August 8, 2025 • 10 mins
In this week’s Better Offline monologue, Ed talks about Anker’s Nebula X1, an expensive, excellent-looking and adaptable projector that can work just about anywhere.
Better Offline listener deal: Get $15 Off Where's Your Ed At Premium! Deal goes until the end of August.
https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/better-offline-discount
Nebula X1 Projector: https://amzn.to/45645dR
Nebula Wireless Satellite Speakers: https://amzn.to/45E2EmZ
Nebula gimbal stand for projectors: https://amzn.to/47qi8wa
Epson Duet 80” Projector Screen: https://amzn.to/45o5Odr
YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https://cottonbureau.com/people/better-offline and use code FREE99 for free shipping on orders of $99 or more.
BUY A LIMITED EDITION BETTER OFFLINE CHALLENGE COIN! https://cottonbureau.com/p/XSH74N/challenge-coin/better-offline-challenge-coin#/29269226/gold-metal-1.75in
---
LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks
Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/
Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at
Ed's Socials:
https://www.instagram.com/edzitron
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
All Zone Media. Helen, Welcome to this week's Better Offline Monologue.
I'm your host ed ZiT Trunk, and today I'm talking
about stuff I actually like, specifically the Anchor Nebula X
one projector. For many years, I've dreamed about a projector
(00:23):
that you could just kind of sit down and project with.
You don't have to fuck around with it too much
done to suspend it from a ceiling or sit perfectly
in front of a scream inasmuch as poss but you
could just point it out a wall or a screen
and it would work, and you could just start watching stuff.
And the X one is about as close as I
think we're ever going to get. It's fairly compact. It's
maybe the size of a subword for or half the
(00:44):
size of a carry on suitcase, weighing in just under
fourteen pounds, with a handle that pops up with a
satisfying click. It does four K resolution, uses something called
triple laser technology that Anchor has a great deal of
marketing material about that mostly just comes down to it
looks very very good, and it bloody well should. Because
the X one cost just over three thousand dollars with
the wireless speakers, which you'll get to in a little beer.
(01:07):
And yes, I bought it with my own money. I
don't really spend money on myself outside of diet coke
and baseball tickets anyway. Really though, it looks really really good,
like a very high end four K TV, though perhaps
not as contrasty as a high end O LAD. It's clear,
it's crisp and looks that way if you're projecting onto
a wall or in my case, something called an EPSOM
duo eighty inch screen. I chose the duo because I'm
(01:29):
using this projector in a cramp New York apartment with
no big water project onto and the duo literally clips
onto a tripod and pulls open in fifteen seconds. I'll
link to it in the episode notes I love this screen.
It's just you put the tripod down, you slide the
thing on, and you pull it open. I had a
few bolts pop out on mine, but you can just
screw them back on. It's very much a working presenter
type thing. You can imagine some horrible salesman wheeling it
(01:52):
around and trying to sell you. I was going to say, ties,
I don't think you really get door to door salesman
of ties. Anyway One, for the most part, just works.
It runs on Google TV, meaning that it has all
the apps you'd expect, like Netflix, Hulu, to b Poo Boo,
brung Us and funt Of course, though I will say
that while playback is great, the user interface lags and
(02:13):
chugs far too often for a projector that costs as
much as a gaming laptop. I'm actually genuinely calling this
out as bullshit. I have an Apple TV even five
years ago, that runs smoothly. I don't know why the
X one chugs so much, and I refuse to believe
that there was no way of making it work. Well,
they've crammed it full of crap. It's full of all
of these classic Google TV like random windows of stuff
(02:34):
from recommending me stuff I'm never gonna watch. I don't
know if this is a Google problem or an anchor problem,
but again, three thousand dollars, you need to get this right.
I can forgive this, though, because the X one also
has several incredibly useful features, like this built in gimbal
that allows you to move and adjust the image so
that you can have the X one shooting from the
side of a room rather than directly onto a surface,
(02:55):
with the ability to digitally enhance enlarge and keystone, meaning
you can pull the corners of the image to make
it look right on a particular surface, to make it
project just about anywhere. And it really does work. When
I was first using it, I quite literally had it
crammed in the corner of the room, had it project
onto the surface, it looked awful. But with digital keystoning,
(03:16):
you could just pull the corners on so it looked
like it was meant to be there. And when I
say gimbal, I mean it quite literally has the focus
element inside it, the actual lenses you can hear it go.
