Xgimi Titan Noir Max review: the home cinema projector I’d trade my OLED TV for

Introduction

Saying your new home cinema projector was engineered for “absolute black” is a bold claim when OLED TVs have largely redefined what that term means. Asking punters to then back it on Kickstarter – which continues to be haunted by ghosts of a thousand failed tech launches – is quite another. Yet Xgimi’s most upmarket consumer model to date has raked in an astonishing £10 million worth of preorders.

I’m betting the half-price early bird offer helped. At its $5999 RRP the Titan Noir Max is edging into pro install territory, but at $2999 it could be a viable big screen alternative to a flagship TV. Xgimi is also no fly-by-night firm, having been around for over a decade and been responsible for the Mogo 4 – easily my favourite portable projector to date.

Being a real hardware hero on paper can’t have hurt either, with triple-RGB laser projection and a dynamic iris lens promising vivid colours and high brightness when needed – plus excellent shadow detail when it isn’t. Does that translate to epic viewing in reality, though – and is it enough to justify the full retail price once pre-order discounts have ended? I’ve been staring at the business end of my streaming backlog to find out.

Design & build: head of the table

Just getting the Titan out of its box was an event. It arrived in a faux leather-bound carry case, fully assembled on its compact table stand, so all you have to do is plonk it on coffee table (or suitably sturdy shelf, as it weighs over 8kg without counting the rather blocky power brick), plug it in, and hook up a source or two.

Each of the four legs can be adjusted independently, should your projection surface not be perfectly level, but they can’t keep the power cord out of sight like the floor stand (a £350 optional extra) can. You can also remove them in favour of a ceiling mount if you want. Just remember to factor in the offset lens before you break out the drill.

I’m already sold on the lifestyle looks: while clearly intended to take up permanent residence in your home cinema setup rather than moved from room to room like the firm’s more portable offerings, it’s a lot more compact – and easier on the eye – than many top-tier 4K rivals from the likes of JVC and Epson. The all-metal construction and slatted front are modern without being too shouty. All the buttons and ports are out of sight at the back of the unit and the lens is flush to the front, so there’s no cap or cover to fiddle with before each movie night.

Features: get connected

After spending thousands on a projector, are you really going to stick with built-in speakers? I don’t think so. Some rivals don’t bother including ‘em at all, handing audio responsibilities off to a dedicated AV receiver via HDMI eARC or digital optical connection. The Titan Noir Max will happily do just that, but I was also pleasantly surprised at how big its dual 12W full-range drivers sounded. Action flicks revealed a decent amount of weight and a crispness to the frequency range that confidently filled my living room with no obvious distortion.

The generous selection of HDMI ports at the rear meant I could hook up a set-top box, PS5 and my PC without having to regularly swap cables. You can also play local media files through either of the two USB ports (one USB2, one USB3), while the Ethernet port is handy if you don’t want to use the onboard Wi-Fi.

My PS5 is usually hooked up to a 4K 120Hz OLED TV, so I was just a smidge disappointed the Titan’s native resolution caps out at 60Hz. Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) are welcome consolation prizes, though – and sacrificing pixel count unlocks far speedier 240Hz frame rates at 1080p. It makes input lag nigh-on imperceptible, and it was hardly a concern at 4K/60. The frame pacing comfortably kept in step with Call of Duty Warzone’s frantic firefights.

The Titan proved to be wonderfully quiet in the majority of its picture modes. By avoiding the very brightest presets, my current streaming fave Stanley Tucci was free to spout lyrical about Italian pasta senza interruzione.

Interface: not smart but well stocked

Loading a pair of AAA batteriess into the base of the bundled remote control – a metal affair with backlit buttons for the most useful functions – evoked slotting a fresh magazine into a handgun. I’m also happy to see Xgimi not just reach into the parts bin and re-use a cheaper remote from one of its other model lines.

Beyond the initial setup (which was a breeze thanks to the lens’ 2x optical zoom, generous amount of horizontal and vertical lens shift, and automatic keystone should you need it) however, I’ve not reached for the remote all that often. While the Titan Noir Max’s pared-back UI is based on Android, it’s not the sort you’ll recognise. There are no streaming smarts of any kind here, just a comprehensive set of menus with all the picture quality adjustment a cinephile could wish for. Film-friendly presets include IMAX Enhanced, Filmmaker and isf day and night modes.

That means you’ll need to pair the projector with at least one other device for playback, though. There’s not even AirPlay or Google Cast built-in, which means keeping a minimum of two remotes handy. I used my Manhattan Aero 4K Freely streamer and a PlayStation 5, though I imagine the people with enough cash to buy a Titan at full retail price might also be able to justify a Kaleidescape setup for streaming cinema releases.

The menus are speedy and intuitive, at least, and I bet tinkerers will find the remote’s customisable shortcuts handy for jumping straight to the more in-depth settings. Lightweight software also helps the projector power on in double quick time; not TV quick, but still quicker than many high-end rivals.

Picture quality: not just for dark nights

The Titan is a projector that doesn’t demand you draw the blinds before every viewing. Its dynamic iris lens can open to a wide f/2.0 for maximum shine during the day, then dial back to f/7.0 for more impactful shadow detail in the evenings. I was instantly wowed by the clarity and vibrancy of the first episode of Fallout’s second season, even with the morning sun shining through my patio doors.

The performance mode, which gets closest to Xgimi’s quoted 10,000 lumen peak brightness, felt like overkill here – which is handy, because it spins the internal cooling fan up to objectionable levels. The isf Day preset was more than sufficient for streaming shows, though you do still want to save darker fare for when there’s less ambient light. It’s only then that the Dynamic Black Level adjustment and narrow iris are able to deliver the deepest, richest shadow detail.

Tron Ares is something of a black level torture test, even for OLED TVs, yet each nighttime scene looked impressively inky. Films in general look absolutely stunning on the Titan, with properly impactful HDR and some of the best contrast I’ve seen on a projector.

I did notice the Rainbow effect (RBE) a bit during the day, but the Anti-rainbow mode quickly cut it right back without dimming the picture too dramatically (or generating a lot of unwanted processing artefacts).

Sharpness is simply off the charts, with rarely any need to overrule the automatic focussing. Stretched to 120in, I could see fine detail and film grain just as clearly as a 55in 4K TV – and it’ll go as far as 300in if you’ve got a room big enough.

Xgimi Titan Noir Max verdict

The Titan Noir Max is an astonishingly good projector. It has the sleek styling to fit in with most living rooms, not just dedicated home cinemas, yet delivers a performance on par with much larger premium rivals. The clean, precise and colourful pictures it produces are simply gorgeous and there’s no shortage of settings if you want to really dial in the image.

With no smart TV built in it’s a very different proposition to Xgimi’s other projectors, and after the pre-release price discount dries up it’ll lose some appeal with shoppers that would otherwise head for a high-end TV. However, home cinema fans with deep pockets (but not deep enough to be considering rivals costing five figures) should absolutely put it on their shortlist at full RRP.

Xgimi Titan Noir Max technical specifications