000 hours. This portable lifestyle projector is designed to be used both indoors and out—for up to 2.5 hours—thanks to a USB Type-C port for connecting a (not included) PowerBase stand. At 3.74 x 3.74 x 11.77 inches (WxDxH) and only 2.4 lbs, the projector travels well and can be easily moved from room to room.

The MoGo 3 Pro projects image sizes from 40 inches to 200 inches, though we never suggest projecting screen sizes over 120 inches for projectors with low brightness, as the image gets dimmer the larger it becomes. It is simple to set up and has good placement flexibility with a throw ratio of 1:20:1. The projector has a fixed focal length, so no manual zoom, and you must place it the right distance away to achieve the desired image size—but there is digital zoom to give you a little wiggle room. Check out our ProjectorCentral Throw Distance Calculator to figure out where to place the projector for your space.

Features like auto keystone, auto focus, intelligent obstacle avoidance, intelligent screen alignment, and a spotlight-esque tilt function that allows you to rotate the projected image up to 130 degrees make it easy to find the perfect position for the projector. Its intelligent obstacle avoidance automatically scales the display around picture frames, light switches, wall sockets, and even plants, making it ideal for most rooms, though it's not foolproof. The XGIMI also has eye protection for when someone passes in front of the projector when it's on, thanks to its smart ToF sensors.

Though not a 4K projector, the XGIMI MoGo 3 Pro is claimed to reach up to 90% of the expanded DCI-P3 color gamut and has HDR10 support, though not when micro-HDMI is in use. The projector is powered by Google TV, with built-in Netflix and apps like Amazon Prime Video, Max, YouTube, and others to enjoy films, TV shows, and sports without the need for an additional streaming stick or smart player. Of course, to watch your own discs, you will need an external source. For screen mirroring, the projector has DLNA/GoogleCast.

The MoGo 3 Pro features powerful dual 5-watt Harman Kardon speakers. They're great quality and produce high-fidelity sound with excellent bass. Audio performance was impressive for a projector of this size and better than some larger projectors that I've reviewed. I found it comfortable to listen to the audio at the 30-40/100 level. There are four audio modes: Movie, Music, Game, and Sports. All modes reproduce spacious and beautiful audio, and I found that using the modes for the type of content for which they are named is a good way to go. I found that Movie and Game modes both worked well for gaming, so it's just a matter of preference. You'll likely favor one or the other.

The speakers also have Ambient Light Mode for when the projector is not displaying video. This feature is activated by pulling up on the projector and tilting its lens to face downward. It creates a nice ambiance, and the light can be static, fade in and out of different colors, or sync in time to music. The colors it can shift between are orange, blue, yellow, green, pink, and purple. When in Ambient Light Mode, the projector's Bluetooth supports connection only with mobile phones and allows you to enjoy music played from your smartphone (Android and iOS). This feature is super cool, especially the music syncing feature.

The projector can screen mirror, but it only worked after I downloaded the (free) AirMirror Receiver app from the Google Play Store, and only for my iPhone. My Mac Mini could connect via Bluetooth and pair, but nothing happened on screen. My MacBook could pair via Bluetooth, but the projector didn't show up as an available device to screen mirror to. I couldn't cast via Google Chrome either, which is usually a good workaround for projectors that don't play nice with AirPlay. I downloaded another screen mirroring app from the Google Play Store but found that the iOS app to connect the phone to the app on the projector cost $6.99, which was a hard pass. Streaming music from Apple Music on my phone worked, as did video from YouTube and Safari when I watched this week's content from my art history class. The Greek pottery looked great as projected by the MoGo 3 Pro. I found that you can only stream music from your phone via Bluetooth when the projector is in Ambient Light Mode. Otherwise, it requires that app.

The XGIMI Wall feature creates a nice scene to relax to, whether you want a starry night, or an underwater or rainforest environment. It requires you to download the XGIMI Wall app from the Google Play Store rather than being a built-in feature within the menus. Once I got it working, it was quite nice and instantly calming, which was good because finding how to enable this feature was not calming.

