Samsung Galaxy Camera: First Look

So I’ve been wanting to tell you about this marvellous little toy for a little while, but between one thing and another I’ve not been able to.

I’m going to assume you know a bit about this thing to begin with, as you’ve probably stumbled across some facts and stats on one of the techie websites. In case you haven’t, a few important things you should know.

The Galaxy Camera is an extension of Samsung’s drive to make the technology we use regularly ‘Smart’. They have given us the Smart Phone and Smart TV, as well as some (slightly less but still impressively) Smart Appliances. The camera is the next to get an upgrade.

Cameras already do certain things well, but what they don’t do is make life easy when it comes to putting pictures on your PC and ultimately, as so many of us do now, sharing them online. The other thing which is so limited on the majority of ‘dumb’ cameras is editing. Editing of pictures is not an area I’m going to touch on heavily, but simply put, imagine having the image editing capabilities you have on your phone (the ready made packages like instagram through to more bespoke tools) but being able to apply those things to pictures of the quality from a higher end digital camera. It’s strikingly obvious and a mouthwatering proposition. I’d also say Samsung are one of the best placed tech companies to deliver this well as one of the emerging players in the camera world and the biggest player in the Android ecosystem (and the mobile phone world as a whole at the moment). The likes of Sony probably have what it takes to compete, but the simple fact is that as of today, every other digital camera manufacturer is playing catch-up.

So that’s the basics and how this thing is a bit different..

The Galaxy Camera has been out for a couple of weeks now and when I got my hands on one the first thing I did was take it out of the box. Now we’ve been through this exciting process before. I tend to be in a situation where a couple of things are happening. The first is that I am opening a box, which has limited excitement unless you are actually doing it yourself the second thing is I tend to be drinking beer. This occasion is no different…

Unopened, beer on the go. Let’s be sensible a man has to have his priorities in order…

Samsung Galaxy Camera dans la boîte. (That’s ‘in the box’, foreign language fans!)

The expected collection of wires and plugs and cords. Except they are white! SHINY… kind of.

Samsung Galaxy Camera, no longer in the box. Things are hotting up.

 

So, some pictures and ting. (Threw that in for the more ‘street’ among us, blogging 101 that, connect with your audience!) If you click on them you can see the pictures in mega-big-o-vision. Same goes for any picture actually, I guess that’s probably more beneficial when you want to check out some of my test shots below.

What’s In The Box?

You get a Galaxy Camera and as far as I’m aware it’s only available in White. (I have to admit, it’s striking and I’d recognise it in anyone’s hands if I saw one, but I wouldn’t be sad if a black version were to hit the shops).

You also get a charging lead which like the vast majority of phones is micro USB, which makes life easy when it comes to having chargers strategically placed around the house/office (unless you have an iPhone). It also comes with a useful wrist cord and perhaps most strikingly a ‘3’ sim card, which comes pre-loaded with 1GB of internet access which you can use over the first 30 days before the sim reverts to the standard pay as you go approach.

Using The Galaxy Camera

Perhaps first of all, you should know that until now, I’ve never owned a digital camera except one which is attached to a mobile phone. I’ve never been hugely into photography because I am far to vain and in reality I prefer to be in pictures than taking them…

Exhibit A

Yes, that is a picture of me chasing my nephew around the living room. It was taken on the Galaxy Camera, by my sister (his mum), with very little regard for image quality and on the ‘Auto’ setting. In case you’re wondering, he’s ridiculously cute and I am a very proud uncle who would post pictures of him all over the interwebs. But I’m not sure his mum would approve…

Sod it, she will probably never read this (my family are so supportive) and if this doesn’t melt your heart then you are made of rocks.

Shortly after I told a hilarious joke… Or made a fart noise… Probably.

So, anyway, on to the matter in hand.

If you own, or have owned an Android phone the Galaxy Camera will feel very familiar. The interface is exactly the same as that on the Galaxy S3, assuming you have upgraded to Jelly Bean that is. Apart from looks, the devices are so similar, it is actually easier to point out the differences. Which are as follows: –

• The Galaxy Camera has 21x optical zoom (better than the majority of digital cameras available today)
• Although the Galaxy Camera can send text messages (and of course multimedia messages) there is no phone function. Skype may be a possible solution if you are in a fix though.
• Some Android software isn’t available for the Galaxy Camera, primarily due to how new it is.
• The Galaxy Camera is a camera and is sized as such.
• That’s pretty much it!

There are some other little things, but finding them out is all part of the joy of playing with it!

As it’s just a first look and I’ve rambled on like a nutter, I’ll save boring you with pictures and comparisons for another day. So I will finish off by saying that this thing is pretty amazing, it really can offer so much and the following are just a few of the test shots I have taken.

Sunset. Taken from the IKEA restaurant in Southampton. Using ‘Sunset Mode’.

Fireworks… It’s that time of year! At Alresford Bonfire Night. Using ‘Fireworks Mode’.

Pool Balls @ University of Winchester. ‘Auto Mode’

Ted. ‘Auto Mode’.

Charlie with a Galaxy Camera. ‘Auto Mode’.

I am a Samsung Mob!ler. Details of what this means can be found on the ‘Mob!ler’ website.

The rather impressive lovechild of the Samsung Galaxy Note and Galaxy SIII

Samsung Galaxy Note II

So I am doing something a little unusual for this blog, not so much a review, as a preview! Although the fact I had a rare night out on Saturday means I haven’t managed to post this before the Note II made it into the shops. When I got to play with this thing there were apparently only 6 in the country and they were being guarded for secrecy. I would venture to guess that there are rather more of them now!

