Soundcore Nebula X1 Pro review

If you don’t want to bother with the fuss and decision-making of choosing a projector and sound system to pair together for your premium home cinema system, then there has not been a whole lot available on the market.

But the Nebula X1 Pro is trying to plug that gap.

It combines a 4K projector with four detachable Dolby Atmos speakers to deliver the “world's first mobile theatre system”. That’s all put together into a package on wheels, which makes carting it around easier.

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On paper, this is a tempting proposition but, in this case, the combination of execution and price doesn’t quite add up.

Price

If you want to get your hands on this unique projector system, then you will have to pay the rather premium sum of £4499 / $4999 / AU$8999.

That’s a pretty big step-up in price from its more modest sibling – the Nebula X1, which we tested at £2200 / $2999. This is a more compact 4K projector to which we awarded four stars for its punchy picture and rich sound. It features a built-in sound system, although you can add Nebula’s two optional wireless speakers, which create a wider soundfield. That differs from the more elaborate sound system of the X1 Pro.

Design

The X1 Pro is quite a special-looking beast, resembling a suitcase-robot hybrid that could easily feature in a Philip K. Dick novel.

It is 76cm tall and weighs a hefty 33kg, but Anker makes its transportation easier with some clever additions. These include an extendable handle and two sturdy wheels to carry the projector around as if you are off to the airport. There are also two handles on the chassis if you need to carry the X1 Pro up the stairs.

There is no built-in battery, so keep in mind that you will need to keep the projector connected to the mains wherever you want to use it. The two-metre power cable is retractable from a cove at the bottom of the projector, so there’s a fair bit of flexibility.

At the top, there’s a handy lid that stores the back-lit remote control and a pair of karaoke microphones, should you wish to show off your pipes. On the remote, you will find buttons for volume, power, settings, the home menu and auto image adjustment. There is a handy back-lit panel on the top of the lid of the projector, which gives you access to many of these features as well.

Arguably, the most exciting aspect of the Nebula projector is its speaker design. There are four detachable speakers hidden inside the X1 Pro’s body, each with a durable black plastic grille.

All of the speakers feature retractable little stands with rubber feet to keep them stable, and they are all simple to set up. There is also a subwoofer built into the projector itself.

Features

But what are the speakers packing under their sleek-looking exteriors? The front speakers have two forward-facing, one side-firing and one up-firing driver each. That differs slightly from the rears, which include one forward-facing and one up-firing driver per speaker.

The subwoofer features two drive units, each measuring 13cm in diameter.

This sound system has Dolby Atmos support. FlexWave, Soundcore's proprietary spatial audio calibration technology, is also included. The brand claims this “uses sensors, spatial algorithms, and auto EQ calibration” to “intelligently adjust to your room's acoustics”.

When setting up the projector, you will be prompted to calibrate your speakers. This takes less than five minutes, as the speakers play a range of test frequencies and a music sample to get the best spatial soundfield.

There’s a neat nook for physical connectivity, consisting of one HDMI with eARC support and three USB ports. Inside is a small light to help with navigation in the dark, which is a handy addition.

As well as the remote and panel, you can control the projector with the Nebula Connect app. This lets you adjust the picture and sound settings, image correction, switch app input, and you can cast from another device. We do not find ourselves reaching for the app much during testing, though, as the remote control and top panel offer much of its functionality.

In terms of screen set-up, there is a selection of shortcuts that make the whole process pretty simple. That includes auto-focus, keystone correction and wall-colour adaptation (useful if you are projecting on a non-white surface). We find that selecting Spatial Adaptation analyses our dedicated screen most effectively, and adjusts focus and sizing all in one.

The projector offers a claimed maximum brightness of 3500 ANSI lumens, and you can push the screen size as big as 300 inches. It is built around a DLP optical system illuminated by a triple laser lighting system.

The X1 Pro can play 4K sources and high dynamic range in the HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision formats, but it only supports up to 4K@60Hz video playback, which will be a bit of a shame for gamers.

There are ten picture modes to choose from, but we go with NebulaMaster when using a 4K Blu-ray as, once tweaked (details below), it delivers the best balance between detail and brightness.

The choice of picture modes changes when we go to streaming – we find that Movie is the best choice in this case thanks to its natural-looking motion and colourful image.

Picture quality

When we boot up the projector in NebulaMaster picture mode for the first time, we are met with overexuberant colours and smoothed textures that make for a distracting viewing experience.

But after knocking the saturation and sharpness down, and turning up the brightness a little, we are left with a more pleasing overall image that is engaging and punchy. The colours are still on the exaggerated side, but they are eye-catching and give the picture a burst of energy.

