Test Reviews

Nebula Cosmos Max 4k test, review and price

Published on: 12-01-2020 / Modified: 07-10-2022
I bought my first projector in 2016, it was an Xgimi H1 that I had bought in crowdfunding on Indiegogo. I kept this projector for 4 years while testing other projectors in parallel. It was only after testing this Nebula Cosmos Max 4k that I decided to sell my Xgimi.

The Nebula Cosmos Max 4k has also started its marketing on Indiegogo and I also took the opportunity to buy it for around 1000 €. Its price then rose to between € 1,400 and € 1,600 on Amazon and then fell at the end of 2021 to around € 1,000. It is following this price reduction that I decided to write an update of my test because at this price, the Nebula becomes very interesting and is one of the best 4k XPR projectors around 1000 € .

I now have one year of experience with this projector and with good calibration I managed to get excellent picture quality to the point that I failed to get it find a successor in this price range.

Manufacturer web site:
https://www.seenebula.com

Price Nebula Cosmos Max

The list below shows the prices for the Nebula Cosmos Max from more than 50 sites around the world. If you are not satisfied with any price, you can subscribe to a price alert to be the first to be notified when the price drops.

The above links are affiliate links from companies such as Amazon, Gearbest, Aliexpress,... If you appreciate my work, I would be grateful if you could purchase these products through these links. It costs you absolutely nothing but I get a small commission that allows me to buy the material I test. Thank you very much!

Timeline

June 2020: the crowdfunding campaign ends and I missed the sale (by forgetting). I contacted Nebula support and the projector will not be available for sale until September
October 2020: the projector is available on Amazon, I bought it with a -20% promo. Two days later, I have the projector at home and can start the test.
December 2021: update of this test with new videos and calibration data

Why this projector?

My blog is a hobby and when I test a product I have to choose a type of product that I use frequently because I don't have enough time to test products that I never use. I usually test smartphones because I use this kind of product every day but I also use projectors a lot, I have given up on TV for years.

It's been a few months since I wanted to buy a 4k projector but with prices over 2000 euros, it was not exactly in my budget. So I waited until I found the Nebula Cosmos Max on Indiegogo. It is the first portable projector in 4k.

Buying a product on Indiegogo always involves a risk but you should know that the Nebula projector is produced by a company (Anker) which has already produced good projectors and this company has large means to bring a good product to the market.

Unpacking

When I received the box of the Nebula Cosmos Max 4k I was surprised by its weight, the projector weighs 3.4kg and it is also quite large (35cm by 25). The box barely fit in my studio to take the pictures.

My camera was running out of battery and I didn't feel like waiting to take pictures so I used my Samsung Galaxy S20 to take the pictures.

The projector is very well protected in its box, which partly explains the size and weight of the box. The Nebula is not the first projector produced by Anker and it shows. The packaging shows a certain maturity in the identity of the product and the positioning is rather premium.

The box contains the projector, a remote control with 2 AAA batteries, a manual and the power cable.

Operating system

The Cosmos Max runs on Android TV, so it offers an experience designed for TV and remote control. As this is an official version, this ensures a longer life for the projector as it will receive updates for a few years.

With Android TV you can also access a dedicated Play Store where you will find most of the current applications but not all, Google has only kept the applications that can be used with a remote control. I don't have a Netflix subscription but I was able to test Amazon Prime and it works perfectly, the streaming offered is clearly in high definition.

I mainly use Kodi for playing videos but you can easily play 4K videos on YouTube or access your Steam game library through Geforce Now.

The parameters allow many adjustments to be made to the images and I am not talking here about the correction of the image size but also of the brightness, the zoom, the saturation colors, the color of your canvas, the color tones, ... This is the first time that I have found so many adjustments for the image and it is clearly an advantage because you will be able to adapt the image according to your tastes and also according to your context (eg: canvas, wall, ...)

The Nebula Cosmos Max 4k is undoubtedly the most complete projector in terms of image adjustment and that allowed me to find very good settings to get an almost perfect image. I will also share my settings to avoid wasting time on this kind of thing.

