Soundcore Nebula X1 Pro reviewed: absurdly unnecessary, absurdly awesome
12/9/2026
Translation: machine translated
Camera: Nico Bernasconi, Davide Arizzoli
Cutter: Davide Arizzoli
Direction: Davide Arizzoli
A 33-kilo rolling suitcase with a 4K projector, Dolby Vision, a subwoofer, and four speakers for Dolby Atmos? It sounds crazy, and in a way, it is. Nevertheless, I have rarely had so much fun with a projector.
Who on earth comes up with something like this!? It’s not the first time in my life as a tech editor that I’ve seriously asked myself this question while unpacking a test product. The Nebula X1 Pro from Soundcore, Anker’s home cinema brand, definitely falls into this category. A rolling suitcase as a home cinema. Sounds like a crazy idea. But, as it turns out, it’s not that stupid after all.
I tested the X1 Pro twice: once in the classic setting of my living room and once outside in the garden with pizza, beer, and a movie. It was this second test that showed me what this thing was actually built for.
Carry-on? Not a chance.
So, a rolling suitcase. That sounds easy at first. But with a total weight of 32.8 kilograms, the X1 Pro is more of a piece of furniture on wheels than a travel companion. For comparison: that’s about as heavy as a 30-liter beer keg. Have you ever rolled something like that through four villages? I have. Anyway, that’s another story. This keg doesn’t contain beer, but a 4K projector, a subwoofer, four speakers, and two microphones for a sophisticated karaoke evening.
Yes, karaoke. I told you: “Who on earth comes up with something like this?”
Source: Davide Arizzoli
Add to that an HDMI port, two USB-C inputs (for charging the microphones), and a USB-A port. All in all, it sounds like a full suitcase. And once the thing is rolling, the suitcase analogy makes even more sense: the extendable handle, the two wheels, the compact format in which all components are neatly stowed away – it’s all a surprisingly well-thought-out transport concept. Almost like a Swiss Army knife, just for your home cinema.
However, two things immediately dampen the first impression. First: there is no battery. Without a power outlet, power station, or generator, the cinema for on-the-go remains dark while on the go. Second: the 2-meter power cable is far too short. For a device explicitly built for mobile use, I find that weak.
Setup in a few minutes
Well then, time for the first test at home. Set it up, plug it in, done. That’s what Soundcore promises. In fact, the X1 Pro automatically aligns its image with the screen, handles autofocus, keystone correction, and even color calibration if you don’t have a screen but just a more or less white wall available. On top of that, there is an electric tilt of up to 25 degrees, which straightens the projector even on uneven ground.
The four wireless speakers attach magnetically to the housing and charge there as well. You can simply leave them attached, in which case the sound comes only from the projector itself. Or you can use them as a proper home cinema should, and take them out: pull the front speakers off the sides, push the rear speakers in briefly, and they practically jump out at you. Then you distribute them freely around the room. When you turn it on, you can either start the calibration immediately or switch to a previously saved sound profile.
Source: Davide Arizzoli
All of this is called FlexWave. Sounds like marketing speak, but it works. The sound system has a whopping 400 watts of total power, distributed between the subwoofer built into the tower and four wireless speakers that communicate with the X1 Pro via their own 5.8 GHz wireless connection. Dolby Atmos is also supported, implemented via up-firing drivers that send sound toward the ceiling. That’s how the 7.1.4 system is achieved.
You still don’t get real sound from above, like in a cinema with actual ceiling speakers. For that, you would need speakers that are truly hanging from the ceiling. But what you do notice is the verticality in the sound – the audio feels less flat and effectively “fills” the room. And because the four speakers can be distributed freely in the room, it creates an immersive feeling that a classic soundbar alone cannot achieve. Let alone a projector without this system.
Source: Davide Arizzoli
And the image? That’s taken care of by a triple laser. In other words: three separate laser sources for red, green, and blue, instead of a single light source with a color wheel, as you know from many other projectors. The technical advantage, in short, is that you get three clean wavelengths per primary color, which ensures not only more, but also more vibrant and precise colors.
How vibrant, I noticed during the test with “Our Planet” on Netflix. The scene with the coral reef off Australia – the rich turquoise of the water, interspersed with neon green and orange corals – almost knocked me off the sofa. Not a hint of a watercolor look. It was so punchy that I needed a moment to realize: this isn’t some exaggerated picture mode gimmick, that’s just how it comes out of the device.
Source: Davide Arizzoli
Add to that 3500 ANSI lumens, which makes the X1 Pro quite bright for a home cinema projector, as well as support for HDR10, HLG, and Dolby Vision. In practice, this means: even with some ambient light, the image remains quite crisp, and the dynamic contrast of 56,000:1 prevents dark scenes from being completely lost.
The resolution is 3840 × 2160 pixels – although “resolution” is the key word. Like most projectors in this price range, the X1 Pro does not use a physical 4K chip, but shifts a Full HD chip so quickly several times per second that a 4K image is created. With the naked eye, you won’t distinguish it from real 4K.
