More Megapixels, Lower Quality Due from Samsung

— -- The megapixel war has soldiered through to the cell phone market, as Samsung is rumored to be releasing a 12-megapixel camera phone at the 2009 Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona.

The Mobile World Congress site does not describe what Samsung plans to show off in a few weeks. Without a solid description or company announcement, there isn't much information available aside from speculation and Samsung's apparent tendency to bloat its products with more megapixels than necessary.

It's been said before and now: more megapixels do not mean higher quality pictures. This is a misrepresentation created by camera companies and perpetuated by the public. As PC World discussed almost three years ago, quality depends on the make of the camera. I wouldn't expect a dinky cell phone to take gorgeous shots, so actually 12-megapixel cell phone shots will be heavily digitized and suck up a lot of storage space.