Samsung Beam Smartphone Packs a Projector

Samsung has just taken the wrappers off its latest handset, the Samsung Beam, which is packing a built-in projector for ‘beaming’ pics, movies and games onto a big screen.

Over the last few years there have been a few projector phones making it to shows and even retail – but will the Beam become a hit or a short-lived novelty? Remember the Samsung Show? Exactly.

The Samsung Beam is equipped with a 15 lumens projector which can squirt a picture of up to 50-inches across onto any nearby surface.

This is ideal for impromptu slide shows, sharing a YouTube clip or, should the mood take you, an off-the-cuff presentation.

The projector is described as High Definition – I am reserving judgement on this as Sammy hasn’t yet divuldged the projector’s resolution.

Other bits of the Beam’s spec includes a 5-megapixel camera which can capture 720p HD at 30fps and then play back on its 4-inch 480×800-pixel screen or the projector, of course.

You get 8GB storage, which can be bumped up to 32GB thanks to microSD and there’s a 1GHz dual-core processor to push things along.

The Beam has a dedicated projector app lets you control choose what you want to share, just make sure you are sharing what you want to share 😉

It would have been a neat touch to supply a remote control for the projector but, as it is, you have to control everything via the mobile’s touchscreen.

The Beam runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread rather than Ice Cream Sandwich, which is bit of a let down but it is impressive that the device is only 12.5mm thick, which is about 3mm fatter than an iPhone 4S even with that projector!