Samsung I8520

We first got our mitts on the Samsung Beam I8520 (codename Halo, no, not that Halo) at the Barcelona-based Mobile World Congress in February. We finally got to spend some quality time with the device in our Labs. Bear in mind that this is still an early prototype with the radios disabled, so we weren't about to test certain features. That said, we still managed to get a pretty good idea of the capabilities of the phone's onboard projector.

Design
The Beam may be chunky compared with the Galaxy S which we previewed recently, but the fact that Samsung managed to keep it relatively slim at 14.9mm after cramming in a projector is no mean feat. Most of the front is taken up by the 3.7-inch WVGA Super AMOLED display. The Menu and Back keys are touch-sensitive, while the center Enter button is a physical one. Above the display is where you find a front-facing camera for video calls.

The Menu and Back keys are touch-sensitive, while the center Enter button is a physical one.

The usual array of controls is littered on the two sides of the phone. You have the volume switch, camera shutter, power and an unlabelled key. There's also a 3.5mm audio jack near the top of the right edge and a micro-USB port on the opposite side. The projector sits recessed, fortunately since there's no protective cover for the lens, on the top. A tiny dial is just around the corner next to it, and is used to adjust the focus of the projection. A sliding door would be good here to protect the lens.

Around the back is an 8-megapixel camera with built-in flash. Like most of the current Samsung phones, a lattice pattern design is used for the rear cover. We were concerned about it breaking when we were trying to pry off the cover to access the microSD card slot beneath.

A lattice pattern design is used for the rear cover.

Features

The highlight of the Beam is obviously the built-in projector by Texas Instruments and, boy, we were impressed. Even given our brightly lit office cubicle, we were able to watch the demo videos from a distance of about an arm's length. When we played the projector in a small meeting room where it was dimmer, the image quality was notably better and simply blew the Nikon Coolpix S1000pj away in a side-by-side test.

Video projection at our brightly lit office cubicle.

Video projection (PowerPoint presentation) in a small meeting room.

Video projection (video) in a small meeting room.

Granted these are very different devices, but both have pico projectors built-in for more or less the same reasons. The camera was no match in all areas, from the sharpness to brightness and resolution of the projection. Our initial concerns about text readability were also unfounded after we loaded Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations. While the size of the projection was smaller when looking at documents in portrait mode compared with when we were watching video clips in landscape orientation, we were still able to read the text without having to squint. The effectiveness of the built-in projector, we reckon, would be ideal for small meeting groups. We don't know what accessories will be bundled with the Beam, but if we had our way, a mini tripod with flexible legs would be top of the list.

The main menu for the projector.

The user interface of the project is straightforward with eight generous square buttons. Tapping on the Projector icon activates the beamer, while Images, Videos and Documents are simply file browsers. You can also access the Alarm function from this menu. Quick Pad lets you scribble short notes on the screen, although we didn't find an option to save our random thoughts. What's interesting is the Visual Presenter which lets you project what the camera sees.

The Beam runs on Android 2.1 with a TouchWiz overlay for the interface. There are multiple home screens where you can place widgets and application shortcuts, while the main menu is fully customizable. The Daily Briefing application combines weather, finance and news updates, scheduler and emails into one aggregated view. The Write and Go feature which we saw on the Galaxy S is also on the Beam. This lets you type something, then choose to send it as a text message, email, or status update on Facebook and Twitter.

Other features of the Beam include HSDPA 7.2Mbps/HSUPA 5.76Mbps data connectivity speeds, an 8-megapixel autofocus camera with flash, which also records 720p movies at 30fps, Assisted-GPS, Wi-Fi, DLNA and Bluetooth. Talktime is rated for up to 14 hours with standby time at slightly over 26 days on the 1,800mAh battery.

Outlook
While the Beam will probably cater to a niche market, at least the built-in projector isn't a dud. In fact, we were quite impressed with what we'd seen so far. According to Samsung, the Beam will be available in Europe this quarter. Sadly,there's no word on when or if the phone will ever rollout to Asia Pacific.