Samsung Pixon M8800

The Pixon has evolved from the successful F480 mobile phone and rather than being a simple cosmetic overhaul, this is a significant upgrade to the camera (8 MegaPixel) and the touch operating system. So much so that the Pixon will most likely spawn an entire range of similarly equipped handsets in the future.

Samsung Pixon embeds a 3.2-inch TFT touchscreen, supporting 262k colors and featuring accelerometer sensor. The colors displayed on the screen are well-balanced, contrast is very good and brightness can be set to any desired level. Moreover, it's perfectly visible in the sunlight, which is a wonder for a Samsung device, but we're talking about a high-end phone after all, so it should have been pretty obvious. I was very happy to find that the phone featured the Haptic technology, so the feedback when using the touchscreen is cool to experience.

Furthermore, the haptic feedback is very responsive and realistic, so touching a key displayed on the screen is like actually pressing it. The haptic feedback can be turned off/on from the Settings menu. The only drawback I noticed was a little lag when the accelerometer sensor is activated and the screen is turned in landscape mode, but I'm sure this will be corrected in the final version.

The 8 Megapixel camera features flash, autofocus, anti-shake digital image stabilization and geotagging support. It has some protective lens cover that opens when the camera button is pressed. I was disappointed by the LED flash, as I expected Samsung to include a Xenon flash. Consequently, don't bother to make night pictures, unless you are really close to the subject.

The maximum resolution of the pictures is 3264 x 2448 pixels, while movies can be recorded using a maximum resolution of 720x480 pixels. Camera interface is like nothing you are used to, and more user-friendly than with any other Samsung device. You are always 1 or 2 clicks on the touchscreen away from any setting or function of it. Even if it's just a sample version of the product, quality of the pictures is exceptionally good. The shots included below reveal astonishing pictures that cannot be compared with those taken with any other phone on the market that has less than an 8 Megapixel camera. The module camera doesn't lag, while the phone saves pictures extremely fast, even when the maximum resolution is used. You can easily take pictures in portrait or in landscape mode.

The phone can record QVGA movies at 30fps with no problem, and is one of the best clip recorders on the market. Another cool option is the Slow motion function, which enables the device to capture QVGA slow motion movies at 120fps. Unfortunately, this function doesn't work well with this sample device, but it's a very nice addition to the camera.

The Pixon’s Assisted GPS feature will not only guide you to your destination but also allow geo-tagging of your pictures, something which will start to become more popular when it’s finally integrated into social networking websites. Even before this time, the geo-tag makes a great addition to pictures taken on a holiday or for work-related situations. Another smart feature is the accelerometer which as well as rotating the screen automatically, works well with the photo album, where a simple tilt of the handset sees the pictures scroll across the screen accordingly.

Feature:

• 8 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash and lens protection
• Camera geo-tagging, auto-panorama shot, face, smile and blink detection, digital image stabilization
• 3.2" 256K-color TFT LCD touchscreen display of WQVGA resolution
• WVGA video recording at 30fps
• Quad-band GSM support
• 3G with HSDPA support
• Slimmest 8MP phone
• GPS receiver
• FM radio with RDS
• Bluetooth and USB v2.0
• microSD card slot
• DivX, XviD and MP4 video player
• SRS (Surround Sound System) Virtual 5.1CH
• TV out functionality
• 200 MB internal memory
• Landscape on-screen virtual QWERTY keyboard
• Accelerometer sensor
• Multitasking
• Office document viewer
• ShoZu integration (direct image and video uploads)

Disadvantages:

• Stylus as dongle only, no stylus compartment
• No Wi-Fi, GPS for geotagging only
• Camera performance well below Samsung i8510 INNOV8 standard
• No smart dialing