Fast-growing Chinese projection brand JMGO has formally launched a new projector into the US and Europe that it claims is the world first projector to combine true 4K resolution with 120Hz refresh rates.

This is a bold claim for JMGO to make about its new IRIS Ultra Max on a number of levels. For starters, its “true” 4K resolution still actually depends on a variation on the DLP mirror multi-flashing and pixel shifting technology theme that consumer 4K DLP projectors have been relying on for years now to deliver 4K capabilities. This approach has been deemed a true 4K experience by the Consumer Technology Association in the U.S., to be fair, but the new JMGO projector does not carry a DLP DMD chipset that delivers a dedicated mirror for every individual pixel.

I’ve also seen projectors previously that my Xbox Series X console has seen as capable of playing 4K/120Hz signals, and which appear to take 4K/120Hz signals in. In reality, though, prior to the arrival of the IRIS Ultra Max, even if a projector could physically take in 4K/120Hz feeds, it would convert them to 4K/60Hz for playback. JMGO’s own 4K/60Hz N5 Ultra Max projector (which the brand was using in a side by side demo at the IFA technology show in Berlin to showcase the benefits of 4K 120Hz on the IRIS Ultra Max) momentarily showed in its information screen that it was accepting a 4K/120Hz signal before quickly switching to show that it was actually outputting the source at 4K/60Hz.

The IRIS Ultra Max’s info menus – together with the clearly smoother motion and camera pans the projector displays – prove that it is the first JMGO projector to truly deliver 4K at 120Hz. Something it achieves thanks to a purpose-built hardware architecture that supports the processing speed, response time and bandwidth required for 4K/120Hz projection. With two other brands at the current IFA show also exhibiting projectors that claim to support 4K/120Hz, though, is the IRIS Ultra Max truly the first to achieve this feat?

To back up its claim on this point, JMGO states that while it’s only just rolling out the IRIS Ultra Max globally, it actually launched it in China back in May. At which point it really does seem no other projector was out there delivering the same 4K/120Hz combination.

Having got all that world-first stuff squared away, I can move onto other things that might attract people to the IRIS Ultra Max. Starting with its design, which is another variation on the cube in a cradle theme that’s currently so popular in the projector world.

As we’ve come to expect with this sort of design, the projector can be tilted up or down to adjust image height, while retaining a small enough footprint to comfortably sit on a small coffee table. It sports a fetching two-tone finish, too, combining dark grey main panels with light grey highlights.

It also boasts a triple laser lighting system capable of pumping out a pretty colossal 6,500 ISO lumens of brightness – enough, potentially, to punch through ambient light as well as delivering an extremely punchy and potentially high dynamic range-friendly dark room experience. This brightness is claimed to be capable of feeding into 110% coverage of the AV world’s most extreme BT.2020 color spectrum, while speckle-reduction technology is provided to try and stop images creating a glimmering effect on your screen.

More premium innovation comes from the IRIS Ultra Max’s 6+9 Dual Iris System, which essentially combines separate optical iris controls for the light and dark parts of the image to deliver expanded contrast and brightness (dynamic contrast is claimed to be an impressive 50,000:1). The projector provides extensive manual control over how the dual iris system works, too, enabling exceptional control over the picture’s combination of brightness and contrast.

The next-gen MT9681 Flagship SoC in the IRIS Ultra Max is claimed to increase JMGO’s processing performance by a massive 99.7% too, with JMGO’s latest PureVision Image Processor increasing its image-processing capabilities by a claimed 80%. A wonderfully named proprietary JMGO Hummingbird High-Refresh Galvanometer is included in the IRIS Ultra Max projector as well that’s claimed to enhance motion fluidity by 100%.

Motion processing inside the IRIS Ultra Max works all the way up to the projector’s true 120Hz 4K refresh rate, while the way the high-refresh rate architecture inside the IRIS Ultra Max works also reduces the amount of rainbow effect (pure red, green and blue striping over bright highlights) associated with single-chip DLP projectors.

The IRIS Ultra Max is exceptionally easy to set up, too. The simple tilt available though its cradle design is backed up by four-way optical lens shift and 0.88-1.7:1 optical zoom, with AI-bolstered auto screen fitting, AI Image Positioning, and Spatial Image Memory on hand to deliver an extremely effective auto set up system.

The JMGO IRIS Ultra Max is available for $3,699/€3,699. Also available for $2299/€2299 is a step-down IRIS Ultra model that drops the brightness to 4,200 lumens and the dynamic contrast ratio to 20,000:1, as well as losing the Max model’s impressive AI audio setup system.

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