Anker’s Nebula P1 projector is the king of portable audio

Anker’s Soundcore Nebula P1 isn’t the brightest portable Google TV projector I’ve ever reviewed, nor is it the brightest. It doesn’t even have a built-in battery. Instead, it’s a decent audio-focused video device.

The standout feature of the Nebula P1 is a pair of tweeters that are separated to create true left and right channel separation. It looks much better than traditional all-in-one devices such as ultra-portable devices TCL Playcube, Xjimi mojoOr Anker’s popular capsule projectors.

I tested for $799 (currently on sale for $639) Nebula P1 As I travel around the European countryside in my truck. It’s not my favorite portable projector, but I’ve grown very fond of the P1 — just like cameras, sometimes the best projector is the one you have with you.

Anker has been creating innovative portable projectors focused on superior audio, first for $3,000 Nebula X1 And then with Absurdly huge X1 Pro. The Nebula P1 trims all that extra weight from 72 pounds down to 5.3 pounds to create a truly portable (and much less expensive and less capable) projector suitable for life movies or impromptu movie nights anywhere there’s a wall, a sheet of paper, a screen… and a power port or a large USB-C battery.

In dark rooms, the P1 produces an enjoyable 1080p image that is still the standard for portable projectors in this category. Its LED light source, rated at 650 ANSI Lumens, isn’t enough to overcome rooms filled with a lot of ambient light, but it still looked good inside my truck during the day when tightly focused on a nearby surface. But it’s the sound that really makes the P1 shine.

Detachable 10W speakers combine to produce a spacious and enjoyable soundscape. I’ve become quite fond of the little pair of headphones over the few weeks of testing. As a bonus, it magnetically attaches to my charger on either side of my display for a clean outdoor film setup. Placing the speakers next to the screen really helps create a more immersive experience. Typically, you’re sitting next to the built-in speakers in portable projectors, which means the sound sounds like it’s coming from the side or your knees rather than where the action is happening.

Overall, the sound is good, which is what you’d expect from speakers the size of soda cans. I also like that I can turn off the projector’s LED and use the P1 as a Bluetooth speaker. The sound is loud enough to easily fill an RV or living room.

Delivered by Madeleine Peyroux Pink life She sounded gorgeous, with individual violin strings plucked out of the left speaker, a guitar playing from the right, and her delicate vocals wrapped in a pressure box oozing from the middle. Bass-heavy tracks like Kendrick Lamar’s tracks Not like us It looked thin, but. Unlike Anker’s larger Nebula X1 and X1 Pro projectors, there’s no built-in subwoofer in the base of the Nebula P1.

As a projector, the Nebula P1 is very quiet, measuring just 26dB from a distance of one meter – barely noticeable above the noise of my snoring dog. But I ran all the tests on cold days so the fans wouldn’t have any reason to really turn around. The speakers are IP54 resistant to dust and rain splashing on them from all directions, while the projector’s limited IP33 rating should protect it from light rain.

Anker says the P1’s speakers will last for 20 hours before needing to be recharged, which seems accurate based on my tests so far. They are held together with magnets and then mechanically attached to the top of the projector where they will charge when the Nebula P1 is plugged into a wall socket or a 100W capable battery via USB-C. The speakers can also be charged directly via USB-C while in use, which is convenient when they flash a low-battery warning mid-tone.

The Nebula P1 on Google TV turns on in about 50 seconds from a cold start, or about 5 seconds from sleep mode, drawing a near-constant power of 6 watts. The projector consumed up to 51 watt-hours of battery capacity in one hour of Netflix streaming at maximum brightness. This means that a typical 99Wh power bank won’t last long enough to watch a two-and-a-half-hour movie, for example Pulp Fiction Without taking a break for charging.

Anker says the Nebula P1 features Intelligent Environment Adaptation (IEA) 4.0, which means autofocus, keystone correction, obstacle avoidance, and screen mounting. However, in my testing, it did a terrible job of detecting obstacles and my projector’s screen, although my screen lacks a black border which could complicate things. If I wanted to “automate” detection, I had to resort to Anker’s heavy-duty “VisionFit” technology. You can launch the Nebula Connect app and take a photo of the surface where you want to project the image, and the P1 will use that input to avoid obstacles and find the screen. It’s stupid and exhausting and I hate it.

Fortunately, the autofocus and intelligent keystone correction worked well, with manual overrides so you can force the image into place when needed. Having the projector on a swivel also gives you more placement options without having to resort to a stack of books. You can also save settings to presets if you frequently use the projector from the same location.

In general, I don’t like portable projectors that lack a built-in battery because you have to plug a winding cable into a wall socket or carry an extra battery. This is largely the case with Nebula P1.

While I enjoyed my time with it, I would choose the TCL $799.99 (on sale for $649.99) PlayCube When true portability is the priority. The PlayCube costs the same, is a little brighter, also tilts, and runs the same Google TV operating system, but is capable of fitting a three-hour battery into a much smaller projector. It just can’t compete with the Nebula P1 on sound.

Photography by Thomas Ricker/The Verge