Leica Cine Compact 1 review

It’s unmistakably another Leica: the Leica Cine Compact 1 is marked out by the company’s now-familiar aluminium Bauhaus-style housing, with key characteristics starting with right from the clear glass frontage.

Glass is Leica’s secret weapon, and this projector number three from Leica’s Smart Projection division again leverages the brand’s special abilities with lens manufacture.

Leica is, of course, known to consumers primarily as a high-end camera maker, though in fact there are multiple independent Leica arms with fingers in their various pies of geosystems, biosystems and microsystems.

It all began in the German town of Wetzlar in the 1860s where Ernst Leitz made initially telescopes and subsequently microscopes, before his son, Ernst Leitz II, famously committed the company to building Oskar Barnack’s revolutionary compact camera, with its idea of using 35mm cinema film, soon to become the standard for still photography.

So right from the offset, it was image quality which drove the company, and older readers may recall how Leitz/Leica home slide projectors were once the gold standard for home projection of still images (Leica’s first such projector was released in 1926).

So the company’s now three-strong smart home cinema projector range is extending their imaging expertise back into home projection, after a few decades of absence.

Build & facilities

The Cine Compact 1 brings a new entry point to the Leica line, since this is a smaller projector than the award-winning Leica Cine Play 1, and is also far more affordable at $2990.

(The larger Cine Play 1 originally launched at £2950 / US$3795 / A$5990, while the original ultra-short-throw Cine 1 is experiencing rather variable pricing internationally, currently [Oct 2026] at UK£6495 in the UK or US$6495 in the UK, but price-reduced in Australia from A$13,990 to A$7990 (we suspect a new edition of this model will arrive in the not-too-distant) future).

This more affordable smart mini Leica much resembles the larger Cine Play 1, but once you put them side by side the new model is clearly smaller at 209 × 226 × 193mm, while promising output of up to 1700 lumens (the specs note this is in ‘Ultra’ mode, so standard use will be slightly lower), and to support projection sizes of up to 220 inches.

Inside the projector, Leica’s optical system includes a Leica Summicron zoom lens with aspherical elements, optimising the output of a 0.47-inch pico DMD and triple RGB lasers to promise pixel-shifted 4K images which further benefit from the secret sauce of the company’s proprietary LIO (Leica Image Optimization). There is Dolby Vision and HDR10+ onboard to display any such High Dynamic Range material to its maximum ability.

It has smart set-up features: zoom, autofocus, keystone correction and intelligent screen framing, set up automatically wherever you may choose to throw the image from the projector’s integrated “360° rotation system”, a rotating base and stand which, as Leica notes, makes the projector a particularly versatile solution for everyday use.

It brings built-in sources as well as connections for external devices; crucially there is the VIDAA operating system onboard to access streaming services like Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime, while VIDAA also now hosts all Australian catch-up services and Foxtel apps, several of which were missing from earlier Leica VIDAA versions as licences were still being negotiated).

The Leica Cine Compact 1 also has one HDMI input, with eARC compatibility so it could be used to take streaming sound to an external audio system, should you wish to expand on the built-in stereo speaker system; there is no optical or analogue audio output available for this. There’s a USB-A slot, presumably for file replay, along with screen sharing via Wi-Fi, and audio streaming available via Bluetooth or Apple AirPlay.

One inclusion which may attract a particular sub-set of movie fans: there’s a 3D Mode available here, compatible with DLP Link active shutter 3D glasses. With 3D pretty much now gone from all consumer TVs, projection is the only way left to enjoy all those 3D movies you bought in the 2010s.

And while a screen is always recommended for best performance, Leica has optimised the Cine Compact 1 for real-world scenarios including projection on walls or ceilings, even outside in gardens or on balconies.

The mini projector comes with an eco-friendly transport case; there’s an optional Leica tall stand available, while the integrated tripod thread enables the projector to be mounted on benches or the ceiling.

And the remote control is another gorgeous wand from Leica (pictured below); it’s genuine aluminium, it has a microphone for speech entry, and it’s wireless as well as IR, so no need to point. There’s no backlighting but the buttons are largely intuitive in position for volume, mute, and also useful on-the-fly brightness adjustment.

A little more hazardous for inadvertent operation are adjacent buttons to change the Picture Mode and Audio Mode. The Picture Mode button is in a position commonly used for the ‘Back’ key, so that we were erroneously invoking it regularly. But these Mode options do save you jumping out of a movie to otherwise access menus via the main VIDAA home screen. The bottom-left ‘menu’ remote button similarly accesses a set of adjustment menus that appear at the bottom of the screen for easy use over running content.

