This is not the first smartphone to feature a pico projector built-in but the Samsung Beam i8520 is the world's first Android smartphone to have one.  Unveiled and demoed at the recently Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the new Beam has all the superlative cutting edge attributes that just might bring it to the top of the food chain.

Using an 800 MHz processor running the latest Android 2.1 Éclair OS with TouchWiz UI, the Beam had been codenamed Halo which has been the subject of product leaks and rumors for some time before it got finally confirmed at the MWC.  Many may find pico projection just a passing fad but for salesmen on the move, lugging your presentation materials in your pocket for the next client call is always a welcome respite.

Unbeatable Features Up Close

For starters, its pico projector boasts a 6 lumens projection brightness that is good enough to throw a 50-inch image when projecting.  It is powered by separately by a Texas Instruments DLP chipset with WideVGA resolution that also powered the Samsung Show, the world's first smartphone with the same feature.

But even without this singularly unique feature, the Beams simply trumps the competition with a 3.7-inch Super AMOLED wide VGA capacitive touchscreen with multitouch and 16 million colors, accelerometer and a scratch resistant surface.  This gets surpassed only by a handful with 4-inch displays or over some of which only have 64k or 256k color support.

The superlatives continue with unmatched imaging prowess starting with an 8 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, geo tagging and face/smile/blink detection. On top of that, you get high definition 720p video recording at a movie grade 30fps.  You can count on your fingers a few handsets with 8 megapixel camera and those with 720p video recording. There's the Sony Ericsson Vivaz that has both but it only records at 24fps.

Other Upscale Features

It's a 3G phone on the tri-band UMTS with HSDPA/HSUPA data bearer connectivity and a quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE on the 2G network. It has WiFi 802.11/b/g/n with DLNA for hotspot surfing as well as Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP and microUSB 2.0 for local data transfers. There's SatNav functionality with a built-in A-GPS receiver.

Multimedia begins with capable media playback for all the popular media content files formats including DivX and Xvid video, stereo FM ratio with RDS and DNSe for stereo widening and surround sound effects.  It ends with stereo listening options on either wired headset form its 3.5mm headphone jack or wireless A2DP stereo earphones.

The Samsung Beam i8520 has a generous 15 GB internal storage with 512 MB ROM and 384 MB RAM expandable to 32 GB from its microSD slot.  It has what is possibly the longest talk time at 14 hours and standby time of 630 hours from its 1800 mAh li-ion battery when fully charged, thanks in part to its power-efficient super AMOLED display.

Battery consumption could easily double while using its pico projector but there's no data to confirm this. The demo at the MWC didn't seem to have this as a problem.

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