Finish

The Nebula Cosmos Max 4k projector is really beautiful, I know, it's subjective but it's arguably one of the nicest projectors I've tested so far. Its format is on the other hand a little particular because the projectors are often angular where the Nebula is in the shape of an ellipse. This choice is undoubtedly motivated by the desire to propagate the sound all around the projector in a uniform manner. This type of projector is placed at the back of a room, so it will have to be given a little space at the back as well to prevent the sound from bumping into the wall too quickly.

A premium feeling comes from the projector, the finishes are impeccable, the materials are well put together and the weight reinforces the impression of solidity.

At the front of the projector we obviously find the optical unit, it is quite imposing but fits well into the structure of the projector. The outline of the projector is made up of a grid to diffuse sound, there are two almost invisible outlets to release heat from the projector.

On the back there is an ignition button, two HDMI ports, two USB ports and a digital output for sound. The connector for the power supply is located next to the first HDMI port.

The top of the projector is made up of a reflective surface that will light up as small stars when the projector is turned on.

Underneath the projector is the attachment needed to attach the projector to an arm or a stand.

Projection room

My projection room is rectangular, 4.6m by 2.9m (height 2.2m). I have two projection walls, one white wall 2.9m wide with just white paint with a possible 4m setback. I then have a 133 inch ALR screen on another wall with a possible setback of 2.8m. I mainly use the ALR screen except when the layout or type of projector is not suitable for this situation.

Battery autonomy

The Nebula Cosmos Max 4k does not have a battery, it only works on mains.

Power consumption

On the official Nebula website, the consumption of the Nebula Cosmos Max 4k should reach 180w. That's a lot for a projector like this and that's one of the things that almost put me off buying it. Fortunately the reality is different.

I measured the consumption at the outlet during the projector configuration procedure and I measured 105W. I then made another measurement by reading a YouTube video and I obtained a consumption of around 90W. As my projection room is dark, I lowered the brightness to 50% as it was more than enough. With a brightness at 50% I obtained a consumption of 65W. I have another 1080p LED projector that I found energy efficient because I was getting a consumption of 75-80 Watts, the Nebula Cosmos Max 4k does even better and in addition it is brighter.

If your projection room is not dark enough, you can obviously increase the brightness which will result in higher consumption (and noise).

Operating noise

The Nebula Cosmos Max 4k is equipped with two ventilation outlets facing the rear of the projector. The ventilation is quite noisy at startup, then the noise will fluctuate depending on the use of the projector. It is the intensity of light that will increase the operating noise.

Nebula announces a maximum noise of 32db but in reality the projector is clearly noisier, I measured up to 50 db with the maximum brightness. The ventilation is therefore audible when the projector does not produce sound but I did not find that problematic. My XGIMI H1 makes less noise. On the other hand, the Xiaomi laser that I also tested was significantly noisier and its positioning at the front made noise more problematic.

After calibration I reduced the brightness to 35% and at this level, the projector is inaudible.

Connectivity

Wifi
The Nebula Cosmos Max does not have an Ethernet port and I was worried that this would affect performance but fortunately it does not. My projector is in the same room as my router, so distance cannot degrade performance. I was able to play uncompressed 4k video files without any problems.

Bluetooth

I tested the projector's Bluetooth connection with my Xiaomi sound bar, I did not encounter any problem to establish the connection but I noticed a slight delay in the sound (less than 1 second). This is a fairly common problem with projectors but the lag is small enough that you can ignore it, you really have to pay attention to see it.

It is also possible to transform the projector into a Bluetooth speaker by going through the "Bluetooth Speaker Mode", in this case you can send sound to the projector which will turn into a speaker (without need to project an image).

