In 2025, wireless audio and video streaming is nearly universal, and with Nebula’s Capsule Air, you can project those streams anywhere, no cords or outlets needed.
First Impressions
Like a small cylindrical monolith, the Nebula Capsule Air looks quite imposing, even with its relatively small footprint. With a weight of 678g (including its snap-on base) this pint sized projector feels both solid and the real deal.
The Capsule Air is the dimensions and size of a typical highball glass. The bottom three fifths of the cylindrical body are adorned with tiny vent holes right the way around for the speaker and cooling. On the Front is the NEBULA branding and towards the top, an eye like camera lens, ready to project to your hearts desire. Beneath the lens is a small window for the Time of Flight measurements needed to automate picture quality settings.
The top of the unit has a neat touch sensitive backlit plate, allowing you to navigate the on screen menus and quickly adjust the volume.
The rear of the Capsule Air has some more venting opposite the lens along with an IR receiver, power button, USB-C Port for charging (not video) and an HDMI in port.
Along with the unit itself, the Capsule Air package comes with a clever snap-on tilting base, a 90cm USB-C charging cable, a wall charger and a remote control. A warranty card, quick start guide and batteries are also included, along with a wall mounting template and some screws and wall anchors.
The snap on base uses a both a magnet and twist mechanism to snap onto the Capsule Air securely. When used on a desktop, a small metal circle can be flipped out to provide stability when angling the projector. This base also has holes in it for wall mounting with the included screws. The design matches the Capsule Air and is really quite clever for what it is.
The included remote control measures 14.5cm in length and 3.5cm in width and is just over 1cm thick. It is neat and simple in its design with most keys backlit. Along with a circular D pad, and the regular navigation buttons, there are dedicated Netflix, YouTube and Amazon Video buttons. A Google Assist button is also available as well as an auto-correction button right at the top. While the remote has an IR blaster at its tip, it connects wirelessly and does not need to be in a direct line of sight with the IR sensor on the rear of the Capsule Air.
Setup and Usage
One of the great things about the Nebula Capsule is that it is quite literally play – no plugs needed. Once its charged, you literally just press the on button and up comes the user interface.
After being prompted for a region or country, the Nebula guides you through a quick setup process. The first decision you need to make is whether you want to opt into the Google universe or stick with basic TV. While basic TV allows you to play back media from HDMI and watch Live TV, setting up Google TV allows you to access popular streaming apps along with personalised recommendations as well as Google Assistant integration.
After setting up our wifi and agreeing to give Google our soul, we continued setting up Google and other services, like local free to air TV channels.
Next the Nebula interface provided us with a run down of how the auto keystone function works and how to adjust brightness, etc. We were also given a QR code which allowed us to download the Nebula Connect app. As the app downloaded on our iPhone, the services we had selected also started downloading to the Nebula Capsule Air. While it wasn’t difficult, the entire process, from turning the projector on, to watching YouTube, took a lazy half hour.
While the USB-C port cannot be used to connect a PC/Mac to the Capsule Air, it can be used to access USB-C flash drives. Disappointedly, this was relegated to FAT16/FAT32 formatted drives only, leaving the now de facto EXFAT standard unusable, as was anything formatted in MacOS’s APFS.. which was less surprising.
At any rate, even when we did format our drive to the old Windows standards, our flavour of .mkv test files weren’t even visible to the Capsule Air! Looks like streaming and mirroring would have to suffice.
While the Capsule Air comes with a variety of paid streaming services installed, we spent most of our testing mirroring our MacBook Pro via HDMI, watching YouTube and the occasional live TV stream.
Considering the Capsule Air’s size, the sound quality of the Capsule Air was quite good. Vocals and sound effects were crisp and clear. Movie soundtrack effects were largely perfunctory due to the very minimal bass but the Capsule Air produced sound adequately. With such a tiny form factor, we were impressed with its clarity but unsurprisingly, it just wasn’t able to reproduce bass heavy soundtracks with much verve.
