Every now and then, I test a gadget so wild that I can’t believe a company actually made it. Soundcore’s $5,000 Nebula X1 Pro projector is the embodiment of that: an ultra bright projector and a 400-watt Dolby Atmos 7.1 speaker system combined in a massive enclosure. With a fast and flexible setup, it lets you screen movies or watch sports nearly anywhere.
It’s not just a projector crammed into a big speaker system, though. Everything is elegantly integrated and setup is nearly automatic, thanks to the clever design and motorization. The weight and price are the biggest strikes against it, but if you can afford it, and love hosting movie nights, the Nebula X1 Pro is one of the coolest devices you can buy.
Design
Made by Anker sub-brand Soundcore, the Nebula X1 Pro has a professional-looking enclosure housing a Nebula X1 laser projector and five speakers — a subwoofer, two front satellites and two rear satellites. With all that crammed in, the projector is big and heavy at 30 inches high and 72 pounds. Fortunately, it has a pair of wheels on the back and a telescoping handle so it’s easy to roll from room to room or dolly outside. Good luck carrying it up a set of stairs or unloading it from a vehicle by yourself, though.
Soundcore made the Nebula X1 Pro as outdoor-friendly as possible, with IP43 and IP54 ratings on the body and speakers, respectively, to withstand short periods of rain. If you want to use it away from home, the company sells optional kits with a 200-inch inflatable screen or an Anker Solix C1000 battery that can power it for several hours.
The four wireless satellite speakers have seven horizontal and four overhead channels, and the two-speaker subwoofer is inside the main enclosure. The rear speakers pop out of a spring-loaded storage dock with a light press, same for the telescoping speaker legs.
The front satellite speaker docking system is even more slick. To release them, you press a button on top and they fold out of the side via a motorized system. You can either leave them there or detach them at the touch of a button. All speakers can be charged externally over USB-C or inside their docks. They have eight hours of battery life, though I found the bigger front ones held a charge for slightly longer than that.
The X1 Pro also includes a pair of high-quality Soundcore wireless microphones for DJ-ing or karaoke, tucked under the top panel. Those feature AI vocal removal from songs, one-touch reverb and 40 hours of battery life — everything you need for a karaoke party.
There’s only a single HDMI 2.1 port at the back (which is odd considering that the Nebula X1 has two) with eARC support for Dolby Atmos sound. It also comes with two USB-C ports for external file playback, charging and a PC connection. Lastly, the power cable is retractable, which is another nice design touch.
Features
I also reviewed the Nebula X1 projector that’s inside the X1 Pro, but here’s a summary in case you missed it. The projector uses Soundcore’s proprietary “LaserForge 2.0” liquid-cooled, triple-laser engine that beams a bright, color-accurate image with very little fan noise (26 db). It promises high native contrast thanks to the 6-blade dynamic iris and NebulaMaster 2.0 image engine. The 0.9:1 to 1.5:1 optical zoom lens allows for flexible installation and employs 14 high-quality, long-lasting glass elements.
The X1 Pro uses the same 0.47-inch DLP chip found in many other projectors (and not the bigger, better 0.67-inch chip coming soon in XGIMI’s Titan Noir). The lasers are beamed through a color phosphor wheel twice to achieve excellent 90 percent color and brightness uniformity across the screen.
The projector’s motorized gimbal tilts 25 degrees upward so you can position it well below the screen. The “spatial adaptation” feature scans the projection area then beams the final image to precisely fit the screen or wall. It worked nicely for me, though overhead lights or other obstacles can throw it off. The projector can adapt to ambient light and the wall color, and another function called Spatial Recall lets you save all your settings for later.
Once I detached them, the speakers paired automatically to the X1 Pro over 5.8Ghz Wi-Fi with no difficulty. I placed them around the room to maximize soundstage, then the Nebula X1 Pro’s “Flexwave” tech used a built-in four-mic array to detect their positions and calibrate the audio. I was seated off to the side, so I used the “smart sweet spot” feature to drag the center point toward my position for optimal sound balance.