It's kind of cool. Genuinely, at a time when I
bitch a lot about how bad technology has become, the
X one genuinely is actually innovative. It's a cool piece
(03:36):
of kit, and it really just it can go anywhere
that you want it to. For the most part, you
don't have to have this perfect setup, this perfect amount
of space. This is why I've generally not liked projectors,
because projectors require you to have, even with a good screen,
exactly the right positioning. If you're off even by a little,
(03:56):
it can kind of look like a dog's dinner. I'm
thinking of the various short threat projectors I've used, where
the whole thing is They say, oh, it just projects
them below it. Yeah. Maybe if it's not exactly the
right height, the exact distance, even a small distance, you
don't have the right table, you're screwed. With the X one.
I had it on some random coffee table in the corner.
I didn't do nothing fancy like, it was great. I
(04:16):
really enjoy it, which is why I'm immediately going to
start complaining about something. Yes, the X one, and this
is a marketing problem, has some automatic setup features, and
seemingly every single reviewer that I watch said they were excellent,
But in my experience they don't work. They just they
don't work. It's crazy. Everyone would show you this thing,
(04:37):
and I think it's the I'll get to the exact
terms in a minute, but they would just point it,
they'd click a button, and it would know the exact
screen size. This was not my experience. Perhaps it's that
my projector screen is in front of two windows, or
maybe everybody else testing this did it in some sort
of ideal scenario. But these setup features are useful. I
find to get you close enough to something you can
digitally adjust to fit your surface. But they are not.
(05:00):
It's a cure all thing. I will also say this
is still the most single most versatile projector I've ever used,
and I was able to project from the corner of
my room where no other projector would have worked. It
does work, it just does not work as easily as
Anchor says. And I only harp on about this because
Anchor's website says and I quote set up in ten seconds,
which is complete and utter bullshit. It's just nonsense. Anchor
(05:23):
massively overstates their AI spatial adaptation as one click perfection,
and other reviewers should have done a much better job
making sure this was true. That being said, once you've
found a spot that works, the X one does generally
remember it. However, if you adjust the screen or you
are just where the projector is even slightly, it doesn't.
And yeah, you can physically move it. I'm being a
(05:44):
little bit of a prick about this because this costs
so much money and Anchor's website repeatedly states that this
is just something you click one butoner and it works.
It does not do that. It does not, and all
the other if I don't know how any of the
other reviewers who have reviewed this would hear this, But
if you were one of them, you fucked up. You
fucked up bad here. You really haven't sold people something dangerous.
(06:05):
It's still a great product. But stop doing marketing for
these companies. Try these products when I am eventually going
to get into more regular hardware reviews, and when I do,
I am going to try and set stuff up in
the unideal space. We should not be trying to do
these things, these reviews in a space that exactly fits
the marketing request. No no, no, no, no no. We
(06:27):
need to be harder on these people, especially companies that
claim one click setups. But I should also be clear
that compared to literally any other projector I've ever used,
this the easiest to set up and most adaptable projector
I have ever seen. And you also get these wireless
stereo speakers with it, where you have to pay for them,
and they truly do set up in seconds. The ones
(06:49):
that I think they even came pared, you just put
them down in the corners. They have L and R
on them, So if you're like me and you forget
they just have it in a big letter and you
hit a button and bang that cat and they create
a really convincing surround sound environment. Combined with the speakers
that are actually baked into the X one's body, they
sound fantastic. And when you've found a consistent spot for
the projector and the screen, yes, you can be up
(07:11):
and running in ten seconds. Also is another thing I'm
gonna harp on about as on the side. Anchor should
absolutely be ashamed of themselves for keeping motion smoothing on.
It's on by default. What year is this anchor? Is
it two thousand and seven? Is it two thousand and nine?
