Ceiling whacks – NSFW?
You can also use the stand to hold the phone upright and beam images onto the ceiling, which raises all manner of hands-free possibilities. You can also project image and sound combos using any local media files. For instance, you can have a slideshow of your gallery pictures play to your own choice of musical backing.
The real reason behind buying a Galaxy Beam
Each battery is good for around 3hrs of maximum brightness projector activity. Of course, if you don’t use the projector, a full charge will keep you going for well over two days. Lest we forget, the projector makes one helluva torch – perfect for navigating that post-curry dark woodland path.
Showing directions from the boozer to the nearest curry house, midnight rambles and a crafty hand shandy aside, I can’t actually think of that many real world situations in which I’d want to use the Beam. But if you can’t think of any either you probably won’t consider buying one to start with.
Second coming: Samsung's latest Beam is an appealing idea but do you really need one?
Verdict
While the projector part of the handset works rather well, the Beam is much more expensive than the otherwise technically similar Galaxy S Advance. It also has an LCD rather than AMOLED screen and is still lumbered with Gingerbread. Granted, if you want to turn your iPhone into a projector you need to cough up around £150 for a decent adaptor like Aiptek’s MobileCinema i15 but at least you can remove it when not in use. ®
Thanks to Clove for the loan of the review sample.
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Samsung Galaxy Beam Android projector phone review
COMMENTS
If you're going to put pictures like that into a phone review...
...would you please mark it as NSFW?
Re: If you're going to put pictures like that into a phone review...
And enjoy that formal warning on your employment record?
It may well be El Reg but someone glancing across the office could well jump to the wrong conclusion and report you for such things in many corporate environments. You may work in an office where you can get away with it - not all of us do.
Re: If you're going to put pictures like that into a phone review...
I live and work in a foreign language school here in China where all my colleagues are female (99%). Sorry, but I was also not amused having this pic on my screen and my colleagues wondering why I turned off the screen so quickly. I might enjoy these images, but I am not everyone...
Re: If you're going to put pictures like that into a phone review...
Grow up.
If you're a teacher, or person in other position of responsibility over vulnerable adults or young people, you simply can't be caught ogling ass during your coffee break.
(As much as some of us might celebrate the aesthetic delights of a nicely-shaped carbon unit)
Re: A solution in search of a problem
That was my initial thought as well, but after some consideration, I can see this evolving into something quite useful.
Looking back, remember how crap the iPhone 1 was? Okay, it's still overpriced but the functionality and design has moved on leaps and bounds.
I can see the same thing happening with this. Aside from obvious business applications (ie. "oh, the projector doesn't work, ring IT Support....Wait. No. We'll use my Samsung Electronics Galaxy Beam GT-i8520 instead") its personal use could be to watch a movie anytime, anywhere with your mates. Or girlfriend if she's into that sort of thing.
