Graham
on
The trend continues! Samsung has announced their very own super-shooter, the Samsung Galaxy Camera. We really need a name for these things–I’m thinking we’re going to follow smartphones and go with smart camera. That may be a bit too long though... smartcam it is!
As a smart cam the Galaxy Camera has an Android-based operating system; it leapfrogs most of the Android smartphones out there by shipping with the very latest Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system. What does that mean? Well, think of it like a super-powered smartphone without the phone component stuck on; it will connect with Wi-Fi networks (including hotspots shared from your phone or tablet) and will run apps from the Google Play store. On top of that, it beats pretty much every smartphone out there by adding a big 21x optical zoom lens and a 16MP camera. The actual hardware is pretty powerful - it has a 1.4GHz quad-core processor, 8GB of built-in storage, a microSD slot (so you can pack a huge memory card in there) and a 1650mAh battery. A massive 4.77" touchscreen on the back dwarfs the LCD on most available devices. To say that I want one is an understatement of the first degree.
Here’s the kicker... it’s going to come in Wi-Fi, 3G, and 4G... and it also has a microphone and a speaker. Is it possible that this could be the first phone-camera with serious guts?
The big deal, of course, is apps. Cameras are powerful right now, but I don’t think anyone would argue that they’re smart. Each brand has a different software approach, and I don’t think anyone is doing a particularly good job at interface design. The addition of Android gives camera manufacturers more time to focus on how you’ll use the camera, as opposed to building the software foundation to make it work. In short: it’s a very exciting time in the pocket camera space.
