In recent weeks, I have covered several items that can upgrade your campsite, or outdoor adventure, into a connected, yet off grid, space! There was, however, one omission from this outdoor living tech set up…… a device that could bring your home theatre outdoors with you!
Nebula Mars
If you have not heard of Nebula before, they are new, sister brand from Anker, who are well-known for their Portable Power Banks and cables. Nebulas first product, the Mars, is a compact, lightweight, go anywhere Projector helping you to take, and share, your movies and music wherever you go!
The experiences many of us would have had with projectors in the past, may not have been great! At school you would have encountered cheap, low power models, in classrooms that had no blinds to block daylight. While, if at work, although it may have been a higher spec, chances are the projector had been misused, damaged and always gave an image in a strange Trapezium type form. Well the Mars is light years (pun intended!) ahead.
Features
The most important feature, the display, is not 4k or 1080p, but a more modest 800p, but this is not a bad thing! The top spec projectors capable of delivering such resolutions are priced in the thousands, and are often the size of an old PC! Instead the Mars focused on delivering a lower resolution brilliantly, rather than a higher one poorly.
Inside, the Mars has a 3,000 lumen bulb, capable of delivering a 40″ TV screen image at 3-4ft away, and up to a staggering 300″ at 29ft away. That’s a 25ft Screen!!
Obviously, you will need power, and Nebulas got that covered. Internally, the Mars has a 19,500mAh battery pack that will deliver around 3 hours of playback. Although that is a good amount of time, for a unit so small you will want more power. Connecting it to an off grid solar source such as BioLite of Lifepowr A3 will keep you entertained and the Mars charged for as long as you need it.
Sound, and the use of internal speakers, in such items can be an issue. Usually delivering a quiet ‘tinny’ sound that most would struggle to hear. In the Mars, you will find two JBL 10w speakers which promise a more vibrant sound. If that is not enough you can add additional speakers over Bluetooth or via the 3.5mm audio jack.
Connectivity
The really impressive part of the Mars is what you can play via the projector. The answer is, pretty much everything!
At the rear of the case you will find four ports, two of which are HDMI and USB inputs. Therefore, with the right cable or dongle, you can play direct from a laptop, tablet, smartphone, even Apple TV/Amazon Fire Stick/Chromecast! No cable? No worries. You can wirelessly stream from those devices over wifi or bluetooth on to the Mars.
If you have the power, you can even use a games console, although that might be best left to indoors!
Price
The Nebula Mars is currently only on sale in the US for 9 at Amazon. The Anker Twitter Page does lend some promise to a near future release in the UK, so hopefully other markets will follow.
Fingers crossed!