When watching Thunderbolts, as the rag-tag team face up against Sentry, the villain’s brightly coloured costume stands out against the background, which makes for an engaging experience. The rest of the picture follows this colourful portrayal, with the blue skyline and amber-lit bar area giving the background a lively look.

The edges of characters and items are crisp and clean, and there is little noise in textures, contributing to an overall picture that feels sharp without tipping into being over-etched.

Nebula’s 4K model does not unearth as much detail as we would hope for at this level, but it is still good enough to see the creases in Sentry’s clothes and strands of his hair.

The projector shows off its impressive motion-handling skills with F1 The Movie. This is after adjusting the MEMC (Motion Estimation and Motion Compensation) setting from medium to low, as the default setting results in an unnatural smoothness. With the adjustment, cars zoom around the track with minimal judder and a good sense of authenticity.

However, the projector struggles to portray darker skin tones with the same level of detail as lighter ones. As plucky F1 driver Joshua talks to his cousin, the shadows across the latter's face block out a fair amount of detail, so it is nearly impossible to make out the distinction between his chin and beard.

This issue extends to the projector’s black depth, and is further illustrated by Sinners. As Michael B Jordan’s Stack has a tense conversation in a low-lit barn, the X1 Pro delivers the dark background with a fair bit of banding that verges on grey at points.

We do the majority of our testing with the lights off in our dark test room, which lets the projector deliver a bright and clean overall image. To see how it performs in other scenarios, we turn the lights up slightly from our usual dark testing conditions.

As with most home cinema projectors, contrast suffers, and detail is lost. Continuing with Sinners, for instance, it is hard to differentiate faces as the characters venture outside the barn, which makes for a less immersive overall experience.

Even when we turn the lights up higher, though, it's not unwatchable, and the colours are still reasonably punchy, though diminished a little. You do lose the finest details and the sense of three-dimensionality, but it would still be serviceable for a bright movie.

Overall, the X1 Pro’s picture is likeable and engaging, but it could do with a touch more detail and subtlety. By general standards, it’s a solid performer, but for the price, we know that better is available.

Sound quality

The Nebula X1 Pro’s sound set-up is packing some impressive features by projector standards, so we feel hopeful when we get it in our test room.

There are three sound modes to choose from: Movie, Outdoors, and Music. After a good deal of testing, we opt for the first option as it delivers the best balance between precision and scale.

The sound is certainly more room-filling than most projectors that have built-in speakers, but it is ultimately let down by a lack of precision and dynamics.

Vocals are clear and easy to make out from the rest of the sound, but there is not much expression or subtle inflexion in individual voices.

While watching Sinners, as Sammie calls the spirits with the power of his singing, his voice is at the forefront of the sound, but it lacks the emotion that we have heard with rival systems. His voice should come in tentatively but grow stronger as the scene goes on, but the X1 Pro does not convey this level of subtlety.

There’s also not a great sense of precision as the different voices and instruments chime in. The sound should fill the room and the space between the speakers, but it's obvious where it's emanating from instead of coming from all angles.

When watching Top Gun: Maverick, Tom Cruise’s titular character challenges his cohort of cadets to some aerial contests. As the jet flies up into the sky, we get some sense of height, but it does not extend much further than the middle of the projector screen.

It feels more like there are tall columns of sound coming from the speakers rather than the dome of sound we are looking for with a Dolby Atmos product. You can turn off Nebula’s FlexWave surround sound technology, but this makes the sound feel smaller and less precise, so we opt to keep it on, despite its limitations.

The system doesn’t create a cohesive soundfield with any great skill, and we note gaps even when we’ve taken care over speaker positioning. There is a configuration where the front speakers can be left in the main projector body, almost like a soundbar, but, as expected, this reduces the level of scale and width.

Dynamics are not the strongest, either. As the jet prepares to take off, there is not much of a build-up between the initial rumble of the engine and the crescendo of the plane in flight.

The X1 Pro’s bass also fails to pack a meaty weight, instead landing with a rather flat softness. When watching Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, our hero faces off against a monstrous soul-sucking dragon. Punches should sound deep and impactful, but they lack the powerful drive necessary to convey the right level of force.

It doesn't help that the subwoofer is built into the projector’s body, which means we cannot tune or position it differently without moving the projector itself.

Verdict

The Nebula X1 Pro’s clever design is certainly an intriguing novelty, and its crisp picture performance delivers a reasonable balance between punchiness and clarity. It would be even better if there were greater subtlety in the rendition of colours, though.

But its audio makes for an underwhelming experience, lacking the necessary insight, dynamic expression and surround capability to convince. It’s fussy to set up, too.

However, the biggest issue here is the price. At this level, it would seem more sensible to invest in a separate projector and sound system to get the best performance from both.

SCORES

• Picture 4
• Sound 2
• Features 4

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