The idea of a portable projector you can easily slip in your bag, or even a pocket and take with you is an attractive option. That’s what Nebula are offering with the Capsule Air, the World’s Smallest Google TV Projector.

Launched in Australia last month, the Nebula Capsula Air is priced at $799. In terms of features, the Capsule Air includes Google TV keeping your apps installed and ready to go when you are and letting you project up to 100” (254cm) at 720P resolution at 150 ANSI Lumens. 

The Capsule Air is made for on-the-go use, with built in speakers and a 2hr battery. The projector is made to go anywhere, with automatic, realtime keystone to keep the image straight, and autofocus to keep the image crisp – letting you make use of a lot of different display surfaces. 

There’s everything you need to get you up and running in the box, the Nebula Capsule Air, charger and cable, Snap-on Base, Remote and AAA batteries and of course a Quick Start Guide.

I’ve been using the Nebula Capsule Air for a couple of weeks and here’s how it went. 

Hardware and Design

The design of the Nebula Capsule Air is compact, and well, it’s hard to escape it, it looks like a can of soft drink.

The projector was launched in two colours – White or Black, but it looks like only the Black model is available I prefer the darker colour, especially when it’s working in a darkened room.. I’d love to see some sort of drawstring bag included in the box – though it looks like you can buy a decent case for $79 – and if you take it travelling, it fits in the cup holder.

The front of the Capsule Air features the Lens, with a Time of Flight (ToF) sensor used for Auto Focus and Auto Keystone Correction. On the rear you find the 5-watt speaker, infrared receiver, Power button as well as the USB-C and HDMI ports. 

The obvious choice for controlling the Capsule Air is the included remote, but you can also control the Capsule Air either with the controls on the top of the projector or through the Nebula Connect app available for Android or iOS.

The remote control is the slimline design we’ve come to know more recently from TV makers, and includes shortcuts for YouTube, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. The remote setup includes the usual controls for power and volume as well as a Home button, Google Assistant button which activates the mic and a D-Pad for navigation. 

There’s also an auto-adjustment button at the top to get the projector to readjust the image if you feel it’s out of focus or a bit off. It’s pretty rare that it happens, with the auto-keystone and auto-focus working really well, but it’s handy to have easy access to the button.

The touch controls on the top of the projector light up when you touch them, and are fairly rudimentary, giving you easy access to volume controls – as well as a way to navigate in a pinch. I found them to be hit and miss, and really recommend you try out the remote.

There’s an LED indicator light that shows the power status, from Blue for ‘on’ to flashing red when the battery is going down. 

Battery and Charging

There’s a  34Wh built-in battery included in the Capsule Air, which nets you around 2 hours of battery life. There’s a 45W PD charger included in the box, which takes around 3 hours to fully charge.

Frustratingly it’s hard to see how much battery is left on your projector. You will get small toast notifications in the top left as the battery runs down, and there is the LED on the top of the unit which will begin to flash red when it’s getting low, but there’s strangely no indicator in the Nebula app when you connect. Instead you’ll have to dig into the settings on the projector – Settings > System > Power and Energy > Battery > Projector Battery – not very handy while watching a movie.

I used the projector to watch movies – all under 2 hours just in case – with the sole exception, I tried to watch Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings and it shut off while in the Mines of Moria. It works pretty well for shorter movies, but watching some of the bigger movies series like the Marvel movies, or Star Wars etc. whose runtimes often run over the two hour mark (sometimes to three) means you’ll need an additional power source.

If you want more options on battery life, you can always add a power bank to the mix, or in July you’ll be able to grab one of their Power Bank Tripods, which includes a 9,600mAh battery and it’s also a tripod, so you can increase your projection height from 22cm to 80cm, and angle up to 90°.

Stand

The Capsule Air can attach to a tripod by itself thanks to the ¼ 20 thread screw mount on the base, but you can also attach the included Snap-On Stand which adds even more ways to project. 

