It's not difficult to find a projector to use with your phone, and Motorola's Lapdock can turn some into laptops. But a new product called the LightPad, made by QP Optoelectronics, is the first thing we've seen that does both. The short-range pico projector itself isn't anything unusual, but attached to it is a full-size keyboard and a translucent screen. When flipped up, the screen catches the light from the projector, turning it into a decent facsimile of a laptop. A tiny trackpad lets you use a mouse on the phone but, oddly, not the LightPad screen itself.
The design is extremely simple, with no ports or even trackpad buttons (it's purely tap-to-click), although you can pair a Bluetooth mouse with the phone. The screen isn't particularly bright by laptop standards, but was visible even in the bright lights of the booth. Judging its performance as a projector was more difficult, but the company claims it can get up to 60 inches in ideal conditions, and that the battery lasts for five hours. It's supposed to be out in the US by Q3, and will initially cost around $250. The design needs some work before launch, but it's certainly an interesting take on the laptop phone dock.
1/10