Encalife Atmosphere Smart Galaxy Star Projector review

While there are many star projectors featured in our best star projectors buying guide, the Encalife Atmosphere Smart Galaxy Star Projector is one of the only models we've reviewed that has some exciting smart capabilities. That means you can project views of the night sky onto your ceiling at home and control it via the Smart Life app on your smartphone.

Although star projectors are great whilst at home, perhaps you'd like to get a glimpse of real stars, galaxies and nebulae. If so, take a look at our best telescopes, best binoculars, or even best cameras guide to find out what setup is best. In the meantime, let's take a look at what makes the Encalife Atmosphere Smart Galaxy Star Projector shine.

Encalife Atmosphere Smart Galaxy Star Projector: Design

• Feels like a premium product
• Nicely designed and branded high-quality packaging
• Compact design and shape

When we reviewed the Encalife Ambience Galaxy and Star Projector, our biggest gripe was the poor quality and confusing packaging. We're delighted to see that Encalife has stepped the game up with the Atmosphere Smart Galaxy Star Projector. The packaging is sleek and feels high-end. We'd be happy handing it over as a gift knowing the recipient would appreciate it is a premium product.

The wheel shape of Atmosphere is similar to BlissLights' SkyLite 2.0, but with four support panels over two giving a little more flexibility than the aforementioned when positioning. It can also be laid flat and has little rubber 'pads' to stop it from getting scratched if you do. It is slim and easily fits on a bookcase or bedside table and it also ships with a long power cable (USB-A to DC) to allow repositioning of any kind.

It has just one button on the whole device which makes it very kid-friendly (though supervision is required due to the laser). This button turns the device on and cycles through preset color modes. The app is needed to operate the more advanced functions. 

Encalife Atmosphere Smart Galaxy Star Projector: Performance

• Bright and vivid colors and lasers
• Responsive app and voice controls
• Fairly priced for a product of this caliber

The LED shines bright and the colors and lasers are both vivid and can both be dimmed to suit the mood. The 'stars' (laser) and the 'nebula' (LEDs) can be independently controlled.

If we were being picky, we found that when making changes to the display using the app or voice control, there is approximately a two-second delay before the changes are implemented, but in reality, this is hardly noticeable.

The lights aren't at all scientifically accurate, but they don't claim to be either. They are highly customizable and you can make and save your own scenes. You could, for example, create a spa scene using neutral colors and slower movement, then create a party scene with bright colors and maximum movement. It's possible to seamlessly switch between the two as well. It would be great if the lights moved in time to music and sound like on the Encalife Ambience but sadly this isn't an option here.

The device is near silent when the Nebula is static, but some whirring occurs when you select fast movement. It isn't a deal-breaker though as most users will likely use it alongside music so it isn't noticeable.

Encalife Atmosphere Smart Galaxy Star Projector: Functionality

• Supplied with a long (1.8m) power cable
• Full functionality using the App
• Highly customizable countdown timer

The Atmosphere is to be used in conjunction with the 'Smart Life' App for full functionality. You do have to create an account and your Wi-Fi needs to be at 2.4GHz frequency (ours wasn't so we had to update this before use). Once set up, you can also link it to your home's smart device, in our case Google Home. Not only can you turn the device on and off, but also change the base color using your voice — nice! Other modifications you can make in the app are the speed of rotation, level of brightness, countdown timer, and scheduled activation.

The laser is always green (though you can adjust the intensity of it or turn it off completely) whereas the LEDs can be configured into a multitude of colors and color combinations. You can choose from 16.7 million colors thanks to the RGB model color wheel. Whilst this is technically true, in reality, that amount of different hues aren't distinguishable.

Out of all the star projectors we've looked at, the Encalife Atmosphere Smart Galaxy Star Projector's timer is the most customizable. It can be set to turn on at any time and a countdown will switch it off when you choose, between one minute all the way to 24-hours.

Should I buy the Encalife Atmosphere Smart Galaxy Star Projector?

The Encalife Atmosphere Smart Galaxy Star Projector is feature-packed, more so than the cheaper Sky Lite 2.0 from BlissLights. 

If you're looking for a projector with an in-built speaker, or one whose lights change in time to music, you'll want to look at the Encalife Ambience. This is remote controlled using infrared rather than an app or over Wi-Fi but doesn't have smart connectivity.

If you want a true reflection of the night sky/space objects in your room, you will need the more expensive, but scientifically accurate Sega Homestar Flux, whose disc images are NASA-based.

Although it is called a Galaxy Star Projector, like most others, this is more of a mood-setting light, showing colors and patterns that reflect galaxies and nebulas with lasers that you could associate with a starry sky. If this is what you're looking for, then the Encalife Atmosphere is a great cost-effective option.