My toddler has a permanent case of FOMO, which means bedtime is a struggle every night. I’m not usually an advocate for having a TV in a child’s room, but the Anker Nebula Capsule Air has become an invaluable addition to my bedtime arsenal of storybooks, lullabies, and desperate pleas for my son to fall asleep.
The $400 Capsule Air is the smallest and arguably the most impressive of Anker’s Nebula portable projectors. It’s roughly the size of a soda can (or, in my case, a can of Sugar-Free Red Bull) and weighs just 1.4 lbs. While it may not fit into your pants pocket, as some of its promotional materials suggest, it’s still very small and won’t take up much space in a bag or on a closet shelf.
The setup is simple since the projector operates like a teeny Google TV. It provides access to all the usual streaming apps. Most importantly for my family, it includes the PBS app, which offers all my kid’s favorite shows, such as City Island, Sesame Street, and Alma’s Way.
Like other tiny projectors, you should note that the farther back you place it, the larger the screen gets. Around 8 feet from the wall gets you 100 inches of screen space. It may take some experimentation with the distance to get the screen size right.
It also has an HDMI input to connect a game console or a laptop—perfect for gaming or as a secondary screen for a laptop in a pinch. I plugged in my Xbox Series X and played some Halo Infinite in the dining room against the wall. So, you could make game night a thing, as long as you don’t mind not playing in 4K.
There’s something delightful about having a portable smart TV you can pull out of a bag whenever and wherever needed. The Capsule Air offers just under two hours of battery life and charges via USB Type C. However, Nebula also provided me with the Power Bank Tripod ($90), which adds another two hours of use and acts as a more sturdy base extending up to 33 inches.
The picture quality is surprisingly sharp, projecting at a resolution of 1280 x 720. The color accuracy is generally decent, and HDR handles dark scenes pretty well. Suppose you want better picture quality in a slightly bigger package. In that case, I’d probably opt for the Capsule 3 Laser, which offers 1080p resolution and is only slightly larger—but at $750, it’s nearly double the price. For my use case, the Capsule Air struck the perfect balance.
After watching what felt like an endless episode of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, I tilted the projector on the tripod to face the ceiling. We switched to something more relaxing—YouTube videos of stars in the sky set to lo-fi beats. Minutes later, my son had drifted off to sleep, counting the stars.
Initially, I worried that the Capsule Air’s 150 ANSI lumens might not be bright enough. While it doesn’t perform its best in daylight or well-lit rooms, it truly shines in complete darkness. It was bright enough for cartoons, stars, and some late-night gaming in my office. If you do have the lights, you’ll see that the colors tend to wash out a bit. But in the context of children’s entertainment, my three-year-old didn’t care. He was just amazed that his cartoons were somehow beamed to his wall. Washed out colors or not.
Beyond bedtime, the Nebula Capsule Air is a fantastic portable projector that I can easily see someone taking with them on vacation or camping trips. It’s lightweight, versatile, and offers pretty good picture quality for its price. While it may not be as bright or powerful as other projectors and may not be good enough to replace your OLED TV, the size and ease of use make it one of my favorite gadgets I’ve tested all year. Plus, it made my kid think I was a bedtime wizard, conjuring a big screen from “My Magic Soda Can.”
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