The Anker Nebula Capsule 3 Laser is a compact laser projector designed with portability in mind. It has a compact and lightweight design, along with great features that enable a variety of screen setups, and a built-in battery pack designed to last up to 2.5 hours. It also features built-in speakers and Android TV 11.0, allowing you to easily pair it with a wireless hotspot and stream your favorite movies anywhere you want.
Our Verdict
The Anker Capsule 3 Laser is disappointing for watching movies, even in a pitch-black room. It's not very bright, so everything looks a bit dull and muted overall. Dark scenes lack punch, and you don't get much separation between shadows and mid-tones, so finer details tend to blend together. HDR support also doesn't add much, as HDR10 and HLG signals are tone-mapped down to SDR with no real boost in highlight brightness. Its small size and built-in streaming make it convenient for a quick movie night on a wall, but if you're building a dedicated home-theater setup, there are far better options for both brightness and image fidelity.
- Built-in battery pack.
- Android TV OS built-in for easy streaming.
- Low peak brightness.
The Anker Capsule 3 Laser is a sub-par choice for serious gaming. Its input lag at 60Hz is on the high side, so fast-paced shooters and competitive games feel sluggish; there's also no 120Hz support to help smooth things out. It only accepts up to a 4k @ 60Hz signal, which it then downscales to 1080p, and the limited brightness means HDR games don't really pop. On the plus side, the colors look alright, making it suitable for slower single-player titles or turn-based games when you just want something small and easy to set up. However, most gamers will be better off with a faster, brighter projector.
- Low peak brightness.
High input lag, even in Game Mode.
No 120Hz support.
The Anker Capsule 3 Laser is a very dim projector. It looks 'okay' on a small screen in a dark room, but even at 100" it isn't bright enough for a comfortable movie night if there's any ambient light. On the plus side, its brightness uniformity is fantastic, so the image doesn't have distracting hot spots or dark patches.
Fantastic brightness uniformity.
- Low peak brightness.
Looks washed out with any ambient light.
Not suitable for large screen sizes.
Contrast on the Anker Capsule 3 Laser is merely mediocre. In very dark scenes, blacks appear slightly elevated, but once a mix of bright and dark elements is on screen, it holds up reasonably well, maintaining some depth. However, it doesn't impress.
Holds up reasonably well in mid-bright scenes for a tiny portable.
Near-dark scenes look flat.
Limited peak brightness, so images lack pop.
Changelog
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Updated Jan 14, 2026:
We mention the newly reviewed Anker Nebula Capsule 3 in the Noise section of this review.
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Updated Jan 14, 2026:
We've modified the text in our Brightness and Native Contrast text boxes as a result of our latest test bench and added a Sequential Contrast test. We've also added Brightness and Contrast performance usages in the Verdict section.
- Updated Jan 14, 2026: We've converted the review to Test Bench 0.11, which renames our Contrast test to Native Contrast, and adds a Sequential Contrast test box. We also added new Brightness and Contrast performance usages in Our Verdict. See the 0.11 changelog.
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Updated Nov 14, 2025:
We've added Imaging, Optics, Noise, Supported Resolutions, HDR Format Support, 3D, Input Lag, and Audio Passthrough boxes as a result of our latest test bench. We've also added a Gaming usage in the Verdict section.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We bought and tested the Anker Capsule 3 Laser. There are other models in the Capsule lineup, including the Anker Nebula Capsule 3, which uses an LED lamp instead of a laser light source.
| Model | Light Source | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| Capsule 3 Laser | Laser | 1080p |
| Capsule 3 | LED | 1080p |
| Capsule Max | LED | 720p |
| Capsule II | LED | 720p |
Our unit was manufactured in July 2023.
Popular Projector Comparisons
The Anker Capsule 3 Laser is a convenient but compromised portable projector. Its tiny soda-can form factor, built-in battery, and automatic focus/keystone make it easy to toss in a bag and quickly watch something on a wall or in a hotel room. However, its picture quality lags behind that of other premium portables, such as the XGIMI Halo+ or LG CineBeam Q. It's dimmer, with weaker contrast, so movies and games appear flatter and less vibrant, especially indoors with any ambient light. It's also quite expensive for the performance you get, and if you don't need the ultra-portable design, larger compact projectors offer much better image quality for a similar or lower price.
Check out our recommendations for the best portable projectors and the best outdoor projectors. If you'd prefer to shop for another product in the same price range, look up the best projectors under $1,000 instead.
The Anker Nebula Capsule 3 Laser is better than the Anker Nebula Capsule 3. The regular Capsule 3 has a wider color gamut, but the Capsule 3 Laser is brighter, more accurate out of the box, and has lower input lag for gamers, giving it the edge overall.
The XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro projects a slightly more vibrant image than the Anker Nebula Capsule 3 Laser due to its slightly better peak brightness, but the Anker is much more accurate out of the box and has slightly better contrast. The Anker is also even more portable than the XGIMI as it is lighter and smaller and has an integrated battery, which the manufacturer advertises to last up to 2.5 hours.
