Your next camping trip tagalong

Whether it’s Sunday football, fiery Marvel battles, a new scary movie, or even a little bit of reality TV, projectors take your favorite entertainment to a larger-than-life size. All you need is a smooth expanse of a light-colored wall (or bedsheet), the cover of night (or just a dark room), and, usually, a nearby power outlet.

Things are different with the Nebula Mars 3 by Anker, though. This portable projector isn’t bound to a close-at-hand power source, so it can tag along for backyard TV binges, campsite movie nights, or a place where power isn’t handy, like outbuildings, campers, garages, or unfinished basements. With a decent battery life, Chromecast and streaming stick support, and some slick outdoor-focused features, the Nebula Mars 3 is an adventure pal you won’t want to leave behind.

Price, availability, and specs

The Nebula Mars 3 certainly isn’t the cheapest projector money can buy, but it isn’t the biggest budget buster, either. Sometimes you can snag the Mars 3 for under $1,000 when it’s on sale. The standard retail price is about $1,050, though, and the two best places to shop for this projector are Amazon and Anker’s Nebula site.

What’s good about the Anker Nebula Mars 3?

Robust speakers that filled my yard with sound

The Mars 3 was my first portable projector experience. Before, a backyard movie night at my house looked like neon yellow extension cords snaking across the lawns to the waiting shed wall or strung-up sheet. Besides the obvious addition of a battery, the Mars 3 offers several features that make outdoor use easier.

There’s a kickstand tucked under the projector, so you can angle its display to multiple heights without a separate tripod. The carrying handle is essential given the Mars 3’s weight, and I appreciated the built-in light bar on the back, which helpfully illuminated the projector’s ports, so I didn’t have to fumble around with cables in the dark. The Mars 3’s lens cover doubles as a convenient power switch, turning the projector on when it’s snapped open and shutting it down when closed.

Regarding visual appeal, there are sleeker options, especially if you want a projector for the indoors. (The Dangbei DBOX02, for example, is a projector that would hold up poorly outside but looks quite elegant indoors.) With its clunky frame and noticeable heft, the Mars 3 isn’t a projector that aspires to win any beauty pageants, but the design makes sense as a rugged, outdoorsy device.

The IPX3 water resistance rating means that errant water splashes or moderate rain won’t decommission the Mars 3; while setting the projector up for testing one evening, the device proved the truth in its waterproof rating by withstanding a dousing of hose water as my five-year-old son tried, with little success, to help me water the flowers.

IPX3 isn’t a spectacular weatherproof rating, though, so I wouldn’t push your luck with stray cannonball splashes or sudden downpours. The lack of a particulate rating for an outdoor device is a tad disappointing; I worry about setting the projector down in sand or dirt, especially once its fans start stirring things up.

The Mars 3’s 1080p picture isn’t as big of a downgrade from higher-resolution projectors as you may think. Its DLP chip is largely to thank for that. Across the range of media tested, including lush NatGeo nature documentaries, Disney-Pixar animation, and a screening of the latest A Quiet Place installment, the picture was tack-sharp.

The colors were vibrant, with no blur or fuzziness at screen sizes up to about 150 inches. It’s at this size that the Mars 3’s performance peaks, and while you can go even bigger, prepare to make some image quality sacrifices.

Assuming the brightness and volume are cranked up, you’ll get about one movie (or two hours) out of the Mars 3’s battery life. Switch the device to its power-preserving Eco mode, and you’ll get a couple movies (or five hours) from one charge. And the 40W speakers are surprisingly powerful, and I never needed to push its volume over about 50%.

What’s bad about the Anker Nebula Mars 3?

I much prefer a Google TV interface on my projectors

I have little to no notes on the Mars 3. On paper, its specs show only a mediocre max brightness, but in real-time testing I found the Mars 3’s brightness to be plenty, especially after dusk, when I’d be most likely to use a projector.

My biggest gripe is the unrefined Android TV interface. When it comes to projectors, the Google TV interface has, in my experience, afforded a much smoother user experience. Google TV, and the coveted Netflix integration, aren’t yet a mainstay feature of projectors, so the majority still run Android TV, especially with budget-range projectors. I hoped the Mars 3 would be a projector you could essentially boot up and go, but since the Nebula Play TV app is essential for running the projector, there’s a bit of a learning curve.

It’s also worth mentioning that the Mars 3’s lamp lifespan falls a tad short of many competitively-priced alternatives, like the Xgimi Halo+, a compact projector with the same resolution as the Mars 3 and a dimmer max brightness, but an extra 5,000 hours on top of the Mars 3’s 25,000-hour lifespan. We’re also missing out on an optical zoom, so the Mars 3’s lens cannot move to adjust screen size while preserving image quality, but this just means that you have to be quite precise in placing the projector the recommended distance away for your preferred picture size.

Should you buy it?

A smart buy for the busy and outdoorsy

At the Mars 3’s price range, this projector faces the difficult task of being financially flush with upper-range alternatives, yet having the display quality of a solidly midrange projector. The extra dollars spent account for portability and convenience, which is something some users will appreciate while others won’t deem necessary.

I frequently enjoy camping, traveling, and spending time outside. If you share any of these hobbies, the Mars 3 would be a valuable edition to your packing list. It wouldn’t be my top pick as an indoor projector because there are too many higher-resolution, sleeker-looking devices to pick from.