The remote control is an attractive matte beige with a simple design. There's no backlight, but it's intuitive to use, so you'll find yourself pressing the right buttons without needing to look at it after a while. The top two buttons are for Power and Google Assistant. Below that are four buttons for YouTube, Netflix, Prime Video, and a Shortcut button. The Shortcut button is for switching the atmospheric light in Ambient Light Mode.

Three buttons are below those, one for switching Google Profiles quickly, one for auto focus, and one for switching between the projector's two inputs or from wired inputs back to Google TV quickly. A nice round, black navigational pad includes the four directional keys and Enter button. They're unmarked, which makes it look sleeker. Underneath that are the Back, Settings, and Home buttons. Volume control is handled by a cool diagonal button. The remote control is easy to handle, even with small hands. You can palm it to shift up and down in your grasp to reach buttons comfortably.

There are several optional accessories for the MoGo 3 Pro, including one specifically for the XGIMI Wall function. It's called the Creative Optical Filter, which enlarges the projected image and can make this feature more enjoyable for only $49. The $129 XGIMI PowerBase Stand serves a dual purpose of being both a functional stand and a power bank—highly useful for outdoor movie nights. There is also an attractive forest-green carrying case for $69. The XGIMI MoGo 3 Pro comes with the projector, its power plug, the remote control, two AAA batteries, manual, and warranty card. It has a one-year limited warranty, a 30-day money back guarantee, and lifetime customer support.

Performance

Color Modes. The XGIMI MoGo 3 Pro offers four picture modes: Standard, Office, Game, and User. It has three power modes, one of which affects color, which is Performance mode. I really dislike it because it is powerfully green, so the lumens I discuss will be for the Standard power mode, which is the next brightest option and allows you to have good color. Keep in mind that the projector is rated for ISO lumens, and we measure ANSI lumens. Though the lumen count isn't particularly high, when I was examining the picture modes with a color wheel and had a bright ceiling light behind the projector, I could still see the projected image clearly.

The MoGo 3 Pro features a great color management system. You can do all regular adjustments like brightness, contrast, saturation, and sharpness within the main menu for each picture mode. Advanced Settings include the ability to adjust the color temperature to Cool, Standard (its default), Warm, or User for customization. You can also adjust the gain for red, green, and blue under the Color Temperature submenu.

Additional customization is available in the Advanced Settings for DNR, MPEG NR, local contrast control, DI Film Mode, gamma, as well as via the color tuner and 11-point white balance correction. The color tuner has a submenu for adjusting the saturation, brightness, offset, and gain, while the 11-point white balance correction allows for the adjustment of gain, red, green, and blue. Both Standard and Game have good out-of-the-box color, but if you find you want to tweak things to your liking, User is where it's at.

Standard Mode is the brightest mode at 330 lumens, and it does not, thankfully, have that sickly greenish hue—it does if you've kicked the Performance power mode on, though. In fact, all the color modes turn "greenish" in Performance mode. But in either Standard or Eco, the color is close enough to spot on. Side note—those power modes are accessed via the Settings menu, which you can get to by pressing the little gear symbol at the top right of the screen, and through the Display & Sound submenu, then clicking on Picture and Brightness mode. It is quite well hidden. Almost as if they don't want you to know it exists.

Standard has some trouble with the various shades of red in that true red is pretty spot on, but the red-orange colors on the color wheel are not varied to the degree that they should be. Since User mode starts out looking like Standard, red is likely the first thing you'd want to adjust. User did come in lower than Standard in terms of brightness, measuring just 260 lumens, but color is unaffected. With all those ways to adjust the color, it is highly likely you'll be able to tune to your idea of perfection. Whites are vibrantly white.

It was at this point in the review process that the color modes became the exact same color and brightness no matter which one I chose. I discovered that the colors of the picture modes will not change even when you select a new one (such as switching from Standard to Game) from the Home screen. You can, however, do it while viewing video content, which is a bit odd.