You can project images between 50 and a whopping 300 inches diagonally, although Soundcore itself recommends up to 200 inches. And because the X1 Pro comes with a motorized 1.67x optical zoom, you don’t have to place it with centimeter precision every time – the device compensates for a bit of leeway in the distance to the wall itself.
The real test: out into the garden
In the living room, the X1 Pro delivers a really good high-end projector experience. But: buying such a heavy keg of a projector for 5000 francs just to leave it stationary in the living room? There are noticeably cheaper, stationary alternatives with comparable image quality for that. For example, these:
The real joke about the X1 Pro lies elsewhere anyway – namely outside. And that is exactly where the misery usually begins: where does the sound come from? The built-in speakers of portable projectors are rarely good. So maybe you drag your soundbar outside. It also needs power, of course, then it has to be connected to the projector, usually by cable, which is never long enough in the garden, and then you stand there and think: “Oh, I give up!”
Or you’ve reached for the substitute solution: some Bluetooth speaker that was actually intended for listening to music by the pool, and which now has to serve to squeeze movie sound out of it. From a single direction, with a single small driver that was never designed to convey explosions or dialogue convincingly. That works too. But it’s crap.
Source: Davide Arizzoli
This is exactly where the X1 Pro flexes its muscles. I roll the suitcase into the garden, set it up in front of a mid-priced outdoor screen from Elite Screens, take out the four speakers, distribute them on the lawn – and the setup is done. No soundbar that I would have had to wire to power and then to the projector. No single Bluetooth speaker that tries honestly but in vain to handle an entire movie. Instead, a real surround system with four speakers plus a subwoofer.
Awesome!
As soon as I turn the volume up a bit, the bass comes with a force I wouldn’t have expected from rollable equipment. Combined with the distributed speakers all around, it results in that one “wow” moment that you almost have to experience to believe. No comparison to the single Bluetooth speaker that bravely tries to replace an entire cinema hall and fails miserably (or not so miserably) in the process. I grab a beer, shove the first piece of pizza in – and enjoy life.
Now, right now, the X1 Pro suddenly makes sense.
Source: Davide Arizzoli
Not that I didn’t like the image in the living room. On the contrary. But a good high-end projector connected to a good home cinema system – I’m already familiar with that. A complete, damn cinema package that can be taken outside so easily? That, on the other hand, is new even for me.
Nevertheless: Anker sells the concept a bit too grandly for my taste. In the marketing images, the X1 Pro stands in the middle of nature by a campfire next to a van. It’s not that mobile. Realistically, it remains tied to a power outlet or a powerful power station, and at 32.8 kilograms, it’s more of a case for your own garden than for a forest path.
Source: Anker
And one more thing: no matter how brightly a projector shines – it has no chance against the sun. Even the X1 Pro doesn’t. That’s why things really get going only after sunset. That’s not a weakness, but simply physics. Even professional open-air cinemas wait with their much more powerful projectors until the sun is gone. For good reason.
In a nutshell
The Nebula X1 Pro belongs outdoors
If you are looking for a projector that will stay fixed in your living room, the X1 Pro is not the device for you. You would be paying for size, weight, and a mobile sound system that you would never need in that way – and you can get stationary projectors with comparable image quality for less money anyway. It only makes sense outdoors: for watching football with friends or a spontaneous movie night in the garden, because it can be set up in minutes without a tangle of cables. It is made for exactly that moment. However, depending on the offer, the X1 Pro costs around 3500 to 5000 francs, while the X1 without the mobile sound system is available for a little over 2000 francs. The extra cost is therefore almost entirely in the overall mobile concept including sound – and you have to want to afford that, because the speakers, as good as they sound, remain Bluetooth speakers and not a home cinema sound system of this price range. Anyone who wants to leave the X1 Pro mainly in the living room is therefore paying a lot of money for advantages they hardly use. But for those who dream of exactly this uncomplicated movie night outdoors, you get one of the most fun test devices I have had my hands on in a long time. Not a perfect product, not a particularly sensible product – but one that genuinely thrilled me during the test, with exactly those moments where technology stops being a calculation of data sheets and price-performance, and just becomes fun.
Pro
- bright, vivid laser image with Dolby Vision
- complete 7.1.4 sound system with Dolby Atmos set up in just a few minutes
- well-thought-out auto-setup (focus, keystone, color calibration)
- transforms spontaneous outdoor movie nights into a true cinema experience
Contra
- no battery – no movie night without a power outlet
- absurdly short power cable
- at 32.8 kg, anything but light, handy, and mobile
- high price for anyone who wants to use it primarily in the living room
Luca Fontana
Senior Editor
Luca.Fontana@digitecgalaxus.chI write about technology as if it were cinema, and about films as if they were real life. Between bits and blockbusters, I’m after stories that move people, not just generate clicks. And yes – sometimes I listen to film scores louder than I probably should.
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