How The Nebula X1 Points The Way For Projection Technology

Forbes

a day ago

The Nebula X1 projector features an optical zoom mounted on a gimbal, which, in conjunction with ... More some smart AI processing can automatically fit the image to the available wall space.
Not everyone I know gets as excited about projectors as I do (I know, weird right?), but after being introduced to the Nebula X1, I was amazed to see how much technology parent company Anker has crammed inside it.
Aimed primarily at the lifestyle market, the Nebula X1 is a portable projector that is designed to be used outdoors as well as inside. And while US$2,999/£2,200 is still a significant sum, it boasts remarkable specifications for the lifestyle market at which it's aimed.
Not only is the X1 4K and HDR capable, but it also offers Dolby Vision, the HDR format used in Dolby Cinema and by many TVs, but rare in the projector world. It makes good use of this thanks to its maximum brightness output of 3,500 lumens, a figure that's which is eyebrow-liftingly high for a home projector at this price.
Naturally, high brightness in a relatively compact space generates heat. Remarkably, to manage this, Nebula has chosen to fit the X1 with a liquid-cooling system, something normally associated with gaming PCs. Anker claims that compared to the conventional fan-only approach, this has enabled it to improve heat dissipation by 15% and reduce the size of the unit by 30%, while bringing down the noise level to just 26dB.
As per the Nebula Cosmos 4K SE, it can be deemed a smart-home device by dint of the fact that it has Google TV built in. While some users might want to add their own cutting-edge external streaming device, the Quad-Core ARM Cortex-A55 CPU, an ARM Mali-G52 MC1 GPU, 2GB RAM, and 32 GB of ROM will keep things moving sufficiently. To support 4K streams comfortably, the integrated Wi-Fi is also 5GHz-capable.
A liquid cooling system isn't the sort of thing you expect to see in a projector but helps keep the ... More X1 cool and compact.
The compute power above is also put to good use by the image-optimization tech. Inevitably dubbed 'AI' Spatial Adaptation, it analyzes the surface you've pointed it at and adjusts to avoid obstacles, applies keystone correction and zooms to make the best use of the space, and if it gets moved, it will adjust itself quickly. It can even self-calibrate the image to adjust for the color of the surface you're projecting onto.
Seeing it in action demonstrates that 'smart' tech is starting to live up to its billing and means that you don't have to be an expert to get a well-set-up image, though if you're a tech-control freak, you can go manual should you wish.
Should you wish to make things even easier, a gimbal-based 360-degree rotation stand is also available for $179.00/£120.
What helps it do this is the presence of an optical zoom capability. This is mounted on a gimbal. The optical zoom means you don't lose resolution regardless of zoom size and produces a throw ratio of 0.9:1 to 1.5:1—it can generate an image up to 200in. Watching it in action is great fun: the eye-like motor and moving-grid pattern gave me Star Wars droid vibes.
A key reason for the visual flexibility is the presence of a triple-laser optical light engine featuring a 'U-shaped' laser optical path: another, 'at this price?' generating moment. This means that, without requiring a large chassis, it can maintain optical quality, whether projecting close to a wall or far away from it. The U-shape gives light more distance to travel through the lens system, so there's more opportunity to regulate convergence for a more color-stable image.
The Nebula X1 features an all-glass 14 element optical system with a U-shaped light path for ... More improved light control.
This brings us nicely to the fact that, in a first for a 'smart' lifestyle-projector, the Nebula has a 14-element all-glass lens. This minimizes spherical and chromatic aberrations and helps with thermal stability, so you get a better image out of the box and over a longer period.
With a super-bright laser light engine, image speckle, as in grainy, shimmering artifacts, can become an issue. Anker has therefore equipped the Nebula X1 with a double-pass speckle diffuser wheel. Again, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, this is not something I'd associate with a 'budget' projector!
Further blowing my mind is the fact that the lens system has a 6-blade dynamic iris, so it can adjust the amount of light hitting the screen, resulting in a claimed 5,000:1 native contrast ratio and 56,000:1 when the iris is fully closed.
A Sound Approach
If you think that sounds good, you should hear how good the Nebula X1… well, sounds. The built-in speaker inside the main unit is beefy, with four side-firing speakers that go from 20Hz up to 20KHz, consisting of two 15W main drivers and 5W tweeters, and two passive radiators to add bass.
The tour-de-force, however, is the optional external, rechargeable battery-powered speakers that you can buy in a US$999/£500 accessory kit. These have a 40W amplifier for the front drivers and 20W of power for upfiring and side speakers. When connected, the unit effectively becomes the bass and surrounds, giving you a 4.1.2 system. Once you've passed the various firmware updates, it's super-easy to set up,
While the tech inside the main unit shows no compromise in attaining cinema-grade image quality, the portable wireless microphone for Karaoke firmly pulls the Nebula X1 into the 'fun' lifestyle camp (at least it was fun until I started singing).
This also brings us to my arguably favorite feature of the X1—its handle! This sits flush inside the top of the unit but pops when you press on it, in a highly satisfying way, while also making it easy to move the 6.2kg unit around.
Ultimately, what impressed me most about the Nebula X1 is how much of a well-thought-out product it is. It demonstrates what can happen when a vertically integrated company with strong supply-chain links executes on its core strengths of hardware engineering and user-focused design. The result is a product that offers high-end features that, up until now, had no right to be on something with such broad appeal. Anker might have the brand cache of other major brands that specialize in this area, but with the Nebula X1, it has certainly given them something to think about.