Leica Cine Play 1 Review: Pricey but Worth Every Penny

If your preference is to make colors pop on the screen for movie night, the Leica Cine Play 1 delivers with an immersive cinematic experience. This short-throw laser projector from the company that makes high-end cameras with a cult following ticks almost every box for tack-sharp picture quality, rendering Pixar films and the Avatar series with vibrant colors and beautiful details.

Crafted out of aluminum and glass, Leica's latest projector borrows many of its design ethos and superb build quality from the company’s cameras. It comes with a carrying handle, making it easy to move around the home, and is powered by the intuitive VIDAA operating system. The Leica optical performance makes movies come alive.

At $2,995 after an $800 rebate, the Cine Play 1 is competitive with midrange home cinema projectors from Sony, Epson, and others. The only minor ding against the Cine Play 1 is that you’ll need a mostly dark room to take advantage of Leica’s brilliant color reproduction, while competitors like the Epson Pro Cinema LS9000 perform well in both dark and well-lit environments.

Setting Up the Projector

The Cine Play 1 uses a Leica Summicron lens with an outstanding optical zoom. Known for its extreme sharpness and near-zero color fringing on Leica’s storied cameras, the Summicron glass delivers similar benefits on the Cine Play 1. With the Cine Play 1, it’s like having a high-end camera that, instead of capturing a scene, projects one with added vibrancy. Though Leica has made optical lenses for other projectors, this partnership with Hisense makes this the first projector to bear Leica’s branding, complete with the iconic red dot on the top.

Photograph: John Brandon