The Anker Nebula Mars 3 is a $1,099 home entertainment projector with 1080p (1920 x 1080) resolution and 1,000 ANSI lumens from an LED light engine, though at the time of this review publication it was selling for as little as $799 on Black Friday promotions. (Note that our Value star rating is based on the normal retail price and would be higher when factoring the promotional price.) This is a smart projector with Android TV 11.0, Chromecast, and Google Assistant. It has a powerful 40-watt 3-way speakers with Dolby Audio, but if you'd prefer to use Bluetooth speakers or plug into external speakers, that is an option, too.

The Mars 3 has a powerful, built-in 185 watt/hour battery that allows you to watch movies, TV, and play video games for up to five hours or listen to music for up to fifteen hours. The projector can also be used as a battery bank, not only to charge smart devices like your smartphone or tablet. This durable projector is ideal for outdoor use such as camping or outdoor movie nights, with a host of features that make it safe and fun to use outdoors—like IPX3 water resistance and 0.5-meter drop resistance, and a camping light, to name a few.

While this is primarily a home entertainment or lifestyle projector, those outdoor features do make it suitable for road warriors who take their sales presentations with them on the go and may require a durable unit. I can also see this projector being quite useful for party businesses that sell movie night services. With a projector like this, I wouldn't be worried about a kid accidentally damaging it or a mishap with a party beverage. At 1,000 ANSI lumens, which we confirmed with measurements, it's plenty bright for nighttime viewing, though daytime use has some stipulations. The projector is rated for images up to 200-inch diagonal, though keeping it under 100 inches will insure a brighter picture, especially if there's ambient light or you are running under battery power.

The XGIMI Halo+, which was awarded our Highly Recommended designation when it was reviewed last year, offers some competition to the Mars 3. It, too, is a 1080p, LED smart projector with excellent portability. The Halo+ has 900 lumens and goes for $749. It doesn't have that awesome water and drop resistance like the Mars 3, but it does have Android TV, Chromecast, and two 5-watt Harmon Kardon speakers with Dolby Audio and DTS-HD&DTS premium sound.

The Halo+ also offers this at half the size, and is optimized for gaming, with a 26.5 input lag measurement. It has a built-in battery, but it lasts half as long as the Mars 3's at 2.5 hours. Both projectors feature intelligent display adjustment technology. Our reviewer noted that the Halo+ is slow to start without using its Hibernate mode, has confusing menus, lacks Netflix compatibility and you need to install the Web browser. If you can get around those things, it may be one to consider as a possibility, but read on to find out if the Anker Nebula Mars 3 better suits your needs.

The Anker Nebula Mars 3 certainly has an interesting design and desirable features for a lifestyle projector, and potential for multi-use as well. Whether you're a home entertainment enthusiast, looking to go camping with friends or family, trying to soak up the last of those outdoor movie nights with the kiddos, or need a durable projector for presentations or a unique business like party entertainment or rooftop cinema for your bar/restaurant, the Mars 3 may very well be one that makes your short list.

Features

The Anker Nebula Mars 3 has a sturdy build and an easy-carry handle. The projector measures 9.8 inches long by 6.3 inches wide and 9.8 inches tall, and weighs 9.9 lbs. It's compact, portable, and has plenty of features that make up what is certainly an intriguing projector.

Before using the Mars 3 for the first time, it needs to be charged fully using the provided power cord. That easy-carry handle features the control panel, an LED screen that shows the Power mode you've chosen and the current battery level, and a Mode button that has several functions. The LED screen will light up when the Mars 3's battery is being charged. The battery ring on the LED screen has five sections. When all five are lit up, it's at 100% charge. Four sections is 60-80% charged, three is 40-60%, two is 20-40%, and one is 20% or below.

Directly under the LED screen is that Mode button. It has three functions, depending on whether the projector is on or off. When it's on, you can use it to switch the Power mode, of which there are three: AI Mode, Standard Mode, and Eco Mode. When it's off, you can use it to check the battery level. Also, when it's off, you can hold it for two seconds to enable charge-out, which is how you charge external devices using the projector.

A word about those Power modes. Standard Mode is the most powerful power mode, providing the highest brightness/lumens of the bunch. Eco Mode, according to Anker, lowers the brightness to 300 lumens to extend playtime of the battery—that's five hours in Eco, otherwise it's 2 hours in Standard. The Bright picture mode, with Eco Power Mode, still measured higher than 300 lumens, but the Standard color mode was right on the money for that claim. Either way, Eco is more of a nighttime viewing mode, not so much during the day, especially not in any ambient light situation. AI mode is the most interesting. It automatically adjusts the brightness of the projector based on the ambient light of the environment. You can watch it in action as it adjusts in the menu.

