We're not exactly sure why anyone would be interested in a smartphone with a built-in projector but that's exactly what Samsung has created. The Galaxy Beam is a run of the mill Android phone that boasts a built-in HD projector as its key feature, but with a brightness of just 15 lumens, we can't see this feature being used for any serious entertainment or business. See also Samsung Galaxy S3 release date, specs and rumour round-up.
On first glance the Samsung Galaxy Beam appears to look like just another Android phone. Look on top though and you'll find a projector lens that allows the phone to beam content onto surfaces up to 50in wide. The projector itself has a resolution of 640x360 but a brightness of just 15 lumens. Visit Group test: what's the best smartphone?
Samsung will tell you that this is brighter than many dedicated, portable pico projectors, but this simply isn't true. A good example is BenQ's latest Joybee GP2 portable projector. It has a brightness of 200 lumens yet in our review we found that its lack of brightness means you need to use it at full brightness unless you're in a dim or dark environment. As such, we can't imagine the Galaxy Beam being very useful at all. See also Samsung Galaxy Note review and Samsung Galaxy Ace review.
Samsung says the Galaxy Beam will come with a "projector-dedicated application" that will enable projection of specific content, so the phone won't simply just project whatever is on the screen. Photos, videos, games, maps and "business information" has been identified by Samsung as the multimedia content that can be beamed from the phone. The company says the 2000mAh battery powering the Galaxy Beam will enable up to three hours of projection time.
Samsung deserves a lot of credit for its implementation of the projector on the Galaxy Beam. The phone is just 12.5mm thick and the company is therefore calling it the world's thinnest projector phone. Though 12.5mm is thicker than many other smartphones on the market, the Galaxy Beam is certainly not as bulky as we imagined a projector phone to be. Further, the phone manages to look as inconspicuous as possible. Aside from the slight bump on the back, you'd be hard pressed to immediately notice the Galaxy Beam has a built-in projector. See also Group test: what's the best Android phone.
Once you get past the projector feature, however, the Galaxy Beam's specifications are not overly impressive. It has a reasonably large 4in, super AMOLED display with a standard resolution of 800x480, while a 1GHz dual-core processor, 768MB of RAM and 8GB are serviceable, but don't compete with most flagship phones of 2012. Other features include a 5-megapixel rear camera, a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera plus a microSD card slot for extra storage.
Disappointingly, the Galaxy Beam will initially ship with the now outdated Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system. Samsung hasn't advised whether it will update the phone to the latest 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android but considering this is a niche device, we wouldn't be surprised if the answer was no.
The Samsung Galaxy Beam will launch in various markets in the coming months but there has been no word on Australian availability just yet.
Comments
pdxuser said: The display was shown in full light at MWC and while not overpowering was certainly viewable And a projector phone is a portable big-screen TV Of course its useful
Hansy said: Enhanced with new features
Castlemainiac said: As someone who has owned the original Samsung Galaxy Beam projector phone for 15 years Model I8520 launched in singapore only I can tellyou that a projector in a phone is a great thing To not have a projector in a phone now would be like loosing the MP3 player or camera A projector is far beyond a gimmick I have used it alot over the last 15 years Bsically in a darkened room you have a 40 inch telly in your pocket Mainly stream my media movies tv shows from Computer HD to phone over WIFI and project onto wall in bedroom Music videos in darkened room at parties sharing of photos videos nights out with friends Baby sitter when all other televisions in house was being used Hotels bathtubs so many places also super bright torch and red camera torch for astronomy However I am disapointed with the recently announced Galaxy Beam 2 First of all they should have given it another name to differentiate it from the very different model released almost 2 years earlier Also when the original Beam was released it had top of the range specs The new galaxy beam should be quad core My older Galaxy beam has an 8 megapixel camera why does the new one only have 5 megapixels My Beam has superior loud clear stereo speaker quality And why have they halved the internal memory to 8GB when my old Galaxy Beam has 16GB I could not possibly have another phone without a projector and still be happy - becuase I would truelly know what I am missing so I am glad that another projector phone has been announced It just needs a spec upgrade and a dedicated camera button
Matt Egan said: Well quite
Jusskoll said: I dont get it HD projector with resolution of 640x360 Or this HD stands for something else now