Office mode is very warm and measured 260 lumens. It does a better job than Standard or User at reproducing red tones. It could potentially be used to watch movies if you don't care for either Standard or Game, but it is the lowest lumen mode available. This won't matter at night, but for daytime viewing, it is best to stick to either Standard or Game mode. Whites in this mode are on the warm side, but it suits it for certain types of content.

Game mode measured 330 lumens, just like Standard. But its color is more vibrant, which suits games. It will likely be even more vibrant when projecting HDR games, as it was when I tested its capabilities with Horizon: Zero Dawn. I toggled the HDR on and off as I played, and I found that the color was desaturated without HDR. I liked the look, but some will prefer HDR. In this mode, the reds are more vibrant and difficult to differentiate, and yellow is almost neon, but in practice, the mode appears much truer to color than when projecting the color wheel for my tests. Whites looked similar to Standard/User.

1080p Viewing. There are three ways to watch 1080p content, and those are through the many streaming services available via the Home screen and app store, disc via an external media player and the micro-HDMI cable, or from YouTube. The MoGo 3 Pro does not support 4K content, but 1080p is just fine for this style of projector. If your 1080p content has HDR, it will recognize that. The video games I tested had the option but none of my Blu-ray discs did.

Vikings looked great in all modes while streaming. If you prefer a cooler tone, go with Standard or Game. The skin tones looked excellent. If you prefer a warmer tone, go with Office, which also reproduced skin tones well. I was able to watch even with a bright ceiling light coming in from behind my portable MaxWhite 2 projector screen from Elite Screens. I projected at 60 inches on my 1.1 gain matte screen. While the projector is certainly capable of a larger image, such as 100 inches, I would keep it around 60 if there's ambient light present. At night with no lights on, you could get away with a 100-inch image.

Now, projecting in a different environment where the ambient light came from the shuttered window on the right of the projected image and both of my tabletop lights on (they have diffused shades but are quite bright), the image was watchable. Darker scenes were a bit harder to make out, but it wasn't awful.

In Season 4 of Outer Banks—also streamed—there is a scene that takes place in deep water, and it is dark. I could still watch that scene with the lights on, though it wasn't preferable and was quite washed out. With them off, it was much better, but I still wouldn't prefer light coming in from the side, nor any ambient light at all if you're watching movies or cinematic TV. If this were my main projector, I would invest in blackout curtains and draw them when I wanted to use the XGIMI during the day. That should help, but this is really a nighttime projector for anything except brightly lit/vividly colored content.

The first Blu-ray disc I watched was Big Hero 6, which the MoGo 3 Pro projected with excellent sharpness and clarity. Standard mode was perfect for it, as well as Game, and it was easy to watch at 60 inches during the day with the shades drawn and some diffused ambient light in the room. The amount of ambient light would be enough to do housework in, or even cook, but those who like to keep their window shades open or lights on during the day would prefer a brighter projector for their daytime viewing. Some dark shadow detail was lost, but not enough to be unwatchable. The colors were vivid, and skin tones looked good. Vibrant movies are a great match for this projector.

Uncharted, by comparison, is something that I'd want to watch at night. Dark scenes were quite difficult to see in the same ambient light environment as Big Hero 6. During the day, the first scene, which is in bright daylight within the film, looked decent but was washed out. The next scenes at the museum and orphanage, which were both filmed at night, lost most of their dark shadow detail. When viewing this scene at night, however, the colors were beautiful, skin tones looked good, and the dark shadow detail and black levels were much better. Standard was a good mode to use, but Office, being warmer, looked better on skin tones. The difference is that skin tones looked a little pinker and more golden in Office, whereas they lacked that warm look in Standard.

