Companies try everything to sell you their phones. Sometimes a new function works, but sometimes not at all. In this episode of failed smartphone trends: the smartphone with a built-in projector…
The smartphone with built-in projector
The idea is not that crazy. You’re sitting comfortably at the campsite, the sun is setting and you feel like watching a movie. You don’t have a television with you, but that doesn’t matter. You simply grab your smartphone with built-in projector and watch your favorite comedy on the side of your caravan. Or a video that you shot yourself earlier that day.
That was roughly the concept behind the Samsung Galaxy Beam, which appeared in 2012. Samsung tried it before in 2009 with the Samsung Show and LG released the LG eXPo in the same year. In 2019, the exotic Blackview Max 1 was released, which also promised a cinema in your pocket.
Yet there is a good chance that you have never seen a smartphone with a built-in projector. Although it sounds pretty cool in theory, practice turned out to be a lot more difficult. The Samsung Galaxy Beam had a light output of about 15 lumens. For comparison: an average, normal projector produces at least 1500 lumens. Sometimes even 4000.
Many consumers were very disappointed once they saw the Galaxy Beam in action. It was still possible to look at it in a pitch-dark environment, but even a little bit of ambient light caused the image to become extremely pale.
In addition, videos projected with the Galaxy Beam had a resolution of only 640 by 360 pixels. That is even less than an old-fashioned DVD. The images were not very sharp.
Practical objections
A projector with a high light output becomes extremely hot. ‘Real’ projectors are therefore quite large and often have built-in fans to cool them. Of course, a smartphone cannot compete with that. It is simply impossible to fit a full-fledged projector into such a compact device.
In addition, smartphone screens have become a lot larger since 2012. Many people are happy to watch a movie on their phone or, if necessary, a tablet. We don’t see the smartphone with a built-in projector returning anytime soon.
Read the latest news:
Source: www.androidplanet.nl
