Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, 'beam' phone unveiled
Samsung kicked off its Mobile World Congress presence by revealing two new devices this morning: a larger 10.1-inch version of the Galaxy Tab 2 Android tablet, and the intriguing/baffling Galaxy Beam, an Android smartphone with a built-in projector.
Given Samsung鈥檚 propensity to delivering tablets of many different sizes, the聽larger Galaxy Tab 2聽doesn鈥檛 come as much as a surprise.聽, on the other hand, is a bit of a head scratcher.
The Beam is a traditional Android smartphone, aside from the projector aspect. It has a 4-inch display, a 1 gigahertz dual-core processor, and runs Android 2.3. Honestly, it sounds like a phone that would have been announced last year, not something that Samsung would save for the biggest mobile event of 2012.
But the Galaxy Beam鈥檚 real claim to fame is its powerful built-in projector, which Samsung says can project HD up to 50-inches wide at 15 lumens. You鈥檒l be able to project photos, videos, and games using a special Samsung app. Like聽, the Beam appears to be a very niche device, but it鈥檚 the first step towards Samsung bringing projectors to its future mainstream devices (it鈥檇 certainly be a nice addition to next year鈥檚 Galaxy S lineup).
The 10.1-inch version of the Galaxy Tab 2 is clearly Samsung鈥檚 volley to stay competitive with the iPad 3, which could be announced as soon as next week. It sports a 1280 by 800 10.1-inch display, Android 3.0, and 1 gigabyte of RAM. It鈥檚 only 9.7 millimeters thick and will come in 16 gigabyte and 32GB varieties.
Samsung is also expected to announce a 10-inch version of the Galaxy Note this week, so it鈥檒l be interesting to see how it fits into the company鈥檚 tablet lineup. I聽, but the S Pen stylus has a lot of potential in larger screens. It鈥檚 certainly one way for Samsung to stay a step ahead of the iPad 3.