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Gaming Quality. The MoGo 3 Pro features a Game picture mode and two latency features that reduce input lag: Game Mode and PC Mode. Both must be turned on manually. XGIMI rates the input lag at 27 ms with Game Mode on (auto keystone off), 60 ms with Game Mode on (auto keystone on). Unfortunately, our measurements came in at 55.5 ms in the Game picture mode with Game Mode on, 78.1 ms with PC Mode on, and 72.1 ms with both Game Mode and PC Mode on. In the Standard picture mode with no latency features turned on, it measured over 90 ms. All auto features were turned off for these readings.

Needless to say, this is not a true gaming projector. It is, however, suitable for casual gaming with single-player RPGs, couch co-op like many Nintendo Switch games, puzzle games, and simulation or creator games like Minecraft. Those looking for a competitive online gaming projector will want to look elsewhere.

Color-wise, the XGIMI has good out-of-the-box color in its Game picture mode. HDR is on by default when projecting a game that has HDR, renaming the color mode to Game (HDR). HDR can be manually turned off, and the difference between that function switched on and switched off is striking. HDR is obviously more vibrant, but Game mode looks desaturated without it. Either option suited Horizon: Zero Dawn, though in some cases, HDR pushed the highlights a tad too much. Personally, I prefer the look of HDR off but HDR on is a bit truer to color.

I projected this in a darkened room during the day with some ambient light coming in between horizontal blinds. In the Standard power mode, it was harder to see night scenes in the game with ambient light, but the day scenes were perfectly fine. Do not turn the Performance power mode on. It turns everything a greenish hue, as mentioned, and is irritatingly loud, whereas Standard is quiet. You're not sacrificing too many lumens for the trade-off of a nicely inaudible fan.

I had the screen at 60 inches initially before trying 100 inches. Visibly, it's still okay at 100 inches, especially for a low-lumen projector. Whether projecting at 60 inches or 100 inches, I would get blackout curtains for use during the day—especially when gaming.

Brightly colored games, such as Crash Bandicoot: N Sane Trilogy can be played with lights on at 60 inches, no problem. You could probably go bigger, up to 100 inches, and not have any difficulty seeing these kinds of games. It's the single-player RPGs and first-person shooters that you will have trouble with if there's any ambient light present. When playing Hogwarts Legacy during the day with the lights off but a small amount of ambient light coming in from the shades, it was doable—as long as I wasn't in the Forbidden Forest, in any dark areas like caves, or when it was night within the game. It is too dark to see in these instances with any ambient light. Daytime within the game was really the only way to go.

Gaming at night is a much different story. The projector is plenty bright enough to play even the darkest games at night. I was reasonably impressed by the projector's ability to handle a bit of ambient light with such a low lumen count, but the image really stands out at night, making it easy to play even when it's nighttime within the game. Gameplay itself was smooth with no latency issues, whether I was playing the two single-player RPGs (Horizon: Zero Dawn and Hogwarts Legacy) or Crash Bandicoot: N Sane Trilogy.

Conclusion

The XGIMI MoGo 3 Pro is a decent portable projector (portable when paired with an external, not-included, PowerBase Stand) for nighttime viewing. While it can be used during the day with certain content and in certain conditions, it really excels at night. It has impressive color and great sharpness, though the Auto Focus feature was a bit off and required a little manual fine tuning. As a $449 1080p, 392 ANSI lumen projector (330 in Standard power mode, which will be your preferred power mode), it offers good value with some fun features.

I was very impressed by the audio performance of the MoGo 3 Pro's two 5-watt Harman Kardon speakers, which were powerful enough to fill a large room with spacious audio, whether projecting films, TV shows, video games, or listening to music. The volume didn't even have to be at its halfway point to do that.

Also impressive was the extensive color management system MoGo 3 Pro, which includes an 11-point white balance function and color tuner to get the color just right (although its out-of-the-box color will be good enough for most people.) It did have a slight issue with blowing out whites in HDR while playing Horizon: Zero Dawn, but it wasn't distracting.

