Tuesday, September 2, 2008

First in the world cellphone with built-in projector




News about concept GSM phones with projectors inside was around for a while; however, there was no information about how soon these concepts will turn into serial models. Well, Chinese manufacturers are first to introduce this idea into life. First cell phone with built-in projector is already being sold, and its parameters are quite interesting.

This Chinese marvel is named Epoq EGP-PP01, and it is first cell phone in the world with built-in projector. Its characteristics are amazing for its small sizes: it can produce image in VGA resolution (640 x 480)! This was made possible by using miniature LCoS projector, and a very bright LED as a source of light. Maximum distance from phone to the projected surface is 762 mm, or 30 inches. Built-in battery will last for nearly 3 hours when projector is working, which is enough for presentation or movies. Thanks to the USB port, gadget can be connected to DVD player, laptop or PC, to project information that phone cannot read by itself. It can show video and photo without any external help, so it can be useful when you want to show your new photos and videos to some friends or colleagues.

Apart from the amazing projecting ability, phone also has touchscreen (as almost any new Chinese phone does today), camera, 0.5 Watt dynamics and a very familiar interface, that was fully copied from the world's most famous smartphone - iPhone. Not sure, would Apple sue manufacturers of this device for stealing their intellectual property, but if this phone will be sold only inside the country there will be no problems for Epoq at all. They tried to experiment with the phone buttons like many other Chinese phone manufacturers, placing them in a strange unfamiliar pattern - in three rows. Nevertheless, getting familiar with this button placement it is only a matter of time.

Not sure, will this idea of placing projectors inside cell phones be successful, but this interesting gadget deserves some attention. Maybe tomorrow these mobile projectors will be as common as cell phone cameras nowadays? In any case, you can touch to the future now for 550 dollars.



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