Samsung Beam i8520 deals & review

In a word or two

The Samsung Beam i8520 is a bright smartphone with a projector onboard.

The Design

The most striking visual feature of the Samsung Beam i8520 is its 3.7 inch Super AMOLED screen. Like the screen on the new Wave handset, this capacitive screen is so vibrant it really impresses you. The display is colourful, clear and rich, and reacts like lightening to your finger presses and swipes. You can pinch the screen between two fingers to zoom in on an image thanks to the support for multi-touch, and to help keep the touchscreen pristine it has a scratch-resistant covering.

The screen dominates the front of the Beam although there is a navigation key beneath it for quickly launching the menu. As you would expect from a high-end handset, there is an accelerometer sensor inbuilt to automatically rotate the screen when you turn the phone from portrait to landscape.

Considering there is a pico projector onboard, the Samsung Beam i8520 is not that bulky and the projector is neatly integrated into the top of the phone. The all-black exterior lends a look of business smartness to the phone.

Specifications

The pico projector inbuilt on the Samsung Beam i8520 lets you display an image on a surface up to 50 inches wide and in 720p high definition. As well as projecting saved images the camera is capable of displaying what it is currently viewing, so you can frame something and project it at the same time. This is a fun feature but could also be used for work purposes. For example, in a meeting, you could hold the camera over a file and project it onto the wall so everyone can see it. Although the display is not super sharp in all light conditions, in a darkened environment you can see it clearly.

The projector is not the only notable feature of the Beam, though; you’ll be pleased to read. The handset is run on the latest Android OS (2.1) and so comes full of plenty of Google apps and functions. The friendly TouchWiz UI ensures the visual experience is colourful and navigation easy. You can decorate the home screens with apps like YouTube, Gmail, Google Maps, Facebook and Twitter – with access to the Android Market, there should be no shortage of choice. And the internal memory (an impressive 16GB) can be expanded to up to 32GB via a memory card.

You can take photos and make videos with relative ease on the Samsung Beam i8520. The 8-megapixel camera is enhanced by an array of functions like geo-tagging, blink and smile detection, and an LED flash. There is a secondary camera too for making video calls. To keep you aurally entertained, the DNSe (Digital Natural Sound Engine) technology means the sound quality of the music player and FM radio is accurate and decent.

Considerations

Factors including price are still to be confirmed – this review will be updated soon.

Verdict

The Samsung Beam i8520 promises to be a vibrant, responsive and friendly handset with a fun as well as purposeful nature. The addition of the pico projector gives you an extra way to share your world with friends and colleagues, although the image quality is not as good as the screen.