LG brings US first pico projector phone

Come December, AT&T subscribers can get a smartphone that's able to project slideshows, Web pages and video onto a wall.

The LG eXpo will be out on December 7 for $200 with a two-year AT&T service contract and mail-in rebate. An attachable pico projector from Texas Instruments, capable of projecting photos, videos and documents, costs an extra $180. Projection distance is eight feet, creating a display size of up to 40 inches.

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The eXpo itself has a 1 GHz processor (also a first for the United States), a 3.2-inch touch screen, a 5-megapixel camera and a MicroSD slot. It runs Windows Mobile 6.5, which wouldn't be that exciting on its own, but with Microsoft Office applications, it's the right choice for this phone when combined with the projector. The business sector should love running Powerpoint presentations and Excel spreadsheets through the projector while cutting down on extra accessories.

Though LG doesn't provide measurements on the projector, it does look a bit bulky, perhaps doubling the thickness of the phone and giving it an odd shape. It's certainly not something you'd want to carry around if there was no chance of using the projector, but it looks like you could fit the whole package in your pocket.

LG's not the first company to fuse a projector with a smartphone. Earlier this year, Samsung unveiled the Show, which was supposed to be released internationally over the summer. I can only findĀ a $980 unlocked version online, and it's listed as "coming soon." That's too bad, because the Show, also called the i7410, fits all the projection technology into the phone itself, making it more convenient than the eXpo.

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I like the projector-on-a-phone idea, and it might be neat to see it trickle down to more consumer-oriented phones in the future. That, or we need more smartphones with video output.

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