It’s time for someone over at IDC to pop the champagne, as its 2007 projection about the end of rear-projection TVs turned out to be only a year off, now that the last company still making them has announced it’s getting out of the game. As first reported by CE Pro, Mitsubishi is finally ceding to competition from flat-panels which have grown to equally ridiculous size, and cut prices so sharply that it “can no longer sustain our business in its current form.” The company’s official statement is after the break, confirming that its DLP and LaserVue models are no more however “existing customer relations and parts and services departments will remain in place along with existing authorized service centers” which should be good news for current owners. There’s an in-depth retrospective of the technology at the source link, looking back to Samsung’s exit that left Mitsubishi alone in the segment three years ago, long after others like Sony and Hitachi fled for thinner-framed climates.
Mitsubishi also made a go of it in flat-panels, but ditched those efforts last year and will now focus on the professional market and home-theater projectors here in the US. In recent years the tech has improved with thinner models, integrated soundbars and even larger screens available. The slowing economy may have extended RPTV’s lease on life with a size bang for buck that’s tough to beat, but ultimately customers opted for bright flashy flat-panel HDTVs that offer easier wall-mounting options while seeming to get bigger, lighter and cheaper every year. We’re sure there are more than a few super-sized rear-projection TVs that will continue to bring the big game to basements and dens everywhere, feel free to celebrate an old friend in the comments below.
With a seemingly endless stream of flagship phones hitting the market before the holiday season, it can be easy to forget some of the other devices that play a more niche audience. The Samsung Galaxy Beam definitely belongs in this category, as it includes a built-in Texas Instruments DLP pico projector. All told, the phone faces a lofty challenge: while the projector could be useful for the PowerPoint crowd, the phone itself falls on the lower end of mid-range, and isn’t powerful enough to do business users much good otherwise. With a 1GHz dual-core NovaThor CPU, an overly outdated OS, a 2010-era display and a middling 5-megapixel camera, the Beam’s target demographic appears to be ridiculously small. Still, might the projector be enough to carry this device to its full potential? Does a niche device like this have a place in such a crowded market? Read on to get in touch with our thoughts, feelings and emotions regarding the Samsung Galaxy Beam.
While scanning through Panasonic’s booth at CEATEC 2012, we couldn’t help but notice a prototype of its world’s slimmest 100-lumen laser projector module (or OIU aka optical imaging unit, as the company prefers), which can beam out an 800 x 480 picture. It’s not clear when exactly we’ll see this 7.5mm-thick device getting into consumers’ hands, but there’s certainly room for improvement for the image quality. Likewise, the scan-type OIU (resolution at about 400 x 300) next to the slim projector is far from ready for mass consumption, as the company is hoping to actually shrink it down and integrate it into mobile phones. That said, the fact that this technology doesn’t require focusing makes it worth the wait — the light doesn’t go through an LCD filter like ordinary projectors do, and instead, it’s a single laser beam scanning out the picture, hence the name.
Also shown along side were the optical bay drive pico projector that’s already being offered by Fujitsu, as well as the PJ-SJ25U 854 × 480 DLP pico projector which was released in August this year. While the latter’s image quality was rather impressive even under the strong ambient lighting, we struggle to appreciate the ¥56,800 or $730 price tag. Anyhow, pricing is just a matter time, as always.
Update: The thickness of the slim laser OIU was originally mistyped as “75mm.” This has now been corrected. Many apologies.
While scanning through Panasonic’s booth at CEATEC 2012, we couldn’t help but notice a prototype of its world’s slimmest 100-lumen laser projector module (or OIU aka optical imaging unit, as the company prefers), which can beam out an 800 x 480 picture. It’s not clear when exactly we’ll see this 75mm-thick device getting into consumers’ hands, but there’s certainly room for improvement for the image quality. Likewise, the scan-type OIU (resolution at about 400 x 300) next to the slim projector is far from ready for mass consumption, as the company is hoping to actually shrink it down and integrate it into mobile phones. That said, the fact that this technology doesn’t require focusing makes it worth the wait — the light doesn’t go through an LCD filter like ordinary projectors do, and instead, it’s a single laser beam scanning out the picture, hence the name.
