soundcore Nebula X1S 4K RGB Laser Projector Review

Nebula achieves this level of performance by employing several different technologies. The X1S uses a patented U-shaped laser optical path. The primary change is raw diode scaling. To boost the X1S brightness from 3,500 lumens to 6,000 lumens in CONFERENCE mode, Anker switched to a new laser light source with more diodes, arranged differently, and increased the power. The optical layout and speckle-suppression mechanisms are otherwise carried over directly. This new system continues to deliver brighter output and richer colors with enhanced clarity and sharpness.

The X1S uses double-pass light diffusion (DPLD) technology, sending the laser light through the color phosphor wheel twice before projecting it onto the screen. Diffusing the light twice with a single-color filter lets the X1S achieve over 90% uniformity in both color and brightness, delivering natural, true-to-life visuals.

Nebula's engineers developed an industry-first internal liquid cooling system for a home entertainment projector, similar to those found in high-end gaming desktop computers. On the X1S, Nebula says the new cooling system provides a 15% advantage over standard air cooling. The X1S has an acoustic rating of 28 dB at 1 meter in its standard, color-accurate viewing modes. The liquid cooling system improves heat dissipation by 30%, reduces the projector's size by 30%, and lowers noise levels, ensuring optimal performance and quieter operation. Be mindful that as you increase the projector's brightness, the X1S’s cooling system volume will increase dramatically.

The Nebula X1S's 14-element all-glass lens produces a high-quality, low-distortion image that won’t yellow over time. This multi-element lens features electronic optical zoom and can display a large image up to 300 inches diagonally while maintaining excellent overall image quality.

The X1S also features a Soundcore first and a carryover from the first-generation X1: a built-in micro-gimbal that can automatically tilt the image up and down via a 25° motorized adjustment, while still offering optical zoom. This advanced design allows for accurate image alignment even when the projector is placed off-angle or on the floor. The X1S micro gimbal ensures smooth, stable image projection, making the X1S ideal for homes where space is at a premium and every degree of adjustment matters.

IEA 5.0 and the Motorized Micro-Gimbal make setup extremely easy because they don’t require manual leveling. The internal motorized gimbal allows the lens to tilt up to 25°. The gimbal also allows the projector to achieve precise image alignment even when placed off-angle. This feature ensures smooth, stable projections, making it ideal for homes where space is at a premium and every degree of adjustment matters. The Intelligent Environment Adaptation (IEA) 5.0 suite automatically handles autofocus, keystone correction, obstacle avoidance, and even wall color compensation.

The X1S Pro also features a cinema-grade 14-element all-glass lens. When you consider how many projectors use hybrid or worse all-plastic lens elements, Nebula has positioned its all-glass, 14-element lens as a mark of professional quality that won’t yellow over time. This hardware provides thermal stability and edge-to-edge sharpness that remains consistent from the beginning to the end of movie night or a party. The X1S's 14-element all-glass lens features electronic and optical zoom and can display a large image up to 300 inches diagonally, while maintaining excellent overall image quality.

Nebula is the world's largest Google TV projector brand. The Nebula X1S runs Google TV OS, which offers significant advantages over other smart projector operating systems. If you've used an Android device, Google TV offers a familiar, robust smart OS experience and access to over 10,000 apps through the Google Play Store. Google TV also delivers seamless access to a vast library of streaming services, apps, and more, all within an intuitive, user-friendly interface.

A key benefit of Google TV on Nebula projectors is the included official Netflix app. This ensures a smooth, optimized, and fully supported Netflix experience, complete with all the latest features and the highest possible streaming quality without the need for sideloading or complicated and unreliable workarounds. With the official Netflix app, you can dive into your favorite movies and shows with reliable performance and easy navigation, right out of the box. Google TV integration also adds features like built-in Chromecast and Google Assistant, further enhancing your Nebula projector's smart capabilities and convenience.

The Nebula X1S chassis is identical to the X1 and similar to many other Nebula full HD and 4K projectors. Nebula kept the pop-up handle on the top of the projector. The color scheme remains the same two-tone gray found on all Nebula projectors.

The sides of the unit are completely flush with grills for the cooling fans and speakers. The bottom of the case has additional cooling vents and rubber feet. The X1 measures (HxWxD) 9.7 × 7.3 × 11.1 inches (245.5 × 186 × 282 mm) and weighs 13.7 lbs (6.2 kg).

To turn on the projector, press the power button on the remote control or the top rear of the projector. It takes about 30 seconds to start the projector from the OFF position, compared to 7 seconds from the STANDBY position.

The projector offers several controls, including a Power On/Off switch, located on the top rear of the unit. In front of that switch are a Menu toggle and a Navigation control, with a Return button to the left and an Auto Image Correction button to the right. Above these controls is a Volume control. The remote controls everything else. If you don't have the remote handy, you can control and adjust the projector using the mobile phone application.

