Samsung Galaxy Beam review

Samsung handily supplies buyers with a spare 2000mAh battery plus a stand-alone battery charger, meaning you never technically have to plug in the handset itself.

Holding the home soft key will bring up recent apps and the task manager, so you can keep on top of battery-draining apps that might be running away in the background.

As for quoted talk time, Samsung reckon up to eight hours on 3G. We'd say it's about right: we found it to have better battery life than most smartphones, when using heavily and keeping Wi-Fi on a good three or four hours a day. A nightly charge would do the trick without any topping up in between.

Battery life was obviously heavily impacted by using the projector - we're talking a few hours of use if you're watching movies or chucking out presentations. This is to be expected and keeping the spare topped up was an easy way to keep you smartphoned up on the go - although if you're bringing this to keep you entertained while camping you might need a few more power packs.

Connectivity

The micro USB serves as the main mode of connectivity and the charge port for the Samsung Galaxy Beam. Using drag-and-drop methods on the PC you can simultaneously charge and update your files.

We couldn't get the Beam to connect to a mac for some reason, even after downloading Android file transfer software for Mac. For whatever reason, the computer entirely refused to acknowledge it. Connecting to a PC was easy though: plug in and you're away.

There's a DLNA for wireless sharing and the Beam is easily turned into a Wi-Fi hotspot by digging into the Wireless and Network settings. Connecting is easy, but there won't be any awards won for speed by connecting this way.