Today LG launched another salvo in the war against giant ugly televisions with the announcement of the ProBeam laser projector. It's rare to find a projector this bright that's small enough to hold in one hand — and this one runs webOS. Unlike most projectors, LG's ProBeam HF80J is long-and-tall instead of short-and-wide, and looks like it stepped off an art deco boardwalk. Better yet, it's rated at 2,000 lumens which is bright enough to be used during the day in most living room setups. But at just 2.1kg (4.6 pounds), it's small enough to take anywhere.

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This projector is smart

Best of all, webOS makes this projector smart. While we normally turn our noses up at smart televisions, smart projectors let you take this giant display anywhere. I've taken my Android-powered projector to the beach and rooftop after-parties, for example, where I streamed Netflix and live football games over Wi-Fi or via a tether to my smartphone. And my projector's only capable of 700 lumens -- not 2,000 like the LG.

The ProBeam includes something called "Sound Sync Adjustment" for pairing with Bluetooth speakers or headphones which hopefully helps it avoid the lag sometimes introduced by wireless audio. And its wide-ranging keystone corrections mean you can project a perfect parallelogram even when placed at extreme angles from the wall or screen.

LG hasn't provided a price or date of availability yet but we should learn more at the big CES tech show starting the first week of January.