14 DAY TRIAL // Lenovo is busy hosting its first Lenovo Tech World conference in Beijing these days, and naturally, the tech giant has taken the opportunity to unveil a few new products.
We have already told you about Lenovo’s new budget but powerful laptops, the Z41 and Z51, but the company has also announced an interesting smartphone, called the Lenovo Smart Cast (as seen at Pocket-Lint).
Now, you might remember the Yoga Tablet 2 Pro that we reviewed not so long ago. Apart from the slate being a 13.3-inch monster, there was another key aspect that differentiated it from other products on the market: there was a pico projector built into the right side of the device, which allowed it to project WVGA (854 x 480) resolution pictures of up to 50 inches in size on any surface of choice.
Lenovo puts a pico projector inside a phone
Well, it appears Lenovo has grown pretty fond of pico projectors, so at their conference in Asia, the company has unveiled the first laser projection smartphone, called the Smart Cast.
As in the case of the tablet, Lenovo has incorporated a pico projector inside the machine along with a gesture-based control system.
But the smartphone projector works a little bit differently than on the tablet. Users of the Smart Case will be able to turn any surface into either a touchscreen or a virtual keyboard.
The handset is the first to integrate a focus-free laser projector, while the current standard takes advantage of DLP (digital light processing) tech.
So in addition to being able to project an image on the wall, in the traditional way, the Smart Case offers another mode of use, called “surface mode.” Here you are required to twist the projector cap at the top (in order to enable reflection) and prop the phone in a kickstand in order to have a projected keyboard appear in front of you.
The keyboard can act either as a piano or a virtual keyboard for users to type on or even Fruit Ninja. Apart from the pico projector aspect, nothing is known about the Lenovo Smart Cast, so detailed specifications are still a mystery.
We have no idea when Lenovo plans to bring this phone to the market, but while we wait, check out the video below to see the Smart Cast in action.
