Samsung's i8520 Beam packs an in-built projector

By on Feb 15, 2010 at 12:50 PM
General February 15, 2010

samsung-i8520

Although we fear the only people who will buy a phone with a projector built into it are the same jackasses people who bring laser pointers into movie theaters, we have to admit the Samsung i8520 Beam is pretty darn cool considering the DLP Pico projector is actually built into the device and not some crappy add-on. But of course, no novelty feature can help a phone’s sales if the rest of it isn’t up to snuff, though it looks like the i8520 has enough packed into its 14.9mm thin frame to get the geek juices flowing:  a 3.7″ WVGA Super AMOLED display, 8 megapixel camera with auto-focus and flash, aGPS, Wi-Fi, DNLA, 7.2Mbps up HSDPA (900/1900/2100MHz), 16GB of internal memory, 512MB ROM / 384MB RAM and an 1800 mAh battery that is said to yield 7 hours and 50 minutes of 3G talk time. OS wise, the i8520 is running Android 2.1 with “Specialized Projector UI”, something which is identical to the bada interface. No word yet on what processor we’re dealing with, although we have fired off an email to Samsung PR. The Samsung i8520 Beam will be available in Europe and Asia starting in Q3.

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31 Comments

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  • BxK

    First

    • Jon

      AHHA. BGR,
      do you honestly think this will actually project on a movie theater screen?

  • Rang3r

    Looks good

  • bob

    wow…. this phone sounds amazing!!! who cares about battery life :P

    Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone).

  • Jimbo

    Necessary?

  • Reed

    And the point of a projector built into the phone. Showing this off to people won’t get you “oh that is sweet! I’d use it all the time.” You probably get more of, “what and idiot…some people will pay for anything.”

    I honestly don’t see a purpose for this….i mean seriously…a projector….

  • George

    Shouldn’t it be “built-in” instead of “in-built”?

  • Henning

    And it has a LOT of Market Apps…

  • SKINNI

    THERES NO TRUE NECCESITY FOR IT ANY MORE THAN THERE IS FOR A CAMERA ON A PHONE. OR BEING ABLE TO PLAY MUSIC OR VIDEOS ON A PHONE. OR MAKE UR VOICE SOUND LIKE T-PAIN ON A PHONE. OR GO ON THE INTERNET ON A PHONE.

    YEA A PHONE IS FOR MAKING CALLS BUT EVERYBODY ENJOYS ALL THE EXTRAS LIKE THOSE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF USELESS APPS ON ITUNES SO WHY IS THIS SUCH A BAD THING. UNLESS U HAVE A 99CENT CLAMSHELL PHONE WITH MONOCHROME SCREEN ITS NO DIFFERENT THAN U USING A PHONE FOR FACEBOOK WHEN U CLEARLY SHOULD BE USING A COMPUTER LIKE U FEEL PEOPLE SHOULD USE A TELEVISION FOR VIDEO

    • ~phel

      quit yelling….

      • NoHypeHere

        When does “strongly emphasizing” a viewpoint end and “yelling” begin in the blog/posting/typing world? And does one have to agree with the viewpoint to determine the meaning?

        If it were protestors protesting President Bush and the War, Democrats would call them Patriotic Antagonizers, but if those same protestors protesting President Obama, Congress and Health Care, they would now be called Teabaggers and unAmerican agitators!

      • ~phel

        Typing in all caps has always been net etiquette for yelling. If one wanted to stronly emphasize their view point they would use italics or only cap lock certain phrases…

      • Geez

        What do your political views have to do with a projector phone?!

    • Geez

      Who let my dad in here!

  • Greg

    projector has a lot of possibilities! for instance, showing a powerpoint lecture and studying with a group!

  • Risky

    something tells me Engadget is probably the only blog that got invited to MWC.
    where’s the MeeGo, Motorola Quench, Vivaz/X10 Mini/X10 Mini Pro stories?

    Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone).

  • Hey!

    Yeah, people asking “Why?” obviously have jobs that involve Polo-style shirts and plastic name tags and the only thing you all ever need to present is a tray with burgers and fries on it.

    Or maybe I want to play Bejeweled on a wall? How about that? What the fuck do any of you care anyway?

    Otherwise, I have no use for a projector and don’t care about this phone… but I’m not going to question necessity. Makes sense to me.

  • http://(null) Dallas

    Samsung

  • Electro

    Seriously, lets face it. All we want a pico projector for is to display streaming video on the ceiling in a dark bedroom.

    Get your mind out of the gutter, I don’t mean THAT kind of video.

    Regardless of the projector, the device sounds badass and has lot of juice. Definitely not the slimmest phone, but if it can do anything, who cares?!

    Oh, and BGR; I heard from another source that this phone has a front-facing VGA camera, and it looks like you can see it in the picture above on the top right corner of the phone.

    • ~phel

      Being a Samsung touchscreen phone it’s probably the sensor for when you have the phone against your face it doesn’t engage anything on the touchscreen.

      • Electro

        Doubtful, it’s a bit too big to be a proximity / ambient light sensor, just the right size for a VGA camera.

  • http://www.fullchipdesign.com fcd@fullchipdesign.com

    first phone with projector.

  • L.G

    wow! amazing!

  • StevenGlansburg

    It’s be alright if it had Android 2.1 and was called the Droid and on Verizon because that is the only phone worth speaking of.

  • NoHypeHere

    I like the casing design and color… I wonder if it will have problems of stress cracks at the corners?

  • Justin

    Can we please get something other than that iPhone OS look for the main menu. It’s literally the same.

  • Kirk

    Looks good except for the Android part.

  • boomKABOOM

    This is #1 for any one who wantches movies/TV shows on his phone!
    I can sit with friends and watch LOST with them, or go over a video from UNI! This may be my next phone.

  • IQ

    amazing, and after a lot of time some innovation in handset. Everybody else is just trying to become an iPhone. Look at microsft launched phone. there is absolutely nothing innovative in that phone that makes me throw away my existing phone and buy that one. With this samsung machine i am sure world will go step further in technology and innovation. Thanks to samsung engineers.

  • Wesley

    I want this right now!

  • NGK

    it is a novel idea. However, I’m sure only 1% will actually use for productivity, whilst the 99% of users will probably stream youtube and show their friends. To each his own.
    But…I could see watching a movie in a car/plane trip stored on the internal 16gb. Nice idea.

    And to whomever says “who needs this?” No one. But then again, who actually NEEDS an Ipad?

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