Samsung Beam i8520 Review
In brief
Projecting your social and work life onto the big screen, the Samsung Beam i8520 has a pico projector alongside other high-spec abilities inbuilt.
Look and Feel
The Samsung Beam i8520 is a tall and fairly thick smartphone – but is has a very good reason for its relatively large frame: it has a pico projector onboard. The phone is still comfortable to hold and use, narrower than the likes of the
iPhone, for example. The clarity and responsiveness of the 3.7 inch screen improve the user experience and you can certainly enjoy the Beam as you would any other smartphone.
With a Super AMOLED screen and capacitive technology, you can interact in quick time and bright colour when you use the Samsung Beam i8520. There is support for multi-touch so zooming can be done by just pinching the screen, and an accelerometer function for changing the view from portrait to landscape as you physically turn the handset.
Special features
Run on the Android 2.1 platform and with the TouchWiz interface, the
Samsung Beam i8520 is enjoyable to use – helped by the powerful internal 800MHz processor. If you like visual entertainment, the Beam is perfect for you. There is an 8-megapixel camera that is capable of capturing quality images, even when it’s dark thanks to its LED flash; or your subjects are being difficult thanks to its face, blink and smile detection. You can film videos too as well as stream them using the YouTube app.
If you want to see an image larger than possible on the 3.7 inch screen, simply use the inbuilt pico projector which is able to display images up to 50 inches wide. The definition is not as high as on the AMOLED screen but it is in 720p definition, and if the location is dark enough the projection is clear enough. A good feature of the projector is it lets you project what you are viewing on the camera – your dog being comical or your latest painting, whatever it may be – when you hold the camera over your subject.
Projector aside, the Samsung Beam i8520 has plenty of alternative features to keep you busy. There is social networking integration onboard so you can effortlessly keep up with all your friends, and the good connection ensures a fast internet experience. As well as apps like
Google Talk for instant messaging and Facebook for social networking, you have access to the Android Market for plenty more features to add to your phone.
In addition to online communication, the Beam supports text and multimedia messages, and push email which forwards all your emails onto your mobile, once you have set your accounts up, for instant notification.
The Samsung Beam i8520 is a well designed smartphone with many features from social networking to music player alongside a pico projector for viewing your images. Visually, the screen is fantastic and the projector adds a new dimension to your viewing pleasure.