LG says new CineBeam Qube 4K projector is an 'elegant art object'

LG announced CineBeam Qube(model HU710PB) Yesterday's Laser Projector: It has a minimalist look and feel, weighs 3.28 pounds and measures 135 square millimeters on one side and just 80 millimeters wide at the front. (For comparison, the iPhone 15 Pro is about 147mm long.) It also has an unspecified number of HDMI eARC and USB-C ports, and a built-in 3W mono amplifier. Impressively, LG says it can display an image up to 120 inches in full 4K resolution with a standard aspect ratio of 1.2. Oh, and it has a handle!

There are some obvious drawbacks to this small projector. For starters, it pushes out a relatively dim 500 ANSI lumens (compared to the 2,200 ANSI lumens of the larger Xgimi Horizon Pro we reviewed two years ago). This means that even though LG says this projector supports HDR 10, it won't appear the way brighter HDR TVs do outside of a very dark room. Qube uses the company's webOS, which is fine on its own as an operating system, but lacks the versatility offered by Google TV or Apple's tvOS.

But none of that probably matters if you just want a neat little thing that's useful quickly. It looks a bit like a cross between Pinomat From the 90s CGI animation ReBoot and the hand crank Bell & Howell 8mm camera That floated around my house while I was growing up. And while I'm usually annoyed by companies that describe their devices with terms like “stylish internal accessory,” I have to admit that Qube appeals to me, as someone willing to forgive the drawbacks of quirky, boxy technology that has a handle — like a GameCube, for example. (Obviously, the GameCube game, which has no flaws, is just an apt example here.)

LG hasn't announced a price or release date for the Qube, nor has it said whether it will support features from other LG display devices like AirPlay 2, smart voice control, or really… anything related to its capabilities outside of the basics. Like the ones mentioned above.