Anyway, this must be a pretty special phone given that they asked me and a handful of other bloggers to come up to London and have a poke around with it. Samsung also sent one of their trainers to talk us through all of the different aspects of the phone, which puts me in the unusual position of actually being relatively well qualified to write about something!

First of all, looks. Well it’s big like a Galaxy Note, but has the styling of the Galaxy SIII. That pretty much covers it and in case you want to know how all that pans out, I have a picture… This is the grey version and the phone is also available in white: –

Galaxy SIII and Galaxy Note II, side by side. As I was using my own SIII to take the picture you’ll have to excuse the phone with the cracked screen! Not my doing!

Now if you want to be bored with facts and figures about the Note 2 I am sure there are a million techie websites, phone shops and the like which will provide you with all the minutiae regarding the exact size of the camera aperture the manufacturing process used to create the sim card holder. However, I can offer a few little comparisons, I will use the Galaxy SIII, Galaxy Note and iPhone 5 for this purpose…

	Galaxy Note II	Galaxy SIII	Galaxy Note	iPhone 5
Size	80.5 x 151.1 x 9.4mm	70.6 x 136.6 x 8.6mm	82.95 x 146.85 x 9.65mm	58.6 x 123.8 x 7.6 mm
Weight	182.5g	133g	178g	112g
OS	Android 4.1 (Jellybean)	Android 4.0 (ICS)	Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)	iOS 6
Processor	1.6GHz Quad	1.4GHz Quad	1.4GHz Dual	1.2GHz Dual
Display	140.9mm (5.56”) HD Super AMOLED (1,280 x 720)	127mm (4.8”) HD Super AMOLED (1,280 x 720)	132mm (5.29″) HD Super AMOLED (1,280 x 800)	102mm (4”) Retina Display (1,136 x 640)
Network	3G HSPA+ 4G LTE	3G HSPA+	3G HSPA+	3G HSPA+ 4G LTE
Camera	8MP rear 1.9MP front	8MP rear 1.9MP front	8MP rear 2MP front	8MP rear 1.2MP front

As you can see, at first glance other than the difference in Operating System and any preferences there, the Galaxy Note II roundly trounces the competition in almost every area.

But stepping quickly away from the boring facts which I promised I wouldn’t dwell on, it’s probably better to focus on the Note II’s unique selling points or ‘usp’s.

The main distinguishing feature about the Galaxy Note range (whether it’s the Note II or the other recent addition to the range the Note 10.1 Tablet) is that it comes with a stylus (called the S Pen by Samsung). The stylus is nothing new, with palm-tops of old sporting a the exact same, but in today’s world where the touchscreen is common and on-screen keyboards are second nature, the stylus has disappeared.

Using the ‘S Pen’.

Samsung think that this is a bad thing and that productivity can be increased with the inclusion of a little electronic pen. It’s actually no bad thing.

First of all, you don’t have to use it if you don’t want to. Secondly, it’s pretty intuitive. For example, the phone/stylus can recognise when they are in close proximity even if they don’t touch. This opens up features such as the ability to scroll simply by hovering the stylus at the top or bottom of a page.

The real function of the pen has never changed though and that is to write notes and such like using your own writing rather than having to fiddle around with an on-screen keyboard.

There is an obvious downside to the Note II for some. Its size. It’s a big phone, or a very small tablet depending on how you look at it. Samsung are desperate to bridge the phone/tablet divide with this device and its massive screen is fantastic for everyday tasks. The downside is that it is a pocket/handbag filler. In reality I see this device as a great tool as a business/business-person’s phone. It will increase productivity and make life very easy. It will also do a fantastic job of whiling away the time on the train, with its big screen allowing you to watch films in HD quality.

Samsung are also very into Gesture controls lately and have been pretty innovative. The new top end TVs allow you to use voice and gestures, while the Galaxy SIII has a range of these which help out. A personal favourite is the ability to put a phone to your head when looking at a text and automatically calling that person. It gently eases the process between reading a text saying ‘I slept with your best friend’ and phoning your mum and asking what the hell she’s playing at! (My mum didn’t do that by the way, in case you’re wondering). There’s all the things you’re used to from the Galaxy SIII, but in terms of features unique to the Note II there are the following gesture controls and the like which make using this phone a more enjoyable experience: –

• Air View – Hovering the stylus over a video will give you a ‘pop out’ enlarged version of the video which will play allowing you to decide if it’s really the one you want to click on. The same feature allows you to see the content in a text or e-mail before opening or scroll to the right place in a video.
• Popup Note – Taking the S Pen out during a call will allow you to make a quick note.
• Quick Command – A cross between S voice and writing! Just write @dave to send Dave an e-mail. There are a number of little commands like this for those who feel like a bit of a pleb talking to their phone!
• Alarm control – Hover your hand over your phone when the alarm goes off and it will beep at you and snooze.
• You can also do all the normal handwriting of notes and creative bits like drawing which a stylus makes possible.

The Note II is a powerful piece of kit and a phone I’d love to get my hands on. I don’t know if I’d replace my SIII with it, purely because of size, but for work and on the go, or if I am feeling more creative it’s a great solution, particularly if you don’t want to be carrying around a phone and a tablet.

I am a Samsung Mob!ler. Details of what this means can be found on the ‘Mob!ler’ website.