MWC 2016: ZTE Spro Plus is a laser-enabled smart projector that doubles as a tablet

ZTE Spro Plus, the successor of the portable smart projector Spro 2, was unveiled by the company at the MWC 2016 in Barcelona — this time in a much bigger form. The smart projector turns into a full-fledged tablet with an Android-powered touch screen equipped with 4G LTE hotspot or Wi-Fi and a whopping battery pack.

The device promises to cast images up to 80in wide on your wall/white screen from a distance of about 3ft, with a 720p resolution. It features an 8.4in AMOLED display with 2560 x 1600 pixels with a WXGA projector, claimed to project images through lasers instead of LEDs at 500 lumens, which the company says is the ideal luminescence for broad daylight or a darkened room. This is starkly different from the Spro 2, which used an LED lamp.

As for sound the device itself can produce it using a JBL-developed audio system played through a pair of 4-watt speakers. It runs on 3GB of RAM. It comes pre-installed with Android's 6.0 Marshmallow OS and access to the Google Play Store. This means all Google Play supported streaming services like Netflix can be downloaded into this tablet and projected for your convenience when desired.

The Spro Plus will come equipped with either Wi-Fi or 4G LTE for connectivity. While the Wi-Fi model will run on a Snapdragon 801 chipset with a quad-core Krait 400 processor and Adreno 330 GPU, the LTE-enabled projector will be powered by a Snapdragon 625 chip, a quad-core Cortex-A53 processor and Adreno 506 GPU. Both will sport 3GB of RAM. As it also has 32GB of internal memory plus a MicroSD card expansion slot of 128GB, you can also store your favourite movies, series, documentaries for viewing later at leisure.

The highlight of the device is clearly the 12,100mAh battery, which as per specification means on a single charge it can last for at least a day on medium usage. There are many such portable projectors in the market but most of them require to be connected to a power source or only last for a couple of presentations if they have a battery. The price for the device has not been disclosed yet.

Sony also launched a projector at the MWC 2016 called the Xperia Projector, which claims to respond to touch, voice and gestures. But unlike the Spro Plus, it does not have a screen of its own and needs to be connected to a smartphone.