Also shown along side were the optical bay drive pico projector that’s already being offered by Fujitsu, as well as the PJ-SJ25U 854 × 480 DLP pico projector which was released in August this year. While the latter’s image quality was rather impressive even under the strong ambient lighting, we struggle to appreciate the ¥56,800 or $730 price tag. Anyhow, pricing is just a matter time, as always.
Even in the land of the outrageous home theater equipment that is CEDIA, SIM2’s new CinemaQuattro projector sticks out. The company’s first model capable of 4K (4,096 x 2,160) resolution, it’s nearly as large as the Italian scooter that also resided in its booth and comes with a price tag of $158,000 — the old 1080p $58K Grand Cinema seems almost cheap in comparison. While that may be mild overkill for most, if you’re Will Smith and need something to screen flicks on for your personal home theater (emphasis on theater), we’d imagine this fits the bill. SIM2 licensed TI’s technology from cinema projector maker Christie in order to develop the three chip 4K DLP monster capable of 20,000 ANSI lumens. According to President and CEO Maurizio Cini this gives its dealers access to “the best” technology, and at that price, it just ought to.
Century, the company that brought to the world the insanely useful HDD Stage Rack also known as the SATA HDD Docking station comes today with another nifty little device the Plus One Projector for iPhone 4 and 4S. This new sleeve for iPhone 4/4S offers not only comes with 1,850mAh internal battery that will be capable to charge your iPhone, but also with a DLP 35ANSI projector with a 1000:1 contrast ratio and VGA resolution. Granted that this may not be the ideal projector to replace your Home …
If you’re looking for just about the strangest smartphone to have been released thus far this year, you’re looking right at it right here: the Samsung GALAXY Beam. This device is a relatively powerful smartphone on its own, but with it you get a built-in projector as well. You’ve got a 15 Lumen Texas Instruments DLP (Digital Light Processing) unit at the end of a smartphone that’s essentially the top of the line minus one year from the smartphone evolution timeline – is such a combination worth the effort?
Hardware
This device has a fairly standard 1GHz dual-core processor, a 4-inch WVGA (800 x 480 pixel) resolution TFT LCD display, and the ability to work with HSPA and EDGE/GPRS, with networks differing depending on the country you’re in. Inside the device you’ve got 8GB of built-in memory as well as a microSD card slot that accepts up to 32GB of extra storage in a single card.
On the back of the device you’ve got a 5 megapixel camera with single LED flash and on the front you’ve got a 1.3 megapixel camera. The entire device measures in at 124 x 64.2 x 12.5mm at 145g light. It’s not the smallest device on the market, but it’s certainly small and light considering its ability to tote a projector onboard.
The projector is bright to a degree of 15 Lumen at 1W and can project at nHD resolution (640×360 pixels). You’ve got the ability to project images from the display in mirror mode – this by simply pressing the dedicated hardware button on the right of the device – or in a collection of presentation modes. See more on this in the “Projecting” section later in this review.
The device has a rather nice feel to it with a rubbery textured back and a form-fitting shape all around. The device functions generously as a standard smartphone, which will be rather important to many users at it costs essentially the same as much higher-powered devices also on the market at the same time. Then there’s the yellow band – a daring aesthetic choice which we hope very much will pay off for Samsung so that they’ll continue to go wild with color in the future – it’s nice!
Software
Most of the software aspects here are included in the “Projecting” section – everything aside from that is a fairly standard Android 2.3 Gingerbread experience. If you’re looking for the most advanced standalone software experience for a smartphone on the market, this isn’t it. But for a Gingerbread machine – that is, two generations of Google mobile OS before the current version 4.1 Jelly Bean – this device is perfectly legit.
You’ve got no attached carrier (at the moment) so you’ll only have Google app and Samsung’s collection of pre-loaded apps plus a couple of projector-friendly apps as well. Apps such as QuickPad, Samsung’s Social and Music Hubs, and Kies 2.0 are included.
