CES brings us the latest and best technology aimed at consumers, every year. The conference also brings us a boatload of weird new tech that leaves us scratching our heads. ZTE is one of the companies this year, making us ask what the heck is going on. Today they announced a new projector that doubles as a 4G LTE hotspot. It’s called the, you guessed it, Projector Hotspot. Very original.
The projector portion has 1080p input support and can project a 1080p DLP beam up to 120-inches in size onto surfaces that are nearby. It also has HDMI and Wi-Fi support. The LTE hotspot portion is pretty straightforward. It provides a wireless hotspot connection for up to 8 devices at once. Now your devices can have internet access at the same time that they are projecting video or images onto a screen.
The part of the Projector Hotspot that is actually kind of cool is that it runs stock Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and has a built-in 4-inch touchscreen. You can use the touchscreen to interact with the Projector Hotspot just like you would any Android smartphone or tablet. Anything that you are viewing on the 4-inch screen can be projected. The touchscreen has a display resolution of 800 x 480. Now you can play Angry Birds or read emails on a 120-inch screen if you want. Pretty cool, right? ZTE hopes you think so.
ZTE is positioning the Projector Hotspot at businesses as well as consumers. The business applications seem pretty obvious. Personal uses could include projecting videos or photos with family members or friends at a dinner party or similar gathering. The unit measures about 5 x 5 inches and weighs less than a pound so it’s easy to carry with you. It also comes packed with a 5,000 mAh battery for those times when you are not near a wall charger, as well as a headset jack for audio output. ZTE is planning to release the Projector Hotspot in the U.S. sometime in 2014. They have not released pricing or information about potential wireless carrier partnerships here in the States.