By
Udit Chaudhuri
As a tech enthusiast and
marketer, one often has to tackle a moot question: ‘Is this product a be-all
for one or all-things-for-everyone?’ If the former, it means the product does a
lot in a well-researched niche. If the latter, it’s a flop. Or, back to basics
as in our Painware
story. While the Beam in Samsung’s Galaxy seems to focus on a certain type of
customer and need, does it face the hazards of line extension?
With the advent of
high-performance opto-electronics, a number of cell-phones offered the
projection features a couple of years ago. Certainly those made sense to see a
larger image and at a comfortable distance, better than banging heads over a
tiny screen with friends sharing a slide or video. Though a great time-killer,
the concept proved impractical even for a small meeting, quizzing - where is
the surface to project? Besides, the intensity was poor at 6 or 9 lumens at
best, needing total darkness for clarity.
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Consequently, increasing
screen resolutions, larger panel sizes of Dell, iPad and Samsung tablets gave
sharper, brighter and larger images that made it practical to watch or share a
video over a length of time. New-generation Smartphones stand square here. The
bevy of ports lets them all receive a variety of inputs, even HD movies, but
projection is mostly via a PC; Bluetooth in few models. After all, a tablet or Smartphone
is meant to be a personal communicator, entertainer and quick-work station.
However, presentation is increasingly becoming a need for the smart worker on
the move and a projector is still a burden to carry or an obligation to seek.
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The Samsung Galaxy Beam,
a huge improvement from its predecessor in the Samsung Beam launched in 2010, now
features a 15 lumen display, dual-core processing at 1 GHz, 8 GB of built-in
storage, and 768 MB of RAM. It runs on the Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating
system and is powered by a 2000 mAh of storage battery. Those lumens would also
mean a high lux level and perhaps in total darkness, the Galaxy Beam will be
able to project an HD video to a width of 50 inches (as large as a wide-screen
TV) at its proportionate distance.
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neat!
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