The Nebula Capsule Air is extremely portable and easy to use as a projector against nearly any surface – for as long as the battery lasts.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Compact, fun design | Battery power better suited to TV shows than movies |
| Inbuilt Google TV | Single HDMI input |
| Inbuilt speakers are surprisingly loud | Low brightness won’t suit every projection need |
Score: 3.5/5
In this review
Support Alex Reviews Tech
Alex Reviews Tech is an independent, ethically run tech reviews site, and it needs your help to keep going. Support independent media by becoming a sponsor through Patreon, Ko-Fi or Paypal!
Donate via PayPal
Click here to find out more ways you can support Alex Reviews Tech.
Nebula Capsule Air Specifications
Nebula Capsule Air Design
Nebula Capsule Air Performance
Nebula Capsule Air Battery
Nebula Capsule Air Conclusion
Technical note: The pictures in this review (and in the video review) are all within my office, though I’ve actually been testing it mostly in my living room.
However for reasons of privacy, I’ve not done my video or stills shooting in that space, which is why all the images appear to show a tiny projection.
That’s purely illustrative, but the Nebula Capsule Air Projector has been fully put through its paces in a much more regular, everyday consumer way, as is only fair.
Design
You can get portable projectors in all sorts of shapes and sizes – the smallest I can recall reviewing was the Moto Mod Insta Share Projector, though sadly that review has been lost to the winds of Internet time… but I digress – so the Nebula Capsule Air’s smaller than typical size wasn’t a surprise to me.
What was something of a surprise was quite how much like a soft drink can it looks.
I honestly keep having to resist the urge to put it into my fridge, which wouldn’t be good for it, because at 68x68x140mm, it’s got nearly the same shape and size as whatever choice of carbonated tooth rotter you prefer has.
Mind you, at 650 grams, it’s rather more hefty than any soft drink can I’ve ever lifted up. Still, portability is the name of the game here.
Stylistically, the Nebula Capsule Air Projector comes in either white or black finishes; the model that Anker (Nebula’s parent brand) loaned to me was the black one, and it’s the version I’d advocate for. Sure, white has that whole kind of Apple minimalistic cool to it, but in a darkened room, a black projector is a much better choice.
It features touch controls at the top to cover most basic functions, though the smaller size of the unit can make them a little tricky to hit correctly every time.
You do also get a full sized remote, so full-sized in fact that it’s slightly taller than the projector it works from, and that’s been my primary input source for much of this review. It’s good to have the touch controls as a backup, but do you really want to get up from your sofa or bean bag to change a TV setting manually these days? I thought not.
Inputs. Count them. It won't take you long.
The rear of the Nebula Capsule Air Projector houses its inputs, which are minimalistic. There’s an IR receiver port sitting above the power button, which sits above the USB-C power input which itself is nestled above a single HDMI port. There is support for HDMI-CEC built in if you did want to go down that route with a soundbar or similar.
Where the design of the Nebula Capsule Air Projector gets interesting is in the base. The standard unit has a single tripod screw mount so you could connect it to your choice of tripod for your on-the-go projection needs, but you also get a snap-on base that connects with a simple twist to the bottom of the projector.
This raises it a couple of centimetres, but it’s not really there just to be a simple booster stand. A metal ring at the bottom of the snap-on base folds out to provide balance while you tilt the Nebula Capsule Air Projector itself to whatever projection angle best suits your needs.
Don't lean it too far, mind you. It can still topple.
While it's probably coincidental, this also means that with the snap-on base installed, it does in fact have something that resembles a ring pull on the base, further enhancing that whole soft drink can style.
Nebula also promises other snap-on gadgets to enhance the Nebula Capsule Air Projector, including a Gimbal stand for 360° angular choices and a power bank tripod stand to enhance its battery life. Neither of those are slated to hit Australian shores until July, however, so I haven’t been able to test those out as part of this review.
Performance
Like the recently reviewed Epson EF-22 Laser Projector, the Nebula Capsule Air Projector isn’t just a simple plug-and-display projector.
It has Google TV features built in, which means that setup is just that little bit more convoluted as you connect it to your Wi-Fi network and enable whatever streaming apps you’d like to use with it. Nebula's claim is that it's the world's smallest Google TV ready projector.
While that does open up a lot of streaming apps for your portable viewing pleasure, the one feature it doesn’t support that I would have liked to see is full casting capability, so I could fling content from my phone straight to the Nebula Capsule Air Projector.
Unlike the Epson, however, Nebula stuck a reasonable quality processor – Nebula doesn’t specify beyond it being a quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 CPU, not exactly a spring chicken in processor terms – into the Nebula Capsule Air Projector, because its response from the included remote control is markedly snappier.
Not fast – this isn’t a replacement Google TV Streamer or Apple TV – but certainly acceptable in response terms for your basic streaming, gaming or other projection needs.
The Nebula Capsule Air Projector is natively a 720p capable projector, though it can take a 1080p input and downscale it with the predictable slight drop in sharpness you’d expect.
The smaller size of the Nebula Capsule Air Projector does make it more suited to smaller projection sizes, though it can project an image of up to 80 inches in size.
80 inches is still a pretty big TV, though clearly some competing projectors can go a fair bit larger than that if you want that whole “movies at home” experience.
The one big caveat to the whole experience here is the rated brightness of the Nebula Capsule Air Projector. It’s only 150 ANSI Lumens, which isn’t particularly bright by projector standards.
Could be brighter -- though that would undoubtedly impact battery life.
I suspect that the core market for this kind of projector is more fussed about having an image in the first place rather than it being held to cinephile standards, but if you were also keen because you knew you were going to project in some rather bright places, then it might disappoint you.
