Excellent Image Quality, But Short On Features

The last two years have seen an unexpected projector renaissance, with new triple-laser DLP models offering incredibly bright and accurate image quality. The latest of those is XGIMI’s Titan Noir Max, an elegant-looking projector that emphasizes reference-grade image quality while eschewing specs like external speakers and smart TV streaming.

On top of features like IMAX certification, a dynamic dual iris and 4K 60 fps Dolby Vision, the Titan Noir Max offers an easy and flexible setup. It also comes with built-in Harmon Kardon sound and 1ms gaming latency. However, at nearly $6,000 MSRP, this is also one of the most expensive long-throw consumer DLP projectors available. It’s worth it for certain buyers, but most people would get more for their money with rival models.

The Titan Noir Max has a subtle, classy design with a grey metal chassis, front grill and understated red ring around the lens, along with Harman Kardon and gold “IMAX Enhanced” logos. The projector is around the same size as the rival Valerion VisionMaster Max, but sits on tube-like feet that give it a slightly alien appearance. It ships with an elegant carrying box and comes with a nice looking, silver-accented remote.

I set up the Titan Noir Max in my living room with a 120-inch matte projector screen to avoid the “laser speckle” that can happen with ALR (ambient light reflecting) screens. With a 0.98-2.0x zoom lens, this projector offers a highly flexible setup distance of 8.7 to 17.4 feet from screens up to 300 inches in size. It supports a wide lens shift range as well (50 percent horizontal and 130 percent vertical), so you can set the projector well off center with no need to use distorting digital keystone correction.

At the same time, it does have an automatic keystone setup that lets you just point the projector near the middle of your screen and press a button to fit the image if you don’t want to fuss. That worked well for me, but I needed to adjust the image to get it relatively close to the screen size first. Auto screen adjustment was easier with Anker’s Nebula X1 or the VisionMaster Max, working on both of those models as long as the image size was larger than the screen.

The Titan Noir Max comes with three HDMI 2.1 ports, including one with eARC for a sound bar, along with S/PDIF optical, USB-A, a 3.5mm audio output and a gigabit ethernet connection. It lacks the Nebula X1’s liquid cooling but it’s nearly as quiet — I measured fan noise at a very minimal 18db from two feet away, or 24db when brightness was pushed to the maximum.

Unlike rivals, the Titan Noir Max lacks Google TV or another built-in smart TV service. To use platforms like Netflix and Disney+, you’ll need to purchase an Apple TV 4K, Google TV or other streaming device. This didn’t bother me as I had a spare Google TV stick, which I prefer anyway because the Google TV interface that’s built into some projectors can be laggy. However, the lack of any streaming access may push some folks to go with another model.

The XGIMI Titan Noir Max promises “reference grade” video quality and it delivers on that, beating all other luxury projectors I’ve tested lately. It doesn’t use the bigger, sharper 0.78-inch DLP chip of the original Titan though. Instead, XGIMI went with the latest “SST” 0.47-inch DLP from Texas Instruments that allows a superior blend of brightness and contrast. Combined with the bright RGB triple-laser engine, it can output over 5,000 ANSI lumens.

At its most accurate setting in Filmmaker mode, the Titan Noir Max hit an impressive 4,320 lumens according to my Calibrite Display Plus meter, greater than any projector I’ve tested to date. That increased further to just over 5,000 lumens when I used the Laser 10+ mode for maximum brightness, though with a considerable color accuracy loss.

The Titan Noir Max promises high native contrast as well via its dual dynamic iris with manual aperture control. When testing for maximum normal brightness, I saw a contrast ratio of 2,000:1 — an outstanding result. That can be boosted to an incredible 6,000:1 with the iris set at the maximum f7.0, though brightness drops to 800 lumens. The dynamic iris setting provides the best compromise with a 4,500:1 contrast ratio and 2,900 lumens of brightness, though I noticed some brightness “pumping” typical with dynamic iris projectors. This is something that can occur when the projector’s iris changes noticeably for a scene.

On top of standard SDR, the XGIMI Titan Noir Max supports Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and IMAX Enhanced HDR modes. The company claims 110 percent of BT.2020 color coverage, and I measured just a shade under 100 percent with about five percent accuracy — another outstanding result. The projector also includes a highly effective anti-rainbow function that eliminates DLP color fringing, something I’m quite sensitive to.

Straight out of the box I was incredibly impressed by the image quality. Brightness was high enough in standard mode to watch films, TV shows and sports like tennis in daylight with no need to lower the blinds. In a darkened room with Dolby Vision, I was blown away by the brightness and color fidelity in movies like F1, Interstellar and Avengers: Endgame. The excellent contrast allowed me to see shadow detail in tricky scenes like the black hole entry in Interstellar that can look overly dark on some projectors.

The XGIMI Titan Noir Max is the best projector I’ve tested so far for gaming, with 1080p at up to 240 fps refresh rates (with VRR support) and very low 1ms latency. While it doesn’t support 4K at 120 fps due to the limitations of DLP chips, it can handle 4K 60Hz games with an impressive 3ms of input lag. That’s substantially better than the Valerion VisionMaster Max’s 15ms.

Those specs let me do no-compromise gaming with titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Hollow Knight: Singsong. At the same time, the enormous screen, color accuracy and bright image provided deep immersion that you just can’t get on a smaller screen.

The Titan Noir Max has a built-in 24-watt Harmon Kardon audio setup, with 12 watts per speaker. It provides clean midrange, natural voices and decent soundstage, but frankly, the bass is weak and the sound system lacks power overall. If you’re laying out this kind of money, you’ll want to splurge on a dedicated surround-sound system with DTS:X support, as Dolby Atmos isn’t an option.

In comparison, the Nebula X1 gives you the option to purchase optional stereo Bluetooth speakers that connect automatically. For less than the price of the Titan Noir Max, you could also get the Nebula X1 Pro that comes with a giant sound system and supports Dolby Atmos.

XGIMI’s $6,000 flagship Titan Noir Max uses the latest projector tech to give cinephiles the best possible image quality. It set new benchmarks in my testing for brightness, color accuracy and contrast, but it’s very expensive. Unlike its main rivals, the Valerion VisionMaster Max and Anker Nebula X1 Pro, it has no built-in smart TV features or tailor-made audio options.

Unless you’re obsessed with picture quality, you’d be better off spending less on Anker’s $2,999 Nebula X1 or the Nebula X1 Pro, the latter of which comes with a powerful, portable sound system for $1,000 less than the Titan Noir Max. If you’re willing to settle for image quality that’s nearly as good and includes smart TV features, check outValerion’s $5,000 VisionMaster Max. If you’re one who will only settle for the best, XGIMI’s Titan Max Noir is the best option — and you’d do well to pre-order it now while it’s still available on Kickstarter for $2,999.