At CES 2021 today, Asus revealed its latest ZenBeam Latte, and it’s kind of cute. It is a handheld movie projector that looks like a mini-robot of sorts, one-eyed, fabric-covered.
Crucially, using up to 300 lumens of LED light, it fires out its 720p image, making it brighter than capsule projectors that we’ve seen from Anker, and it has an integrated 10W Harman Kardon-tuned speaker system to boot.
Weirdly, Asus insists that a coffee cup looks like his projector.
Not that it does. It’s not the right shape (just watch the video!), and why would gray instead of a glorious brown be a “homey” coffee cup (Asus’ word)? Asus also says that it is “the first projector to offer an exterior of fabric,” which is clearly misleading.
Of course, since it just dispenses light and sound, you should not drink Asus’ latte. However, your phone or HDMI system can be designed wirelessly.
So consider this, gadget designers, a chance to create a coffee cup that Asus didn’t.
Just make sure it lasts longer than a movie, from a 6,000mAh battery, Asus quotes three hours, and gets bright enough to build a decent-sized screen.
Asus says that when positioned one meter from the wall, 80 inches at two meters, and a maximum of 120 inches, this one can create a 40-inch image (presumably at three meters). Don’t expect a projector of 300 lumens to be really bright at nine feet apart, though.
Asus says that in the second quarter of the year it’s coming to the US, but there’s no news on pricing.