The front of the projector has its lens; sensors for autofocus, auto keystone correction, and auto screen fit; and a lens cover that slides up and down. That lens cover does more than just protect the lens and sensors from dust and other particles—it slides down to turn the projector on and engage the automatic focus, and then you simply slide it up to turn the projector off when you're done viewing. The image is sharp and has both auto-focus and manual-focus correction. There is no physical zoom, so you'll need to place this projector the right distance away from the screen to fit your desired image size. Use our ProjectorCentral Anker Nebula Mars 3 Throw Calculator to check out where you should place the projector for your screen size.

The automatic focus, auto keystone, and auto screen fit make setup a breeze. The projector automatically focuses when the projector powers up, and if it's moved, it will auto focus again. The image automatically adjusts to fit your screen and geometric correction as well, you can fine tune after the initial adjustment, and all those features can be accessed via a button on the remote control. The sensitivity levels for these motion settings can be changed via the menu.

Sound from the impressive 40-watt, 3-speaker system with Dolby Audio comes out both sides of the Mars 3 and from the rear where the air exhaust vent is situated. That's room-filling sound. It has four modes: Music, Movie, Outdoors, and Custom. Music enhances the highs, while Movie enables a surround-sound-esque experience. Outdoors increases the volume. Custom is for the audiophiles who want to get their sound just right, and you can control treble, bass, and balance, In my tests, I thought Movie mode was the best overall, and I really can't say enough nice things about the speakers—more on that in the Performance section. The projector has Bluetooth speaker mode, which is for connecting an external device like a smartphone to use the projector as a speaker. That worked, though it had some hiccups. I'll go into more detail on that in the Performance section, too.

The projector can also hook up to your external Bluetooth speaker for watching content. It connected to mine after a couple of tries, but the lip-syncing was off as sometimes happens with Bluetooth connections. Fortunately, there is a Speaker Delay setting for these situations which adjusts the sound delay by 10 ms for each time your press it, which is a great feature. However, the best I could do was get it close by changing the Bluetooth Speaker Delay to 30. It wasn't quite right, but almost there. Nonetheless, the onboard speakers on this projector are so good that I can't imagine using it with anything else unless you have a truly awesome Bluetooth speaker or external sound system. If sync remains an issue with a Bluetooth connection, you can always fall back on using use the 3.5mm analog stereo audio jack to hook it up to an external, non-Bluetooth sound system. There is no digital audio output or HDMI ARC option.

Speaking of which: the inputs and connectors are on the back of the projector, above the air vent and back speaker, and have a door to cover them. Those include the DC In port to connect the power supply, two USB ports, an HDMI input, and the previously mentioned aux-out for external speakers. Those USB ports are USB-A and USB-C that both charge an external device using the projector as a power bank when the projector is on, and the USB-A can also be used to plug in a USB Drive for playing stored video when you don't have WiFi.

The projector has what's called an Ambient Light, which provides a soft glow from a white lens on the back of the projector below the connection panel. It is essentially a camping light to use in dark settings, if you have use for such a thing. You probably would while camping. It has three settings that can be accessed via the Settings menu: High, Medium, and Low. It can also be turned on or off via the Ambient Light button directly to the right of the inputs and connectors, and the brightness can also be controlled with that button. Below the inputs and connectors and that button is the air exhaust vent.

Interestingly, the air intake vent is on the bottom of the projector. It has a flip-out stand on the bottom as well to tilt the projector up at a slight angle, but it's not adjustable. The projector can also be mounted on a tripod, but as this is a heavier projector, you'll want to make sure that is a sturdy photo or video tripod. Manfrotto has decent tripods that would be able to withstand the bulk of this projector—that was my go-to brand for video production, and we would mount sliders as well as cameras on those.

As mentioned, the control panel of the Mars 3 is located on the top handle. The Bluetooth speaker button is the first of the four buttons there and is used to enter and exit the mode. Next are the volume control buttons, +/-, then the back button. Then, there are the set of navigational keys and the enter button, used for the menus. I like the simplicity of this configuration and its placement on the handle.

The Mars 3 has a simple remote control that is lightweight and fits comfortably in the hand, though it lacks a backlight. It has a power button (hold for three seconds to power the projector off), a button to adjust focus, one to call on Google Assistant. Google Assistant is a typical feature with most Android-based projectors, and if you've not tried it, it's amazing—you can search for anything with your voice and save so much time and brain power. Below the Google Assistant button are the navigation arrows surrounding an enter button. Beneath that from left to right are the back button, the settings button, and the home button. The final two buttons are stacked under those and control volume. The remote control has a mouse mode, too.

