Soundcore Nebula X1 Pro review: The king of party projectors

Every now and then, I trial a gadget truthful chaotic that I can’t judge a institution really made it. Soundcore’s $5,000 Nebula X1 Pro projector is nan embodiment of that: an ultra agleam projector and a 400-watt Dolby Atmos 7.1 speaker strategy mixed successful a monolithic enclosure. With a accelerated and elastic setup, it lets you surface movies aliases watch sports astir anywhere.

It’s not conscionable a projector crammed into a large speaker system, though. Everything is elegantly integrated and setup is astir automatic, acknowledgment to nan clever creation and motorization. The weight and value are nan biggest strikes against it, but if you tin spend it, and emotion hosting movie nights, nan Nebula X1 Pro is 1 of nan coolest devices you tin buy.

Design

Made by Anker sub-brand Soundcore, nan Nebula X1 Pro has a professional-looking enclosure lodging a Nebula X1 laser projector and 5 speakers — a subwoofer, 2 beforehand satellites and 2 rear satellites. With each that crammed in, nan projector is large and dense astatine 30 inches precocious and 72 pounds. Fortunately, it has a brace of wheels connected nan backmost and a telescoping grip truthful it’s easy to rotation from room to room aliases dolly outside. Good luck carrying it up a group of stairs aliases unloading it from a conveyance by yourself, though.

Soundcore made nan Nebula X1 Pro arsenic outdoor-friendly arsenic possible, pinch IP43 and IP54 ratings connected nan assemblage and speakers, respectively, to withstand short periods of rain. If you want to usage it distant from home, nan institution sells optional kits pinch a 200-inch inflatable screen aliases an Anker Solix C1000 battery that tin powerfulness it for respective hours.

The 4 wireless outer speakers person 7 horizontal and 4 overhead channels, and nan two-speaker subwoofer is wrong nan main enclosure. The rear speakers popular retired of a spring-loaded retention dock pinch a ray press, aforesaid for nan telescoping speaker legs.

The beforehand outer speaker docking strategy is moreover much slick. To merchandise them, you property a fastener connected apical and they fold retired of nan broadside via a motorized system. You tin either time off them location aliases detach them astatine nan touch of a button. All speakers tin beryllium charged externally complete USB-C aliases wrong their docks. They person 8 hours of artillery life, though I recovered nan bigger beforehand ones held a complaint for somewhat longer than that.

The X1 Pro besides includes a brace of high-quality Soundcore wireless microphones for DJ-ing aliases karaoke, tucked nether nan apical panel. Those characteristic AI vocal removal from songs, one-touch reverb and 40 hours of artillery life — everything you request for a karaoke party.

There’s only a azygous HDMI 2.1 larboard astatine nan backmost (which is overseas considering that nan Nebula X1 has two) pinch eARC support for Dolby Atmos sound. It besides comes pinch 2 USB-C ports for outer record playback, charging and a PC connection. Lastly, nan powerfulness cablegram is retractable, which is different bully creation touch.

Features

I besides reviewed nan Nebula X1 projector that's wrong nan X1 Pro, but here’s a summary successful lawsuit you missed it. The projector uses Soundcore’s proprietary “LaserForge 2.0” liquid-cooled, triple-laser motor that beams a bright, color-accurate image pinch very small instrumentality sound (26 db). It promises precocious autochthonal opposition acknowledgment to nan 6-blade move iris and NebulaMaster 2.0 image engine. The 0.9:1 to 1.5:1 optical zoom lens allows for elastic installation and employs 14 high-quality, long-lasting solid elements.

The X1 Pro uses nan aforesaid 0.47-inch DLP spot recovered successful galore different projectors (and not nan bigger, amended 0.67-inch spot coming soon successful XGIMI’s Titan Noir). The lasers are beamed done a colour phosphor instrumentality doubly to execute fantabulous 90 percent colour and brightness uniformity crossed nan screen.

The projector’s motorized gimbal tilts 25 degrees upward truthful you tin position it good beneath nan screen. The “spatial adaptation” characteristic scans nan projection area past beams nan last image to precisely fresh nan surface aliases wall. It worked nicely for me, though overhead lights aliases different obstacles tin propulsion it off. The projector tin accommodate to ambient ray and nan wall color, and different usability called Spatial Recall lets you prevention each your settings for later.

Once I detached them, nan speakers paired automatically to nan X1 Pro complete 5.8Ghz Wi-Fi pinch nary difficulty. I placed them astir nan room to maximize soundstage, past nan Nebula X1 Pro’s “Flexwave” tech utilized a built-in four-mic array to observe their positions and calibrate nan audio. I was seated disconnected to nan side, truthful I utilized nan “smart saccharine spot” characteristic to resistance nan halfway constituent toward my position for optimal sound balance.

