Photograph: Chris Haslam
This is all impressive, and because I can fold the speakers away again and turn the X1 Pro into a corner, it’s surprisingly practical. Not taking into account any technical know-how or installation costs, or interior-design disruption of a dedicated cinema room. An astute negotiator might argue that this makes the X1 Pro very valuable, if you’re lucky enough to have a place to hide it and a screen when not needed.
liquid cooled
Despite its beer fridge dimensions, the Nebula X1 Pro is remarkably quiet. This is thanks to a liquid cooling system – first used on the X1 – which replaces a traditional fan. This is brilliantly effective and means you don’t have to turn up the volume to hide the machinery.
The brand claims it reduces noise to just 26 decibels – most portable projectors are rated at 30 to 35 decibels – which isn’t a huge difference, but trust me, the noise it makes isn’t as distracting as a fan. There’s a slight whirring sound as the lens adjusts itself, but even at medium—not movie night—volume, it’s barely audible.
Why do I want one?
Building a serious home cinema usually means precise projector positioning, power cables, speaker wires, measuring seating distances, setting channel levels, fine-tuning lip-sync delays, adjusting keystones and focus, and connecting multiple remotes and inputs. Portable projectors offer a weaker version of this, without any of the effort.
Thanks to its wireless satellite speakers and rumbling subwoofer, the Nebula X1 Pro gets you closer to the complete home cinema package that people work so hard to achieve. In just a few minutes, and without any technical know-how, you can enjoy high-end Dolby Atmos sound and 4K image quality, all delivered through the simplicity of Google TV and your favorite streaming platform.
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