I bought this Nebula Capsule for a trip to South America to visit family (to show home movies and pictures). It is about the same size as a can of coke, so it is small, but boy does it pack a punch. All of the other projectors I have used were shaped like smartphones, so I was a bit thrown off by the shape of the Nebula. But let me just tell you right now, this can shape is great! I really can't say there is anything I did not like about this unit when it comes to the major features. It just ticked all the boxes. They got a lot of things right on this unit.
Things is really liked.
1. Great Speakers!
The main thing that was wrong on the other four units I have used was the speakers, which were all but useless. That is not the case with this Nebula. I showed videos to groups to over 30 people in an outdoor setting and no one had any trouble hearing clearly. Since all my previous LED projectors had basically worthless speaker, I was not expecting anything different out of this Nebula, so I bought the OontZ Angle 3 Portable Bluetooth Speaker to use with it. I did a side by side test with the OontZ Angle 3 and there is no question that built-in speakers on the Nebula are noticeably louder. Sound quality wise, they were very close. The OontZ Angle 3, I would say, had a little deeper base which might a little better for music, but the speakers on the Nebula were clearer and sharper, which is better for voice. Both speakers produced quality sound.
2. Amazing Battery Life
The thing about portable LED projectors, is that they are intended to run on battery. If you have to be hooked to AC power, why go LED in the first place? But the issue I have always had with the smartphone-shaped LED projectors is that they did not have enough battery life to play a full 2-hour movie on max brightness. Most of them top out at about 90 minutes of battery. That is not true on this Nebula. I was able to show two full-length Hollywood movies on it at max brightness and max volume with battery life to spare.
3. Good Brightness.
I am not going to say that this tiny projector can blow your 2000 Lumin Halogen full-size projector out of the water, but it has enough brightness to get the job done. I used it for three weeks showing movies nightly in South America and not once did I hear a complaint about the brightness from anyone.
4. Color Accuracy
One thing I have always had trouble with LED projectors is color accuracy. On my other units, I was always trying to mess with the settings, trying to get the color right. Not on this Nebula. The color and hue on this Nebula was spot on from the factory. I never even looked for the color settings.
5. Can be Powered with an External Battery Pack
For me, this is just a common sense MUST for a portable projector. Unfortunately, as baffling to me as it may be, there are some LED projectors that CANNOT be powered by an external battery pack (like you would use to charge your phone). Even though I never need this feature due to the over four-hour built-in battery life, it is still something I consider very important to have on a portable projector.
Things I feel could be better.
1. Only 8 GB Internal Memory
Considering that memory has gotten extremely cheap these days, I was very surprised to find that the unit only had 8 GB of internal Memory. Considering that the unit does not have a built-in SD card slot for extra memory, this was surprising, to say the least, but not a deal killer by any measure.
2. No Built-in Expandable Memory Slot.
This was another surprise to me that I did not even think about looking for because I just assumed it would have it because it is just a standard issue thing on electronics nowadays. The Nebula does have a mini-USB port (same as most Android smartphones) and comes with a USB adaptor cord that allows you to expand the memory with a USB Thumb/flash drive. Instead of using this, I chose to use the Transcend TS-RDP9K USB 2.0 OTG Card Reader, that accepts micro-SD cards, which is what I use more of. I was able to play videos from it without any issues through this port with my card reader.
3. Same Port for Expandable Memory and Charging.
If there is a real con on this device, this is it. It's not a deal breaker, but I would definitely like to see this issue addressed in newer models. Again this goes back to the small 8 GB onboard memory. Since the projector has no built-in memory card slot and uses the mini-usb charging port for expandable memory, if you run out of battery while showing a movie from a flash drive, you are dead in the water, because there is no way to power the device and play from a flash drive, since they both have to be done on the one min-usb port. So, in the event, you run out of battery and need to power the device externally, you can only play the content that is on the small 8 GB internal drive. Again, this is not a deal breaker but is clearly an engineering oversight. This problem can be easily remedied by adding an extra min-usb or a micro-SD card slot.
4. Remote Control
I am not sure if my remote control was defective or not, but it absolutely could not adjust the volume. It worked fine menu navigation, but the volume buttons gave no response. Fortunately, the projector has volume control buttons right on top of it so it was not a huge issue. There is a remote control Android app for smartphones and it does work, but like most of the remote control android apps, it is kind of janky to use.
All in all, I think this is the best mini LED projector on the market. I ended up donating my projector to a local church while in South America, but I will be buying another. For most purposes, this an all-in-one movie studio that is the size of a can of coke. Honestly, it is a flat our marvel of science. Throw this in your bag and you have everything you need for showing movies, viewing photos, videos, etc, etc. I recommend buying the very nice Nebula Capsule Official Travel Case to go with it.
| Brand Name | NEBULA |
|---|---|
| Item Weight | 1.04 pounds |
| Product Dimensions | 2.68 x 2.68 x 4.72 inches |
| Item model number | D4111111 |
| Batteries | 1 Lithium Polymer batteries required. (included) |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Color Name | Black |
| Special Features | Pico |