Google TV is included, offering a ample room of streaming apps and an easy-to-use projector power interface via nan included distant (tucked into nan apical truthful you hopefully won’t suffer it). You get Netflix’s charismatic app pinch support for 4K Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, positive nan X1 Pro has Chromecast support and Google Assistant for sound control. The interface tin occasionally beryllium sluggish, though Soundcore has improved its latency since I tested nan Nebula X1.

Image quality

Even aft testing different high-end projectors including Valerion’s VisionMaster Max, nan Soundcore Nebula X1 Pro is still nan brightest and sharpest I’ve seen. The company’s luminosity declare is accurate; I measured 3,514 ANSI lumens successful “Standard” mode from nan halfway of nan surface and 3,310 successful nan cinematic “NebulaMaster” mode. It tin output a whopping 4,175 lumens successful Conference mode, albeit pinch a dense bluish colour cast.

That brightness allowed maine to comfortably watch contented connected a sunny time pinch nan shades up. The X1 Pro besides offers precocious move opposition up to 56,000:1, aided by nan automatic iris and NebulaMaster image engine, which besides keeps nan image from washing retired successful daytime conditions.

When utilized successful much perfect acheronian conditions, nan image was bright, crisp and incredibly colour accurate. Soundcore claims 110 percent sum of nan challenging BT.2020 HDR colour abstraction (with a Delta E little than 0.8), putting nan X1 Pro successful elite institution pinch a fewer prime models from Samsung, Hisense and a fewer others. I measured astir 94 percent BT.2020 sum successful ISF mode, which falls short of nan company’s declare but is still impressive.

The precocious colour accuracy meant that nan TV bid and movies I watched for illustration Iron Man 2, Dune 2, Andor and F1 looked beautifully cinematic. If nan colors aren’t rather to your liking, you tin make good adjustments manually. Like different 4K projectors pinch a 0.47-inch DLP chip, nan X1 has a flimsy magnitude of ray spill astir nan separator of nan screen, but it’s only noticeable erstwhile nan projected image is peculiarly dark.

With HDMI 2.1 nan Nebula X1 Pro supports 4K 120 fps sources, but tin only show 4K astatine 60 fps. Because of that, and nan comparatively precocious input lag, it’s not perfect for gaming.

Audio

The 400-watt audio setup is what elevates nan Nebula X1 Pro supra its rivals. Thanks to their Wi-Fi connectivity, nan satellites person a latency of conscionable 25 milliseconds, compared to 150 milliseconds aliases much for emblematic Bluetooth speakers. That keeps sound and image perfectly synced, thing that tin beryllium a problem pinch different wireless speaker setups.

The X1’s 2 soul subwoofers tin pump retired sound arsenic debased arsenic 38Hz astatine up to 87 decibels. That allowed for nan large and punchy (but not boomy) bass I emotion for action movies for illustration Spider-Man: No Way Home and Once Upon a Time successful Hollywood. At nan aforesaid time, that bass is clear and subtle for little bombastic films for illustration Eternal Sunshine of nan Spotless Mind. To debar vibrating nan projector, nan subwoofer is mounted connected a suspension system, and I recovered it didn’t impact nan image moreover during large scenes.

With nan 4 wireless speakers dispersed astir a large room, I sewage an outstanding soundstage pinch Dolby Atmos-supported contented including Star Wars: A New Hope and The White Lotus: Season 3. The speakers delivered crisp and meticulous highs, while nan dedicated beforehand sound drivers fto maine perceive moreover soft dialogue, though midrange sound could occasionally beryllium a spot tinny. It faithfully reproduced tricky movie soundtracks for illustration Lord of nan Rings: The Two Towers and did justness to nan business metallic and symphonic euphony successful The Matrix. Yes, you’d get amended sound from a dedicated high-end 7.1 Dolby system, but pinch acold much setup hassle and zero portability.

Wrap-up

Soundcore’s Nebula X1 Pro is simply a location theatre marvel that’s truthful well-designed almost anyone tin group it up. By integrating 1 of nan champion triple-laser projectors pinch a 400-watt Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 situation system, and past putting each of that connected wheels, you tin bask an immersive cinema acquisition astir anywhere.

This Nebula X1 Pro has nary existent rivals, but competitors pinch akin projectors (but nary sound systems) see nan Valerion VisionMaster Max and XGIMI Horizon 20 Max, some triple-laser systems pinch comparable brightness and colour accuracy. Once you adhd an audio situation system, though, you’ll beryllium spending nan aforesaid magnitude and won’t get nan X1 Pro’s convenience and portability.

The catch, of course, is nan $5,000 price. However, if you person nan money and want nan eventual location theatre acquisition that’s portable and easy to use, Soundcore’s beastly Nebula X1 Pro is really a bully deal.