This is my review for the Nebula Mars II projector.
I have never owned it even used the original Nebula mars projector and I have heard all types of negativity about it. To be honest, I was hesitant of this new model due to issues that plagued the first one, but as @nigelhealy always said it’s best to wait for the second or even third revision for a product to be tip top. After having used this, I say they hit it out of the ballpark.
The Mars II comes in a box with graphics that illustrates that it’s a next-gen theater grade portable cinema, shows the projector on one side, a family watching a movie on the other side, a picture highlighting that it uses Android 7.1, and the specs on the last side. Upon opening the box you are greeted with a nice dense foam core that within houses the projector, another box that holds the powercord and manual.
The projector itself is tiny, smaller than I was expecting but still big enough to house a decent sized 12,500mAh battery and dual 10w speakers. The front of the projector you will find a built in slide lens cover, that when open will automatically turn the projector on and auto adjust the picture. Close the cover and the unit will turn off after roughly 10-15 seconds as the fans cool down the internals.
On the top of the projector there is a leather like handle, and you have the control buttons that allows you to do the same thing as the remote from the unit itself.
On the rear of the projector you will find a Power port for the plug, an HDMI port, a USB port, an audio out, an IR blaster, and last but not least a reset button
On the bottom of the projector there is a universal screw hole to mou t on a tripod or similar mounts.
Upon setup I found that there was an update, so Immediately updated the device. The update took about 5 minutes from start to finish, which included downloading the file and then restarting to install the update. Since we had movie night after we spent the day at the lake, we wanted to watch Thor:Ragnorak on Netflix. While Netflix is included in the list of apps preinstalled, I still had to download and install it again as the projector wouldn’t let me play anything until o did…this is where I got a little frustrated, playing anything in Netflix you cannot use the remote control and instead yo uh have to download the Nebula Connect app in order to control Netflix. Once I did so, I found how easily it was to navigate and now I understand why it says to use the app. Once up and running, I was impressed at how I could still see the projector because it was still really bright outside.
At first the movie playback was grainy, but once it cached the file the movie quality drastically improved. One thing in will say, try to get a right proper screen and not use a wrinkly sheet like I did, haha.
Thor:Ragnorak is a 2 hours and 10 minutes, the projector is rated to play a movie for 4 hours. There is 4 lights on top that display how much battery is left, and after watching Thor there was still 3 lights left. So battery life is on par if not better than what its rated for.
Overall, this little projector is very mighty. It’s small size is easily portable, but packs a decent sized punch and can last up to and possibly beyond 4 hours that its rated for. I know some people will be put off by the low 300 Ansi Lumen rating, but it doesn’t hinder or prevent you from using the projector as I posted in one of the pictures above that its bright outside and you can still see whats going on in the picture. I would also recommend this to anyone who is looking for a compact portable projector that can last longer than one movie.
