Android By Russell Holly Mar. 17, 2014 9:31 am
Samsung is giving the idea of stuffing a projector into a phone one more try, and it looks like China Mobile is one of the carriers that is going to be selling it soon.
Concept phones all over the world include one feature that has yet to make it into mainstream devices. The idea that your phone can either double as a projector for content or use a short throw projector to emulate a keyboard is the stuff geek dreams are made of, but it’s not exactly practical given the current state of both projector and battery technology.
The Samsung Galaxy Beam is the closest we’ve seen to a whole-hearted attempt at this concept, but the last two versions Samsung released haven’t exactly been top selling devices. This isn’t enough to stop them from trying again, though it looks like two years hasn’t inspired a lot of change in the design.
Instead of a Galaxy S4 that has been modified to include a projector, Samsung has opted to offer a crippled phone with meager specs and an older version of Android. The 4.66-inch 800 x 480 display sits on top of a quad-core 1.2GHz processor with 1GB of RAM. Android 4.2.2 powers this faux brushed metal 3G phone that seems to have a dedicated projector button that, like previous models, beams everything that is on the phone display.
The updated design looks a lot more comfortable to hold and use when you aren’t projecting things than previous models. It also looks as though you’ll be able to pocket this phone without fear of damaging the projection unit.
It seems unlikely that we’ll see the Galaxy Beam reach major smartphone markets outside of China, but projector fans can keep the hope alive that Samsung will one day deliver a high end phone with this feature as standard.
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Concept phones all over the world include one feature that has yet to make it into mainstream devices. The idea that your phone can either double as a projector for content or use a short throw projector to emulate a keyboard is the stuff geek dreams are made of, but it’s not exactly practical given the current state of both projector and battery technology.
The Samsung Galaxy Beam is the closest we’ve seen to a whole-hearted attempt at this concept, but the last two versions Samsung released haven’t exactly been top selling devices. This isn’t enough to stop them from trying again, though it looks like two years hasn’t inspired a lot of change in the design.
Instead of a Galaxy S4 that has been modified to include a projector, Samsung has opted to offer a crippled phone with meager specs and an older version of Android. The 4.66-inch 800 x 480 display sits on top of a quad-core 1.2GHz processor with 1GB of RAM. Android 4.2.2 powers this faux brushed metal 3G phone that seems to have a dedicated projector button that, like previous models, beams everything that is on the phone display.
The updated design looks a lot more comfortable to hold and use when you aren’t projecting things than previous models. It also looks as though you’ll be able to pocket this phone without fear of damaging the projection unit.
It seems unlikely that we’ll see the Galaxy Beam reach major smartphone markets outside of China, but projector fans can keep the hope alive that Samsung will one day deliver a high end phone with this feature as standard.
More...