The out-of-the-box HDR color reproduction was also very good. Like SDR, the most accurate picture mode was ISF NIGHT. Picture adjustments like Contrast, Brightness, CMS, and RGB adjustments are applied to the HDR and SDR versions of that picture mode. For HDR content, the projector provides several dedicated modes, such as NEBULA MASTER, STANDARD, VIVID, SPORT, MOVIE, GAME CONFERENCE, ISF DAY, AND ISF NIGHT MODE.

Because the X1S is so bright, in my light-controlled space I found that closing the iris down to Minimum movie playback looks punchy and pleasantly saturated against darker backgrounds. HDR10+ and Dolby Vision scenes offer better depth. Soundcore has added some firmware refinements to smooth out the tone curves, and I found setting the iris manually lower achieves a stable picture with less brightness pumping or shadow clipping. I preferred using the manufacturer's presets designed for dark-room viewing. Not running the projector at peak settings also reduces fan noise and maintains decent (average 2025 DLP) black floors. Setting the X1S iris to MINIMUM and reigning in the laser output transforms the X1S into a controlled, high-contrast cinema display.

For SDR content, the projector's MOVIE and ISF NIGHT modes stood out to me. MOVIE mode was the best overall. To my eye, this mode appeared balanced, tracking closest to Rec. 709 without artificially pushing colors uncomfortably wide. Grayscale appeared natural, and GAMMA appeared relatively flat. MOVIE mode is not as heavily oversaturated as STANDARD or VIVID modes. Second to the MOVIE preset is ISF Night, which drops overall laser light output down for comfortable viewing in blacked-out spaces. The tradeoff is that content in ISF Night can sometimes appear redder, with a pinkish hue in some gray tones.

I don’t want to go too deep into HDR, since that’s the next section of the review, but I will say that, as with SDR, switching the HDR profile to MOVIE mode yields the best overall video quality. Highlight detail is excellent with lower highlight clipping. Also, if you have some uncontrolled ambient light sources in your space, ISF DAY is excellent with HDR content. ISF DAY slightly boosts midtones to keep shadow detail visible without needing to boost the greens like CONFERENCE mode does.

The X1S supports 3D using active shutter glasses. In an active 3D system, the projector rapidly alternates between left-eye and right-eye images. The battery-powered shutter glasses synchronize with the projector, opening one lens while closing the other. Each eye therefore receives light only part of the time, rather than continuously as with 2D content. Even though some of the XR10's brightness is lost due to the 3D process, the projector's higher brightness made the content look better than most projectors that I have seen.

The Nebula X1S supports HDR10, HLG, and Dolby Vision. Because Dolby Vision carries dynamic metadata rather than the static instructions used by standard HDR10, the projector adapts luminance boundaries frame by frame, giving the tone-mapping engine more granular control and ensuring bright specular highlights don't wash out shadow details.

The X1S includes several preset HDR profiles, with MOVIE and ISF DAY delivering the most neutral, balanced tracking out of the box. The projector automatically switches to SDR, HDR10, or Dolby Vision depending on the encoding of the displayed content. When it comes to Dolby Vision content, the X1S offers DOLBY VISION DARK, BRIGHT, and VIVID profiles. In my testing, DOLBY VISION BRIGHT works reliably in my living room and my light-controlled testing space. DOLBY VISION DARK provided marginally tighter tracking when the room was fully light-controlled.

Dynamic tone mapping on the X1S is dependable. Colors look rich without looking cartoonish, and brighter areas display nicely without overwhelming low-light details. Switching between dark and brighter scenes in HDR10 requires no manual fiddling with gamma or contrast sliders. Nebula rates the expanded LaserForge engine on the X1S at 106% coverage of the wide Rec. 2020 color space, giving HDR masters plenty of range.

Overall HDR on the X1S was very good, often drawing me into the scene with clear improvements in specular stability (light bouncing off chrome trim, sparks flying off metal) and edge roll-off (deep shadows along an object), especially with Dolby Vision content, though standard HDR10 also puts on a very respectable show.

The gaming experience on the Nebula X1S is identical to the original Nebula X1. The X1S uses the legacy Texas Instruments DMD and controller, which means the X1S maxes out at 4K at 60 Hz or 1080p at 60 Hz. While it comes equipped with two HDMI 2.1 ports (including one with eARC), its hardware and DLP chip are capped.

This projector doesn't support advanced gaming features like Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) or Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM). That means whenever you power up your console, you have to manually open the picture settings and switch to GAME mode. In GAME mode, input latency measures roughly 19 milliseconds at 4K 60 Hz. For a home theater projector, 19 ms is quite respectable, translating to just over a single frame of lag at 60 frames per second. The X1S is primarily designed as a high-end home cinema projector rather than a dedicated high-refresh-rate gaming projector.

My most advanced console is an Xbox One X, and the X1S works pretty smoothly within the console's hardware boundaries, but the genres you play reveal how the display behaves.

For racing titles like Forza Horizon 4, the experience feels great. My Xbox Series X outputs 4K, and on a massive projection screen, the sense of speed is incredible. Steering, braking, and drift corrections are very responsive. The 19 ms latency is low enough that I didn’t feel disconnected from vehicle physics. The X1S's high brightness also gives daylight race tracks serious pop. DLP displays sometimes struggle with high-speed motion, trailing, or judder, but I found the response fast and the image crisp. I also didn’t notice the unwanted motion blur you can find on cheaper LCD projectors.

