The Nebula Capsule is a mini projector with the form factor of a soda can. It’s cute, eye catching, and frankly, the design practically sells itself right out of the gate. But is this can-sized projector worth the price of admission?
What’s In the Box
The Nebula Capsule is Anker’s first offering in the pico projector market. The projector is, quite literally, the size of a 12 oz soda can give or take a few millimeters and doesn’t weigh much more all things considered—a plain ol’ Coke can weighs around 400 grams whereas the Nebula weighs 470 grams.
Inside the can-shaped profile, you’ll find a compact DLP projector capable of putting out 100 ANSI lumens at an 854*480 pixel resolution. For a frame of reference, 100 ANSI lumens is about 1/15th to 1/20th the brightness of a full-size home projector and the resolution is standard definition (480p) but with extra width to make it 16:9—we’ll talk more about the brightness and resolution later in the review.
In addition to the critical part—you know the bright moving picture bit—there’s a 360-degree speaker design that gives the projector a definite Bluetooth speaker appearance, and the whole thing is powered by Android 7.1.2. The little projector includes 8GB of internal storage (roughly 5GB of which is used up by Android and the stock apps). The 5200 mAh battery charges in around two hours with the included Quick Charge 2.0 charger and offers 4 hours of playback when in projector mode and 30 hours of playback when in Bluetooth speaker mode.
The Nebula Capsule projects out of a small opening in the side of the can, roughly the size of a quarter. There is no built-in lens cover nor removable cover. When not in use the projector should be stored in the included storage bag. Next to the lens, there is a small gear-wheel used for focus adjustment (no automatic focus adjustment, alas, although there is auto keystoning).
The top of the projector is a directional pad that offers simple interactions with the projector. The only other visible ports or points of interest are found on the rear and bottom of the projector body.
On the rear, you’ll find a small IR port used for the remote control. At the lower rear, there is an “Input” port, which functions both as a charging port and as an input for USB storage (which you can connect using the included USB to Micro USB OTG cable). Beside the Input port is an HDMI port. On the bottom of the cylinder is a standard tripod mounting point which makes it dead simple to put the Nebula Capsule on a regular photography tripod or any other suitably sturdy device (like a Joby GorillaPod or other flexible tripod) with a standard screw.
Setup and Interacting with the Nebula: Easy Peasy
There are three ways to interact with the projector. The first way is to use the circular control pad on the top of the device. There you can press the parallel arrow button at the top of the pad to switch between projector and speaker mode, the +/- buttons on the left and right side to adjust the volume, and the power button to turn the device on and off (as well as, thoughtfully, check the battery life by tapping the button swiftly wherein the projector will turn on for 3 seconds and project a battery meter on a nearby surface). Clearly, the directional pad is intended more for the actions performed when turning the device on and adjusting the volume without much fuss. Beyond that, it’s quite limited.
The second way you can interact with the Capsule is the included IR remote. The remote worked as well as any other IR remote and included a pretty standard media player interface that will be familiar to anyone who has used an Apple TV or Fire TV.
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Source : Nebula Capsule Projector Review: It’s a Mini Cinema In a Can
