This is the Anker Nebula Mars 3 outdoor portable projector. Anker says that this is an industry first. And I quote, It's the first "extremely durable outdoor projector with ultra-long battery life and three proof features", and I will explain what they mean by this, so stick around.

The Mars 3 sits at the top of the Anker Mars series, it is a flagship, and of course, it has a flagship price at the launch of $1099 in the US, ___in the UK and ___ in Europe.

What is Nebula Mars 3 built for? 

The Nebula Mars 3 is purpose-built for people who love the great outdoor lifestyle. And here's an example of how this could be the perfect piece of tech to take on your next adventure. 

Let's say you're exploring a new territory and end up stranded in the desert or on a beach. The Mars 3 has a built-in battery that is huge at 185Wh. This is used primarily to power the projector but also has a built-in camping light with three brightness levels.

And here is a potentially life-saving feature. Thanks to its USB C and USB A outputs, you can use the Mars 3 as a power bank for your gadgets. For perspective you could charge a Samsung Galaxy s23 ultra to 100% 50 times.

And we'll revisit the power supply and power delivery in a moment because there are some essential things you need to know.

And before we move on, here are the three outdoor-proof features Anker mentioned. The Mars 3 is waterproof, with an official rating of IPX3. This means that the Nebula Mars 3 can survive water sprays…for example, rain…and Anker has sealed this up nicely so that dustproof particles as small as 0.7mm cannot pass. And should you drop it, it can withstand drops of up to 0.5 metres. Design-wise, it could be the most robust portable projector to date.

Size/portability & Performance

Is roughly the size of an old school car battery & and when I say old school I mean cars that use combustion engines. It measures in at 10inch long, with the handle 10” tall & 6” across the front so that’s the width. And it weighs around 4.7KG

So with great power can come excellent picture quality, connectivity, and features. But only if you have a capable chipset. The Anker Nebula Mars 3 has 2GB of DDR ram & 16GB embedded multimedia card for speed and multitasking performance. And Wifi at 2.4GHZ & 5GHz. So it's got speed and power.

What can you do with all that power?

It is equipped with enough portable battery power & processing fire for anything you want to throw at it. And while we are on that topic. It runs on Android 11, which means you can use Google Chromecast to throw content from your phone to the projector, and Voice Assistant is supported so it can be controlled from a distance.

This is a good thing because Mars 3 is capable of projecting an image all the way up to 200". To put that into perspective, that's a display that's 2.3metres tall. And if you wanted to use it inside a campervan or tent it could project an image as small as 30".

Ways to play content

And the playback options are vast. You can cast photos and videos from your Android phone or tablet. And you can mirror cast from an android phone is want your phone screen projected.  And using a free app called air screen you can do the same with the iPhone and audio will also be outputted via the Nebula Mars 3

But even more straightforward than that is using the any of streaming apps you can find on the play store. And because it’s android you could install a VPN so you can get around the geo restrictions and watch content from other countries.

Of course, you would need a wifi connection for that, and yes, you could hotspot to it, which is a battery killer, but the good news is you could keep your phone jacked into the Nebula's power. 

Inputs / HDMI input

And there are more ways to play content to Mars 3 locally without relying on wifi. There is an HDMI port & USB A & C port & both can read external video. 

And it's not just video playback that is impressive. The Nebula Mars 3 has stellar speakers too. Better than you would typically expect from a portable projector. It has stereo drivers and 40 Watts of power, which create a nice wide sound field of 270 degrees. 

Dolby digital plus is supported, and there is an Auxiliary jack, so you can wire in some more powerful audio hardware if needed. 

And when you're done watching Netflix and just want to chill…BT5.0 is supported, so Nebula Mars 3 can be used simply as a portable speaker. And the sound clarity is for music is quite eye opening and gets loud too.

Controls

The physical controls are placed on the top handle and there’s a really nice rubberised clickable joystick which can do everything. There’s also a raised back button. And recessed volume up, volume down and a dedicated button to switch between projector mode and portable speaker mode.

The remote is also nicely designed with the auto calibrate button and google assistant button right at the top. 

You’ve got your navigation buttons and shortcuts to the home screen and settings and back button and of course the volume control. And if buttons aren't, you thing. You can use the Nebula app to control the Mars 3 from your phone. 

Internal battery / Positioning / Stands

Now let's return to the massive 185Wh power supply. It is one of the largest in this category of portable projectors. Other similar projectors, at best, can last up to 3 hrs on their built-in battery. The Nebula Mars 3 can run for up to 5 Hrs. So that makes it perfect for a sporting event or a few feature films, or a 5 hour binge watch.

Now here's what makes the Nebula so versatile. Unlike Nebula 2, it has its own kickstand. So there's no need to carry a tripod & because of its clever proprietary IEA autofocus feature. The Mars 3 has screen finding tech & auto keystone correction. It will determine how to square up the picture even if placed off access. And it can do all of that in under 3 seconds.

And if you want to fix this to a tripod, ceiling or wall bracket. You can do that too because it also has a 1/4 inch thread on the base. And it can auto detect if it’s been moved or nudged and correct it self thanks to the built in gyroscope. And the sensitivity of this feature can be adjusted if needed.

Picture quality

Now the all-important picture quality. It is a 1080P projector with a 400:1 contrast ratio with 1000 ANSI Lumens. Which is twice as bright as the Mars 2 Pro. Which was praised by a lot of reviewers when it was launched in 2019.

What I like about the Nebula Mars 3 is how it can adapt to whatever conditions it’s placed in using its Ai. It auto keystones, it adjusts the brightness and re-adjusts the focus for you. You can of course do this on your own and the machines are not fully in control just yet.

Of course being a projector just like a cinema projector it looks better in low lighting conditions and the HDR is significantly better in pure darkness. But what stands out to me about the picture quality is the colour accuracy. I spend a long time colour grading my videos sometimes and when I watch some of my own YOUTUBE videos back the colours are spot on.

From my tests with this even though it is a 1080p projector you can go up to around 85 to 100” before you start to notice any softness around the edges of sharp lines but like monet if look at it from further away the big picture looks better.

Now you might be wondering about gaming on this. You can connect by controllers and my recommendation is use the cloud streaming services. At this point in time there’s GeForce now, steam link, boasteroid to name a few. You can also do PS5 remote play via psplay app.

Less demanding games can run locally and of course you could plug in a console for 1080p 60FPS gameplay. For me personally this is the perfect companion for a road trip or camping trip or meeting up with friends for an outdoor event. The real beauty of the Nebula is in its versatility, its adaptability and its robustness and most importantly its ease of use. 

“ So as I sat there watching star trek on the Anker Nebular Mars 3. It got me thinking about Nebulae and how they are essentially clouds of dust in space created by a dying star or by a new one coming together. So it’s either the beginning or the end…or the beginning of the end if we ever see one coming from our sun.

One thing is for certain it's a pretty spectacular sight and so is this projector from Anker. The Nebula Mars 3. And hopefully the only dust clouds you see when using this is from your campfire or a BBQ. And if you do get one of these, and it’s time to fire up the big screen in the middle of nowhere…you know what to do. Make it so.