Leica Cine Play 1 Review: Pricey but Worth Every Penny

Leica’s first home entertainment projector is pricey, but like the company’s cameras, the image quality is worth the splurge. Leica’s Summicron lens renders colors beautifully. Compact size allows for flexibility in moving around the home.

Straightforward setup; auto-sizing and focus were almost magical. Remote has a confusing button layout. 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. 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.

Key points

• Straightforward setup; auto-sizing and focus were almost magical.
• Remote has a confusing button layout.
• 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 serie…
• 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 .