Despite the trend towards larger phone screens, they’re still quite small in absolute terms.
So why not stuff a projector into your phone and take a big screen everywhere?
That’s exactly what happened in 2009, but the idea never caught on.
Samsung
Why Put a Projector In a Phone?
You couldwatch movieson the hotel room ceiling or work on spreadsheets without bringing yourlaptopalong.
Two key examples are 2009’sSamsung ShowandLG eXpo.
The Show produced a 10-lumen480x320 image at up to 50-inches in size.
The eXpo cast a 6-lumen 40-inch image at the same resolution.
Why Don’t We Have Projectors In Phones Today?
As a big-brand, mainstream phone design however, projector phones have effectively dropped off the map.
Why didn’t these phones become more popular?
There are probably lots of reasons, but there are two obvious ones.
This brings us to the second problem.
Although these phones are undeniably cool, who are they for?
The number of people who need a projector in a smartphone surely represents a tiny niche.
So we don’t expect that Galaxy Beams were flying off the shelves.
It’s also worth mentioning that the actual projected images weren’t that great.
It really was a technology a little ahead of its time.
Could Phones With Projectors Return?
So could we see a return of projector phones, except this time they’re really good?
We saw this happen withVR technology, so why not with these phones?
For personal viewing, this is better than a pico projector in almost every way.