The projector can also be controlled via the Nebula Connect app, available in both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. During setup, a QR code for Android and iOS appears that takes you to either app store to download. A lot of Anker models will show up as options within the app, so you choose the Mars 3, and it'll instantly show your particular unit once you allow Bluetooth connection via the app. Then you're set up and can start using the app to control everything on the projector right away. You can't use the app out of range of the projector, though, so you won't even be able to look at what the app remote can do unless you're linked with the projector and in range.

In the app, you can turn the projector on and off. You can control volume, bring up the settings menu, change the power mode, focus the lens, and access the Home screen on Android TV. It can be controlled three ways: by moving your finger across the screen, with a mouse on the app screen, and with a digital navigational pad. You can also get help and chat with a representative. The app works well and can be used in place of the remote, except in the case of Google Assistant. You'll need the remote for that.

As mentioned, the Mars 3 has IPX3 water resistance and 0.5 meter drop resistance, making it super durable and ready to weather the storm—legitimately, it's designed for outdoor use. Technically, IPX3 products can resist sprays of water coming in from 60 degrees from vertical. And with that ambient camping light, it really is a great projector for a camping trip if you're looking for something more serious projector than one of the little pico or pocket projectors marketed for the same thing. Those resistance features make it a rugged projector that one can take on trips that don't have designated campsites. Its little kickstand can keep it off the ground, but you can place a blanket, towel, or tarp underneath to keep the projector from getting dirty and I would recommend that. It does have 0.7 mm dust resistance, though. It also ran relatively cool and didn't get too warm with use.

You can do the initial projector set up quickly if you have an Android phone. Otherwise, just connect to Wi-Fi and proceed with the on-screen instructions. The Nebula Mars 3 has Android TV 11.0 so you have access to over 400,000 movies and TV shows, as well as over 7,000 apps. It has Amazon Prime, Hulu, Disney+, NFL, and a ton more streaming apps, and Chromecast built-in for casting from compatible apps, but it doesn't have Netflix and it can't be cast to the projector. This is common among projectors with an Android TV OS, though Anker Nebula recently announced two new portables—the revised Capsule 3 and the Mars 3 Air—which feature a Google TV platform that does include a working Netflix app. After the Mars 3 is set up you can access Google Assistant to command the projector from the button and microphone on the remote.

Anker supplies the projector, the remote with two batteries, the power cable, and its power brick. The manual can be found online on Anker's website, and I would recommend getting it so you can make the most out of this projector. The Mars 3 comes with a 1-year parts and labor warranty and a 30-day money back guarantee.

Performance

Color Modes. The Mars 3 has five color modes: Bright, Standard, Movie, Game, and Picture Custom. Game mode only shows up when an HDMI source is hooked up. That might be a game console or a Blu-ray player. Of these modes, Movie mode is the best out-of-box mode for color accuracy, and Standard is the best mode for presentations and brightness when a degree of color accuracy is still a necessity. Game is the best mode for gaming (for both color profile and input lag), and Bright is the best mode for when you need the absolute maximum brightness regardless of color. Picture Custom is for those who like to fuss with their picture settings.

Like with the brightest mode on most projectors, Bright picture mode on the Mars 3 has a green look to it. White has a green tinge, and most of the colors on the color wheel look muddy, which is caused by that green hue. The red is deep crimson, yellows are muddy and the yellowest yellow has a green look to it that makes me think it would taste like the lemon-lime Gatorade. The greens themselves are dark, and the blues aren't very different from each other. I wouldn't use this mode unless absolutely necessary, and that's true for most any projector.

Standard is the most balanced of the color modes, with a good balance between cool and warm tones. Red looks a bit crimson, and there's a bit of an accent toward blue, with the blues on the color wheel having less differentiation than the other colors. White is bright white. It's a great mode for presentations, or even watching TV or videos. This is the brightest color mode that still retains good color.

Movie mode is the best mode for film, TV, and video viewing. The white looks a tad magenta with a bit of orange. The color is tinted toward red/orange, which gives an attractive look to skin tones and everything else looks natural as well. All other colors are differentiated, including the blues, the greens look a little more limey than in Standard mode. When watching movies or TV, though, the vibrancy on those greens isn't noticeable.

