Samsung has released something that will make you sit up and take notice – The Galaxy Beam. Samsung is still trying to create a market for projector phone. The first try by Koreans didn’t quite pick up. However, with the latest edition of Galaxy Beam, the world No.1 phone manufacturer does give a slight impression of a learning process that has effectively come to a success.
This is a whole another way of creating a projector smart phone. More importantly, Samsung has ensured that these two work perfectly fine. Although the projector, albeit highly advanced, does add to the size, it still manages to retain the smart phone look. If you want to make sure that your phone looks smarter, then we’d suggest you to look elsewhere. The phone named I8530 effectively ensures to create the impression of a mid-range smart phone that comes with a really enhanced projector. There are a number of reviewers who have completely chucked this device out of the picture owing to the size and mid-range quality. However, the NovaThor chipset along with the Dual-Core CPU ensures to still draw eyeballs.
So, what does the phone really has in it that makes it quite noticeable? Without further ado, here’s the review –
Exterior
The phone fits quite nicely in your palm. However, the projector is a turn-off owing to the extra width. The 4 inch screen has a 16M TFT LED screen. In it, you get a WVGA resolution giving you larger icons and a good reading device. However, don’t get your hopes that high. It’s nowhere close the best in the business. It has a built-in projector on top and VGA camera in the front. The phone comes with a micro-SD card slot and a micro-USB port at the bottom serves as the charging port as well. The phone has a standard 3.5mm audio jack. Although we’d have preferred had the audio jack been on top rather than the side.
Performance
Running this model is an Android 2.3 Gingerbread. We cannot have Gingerbread in 2012. This is simply unacceptable. However, the poor software has been accompanied by an amazing 1GHz Cortex-A9 process, flanked by 768 RAM and a NovaThor U8500 chipset. The software needs an urgent update.
Camera
The camera is pretty decent. The 5 megapixel camera with LED flash enables you to click quality pictures under low-light conditions. If you are thinking about multi-angle shots, then this is the phone you are looking for sure. The camera records videos at 720p at 30fps giving you pretty smooth videos to say the least.
Network
Samsung Galaxy Beam supports Quad-band GSM/EDGE/GPRS. This along with 3G with 14.4 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 HSUPA is quite decent enough to give you a good value for money. The phone supports WiFi and has a built-in GPS receiver along with A-GPS.
Disadvantages
So, everything being said, what are the disadvantages of this phone? The all plastic construction is the first thing that we need to point out. Samsung really needs to make sturdy phones without which, it may disappoint customers who have the money but want quality phones. Another disappointing feature is the feeble speaker along with the NovaThor Chipset.
The last disappointing thing is obviously the size which is absolutely NOT welcome. If you are thinking about getting a slim phone, then look away.
The Galaxy Beam is a good phone with a terrific projector. The mid-range smart phone category is already overcrowded and Samsung’s move to introduce this bulky phone may not give it the result it expects from the market. We, at least, hope for the best nevertheless.