What are we doing? It's motion smoothing? Nobody likes? Who
(07:33):
wants this? Tom Cruise is going to get very angry
when he hears this. I assume Tom Cruise is a
better offline listener. Anyway, If you buy this thing, and
I do recommend it seriously, it's called me EMC, go
into the settings. It's in there. I do not know
why this feature is present. It's so annoying. It's so
very annoying, and again, would not be this harsh if
this was not three thousand dollars anyway, Anyway, I know
(07:56):
I've gone into a lot of negatives here, but I
truly adore the X one. I do not recommend it
for gaming, as the input leg is bad, but for
everything else, it's one of the single coolest pieces of
hardware I've ever used. It looks good, it works well,
it's beautifully engineered, it feels nice and hefty, has its
wit like. The kit is all nice, it's smooth surface,
and the UI generally is great, and when you've set
(08:18):
it up in the right place, it really is as
turnkey as Anchor says. But that's a big if. And
while I've been quite critical of the auto set up
in general, the X one will work in many, many
more environments than any other projector. I've watched several films
and TV show episodes on it. They looked and sounded great.
I even watched the Steven Seagal movie called A Good Man.
It was a very bad movie. But if you want
(08:38):
to laugh, if you want to really just laugh, laugh
yourself silly. I recommend I don't know pirating it. You
shouldn't give them any money anyway. It's also relatively portable
fourteen pounds it's thirteen point seven based on their website.
It has the lovely little handle. Everything runs off a
single power adapter, and Anchor sells a chunky carrier case
that fits both the X one and speakers. I also
(09:00):
recommend anchors gimbal, which is just a fancy way of
saying thing you click it onto, which lets you tilt
and turn it to make it even more adaptable, in
my case, allowing me to project up from the floor
rather than the table in the corner of my apartment.
So I really do love the X one. I adore it.
I'm so glad I bought it. It's great, great value
for money. I know that sounds weird at the price point,
(09:21):
but it just works. I'm going to take it with
me on a little romantic trip going on, going to
the woods, going to project onto the screen, and with
the duo, you could just block it up there. I
use it to watch all sorts of movies and TV.
I really do like him, and especially at a time
when tech has become so negative, when I spend so
much of my time complaining about the tech industry, with
(09:42):
good bloody reason, it's nice watching a company build something cool. Now.
I haven't done too much of a deep dive on
to Anchor, so I'm sure that there's something someone won't like,
but I've used a lot of their products. I like
a lot of their products, have a bunch of their
battery packs. In general, it's nice watching a company build
things that actually help people and that people like. I'm
(10:04):
sure people email me saying they found something they don't
and of course I do want to hear about that
easy at better Offline dot com. But I look forward
to doing more hardware stuff in the future. Thanks for listening.
All Zone Media. Helen, Welcome to this week's Better Offline Monologue.
I'm your host ed ZiT Trunk, and today I'm talking
about stuff I actually like, specifically the Anchor Nebula X
one projector. For many years, I've dreamed about a projector
(00:23):
that you could just kind of sit down and project with.
You don't have to fuck around with it too much
done to suspend it from a ceiling or sit perfectly
in front of a scream inasmuch as poss but you
could just point it out a wall or a screen
and it would work, and you could just start watching stuff.
And the X one is about as close as I
think we're ever going to get. It's fairly compact. It's
maybe the size of a subword for or half the
(00:44):
size of a carry on suitcase, weighing in just under
fourteen pounds, with a handle that pops up with a
satisfying click. It does four K resolution, uses something called
triple laser technology that Anchor has a great deal of
marketing material about that mostly just comes down to it
looks very very good, and it bloody well should. Because
the X one cost just over three thousand dollars with
the wireless speakers, which you'll get to in a little beer.
(01:07):
And yes, I bought it with my own money. I
don't really spend money on myself outside of diet coke
and baseball tickets anyway. Really though, it looks really really good,
like a very high end four K TV, though perhaps
not as contrasty as a high end O LAD. It's clear,
it's crisp and looks that way if you're projecting onto
a wall or in my case, something called an EPSOM
duo eighty inch screen. I chose the duo because I'm
(01:29):
using this projector in a cramp New York apartment with
no big water project onto and the duo literally clips
onto a tripod and pulls open in fifteen seconds. I'll
link to it in the episode notes I love this screen.
It's just you put the tripod down, you slide the
thing on, and you pull it open. I had a
few bolts pop out on mine, but you can just
screw them back on. It's very much a working presenter
type thing. You can imagine some horrible salesman wheeling it
(01:52):
around and trying to sell you. I was going to say, ties,
I don't think you really get door to door salesman
of ties. Anyway One, for the most part, just works.
