By Kevin C. Tofel
Feb. 26, 2012, 7:52am PT
Get ready for phones with integrated projectors in them; at Mobile World Congress,Samsung announced the Galaxy Beam, which can project images on a wall or screen. The phone otherwise doesn’t look all that remarkable, although it’s clearly thicker due to the pico-projector at the top of the phone. Although it’s a completely new model handset, it still runs Android’s old 2.3 version and uses an 800 x 480 resolution touchscreen display.
Other specs include a 1 GHz dual-core processor, 8 GB of internal storage, HSPA support up to 14.4 Mbps and a 5 megapixel rear camera capable of capturing 720p video. Thanks to the integrated projector, the handset is 12.5 millimeters in thickness; relatively large considering that many top-end handsets are thinning down in to the 7- to 8-millimeter range.
Clearly, the pico-projector is the main draw of the Beam, and it’s interesting, but not something the masses are likely to adopt just yet. The phone can project high-definition media up to 50-inches wide with 15 lumens of output. Yes, its handy for showing pics or videos to many people when a larger monitor isn’t available, but likely has a limited audience outside of enterprises and geeks like me. Kudos to Samsung for trying to push the envelope a little; but they might be better served by getting their new phones to run Android 4.0.