Review – Living with the Samsung Galaxy Camera

There was a time when any budding, amateur photographer was required to drag around a copious amount of weighty kit in order to capture that one moment of magic.

But advances in smartphone technology have had a quite dramatic effect on how most of us take photographs. As the old adage goes, the best camera is the one you have with you, and such is the symbiotic relationship we have with our mobile devices that we’re now never more than an arms length away from our phones at any time.  Plus the cameras on the higher end models are about as good as most people will ever need, so does this spell the end for compact cameras?

Well, Samsung doesn’t think so.

The Galaxy Camera is a curious beast that they’ve brought to the table, with features that make it more akin to our precious phones than a classic camera. On the front you’ll find a nice big lens that can zoom out to 21x magnification (try that on your iPhone), there are also traditional controls for the zoom, a shutter button, and even a neat pop-up flash for those darker moments.  Flipping the unit around shows where the phone influence comes in. A 4.8″ touchscreen covers the entire back, and switching the camera on reveals a fully functional version on Android 4.1 running inside. This means that you can use the camera as you would a smartphone (albeit without making calls). Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, and all the other normal candidates can be installed, all controlled via the large touchscreen which is clear and responsive. So now, in theory, you can take photos with your snazzy big camera and still post them up on Instagram or back them up to Dropbox, without the need for plugging the device into your computer. Truly these are the days of wonder.

Well, they would be if the camera in question was really good. But sadly the Samsung Galaxy camera is only around average in the photo stakes. This is disappointing as I like the idea. Having a bigger lens, wider frame of view, and that all important zoom offers up plenty of opportunities for more impressive compositions than the standard smartphone fare. Indeed, after only a few minutes with the Galaxy Camera you realise how useful a superzoom is for capturing more candid, natural shots of people rather than the posed efforts phones often produce. The connectivity is also a fantastic feature as you can shoot away, upload your images, and then be clear to carry on for more without the hassle of clearing SD cards.

The problem is that there are quite a few compromises to carrying a device like this, and the results need to make them acceptable. First off it’s a bit heavy and certainly won’t be slipping into the pocket of your jeans anytime soon. The unit’s bulky design also makes using the screen for anything other than a quick selection of modes somewhat cumbersome. Moving between the apps themselves can also be frustratingly slow, which is something you never really think of with a camera where you just want to pick up and shoot. No viewfinder is a shame, especially when shooting outside in bright sunlight, although it must be said that the screen is still quite viewable so Samsung have done well there.  In the end though the images captured with the Galaxy just didn’t make all the disadvantages worth contending with. Subjects were often soft or noisy, the light balance could be a little off at times, and colours weren’t always accurate. Don’t get me wrong, the camera is decent, and there is a full manual mode with which you could take greater control of these issues, but it doesn’t feel much better than my iPhone 4S, or even my trusty old Sony W5 digital compact.

Here’s a few examples shots from the Galaxy Camera –

 

As you can see the Galaxy Camera is a good device that can capture some interesting images, but when you factor in the price of around £400 then it becomes hard to recommend. At the moment is feels very much like a first generation device. The concept I’m a big fan of, and given time and some hardware upgrades this type of camera could well become an incredibly attractive proposition. It’s early days though and the folks at Samsung have got a lot of work to do. I hope they’re up for it.

 

 

 

Living with the HTC One SV

With Samsung currently dominating the Android market for phones, it can be easy to forget that not so long ago HTC were the big kids on the block. With models like the Legend and Desire the Taiwanese manufacturer quickly made fans of UK Android users, including myself who toted a Desire for couple of years. That phone was lovely to hold, had a great screen, but quickly succumbed to the paltry amount of internal memory. This left me having to avoid updates to large apps such as Facebook and Google Maps, while always having to juggle which app I could consider using in case it filled up the usable storage. Subsequent Android system updates that allowed some apps to be moved to the SD card was a welcome relief, but of course all the big ones didn’t offer this convenience. By the end of my contract I was glad to jump ship to iOS where the memory/storage issues didn’t cause the same headaches.

During my absence Android has quietly continued to refine its innards, becoming the dominant operating system on the mobile platform. It’s also resolved many of the issues that caused me anguish in the earlier days, so much so that I find my eyes wandering back to the greener side of the fence. It was with interest then that I took delivery of the new HTC One SV, a mid-range Android phone that seems a cut above some of the cheap and nasty devices I’ve come across in this area.

In the hand, a rather important aspect for a device you’ll be holding all the time, the SV is a slim, light and comfortable handset to use. Its gently contoured back and grippy plastic casing means you don’t have the constant subliminal tension that your handset is going to leap from your grasp at any given moment, which is always nice. Perhaps one of the things that aids this sensation of inertia is that HTC has eschewed the current trend of hilariously large screens and instead fitted a 4.3” one to the SV. I must admit that I’ve yet to use a 5” screen that I didn’t find cumbersome, but this size seems almost like the perfect compromise between pocket and eye friendly design. It’s big enough to make me look at my iPhone 4S with a sense of inadequacy, but small enough to mostly navigate with one hand. Downloading the new Google keyboard helped in this fashion as the swipe feature (entering text by dragging your finger from key to key rather than hitting individual letters) meant that typing was also accurate and felt like a little game every time I wrote a text message.