It runs on Google TV, meaning that it has all
the apps you'd expect, like Netflix, Hulu, to b Poo Boo,
brung Us and funt Of course, though I will say
that while playback is great, the user interface lags and
(02:13):
chugs far too often for a projector that costs as
much as a gaming laptop. I'm actually genuinely calling this
out as bullshit. I have an Apple TV even five
years ago, that runs smoothly. I don't know why the
X one chugs so much, and I refuse to believe
that there was no way of making it work. Well,
they've crammed it full of crap. It's full of all
of these classic Google TV like random windows of stuff
(02:34):
from recommending me stuff I'm never gonna watch. I don't
know if this is a Google problem or an anchor problem,
but again, three thousand dollars, you need to get this right.
I can forgive this, though, because the X one also
has several incredibly useful features, like this built in gimbal
that allows you to move and adjust the image so
that you can have the X one shooting from the
side of a room rather than directly onto a surface,
(02:55):
with the ability to digitally enhance enlarge and keystone, meaning
you can pull the corners of the image to make
it look right on a particular surface, to make it
project just about anywhere. And it really does work. When
I was first using it, I quite literally had it
crammed in the corner of the room, had it project
onto the surface, it looked awful. But with digital keystoning,
(03:16):
you could just pull the corners on so it looked
like it was meant to be there. And when I
say gimbal, I mean it quite literally has the focus
element inside it, the actual lenses you can hear it go.
It's kind of cool. Genuinely, at a time when I
bitch a lot about how bad technology has become, the
X one genuinely is actually innovative. It's a cool piece
(03:36):
of kit, and it really just it can go anywhere
that you want it to. For the most part, you
don't have to have this perfect setup, this perfect amount
of space. This is why I've generally not liked projectors,
because projectors require you to have, even with a good screen,
exactly the right positioning. If you're off even by a little,
(03:56):
it can kind of look like a dog's dinner. I'm
thinking of the various short threat projectors I've used, where
the whole thing is They say, oh, it just projects
them below it. Yeah. Maybe if it's not exactly the
right height, the exact distance, even a small distance, you
don't have the right table, you're screwed. With the X one.
I had it on some random coffee table in the corner.
I didn't do nothing fancy like, it was great. I
(04:16):
really enjoy it, which is why I'm immediately going to
start complaining about something. Yes, the X one, and this
is a marketing problem, has some automatic setup features, and
seemingly every single reviewer that I watch said they were excellent,
But in my experience they don't work. They just they
don't work. It's crazy. Everyone would show you this thing,
(04:37):
and I think it's the I'll get to the exact
terms in a minute, but they would just point it,
they'd click a button, and it would know the exact
screen size. This was not my experience. Perhaps it's that
my projector screen is in front of two windows, or
maybe everybody else testing this did it in some sort
of ideal scenario. But these setup features are useful. I
find to get you close enough to something you can
digitally adjust to fit your surface. But they are not.
(05:00):
It's a cure all thing. I will also say this
is still the most single most versatile projector I've ever used,
and I was able to project from the corner of
my room where no other projector would have worked. It
does work, it just does not work as easily as
Anchor says. And I only harp on about this because
Anchor's website says and I quote set up in ten seconds,
which is complete and utter bullshit. It's just nonsense. Anchor
(05:23):
massively overstates their AI spatial adaptation as one click perfection,
and other reviewers should have done a much better job
making sure this was true. That being said, once you've
found a spot that works, the X one does generally
remember it. However, if you adjust the screen or you
are just where the projector is even slightly, it doesn't.
And yeah, you can physically move it. I'm being a
(05:44):
little bit of a prick about this because this costs
so much money and Anchor's website repeatedly states that this
is just something you click one butoner and it works.
It does not do that. It does not, and all
the other if I don't know how any of the
other reviewers who have reviewed this would hear this, But
if you were one of them, you fucked up. You
fucked up bad here. You really haven't sold people something dangerous.