It’s easy to attach to the bottom of the Capsule Air which has a simple ring attachment you slot it into and twist. There’s still a tripod mount on the base if you still want to mount it on a tripod.

The stand itself allows you to angle the Capsule Air up to 30°, with the flip out ring on the bottom providing a pretty decent amount of stability. Though if you go too far it will tip.

You can project onto the roof if you go into manual mode – which the projector will tell you if you tilt it too far and give you the option to go into manual mode. You can also trigger this manually in the settings if you want to use the roof regularly – not a bad idea for falling asleep in bed.

The ring in the base also gives you the option to just hang the Capsule Air upside down from a convenient hook or screw in the wall. The projector automatically adjusts for this when it starts.

There is a template and screws included in the box which will help you to mount the stand on a wall for a more permanent mount. 

If you want even more options, Nebula will launch a Gimbal Stand in July, which gives you options for projecting in up to 360°.

Connectivity

The Capsule Air includes Google TV – the world’s smallest Google TV Projector, which makes media consumption very easy and also brings the benefits of letting you Chromecast to it from your devices.

On the hardware front, the Capsule Air includes a HDMI and USB Type-C ports on the rear as well as Bluetooth for other connection options .

The HDMI is easy enough, simply plug it up to your PC/Mac, game console, or anything else and you’re off and racing. The Capsule Air picks up the signal and you’re off and racing – I found the Capsule Air to be an awesome secondary display in my office just projecting it on the wall for videos while working on my main screen.

The USB-C Port is for charging or reading from a drive only. There’s only one port, so you can also plug in a USB-C hub to expand that so you can then charge and read from a drive a the same time.

You can use the Capsule Air as a Bluetooth speaker if you want, simply go into the Google TV Settings and you can enable Bluetooth Audio mode. It’s a handy little 

Projecting! Is it bright or big enough? Loud Enough?

In terms of brightness, the Capsule Air can produce up to 150 ANSI Lumens at 720P resolution. It includes a speaker so you can play your movies anywhere, with that audio supporting Dolby Atmos.

In terms of brightness, my testing found that it really depends on the size you want to project (hence smaller throw distance) and the brightness of the room. While you can’t use it in a well lit room at 100”, it works decently at say 20-32”. Of course the darker you get the room, the easier it is to see – and obviously using it in the dark at night is brilliant. 

At 720p resolution for the throw, you get what you get, but the image quality is sharp and crisp for what it is. The 60Hz refresh rate at 720p isn’t the greatest for gaming, however it works well for media. 

The automatic re-sizing and keystoning happens without you asking and it’s very thorough but works very well – though you can just hit the button on the remote and it fixes itself quite quickly.

I was able to use the Capsule Air with a smaller display at my desk, simply projecting onto the wall at closer distances in normal office light – but as I normally like to work in a cave it works for me. 

The audio is powered by a 5W speaker – or speakers – as the Capsule Air supports Dolby Atmos. It’s a surprisingly loud sound system for a 5W speaker system, and while it handles all the mids, with speech very crisp and easy to hear, you don’t get the real low-end bass is lost during action sequences.

It’s a decent speaker for what it is though, offering a fairly broad speaker with enough volume.

Should you buy it?

The Nebula Capsule Air is a neat little projector. Its compact size makes it great for taking with you, giving you options for playing media, games or even making a presentation on the go.

That said, there’s limitations ons. The 150 ANSI Lumens brightness could be an issue if you can’t get the room dark enough, and if you need a lot of detail then the 720p resolution is likely not quite what you want. There’s also the two hour battery life which is limiting if you want to watch some of the latest movies without a battery backup.

The overall package though is attractive, with the compact unit giving you a really easy way to watch movies on the go. Throw in a USB battery bank and hotspot and that Google TV projector will keep you and the kids entertained for hours – especially handy for camping.

You can check it out over on the Nebula website at au.seenebula.com, or through retailers including JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman and The Good Guys for RRP $799.