CES Projector News – Every New Projector at CES 2024

I just got back from CES 2024 and I’ve got the scoop on all the latest projector news from the show. 

Starting with modern lifestyle projectors, which were the best-selling segment of projectors in 2023.

Nexigo won a CES Innovation award for their new 4K lifestyle projector called the TriVision Ultra, which has some impressive specs like 2500 ANSI lumens, 4ms of input lag at 1080p240hz, 110% coverage of the BT.2020 color space, and color accuracy dE under 1. The TriVision Ultra uses an ALPD 5.0 hybrid light source which combines a triple laser with RGB LEDs to achieve high brightness and color space coverage without laser speckle. 

Version 1 of the TriVision Ultra is expected in Q2 of 2024 with a price around $2000, and will ship with no built-in operating system which allows Nexigo to more easily change firmware without needing to re-certify with Google, and Version 2 will be released sometime in late 2024 or early 2025 with GoogleTV built in.

XGIMI debuted their new Horizon Max which has a sort of 80s retro design, and for some reason a completely motorized gimble mount so you can move the screen using the remote. 

Other than the slightly odd design and motorized aiming, there’s a lot to like about the Horizon Max including XGIMI’s 2^nd generation dual light source that combines the wide color gamut of RGB triple laser with a standard phosphor single laser, which not only increases brightness, but also eliminates laser speckle.

XGIMI had a 175” screen set up in a darkened room to show off its IMAX Enhanced certification and the excellent brightness and contrast of the Horizon Max, which XGIMI measured at 3100 Lumens and 2000:1, and in person it was very easily the best picture quality I’ve ever seen from an XGIMI projector and amazingly I didn’t notice any laser speckle at all, even just inches away from the screen. 

I also asked XGIMI about the ceiling mount they were using, which will be available for both the Horizon Ultra and Horizon Max and solves the external power brick issue by integrating it into the ceiling mount itself, which I think is a great solution.

The Horizon Max is expected to have an MSRP of around $3000 and should be released Q3 or Q4 of 2024.

Dangbei also has two new lifestyle projectors that will come to the international market in 2024, and the one I’m most excited for is the Mars Pro 2, which is the sequel to what I think is currently the best value in 4K projectors on the market, the Dangbei Mars Pro. 

Like the original Mars Pro this new version has a single laser light source, 4K resolution, and around 2500 ANSI lumens, but the Mars Pro 2 also adds support for HDR10+, official support of all types of 3D content, and full GoogleTV built in including a native Netflix app. The Mars Pro 2 is set to launch in the US in Q2 of 2024 and will be priced between $1500 and $2000.

Dangbei also had their X5 Ultra on display, with the same ALPD5.0 light source we saw in the Nexigo Trivision Ultra giving it around 2500 ANSI lumens, excellent color space coverage, and zero laser speckle. 

The X5 Ultra has already been released in China, and the US version, which is expected around Q4 2024, will be very similar but will have full GoogleTV support instead of the current Chinese Kaya operating system.

Hisense also had a lifestyle projector on display, which I thought would be the higher brightness version of last year’s C1, which Hisense calls the C1 Pro in China. But instead, Hisense plans on bringing a complete new lineup to the US in 2024 called C2, but like all the projectors in the Hisense booth, there was almost no information about projector specs, release dates, or pricing.

Moving on to another quickly growing sector: inexpensive single LCD projectors. Yaber is basically the biggest brand name in the single LCD space and they debuted quite a few new models that will be released in 2024 but the two I’m most excited for are the Yaber K4 which will be their first 4K resolution projector with around 800 ANSI lumens, HDR10+ support, auto focus and keystone, and a fully sealed light source.

And the Yaber K3 which is a 1080p single LCD projector with an insane 1600 ANSI lumens of brightness, which is about twice as bright as the brightest single LCD projector currently on the market. No pricing information was available at CES, but I would expect the K3 to be the most affordable 1500+ ANSI Lumen projector we’ve ever seen when it’s released in 2024.

Formovie is also releasing a few new single LCD projectors in 2024 under the name XMing. Starting with the XMing Page One which is available now for $399 and has 500 CVIA lumens, 1080p resolution, and full GoogleTV support including Netflix.

Later in 2024 we’ll get the XMing Episode One which is their more budget friendly version with 250 CVIA lumens and the same GoogleTV support built in. 

They also showed off the larger V1 and V1 Ultra projectors, which are brighter at around 800 CVIA lumens and the V1 Ultra also has 4K resolution, but there was no official release dates or pricing available for the V1 Series.

I’m also happy to report that Wanbo, which has previously dominated the single LCD market in China is planning on releasing a few models internationally in 2024, including a new version of the T2 Max and the Wanbo Davinci 1, which will have 650 ANSI lumens, 1080p resolution, auto focus, auto keystone and built in Netflix support.

In the portable projector category, LG announced the Cinebeam Qube, which is a 4K triple laser portable projector with 500 ANSI lumens, auto screen adjustment, and LG’s WebOS operating system. The Qube will have a separately sold battery case option but can also be powered by a PD compatible USB power bank. First shipments of the Cinebeam Qube are expected in June of 2024, but no pricing information was available at the show.

Dangbei announced their new compact portable projector, the Dangbei Atom, which will be priced at around $1000 and includes full GoogleTV, 1080p resolution, and 1200 ISO lumens from its single laser ALPD light source. In addition to auto focus, auto keystone and screen fit, the Atom also has a separately sold gimble stand available to make aiming even easier. The Atom is expected to be released in Q1 of 2024.

Yaber also has a portable projector this year, still sticking with the single LCD projection method. The T2S is 1080p and has enough built in batteries to supply 500 ANSI lumens for two hours of playback while also supporting auto focus and keystone. No official pricing was available for the T2S, but it should be on Amazon starting Q2 of 2024.

In ultra-short throw news, Hisense has teamed up with the ultra-high end commercial theater company Barco to produce something they are calling Barco Bright, which is a set of optics that can steer the laser light source away from dark areas and into the brightest parts of the screen before it ever even reaches the DMD chip achieving huge contrast ratio and peak brightness numbers, which are not officially released but unofficially 2000 nits peak brightness on a 100” screen was mentioned, which for reference would be equivalent to around 30,000 ANSI lumens which is absolutely insane, even understanding that those numbers would only be achievable when the majority of the screen is dark, with only small highlights. Expect the Barco Bright version of the Hisense PX3 to be extremely expensive and possibly never released, but we can all dream.

Speaking of the Hisense PX3, that’s what I’m calling the unreleased Hisense UST that was all over their booth. But there was no official information about it anywhere and all the employees just said, “that’s our new UST for 2024.”

And last, in miscellaneous news, the thing I’m most excited for this year is the new Hisense floor rising Fresnel screen, which is the first of its kind.  At the show, they even had it programmed to sync with the ultra-short throw projector so the image never went off of the rising screen, but I couldn’t get any real answers as to whether that would be an included feature, or whether it was just a demo for the show floor.

The other thing that UST owners have been asking for for years is the ability to use the built-in speakers on their projector as a center channel, and AWOL has delivered. The AWOL surround sound system will use a USB eARC dongle to sync the center channel of the LTV-3000 or 3500 Pro with four wireless surround speakers and a wireless subwoofer for what they are calling the easiest to install 5.1.2 channel surround sound system on the market.

With the exception of the Barco Bright there’s a good chance I’ll be reviewing every other projector in this video in the next year, so get subscribed if you aren’t already, If you enjoyed this video don’t forget to hit that thumbs up button, and as always, thanks for watching The Hook Up.