Samsung Announces Galaxy Beam 2; Projector Equipped Android Smartphone Debuts in China

Samsung has been brave enough to revive quirky handsets. In the recent past it brought back Samsung W2014 Is Yet Another Android Flip-Phone, But The First To Feature Snapdragon 800 and now it has announced the launch of an updated version of the not-so-popular projector equipped smartphone, the Galaxy Beam. The Galaxy Beam 2 from Samsung makes a debut in China today as China Mobile exclusive handset. We shall go through the technical specifications later but first take a look at the projector on the Galaxy Beam 2. The Galaxy Beam 2 as you might expect features a bigger resolution projector than its predecessor. While the Galaxy Beam had an nHD (640 x 360 pixels) resolution capable projector, the Galaxy Beam 2 comes with a WVGA (800×480 pixels) resolution. The Korean manufacturer assures that the Galaxy Beam 2 produces brighter and more colourful images than its predecessor.

Galaxy Beam 2

Underneath its WVGA resolution (800 x 480 pixels) 4.66-inch display, it houses an unspecified 1.2GHz quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM which are good enough to run the dated Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean). While the front of the smartphone features the company’s usual done-to-death design it tries to spice up the looks on the rear by giving it a metal finish. While internal storage figures are missing from the official product page, it mentions a microSD card slot that is capable of handling cards of up to 64GB. On the rear you get a 5MP camera but you miss on a front snapper. Staple connectivity options like microUSB, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 are duly covered and navigation is taken care of by A-GPS and GLONASS. Samsung has equipped the Galaxy Beam 2 with a 2,600mAh battery which does not bode well for longer standby or talk time figures considering the battery sapping projector. For the meanwhile, we do not have any pricing or global availability information but we shall keep you updated once we get our hands on any official information.

In the past various handset manufacturers including regional ones have pushed many of such projector equipped handsets into the market but they haven’t managed to go main stream. So is there a reason for this trend? We want you to send in your views in the comment section below.

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Replies

  • Kaustubh Katdare
    Kaustubh Katdare
    A 2600 mAh battery doesn't last for a day on a moderate usage on regular Samsung Galaxy phone. I'm wondering how long will it last if I turn on the project for about 10 - 15 minutes for a quick presentation. I think Samsung's adding these features to the phones, just because the technology allows. I don't see any real time use case for this.

    A more practical solution would have been to develop a tablet with a projector so that they could provide a standby battery dedicated for the projector. How does that sound?
  • Ankita Katdare
    Ankita Katdare
    Remember, two years back when the original Samsung Galaxy Beam arrived?
    Samsung Galaxy Beam With Inbuilt Projector Arrives In India In April
    It failed to take off, but some people are really using it as an alternative for quick presentations, I've heard.

    But I have also read that the quality is poor to really bad.

    What are some other good portable projectors? We need to make a list.
  • Rajni Jain
    Rajni Jain
    As Projector is never in our requirement when we are looking for our smartphones, so other reasonably priced phones are preferred by users.I think this is one of the reasons these smartphones didn't workout...
  • Anoop Mathew
    Anoop Mathew
    Kaustubh Katdare
    A 2600 mAh battery doesn't last for a day on a moderate usage on regular Samsung Galaxy phone. I'm wondering how long will it last if I turn on the project for about 10 - 15 minutes for a quick presentation. I think Samsung's adding these features to the phones, just because the technology allows. I don't see any real time use case for this.

    A more practical solution would have been to develop a tablet with a projector so that they could provide a standby battery dedicated for the projector. How does that sound?
    Throw in an extra 3000mAH i.e. make it 5000mah (or higher) 😁. But keep the size small i.e. maximum to that of a Samsung Galaxy Note 2. 😀

    Then give the projector a 1080p resolution option with external-storage option of 128GB or higher.

    How does that sound?

    P.S: Even if most of us don't have an HD TV, we all have a free wall on one corner of our rooms don't we? 😒

    P.S.S: Why project from a tablet when it's a tablet with a big screen? And it'd look weird. Smaller size makes sense.
  • lal
    lal
    Samsung, lately, is spending quite a bit in the 'fancy' segment too it seems 😁 Megazoom Samsung Camera, Projector phone, what else is there to just show off but not be put to real use! Oh yes, Galaxy S5, that is a show off too 😁 *don't kick me dear samsung lovers* Next thing would probably be a sub-woofer built in to the Galaxy S6 with the size of a wind shield!

    Introduce a really efficient (energy and usable) phone with some serious stuff and show that your Octa-Core phone with 4GB RAM and a brilliant dedicated graphics processor can do better or atleast match my dual core ordinary desktop PC. People should not switch on their PC if they have the mobile phone. If you can't make a mobile phone to perform like that, just don't make the handheld a power hungry, poorly designed, over powered but powerless beast, which infact is a goat! You don't need that much hardware power if you can't put it to real use. You are simply showing off and wasting energy!

    Dude! Who am I talking to!

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