Nebula Capsule II mini projector review TV in a can The Verge

The new Nebula Capsule II projector is a transportable can-fashioned mini projector. It can create an HD, 720p photograph that’s up to one hundred inches diagonally. But like any mini projectors, it doesn’t get bright enough to work anywhere however in darkish areas. It has a speaker constructed in so you don’t need to fuss with Bluetooth. It also has Android TV built in so that you don’t need to fuss with HDMI or casting from your cellphone (though you may do the ones things, too).

I may want to see it fitting into human beings’s bags as a portable projector that ticks a variety of bins. I also ought to see the general public balking at its cost: $579. Anker’s predecessor to the Nebula Capsule II was our select because the first-rate mini projector final summer. This new one is a lot higher that it’s a shame that it charges a lot. It’s a splendid little gadget.

Unless you need to observe Netflix with it.

I love mini projectors. (You can also confer with them as micro or % projectors, so I’m playing fast and unfastened with the terminology for this class.) The fundamental concept is that you have some thing greatly smaller than a traditional bulb-based totally projector that you may mount in your ceiling. You could take a mini projector camping or use it for your outdoor.

The Capsule II is transportable enough to place anywhere, however it’s pretty a chunk larger than the old one changed into. (Imagine one of those giant Foster’s beer cans, then make it just a little taller.) You can hold it in one hand, and you could throw it in most luggage, however you’ll sense the one and a half of kilos it weighs.

Even in case you don’t realize exactly what you’d need it for, it’s a laugh to imagine where you might create a gigantic display on a whim — despite the fact that it’s simply projecting a horse in your friend. But use any mini projector for even a bit bit, and you’ll discover they may be still caught in a particular segment of technological development: the fiddle zone.

There’s simply so lots to fiddle with on a mini projector! You must find a spot to use it that’s dark sufficient (not to say a surface that’s massive and flat enough to task on). You should ensure it’s aligned and immediately and centered. You should discern out how to get the video you sincerely want to observe on it. You ought to figure out how to get sufficient sound out of it so anybody can listen it.

With a normal projector, you do all of that fiddling ahead of time. You create a permanent setup someplace in your private home over a weekend (or three) in order that the use of your projector is as easy as turning on a traditional TV. With a transportable mini projector, you face the ones demanding situations pretty plenty every time you want to use it.

The complete premise of the Capsule II is that it reduces the quantity of things you have to fiddle with. It is sort of totally successful in that — with a few unforced errors that are worrying however don’t damage the experience.

On a sensible degree, the Capsule II solves two issues that few different portable projectors control. First, it has a decently loud, decently appropriate 8W speaker constructed in, this means that you have got one less component to fear approximately when you set up to look at a movie. You can even use it in a Bluetooth Speaker mode, which has the brought benefit of lasting manner longer than the same old three-ish hours it could run in projector mode.

The 2nd hassle the Capsule II solves is simply getting content into the projector in order that it may assignment it. It has an HDMI-in port, but most of the time, you don’t need it because it runs a easy, local version of Android TV. That approach you can use trendy smart TV apps downloaded immediately from the Google Play Store. As long as you can get a Wi-Fi connection, you could stream video from any app that’s established on the device.

It will aid Chromecast from numerous apps when you have the video stored domestically to your smartphone. The device itself has very little local storage, and Android TV apps aren’t designed for downloaded content material besides. You also can play video thru other means, inclusive of sideloaded apps that aren’t available inside the Google App Store for Android TV or immediately from video documents saved on a USB thumb force. (If you know what I mean, and I think you do.)

There’s an covered far flung manage, so that you can use this projector like you will any smart TV. In fact, it comes with the Google Assistant built in, so that you can speak into the far flung for searches. If you take not anything else faraway from this overview, recall this: it’s a portable projector that’s almost as smooth to apply as your smart TV, and that’s wonderful.

All of this simplicity made the Capsule II’s most critical trouble all the extra frustrating: the most effective way to play Netflix on it's miles a ridiculously hacky workaround. Netflix, you would possibly bear in mind, is very picky approximately what gadgets it'll certify for its video, and the Capsule II hasn’t made the cut yet. Netflix’s certification block additionally applies to casting video, regrettably. So to observe Netflix, you either must be clever sufficient to sideload it yourself or you need to do it Anker’s manner.