The one-touch-access buttons on the remote for Netflix, Prime, YouTube and Disney+ can also be hazardous, since an accidental press instantly cancels current programming and whisks you off to those services which are paying Leica for its remote real estate. But overall the remote control here is a delight, and far above the usual fare supplied with a mini projector like this.

Set-up & viewing

While the Leica can correct for off-axis projection, such correction does require remapping, which eats into your full pixel count, so if you can give your Leica a straight line to your screen or wall, so much the better. It fitted into the projection cavity at the back of our viewing room neatly, even with its little stand attached, allowing us to aim it down at just the right angle to fill our 100-inch screen without using any mechanical vertical shift.

We chose to adjust its screen-fit manually, which proved very simple and quick from our three-metre projection distance thanks to the excellent zoom options and other versatile projection settings accessible through the VIDAA interface for size, and shifting, and keystone edge adjusting, if necessary. Officially the optical throw ratio is 1.0 to 1.3, though you can go far beyond with a further digital throw of 1.3 to 3.2.

There’s a dedicated button on the remote control for auto-focus; this pops up a focus pattern for about four seconds; job done. Use it whenever you like. You can also choose which parts of auto-set-up you leave permanently active, your choice depending on whether you’re setting and forgetting in one position, or regularly moving the Compact around the home.

It was clear immediately that there was sufficient brightness to present a watchable 100-inch image even against moderate ambient light, impressively so from a projector so small. Meanwhile its full abilities naturally grew as darkness fell. Leica quotes a maximum projection size of 220 inches, but such a giant screen would receive lower illumination levels across the wider area.

That’s positioning sorted, but the image quality is subject to a full range of menus under the picture options. The basic picture modes are individually tweakable, starting from the defaults for Standard, Filmmaker, Cinema Day and Cinema Night, plus Dynamic and Sports.

Your choice can lean towards your preferences and also the current ambient light levels to overcome. General defaults were good, but we got best results starting from Filmmaker, switching the temperature back to Standard from Warm, then tweaking.

There’s HDR processing available here, for Dolby Vision material and HDR10 HDR10+; when streaming Dolby Vision you get additional picture mode options of Dolby Vision Bright, Dark and the very useful Dolby Vision Custom. On-the-fly brightness becomes unavailable in these modes.

One interesting option is to adjust the colour gamut, an option labelled as “Change the range of colours the Device displays.” There was a big difference in colour balance between relatively ruddy ‘Native’, more neutral ‘Auto’, and a clearly preferable midpoint of realism for our tastes, especially on skin tone, when DCI-P3 was selected. So we left it there. (The projector’s specs promise greater than Rec.2020 overage, seemingly without specifying DCI-P3 coverage.)

With colour and fit sorted, we started experimenting with motion.

From the external HDMI input the projector can handle all frame rates natively, 24, 50 and 60 frames per second in 4K, and up to 240Hz in 1920×1080 with ‘Gaming Mode’ activated.

From the internal streaming module it’s not so clear; we criticised the previous Leica Cine Play 1 for having its VIDAA interface locked to 60 fps output, causing pull-down judder when playing 50Hz material, such as is served by Australian catch-up services. We think that is still the case on this unit; with our torture test of Nemesis S1E2 on ABC iView, two minutes in (Canberra lake shots post-credits), the 50-to-60fps pulldown was mild but clearly visible as judder, and remained visible even after investigating the best possible custom smoothing settings (there is dejudder in levels of 1 to 10, though no deblur).

But that is a torture test, and we can’t say that judder distracted us in daily use, even on 50Hz catch-up services, and even on sports which might most betray such pulldown. So motion is well handled here, if not perfect. Some GoogleTV dongles which lock to 60Hz do allow an often-deep menu option to switch to native 50 fps operation; after we’d returned the projector Leica Germany said there are motion menus to switch to 48Hz for a 24Hz movie “to prevent judder effect applying at 60Hz”, though we haven’t seen this option, and no such switching seems available for 50Hz.

For critical image watchers wanting certainty of native frame-rate delivery, the easy answer is to use the HDMI input to attach an external media player that follows frame rate according to the source, like an AppleTV 4K. The projector will then follow these native rates, and you are relatively assured of being judder-free.

All settings optimised (some, like ‘AI Picture Optimisation’, seemed to do nothing), we were impressed by both the colour performance and the available brightness here from such a usefully compact projector. Even on difficult US and international TV shows, skin tones were kept impressively realistic, or were within an easy tweak of it.

Higher quality streams watched in a darkened room were able to get into truly impressive territory with wonderfully cinematic delivery; it might be easy to accredit the sharpness to Leica’s glass, though without a polymer version alongside to show the differences, the variables are many. It’s an important question, though, because the glass, and Leica’s algorithms, are a clear differentiator with what’s underneath.

