Way cool: new smartphone has built-in projector, throws 50" display

Daddy like:

The concept is simple: take a full-powered 4-inch Galaxy smartphone and add a 15-Lumens LED-powered, nHD projector. The result is a yellow and black phone that at first glance looks like a slightly fatter version (it’s 12.5mm thick and weighs 145.3 grams) of any of today’s top 3G phones.

Samsung didn’t skimp much to squeeze in the projector or, potentially, keep the price down. The Beam has a 5 MP camera (a tad less than the 8 MP we’re now used to), 8 GB of storage (upgradeable via micro-SD card to 32 GB) and 768 MB of RAM. It’s also running Android 2.3. The 480×800 screen looked clear and bright, but those specs and the screen are not the real story here. It’s reasonable to assume that the only reason someone would buy the Galaxy Beam is if you desperately wanted a dual phone/projector.

In operation, the Galaxy beam appeared flawless. It’ll play virtually anything you run on the small screen, and had no trouble shining a roughly 3-ft image onto an 8- or 9-ft ceiling. Images in a fully darkened room were very sharp and bright, but since it relies on the smartphone speakers for sound, you’ll want to hook up external speakers. Samsung execs told us that they’re working on a variety of docks and accessories.

The phone also worked well in presentation mode. Samsung execs projected a presentation on a nearby screen and changed slides by touching the Galaxy Beam’s screen.

The Telegraph asserts that the Beam "can show films and pictures at up to 50"."

You can easily envision salespeople clamoring for this type of device.


Hat tip: BadBlue.com.