Anker’s manner is to install the smartphone app controller app, then ship you through a series of convoluted steps to sideload Netflix at the tool immediately. (If you have been hoping to simply use Cast for Netflix, sorry, that doesn’t paintings either.) Then any longer, you may best run Netflix with the aid of hitting the button inside the cellphone app. It all works, technically, however it’s an awful enjoy. It’s quite tough to invite customers to install a literal record browser app, and it’s just as hard to must use a button on the telephone to release Netflix.

Speaking of tough: Amazon Prime Video is not well suited with this device, both. Aside from those limitations, I changed into able to observe all varieties of movies, HBO suggests, and YouTube films on it. Hulu, Spotify, Pandora. Sling, Showtime, CBS All Access, and a group of different fashionable smart TV apps are also to be had.

Beyond locating the content material you want to look at, there's nevertheless the assignment of having a smooth, rectangular, targeted picture. When you put down the Capsule II, it may use lasers to autofocus. So far, so good. Unfortunately, the chance that you’d get the picture precisely where you need it on the first attempt goes to be low, so you’ll move the capsule a little to restore it. Once you do, it’ll go out of recognition.

Anker installation the software to trigger autofocus whilst the device is moved, but it doesn’t paintings thoroughly. The repair is to keep down the HDMI button at the faraway to set off the autofocus, that is fine. But in case you don’t have the remote handy, the best manner to fix the autofocus — and this is what Anker cautioned — is to pick out the issue up and shake it.

The last fiddly issue with getting an awesome photograph is the “keystone” adjustment, the thing that makes your photograph look like a proper rectangle in place of a trapezoid. The Capsule II can best do vertical keystone adjustment, now not horizontal. That means that you will need to put your projector focused at once in front of the floor you need to mission on.

Getting each vertical and horizontal keystone changes in some thing this small could be hard, and Anker additionally tells me that “comply with the Android TV certification regulations, we had to use handiest a vertical keystone.” It’s no longer a massive deal, however you must be aware about it. There is a popular tripod mount on the bottom of the projector, so I simply use it with a standard Joby GorillaPod tripod to make it easier to area in the proper spot.

This all sounds dire, however in practice, it’s no longer — at least now not when you have the far off and something top to set the Capsule II down on. You center it on a wall, factor it up, hit the button to autofocus, and also you’re executed. Then it’s time to begin gambling a film, and as long as you’ve got a few form of Wi-Fi, that’s as clean as doing it on your TV (minus Netflix and Amazon Prime video). Pro tip: ensure that Google Play films is established to your Movies Anywhere account so that you can access films that have been purchased on Amazon or iTunes.

Once a video goes, the revel in is excellent. The photograph can get truly big and doesn’t seem to float out of consciousness over time. Battery life definitely can reach just brief of three hours in my experience, though you might want to have a charger or backup battery (it costs via USB-C) handy just in case. There is a fan that you may without a doubt listen internal, but it’s no longer loud sufficient to distract from the actual sound of the video you’re watching.

As for photo first-rate, don’t expect this to be as top as your TV. You’ll need a darkish area, and the larger you are making the display screen, the darker your room have to be. Anker costs it at 200 ANSI lumens, that is to say it’s brighter than many other tiny projectors, but nowhere close to as shiny as a dedicated projector you plug in. I projected it on masses of different surfaces and so long as the surface became flat, it produced a easy and sharp 720p picture.

A portable projector is without a doubt an “aspirational” device. You can effortlessly consider all varieties of situations where you will be the hero with a TV for your bag. I personally like having it because I don’t want a TV in my bed room but now and again, you know, you simply need to be in mattress all day and binge something. Or perhaps you have a outside and want to have a bit s’mores-and-movie time.

All that sounds great! But it also sounds like the sort of thing you’d daydream approximately but probably won’t do as much as you’d imagine. If this were a cheaper gadget, I’d say go on and buy your dream — you only live once — but $579 is way too much to spend on a daydream.

If the price doesn’t put you off and you’re also the sort of person who isn’t worried approximately those video content workarounds (I don’t judge), I think it’s a pretty great little TV in a can. I’m glad I have one. But as I’ve said before: if you have to pile on a bunch of caveats and if-thens before you recommend a product, that’s not exactly a ringing endorsement.

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//www.theverge.com/2019/7/6/20683533/nebula-tablet-ii-mini-projector-assessment-tv-netflix
2019-07-06 13:00:00Z
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