Google TV is included, offering a large library of streaming apps and an easy-to-use projector control interface via the included remote (tucked into the top so you hopefully won’t lose it). You get Netflix’s official app with support for 4K Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, plus the X1 Pro has Chromecast support and Google Assistant for voice control. The interface can occasionally be sluggish, though Soundcore has improved its latency since I tested the Nebula X1.
Image quality
Even after testing other high-end projectors including Valerion’s VisionMaster Max, the Soundcore Nebula X1 Pro is still the brightest and sharpest I’ve seen. The company’s luminosity claim is accurate; I measured 3,514 ANSI lumens in “Standard” mode from the center of the screen and 3,310 in the cinematic “NebulaMaster” mode. It can output a whopping 4,175 lumens in Conference mode, albeit with a heavy blue color cast.
That brightness allowed me to comfortably watch content on a sunny day with the shades up. The X1 Pro also offers high dynamic contrast up to 56,000:1, aided by the automatic iris and NebulaMaster image engine, which also keeps the image from washing out in daytime conditions.
When used in more ideal dark conditions, the image was bright, sharp and incredibly color accurate. Soundcore claims 110 percent coverage of the challenging BT.2020 HDR color space (with a Delta E less than 0.8), putting the X1 Pro in elite company with a few select models from Samsung, Hisense and a few others. I measured around 94 percent BT.2020 coverage in ISF mode, which falls short of the company’s claim but is still impressive.
The high color accuracy meant that the TV series and movies I watched like Iron Man 2, Dune 2, Andor and F1 looked beautifully cinematic. If the colors aren’t quite to your liking, you can make fine adjustments manually. Like other 4K projectors with a 0.47-inch DLP chip, the X1 has a slight amount of light spill around the edge of the screen, but it’s only noticeable when the projected image is particularly dark.
With HDMI 2.1 the Nebula X1 Pro supports 4K 120 fps sources, but can only display 4K at 60 fps. Because of that, and the relatively high input lag, it’s not ideal for gaming.
Audio
The 400-watt audio setup is what elevates the Nebula X1 Pro above its rivals. Thanks to their Wi-Fi connectivity, the satellites have a latency of just 25 milliseconds, compared to 150 milliseconds or more for typical Bluetooth speakers. That keeps sound and picture perfectly synced, something that can be a problem with other wireless speaker setups.
The X1’s two internal subwoofers can pump out sound as low as 38Hz at up to 87 decibels. That allowed for the loud and punchy (but not boomy) bass I love for action movies like Spider-Man: No Way Home and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. At the same time, that bass is clear and subtle for less bombastic films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. To avoid vibrating the projector, the subwoofer is mounted on a suspension system, and I found it didn’t affect the picture even during loud scenes.
With the four wireless speakers spread around a big room, I got an outstanding soundstage with Dolby Atmos-supported content including Star Wars: A New Hope and The White Lotus: Season 3. The speakers delivered crisp and accurate highs, while the dedicated front voice drivers let me hear even soft dialogue, though midrange sound could occasionally be a bit tinny. It faithfully reproduced tricky film soundtracks like Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and did justice to the industrial metal and symphonic music in The Matrix. Yes, you’d get better sound from a dedicated high-end 7.1 Dolby system, but with far more setup hassle and zero portability.
Wrap-up
Soundcore’s Nebula X1 Pro is a home theater marvel that’s so well-designed almost anyone can set it up. By integrating one of the best triple-laser projectors with a 400-watt Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 surround system, and then putting all of that on wheels, you can enjoy an immersive cinema experience nearly anywhere.
This Nebula X1 Pro has no true rivals, but competitors with similar projectors (but no sound systems) include the Valerion VisionMaster Max and XGIMI Horizon 20 Max, both triple-laser systems with comparable brightness and color accuracy. Once you add an audio surround system, though, you’ll be spending the same amount and won’t get the X1 Pro’s convenience and portability.
The catch, of course, is the $5,000 price. However, if you have the money and want the ultimate home theater experience that’s portable and easy to use, Soundcore’s beastly Nebula X1 Pro is actually a good deal.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/home-theater/soundcore-nebula-x1-pro-review-the-king-of-party-projectors-010018484.html?src=rss