So moving on to the big hitters now, the Xgimi Horizon Pro and nebula’s Cosmos laser 4K. There’s a lot of good stuff to go over here, these two projectors are both seriously amazing, and these are the ones you want to get if you’re looking to set up an at-home cinematic experience while still getting that portability if you want to take it around to different rooms or even outside. Based on specs alone, the nebula Cosmos laser 4K is $300 dearer at $2199 and is a full 10 pounds heavier than the Xgimi, but we do get a brighter rating and arguably better speakers. I’ll do a sound comparison test for you in a moment. It is worth mentioning that both projectors achieve 4K not natively but through pixel shifting, and don’t worry though, it’s tough to even see the difference between native 4K and pixel shift at 4K for the most part. Setting these up immediately, I saw a huge difference in picture quality between the gs50 and the capsule 3. The 4K HDR 10 supported resolution of both the LED Xgimi and Laser Cosmos is super crispy, and the content looks like it’s printed onto the walls even at huge sizes. And speaking of sizes, the nebula Cosmos 4K runs up to a huge 150 inch in screen size, and Xgimi runs up to an absolute gigantic 300 inches, which I don’t even have space for. But heads up that Xgimi recommends a maximum of 200 inches before picture quality suffers. In my studio space and with most at-home Cinema setups, the 120 to 200-inch screen size is more than enough for a super immersive theater experience that should take up most of a wall or installed projector screen. Anything more, and I find that the picture quality suffers even at 4K. Though with consumer priced 8K laser projectors being announced, this may all change soon. Either way, 4K is going to be more than enough for most people.

Looking at the specs, the BenQ gs50 and nebula capsule 3 are both really similar on paper. They're both 1080p full HD projectors, have a similar throw distance of 120 by 1. Both come with speakers and Android TV installed for easy access to a ton of popular apps, movies, and shows. They're also both similarly priced at the $800 range. The main differences are in its physical design and its laser and led differences, which are pretty significant. Let's talk about benq's projector first, the gs50, and its styling because I think it really has a stylish design that resembles more a camping item than an LED projector. Its design includes green rubberized panels, orange accents, and a faux leather handle, which, by the way, is just rubble but it's pretty decent looking overall. As outdoorsy as it may look, though, it's only Splash proof, so if it's raining outside you want to run back inside with it. It does come with a zippered nylon case for easy travel though. The actual build quality feels a bit 'yeah' with its plasticky rubbery feel. It projects up to 100 inches in screen size, which is definitely big enough for any outdoor or portable use. But because it's only rated 500 lumens in brightness, going up to the max 100-inch size, you'll lose contrast and brightness. Bringing it back down to about 60 to 80 inches seemed like a happy medium between size and contrast for this particular LED projector.

And then on the other hand, if the BenQ gs50 is a large lunch box at five pounds, the nebula's capsule 3 is a much more compact two-pound Coke can. It's less outdoorsy and more modern, portable, and sleek. It's nicely rounded and has modern red accents. This design I really like; it looks more at home in a modern setup than the BenQ gs50, but hey, you might prefer the green and orange colorway on the gs50. So, the capsule 3 is rated at 300 lumens compared to BenQ's 500 lumens but surprisingly the capsule 3 seemed a lot brighter in my tests that I ran. It was definitely not only brighter but sharper and has higher contrast output too. Overall, the laser tech in the capsule 3 just looked a whole lot more contrasty, color reproduction was more accurate based on the coupled color tests that I ran, and blacks were just a whole lot darker, which I sort of mentioned for laser projectors, and that's quite important because it's a known trend that TV shows and movies are becoming darker in their color tones that they use. Both of these projectors were super convenient; I was able to place this just about anywhere, and the Keystone correction on both these projectors will automatically focus on just about any surface. But the nebula capsule 3 seemed to focus that much faster and more accurately. Plus, the keystoning and the rotation of the screen was pretty easy to manage. It's been such a blast taking these two around any room and even the rooftop for a movie night without cables needed. Both of them last roughly 2.5 to 3 hours depending on screen size and brightness. There is no denying though that the capsule 3 laser is superior in picture quality and the gs50 was slightly disappointing for the price.