Game mode is bluer than any of the other modes, and I wouldn't choose it for anything but gaming. When viewing video games on it, the effect is natural looking skin tones, rich color and depth, and an all-around enjoyable gaming experience where the game looks as it should.

Picture Custom allows you to manually set the values of color temperature, gamma, contrast, saturation, sharpness, wall color, or reset them. When starting out, the color looks a lot like Standard, but the red is definitely crimson, and the blues aren't very different from each other. The dark blue and purple, which are next to each other on the color wheel, are very nearly identical.

Presentation Viewing. I was able to verify that the Mars 3 works with both Mac and Windows computers. Not every computer worked perfectly, likely due to HDMI EDID conflicts, but it worked with two out of the four computers I tested, one a Windows PC laptop, and the other a Mac Mini. I tested with a MacBook Pro, which probably would have worked if it could have directly connected via HDMI, but there aren't ports for that on the newer MacBooks, so an adapter is required. I've tried using that with projectors before, and it's not worked more times than it has worked. I also found that my PC laptop squished the desktop into 4:3 aspect ratio so that text and icons were squeezed together on screen. In all instances, the cursor on the projected image also had a delayed response from when the mouse or touchpad was used. In any case, just be aware that your computer may not work properly with this projector or may require some finagling with settings.

Standard mode projected sharp-looking graphics, whether on presentation slides, websites, infographics, or informational videos. Standing 15 feet back from a 60-inch diagonal image, most fonts were readable. 8-point is a no-go (just not readable enough), but 10-point was readable, and 12-point and up looked great. Most presentations and websites will have text starting at 12-point font.

Presenting with this projector would be fine, whether you're looking at a smaller screen like 60 inches or larger at 100 inches. Movie mode would also work for presentations, but Standard is really where it's at because it's nicely bright and balanced. With Standard pictrure mode and Standard power mode, the projector can handle a bit of ambient light, like what might be present in a semi-darkened conference room.

Video Viewing. The Nebula Mars 3 has a few expert settings within the menus that may be of some interest to you: DNR, MPEG-NR, DI Film Mode, and MEMC. DNR, an acronym for Digital Noise Reduction, does just that. MPEG-NR reduces noise on MPEG-compressed video. DI Film Mode creates HD images encoded at 24 fps. MEMC is Anker's version of frame interpolation, which adds an extra frame between frames for smooth motion. I turned that last one off, as I don't care for frame interpolation and its video soap opera effect on any kind of content except sports.

Using Movie mode for my tests, everything looked great. The color was awesome, pretty accurate on both The Fifth Element and Ghost in the Shell when watching Blu-ray, and the same holds true for watching Carnival Row on Amazon Prime Video. I even caught a National Geographic feature on lions that looked excellent, and YouTube looked good, too. This is a sharp image, and when projected at 100 inches diagonally, it's quite the theatrical experience, coupled with the excellent onboard speakers.

The Fifth Element is one of my go-to films to watch for these tests because I know it like the back of my hand in terms of color and audio, and it's got a wide range of vibrancy and natural tones. It's easy to see if a mode is "too much" in any regard. In the case of Movie mode on the Mars 3, it did the film justice. It had natural looking skin tones, bright, vivid color that is vibrant where it should be—like LeeLoo's hair and outfit—and in the scenes with the hotel in particular.

Black level and dark shadow detail was decent, even good for a projector of this price point, on both films, and Carnival Row on Amazon Prime Video. Ghost in the Shell looked amazing. There are scenes in the beginning with a lot of contrast between lights and darker, black and white and deep colors like red, gold and blue, and it all looks so good. The moment when Scarlet Johansson's character busts through the glass and it's all slow motion while it breaks, and she materializes, was just gorgeous. Skin tones also look natural.

Gaming. Playing Hogwarts Legacy in Game mode, the colors looked as I expected them to. The skin tones looked good, and my first flying lesson took me all around the Hogwarts grounds, which looked spectacular. Though it has a bluer tone when looking at the color mode using the color wheel, in application, the performance was good, and colors seemed natural.

There were also no issues with gameplay timing, thanks to the projector's relatively good input lag, which I measured at 26.7 ms in Game mode for 1080p/60 signals. That's very good for casual gaming and only about 10 ms off what better gaming projectors will do.

This is a projector you can consider if you're a gamer. If you're a hardcore gamer, you might still like it even though it's not as fast as the best out there; its portability and excellent speakers make it particularly useful for gaming on the go. You can easily take it to a friend's place to game on the big screen.

