Samsung Memoir cellphone sports a nice camera
— -- Even if you don't carry a fancy smartphone, the phone in your pocket more than likely doubles as a camera. Yet few people shop for a cellphone based on its ability to snap photos.
T-Mobile is touting the imaging capabilities of the Samsung Memoir I've been testing. The recently arrived handset is billed as the first 8-megapixel camera-phone sold in the USA. It retails for $250 with a two-year contract. Sony Ericsson is on its heels with the C905 Cyber-shot 8-megapixel camera-phone — but has yet to announce pricing, release date or carrier.
Many factors contribute to image quality. So the importance of pixel counts is sometimes overrated by marketers. The Memoir, in theory, is in the company of a typical point-and-shoot. But in my view, it's not an ideal substitute.
For a phone, Memoir's camera (which includes video) is first-rate, if at times frustrating. Many pictures I shot were quite good. Memoir has a Xenon flash, white balance and several scene and shooting modes — including continuous, panorama and smile shot. The latter is a feature in which the camera is supposed to snap a picture only when your subject smiles. It worked sometimes, albeit slowly. Good luck getting your kids to pose. The camera's blink detection is supposed to warn you when your subject blinks. Yet I still got squinty pictures.
Shutter lag, in general, is a problem for Memoir, resulting in some out-of-focus action shots.
The camera aside, Memoir is a benchwarmer compared with other touch-screen smartphones, especially when it comes to such basics as e-mail and mobile Web browsing. The touch-screen was hard to master. Barely tapping some icons opens them; on some screens, you have to press and drag with authority to scroll.
Let's zoom in for a closer look:
The camera.
You'd be hard-pressed to even recognize Memoir as a phone, if it's sitting camera-side up. What's visible are the auto-focus lens and flash. "Samsung" and "8.0 megapixels" are plastered on the front. You have to flip it over to see "T-Mobile."
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