A common complaint about projectors is that they only work well in dark rooms, so they’re not ideal for things like daytime sports viewing. Anker’s Soundcore division has addressed that issue with its latest projector, the Nebula X1S. It take the company’s original Nebula X1, which was already bright at 3,500 lumens, and adds an extra lamp to boost that to 6,000 lumens — making it one of the brightest consumer projectors on the market.
Like the X1, the Nebula X1S is a triple-laser projector offering 4K UHD, Dolby Vision video that can easily fill a 300-inch screen. You can place it on a stand, table or the floor, with a wide 25 degrees of tilt available to make screen fitting as easy as possible. There’s a 14-element glass array inside the body, which the company says should provide reliable image quality for the life of the unit. It’s flexible, too, with an optical zoom letting you cast on a screen up to 200 inches wide from between 13 and 22 feet away.
Where the X1S differs is in the lamp array. The original Nebula X1 came with a three lamp optical engine that could deliver up to 3,500 ANSI lumens, but the X1S comes with a four-lamp engine that boosts brightness to an incredible 6,000 lumens at maximum brightness. That’s equivalent to a TV brightness of just under 500 nits, meaning that the Nebula X1S should be bright enough to use even in daylight with the shades up.
As before, the Nebula X1S has an f/2-4.5 6-blade iris that delivers up to a 56,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, so black levels should be excellent as well. As I noted in my review of the Nebula X1, brightness and contrast were already among the best in the triple-laser category “and not far off JVC and Sony projectors that cost twice as much.”
The key downside is still a lack of Dolby Atmos audio, however you can get the Nebula X1S in a bundle with two satellite speakers that boost output to 150 watts total and greatly improve quality and soundstage. Other key features include built-in Google TV, two HDMI inputs including one with eARC, and a quiet 26 decibel noise profile thanks to the liquid cooling system.
The Nebula X1S is now available for $3,299, $3,999 with the speaker bundle or $4,167 with the speakers and a 100-inch screen. Until September 20, Soundcore is offering steep discounts on all those bundles at $2,499, $2,799 and $2,899, respectively.
