If you’re the nomadic type or someone who’s rarely within streaming distance of a TV, chances are you’re consuming media in a handheld rectangle with lousy speakers and a small screen that’s hard to share. I am here to tell you that there is a better way.
Xgimi’s new MoGo 2 Pro smart projector not only runs Android TV version 11.0 to stream all your favorite videos over fast Wi-Fi, but also doubles as a Bluetooth speaker when you turn off the reasonably bright LED lamp (and the fan). It has everything you need inside a compact little projector, all but a battery that you must provide separately for true portability.
I’ve lived with a MoGo 2 Pro for the past month, using the little one in a campervan across Europe, in a tiny off-grid house in a mud-soaked field, and in a windswept North Sea surf shack. . In all cases, it has proven to be an adaptable all-in-one source of sharing entertainment that rarely disappoints.
One of the best things about the MoGo 2 Pro is how easy it is to set up, both at first and every time you want to use it.
The MoGo 2 Pro supports Android Quick Start, which made copying my Google account and Wi-Fi settings from my Android phone a breeze. Then Android TV made it easy to log into each of my streaming services by offering QR codes that my Android phone can quickly authenticate without having to type in a bunch of passwords.
I’m glad the initial setup was quick because I had to factory reset the MoGo 2 Pro once after updating to firmware version 2.8.147. It takes about 10 minutes to go from factory settings to having my credentials entered into six media services. Netflix must be installed via a workaround as the media giant only officially supports a bunch of projectors. While it’s relatively easy to pull off the simple trick, most people won’t be comfortable installing the app from outside of the Google Play Store. There’s also the option to stream Netflix from your phone, as the projector has Chromecast built-in.
Otherwise, Xgimi’s little projector has been perfectly stable, if laborious, as the UX often lags when pressing the Bluetooth remote. But it’s not often you find a $500 projector with a fast interface.
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You can barely see the screen while playing music in this muddy field.
Under normal use, the MoGo 2 Pro will boot up in less than five seconds from standby. But plug the power back in and it boots from scratch to Android TV in about 50 seconds, then takes another 10 seconds or so to do all the automatic display adjustments (which can be turned off if you want).
The MoGo 2 Pro has a built-in time-of-flight sensor that can find a flat, unobstructed surface to project the image on. It then automatically sharpens the image and corrects keystone distortion to create a correctly aligned rectangle. It’s not perfect, but it usually finds the surface I’m aiming for, just with a smaller image than I want. Fortunately, Xgimi gives you the option to quickly go into manual adjustment mode to adjust the screen if you want, without digging through the menus.
While Xgimi’s second-generation screen adaptation technology isn’t as good as the marketing hype suggests, it is an improvement over the previous version. It was so helpful on the MoGo 2 Pro that I checked the setting to automatically adjust keystone whenever the device was moved, and I did move it a lot. This way, I was able to avoid cumbersome manual adjustments and just give the projector a nudge until it produced the desired results.
The projected image is pretty much what you’d expect in this price range: a modest 400 ANSI lumens spread across a 1920 x 1080 image that looks better at 30 inches (when all that light is concentrated) than at 200 inches. And while HDR10 is supported, it serves more as a blip on a spec sheet than anything you’ll notice while viewing.
If you’re not too picky, you can watch some casual YouTube videos in a room saturated with ambient light, but the MoGo 2 Pro looks best in the darkest room possible. Only then will you be able to see the bright, rich and sharp image that Xgimi’s latest portable projector is capable of producing.
This is what it looks like in medium to low lighting:
Photo taken four hours before sunset next to the west-facing windows.
Photo taken around sunset next to the west facing windows.
To use it as a Bluetooth speaker, it’s best to press and hold the power button on the remote and select “Screen Off” to turn off the lamp and fan. It then sits quietly waiting for a Bluetooth connection to transform the projection box into a passable music speaker with reasonably balanced sound from a pair of 8W side-firing speaker drivers.
For its size, the image projected and the sound produced are reasonably good. He was impressed.
The MoGo 2 Pro always boots up in Eco Mode (dimmer, less noisy), which can be annoying if you’re always near a power outlet. When connected to a 10,000 mAh (40 Wh) battery, the MoGo 2 Pro was able to start the projector and play the first 40 minutes of Babylon when set to the “bright” and “film” presets. When I plugged it into a power meter, I could see that power consumption averages around 40W in Eco mode, which goes up to around 48W on average with Eco mode turned off. Xgimi lists the power required for the MoGo 2 Pro at 65W.
I find it strange that a projector designed for all-in-one portability lacks onboard controls beyond a simple power button. More than once, I’ve lost my Bluetooth remote, forcing me to grab my Apple or Android device to launch the Google Home app remote. It worked fine, but I usually sat so close to the MoGo 2 Pro that the built-in volume and playback controls would have been more convenient.
A look at the ports, the vents and the passive bass of the radiator.
Photographer Chase Jarvis is credited with saying that “the best camera is the one with you,” a sentiment that can be applied to screens, speakers, and media streamers. The MoGo 2 Pro may not be the brightest video projector, best-sounding Bluetooth speaker, or most powerful media streamer, but it’s so small and compact that you can easily fit it in your luggage or backpack to take it wherever you go. Oh.
Yes, the MoGo 2 Pro ditched the internal battery from the original MoGo Pro in favor of a better speaker. But it can still be powered by a battery pack you may already have. For most people, I think Xgimi made the right decision.
At $599 / €599, the Xgimi MoGo 2 Pro beats out Samsung’s underwhelming Freestyle portable projector by almost $300. The original MoGo Pro was already one of the best portable projectors around, and the MoGo 2 Pro is an improvement in almost every way.
Photography by Thomas Ricker / The Verge
Disclaimer: All the content or information on this article is given for only educational purposes.