Image settings
The Nebula Cosmos Max 4k offers many adjustments to improve the image and these adjustments allow you to obtain a better image than the one out of the box. I had measured a dE around 10 with the initial configuration. If you have no idea what this means know that the dE measures the deviation of colors from the norm and with a dE greater than 3, the human eye begins to perceive the color differences. With a dE of 10, some colors are therefore not fair and the image therefore does not fully utilize the capacity of the projector.

With the settings I'm going to share below you will be able to get a dE of 3.2, you won't find many projectors in this price range that can go that low. The settings that I am going to suggest to you below are valid for a projection on an ALR screen, so you will probably have to adapt them a little for a completely white screen.

Picture settings:
Picture mode: film
Brightness: 35
Contrast: 50

Wall color: white (no choice for gray)
HDR enabled

Saturation
Red +55
Green +55
Blue +55
Cyan +55
Magenta +45
Yellow +45

Hue
Red 60
Green 50
Blue 36
Cyan 30
Magenta 65
Yellow 40

Gain
Red 65
Green 40
Blue 40
Cyan 40
Magenta 55
Yellow 42

Color temperature
R-Gain 54
G-Gain 47
B-Gain 35

Gama> Enphoto

Ce projector emits too much blue and not enough red when it comes out of the box, so you have to compensate for these shortcomings by modifying these two colors quite strongly. If your wall is white you will need to follow the same type of adjustment.

In addition to color settings, the Nebula allows you to change the zoom level (digital) and adjust the shape of the image with keystone correction. Focusing is automatic and fast but I recommend fine-tuning the focus with your remote control because you will be able to obtain a better result in terms of sharpness. I placed the projector in a straight line to the screen to produce the videos in this article and placed it on its back on top of a cabinet.

Image quality

Video 1 (4k YouTube Costa Rica 4k) - ALR screen - image approx. 2m24

I often use this video to test my projectors because it uses many colors very vivid and the sharpness of the images is really good. Apart from the first seconds of the video, the Nebula here produces excellent image quality with very good sharpness and richness of colors very faithful to the original video.

Video 2 (Trailer 4k Top Gun in local streaming H264 YUV 420)

This video mixes all kinds of scenes, bright and dark , the scenes are also more animated than in the previous video. Although the Nebula does not have a compensation mechanism, the image is perfectly smooth. The colors are also excellent here, the skin color is well rendered, the whites are very white and even if the black is not perfectly black, the contrast is quite good for this kind of projector.

Video 3 (4k YouTube Night walk in Tokyo)

The weakness of projectors of this type is the contrast, the blacks are never really black and therefore the contrast is never as strong as on laser projectors. The Nebula is no exception to the rule but the rendering is nevertheless quite good in this video with night scenes, I am here very far from a situation where the blacks are light gray.

Video 4 (4k Youtube Trofeo Lamborghini)

This video is a good summary of all the points raised in the previous videos. This video mixes dark and light scenes, there is movement, warm colors and cold colors, ... the Nebula does very well on all types of scenes.

I make all my videos under the same conditions and I use the same videos each time for each projector. I have had this projector for a year and thanks to a good calibration, I have not yet found better in this price range. Even the JMGO U2 tri-color laser can't do better.

Colorimetry

When I used the Nebula Cosmos Max 4k the first time, I found the image to be beautiful but not exceptional. It is by playing with all the parameters that I managed to obtain a much better quality image. I find it unfortunate that the manufacturers (and not only Nebula) do not make more efforts to have a more accurate colorimetry out of the box because how many buyers will make the effort to calibrate their projector? Projectors have become produced for a wider audience, so I find it very unfortunate that an uninformed audience cannot fully benefit from their purchase.

After calibration I obtained a dE of 3.2 with a maximum of 4.4 on the magenta, I could perhaps still spend a little time to reduce this difference but it is really minimal. I got a dE of 0.4 for white with a temperature of 6512K, I had never achieved such perfect white with a projector before. The projectors often produce a white which turns a little towards blue, it was also the case with this Nebula but after calibration, this problem disappeared.

I got an average range of 1.94 where I should have reached 2.1 but the gap is not very large and I did not really find it problematic in the videos.

