zte booth

There were a lot of great things at the 2015 International CES. That said, these great things were more or less scattered throughout the entire convention. A few things here, a few things there. However, the most interesting booth, as a whole, was the ZTE booth.1 The Chinese company bucked the trend of mobile device manufacturers waiting to make their big reveals at MWC. We told you about their newest flagship device, the ZTE Star 2, yesterday but that was far from the only thing that ZTE unveiled at CES. They were also showing off an awesome new smart projector, the Spro 2:

spro2 controler

The Spro 2, for lack of a better description, is badass. This is not some normal projector. The touchscreen Spro 2 is powered by Android, giving it the ability to run apps without any input. What’s more, it also includes a built in hotspot:

Unlike any other smart projector, its touch screen interface utilizes Android and provides full access to the Google Play store. The Spro 2 streams media content via Google Play apps, micro SD card, USB stick or via HDMI cable or WiFi connections for devices such as game consoles or laptops.2

On top of the robust functionality, it projects an awesome picture quality:

SPRO2

 

The new Spro 2 is the first smart projector to feature auto focus and auto keystone. The projector has an excellent short throw ratio, a native resolution of 1280 x 720 and projects HD images up to 120-inches with a brightness of 200 lumens. As a mobile hotspot, the Spro 2 supports eight devices via 4G LTE networks.3

The Spro 2 also packs a 6300 mAh battery, giving it enough power to project these HD images for up to 3 hours. While there was no official price given, the Spro 1 currently retails for $399. Thus, it seems safe to assume that the Spro 2 will fall well short of $1000, an probably settle somewhere between $500-900. Also, although there is not an official release date, it is expected to hit the shelves of the major U.S. wireless retailers sometime in the first quarter of this year. Here is a quick hands-on walk through of the new Spro 2:

  1. Before we get into the Spro 2, I want to preface this discussion. CES is full of wild and futuristic products. A great majority of these will never be available for the average consumer. Sure an 8K TV is awesome, but it is far from realistic to think that the average consumer will ever get their hands on one. That is why we liked the ZTE booth so much. They were showing of a ton of great new products. Products that are either available right now, or will be available in the coming months. Further, these products carry price-points that the average consumer should have no problem with. Unlike a $100,000 8K TV.  ▲
  2. ZTE News, “ZTE reveals next generation smart projector, Spro 2, at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show,” 6 January 2014  ▲
  3. Ibid  ▲