With the PL1, the Chinese manufacturer Hisense presents a second laser cinema in its product portfolio, which has enjoyed great popularity for some time. Laser Cinema is what Hisense calls its models, which are not quite as bright as the larger models in the Hisense portfolio and are therefore more suitable for somewhat optimized living spaces. This newcomer is illuminated by a blue mono laser block in combination with a phosphor wheel. The Laser Cinema PL1 also uses the 0,47-inch DMD chips with XPR (X4) processing, a principle aimed at reproducing a UHD image by separately and offsetting all the details and at very high speed being represented. Already the Hisense PX1-Pro Triple Laser or other models from other manufacturers like the Samsung LSP7T, LG HU715QW or even the ChiQ B8U rely on the chip mentioned in this price range. So it's no wonder that Hisense also uses the 1″ DMP chip from Texas Instrument for the PL0,47 Cinema Laser. The use of a single laser unit in conjunction with a color wheel is also common on many models in this price range and is no real surprise. The whole thing has its advantages, but usually also its disadvantages compared to real triple laser models, which are usually more expensive. One of these disadvantages has so far been the relatively small color gamut and the relatively low contrast. At least in one point, Hisense managed to create a real surprise with the Laser Cinema PL1, in addition to all its features and functionalities, but more on that in more detail as the test progresses.

But now to the actual device, the Laser Cinema PL1 from Hisense. The Laser Cinema PL1 is a fairly compact Laser TV, or as Hisense calls it, Laser Cinema. It measures 53,1 cm at the front with a depth of 33,5 cm and a height of 12 cm. The projector weighs 8,5 kg. For a 100-inch image, the Laser Cinema requires a distance of 31 cm and, together with the depth of the housing, a low board of almost 64,5 cm, or you can move it slightly away from the wall to reduce the required low board depth. In the picture below you can see the exact distances for sizes 90-120 inches. The distance is for both PL1 models (PL1 & PL1SE) identical.

Unlike the PX1-Pro, Hisense uses its own operating system VIDAA in the latest version Vidaa U6 for the operating system. One or the other may already be familiar with the operating system from the Hisense TV models. The great thing about it is that this time all apps are available to us without restrictions. In addition to Prime Video, YouTube, Disney+, Apple TV or Netflix also work without any problems in 4K HDR. The operating system used runs smoothly and reacts at lightning speed.

Like the PX1-Pro, the PL1 is compatible with HDR signals with static metadata (HDR10 and HLG), but also, and much more rarely, with Dolby Vision and HDR-10+ sources. There are currently only a few devices in the world that can do this. This is particularly advantageous as the Cinema Laser handles the dynamic metadata completely independently and automatically, which in turn means that the user does not have to constantly worry about the brightness and contrast settings corresponding to the HDR10 film encoding (static metadata). In particular, dynamic HDR standards such as HDR10+ and Dolby Vision ensure that the image is perfectly matched to the scene being played by reading the metadata of your content. Contrast and color saturation can be checked in real time frame by frame and reproduced correctly. The result is a significantly greater image depth and better brightness peaks. Overexposed or too dark images are a thing of the past. All the more so as HDR10+ and Dolby Vision are becoming more and more widespread on the most important streaming services in addition to physical discs. Anyone who has ever enjoyed the Cinema Laser PL1 with Dolby Vision and/or HDR10+ will no longer want to do without this feature. It's just fun.

Hisense PL1 picture performance, brightness and contrast

Now that we've written a lot about the Hisense PL1, we're probably only now getting to the most important point. How is the picture quality, the contrast and the actual brightness that the Laser Cinema offers us? To get straight to the point, the Hisense PL1 can actually surprise positively as a single laser in terms of native contrast. All single laser models from the various manufacturers currently have a native contrast of approx. 1000:1 in the measurements. Here and there there was a model with 1200:1, then another with a little less or more contrast. But the whole thing is more or less on the same level. Although the VAVA Chroma with ALPD 4.0 technology as a triple laser clearly leads the field here, the PL1 caused a positive surprise in our measurement. The standard mode offered us a native contrast of almost 3300:1 with inaccurate colors. This reduced after accurate color adjustment, which we also strongly recommend for this model, still a brilliant native contrast of almost 2000:1 at 1081 ANSI lumens. We were also able to measure the specified ANSI lumens of 2100 in standard mode, which unfortunately drifts strongly in terms of color. Here we even achieved a brightness of 2198 ANSI lumens in our measurement. For applications that don't require exact colors, such as daytime television or a soccer game, this brightness isn't always quite sufficient, but it can be used. Due to the low brightness of the Hisense PL1 Laser Cinema, we generally recommend combining it with the Elite Screens Daylight Extreme frame canvas. With the increased gain of 1.4 and the special contrast structure, you get even more out of the image quality.

Conclusion

Many promise, few keep. The Hisense PL1 Laser Cinema is a real all-rounder with an intelligent operating system, media player and even an integrated TV tuner (the PL1 / PL1SE model comes without a tuner). Even if the VAVA Chroma is still our absolute favorite when it comes to picture performance, the Hisense is an extremely powerful laser TV that offers just about everything and that at a price of EUR 2222 (recommended retail price). If Hisense already started with the PL1 delivers such a powerful overall package, then we can look forward to the next generation of the new Laser TV model from Hisense. Although we're not fans of the fixed focus here. For us, that doesn't belong in a real projector, and we find the freedom that you have through the flexible focus and screen selection ingenious with the Laser Cinema models like the Hisense PL1. Maybe Hisense will listen to us and bring out the next larger Laser TVs without a screen and flexible zoom, even if the chances of that are close to zero. By the way: Later this month we are expecting the announcement of the new L9 series from Hisense - which were already briefly presented at CES 2023 in Las Vegas.