Projectors Tests Reviews

JMGO N1 Ultra : test / review

Published on: 16-03-2023 / Modified: 16-03-2023

JMGO is a Chinese company founded in 2011 that specializes in marketing video projectors. So JMGO is not a small company starting in a garage, they already have many projector models under their belt.

For the launch of the JMGO N1 Ultra, they decided to start the marketing of this model through crowdfunding and although crowdfunding is always more risky than a normal purchase, the risk of this campaign is very very low. JMGO has already demonstrated their ability to deliver projectors through crowdfunding and they probably don't need that to produce the projector, it's just a different marketing approach.

Why this article?

For those who don't know me, I'm not a blogger who only writes news articles. I specialize in product testing and have tested many projectors with some of the most detailed test protocols.

I bought this projector like any other buyer, delivery is scheduled for May 2023. Until I receive it, I will use my experience as a tester to explain why I decided to buy this projector. This way you can get an idea of the strengths and weaknesses of the JMGO N1 Ultra and maybe take advantage of the launch offer.

I will replace this article with a full test when I receive the projector.

Introductory offer

Launch offers in crowdfunding are often interesting and offer a reasonable counterweight to the risk of this kind of campaign. LB]
The JMGO N1 Ultra is marketed at a very competitive price and is a direct competitor of the XGIMI Horizon. Beyond the price, the JMGO has on paper everything you need to not consider buying an XGIMI Horizon.

To take advantage of the offer:
JMGO N1 Ultra / Kickstarter

JMGO

When I write about a product purchased through crowdfunding, I always do a minimum of research on the company to assess the level of risk. I didn't do that here because I already know the company, I've already tested one of their products, the risk is very very low.

Why buy the JMGO N1 Ultra

I will try to list here the arguments to consider before buying, you will then have to evaluate these elements against your situation. If you have any doubt, ask your question in the comments, I will try to answer it as soon as possible.

Brightness

The JMGO Ultra N1 has a theoretical brightness of 4000 ANSI lumens. That's really a lot especially in this price category. Of course, one should always take this kind of thing with a pinch of salt as manufacturers always tend to exaggerate this figure.

What can we really expect? The JMGO Ultra N1 may have the capacity to emit 4000 lumens but to get a nice image with good colorimetry, you will probably have to decrease the brightness. I think that the brightness will remain above 3000 and with this level of brightness, a use in a bright room could be possible (with probably a loss of contrast). So this is a priori a strong point of the projector.

Type of light

The JMGO N1 Ultra has a laser light and again in this price range, we find mainly LED projectors. What is the difference? Laser light has two big advantages, the first is brightness and the second is color coverage. Projectors (and televisions too) are not able to reproduce all the colors like the human eye. To categorize the ability to reproduce colors we speak of color space with acronyms like REC709, DCI-P3, BT2020, ...

The REC709 was designed for television, it covers 16.7 million colors
The DCI-P3 was designed for cinema, it covers more than a billion colors
The BT2020 (or REC2020) was designed for 4k or 8k high definition television and potentially offers even more color coverage (depending on the number of bits)

You will probably tell me that 16 million colors is already a lot and that you would not be able to see the difference between 16 million and 1 billion. This is probably partly correct, but the interest of the BT2020 is not only at this level.

Content producers are producing more and more content in color spaces higher than REC709. This means that to get the most out of the production quality, you need a BT2020 compatible projector. If your projector is not compatible with this standard, it will use a mapping table to translate the BT2020 colors into the color space it uses. Sometimes it works but sometimes it doesn't and you get terrible colorimetry.

The JMGO N1 Ultra covers 107% of the BT2020 color space, so it's even better and I don't think I've tested a projector with such a wide color coverage.

Contrast

Using a laser type light basically gives better contrast than LED type projectors. The JMGO N1 Ultra has a contrast of 1600:1. This is clearly better than a XGIMI Horizon which is only 500:1 but it is much lower than what you find on other laser projectors.

Does it matter? Not really because with 1600:1, the contrast is already very interesting and in this price range, I don't see directly which projector could do better.

dE less than 1

The dE is the abbreviation for "delta E" and the delta E measures the difference between the color that the projector is trying to reproduce and its real reference. You will not find many sites that measure the color difference and yet this is where many projectors disappoint. The resolution, the light, the contrast...it's good but if the colors are not good, it's useless.

Ideally, you need a delta E lower than 3 so that the human eye does not perceive a color difference. JMGO claims their projector has a delta E of less than 1, I've never seen that and I don't know what to make of it. The vast majority of testers on YouTube never test for colorimetry, so JMGO may be taking a chance. I hope not. A delta E of less than 1 is a huge argument in favor of this projector.

4k resolution

The JMGO N1 Ultra uses a DMD 0.47 chip like many other projectors. This chip is not a 4k chip, it is a 1080p chip that simulates a 4k image by interpolation. I have tested many projectors using this chip and the image quality is indeed superior to a 1080p projector. So interpolation works well even if the argument is technically incorrect.

Android TV 11

JMGO has marketed many projectors with exotic versions of Android TV that don't offer full app compatibility. With this kind of configuration, you always end up having to use an HDMI stick (or similar). This time JMGO chose to use an official version, this is a good thing but I'm not sure if Netflix will be available natively because most Chinese brands (like XGIMI for example) don't want to pay for Netflix.

Audio quality

The audio system is a Dynaudio one, it's the same as on the other high-end projectors of the brand I already had the opportunity to test this system and at first sight, the sound should be of good quality.

Gaming

At first sight you can play with all the projectors but you have to take into account the latency to have a good experience. If the latency is not good, you will notice a lag between each action on the controller and the result on the screen.

JMGO claims an input lag of 15ms, which is very low and you should be able to play any game with a console connected to this projector.

Noise level

The noise level is estimated at 26dB, which is very low, so the projector should be very quiet. LB]
What's missing? LB]On the main evaluation points, this projector hits very hard, it sets the bar very high. All this seems almost impossible in this price range but that's kind of the principle of crowdfunding, you can buy a product for much less than the final price.

So on paper, you shouldn't miss this opportunity, in fact that's what I did, I was in the first 20 to buy it.

Concept

The JMGO N1 Ultra is a bit special because it is mounted on an axis that can be oriented according to your needs. I think this is an interesting idea because the projectors of this type that work without a stand can not be put behind a shelf because part of the beam will be blocked by this shelf. I'm curious to see how the automatic correction will behave because these corrections are mostly useful for the horizontal angle but here the projector can change the vertical angle.

I'm also curious to see what this projector will consume because with 4000 lumens, it is to be expected that it will be greedy. I saw in the questions/answers on Kickstarter that the consumption should be around 180W, that's pretty good for a laser projector with such brightness.

Image size and screen type

The JMGO N1 Ultra has a projection ratio of 1.2, so you get an image width of about 80cm for every meter of distance to the screen. This is a fairly common projection ratio, so you can get a 240cm wide image with 3 meters of distance. I have a 3 meter wide screen but with 3 meters of distance, so I won't be able to fully exploit the size of my screen.

With such a brightness level, you can easily sacrifice some of the brightness by using an ALR type screen. This will result in deeper blacks but less brightness on whites. The viewing angle is also narrower on this type of screen.

I use a white screen with a gain of 1.2, this is not the most suitable screen for this type of projector but as I test many different types of projectors, I need a more neutral solution.

To buy or not?

If all these technical promises are fulfilled, you should not hesitate too much! I took the plunge because the price was right. If I had to pay 2000€ to get it, I probably wouldn't have done it.

If you want to take advantage of the offer:
JMGO N1 Ultra / Kickstarter

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