The Logic Bolt projector-phone is one of the great underdog stories of CES, and a little peek into the dirty business of building cell phones. The crew behind it is basically a bunch of college kids, funding their business on credit cards and loans from their parents, learning as they go along.
I spent some time with them today and they made it clear that the Bolt, the first projector phone to come to the US, is a project in flux. Sure, it uses a Chinese LCoS projector module right now. But could it use TI DLP in the future, like the Samsung Show? Sure. And it’s running a low-power MTK chipset. But Broadcom wants to cut them a deal for a more powerful processor. And their Web site? It went live today.
Even the phone’s UI is a work in progress. The original Chinese model that Logic Wireless bought had a UI which was a mishmash of intellectual property violations, so they’ve cleared that off and made their own menu system. I’m happy to say the phone is clunky, sure (and it has a battery that feels as thick as a deck of cards), but it works. In some ways, it works hilariously physically: you focus the projector by sliding the lens back and forth using a little lever.
Otherwise, the Bolt has a somewhat clunky kitchen-sink of features, like many Chinese feature-phones. Touch screen and dial pad? Check. File browser, video games, sound recorder? Check. Really, the takeaway is that yes, it’s a projector and a phone, it will project pictures, video or Powerpoint, and it works.
Logic isn’t making many of their first model, focusing instead (so to speak) on their second unit. They’ll sell several thousand projector-phones at $600 each, they hope, to fund their sleeker late-2009 model – one that, it seems, will be built with the help of many companies at CES who’ve expressed interest in these crazy kids.
