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The Capsule Air takes up minimal space wherever you place it unless you also attach its tripod accessory (more on that later). Its form factor resembles a Bluetooth speaker — and it doubles as one — but you can use it to watch your favorite shows just the same. All you need is a wall or screen to aim it at and a stable Wi-Fi connection.
While just under three pounds, I call the Capsule Air “hefty” because its construction is notably dense. Not that anyone should test this theory, but I suspect that dropping it on any surface besides concrete would leave it unfazed. Even contact with a hardwood floor or a tabletop might merely leave a mark instead of harming its internal components or, in the worst case, breaking its lens. But, of course, don’t drop it.
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The second thing to know is that it’s just not that bright of a projector. (No offense to its intelligence.) When testing, I found its 150 ANSI lumens to be somewhat anemic, even with the brightness turned all the way up to 100%. For the best experience, you’re going to want your viewing area to be very dark, as is often the case when using projectors.
After experimenting with contrast, sharpness, and other settings, I flipped through the Picture Mode options. I turned on Movie mode but couldn’t discern much difference between that and Standard. A third option is Conference mode, which washed out warm colors and gave the images a greenish hue, which somehow might be amenable to a well-lit conference room.
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For a somewhat extreme example, I found the Ghost Hunters channel very difficult to view since most of it is filmed in night vision (basically black and white). The contrast was not strong enough to see where images began and ended, and the whole screen was quite shadowy.
Still striving to optimize its brightness, I sampled variations of all the Expert Settings (DNR, MPEG NR, DI Film Mode) to find no perceivable benefit. There’s also the Screen Door Effect Reduction setting, which is meant to reduce the appearance of grid-like pixel patterns on the screen. It yielded a very slight (brighter) improvement after calibration.
Where the Capsule Air is definitely intelligent is in its ability to modify its projected shape onto your surface.
In our testing lab, I tried the projector at various distances to investigate the overall picture quality in different scenarios. (I aimed it at our 150-inch motorized drop-down projector screen.) The Capsule Air’s throw distance range runs from about two feet to almost 10, and if you set the device too far from your projection surface, you’ll get a message telling you you’re out of range.