Benchmarks on this device show, again, that this isn’t the battle-ready gaming and processing beast that’ll be beating all competitors, but it’s certainly beefy enough to make the projector elements worthwhile. The processor at work here is the rare NovaThor U8500, that is working with a 45 nm architecture with 1GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 for CPU and ARM Mali 400 (single-core) for GPU. This processor also exists in the Sony Xperia P and U, Samsung Galaxy S Advance, and several other lesser-known devices.
Projecting
You’ve got a whole host of options with your built-in projector up top of this device. Samsung lists personal theater, fun group sharing, mood generator, outdoor entertainment, professional presentations, education, and room decoration amongst their suggested use cases. Users purchasing the Samsung GALAXY Beam will likely use the device less than they expect that they’d planned, but will find that when they DO use it, they’ll be pleasantly surprised at how well it works.
You can play movies at home with whatever movie app you’ve got on the device – like the Samsung Movie Hub, of course. You can play YouTube videos at a party. You can project images of disco balls and fireplaces – a collection of repeating images such as these are included on the device so you can get the idea rather easily. You can bring this device with you camping to watch a movie projected on to your camper – an idea, again, I’d never have thought of if Samsung hadn’t suggested it.
Then comes the professional uses, the first of which is showing off a slide show in the classroom or at a meeting. You’ll look positively magical busting out your smartphone in a meeting that projects your ideas onto the wall with no outside assistance. And what a fun idea it’d be to show off your portfolio in a coffee shop up on the wall where everyone can see at once!
Then there’s OHP mode – over-head projector – where you’ll be doing both input and output at the same time. This mode projects whatever images are on your screen while at the same time your back-facing camera is watching whatever is in front of it to see what your device wants to project. Such a simple concept and certainly something a Samsung engineer one day realized was awesome enough to be included as a sell-point in their big list of features.
The camera’s position on the back (closer to the center than the top where it’d normally be on most smartphones) is certainly intentional. While it may simply be down there to get out of the way of the projector which sits at the head of the smartphone, it also feels more natural here to do over-head projector action.
Battery
With the package we’ve got, there are two full removable batteries that can be switched in and out of the device along with a battery charger that doesn’t need the smartphone to work. This means you can have a battery charging in your home or office while you’re out and about with the smartphone, then when you need more power, all you’ve gotta do is swap. We’d certainly recommend this setup for any smartphone user who needs to be up and running at all times, but especially here with the projector situation.
The reason for this is that the Samsung GALAXY Beam uses its 2,000 mAh battery up relatively fast if you’re using the projector quite often. It’s an impressive feat to see this device playing a full-length 2-hour movie without needing to be plugged in, but if you’re thinking about then taking it out for a night on the town with the same battery, you’ll be out of luck. Without using the projector you’ll easily have a full day’s moderate use with one battery.
And remember to keep that charger handy regardless of how much you think you’ll need it!
Wrap-up
The Samsung GALAXY Beam is certainly a specialty device. If you have a need for a projector that’s also a smartphone, or a smartphone that’s also a projector – this is your only real legitimate choice. This smartphone is powerful enough to be your normal everyday driver, but you’re certainly going to want to know that you’ll be using the projector on a daily basis to make it all worth your while.
This device is currently available internationally (UK, France, Singapore, India and Brazil) and USA launch dates have not been announced, but are expected soon – rather soon, we hope!
Sanwa has revamped the PRJ011 iPhone charging sleeve-cum-pico-projector we saw back in January. The new PRJ016 packs a 1,850mAh battery that can recharge your handset up to 80 percent and also power the projection mode if you want to enjoy a movie, or a spreadsheet, blown onto your wall. The 35 lumens DLP device has three times the brightness of its predecessor, can project for 120 minutes on a full tank and has a maximum display size of 60-inches, focusing from a distance of up to six feet. It’s available in Japan from tomorrow, setting you back ¥23,800 ($305), and in the meantime there’s a Chiaroscuro video waiting after the break if you’d like to know more.
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