The Anker Nebula Capsule Max is a compact, lightweight, and portable LED projector with a built-in battery that lasts up to 4 hours. It has a native 720p resolution and can project a 100-inch image from a distance of 9.4 feet, an 80-inch image from 7.5 feet, a 60-inch image from 5.6 feet, and a 40-inch image from 3.7 feet. It runs the Android 8.1 OS, and you can use it to mirror content from your iOS or Android device. You can also download apps from the Nebula Manager store. It has one integrated 8W speaker.
Our Verdict
The Anker Capsule Max is poor for watching movies in a dark room. The projector has outstanding coverage of the Rec. 709 color space used in SDR content, but it has awful color accuracy out of the box that you can't fix with calibration, so colors don't appear how they're supposed to. It doesn't get bright enough to make colors pop, and it has middling contrast, offering disappointing performance in any room context. It is, however, extremely portable due to its size and integrated battery pack.
- Exceptional portability due to its small size and lightweight design.
- Quick and easy set-up.
- Not usable in a room with lights due to its terrible peak brightness.
- Awful color accuracy that can't be fixed with calibration.
- No cast capabilities and is limited to screen mirroring.
- Middling contrast leads to disappointing performance in dark rooms.
Changelog
- Updated Aug 05, 2024: Updated text throughout the review according to Test Bench 0.9, mainly in the Verdict, Compared To Other Projectors and Contrast sections.
- Updated Aug 02, 2024: We've converted this review to Test Bench 0.9. We've overhauled our Contrast tests, as we now measure contrast at various average pixel levels (APL). You can see the full changelog here.
- Updated Feb 26, 2024: Review published.
- Updated Feb 22, 2024: Early access published.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We bought and tested the Anker Capsule Max. There are other models in the Capsule lineup, including the Anker Nebula Capsule 3 Laser, which uses a laser instead of an LED light source.
| Model | Light Source | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| Capsule 3 Laser | Laser | 1080p |
| Capsule 3 | LED | 1080p |
| Capsule Max | LED | 720p |
| Capsule II | LED | 720p |
Popular Projector Comparisons
Outside of its exceptional portability and easy set-up, the Anker Nebula Capsule Max is a bad projector, and we don't recommend buying it if you care about image quality. Its more expensive sibling, the Anker Nebula Capsule 3, has the same portability but uses a laser light source, has a 1080p resolution, gets a bit brighter, and has much more accurate colors that you can make even better with calibration. If you care less about portability and are more concerned with brightness, the similarly priced Epson EpiqVision Flex CO-W01 has excellent peak brightness that helps make colors pop and makes it useable in a room with lights on.
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 XGIMI Halo+ is much better than the Anker Nebula Capsule Max. They're both small portable projectors, although the Anker is smaller than the already small XGIMI. However, the XGIMI offers better image quality due to its much higher peak brightness and superior color accuracy. The XGIMI also projects a sharper 1080p image, while the Anker is limited to 720p. The XGIMI is also cast-capable and even has an eARC port in case you want to connect a soundbar.
The Anker Nebula Capsule 3 Laser is better than the Anker Nebula Capsule Max. The Capsule 3 Laser gets a bit brighter than the Max, which helps make colors pop more, but it's still not bright enough for a room with lights on. The Capsule 3 Laser offers much better color accuracy, which you can further improve with calibration, and it has a higher native 1080p resolution. The Capsule Max only has automatic vertical keystone correction, but the Capsule 3 Laser also has automatic horizontal correction, so it's easier to set up. The Capsule 3 Laser features the Google Play Store, which offers many more apps to download, and you can cast content from your phone rather than being limited to screen mirroring like on the Capsule Max.
In most ways, the Epson EpiqVision Flex CO-W01 is better than the Anker Nebula Capsule Max. The Epson has significantly better brightness, so colors pop more than they do on the Anker, and it gets bright enough that you can use it in a room with lights on. The Epson also has much more accurate colors, which you can calibrate to further improve. If you're after portability, the Anker has a built-in battery, is much smaller, lighter, and is easier to set up thanks to its automatic vertical keystone correction and autofocus.
The Anker Nebula Capsule Max and the BenQ GV30 are similar projectors that are both very portable and are better than each other in different ways. The Anker has better contrast, so blacks are a bit deeper in a dark room. The BenQ has better color accuracy, so colors are displayed closer to how they're intended, but it's still not very accurate, and you can't calibrate either projector to improve their accuracy further. The BenQ is cast-capable, while the Anker is limited to screen mirroring, so content from your phone looks much better on the BenQ.
We've independently bought and tested over 80 projectors and published 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 methodologies are also public on our website, so you can validate the results yourself.
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