Brightness

The Nebula Cosmos Max 4k has a brightness of 1500 ANSI lumens, it is clearly not the brightest projector on the market but it provides sufficient brightness for use in a dark room. I also had to decrease the brightness because with my ALR screen, the brightness was too strong. The Xgimi Horizon offers greater brightness but I don't really see the point if you are in a dark room because anyway with 2400 lumens a projector cannot be used in daylight without a consequent loss of contrast.

Brightness is often used as a marketing argument and then it almost becomes a competition between users to see who has the biggest. What to believe I would say quite simply that the vast majority of projectors cannot be used in daylight, even with 2400 lumens that is not enough to have a good image. So I always recommend a dark room and in this case, 1500 or 2400 lumens, it doesn't matter much. If you really need more brightness, either pay more or buy an ALR display with gain. Mine offers a gain of 1.2, which is more than enough.

Sharpness

The Nebula Cosmos Max 4k is a 4K XPR projector, that means it is not a native 4k projector. There isn't a native 4k projector in this price bracket anyway but that doesn't mean the picture isn't good. The DMD 0.47 chip used in this projector is also present in other projectors that I have tested (ex: Xgimi Horizon, Xiaomi Mi Smart 2 Pro, ...) and it gives very good results in terms of sharpness. If you watch my test videos and more particularly the one from Costa Rica, you will see that the sharpness of the image is really excellent, it is also one of the best projectors that I have had the opportunity to test.

Contrast

The contrast is the weakness of this kind of projector, they are all limited by the technology used and this does not only concern the Nebula because it is the same with Xgimi or Xiaomi. If you want better contrast, unfortunately you have to pay more or go for an "old" lamp projector. I say it like this was inevitable but even if this problem is visible, it is not fundamentally disturbing on this Nebula. If you look at the Tokyo night scenes in the demo videos, I think you can hardly say that the contrast is bad.

Motion compensation

The Nebula does not have a motion compensation mechanism, this means that the fast sideways movements will sometimes be jerky but most of the time the films are designed not to cause too fast sideways movements. The problem will undoubtedly be more present for sports scenes.

Image size and projection distance

The Nebula Cosmos Max has a throw ratio of 1.2, that means you will get an image with a width of 1m from a throw distance of 1.2 meters and if I simplify the calculations you get a width 80cm image for every meter of distance between the projector and the projection area. My projector is about 2.8 meters from my screen, so I get an image that is 2.24m wide. To calculate the diagonal you have to divide the width by 0.86, I get here a diagonal of 2m60 or 102 inches.

Here are some calculations you can adapt to your situation:
Distance / width / diagonal
1m / 80cm / 93cm
2m / 160cm / 186cm
3m / 240cm / 279cm

I have rounded the numbers for easier calculation, so you can see if this projector is suitable for your projection room. If the image is too large, you can decrease it with digital zoom, but if you decrease it very much, it will deteriorate the quality of the image.

Audio quality

The Nebula Cosmos Max 4k is equipped with 4 Dolby Digital Plus speakers allowing sound to be broadcast all around the projector. The first thing that struck me with the sound is its power, the lowest volume remains perfectly audible and I never had to turn it up very loud.

If the projector had a jack output, I could have made it pass the same test as the smartphone, my judgment on the sound quality will therefore be a subjective judgment by ear. The sound is more powerful than what the Xgimi H1 or Mogo Pro are capable of producing but I am still a step below the Xiaomi Mi Laser TV which was clearly too loud for the size of my room. If I dwell on the frequencies, I have the feeling that the frequency range is more limited than the Xgimi with its Harman-Kardon speakers. The sound is not bad but it sometimes lacks finesse and I have the impression that the sounds are sometimes buffered because I have more difficulty distinguishing the voices of the instruments when a scene is noisy.

To test the treble, I used a video from Adele:

To test the bass, I used a video by BIllie Eilish

It is very likely that YouTube is blocking these videos for copyright issues, if so I would put a video in private mode.

