Review of the Mars Nebula Shid: Great devices with medium software

There is no shortage of mobile latitudes on the market, but most of them are not good. “Nedim” is an ANKER sub -brand, with only one product so far – Mars. It is an Android smart laptop, with compact JBL amplifiers and large battery enough to watch a movie or two at one cost. So, how does it end up with the first anker in the display devices? Nebula Mars is a great product, but it is not without few defects.

Specifications

Goodness

Not very good

Design and devices

Mars definitely has a remarkable look. It is a rounded black cube, with a handle associated with the leather for easy load. The upper part contains a battery indicator and a series of controls in the event of remote control. The back contains Outtake Air, the DC Energy port, an HDMI port, a USB 3.0 port, a vocal socket, and a small reset button. The left and Yemeni sides are sound amplifiers, and the front has the lens of the projection device and the JBL logo.

Why is the JBL logo, you ask? Because this has 10W JBL dual speakers. In my test, the sound on Mars seemed great, and loudspeakers can get loud while maintaining decent quality. I have no complaints with speakers. But if you prefer to use a different pair of headphones (or headphones), you can always use the sound socket. Bluetooth Out is also supported, but you cannot use loudspeakers to play the sound from another device above Bluetooth.

The display also comes with a remote control, supported by two CR2032 batteries. Since it is not a common type of battery, such as AA or AAA, it may be a little more than pain. The remote control device contains all the mobility control items and the volume size on the same show, as well as the power switch and a button to adjust the focus. If you lose a remote control (or die), you can adjust the focus by pressing a button approved on the display device.

The Mars Nebula contains 3000 glossy lamps, which is brighter than most other PICO mobile devices. For example, the RIF6 Cube latitude comes out at 50 Lomans, as well as the Moto Z Insta display. If you are wondering how this translates into the real world, you should be able to see the projection inside even if you have some lights. As a test, put the display device in a room with multiple windows. The image on the left opens all the curtains while they were sunny outside, and the image on the right with a closed curtains.

As with any display device, the darker you can make the room, the better. The Mars nebula seems to support the DLP 3D operation, but I have no 3D glasses or content to test it.

I have only one complaint with nebula devices – there is no MicroUSB or Type -C port. I would like to transfer videos directly to the 12 GB internal storage, but there is no easy way to do this.

Performance and battery

The Mars Nebula contains a four -core arm shell processor, which is recorded at 1.15 GHz. The system lists were all applications with smooth animation, but some applications take some time to start. Plex and Kodi both require about 10 seconds to open in the test. But the operation of the media was smooth with each application and a service you tried.

The display device has a 19500 mAh battery, but as you might expect, the lamp itself is very hungry. This should last for about three hours, and in my test, the display is slightly lower than that. It lasted for two hours and 30 minutes during the Netflix flow without stopping, and the same time at the time while watching the Rip 1080 pixels from the USB engine.

programming

The program on Mars is a mixed bag. For beginners, a full -filled version of Android 4.4.4 is running. I have no idea why ANKER chooses such an old version of Android – it’s like buying a new computer with Windows Vista installation. The standard Android TV Leanback bomber disappeared, and it was replaced by a dedicated version of the Nebula. Although I was the best Google launcher, this is a fast and fast response.

The nebula includes some applications with this display. The HDMI app displays any sign that comes across the HDMI port, which was fine in the test. There is also a file manager with video, music and pictures shortcuts.

You can turn on the media from the USB drive through the faded file manager.

The file manager allows you to play video, music and photos from the USB drive (the USB 3.0 port on Mars). I have tried some different types of files, including my .MKV Blu-ray tears and some MP4 clips, and they played without problems. The guaranteed video player is a little essential (there is no separation option for skipping, for example), but you can easily open files with another installed video player like Kodi or MX Player.

There is another application that has been previously connected to the “matching screen versions”, which can display the Android/iOS screen connected (or anything else that can use Miracast). Initially, this did not work at all for me, but the factory reset fixed the problem.

This uses the Aptoide TV App Store, not the Google Play Store.

YouTube and TED apps are also compact, as well as an app store. The store is likely to be the biggest defect in this display – it’s not the Google Play store. Instead, you can get the Aptoide TV store. The entire selection consists of 11 applications at the time of this report:

• Netflix

• YouTube for Android TV

• MX Player (with MX Player Coding Program)

• Code

• HBO Go Android TV

• Ted TV

• The weather lives for free

• IMDB movies and TV

• IGN

• Pandora

• Radio Paradise

But this is not just choosing a bad application, as the layers themselves are not great either. You cannot log in to YouTube, because there are no Google Play services (I don’t know why they didn’t make a cover for the web app on YouTube). Netflix is ​​the phone version, not the TV interface, so the mobility is a little difficult.

At least, you can organize applications that you cannot get from the application store.

On the positive side, it is very easy to edit applications to Mars. You only need to copy the APK to a flash drive, connect it to the viewing device, and open it from the file manager. The PLEX worked well after downloading it from APKMIRROR (and enabling the TV interface in the application settings).

Unfortunately, side download applications are the place where Kitkat restrictions become more clear. I tried to install the actual Netflix Android TV app, but it requires a new version of Android. The same for YouTube for Android TV. Kodi now requires Android 5.0 or higher, so you are stuck with Kodi V16 (previous main version).

If you are confused about the program experience, you can always get a chromecast stick or Fire TV and connect it to the HDMI port port. You can even run it through the USB port for the unit.

conclusion

In general, I enjoyed the use of Mars. Yes, it has some problems – I really wanted to get a full Google Play store and a newer version of Android. But the quality of construction and speakers are great, and the drop is sharp. In addition, the entry of HDMI means that you can use any number of media centers/keyboards/TV boxes to fill the program gaps.

I don’t think MSRP worth $ 599 represents a good value, but no direct competitors seem to be the Mars. The nearest product I can find is the ZTE SPRO 2 show, which is $ 399 on Amazon now. SPRO 2 also contains an old version of Android and JBL amplifiers, but the output is only 100 luminous battery power (increases to 200 when connected) and uses a resolution less than 720 pixels.

If you end up buying the Mars nebula, I think you will enjoy using it. But perhaps buy it for sale.