The Nebula Capsule Air Projector has inbuilt speakers, and typically these kinds of deals aren’t great for audio reproduction. They do get quite loud, which is good if you don’t want to sit particularly close to the projector, but loud isn’t the same thing as actually being good.
You can pair Bluetooth speakers to the Nebula Capsule Air Projector; for portability’s sake I tested with the Beats Pill paired to it to improve overall audio output. If you were particularly keen you could perhaps get a full HDMI soundbar installed as well, though then you're really making it hard on yourself in portability terms.
The Nebula Capsule Air Projector does a fair job of keystoning for automatic image correction, though you can take this manual if you’ve got specific needs – or if you want to project up onto a ceiling for any reason, because if you flip the Nebula Capsule Air Projector upwards, it asks if you’re doing just that and notes that this mode doesn’t support automatic image corrections.
Battery
The Nebula Capsule Air Projector has an inbuilt 10,000mAh battery that Nebula claims is good for up to two hours of TV or movie viewing time. As always, “up to” figures can be rubbery, so I needed to get to testing to get to the bottom of its realistic run time.
Also read:
Why you shouldn’t always trust mobile phone battery tests (not even mine!)
With that two hour claim in mind, I tested the Nebula Capsule Air Projector with a YouTube video playlist using Wi-Fi at moderate volume until the projector shut down due to lack of power.
This it did after two hours, sixteen minutes and fifty-four seconds.
On the plus side, that’s actually slightly more than Nebula’s claims, which is pleasing. You could conceivably get a little more than that if you were using HDMI with Wi-Fi disabled and at lower volumes too, because that would use less power again.
However, the core problem remains, and that’s the fact that even at two and a quarter hours, you’re going to struggle to get through some movies without external power. There goes anything from the Lord of The Rings Movies, most Marvel flicks, Pulp Fiction, Scarface, Gone With The Wind, Oppenheimer… you get the idea, right?
Nebula Capsule Air Projector: Alex’s Verdict
Did I play a few retro games during my review period? Maybe...
The Nebula Capsule Air Projector is a lot of fun, and it is nicely portable too, even though it’s far from the smallest projector you could possibly buy.
The Google TV integration works well, and while the speakers won’t fool you into thinking you’re sitting in an actual cinema, they’d work well enough for simpler fare such as live sports or many TV shows.
The lower than typical brightness may be an issue for you depending on where you choose to project, but the biggest catch here has to be the battery life.
If you plan on some camping trips with a sheet strung between some trees to keep you entertained at night, it would be wise to pack some PD-certified battery packs to go along with it, unless you like rather short films.
Nebula Capsule Air Projector: Pricing and availability
The Nebula Capsule Air Projector retails in Australia for $799.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 - Xbox Series X
$59.00 (as of March 23, 2025 19:38 GMT +11:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Sniper Elite 5 (Xbox Series X/Xbox One)
$33.76 (as of March 23, 2025 19:38 GMT +11:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Doom: The Dark Ages Standard Edition - XBOX
$109.95 (as of March 23, 2025 19:38 GMT +11:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Capcom Monster Hunter Wilds - Xbox Series X
$99.00 (as of March 23, 2025 19:38 GMT +11:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
F1 24 - Xbox Series X
$69.00 (as of March 23, 2025 19:38 GMT +11:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
NIMASO for iPhone 16e Case Compatible with MagSafe Accessories, Shockproof Military-Grade Protection Cover,Slim Anti-Scratch Magnetic Phone Case for iPhone 16e, 6.1 inch, Black
$16.99 (as of March 23, 2025 19:29 GMT +11:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
TONEOF 67" Cell Phone Selfie Stick Tripod, All-in-1 with Wireless Remote, Portable, Lightweight, Extendable Phone Tripod for iPhone/Android (Black)
$31.99 (as of March 23, 2025 19:29 GMT +11:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
INIU 22.5W Power Bank, 10000mAh Slim USB C Portable Charger Fast Charging PD3.0 QC4.0, LED Display Battery Pack Portable for iPhone 16 15 14 13 12 Pro Max Samsung S22 Google LG AirPods Switch iPad
$29.99 (as of March 23, 2025 19:29 GMT +11:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
All-new Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (16 GB) – Our fastest Kindle ever, with new 7" glare-free display, and weeks of battery life - Black
$299.00 (as of March 23, 2025 19:29 GMT +11:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Mini Wireless CarPlay and Wireless Android Auto Adapter 2024 for iPhone/Android, Dongle Plug and Play Low Latency Converts for Cars 2016+, USB-C/USB
$44.99 (as of March 23, 2025 19:29 GMT +11:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
iPhone 12 Mini 64GB Black
$419.00 (as of March 23, 2025 19:38 GMT +11:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
iPhone 13 128GB
$589.00 (as of March 23, 2025 19:38 GMT +11:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Samsung Galaxy A55 5G, Android Smartphone, 8GB RAM, 128GB Storage, 50MP Camera, Long Battery Life, Awesome Navy
$542.99 (as of March 23, 2025 19:38 GMT +11:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Moto g85 5G - Olive Green
$297.00 (as of March 23, 2025 19:38 GMT +11:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Opel Mobile 5.5-Inch Smart 55R 4G Smartphone, Black
$119.00 (as of March 23, 2025 19:38 GMT +11:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)Was this useful to you?
If so, please consider becoming a Patreon, Ko-Fi or Paypal supporter Alex here (again).
I feel strongly that independent tech media is a needed resource to help people make smarter tech buying decisions -- and I also very much like to help people use that tech once they've got it.
This is what I do, but I can't do it without your support.
If this article has helped you out (or you've just enjoyed it), please consider helping support what I do by becoming a sponsor today!
Join The Patreon!
Donate via PayPal
Click or tap here for more about how you can support Alex Reviews Tech.
