Samsung Galaxy Beam hands-on

Samsung Galaxy Beam hands-on

Normally when we show you new devices, we give you the display first. The business end of the Samsung Galaxy Beam, however, is an a decidedly different location. That's a 15 lumen pico projector tucked into the phone, meaning you can fire video from the device up to 50 feet away or so. We kept things a tad closer, and sure enough, it works just fine.

There's a dedicated projector button on the right-hand-bezel, just above the power switch, that turns the projector on and off. (It's quicker at turning the projector off than on.) It also cycles through projecting the display either in portrait or landscape mode. The projector may be a novelty, but it does appear to work fairly well, even visible in a well-lit room.

The rest of the phone is pretty solid, too. It's a Gingerbread device (boo), but it will be updated to Ice Cream Sandwich (yay). It's not the thinnest phone in the world, but neither does it feel horrible in the hand. We're a little worried about how long the 1850 mAh battery will last while blasting away video.

We've got no idea if a projector phone will sell this time around. But if you've just got to have the ability to shoot video across the room from your phone, you'll soon have a new option in Samsung Galaxy Beam.

Rihanna
Jordana Brewster
Jennifer Love Hewitt