It’s not an Ice Cream Sandwich-laden smartphone. It doesn’t support LTE for super-fast data speeds. And its processor is relatively underpowered in this day of quad-core chips running well in excess of 1GHz. But the Samsung Galaxy Beam, unveiled Sunday at Mobile World Congress, nonetheless packs an integrated projector whose brightness is rated at an impressive 15 lumens, and can cast a 50-inch image on any bare wall you have handy.
At 12.5mm thick, the Beam is exceedingly thin and compact for a phone with an integrated projector. And, yes, there’s definite utility in having a smartphone that can project spreadsheets and other business documents in the board room Monday through Friday, and then family photos on the living room wall during the weekends.
But will hardcore mobile enthusiasts be able to resolve all of the Beam’s hardware compromises? In the specs department, this phone is lacking.
The Beam’s OS is Android 2.3, aka Gingerbread. This is a problem, as Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) is the new Android standard, and we just can’t see buying any Android phone without Google latest OS. The Beam’s processor is a 1GHz dual-core chip, which lags far behind the current state-of-the-art, namely quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processors running at 1.5GHz.
The Beam’s display is spec’d at 4 inches with a 480×800 resolution, but doesn’t use Samsung’s spectacularly bright and brilliant Super AMOLED technology. There’s also no LTE support, so for your fastest data speeds, you’ll be relying on HSPA networks. In total, the Beam is a curious device, but it’s squarely aimed at users who need integrated projectors, and that’s a rarefied group.
But we sure do like the pretty yellow chassis!