Along with enjoying fanatastic play with Hogwarts Legacy, RPGs, strategy, puzzle games, or even more competitive online gaming like Call of Duty would work well on this projector. PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch games—this projector can handle it all.

Audio. I was impressed when I saw the specs for the audio indicating the 40-watt, 3-speaker system. This is a true case of "looks can be deceiving" because looking at the Mars 3 and its relatively small size, it seems more reasonable to expect half that, maybe less. The system is loud, absolutely room-filling, and delivers a robust, balanced audio experience in a large room without the volume even being turned all the way up. It has Dolby Audio decoding, which is evident when watching films, and even listening to music.

The preset Movie mode audio setting is stellar. With the three speakers sending sound from both sides of the projector and the back it gave an impression of surround sound. I circled the projector while screening The Fifth Element at full volume in the Movie sound mode, and it sounded fantastic from every angle, whether I was a few feet away or fifteen feet out. I tried out the Custom audio settings, and while it was cool to mess with, I felt that the fixed Movie mode preset had more to offer. Outdoor sounded good, but if this were my projector, I would leave it on Movie mode almost all the time. I would use Music for watching live concerts or recordings of concerts where music is the main course and dialogue is secondary.

The Bluetooth Speaker mode is used to connect an external device, like a smartphone, to the projector and use the unit as a Bluetooth speaker. I was able to do this using my iPhone, connecting it to the projector via Bluetooth and then using AirPlay from Apple Music to change the playback from my phone to the projector.

There were a few times where the music skipped because of the Bluetooth connection, and once after listening to music for about a half hour, the connection between the projector and the iPhone cut out but the music kept playing in silence. That is, the scrubber on Apple Music kept going, but there was no sound coming from the projector or the iPhone. The light on the handle of the projector that indicates Bluetooth Speaker mode had turned off. I had to turn the projector off, then on again and set it to Bluetooth Speaker mode again to get it going. The projector was connected to its power cable during this time, so it wasn't the battery. It was a minor annoyance, but worth noting.

I listened to songs from multiple artists, including Alt-J, The Beatles, Billie Eilish, The Black Keys, Cage the Elephant, Camila Cabello, Muse, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and The Rolling Stones, to get a feel for how it handled various instrumental arrangements and vocals. It handled bass well and the sound was spacious, with mids and treble sounding good as well. This projector could easily be used as a Bluetooth speaker for outdoor parties and camping trips. For music, Anker claims up to 15 hours of use on the battery.

Conclusion

The $1,099.99 Anker Nebula Mars 3 is a seriously cool smart projector built to be your companion on outdoor adventures. With IPX3 water resistance, 0.5 meter drop resistance, and 0.7 mm dust resistance, a sturdy handle, and covers for the lens and inputs, you can feel confident bringing the projector outdoors into some rougher environments.

It has a built-in battery that can last up to 15 hours when listening to music, and up to 5 hours in Eco mode for video viewing, or 2 hours in Standard. If you're camping, the battery likely won't last the length of your trip assuming a mix of movie viewing and jamming to music. You'll want to bring along a solar charger if you don't have access to an AC outlet for recharging. I recently reviewed a tiny projector that has a solar charger specifically for it. While this projector doesn't have a dedicated accessory like that, you can get a solar charging power bank that will charge laptops for less than $200, and that same power bank can charge your Anker Nebula Mars 3. It's something to consider if you want to bring a projector into the great outdoors, because the Mars 3 certainly has all the protective features that make it rugged enough to take with you.

In addition to all the design features that make it great for the outdoors, the Mars 3 has smarts, including Google Assistant, Chromecast, and Android TV 11.0, allowing you to watch your favorites from Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Hulu, YouTube, NFL, and more. The color in its Standard and Movie modes is good and it can be used for regular TV viewing or films, and be enjoyed. The projector is also good for gaming, which is a major plus. The 40-watt. 3-speaker audio system with Dolby Audio has impressive sound, whether you're watching TV or Movies, or listening to music.

In terms of color, Movie mode, Standard mode, and Game mode all had good color for their particular uses. The projector nearly hit its brightness claim in its brightest mode, Bright, with its more attractive modes coming in at just a few hundred lumens below. While this isn't a projector for direct ambient light, it's got more than enough brightness for daytime viewing in a semi-darkened room, and nighttime viewing. That's what I expected from this projector. If you're looking for a versatile, portable projector with a built-in battery that you can take anywhere, and the minor issues outlined in this review don't bother you, the Anker Nebula Mars 3 could be for you.

For more detailed specifications and connections, check out our Anker Nebula Mars 3 projector page.

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