Mars 3 | Portable Outdoor Projector for Day and Night

I have owned three or four portable projectors over the years. My family loves to go on road trips, and to have neighborhood movie nights in our front yard by our fire pit or out by the pool. The Nebula Mars 3 is the best portable projector I’ve ever owned by a mile. The picture quality is great, even if its only 1080p. Its bright, has excellent auto-focus and auto-keystone, and includes Android TV right on the projector. The sound quality is impressive, a
My only gripe is the projector’s Android TV operating system. It is incredibly sluggish, to the point that it can be frustrating to use, which is really a shame considering all of the other wonderful things about the projector. In addition to being sluggish, you have to install the Netflix app through Anker’s weird Nebula app, and you get what appears to be the same experience you’d get on a phone, not on a TV. You have to use a virtual “mouse” to move around the app, which is annoying. I am sure that this has to do with Netflix restrictions, not Anker, and good on them for coming up with a solution, but it doesn’t make it any less annoying.
All that said, compared with all of the others on the market, this projector still comes out on top for me. My hope is that with some OS updates, the sluggish performance can be solved, which would easily make this a five-star item.

I bought this to have movie nights outside in the summertime.

I built a patio during COVID and I've been trying to find a nice BRIGHT solution that could be used outside with very little fuss.

I was looking at the 4k Laser version of this with 1800 lumens for $2100, as well as a handful of other projectors in the 1200-1800 lumen range. I bought this with the intention of watching movies in the evening, about an hour before dark. This projector handles that perfectly. Have not had it running in full dark yet. See my photos for time/Brightness comparisons. Video for speakers/sound.

It does NOT do full indirect sunlight -- do not but this projector if you want to watch this on a sunny day.

The reason I didn't pull the trigger on any of those other projectors was primarily SOUND, most of them sporting a 10w speaker -- intended to be hooked up to a separate sound system.

I did not want to fuss with a separate speaker so when I saw this was a 40w speaker and a 1000lumen lamp I decided to pull the trigger.

The speaker is loud! I did not want to turn it past 70% volume so as not to annoy my neighbors.

Furthermore, a feature this projector has that the other did not is a battery. On the brightest setting I ran the projector about 2hrs and it still wasn't drained. It comes with a long power adapter with a huge power brick.

This means you could lug it to a campsite and could get one entire movie out of it without power.

It is clearly designed to be weather/outdoor resistant -- but do not expect to get this thing wet. There is a built in lens cover that also serves as the power switch. An a decent remote.

There are a host of features, like a kickstand on the bottom and a batter bank so you can charge your phone.

The wifi picked up outside on my back patio about 70 feet from my router.

Android TV worked ok, but the is a bit of menu lag.

I am excited about this. I hope it works out for this brand, because what I really want is a 4k laser version of this idea that won't be destroyed as soon as I take it outside.

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I tried a few projectors starting with the Anker Nebula Solar. I like that model quite a bit but wanted something newer with a bit more power (If you want something almost as good but your budget is limited I highly suggest that model). I then tried the Samsung Freestyle which is horrible in every way, please do not waste your money. Next I tried the Xgimi Horizon Pro 4k. It was on sale but still at the higher end cost wise but promised a much better picture. It did have a high level of brightness but I was disappointed by the picture quality. Even though it projected native 4k the picture quality felt subpar to my 1080p Anker and no matter what motion setting I adjusted I could never get the picture to look right without the “Soap Opera” effect. I was about to splurge on the Anker Laser Cosmos 4k when I discovered Anker’s newest model the Mars 3. It is not native 4k but accepts 4k signal. This confused me but the best way I can explain it is that it does not project native 4k but the high quality input signal puts out what I suppose could be described as 1080p+(less pixels but HDR, enhanced sound, and a surprisingly sharp image). I am so happy I went with this model. Not only is it 1000$ cheaper than the 4k model but it has so many cool features that make it portable. I like the AI image feature. That automatically adjusts the brightness based on your environment. Also out of any projector I have experienced the included speakers are fantastic. Since this model is meant to be taken around the house and outdoors Anker put the strongest speakers of any model into this baby. I considered getting external speakers for my Solar, but with the Mars 3 I am extremely happy with the built in sound. My two issues which I hope can be easily fixed by a software update is that there is some lag as far as loading and menu navigation with the remote. It is not terrible, no where near as awful as the Samsung Freestyle but still noticeable. I didn’t feel that was enough to lower my rating a star but something to think about. Also this does not come with native Netflix. There is a easy workaround by using an included Anker app however the experience is still not great. My suggestion is to just plug a Fire TV or Roku stick in if you use Netflix. You can pick one up for around $20. Again annoying but not worth losing a star. If you are debating different brands and models and looking at laser/4k try this first. I think most people will be happy with it and it is so much cheaper than the 4k models out there.

Thought I would have buyer's remorse after purchasing this projector, but I did not. Product feels sturdy/reliable and the quality is nice for 1080p. Bought this for camping and outdoor cinema. Jellyfin app installs and works like a charm. The one big plus I noticed so far was the projector used less battery power streaming off an Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K (USB power + transcoding) than it did through the native Android TV OS. Streamed Dune through stick for 1hr; used around 5% of battery and projector was running cold in Eco mode. Same stream used around 15% (expected) through native OS. Turn off the lights or wait until dusk.

I think this is the best possible portable projector you can buy for anyone who wants to be outside. It's bright!! has a huge internal battery and comes with features you don't find on other projectors. Only thing missing is a software update to bring the Android TV 11 up to date with Google tv with built in support for Netflix. easy enough to overcome with a streaming stick but it would be nice to see this get the software update.