I went into the What Hi-Fi Show 2023 expecting a lot of high-end audio devices and to my pleasant surprise, they had my favourite 4K laser projector on display. The JMGO N1 Ultra has been a part of my living room for two months now.
It’s a 4K triple laser projector with 4,000 lumens of brightness, an elegant design, and a compact form factor to project a 150-inch screen. I’ve hosted IPL watch parties with guests asking when this is coming to India and at what price. After talking to a JMGO representative at the event, I have answers to both of those questions now.
JMGO N1 Ultra 4K laser projector: Price, availability and offers
For the unaware, JMGO is a new entrant in the projector category. They rely on crowdsourcing to get these funded. The company has already received an overwhelming $2.2 million worth of pledges on Kickstarter, a funding platform for creative projects. It costs $2,299 in the USA.
I talked to the officials representing JMGO at the What Hi-Fi event and was told that the JMGO N1 Ultra will be available in India for Rs 2.3 lakh. While an earlier press release from Sprode India, the national distributor of JMGO, revealed that it will be launching soon, the representative said that they are trying to bring it to the market by September, although they are hoping to release it earlier.
Regarding offers, they haven’t finalised card discounts yet but will be offering the Amazon Fire TV Stick Max, worth Rs 6,499, along with the projector. It is a welcome addition because the N1 Ultra doesn’t support Netflix (and no, you can’t download it from the Play Store). However, I was told that the company is in talks to bring the certification to access Netflix on the projector. Even if it doesn’t go through, you’ll get the Fire TV Stick to access Netflix.
The Rs 2.3 lakh price tag might seem overly expensive but if you are looking for a 150-inch 4K display that can get smaller as per your needs in your living room without spending on a TV that big, this is worth it.
Notably, in the press release shared in April, Atulana Ghosh, founder of Sprode India, said that the JMGO N1 Ultra will be "available at a heavily discounted price, even lower than the international MRP, during the first few days of pre-booking in India". It is supposed to be up for pre-booking now, but the Sprode India website is down at the time of writing this article.
(Image: Prakhar Khanna/Moneycontrol)
What’s so special about the JMGO N1 Ultra?
The JMGO N1 Ultra is designed in such a way that it looks and feels premium. It has a dual-tone finish on the grey body that is likely to go well with almost all living rooms and bedrooms.
The elegant design includes a swivel that can rotate up or down by 135 degrees, which allows you to project it on the ceiling if you like—that’s how they were showcasing the product at the event. There are Time-of-Flight (ToF) sensors alongside the projection lens on the front that allow for autofocus and keystone correction, which makes it really easy to set it up.
It is a solid swivel system that stays where you want it to. I’ve had no instances of it sliding down or moving away from my required usage. You also get a turntable located underneath the base to adjust the horizontal orientation of the projector to let you slide the picture horizontally and adjust the viewing angle. I got a carrying case in the packaging, which is likely to be included in the Indian packaging too, so you can easily carry around the projector when needed.
The JMGO N1 Ultra has airflow vents at the back, so if you are mounting it on the ceiling, make sure you are taking that into consideration. Plus, you get one HDMI 2.1 port, one HDMI 2.1 port with ARC, a USB 2.0 port, and a 3.5mm jack for connectivity (and Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth for wireless connectivity). The audio jack is immensely important if you want to get your sound from the 20W in-built speakers to a soundbar or a home theatre system.
Display specifications
The JMGO N1 Ultra can go up to 150 inches in screen size with 4,000 lumens in brightness. To give you a reference point, most projectors in this category can only go up to 2,500 lumens.
The projector also supports HDR10, motion smoothing (which can be turned off), and offers 4K resolution with a 1600:1 ratio contrast. Plus, there’s a low-latency mode that brings down the latency to 15 ms for gaming.
Setting up the N1 Ultra was simple. It displayed a full four-point keystone correction that automatically scaled to my off-white wall. You can adjust the screen size in the settings, but the default mostly works well.
My real-life usage and experience with its picture quality have been extremely satisfying. The projector offers brilliant contrast levels that let you see details even in dark scenes. It gets bright enough for you to watch content in ambient lighting, but I suggest you go full dark for an immersive experience.
I also suggest you invest in a good bookshelf speaker or soundbar with the JMGO N1 Ultra because its two 10W drivers located on the sides don’t do justice to the exceptional picture quality. I paired it with my B&O Beosound Emerge, which took my experience to the next level. It feels like I’m sitting in a theatre and can watch anything I like while sitting on my favourite couch and munching on snacks that I didn’t overpay for.
(Image: Prakhar Khanna/Moneycontrol)
Hardware
The N1 Ultra is powered by the MediaTek MT9629 that comes with four Cortex A55 cores and AV1 decode and is paired with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage.
It works smoothly but takes a bit of time to turn on, which is fine. Browsing through the user interface, setting up the screen size, launching applications—all of it runs well.
It runs Google TV based on Android TV 11, which lets you download streaming apps (apart from Netflix) from the Play Store. It is a similar software experience that you would get on an Android TV.
The remote is pretty minimal, with no shortcut buttons for streaming services and made of plastic.
The Rs 2.3 lakh price tag isn’t affordable by any means, but when you take the brilliant picture quality, ease of use, big 4K screen, and elegant design into consideration, it all falls into place.