The screen itself is also a respectable effort. It’s not quite up there with the retina displays of the world, and you can see jagged edges to text, but its perfectly usable and the size means apps look clean and clear, with bright colours. The HTC Sense 4+ skin is still one of the better adaptations available, but as usual I dropped it quickly in favour of the Go Launcher which I used to customise my layout. This really is something you forget about on iOS, just how easy it is to completely change the look and feel of your device on Android. Within ten minutes I’d personalised the entire UI, and I could change it back again with a couple of quick swipes. Brilliant. All this fiddling didn’t seem to bog down the SV, as the handset was snappy and responsive throughout the time I spent with it. One regret is that the version of Android running on here is 4.1.2, but that’s not surprising when previously premium models like the Samsung Galaxy S3 are still awaiting their upgrade to 4.2.2. The SV does have a standout feature though, that of 4G compatibility. For those lucky enough to live in the rarified areas of the UK that offer this provision of fast mobile data this will be a tempting offer. Of course the handset can do nothing about the prices that EE charge for access to the mobile superway, the monthly payments for which I imagine they must be collect via a masked man on horseback waving a loaded flintlock pistol at the terrified customer.

Sadly the camera is nothing more than average on the SV. Images are lacking definition, somewhat washed out, and not always properly focussed. I say sadly because otherwise this is a very alluring handset. Many times I had my iPhone 4S and the SV sitting on the table and I’d find myself reaching for the HTC, and not just because I was reviewing it. I’m in love with the screen size, the light weight, and the possibilities that Android offer for tuning a UI to your particular preference.

The SV delivers on many levels as a workhorse handset, and if you only occasionally use the camera on your phone then I can’t see why you’d need to spend a lot more on a device. Those who want all the newest features that Android have to offer will be better suited with the Nexus 4, HTC One, or Samsung GS4, but if you just want a really good handset that’s pleasing to use and offers you a micro SD slot to store all your music on, then you wouldn’t go far wrong with the HTC SV.

The 80s called. They want their mobile phones back.

Size, it seems, matters.

At the end of last week Samsung announced the latest in their range of amusingly large mobile handsets – The 6.3 inch Galaxy Mega. 6.3 inches…so finally we’ve returned to the era in technology when phones are larger than Smurfs. Oh, the humanity…or smurfanity.

I’ve seen the Samsung Note 2 out in the wild a few times and have always thought that its 5.5 inch screen looked pretty ridiculous. Now it has a bigger brother. Where will it end? Are we only a flexible glass display away from a 21st Century version of the Nintendo Power Glove?

The future…breath it in.

 

Now of course I realise that a screen that size can be very useful for watching videos, typing long words, and converting into a makeshift Bivouac should you find yourself lost in the forest as the darkness closes in. As a mobile device that you hold up to your face in public and make phone calls with it seems less than optimum.

There’s the fact that at the end of your two year contract you’ll resemble one of the creatures from the last levels of Resident Evil. One arm will be enormous and muscled due to the repeated task of lifting an electronic surfboard up to your face for extended periods of time, while the other apendage will seem listless and withered in comparison.

You may find yourself worshipped by easily impressed people who see a halo-like ethereal light around your face thanks to your wide girthed phone of choice. Of course some would say this could be a plus.

Probably the most serious problem though is that you’ll just look very, very silly talking into a glowing cereal box while walking down the street.

It’s a strange thing that as we increase the size of devices that are meant to, theoretically, fit in our pockets we’re actually shrinking the dimensions of devices that we do some proper work on. The iPad has started a trend towards tablets as many people’s computer of choice, and now offers a smaller version which is selling rather well. Microsoft seem to view the future in terms of PC/tablet hybrids, with its Surface division deciding that the 10-inch mark is enough for most people to be productive. Of course if you’re older like me, and find your eyes a little less eagle-like than they used to be, then you’re going to be doing a lot of squinting in the technological years ahead.

 

It does feel curious that when the mobile phone first appeared it was a huge device that looked, well, stupid, and was a bugger to put in your pocket. Now, a few decades later we’re in need of spacious trousers if we want to keep up with the times.

Of course I’m somewhat biased as I have an iPhone 4S which is fast becoming the Smart Car of mobile phones. Frankly its a wonder that I haven’t lost it under a speck of dust or had it slip through the stitching in my pocket. The thing is it’s actually a very nice size. I can operate it with one hand – which is something I do a lot with a phone as I’m usually moving around while using it – and it reaches from my ear to my mouth, so phone calls are quite achievable. Granted, after using a HTC One X for a while recently I could see how Youtube was much better on the larger screen, but other than that I’m lost for why we need something as big as the Samsung Mega.

Time will tell if the age of gargantuphones will be a long one, or whether we’ll be talking to our watches and glasses in the next few years. Either way I think I’ll stick with something small, as I’m already struggling enough to fit into my trousers these days.

What do you think? Am I missing the point? Is a huge phone actually really useful? I’m genuinely intrigued and open to persuasion, as I just don’t get this whole trend. Let me know your experiences and how these devices can be a good or bad thing in the comments below.