Speaker 1: All Zone Media. Helen, Welcome to this week's Better Offline Monologue.
Speaker 1: I'm your host ed ZiT Trunk, and today I'm talking
Speaker 1: about stuff I actually like, specifically the Anchor Nebula X
Speaker 1: one projector. For many years, I've dreamed about a projector
Speaker 1: that you could just kind of sit down and project with.
Speaker 1: You don't have to fuck around with it too much
Speaker 1: done to suspend it from a ceiling or sit perfectly
Speaker 1: in front of a scream inasmuch as poss but you
Speaker 1: could just point it out a wall or a screen
Speaker 1: and it would work, and you could just start watching stuff.
Speaker 1: And the X one is about as close as I
Speaker 1: think we're ever going to get. It's fairly compact. It's
Speaker 1: maybe the size of a subword for or half the
Speaker 1: size of a carry on suitcase, weighing in just under
Speaker 1: fourteen pounds, with a handle that pops up with a
Speaker 1: satisfying click. It does four K resolution, uses something called
Speaker 1: triple laser technology that Anchor has a great deal of
Speaker 1: marketing material about that mostly just comes down to it
Speaker 1: looks very very good, and it bloody well should. Because
Speaker 1: the X one cost just over three thousand dollars with
Speaker 1: the wireless speakers, which you'll get to in a little beer.
Speaker 1: And yes, I bought it with my own money. I
Speaker 1: don't really spend money on myself outside of diet coke
Speaker 1: and baseball tickets anyway. Really though, it looks really really good,
Speaker 1: like a very high end four K TV, though perhaps
Speaker 1: not as contrasty as a high end O LAD. It's clear,
Speaker 1: it's crisp and looks that way if you're projecting onto
Speaker 1: a wall or in my case, something called an EPSOM
Speaker 1: duo eighty inch screen. I chose the duo because I'm
Speaker 1: using this projector in a cramp New York apartment with
Speaker 1: no big water project onto and the duo literally clips
Speaker 1: onto a tripod and pulls open in fifteen seconds. I'll
Speaker 1: link to it in the episode notes I love this screen.
Speaker 1: It's just you put the tripod down, you slide the
Speaker 1: thing on, and you pull it open. I had a
Speaker 1: few bolts pop out on mine, but you can just
Speaker 1: screw them back on. It's very much a working presenter
Speaker 1: type thing. You can imagine some horrible salesman wheeling it
Speaker 1: around and trying to sell you. I was going to say, ties,
Speaker 1: I don't think you really get door to door salesman
Speaker 1: of ties. Anyway One, for the most part, just works.
Speaker 1: It runs on Google TV, meaning that it has all
Speaker 1: the apps you'd expect, like Netflix, Hulu, to b Poo Boo,
Speaker 1: brung Us and funt Of course, though I will say
Speaker 1: that while playback is great, the user interface lags and
Speaker 1: chugs far too often for a projector that costs as
Speaker 1: much as a gaming laptop. I'm actually genuinely calling this
Speaker 1: out as bullshit. I have an Apple TV even five
Speaker 1: years ago, that runs smoothly. I don't know why the
Speaker 1: X one chugs so much, and I refuse to believe
Speaker 1: that there was no way of making it work. Well,
Speaker 1: they've crammed it full of crap. It's full of all
Speaker 1: of these classic Google TV like random windows of stuff
Speaker 1: from recommending me stuff I'm never gonna watch. I don't
Speaker 1: know if this is a Google problem or an anchor problem,
Speaker 1: but again, three thousand dollars, you need to get this right.
Speaker 1: I can forgive this, though, because the X one also
Speaker 1: has several incredibly useful features, like this built in gimbal
Speaker 1: that allows you to move and adjust the image so
Speaker 1: that you can have the X one shooting from the
Speaker 1: side of a room rather than directly onto a surface,
Speaker 1: with the ability to digitally enhance enlarge and keystone, meaning
Speaker 1: you can pull the corners of the image to make
Speaker 1: it look right on a particular surface, to make it
Speaker 1: project just about anywhere. And it really does work. When
Speaker 1: I was first using it, I quite literally had it
Speaker 1: crammed in the corner of the room, had it project
Speaker 1: onto the surface, it looked awful. But with digital keystoning,
Speaker 1: you could just pull the corners on so it looked
Speaker 1: like it was meant to be there. And when I
Speaker 1: say gimbal, I mean it quite literally has the focus
Speaker 1: element inside it, the actual lenses you can hear it go.
