6.9/ 10 SCORE
AAXA M8 Laser Projector
Pros
Super bright
Built-in battery
Some streaming apps
Cons
Wildly inaccurate
Mobile, 480p version of Netflix
Loud fans
The tiny AAXA M8 is a powerful, portable projector that is impressively bright for its size and price. It has a built-in battery for off-grid movie nights, as well as some streaming apps. Its decent contrast ratio is a solid building block for a great image, but its oversaturated colors give it a look that is best described as “unique.”
While the Anker Nebula Capsule Air is a better option overall with fewer vices, the M8 fits into a specific niche that makes it worth considering for some people. That niche? Lots of light from a tiny box. You’ll need to adjust a few picture settings, but as long as you can get past the colors, the overall image is pretty good for the category.
Specs and such
Geoffrey Morrison/CNETResolution: 1,920×1,080 HDR-compatible: No4K-compatible: Yes (4K30)Lumens spec: 1,500Zoom: NoLens shift: NoBattery capacity: 1,5000 mAh, 1.2 hours (Bright mode, claimed), 2.5 hours (Eco mode, claimed)Lamp life (Normal mode): 30,000 hours (laser)
The little M8 is roughly the size of a stack of six CD cases, for the people that remember those, just a little wider. There’s no zoom or lens shift on the unit, but given the price, there’s no surprise there. The focus is electronic, and you can adjust it using physical buttons on the back, which is convenient.
The headline spec is, of course, brightness. AAXA claims 1,500 lumens, which, like most brightness claims, is a bit high. In the Boost laser mode and Light picture mode, I got 456. This is still really bright for a small, inexpensive projector. For comparison, the Anker Nebula Capsule Air costs roughly the same as the M8 and could only manage 102. The far larger (and a little more expensive) TCL A1 was only slightly brighter. The M8 in its Normal mode and more accurate Custom picture mode produced a still-impressive 343 lumens.
The contrast ratio was also impressive, even if it’s not graded on a scale of price and size. I measured an average of about 1,081:1. That’s more than most projectors I’ve reviewed lately, including those that cost four to five times the M8’s price. I keep coming back to the Capsule Air because it’s so close in price and use to the M8, but it only managed 381:1.
The AAXA’s internal battery, in Eco mode at least, should get you through about the length of a normal movie. However, this mode was the least accurate, and that’s saying something. More on that later.
Connections
Geoffrey Morrison/CNETHDMI inputs: 1USB port: USB-A (1), USB-C (1)Audio output: Bluetooth, 3.5mm headphone outputInternet: Wi-FiRemote: Not backlit
For such a small projector, there are a lot of connections. So many that they’re on two sides. On the left side there’s a full-size HDMI input, a USB-A port, 3.5mm headphone jack, and a microSD card slot that can play the major audio and video file formats. On the back is USB-C, the power connection (sadly, it doesn’t get power from USB-C), and the focus buttons.
On the right side is a tiny speaker powered by 4 watts. It’s not very loud and can barely compete with the fans in Normal and Boost modes. Speaking of which, those little fans are working overtime to cool the laser light engine. The M8 is quite loud. You’re never not going to notice it unless it’s far enough away that you can’t hear the speaker. That’s the actual price of the M8: noise. It’s super bright, but you need to deal with a mildly unpleasant whirr from its fans. This is largely physics at play. To quiet the fans, they’d either need to be larger or have a larger enclosure to muffle their sound. The laser could run at lower power to reduce the heat generation, but then you’d have a dimmer picture. All product design is a series of trade-offs.
Geoffrey Morrison/CNET
While the M8 does technically have some streaming apps built in, this is a little more complex than it seems. First, the Netflix app is the standard-definition, mobile version. Not only is this difficult to navigate, it also looks soft and blocky on the 1080p M8. Some other apps are available, like YouTube, Amazon Prime, Hulu, as well as the older HBO Go (but not Max), which didn’t load, and Disney Plus, which did and looked fine. Will you be able to watch something via the included apps? Yes. Will you be able to watch everything like you would with a projector that has Google TV? Not without getting a streaming stick. Conveniently, the HDMI and USB-A ports are right next to each other, so you can connect and power any streaming device.
Picture quality comparisons
Anker Nebula Capsule 3
Anker Nebula Capsule Air
The Anker Nebula Capsule Air is slightly cheaper than the M8, and far dimmer, but it’s also physically smaller and has Google TV. The Capsule 3 is larger than the Air and is close to the same overall volume as the M8. It’s more capable than the Air and more expensive than the M8, but still dimmer than the latter. I connected each of them to a Monoprice distribution amplifier and viewed them side-by-side on a 102-inch 1.0-gain screen.
Geoffrey Morrison/CNET
Firstly, both the Capsule 3 and the M8 look more detailed than the Capsule Air, which makes sense since they’re 1080p, while the Air is 720p. However, given how small an image you’re likely going to make with the Air due to its limited light output, that difference in resolution is far less important than it seems.
Anker’s Air and the Capsule 3 are definitely more similar than they are different. In terms of brightness, the 3 is just barely noticeably brighter. It’s 84 versus 123 lumens. That’s not nothing, but then there’s the M8, which is just screaming next to them at 343. It’s worth noting that I’m comparing them all in their most accurate modes. All are capable of more light, but the Ankers at their brightest still can’t compete with the M8 at its most accurate. The AAXA’s Boost mode is even brighter and, unlike most projectors, this isn’t its least accurate mode. The bigger issue with Boost mode is not the color or color temperature accuracy, but the noise. This is a loud little projector, and in Boost mode, it’s a bit much in a quiet room. Eco mode is quieter, but also looks far more green.
Geoffrey Morrison/CNET
The AAXA also stands out with its contrast ratio. The 1081:1 I measured was above the 897:1 average of the projectors I’ve measured at CNET and well above the median of 490:1. The Air and 3 managed 381 and 471, respectively, which is actually decent for small projectors. There are several larger projectors that barely manage those numbers. The AAXA just looks far more punchy than either Anker. With the much higher brightness and that contrast ratio, two vital aspects of picture quality, the M8 blows the Ankers away… sort of. As often happens, there’s a catch.
Geoffrey Morrison/CNET
Oh my dog, the color. This is one of the least accurate projectors I’ve ever reviewed. The colors are wildly oversaturated. Green is green, blue is blue, red is red. It definitely draws the eye, I’ll give it that, but yikes, it can look pretty weird. The colors are at least off in roughly the right direction. As in, everything is just “extra,” not “bizarre.” Grass is the greenest grass you’ve ever seen, but it’s still identifiable as grass with no extra yellow or cyan. It looks pretty artificial, but it’s not unwatchable. You can turn that saturation down in the picture settings, but as you decrease it, the colors get less accurate (green is more cyan, for instance), and the colors don’t decrease evenly, so the desaturated image actually looks worse. The Ankers, on the other hand, are practically subdued in comparison. Despite not being particularly accurate in their own right, they’re practically reference displays compared to the AAXA. They create a more accurate (again, relatively speaking) image that’s far more natural looking.
Boxes over cans
Geoffrey Morrison/CNET
My recommendation for most people looking for an inexpensive portable projector is to get the Capsule Air. It’s tiny, inexpensive, and has Google TV built in. The Capsule 3 offers a little bit more performance, but it’s also larger and more expensive. In certain situations, though, the M8 is way better than both. It’s a tiny little flamethrower, and if a tiny little flamethrower is what you need, it’s great. It has its flaws, but what it does well, it does really well. For some people, it’s going to hit the spot.
