The new Sony Xperia Touch is very cool. You watch this tiny 720p laser projector in action, and even when it bugs out and doesn’t immediately respond to your every fat fingered press it’s still so neat you’re almost inclined to not care. But I have no idea who is going to buy this €1600 device. That’s nearly $1700 at current exchange rates...for an Android laser projector.
The Xperia Touch runs on Android so when the home screen splashes across a wall, table, or a large friend in a white shirt, you’ll immediately know what you’re looking at. Interacting with the projections feels natural, though, the infrared sensors that handle reading the input from your fingers are also very finicky. So you can’t just point it at a wall or table and expect magic.
Also you have to be mindful of the surfaces you’re touching. If the projector is throwing images on your wall all day and your kids are using it all day you could wind up with a lot fingerprints on your pristine surfaces when you turn the projector off.
Worse, the Touch only lasts an hour on a charge.
So it’s, on the one hand, a very neat futuristic toy. On the other hand, it’s a $1700 laser projector that can only do 720p.
Also, it’s only available in Europe for the time being and has no expected release date in the US.