(06:05):
It's still a great product. But stop doing marketing for
these companies. Try these products when I am eventually going
to get into more regular hardware reviews, and when I do,
I am going to try and set stuff up in
the unideal space. We should not be trying to do
these things, these reviews in a space that exactly fits
the marketing request. No no, no, no, no no. We
(06:27):
need to be harder on these people, especially companies that
claim one click setups. But I should also be clear
that compared to literally any other projector I've ever used,
this the easiest to set up and most adaptable projector
I have ever seen. And you also get these wireless
stereo speakers with it, where you have to pay for them,
and they truly do set up in seconds. The ones
(06:49):
that I think they even came pared, you just put
them down in the corners. They have L and R
on them, So if you're like me and you forget
they just have it in a big letter and you
hit a button and bang that cat and they create
a really convincing surround sound environment. Combined with the speakers
that are actually baked into the X one's body, they
sound fantastic. And when you've found a consistent spot for
the projector and the screen, yes, you can be up
(07:11):
and running in ten seconds. Also is another thing I'm
gonna harp on about as on the side. Anchor should
absolutely be ashamed of themselves for keeping motion smoothing on.
It's on by default. What year is this anchor? Is
it two thousand and seven? Is it two thousand and nine?
What are we doing? It's motion smoothing? Nobody likes? Who
(07:33):
wants this? Tom Cruise is going to get very angry
when he hears this. I assume Tom Cruise is a
better offline listener. Anyway, If you buy this thing, and
I do recommend it seriously, it's called me EMC, go
into the settings. It's in there. I do not know
why this feature is present. It's so annoying. It's so
very annoying, and again, would not be this harsh if
this was not three thousand dollars anyway, Anyway, I know
(07:56):
I've gone into a lot of negatives here, but I
truly adore the X one. I do not recommend it
for gaming, as the input leg is bad, but for
everything else, it's one of the single coolest pieces of
hardware I've ever used. It looks good, it works well,
it's beautifully engineered, it feels nice and hefty, has its
wit like. The kit is all nice, it's smooth surface,
and the UI generally is great, and when you've set
(08:18):
it up in the right place, it really is as
turnkey as Anchor says. But that's a big if. And
while I've been quite critical of the auto set up
in general, the X one will work in many, many
more environments than any other projector. I've watched several films
and TV show episodes on it. They looked and sounded great.
I even watched the Steven Seagal movie called A Good Man.
It was a very bad movie. But if you want
(08:38):
to laugh, if you want to really just laugh, laugh
yourself silly. I recommend I don't know pirating it. You
shouldn't give them any money anyway. It's also relatively portable
fourteen pounds it's thirteen point seven based on their website.
It has the lovely little handle. Everything runs off a
single power adapter, and Anchor sells a chunky carrier case
that fits both the X one and speakers. I also
(09:00):
recommend anchors gimbal, which is just a fancy way of
saying thing you click it onto, which lets you tilt
and turn it to make it even more adaptable, in
my case, allowing me to project up from the floor
rather than the table in the corner of my apartment.
So I really do love the X one. I adore it.
I'm so glad I bought it. It's great, great value
for money. I know that sounds weird at the price point,
(09:21):
but it just works. I'm going to take it with
me on a little romantic trip going on, going to
the woods, going to project onto the screen, and with
the duo, you could just block it up there. I
use it to watch all sorts of movies and TV.
I really do like him, and especially at a time
when tech has become so negative, when I spend so
much of my time complaining about the tech industry, with
(09:42):
good bloody reason, it's nice watching a company build something cool. Now.
I haven't done too much of a deep dive on
to Anchor, so I'm sure that there's something someone won't like,
but I've used a lot of their products. I like
a lot of their products, have a bunch of their
battery packs. In general, it's nice watching a company build
things that actually help people and that people like. I'm
(10:04):
sure people email me saying they found something they don't
and of course I do want to hear about that
easy at better Offline dot com. But I look forward
to doing more hardware stuff in the future. Thanks for listening.
Host
Ed Zitron
Popular Podcasts
Fudd Around And Find Out
UConn basketball star Azzi Fudd brings her championship swag to iHeart Women’s Sports with Fudd Around and Find Out, a weekly podcast that takes fans along for the ride as Azzi spends her final year of college trying to reclaim the National Championship and prepare to be a first round WNBA draft pick. Ever wonder what it’s like to be a world-class athlete in the public spotlight while still managing schoolwork, friendships and family time? It’s time to Fudd Around and Find Out!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.