Samsung Galaxy Beam Smartphone Reviews and Deals

Samsung Galaxy Beam review

Let’s take a moment to consider the plight of those unnamed heroes who design mobile phones. 

Not only do they have to be careful not to step on any toes and violate an obscure patent by using too many rounded corners or something, but they also have to come up with new gadgets which need to stand out in what is now a very crowded marketplace.

It’s this kind of pressure that results in a hardware engineer making the decision to insert a tiny projector into the end of a smartphone. And thank goodness for that because it really does make reviewing technology a lot more interesting.

Standard issue Android

Leaving the portable projector aside for a moment, the Galaxy Beam is a pretty typical mid-range Android handset.

It’s powered by a Cortex A9 dual-core 1GHz processor and 768MB RAM, which is a perfectly adequate setup for app, web browsing and gaming requirements, and indeed we encountered no particular issues with performance aside from the slight stuttering and pauses which plague any pre-Jelly Bean Android device.

Yes, there’s no Jelly Bean to be found here - out of the box the Beam came with the Android Gingerbread OS. It was included in the list of handsets due to receive a Jelly Bean upgrade this year but during the time we had it no OTA update was available. That’s somewhat disappointing; Gingerbread is outdated and it really should be running at least Ice Cream Sandwich.

Internal storage sits at 8GB, with about 5GB available, but there is a microSD card slot to boost that up to 32GB. Handily, the memory card and SIM are accessible via slots on the side so you don’t need to pop out the battery. Very thoughtful.

Speaking of the battery...Samsung is actually generous enough to include a spare power cell in the box, along with both a dock/stand and a wall charger. That’s a solid package that puts the barebone contents of most high-end smartphones to shame.

There is a good reason for the two batteries though - projection uses a lot of power and will run it dry in under four hours. However when not using the Beam’s projector the large 2000mAh batteries can each keep the phone going for a day or two without breaking a sweat, which is a big advantage.

Pico projecter

So in most respects the Beam is an average mid-range Android handset, but then it has that one very unusual trick: a built-in pico projector.

Mounted in the top of the phone is a compact projector lens assembly which allows you to display the phone’s screen on any suitable surface. The projector is activated/deactivated by long-pressing a switch on the side (though only when the screen is unlocked so it can’t be accidentally switched on in your pocket).

The Beam’s projector has a qHD resolution (640 x 360) and is rated at a brightness of 15 lumens. As a comparison, a full size projector with 1080p can do 2,000 lumens, so this isn’t going to work as a cheap alternative to a proper home cinema setup.

However, in spite of its size and specification shortcomings the projector’s performance is surprisingly impressive. Samsung reckons you’ll get a maximum picture size of 1.27m before the picture becomes too blurry, but we found that around 1 meter was the sweet-spot. Bear in mind that the bigger the screen, the further back the phone will need to be positioned.

The biggest problem is getting a room that’s dark enough. With only 15 lumens brightness the Beam does not work at all outside, and even indoors it needs a very low level of ambient light to give a usable projection; ideally you’ll want thick curtains sealed at the edges with tape.

Under the right conditions the Beam’s projected picture is good enough to watch a movie, but your enjoyment will depend on how the film was shot. Avatar’s vibrant jungle scenes turned out really well, but gloomier movies like the original Alien fared worse. You will want a set of external speakers for audio though as the Beam’s tinny output is definitely not the best way to enjoy a blockbuster.

There’s a good selection of software tweaks and extras to complement the pico projector. Brightness and rotation can be adjusted, you get a ‘quick pad’ tool which displays a pointer or allows you to draw on the screen and it has an ambient mode to display a slideshow.

One thing Samsung hasn’t done is include any kind of stand or mount to secure the Beam horizontally when projecting, which would have been really useful, but it’s easy to enough to prop it up on a shelf. Enterprising users could surely fashion a more permanent mounting (Kickstarter project perhaps...)

Overall the projection function was a very pleasant surprise. Given its tiny dimension and comparitively meagre specification it performed far better than we would have expected.

Conclusion

There’s always a danger with gimmicks like the Beam projector that they’ll end up being used once or twice to show off, then never switched on again, and the owners end up spending more than they needed to on an unnecessary feature.

The Beam’s projector works well enough that it could be handy for very specific users, with the obvious ones being kids wanting to watch movies on their bedroom wall, and business people who need to the ability to display presentations at a moment’s notice.

If you know that you’ll get some use out of the projector feature, and you have a suitable space, the Beam is well worth considering. There have been no major compromises on the phone side of things either, and battery life is a particular highlight, though because of its projector the Beam’s price is higher than similarly specified handsets which lack the ability to throw a picture on a wall.  

Samsung Galaxy Beam specification and features

Model

Samsung Galaxy Beam

Manufacturer

Samsung

Operating system

Android

Colours

Black

Mobile internet

WiFi

Yes

3G

Yes

HSDPA

Yes

Size

Size

124mm x 64mm x 13mm

Weight

145g

Features

Talktime

9 hrs

Standby

760 hrs

Touchscreen

Yes

QWERTY keyboard

No

Camera

5 megapixel

Video

Yes

GPS

Yes

Bluetooth

Yes

Music Phone

No

FM Radio

Yes

Quad Band

Yes

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