Anker Nebula P1

A while ago, we reviewed a portable projector from BenQ and made it clear that it's quite easy to find use cases for precisely this sort of gadget, even though it comes with inherent compromises and a high price tag.

Anker usually has a habit of doing things a bit differently, of thinking outside the box, so we've been looking forward to testing their Nebula P1 for a long time, this being a projector that, whilst not portable in the sense that it runs on battery power, is portable in every other sense.

Right, so what can the Nebula P1 do? Well, it's a rectangular device weighing 2.38 kilos. It stands upright on a surface and looks most like a semi-serious Bluetooth speaker. As always, Anker knows how to create quite subtle, well-shaped designs, and that's certainly the case here too. What's more, the lens itself is tucked away inside the body, so it's hard to find fault with the exterior.

When you're ready to use it, the lens itself can be tilted out (it's mounted on a dual-arm gimbal that can be adjusted by 130 degrees), and then you click out the two True 2.0 surround sound speakers, which are magnetically attached to the front of the projector itself. It's a brilliant little idea to have a surround sound system included as part of the overall package, and because they're secured with magnets and pogo pins, you can literally just slap them on and they'll still make contact. They deliver 10W of power and support Dolby Audio via Soundcore's now rather robust platform. Yes, technically you could just pair a Bluetooth speaker with another projector, but here it all happens automatically, and there's a latency of less than 50ms.

Inside, we find a MediaTek MT9629, a 1.5GHz quad-core chip, along with 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage for apps, and a Google TV-based operating system running on Android 11. This means full access to the entire range of streaming apps, though this is limited only by the fact that 32GB really isn't much storage for anything at all. However, the user interface feels responsive enough, and we didn't encounter any noticeable issues during testing.

The image itself is generated via DLP technology using a 0.23" DMD chip, which provides a throw ratio of 1.25:1, and this means you can achieve a screen size of approximately 100 inches from just over 2.5 metres, with 180 inches being the absolute maximum here. This is combined with a contrast ratio of 1,500:1, 650 ANSI lumens of brightness and a resolution of 1080p. This is where one of the compromises becomes apparent, because although the viewing experience is relatively decent, there are issues both in daylight and in the dark. The raw brightness simply cannot overcome ordinary daylight, nor can it cope if there is too much artificial light in the room. The picture simply becomes washed out. Dark film scenes also struggle a little even under ideal conditions, with details in shadows or dim scenes becoming slightly muddled. We watched Undertone at home, where contrast is absolutely crucial, and here it disappoints a little.

And then there's the issue of the lack of an internal battery. Yes, it would weigh more, and yes, it would compromise parts of the experience if Anker were to innovate around these issues, but the Nebula P1 isn't exactly an enthusiast's tool. It's for football matches at the campsite, children's TV at the holiday home, and impromptu film sessions projected onto the bedroom ceiling. An internal battery would simply be a perfect fit for what the Nebula P1 already is. The lens housing itself is IP33-certified, and the speakers are IP-certified, so why go to all this trouble if it isn't designed to be taken on the go?

That said, there's HDMI 2.1 with eARC on the back, it's surprisingly responsive in Game Mode, which reduces latency to 10ms, and the build quality is rock-solid. In the scenarios mentioned above, you might well be drawn in by this rather unique combination of features, and that's hardly surprising. It just seems as though Anker needs one more iteration to refine the P1 at a conceptual level, to ensure that all these great features really come into their own.