The XGIMI Halo+ is much better than the Anker Nebula Capsule 3 Laser. The XGIMI is much brighter, has better contrast, and has a much wider color gamut, so it projects a more vibrant image than the Anker. The Anker is more accurate than the XGIMI but not nearly enough to compensate for the XGIMI's edge in image quality.
The Anker Nebula Capsule 3 Laser is a bit better than the XGIMI MoGo 3 Pro. The Anker is brighter, has better contrast, and is more accurate out of the box. The XGIMI has a wider color gamut, but it doesn't matter, as neither projector is bright enough to make colors pop.
We've independently bought and tested over 60 projectors, and we've published all the detailed results for each so you can decide which one to buy. These have all been tested under the same standardized methodology, allowing you to compare them side by side. We still have all these projects in our lab so we can continually go back and compare them to ensure our reviews are still accurate. All our test methodology is also public on our website, so you can validate the results yourself.
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Test Results
After calibration, the Anker Capsule 3 Laser is a very dim projector. It isn't bright enough to make colors pop on a 100-inch screen unless you're in a completely dark room, and even there, it's underwhelming. On the plus side, its brightness uniformity is fantastic, so the image looks very even with hardly any visible dark spots.
The table shows that the 'Standard', 'Movie', and 'Game' presets all fall within the same low-brightness range, so there isn't a noticeably brighter mode to switch to if you need more punch.
| Picture Mode | WLO | CLO |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | 276 lm | 276 lm |
| Movie | 214 lm | 216 lm |
| Game | 244 lm | 245 lm |
The Anker Capsule 3 Laser has mediocre native contrast. In darker scenes, blacks appear more gray than inky, making fine shadow details harder to see than on true home-theater projectors. It holds up a bit better in mid-brightness scenes compared to other portable projectors, so everyday content still looks reasonably punchy, but the overall image never feels especially deep.
This projector has an okay color gamut. It covers most of the Rec. 709 color space used with SDR content. It can't display anything beyond that, though. If you want a similar projector with a wider color gamut, consider the Anker Nebula Capsule Max. However, it's even dimmer than this model, so the difference won't be noticeable to most people. You could also check out the XGIMI MoGo 3 Pro, although that unit is generally a bit worse than this Anker.
Out of the box, the Nebula Capsule 3 Laser projector has mediocre accuracy. The white balance is decent, with very few noticeable issues; however, the color temperature is slightly cool. Colors aren't very accurate, especially reds and blues, but even green is a bit off.
The overall image accuracy is great after calibration. The white balance and gamma are nearly perfect, and the color temperature is close to ideal. Since it lacks a color calibration system, colors are still noticeably inaccurate, especially pure blues and reds.
This compact projector uses a single-chip DLP imaging system paired with a laser-phosphor light engine. The laser source is designed for a very long service life (tens of thousands of hours), and there's no user-replaceable lamp module. As with most single-chip DLP designs, some viewers may notice slight rainbow artifacts (RBE) on high-contrast edges, especially in bright scenes.
The projector keeps things simple with no optical zoom and no lens shift, so placement is all about distance and angle. Still, focus is fully automatic, and it also supports automatic keystoning, which helps square the image if you're off-axis. Use our throw calculator if you want to calculate your throw distance.
The Anker Capsule 3 Laser has a compact design that's easy to carry around. Its auto keystone correction and autofocus features make it a breeze to set up, so you can quickly jump into your favorite movie and spend less time adjusting settings every time you move it. It also features a built-in battery pack, which Anker advertises as lasting approximately 2.5 hours, and includes built-in speakers. A travel case is also available for this model, but it's sold separately.
The Nebula Capsule 3 Laser is pretty quiet. As with most projectors, you'll hear a soft whir from the fan in a silent room, especially if you're sitting close to the unit, but it's not too difficult to camouflage with the audio volume. If you care about getting a quieter unit, consider the regular Anker Nebula Capsule 3 instead.
You can use the USB-C port for charging or as a data port. If you're using it as a data port, connected to a laptop or mobile phone, you're limited to the built-in battery pack.
The projector's input lag is disappointing. It does have a Game Mode, which significantly reduces the unit's input lag, but it's still too slow for competitive or multiplayer games. Still, it's suitable for slower single-player titles, especially if you're not latency-sensitive.
The Nebula Capsule 3 Laser accepts HDR10 and HLG signals over HDMI and tone-maps them to SDR. Still, the unit is too dim, and its dynamic range is too limited for true HDR playback, so highlights don't get any brighter than in SDR, and HDR content doesn't really look any better than SDR.
The Nebula Capsule 3 Laser includes an HDMI eARC port, so you can send audio from its built-in apps to a soundbar or AVR. It can pass basic surround formats like Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital Plus up to 7.1, and LPCM 2.0 from its internal apps. Because the projector has only one HDMI input, eARC only works with its internal apps, so you can't route external sources through the projector.