The volume was quite good and even at its highest settings the Capsule Air refrained from introducing enough distortion to detract from the experience. While the audio was perfectly acceptable for casual viewing, the Capsule Air can be paired to a Bluetooth speaker to further improve the listening experience. We connected the Capsule air to our Sonos Move via Bluetooth which worked a treat – no lag or noticeable latency was experienced throughout our testing.
Like the sound, picture quality was good for the Capsule Air’s size, form factor and battery life. In fact, it was really good. Projecting in a very brightly lit rooms resulted in a viewable but largely washed out image but in most conditions, it was really quite impressive. While very bright rooms resulted in typically washed out blacks, the overall quality was really better than expected.
With the lights turned down, the picture quality looked a lot better. Coming from our Pioneer Kuro daily driver, we had to temper our expectations but again, considering its form, the Capsule Air was really great. Even when projecting across the room to around two metres wide, the picture was very watchable. To drive the point home, while reviewing the Nebula Capsule Air, I ended up sitting through the entirety of Lethal Weapon.. without even realising it!
While the 720p resolution was fine for projecting video, it wasn’t ideal for navigating the MacOS interface so if you’re thinking of using the Capsule Air as a second monitor for productivity, it’s not likely to yield the results you want. The Capsule Air is made for displaying video. Anywhere and that’s where it, err.. shines.
Most of our testing was done on regular white or (near white) walls and the corresponding picture was great, even in relatively lit rooms, as previously stated.
The Capsule Air’s Google TV interface worked relatively smoothly without any real issue. While the interface wasn’t super snappy, it was adequate for navigating to the Capsule’s interface and online content. Most of the time the interface worked very well but while navigating video rich menus, it could lag a little. Thankfully, video playback itself was great, without any such issues – even when paired with a Bluetooth speaker.
The battery life was bang on and we found that in our testing we got just over two hours of streamed video before the Capsule Air needed a charge. The 110m runtime of Lethal Weapon didn’t trouble it, which I can personally attest to!
On the downside, depending on how close you are sitting to the Capsule Air, it’s internal fans can be pretty loud. They’re not particularly distracting but they are there in the background. This is particularly noticeable when sitting up close and using the internal speakers. We did find that using a Bluetooth speaker at a reasonable volume largely drowned out the presence of the fans, making it much less of an issue.
The portability of its tiny form factor, coupled with its solid auto-keystone and auto-focus features meant that placement of the Capsule Air wasn’t overly critical. When placed at an angle, the Automatic Keystone/focus feature righted the image, creating a suitably sharp viewing rectangle. Occasionally, if the angle was too challenging this automatic adjustment could fail, but in most instances, it worked a treat.
And this ease of use is really what the Capsule Air is all about. Where the Capsule Air shines is in its utility: Here is a device that you can take anywhere there is a flat vertical surface and watch your favourite movie, TV show or YouTube channel. When considering this, the picture is great, as is the sound, which can always be exponentially improved via a Bluetooth connection. As I finish up this review in Melbourne’s winter, I can’t help but think that the Capsule Air was made for watching movies outdoors on a warm summer night; and in this respect, it’s just about perfect.
Selected Specifications
Resolution: 720p
Audio: 5w speaker with Dolby Audio
OS: Android TV
Projection: DLP LED
Battery: 10,000maH (≈2h playback time)
Onboard Storage: 16GB
Brightness: 150 ANSI Lumen
Dimensions: 16cm tall (with base) x 6.5cm diameter.
For more information about the Capsule Air, please visit Nebula’s Capsule Air product page.
Final Verdict: Is the Capsule Air Right For You?
Micro projectors have improved greatly over the years and the picture quality of this little projector demonstrates these improvements. Was the picture perfect: No, but in moderately brightly rooms, it worked well and in suitably dark rooms, it worked very well. The Capsule Air isn’t going to give your thousand dollar TV a run for its money in picture quality but that’s not its raison d’être. Short of uprooting your living room and moving it into the backyard, your TV can’t do what the Nebula Capsule Air **can** do: Project anywhere there is a vertical surface – even outdoors!
The Nebula Capsule Air is available directly from Nebula’s online store for just under $399USD but if you hunt around, it can be had cheaper at some Australian retailers.