First-person shooters are a bit different. Fast-paced, multiplayer shooters like Call of Duty start to reveal the hardware's limits. My Xbox Series X delivers clean 4K visuals, 60 fps, and HDR highlight punch on the X1S. However, because the projector lacks ALLM, VRR, and 120 Hz input, it's more of a big-screen movie display for casual-to-moderate console sessions than a competitive gaming experience like those on displays with next-generation DMD and controller hardware.

The Nebula X1S is a very capable machine that straddles the boundaries between lifestyle convenience and dedicated home theater projection. While it builds on its predecessor's core capabilities, it is more of an incremental improvement than an evolution. Unfortunately, this device lacks recent advances in DLP technology. Without a doubt, the X1S brings a significant advancement in light output, competing directly with mid-range DLP displays, and it offers advanced hardware and performance worthy of some of the best home theater DLP projectors under $5,000.

It all starts with brightness, and the X1S makes a bold claim with a 6,000 lumen rating. In my lab testing, with CONFERENCE mode engaged, the projector produced 5,886 heavily green-biased lumens, but context matters here. In addition to being green, CONFERENCE mode ramps up the cooling fans, making this projector the loudest modern display I’ve ever heard, and it overheated twice in under a minute. For movie viewing, MOVIE and ISF modes bring usable light down closer to 2,800 to 3,000 lumens. That is roughly a 15% to 20% bump over the original X1. That extra brightness makes the X1S versatile when it needs to power through moderate ambient light in a living room or throw a huge 300-inch image in the backyard.

Native contrast hovers around 5,000:1 with the 6-blade mechanical iris clamped down to MINIMUM. Combined with dialed-in laser power, it produces respectable black-level floor performance for single-chip DLP. Shadow gradation is good for the most part, though the X1S dynamic laser dimming can occasionally clip deep shadow details or reveal some brightness pumping during rapid scene cuts. The X1S delivers a sharp, vibrant, and remarkably bright image.

XGIMI Horizon 20 Max $2,999 MSRP

The XGIMI Horizon 20 Max is arguably the most direct spec-for-spec rival to the Nebula X1S. Both are high-brightness, lifestyle-hybrid projectors. Both pair an RGB triple-laser engine. XGIMI rates the Horizon 20 Max at a massive 5,700 ISO lumens, coming very close to the X1S's 6,000-lumen burst mode. Both units step down to a much closer 2,800 to 3,300 lumens when dialed in for color-accurate cinema playback, and both carry certified Dolby Vision decoding, though XGIMI adds HDR10+ and IMAX Enhanced.

Nebula matches the X1S with a more versatile 0.9:1 to 1.5:1 optical zoom and an internal motorized micro-gimbal that provides 25 degrees of vertical tilt. The Horizon 20 Max uses a tighter 1.2:1 to 1.5:1 optical zoom, so it needs more throw distance to fill larger screens. XGIMI offers a true motorized vertical and horizontal optical lens shift, but using it disables several automated setup tools like autofocus and intelligent screen alignment, forcing manual calibration. The X1S's internal gimbal, while limited to upward tilt, keeps its automated alignment suite intact throughout adjustment.

The biggest difference between the two projectors (aside from the Nebula’s very cool retractable handle) is native contrast. The Nebula X1S features a 6-blade mechanical iris that can clamp down to Minimum, delivering higher native contrast and a blacker floor in a pitch-black room. The Horizon 20 Max relies strictly on dynamic laser modulation with less visible pumping, and modern HDMI 2.1 gaming features like 4K@120Hz, ALLM, and VRR that the X1S cannot match.

JMGO N3 Ultimate $2,999 MSRP

The JMGO N3 Ultimate and the Nebula N1S are both high output. The N3 Ultimate claims 5,800 ISO lumens, while the X1S hits 6,000 ANSI lumens in CONFERENCE mode. Both settle down closer to 2,800 to 3,200 usable lumens, and both deliver certified Dolby Vision support for dynamic scene-by-scene tone mapping. The JMGO also supports HDR10+, but the Nebula X1S does not.

Optically, the X1S offers a 0.9:1 to 1.5:1 optical zoom, but its internal micro-gimbal is limited to 25 degrees of upward vertical tilt, with no downward adjustment or horizontal swivel. The N3 Ultimate features a motorized two-axis gimbal base that smoothly pans 360 degrees and tilts 135 degrees right, controlled from the remote. The N3 Ultimate features a remarkably wide 0.88:1 to 1.7:1 motorized optical zoom and true motorized optical lens shift.

The Nebula X1S fights back with a physical 6-blade mechanical iris that clamps down to MINIMUM, delivering higher native contrast and deeper black levels in a dark room. The N3 Ultimate relies purely on laser modulation with a native contrast ratio around 1,500:1. The N3 Ultimate runs on Texas Instruments' newer display controller pipeline, providing less noise, 240Hz gaming, VRR, ALLM, and sub-10ms input latency.