I shot these videos with the Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro and even though this phone is capable of producing good videos, the recording will still show a degradation compared to reality.

I don't have a dedicated hi-fi installation, but I doubt that a projector can compete with this kind of installation. If you don't have an installation, the Cosmos will offer you a completely correct solution at no additional cost. The sound is more powerful than my Xiaomi 28W soundbar but it is arguably less precise because when many sounds mix together, the soundbar is able to distinguish between sound types better. If you're a fan of Michael Bay movies where everything explodes all the time, the Cosmos Max's speakers are going to show their limits.

Video games

The Nebula Cosmos Max 4k is not a gaming-oriented projector but it does quite well with an input lag (= display delay) of 50 ms. This is clearly not sufficient for games where fast reaction is required like FPS but for games where reaction time is less important it should be sufficient. The video shows a game with Asphalt 8 where the lag was absolutely no problem for me.

Encoutered bugs

Not yet available / tested

ALR/CLR Projection screen

Are you looking for a good ALR/CLR screen for your projector? I may have what you need:
ALR/CLR NothingProjector Screen

Test / Review conclusion

After the crowdfunding period the price of the Nebula Cosmos Max went up quite sharply and I found the price to be too high. The Nebula is a good projector but for 1,400 to 1,600 € there were other alternatives including some good laser projectors. Now that the price has dropped to 1000 €, this project has found a new reason to exist because the price / quality ratio is much fairer than at 1400 €. I have been using this projector for over a year (end of December 2021) and I am still very happy with it, I would like to find a replacement for it but so far I have not found one yet but I feel that it will not be long but it will be at the cost of a more expensive purchase.

The Nebula Cosmos Max has not benefited from such high visibility as the Xiaomi Mi Smart 2 Pro or more recently the Xgimi Horizon and that's a real shame. I think the parent company, Anker, focused on the US and neglected the European market a bit. Less visibility does not mean that the projector is worse because even more than a year after its launch, this projector is still in the race. After calibration, I obtained an image of very good quality with correct colors, almost perfect white and very good sharpness. Unfortunately, you have to go through the calibration box to really take advantage of it, but it's the same with the Xgimi Horizon. The values presented in this test should allow you to enjoy the same picture quality without having to worry about the settings.

Among the other qualities of the projector, I would mention the quality of finish (it is a beautiful device), the quality of the sound (even if the Xgimi does better), the choice for Android TV and its many applications (natively compatible with Amazon Prime) and its many adjustment possibilities. This projector consumes very little power if you adjust the brightness correctly. (100% brightness = poorer image quality = more noise = higher consumption)

Everything is not perfect with this projector, I obviously found some weaknesses in it and sometimes it is very little. There is for example the remote control which does not offer much relief to the keys and since it is not illuminated, you sometimes have to search for the right button a bit when you are in the dark. The sound is good unless you push it all the way, the voices are quickly overwhelmed by the other frequencies but a priori if your room is not too big (15-20m²) you will not need to push the sound so far . The ventilation noise is audible if the light is strong, I can't hear it at 35% but above 50% you could hear it.

What are the alternatives to this projector?

- Xgimi Horizon: motion compensation, better sound, more responsive / faster
- Xiaomi Mi Smart 2 Pro: significantly cheaper but poorer colorimetry, inferior sound quality

Strengths

Image quality
Image sharpness, 4k resolution
Energy consumption
Android TV
Possible settings

Weaknesses

Remote control relief
Fan noise with brightness> 50%
Subtle voice (especially voices) at high volume

LAURENT WILLEN
Head of myself on this blog

I share my passions on my blog in my free time since 2006, I prefer that to watching nonsense on TV or on social networks. I work alone, I am undoubtedly one of the last survivors of the world of blogs and personal sites.

My speciality? Digital in all its forms. I have spent the last 25 years working for multinationals where I managed digital teams and generated revenues of over €500 million per year. I have expertise in telecoms, media, aviation, travel and tourism.