Samsung M8800 Pixon review-shoot by touch

After the first 8MP camera phone-Sony Ericsson C905 released recently and have been reviewed last week, here’s came another 8MP camera phone hit the market. The M8800 Pixon is the latest camera phone that released by Samsung. Taking the name as Pixon (”pics on”), it is clearly that the Samsung M8800 Pixon is phone dedicated to the camera functionality’s handset. As you’d expect from a top-end Samsung cameraphone, the Samsung Pixon has a huge range of features. Here is the short review of Samsung M8800 Pixon.

Design
The Samsung M8800 Pixon has a dimension of 107.9×54.6×13.8 mm and the weight of 121 g, which is expect to be a bit bulky. But since the Paxon is come with so many features, it is acceptable for such a size. At the front, there is the 3.2″ screen that can display 262,000 colours, which share the same display with the Samsung Omnia. Likewise, the display is touch sensitive and can work with stylus solution. However, the most users will use their fingers instead of stylus to make a selection on the screen. Above the display is the video-call camera, ambient light sensor and the earpiece. Under the display, there are 3 buttons lay on it- the Call and End buttons are on either side of a round button (Back key throughout the interface). If you think that is all for a physical keys on Pixon, then you are wrong because the left side of the Pixon hosts the Shortcuts menu key and the Hold key (for lock and unlock the touchscreen), along with the microSD card slot. And at the right side you will see the dedicated camera key, gallery key and a volume rocker/zoom control. All these are aim the Pixon is ease for use. Turn to Pixon’s back you will see the 8MP camera is lies under an automatic protective cover.

The design of Pixon is no surprising, though the phone still attractive. In general, the Pixon is looks like Samsung Omnia or other huge touchscreen smartphone like iphone, LG Dare or LG KS20. They all seem share the same design-a huge display covered the front. Thus, that is hard to judge which one has a better design. It is somehow depends more on the features that come with the phone to attract people eyes.

Camera
With the 8MP of resolution, you probably expected the camera has come with many features. Indeed, the camera has a variety of features such as face detection, smile detection, blink detection and advanced shake reduction. You’re also able to use geo-tagging and the phone has an auto panorama shot facility. However the Dual Power LED Flash is not quite as powerful as a Xenon flash, but it doesn’t drain the battery as much either. The image quality of Samsung M8800 Pixon is good. It has a very good color accuracy and contrast level but in dark are, you cannot count too much on it due to the LED Flash.

In term of video recording, the camera allows you record full frame video with the Pixon at DVD quality (30fps at 720 x 480), or an incredible 120fps at QVGA picture size. The later enables you to take slow motion pictures at speeds four times slower than real life. The Pixon did a good job in video recording, it is one of the best video camera for a handset.

Music and Video
The music player in Pixon functionality isn’t has much differences compared to other Samsung devices. You can sort your tracks by author, album, and genre. Beside, you also can create your own custom playlists. There are a number of sound effects available when playing a track. From surround, dynamic sound and the usual equalizers (rock, jazz etc.), it’s all there with Samsung M8800 Pixon. And of course, the player is support for MP3, AAC, e-AAC+, e-AAC+, WMA, and enhanced by Samsung’s Digital Natural Sound engine (DNSe).

The video player is another noteworthy application. The large screen is perfect for a movie and since the phone supports DivX and XviD file formats, there should be plenty of compatible files to enjoy. It can play video files in fullscreen landscape mode and you can fast-forward and rewind videos. You can also rewind or fast forward your videos. And thanks to the TV-Out socket, videos and pictures can be viewed on your TV.

Samsung M8800 Pixon features an FM radio with RDS, which will display the station name on one row and the additional information on the other. This is not new anymore but worth to have in a FM radio.

Connectivity
In general, Samsung M8800 Pixon supports all the major connectivity and network. It can be widely in use in most of the countries in the world since it support GSM Quad band. You can use the 3G with HSDPA and GPRS for browsing internet on the go. EDGE is also present as a handy back-up for browsing in areas where 3G network is missing. The USB and Bluetooth connectivity also included in this phone so you can easily connect with other devices such as other handset and computers. However the significant disadvantage on Pixon connectivity is lacks of Wi-Fi. I don’t know why Samsung excluded this feature in a high-end phone like Pixon.

Final Words
Well, all I have to say is the Samsung M8800 Pixon no doubt is an excellent cameraphone, and that is! Yes, I can hardly tell you what other great features in Pixon beside the 8MP camera. Samsung seems takes Pixon as a genuine challenger to Sony Ericsson’s CyberShot brand of camera phones, and so are using all their digital camera experience to create this phone. So, the Pixon is highly recommended to those photography lovers.