Soundcore Nebula P1i Project Review: New Design, Old Walls

Some may confuse me that the projector is not compatible with 4K, but at this price, the industry is not available. And again, for a casual night of great movies, you don’t actually want it. Unlike their complaints about the lack of popcorn at movie night, my daughter and her friends never complained about the lack of pixels.

Picture Quality

Photo: Chris Haslam

The Nebula P1i produces an impressive 1080p image for casual viewing, but, like most low-cost projectors it needs a dark room to perform well. Ambient light washes out images quickly, especially if you’re extending the display beyond 60 inches.

So although it is not suitable for use during the day, at night, with the curtains closed and the lights off you can push the display up to 100 inches with good results. Don’t expect the color and contrast to be the same as your TV. Dark images can also suffer, and they struggle with blacks and shadows, but again, this is the same for these courses and budget projects. It’s not a design for videophiles, but it’s a fun way to watch TV.

Take the projector outside and you’ll have the same problems with brightness. If you live in an idle rural area where the only light comes from the stars, you’ll be fine, but please take commercial photos of city rooftops with a grain of salt.

You can easily adjust contrast, saturation, black levels, sharpness and more and choose from a variety of image modes including Vivid, which enhances color and contrast, and Cinema, which nails the tonal depth of dark rooms. The difference is noticeable but not surprising.

Noise

Photo: Chris Haslam

Each speaker can rotate 90 degrees side to side and 200 degrees vertically. They also work when they are down to the big body, and they have a better standard expected of them. It’s a little boxy, but that’s how it is with projects.