Anker Nebula Capsule Air review: The beer can projector gets smaller

Remember the good old days when high-tech products either got better or smaller, or both? With the Nebula Capsule Air, those days are back.

Anker’s projector brand has taken its beloved beer can-shaped projector, already just 84mm in diameter and 168mm in height, and shrunk it down so that it’s 68mm wide and 140mm tall. It weighs only 650g, has a built-in two-hour battery, and is about as cute as a projector can be. But is it any good? I’ve spent the last week testing the Nebula Capsule Air to find out.

Anker Nebula Capsule Air review: What do you get for the money?

The Nebula Capsule Air is a portable projector with built-in audio and Google TV streaming and will set you back £400. Up to a point, it’s a shrunk-down version of the excellent Nebula Capsule 3, running much the same software and incorporating Anker’s excellent IEA 4.0 autofocus and auto-keystone correction features. However, there are some downgrades. Where the Capsule 3 has an 8W Dolby Audio system, the Capsule Air has a 5W speaker. Resolution drops from Full HD 1080p to HD 720p. Most importantly, the light output from the LED source is reduced from 200 ANSI Lumens to 150.

The Capsule Air has fairly basic connectivity, with just a USB-C port for charging and a single HDMI 2.1 port. The physical power button sits at the rear above them, while the top of the unit features backlit touch controls for menu navigation and volume, meaning you’re not entirely stuck if you lose the compact remote under the sofa in the dark. The latter also features backlit buttons, which start glowing immediately on use, along with a microphone for Google Assistant voice commands.

Perhaps the most innovative feature of the design is the snap-and-twist base bundled with the unit. This locks securely onto the bottom of the projector, adding roughly 22mm in height, but gives you a lot more flexibility as to how and where you can use it. On the one hand, it allows it to tilt upwards or downwards through a hinge, depending on which way you have the cylinder locked in. You can’t go much more than 10 degrees without the Capsule Air threatening to tip backwards, but it helps if you’re using it on a low table or the floor.

Alternatively, you can use the base as a wall mount, screwing it to the wall and then locking the projector into place. Finally, there’s a ring that comes out on its own hinge, meaning you can simply hang the Capsule Air from a hook. The Capsule Air knows which way it’s hanging, and will reorient the picture automatically.

Anker Nebula Capsule Air review: What does it do well?

Like all recent Nebula projectors, the Capsule Air is extremely easy to set up and use. The Google TV software takes most of the pain out of connecting to the internet and installing and logging into all your streaming apps, especially if you have an existing Google account and an Android phone. The UI is easy to navigate and provides sensible recommendations, and you can use voice search across a wide range of apps to find something to watch.

Meanwhile, the IEA 4.0 autofocus and image-correction systems do a superb job of giving you a watchable image provided the lens is pointing roughly at the screen. The more face on and at the right level you get it, the less work it will have to do and the larger area of the projected image it will use, but you don’t need to spend much time fiddling with the alignment.

I’m glad to report that watching a movie is – mostly – a good experience. With the 720p resolution, there’s a limit to the detail on the screen, and the presentation as a whole is visibly soft. Yet colours generally look good, the tone in Cinema and Standard modes is natural and you see none of the odd artificial, posterised hues you see on many budget projectors, portable or not. I spent a few evenings catching up with Star Wars: Skeleton Crew and Shogun on Disney+ or watching UHD movies on Amazon Prime Video, and I was surprised how little the low resolution impacted the viewing. I wasn’t blown away, but it wasn’t bad at all.

My tests backed this up. The DLP chip and LED source can cover 77.4% of the sRGB colour gamut, with a 114.9% gamut volume and 63.8% of DCI-P3, with an 81.3% gamut volume. That’s lower than the Capsule 3, with 91.4% and 74.8%, but noticeably better than the Dangbei Emotn N1.

At this point, I’d normally say that HDR10 support is laughable on a projector with just 150 nits of brightness. Yet the Capsule Air gives it a decent try, and you do seem to get brighter highlights and a smidgeon more shadow detail in HDR content.

As for the audio, it has its limitations, but for casual movie and TV watching it’s more than serviceable. Sure, there’s no real sense of space or stereo positioning of effects, but the output’s clear and beefy, with some low-end presence. The Capsule 3 has more boom and rumble, but the Capsule Air still puts in a reasonable performance.

Anker Nebula Capsule Air review: What could it do better?

The big issue here is brightness. Forget the 150 ANSI Lumens headline figure – this is for a Conference mode with higher brightness levels but a nasty green/yellow cast. In the Normal or Cinema modes you won’t get much more than 120 ANSI lumens, and this will be reduced even further once you’re looking at the light bouncing off the screen towards your eyeballs. You won’t see much in daylight or ambient lighting, and some darker scenes are barely visible even in darkness. In the darkest and moodiest sections of The Northman, there’s just not enough light and contrast to go around.

This isn’t necessarily a deal breaker as long as you’re realistic about how and when you’re going to use the Capsule Air. It’s not a serious home cinema projector. It’s great for ad-hoc movie nights, travel and parties, and is at its best when used at a shorter range on a smaller screen. Think 40 to 80 inches rather than 100 inches or more.

Anker claims that the 10,000mAh battery will last up to two hours, albeit in the dimmer Eco mode. In practice, I found it lasted a few minutes extra – three to be exact. You should be fine to watch shorter movies without plugging in.

Anker Nebula Capsule Air review: Should you buy it?

It depends. If you’re looking for a simple, affordable, take-anywhere projector, the Capsule Air has a lot going for it. It’s compact, light and easy to use, there’s no need to worry about external sources, and the picture and sound are more than good enough for casual viewing in a dark room or under dark skies.

Yet image quality isn’t in the same ballpark as the Capsule 3 and it’s just £100 cheaper. I’d go for the former to get the better big-screen experience, but if smaller and lighter is your choice, you won’t go wrong with the Capsule Air.