Speaker 1: It's kind of cool. Genuinely, at a time when I
Speaker 1: bitch a lot about how bad technology has become, the
Speaker 1: X one genuinely is actually innovative. It's a cool piece
Speaker 1: of kit, and it really just it can go anywhere
Speaker 1: that you want it to. For the most part, you
Speaker 1: don't have to have this perfect setup, this perfect amount
Speaker 1: of space. This is why I've generally not liked projectors,
Speaker 1: because projectors require you to have, even with a good screen,
Speaker 1: exactly the right positioning. If you're off even by a little,
Speaker 1: it can kind of look like a dog's dinner. I'm
Speaker 1: thinking of the various short threat projectors I've used, where
Speaker 1: the whole thing is They say, oh, it just projects
Speaker 1: them below it. Yeah. Maybe if it's not exactly the
Speaker 1: right height, the exact distance, even a small distance, you
Speaker 1: don't have the right table, you're screwed. With the X one.
Speaker 1: I had it on some random coffee table in the corner.
Speaker 1: I didn't do nothing fancy like, it was great. I
Speaker 1: really enjoy it, which is why I'm immediately going to
Speaker 1: start complaining about something. Yes, the X one, and this
Speaker 1: is a marketing problem, has some automatic setup features, and
Speaker 1: seemingly every single reviewer that I watch said they were excellent,
Speaker 1: But in my experience they don't work. They just they
Speaker 1: don't work. It's crazy. Everyone would show you this thing,
Speaker 1: and I think it's the I'll get to the exact
Speaker 1: terms in a minute, but they would just point it,
Speaker 1: they'd click a button, and it would know the exact
Speaker 1: screen size. This was not my experience. Perhaps it's that
Speaker 1: my projector screen is in front of two windows, or
Speaker 1: maybe everybody else testing this did it in some sort
Speaker 1: of ideal scenario. But these setup features are useful. I
Speaker 1: find to get you close enough to something you can
Speaker 1: digitally adjust to fit your surface. But they are not.
Speaker 1: It's a cure all thing. I will also say this
Speaker 1: is still the most single most versatile projector I've ever used,
Speaker 1: and I was able to project from the corner of
Speaker 1: my room where no other projector would have worked. It
Speaker 1: does work, it just does not work as easily as
Speaker 1: Anchor says. And I only harp on about this because
Speaker 1: Anchor's website says and I quote set up in ten seconds,
Speaker 1: which is complete and utter bullshit. It's just nonsense. Anchor
Speaker 1: massively overstates their AI spatial adaptation as one click perfection,
Speaker 1: and other reviewers should have done a much better job
Speaker 1: making sure this was true. That being said, once you've
Speaker 1: found a spot that works, the X one does generally
Speaker 1: remember it. However, if you adjust the screen or you
Speaker 1: are just where the projector is even slightly, it doesn't.
Speaker 1: And yeah, you can physically move it. I'm being a
Speaker 1: little bit of a prick about this because this costs
Speaker 1: so much money and Anchor's website repeatedly states that this
Speaker 1: is just something you click one butoner and it works.
Speaker 1: It does not do that. It does not, and all
Speaker 1: the other if I don't know how any of the
Speaker 1: other reviewers who have reviewed this would hear this, But
Speaker 1: if you were one of them, you fucked up. You
Speaker 1: fucked up bad here. You really haven't sold people something dangerous.
Speaker 1: It's still a great product. But stop doing marketing for
Speaker 1: these companies. Try these products when I am eventually going
Speaker 1: to get into more regular hardware reviews, and when I do,
Speaker 1: I am going to try and set stuff up in
Speaker 1: the unideal space. We should not be trying to do
Speaker 1: these things, these reviews in a space that exactly fits
Speaker 1: the marketing request. No no, no, no, no no. We
Speaker 1: need to be harder on these people, especially companies that
Speaker 1: claim one click setups. But I should also be clear
Speaker 1: that compared to literally any other projector I've ever used,
Speaker 1: this the easiest to set up and most adaptable projector
Speaker 1: I have ever seen. And you also get these wireless
Speaker 1: stereo speakers with it, where you have to pay for them,
Speaker 1: and they truly do set up in seconds. The ones
Speaker 1: that I think they even came pared, you just put
Speaker 1: them down in the corners. They have L and R
Speaker 1: on them, So if you're like me and you forget
Speaker 1: they just have it in a big letter and you
Speaker 1: hit a button and bang that cat and they create
Speaker 1: a really convincing surround sound environment. Combined with the speakers
Speaker 1: that are actually baked into the X one's body, they
Speaker 1: sound fantastic. And when you've found a consistent spot for
Speaker 1: the projector and the screen, yes, you can be up
Speaker 1: and running in ten seconds. Also is another thing I'm
Speaker 1: gonna harp on about as on the side. Anchor should
Speaker 1: absolutely be ashamed of themselves for keeping motion smoothing on.