Speaking of gaming, this projector's input lag measurements place it firmly in the casual-gaming-only category. I didn't have any issues while playing single-player RPGs or Crash Bandicoot: N Sane Trilogy, but competitive, online gamers would be at a disadvantage. It was enjoyable to game on, and I spent quite a lot of time playing Horizon: Zero Dawn before I had to force myself to move onto the next set of tests. That is a testament to both the game's quality and the projector itself.

I'd recommend this projector for kids, college students, those who want a home theater on a budget, or need a portable projector. I would not recommend it to people who need a projector for watching content during the day, nor as a TV replacement, but if you want a portable projector just for nighttime viewing, this could be the one for you. Always compare projectors to make sure you're choosing the right one for your unique circumstances, which you can do by using our Find a Projector function on ProjectorCentral and setting filters for price, lumens, and other specifications.

Measurements

Brightness. The XGIMI MoGo 3 Pro is rated for 450 ISO lumens. We measure in ANSI lumens, so the numbers differ. The brightest power mode is Performance, and the brightest color mode is Standard, although User and Standard were neck and neck, and Game didn't fall much further behind them. Standard in Performance Mode measured 392 lumens using the 9-point averaged measurement defined in the ISO and ANSI lumen standards.

Though User is brighter than Standard under the Performance Mode column in the chart below, this is only because all other modes aside from the brightest are measured using the brightest sector of the screen, not the 9-point averaged measurement. User Mode uses Standard's color as a starting point, so that's not surprising. The projector is quite bright in a fully darkened room and can handle some ambient light for some types of content, but not all. It is important to consider what the projector will be used for and what time of day it will be primarily used when dealing with these lower lumen projectors.

XGIMI MoGo 3 Pro Lumens

Color Modes	Performance Mode	Standard Mode	Eco Mode
Standard	392	330	200
Office	320	260	160
Game	380	330	200
User	400	260	200

Brightness Uniformity. The XGIMI MoGo 3 Pro resulted in a brightness uniformity of 79.5% when projecting a 60-inch diagonal image, which is good. The brightest sector was the bottom center of the image and the dimmest was the top left sector. The difference in brightness was not noticeable on a full white image, nor when viewing content.

Fan Noise. XGIMI rates the fan noise at 32dB using the industry-standard multipoint averaged measurement in a soundproof room. At around four feet back from the projector's rear, the fan noise measured as follows:

Standard — 31.8 dBa
Eco — 31.5 dBa
Performance — 53.1 dBa

When watching video content in the Performance power mode, you can hear the audio if the volume is around 50 to 60 but the fan noise is very distracting. This is the case even at volume level 100, and quite honestly, I wouldn't want to have the volume that loud. Consider Performance mode unusable. Standard is just fine for most applications, when being mindful of ambient light sources.

Input Lag. The rated input lag for the XGIMI MoGo 3 Pro at 1080p @ 60Hz and with auto keystone off is 27 ms—this is in Game Mode. There are two modes within the Game picture mode menu that reduce input lag: Game Mode and PC Mode.

Our measurements for 1080p @ 60Hz came in at 55.5 ms in Game Mode, 78.1 ms in PC Mode, and 72.1 ms with both Game Mode and PC Mode on. In the Standard picture mode with no extra latency features turned on, the input lag was over 90 ms.

While this cannot be considered a true gaming projector, it is usable for casual gaming. That is, for single-player RPGs, couch co-op like Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros, puzzle type games, and simulation or creator games like Minecraft. There should be no issues with lag for these kinds of games, but serious, competitive gamers specifically looking for a gaming projector will find better options elsewhere.

Connections

• Micro HDMI (ARC supported)
• USB Type-A
• USB Type-C (Charging interface, support PD3.0 protocol)

For more detailed specifications and connections, check out our XGIMI MoGo 3 Pro projector page.

To buy this projector, use Where to Buy online, or get a price quote by email direct from Projector Central authorized dealers using our E-Z Quote tool.

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