By Android newcomers might not remember this, but Samsung actually announced the Samsung Galaxy Beam 2 years ago, at MWC 2010. It silently faded into the night with not much news or fanfare, but it’s made a triumphant return in 2012, being announced alongside the Galaxy Note 10.1, Galaxy S WiFi 4.1, and Galaxy Tab 2 series.
The Samsung Galaxy Beam projector is designed for use up to 50-inches away. As you can see in the video above, even under mediocre (at best) lighting conditions, the Beam projector displayed clear and bright with it’s “ultra bright 15-lumens” pico projector.. It was pretty amazing, actually. Geometry and logic would tell you that the further you get from the display surface, the larger (and more grainy) the image. At about 3-feet away the Beam offered a nice big image at very good quality, all things considered.
How often do you want to show a video, game, picture, website, or any other type of content to friends or family? How annoying is it to crowd around one tiny device? I picture the Samsung Beam being used most often in this social type of “you gotta see this” scenario, but with the ability to project for up to 3 hours on one charge (2000 mAh battery), it’s perfectly capable of being used to watch television shows or movies for personal use. Or group use (road trip anybody?).
The Galaxy Beam offers mirror projection, so it will project whatever is being displayed on your phone’s screen. Everything from playing games to watching videos to browsing the web or even making video calls. I doubt professors will start using the Galaxy Beam to project their powerpoint lectures anytime soon, but I can think of a lot of situations where it would be mighty helpful and/or entertaining.
Take a look at some of the Beam’s specs:
Beyond the Beam’s projector status, it doesn’t project the image of a high-end Android phone. It’s screen and cameras are both average, it’s processor (1GHz dual core) and guts are good but not overpowering, but packing this functionality into a 12.5mm device with a 2000 mAh battery is pretty impressive.
I’m particularly fond of the Samsung Beam because it truly offers something unique that you can’t currently find on other phones. While we sludge from booth to booth reciting similar specs and giving the head nod to devices based on marginal differences, the Samsung Beam has something original to offer, and with hundreds of Android Phones out there that can’t be overlooked. It’s no longer easy to uniquely distinguish yourself in the Android area, but Samsung has managed to do that and more with the Beam.
Pricing and availability haven’t been announced. And who knows, based on the way things went down in 2010, pricing and availability may never be announced. We’re hoping otherwise and we’ll keep you posted.
How many of you out there would enjoy a projector phone like the Galaxy Beam? What would you use it for most often?
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Last year, 3D phones were all the rage at MWC. They’ve finally become a bit more abundant in the real-world and although I initially thought they were pretty cool, the novelty wore out for me on a personal level. I’m not sure if the projector would have a larger novelty shelf life or if it would be genuinely useful; obviously it would depend on the person, but that’s why I’m asking all of you.
[polldaddy poll=5984592]
With a bluetooth controller, this would be pretty sweet with some Android emulators. Even for doing some light work with a wireless keyboard.
I find this a ton more useful than 3D which is just “cool.”
Agreed. I’m always showing-or trying to-my Mom something on the phone, but at 71, her eyes aren’t what they were, this would come in handy for sure.
If this picks up steam and sells pretty well, we can expect for this to become standard and that projector to eventually get a lot smaller-with the guts of recently announced or TBA phones. this is cool as shit tho, and is one of the most intresting things i’ve seen on a phone.
Would be a very nice feature to make some kind of HUD for in-car setups.
BOOM! Above head.dock built into cars, displays small on windshield (size of rear view mirror), reads texts and calls to you. No more distracted driving. Gps and all. Would be revolutionary..
Salesmen and business meetings, definitely.
Thy should make one without the cell radio in it like tablets could be a cool media player
Like their recently announced Galaxy S Wi-Fi? So yeah the projector in the media player would be sweet as it would get rid of the size limitation for me at at least. Thats one reason I picked up my nook tablet was so that I could watch videos, browse the web, and read books on a larger screen then the 3.2 inch screen on my Samsung galaxy Prevail. and having a projector built into such a device would allow me to make a much larger and decent looking projection.
Pretty cool
Instead of a built in projector, how about a wireless projector that I can connect to any phone?
I’d buy such projector non-integrated – separate little box with direct male HDMI to plug into my phone, with SEPARATE battery. As an integral part of the phone it doesn’t make much sense. I totally get the logic of Samsung, who decided to put the projector on a budget specs phone – being able immediately show off Youtube clips is the thing for budget owners (= school students). A business user wouldn’t wont his phone that bulky, and plugging an accessory to show something off on a big screen would seem more appropriate.
They actually have something like that its called a Pico pocket projector
For the life of me I cant figure out why phones are still being shipped with 2.3 or why anyone would buy a phone not meant for ICS…….
Here’s hoping they make a non-networked version (similiar to iPod Touch) that can be interfaced with existing phones.
This seems to be heading towards my(?) line of thinking with personal electronics in the future. You’ll have one device that serves all functions. It’ll be mobile, can dock with a traditional desktop KVM (Ubuntu for Android anyone?), laptop, living room TV/media center/game console and have a built-in projector when you need a larger display. Maybe Galaxy Note sized. It’s all going to be the same thing soon.
Pay attention Samsung!!! Could change the game if you take note and develop some different ideas
I would appreciate a component and composite output much more than a projector. Whatever happened to the ipods with the composite out in the headphone jack? That was great. Combined with a microusb->hdmi, thats not a bad combo at all
Cool, but 3 hours? I doubt it. I would love to be wrong…
Does this actually have 6 gigs of RAM? or is that a typo?
Um… There is a MAJOR typo in there. I know I didn’t just read 6GB of RAM. LoL!!
this seems really nice, and im sure i’d find ways to use it other then what i already know…but they need to stick all this stuff on one spectacular phone. The projector is a really exciting & useful feature…but on an old OS with old hardware it becomes something I would never consider.
Wow, Nice video. Samsung Galaxy Beam have many features such As 1 GHz dual-core processor, 768 MB of RAM, camera clarity is 5 mega pixels, 2000mAh battery. Release Date is July price is £385, which is a little more than $600.For more details refer http://www.techiecop.com/cellphones/samsung-cellphones/samsung-galaxy-beam-review.html