The Anker Nebula Mars 3 Air is a portable 1080p @ 60Hz DLP projector with an LED light source. It's designed for room-to-room use and casual outdoor viewing, with a built-in battery, integrated carry handle, Google TV, casting support, and dual 8W speakers. For setup, it supports autofocus, automatic keystone correction, obstacle avoidance, auto screen fit, and post-movement auto-correction, so you can reposition it without manually readjusting the image every time. It has one HDMI port, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a USB-A port, but no Ethernet or optical audio output.
Our Verdict
The Anker Mars 3 Air is sub-par for movie watching. Its biggest issues are brightness and contrast: it needs a dark room and a small screen size to look watchable, and dark scenes look gray and flat instead of deep or cinematic. Its judder handling is also disappointing, so camera pans in movies look uneven if you're sensitive to choppy motion. Still, its color gamut is wide for a portable projector, so colorful movies and animated content look fairly vibrant, and its accuracy is okay enough out of the box for most people, but it can't really be improved through calibration.
Colorful in most content.
Highly portable due to its carry handle and a battery.
Has a full suite of screen adaptation features.
Not really bright enough for anything but dark rooms.
Contrast struggles in very dark scenes.
Somewhat accurate out of the box, but can't really be improved through calibration.
Camera pans can look choppy if you’re sensitive to judder.
The Anker Mars 3 Air is sub-par for gaming. It's limited to 1080p @ 60Hz, and input lag is also only passable, although it's responsive enough for slower games. Image quality is also not a strength, as the unit is dim, with disappointing contrast. Still, its built-in battery and automatic setup tools make it easy to set it down for a quick gaming session. Its Google TV OS gives you access to cloud streaming gaming services, so you don't need to lug a gaming console with you.
Colorful in most content.
Highly portable due to its carry handle and a battery.
Has a full suite of screen adaptation features.
Not really bright enough for anything but dark rooms.
Input lag isn't good enough for faster games.
Limited to 1080p @ 60Hz.
Somewhat accurate out of the box, but can't really be improved through calibration.
The Anker Mars 3 Air has poor brightness. It's usable in a dark room, especially at smaller screen sizes, but it loses impact quickly if there's any ambient light. This limits it for daytime viewing or lights-on use, though its fantastic brightness uniformity helps the image look clean and even across the screen.
Fantastic brightness uniformity.
Not really bright enough for anything but dark rooms.
The Anker Mars 3 Air has disappointing contrast. Very dark scenes look washed out, with raised blacks and limited shadow depth, so it doesn't deliver a very cinematic image in a dark room. It's less of an issue with brighter content like animation, sports, or casual TV, but overall contrast isn't a strength.
Contrast struggles in very dark scenes.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the Anker Mars 3 Air projector. There are no variants of this model, but Anker also sells the larger Anker Nebula Mars 3, which is the closest related model. The regular Mars 3 is brighter, has a longer-lasting battery, a more powerful speaker system, and a more rugged outdoor-focused design, while the Mars 3 Air is smaller, lighter, and better suited to casual room-to-room use. Our review only applies to the Mars 3 Air.
Our unit was manufactured in China.
Popular Projector Comparisons
The Anker Nebula Mars 3 Air is a solid portable projector for the price, especially if you want something with a handle, built-in battery, Google TV, and quick auto-setup tools. As is typical of products in this class, you're giving up image quality for portability and value: brightness is limited, contrast is weak, and it's only a 1080p model. Still, it performs well for its class and is a better all-around option than many similarly priced portable projectors, like the Anker Nebula Capsule 3, the XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro, and the Samsung The Freestyle 2nd Gen. The regular Anker Nebula Mars 3 is the closest alternative. It looks and performs similarly in many ways, but it adds a longer-lasting battery and rugged outdoor-focused features like water, dust, and drop resistance. However, it's also much more expensive, so the Mars 3 Air is the better value if you just want a portable projector for casual movies, shows, and gaming around the home or backyard. Overall, the Mars 3 Air isn't a standout for pure image quality, but it's a good choice if price, portability, and convenience matter most.
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 $500 instead.
The Anker Nebula Mars 3 Air is better than the XGIMI MoGo 2 Pro, as the Anker is brighter and much more accurate right out of the box. The Anker is also far better for gaming due to its noticeably lower input lag, making it more responsive in all titles. While the XGIMI is smaller, the Anker has a handle, so it's just as easy to carry around.
The Anker Nebula Mars 3 Air is better than the Anker Nebula Capsule 3. While the Capsule has slightly better contrast, the Air is way brighter and much more accurate out of the box, delivering a more impactful viewing experience. While the Capsule is much smaller, the Air has a handle, so it's not any harder to carry around. It's also far better for gaming due to its far lower input lag, which makes games much more responsive than they are on the Capsule.
The Anker Nebula Capsule 3 Laser and the Anker Nebula Mars 3 Air trade blows. The Capsule has better contrast, but the Air has a wider color gamut; still, image quality isn't a strength for either one. While the Capsule is much smaller, the Air has a handle, so neither one is truly more portable than the other. The Air does have a longer-lasting battery, but the Capsule can be powered through USB, so you can carry a power bank with you to charge it. For gaming, neither one is a standout, but the Air's input lag is lower, so it's the better option for gamers. Ultimately, you might just want to get the cheapest one you can find, as they're very similar.
The Anker Nebula Mars 3 Air is better than the Samsung The Freestyle 2nd Gen. The Anker is far brighter and has deeper contrast, so it delivers a much more impactful viewing experience in any room. The Samsung is much smaller and has a nifty gimbal stand to let you aim it, but the Anker has a handle and a battery, so it's just as easy to carry around. It's also far superior for gaming due to its noticeably lower input lag.
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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