Hullo Hisense

Because what’s underneath is another souped-up Hisense model. Even before we fully unboxed this Leica, we had a moment of recognition: the outer eco-case was familiar from a Hisense PX3 Pro previously sent to us for review. The closer visual match is with Hisense’s ‘C’ projector range, though we couldn’t match the Leica’s dimensions to any specific C model, so couldn’t directly compare to see exactly what has been changed.

We asked, of course. While Leica doesn’t broadcast the Hisense connection on its websites, the company has been pretty open that its projectors have been based on Hisense models; this has been described as a two-way collaboration, though we gather not one in which Leica will be sharing its glass!

In this case Leica locally agreed there is no direct model comparison in Hisense’s ranges here, but that the key upgrades applied by Leica to the Hisense original include the Summicron lens, of course, but also alterations achieving a higher lumen output than the Hisense original, including a light engine where stray light levels have been reduced. The internal sound system was also improved over the original, we are told.

As we’ve seen on previous models, the good glass really does help achieve sharp focus and colour uniformity right to the edge of the image. Good glass can also improve brightness: polymer lenses are less transparent, while glass is better at controlling colour dispersion.

One thing much improved over the previous Leica projector is the VIDAA interface. As mentioned it is now fully populated with Australia’s complete suite of catch-up streaming TV apps, and best of all, you no longer have to sign up to a VIDAA account to use it all. When we reviewed the Leica Cine Play 1 you couldn’t use that projector at all without agreeing to VIDAA’s privacy policy and end user licence agreements, which together totalled 20,000 words, and which allowed many forms of data collection, including mobile tracking if you used a mobile device. Leica Germany noted that “the VIDAA compliance boards are located in the US and EU, following US and EU regulations”, but we still didn’t like it.

Now, you don’t need to sign in to VIDAA at all; this seems only to prevent multiple profiles or a Kidoodle TV log-in option, and the Art Gallery. Small price to pay for a rare bit of privacy these days!

Meanwhile VIDAA ran responsively and smoothly, offering lots of recommendations; it lacked a ‘keep watching’ line of the things you’re in the middle of, but that may have been because we had refused those privacy options.

Sound options

As with all front projectors that have built-in sound, there’s the obvious disconnect that the sound doesn’t come from or even pretend to come from the screen; it’s likely to be coming from behind you.

That unavoidable positioning flaw aside, Leica has conjured a surprisingly meaty and balanced sound from this little box, despite only 10W of power and a simple stereo system within. It’s small and localised sound if compared with a proper hi-fi, of course, let alone a surround system, but it’s not unpleasant; ‘Music’ mode is cleanest and least spitty, ‘Standard’ adds a bit of edge to speech, while the ‘Theatre’ mode makes the sound a little more spacious but also a little more artificial.

We also went through the VIDAA projector menus to connect a pair of wireless Bluetooth headphones, to which the audio instantly diverted. This was great for private listening, for cranked listening, or simply for better quality than via the internal speakers. The inherent delay of Bluetooth transmission is a danger here, and even with the delay slider minimised (it seems greyed out for headphone use anyway) there was just a little latency, but not enough to make things unbearable, and we’re fairly picky on latency. So headphones are a good option here.

We also sent the Bluetooth output to Primare’s all-in-one Allt-i-Ett audio system; again latency delay was just on the right side of bearable.

A final audio option is to take the sound out of the projector from the HDMI input socket, which offers eARC playback; it could thereby travel to a hi-fi or active speaker or even AV receiver; we suspect no surround sound in this configuration, as VIDAA seems not to request it (e.g. Netflix defaults to the AMBEO-encoded ‘Spatial Audio’ stereo mix rather than offering 5.1 or Atmos options).

Using the eARC in this way also uses the only HDMI input. With an AV receiver you might connect multiple sources, and run one HDMI cable to the projector, as if it was a TV, also bringing its own VIDAA stereo sound back again. So plenty of options here.

Conclusions

Leica’s Cine Play 1 and this new Compact 1 look similar, but the Compact is some 30% smaller in volume and 2kg lighter, so easier to move around, while its set-up is simple, helpful and versatile. And this smaller model nevertheless delivers delightfully sharp imaging which retains sufficient brightness for a 100-inch image to be viewable even over significant ambient light, still more so if you give it a real screen such as the ambient-light-rejecting screens available from Leica.

And once daylight fades, the Cine Compact 1 shines to its best abilities, delivering truly cinematic imaging, with Dolby Vision and other HDR capabilities, strong realistic colours and effective motion options.

And all this with VIDAA streaming inside, and serviceable built-in speakers too, all inside Leica’s highly attractive rebuilt casing, and with a gorgeous remote control. At this price it’s a double thumbs-up from us.

• See all our Australian reviews from Sound+Image and Australian Hi-Fi magazines