Samsung G800 Review
The world's first phone to offer a 5 megapixel camera with
optical zoom, the G800 sets the benchmark for camera phones.
It's also a beautifully designed slide phone that's fully
equipped with an MP3 player, FM radio, accelerated 3G (HSDPA),
160 Mbytes of internal memory plus a memory card slot, and
Bluetooth wireless connectivity.
Samsung have taken the phone world by storm by announcing at the
end of October the release of the world's first 5 megapixel
camera with optical zoom in a mobile phone. If the plan was to
draw attention away from the release of the iPhone, then this
has certainly done the trick! Launching in the UK on 12th
November 2007, the G800 will be the most advanced camera phone
in the world.
Samsung have pulled off both a technological and design marvel
with the G800. Its closest rivals are the Nokia N95 and Sony
Ericsson K850i, which both have 5 megapixel cameras. But the
G800 trumps them with the introduction of a 3x optical zoom. An
optical zoom is common in dedicated digital cameras, but is very
rare in camera phones, because of size constraints. It enables
the camera lens to zoom into a scene retaining the full 5
megapixel resolution. By contrast, the digital zoom used in the
N95 and K850i (and other camera phones) loses resolution when
zooming. The G800 is also the first Samsung phone to have a real
xenon flash instead of the weaker LCD flashes usually seen in
camera phones. Samsung are one of the key manufacturers of
digital cameras, and they have clearly used their expertise in
the field to create a world beater with the G800. Other new
features that have been imported from the digital camera world
are face detection, and Wide Dynamic Range (WDR). Face detection
detects the presence of a face in a subject and adjusts the
exposure and focus to optimise the appearance of the face.
As you can see from the photos, not only is this the highest
spec camera phone, but it's also a sexy-looking slider that
beats its rivals hands down in terms of looks. It may not be the
slimmest phone around, but it's certainly more compact than the
N95 and is a good size for two-handed camera use. Turn the phone
over and the back is like a real digital camera, complete with a
sliding lens cover. The secret to making such a compact device
is that the optical zoom is an inner zoom, where the lens does
not extend outside the body of the phone.
The G800 also has a new camera Graphical User Interface which
provides the same environment as a digital camera when using the
camera function on the phone. An On Screen Display shows various
camera indicators in a horizontal preview mode. The large 2.4
inch LCD display is ideal for viewing images. There's a built-in
picture editor, and direct printing to a Pictbridge-compatible
printer is supported. High quality video recording is also
available, and a built-in video editor is provided too.
As well as the photographic functions, the G800 incorporates all
of the features seen in previous high-end Samsung phones. The
music player supports all major formats (MP3, AAC, AAC+, 3-AAC+,
WMA formats) and wireless Bluetooth stereo headsets. A stereo FM
radio is also included. The G800 is superbly equipped with
memory too: 160 Mbytes of internal memory is sufficient to hold
around 40 music tracks, and you can expand this with a microSD
memory card.
Connectivity is excellent too, with support for Bluetooth 2.0,
USB 2.0 and TV-Out. Interestingly the G800 is a 3G phone too, in
fact it supports the latest high-speed 3G nicknamed 3.5G.
Specifically, the 3G implementation is 7.2 Mbps HSDPA, which
offers download equivalent to broadband speeds. A web browser is
built-in, and the phone can handle RSS feeds and mobile blogging.
Email with support for attachments is available and a document
viewer can view most common file formats (Word, Excel,
Powerpoint & PDF).
The G800 is an outstanding phone. After a year in which Samsung
appeared to stumble, at the close of 2007 it has launched a
product that sets the standards for the year ahead and is
probably the best phone of the year.
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