Speaker 1: It's on by default. What year is this anchor? Is
Speaker 1: it two thousand and seven? Is it two thousand and nine?
Speaker 1: What are we doing? It's motion smoothing? Nobody likes? Who
Speaker 1: wants this? Tom Cruise is going to get very angry
Speaker 1: when he hears this. I assume Tom Cruise is a
Speaker 1: better offline listener. Anyway, If you buy this thing, and
Speaker 1: I do recommend it seriously, it's called me EMC, go
Speaker 1: into the settings. It's in there. I do not know
Speaker 1: why this feature is present. It's so annoying. It's so
Speaker 1: very annoying, and again, would not be this harsh if
Speaker 1: this was not three thousand dollars anyway, Anyway, I know
Speaker 1: I've gone into a lot of negatives here, but I
Speaker 1: truly adore the X one. I do not recommend it
Speaker 1: for gaming, as the input leg is bad, but for
Speaker 1: everything else, it's one of the single coolest pieces of
Speaker 1: hardware I've ever used. It looks good, it works well,
Speaker 1: it's beautifully engineered, it feels nice and hefty, has its
Speaker 1: wit like. The kit is all nice, it's smooth surface,
Speaker 1: and the UI generally is great, and when you've set
Speaker 1: it up in the right place, it really is as
Speaker 1: turnkey as Anchor says. But that's a big if. And
Speaker 1: while I've been quite critical of the auto set up
Speaker 1: in general, the X one will work in many, many
Speaker 1: more environments than any other projector. I've watched several films
Speaker 1: and TV show episodes on it. They looked and sounded great.
Speaker 1: I even watched the Steven Seagal movie called A Good Man.
Speaker 1: It was a very bad movie. But if you want
Speaker 1: to laugh, if you want to really just laugh, laugh
Speaker 1: yourself silly. I recommend I don't know pirating it. You
Speaker 1: shouldn't give them any money anyway. It's also relatively portable
Speaker 1: fourteen pounds it's thirteen point seven based on their website.
Speaker 1: It has the lovely little handle. Everything runs off a
Speaker 1: single power adapter, and Anchor sells a chunky carrier case
Speaker 1: that fits both the X one and speakers. I also
Speaker 1: recommend anchors gimbal, which is just a fancy way of
Speaker 1: saying thing you click it onto, which lets you tilt
Speaker 1: and turn it to make it even more adaptable, in
Speaker 1: my case, allowing me to project up from the floor
Speaker 1: rather than the table in the corner of my apartment.
Speaker 1: So I really do love the X one. I adore it.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad I bought it. It's great, great value
Speaker 1: for money. I know that sounds weird at the price point,
Speaker 1: but it just works. I'm going to take it with
Speaker 1: me on a little romantic trip going on, going to
Speaker 1: the woods, going to project onto the screen, and with
Speaker 1: the duo, you could just block it up there. I
Speaker 1: use it to watch all sorts of movies and TV.
Speaker 1: I really do like him, and especially at a time
Speaker 1: when tech has become so negative, when I spend so
Speaker 1: much of my time complaining about the tech industry, with
Speaker 1: good bloody reason, it's nice watching a company build something cool. Now.
Speaker 1: I haven't done too much of a deep dive on
Speaker 1: to Anchor, so I'm sure that there's something someone won't like,
Speaker 1: but I've used a lot of their products. I like
Speaker 1: a lot of their products, have a bunch of their
Speaker 1: battery packs. In general, it's nice watching a company build
Speaker 1: things that actually help people and that people like. I'm
Speaker 1: sure people email me saying they found something they don't
Speaker 1: and of course I do want to hear about that
Speaker 1: easy at better Offline dot com. But I look forward
Speaker 1: to doing more hardware stuff in the future. Thanks for listening.