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- Quick and easy to set up
- Impressive 1080p picture quality
- Bright enough for HDR to make a difference
- Audio is fine, but nothing more
- Some lag while gaming
- No iPlayer app
The XGIMI Elfin Flip Laser is a difficult projector to categorise. It’s compact and could be described as portable, except it doesn’t have an internal battery. The 1600 ISO Lumens brightness is also higher than you’d see from any portable projector, even if it’s relatively low by home projector standards.
After a week or so of testing, I think it works best as a living room projector that you can pack away when it’s not on active duty. Its ingenious design means it stows away neatly on a shelf or in a cupboard, yet it still offers better image quality than most portables. What’s more, with Google TV and audio onboard, you can pull it out, fire it up and be watching something within minutes, provided you have your screen set up or a spare white wall.
How much does it cost?
The Elfin Flip Laser is priced at £689, positioning it as a low-to-mid-range projector option. XGIMI has a wide range of similarly priced alternatives, including the MoGo 4 (£509) and MoGo 4 Laser (£679), the latter of which won Projector of the Year at our Product of the Year Awards in January.
Sitting alongside the Elfin Flip Laser are the Elfin Flip Plus, which is cheaper at £399 but significantly dimmer (500 ISO Lumens), and the Elfin Flip 4K, which, as the name suggests, has 4K resolution and costs £869.
What are its maximum brightness and resolution?
Like those projectors, the Elfin Flip projects 1080p images created by an RGB triple-laser light source. That light source can dish out 1,600 ISO Lumens of brightness, which is impressive for a beamer at this price point.
How large are the images it can produce?
The Elfin Flip Laser has a fairly short 1.2:1 throw ratio, meaning you can get a 60in image from 1.6m away, an 80in image from 2.1m or a 120in image from 3.2m. XGIMI suggests a minimum size of 40in and a maximum of 200in.
Based on my experience with the projector, its sweet spot sits between 50in and 100in: the picture will be big enough to look vaguely cinematic, but the brightness levels and 1080p resolution will still give you a crisp, high-contrast image.
What’s the design like?
While the Elfin Flip Laser’s brightness catches the eye, its physical design is its most distinctive feature. The unit is a fairly slim, square-ish box measuring 254 x 245 x 75mm (WDH). However, the outer edge rotates on two points to reveal the lens on the front edge and the connections at the rear, while forming a robust stand. This suspends the projector above your floor or table and allows you to tilt it up or down quickly. Careful weighting and rubber feet on the base hold the projector in place, and a threaded mount on one side allows you to attach it to a stand or tripod.
The Flip Laser comes with a simple but well-designed wand remote control and a power supply with an annoyingly short 1.5m cable. Its 120W output probably explains why XGIMI doesn’t supply a USB-C adaptor as it does on its portable MoGo models, which would have allowed you to use a USB power bank to run the projector away from the mains.
The only physical connections, bar the barrel-pin power socket, are a single USB 2.0 port and an HDMI port with eARC. However, you have dual-band Wi-Fi 5 onboard for streaming, plus Bluetooth 5.1 for wireless headphones or speakers. If you plan to have this projector out permanently, you might find the single HDMI port limiting, especially if you use it to connect to a soundbar.
What software does it run?
Google TV is pre-installed, giving you access to all the major UK streaming services and nearly all the catch-up TV options – with one predictable and notable exception: BBC iPlayer. Google TV works well, however. It makes lots of apps and content accessible, follows your activity across services, and enables you to voice search across them.
How easy is it to set up and use?
Like recent MoGo series projectors, which share the same Google TV OS and Intelligent Screen Adaptation (ISA) tech, the Elfin Flip Laser is incredibly easy to set up. Provided you have a smartphone and an existing Google account, you can connect to your network and install apps within twenty minutes; after that, all you need to do is sign in to the individual apps.
Meanwhile, ISA handles focus and keystone correction, automatically compensating for the projector’s tilt and any off-axis angle to the screen. It does so quickly, efficiently and with little need for manual adjustment beyond an occasional tweak to focus. The closer it is to head-on to your screen, the less work ISA needs to do and the sharper the image, but you don’t need to be too precious about it to get a great result.
How good are its picture and audio quality?
Picture quality is the most impressive thing about this projector, particularly given its size. You’re not going to get the clarity and definition of a 4K projector from a compact 1080p model, and I could spot some pixelation on still images on a 100in screen. However, in motion this isn’t so noticeable. The picture looks punchy, and the colours are more vibrant than portable models, including XGIMI’s brilliant MoGo 4 Laser. There’s just no substitute for having those 1600 lumens on hand.
Watching Deadpool & Wolverine, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, The Bikeriders and Horizon: Chapter 1, I was struck by how well the Elfin Flip Laser balances natural tones with brighter hues, and where even the best portable projectors can struggle in gloomy or partially-lit scenes, this one still manages to resolve a good amount of shadow detail. And while there’s no Dolby Vision or HDR10+ support, there’s enough light to give highlights some zing in HDR10 and HLG content. Sequences from Amazon’s Secret Level animated series looked fantastic.
The Elfin Flip Laser even surprised in my technical tests, covering 96.2% of the sRGB colour spectrum in its Standard mode and 91% of DCI-P3. Colour accuracy isn’t perfect, but it’s solid even by home projector standards, and the results overall would put some more expensive projectors to shame.
Highly adjustable but not great for gaming
I was also impressed by how adjustable the picture is, with detailed options covering not just the usual picture modes and brightness levels, but light output, colour space and more in-depth colour settings. The picture modes are good enough not to require too much tweaking, but it’s good to have controls available should you want them. However, there’s no feature to adjust the colour for projecting onto non-white surfaces. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend doing this anyway, given the inevitable loss in image quality, but it’s a weird oversight on a projector like this.
I’d also not recommend the Elfin Flip Laser for gaming. Even with the Game mode on, I noticed a small amount of lag while playing Doom: The Dark Ages and Forza Horizon 6. It wasn’t game-ruining by any means, but it was noticeable in comparison to more expensive models like the Philips GamePix 900 or the Optoma Photon Life PK32.
A 7W Harmon/Kardon branded speaker handles Dolby Digital audio. This is fine for casual viewing, but nothing more. Dialogue comes through clearly, but where the MoGo 4 and MoGo 4 Laser can dish out a warm tone with a thumping low-end, the single speaker here can sound a little thin, and even harsh as you push the volume up beyond the halfway point. It’s the one area where the experience falls slightly flat. I got around it by connecting some Bluetooth headphones, which worked fine with minimal latency. However, you could also work around it by connecting a soundbar via HDMI eARC.
Should you buy the XGIMI Elfin Flip Laser?
If you’re looking for an affordable home projector you can set up quickly, this one’s a real contender. It’s considerably brighter than the best portable projectors, and while it’s only 1080p, its contrast and colour performance are impressive.
The audio isn’t quite so brilliant – it’s the one area where XGIMI’s MoGo models pull ahead – but it’s good enough for casual viewing, and you could always connect Bluetooth speakers or a soundbar through the HDMI eARC port. Go for the MoGo 4 Laser if you want a portable option, or spend more for 4K, but as far as lightweight 1080p home projectors go, this is up there with the best.
