LG Expo projector-phone

[woodyear99]

Saw this advertised on tv the other day, finally starting to see projectors coming with everyday devices such as cameras and cellphones. It's too bad that this projector was not integrated into the hardware instead of being an addon.....

http://www.lgexpo.com/

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2356553,00.asp


The new LG Expo projector-phone from AT&T is pretty amazing. While AT&T is billing it as a business device to show dull PowerPoints to rooms full of half-awake middle managers, we know what it's really good for: impromptu viewings of "Transformers II" in the conference room. So that's what we did.

Without its bulky projector pack, the Expo is a relatively slim sliding Windows Mobile 6.5 phone. It has a 1 Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and LG's new S-Class user interface, which touches up Windows Mobile in a manner similar to the HTC TouchFLO and Samsung's TouchWiz.

Much like the HTC and Samsung phones, LG does a decent job hiding Windows Mobile. LG's obsession seems to be with sliding grids or wheels of icons, which the Snapdragon processor handles admirably; the home screen has a sliding icon bar, the main menu has four sliding icon bars, and so forth.

Windows Mobile has made me nervous recently, because I've been testing a bunch of very unstable Windows Mobile phones. The Expo feels fast - one Windows Mobile bullet dodged - but I can't vouch for its stability, and it's the stability issue that really worries me.

The Expo's QWERTY keyboard is excellent, well-spaced and clicky. There's a 5-megapixel camera on the back, but annoyingly no standard headphone jack. But you don't care about that much, do you? You care about the $179 projector attachment.

To snap on the projector, take off the back panel of the phone and replace it with the projector unit. The projector has a sliding lens cover; slide it open and the phone kicks into projector mode. It will project anything - menu screens, videos, whatever you've got stored on the phone or streaming into it. There's a manual focus slider on the side of the projector unit.

We managed to get an image about 120 inches wide that was still readable. The projector, made by TI, didn't seem to be as high-resolution as an Optoma pico-projector we held it up against, but it was plenty bright.

"Transformers II" played smoothly and looked fine. So did still images and documents. Check out our video, below, if you want to see - it looked better in real life.

[Spazosaurus]

Normal smartphones without projectors already suffer from sub-par battery life.

Integrated projectors that draw power from an already taxed power source isnt really the best idea in the world. We not even talking about how weak one of these things really are to be of much practical use in everyday situations.

In short, I smell fail.

[Preston786]

whey this bada$$!!! its cool you could un-mount the projector reduces  the size of the phone ...looks much better than samsungs attempt love that snapdragon proc as well 1Ghz cant wait to test one... but I've learned never to get excited abt Lg cause when u do they let you down .... the last time was with the GD900 aka the Crystal looked great in theory an the hardware was pretty good but the integration was awful....hope this acts better real world....

@ capt'n the batt life shld hold up ah lil bit cuz of the ability to remove the projector... then again more real world testing would tell...

[woodyear99]

Yeah it will only come in handy in a few situations, quality will not be that great either. The technology will improve for sure though, could be an interesting niche market for those looking for tv on the go, quick powerpoint presentations etc.

Lets not forget about improved battery tech, hopefully we will see some drastic improvements in battery life over the next few years.

[TriniXaeno]

I saw this and nearly posted it myself sometime ago. The problems are exactly as already highlighted in this thread.

But like woodyear, I believe  the technology will improve and this is like a promissory note. It won't kick ass in the first generation but by the fourth and fifth, expect phones and projectors to combine just as cameras and phones have already today.

[woodyear99]

Yup convergence will continue, look at how the cellphone has morphed into a camera, music player, pda, internet device etc....will there be anything cellphones can't do in the future hehe.