Samsung M8800 Pixon

The camera phone is evolving and becoming ever more popular. Camera phones are being equipped with more and more features to improve picture quality; no more is the mobile phone a simple converged device. The new 8 megapixel phones are now serious contenders as a replacement for your standard digital camera, and of the current range of 8 megapixel phones the Samsung M8800 Pixon looks as though it promises to be one of the best available - if not the best.

The Samsung Pixon is a true imaging monster. Aside from what is nowadays the expected auto-focus, the Pixon supports image stabilisation, has a face detector, smile detector and even a blink detector! With the large 3.2 inch touch screen, all camera features are easily accessible, presented well onscreen via bright icons, and simply selected by pressing on the required icon. If there is one extra included on this camera phone that is a disappointment, it is the inclusion of LED flash instead of a real Xenon flash.

When you take a picture with the Pixon, you can also add geotagging information to the captured image thanks to built in GPS support. Geotagging is an option that is gaining popularity among camera phone users; with this information, it is possible to show the location of where a picture was taken. This info can then be utilised by mapping software, such as Google Maps, allowing people to view your photos and see the location where the photo was taken. At this point, we take a few points away from the Pixon, because the built in GPS can only be used for geotagging. There is no option to utilise the GPS for SatNav operation.

Aside from still image capture, the M8800 has superior video capture options available. Videos can be recorded in Widescreen VGA mode, at 30fps, and also capture video at QVGA resolution, 120fps for slow motion playback. The Pixon supports TV OUT, so all videos and pictures on the phone can also be viewed on a compatible television, by simply plugging in the TV OUT cable.

The Samsung Pixon comes with exceptional media qualities; the music player will play back MP3, AAC, AAC+ and WMA files, whilst the video player will play back Windows Media videos, MP4 files, Xvid and DivX files. All videos can be viewed in widescreen automatically simply by rotating the phone on its side, thanks to the built in accelerometer.

The menu system found on the handset is the same as that found on the excellent Samsung Tocco. The menu icons are well laid out, bright and colourful, and selection is a simple as touching the screen. An improvement has been made over the Tocco, with regards to data entry. As well as a standard 9 key keypad appearing on screen, offering multi tap and T9 text entry, you can rotate the phone to landscape mode to select a QWERTY keypad and there is also support for handwriting recognition. A stylus is provided with the handset for this, but annoyingly there is no place for it to be stored in the handset, it needs to be attached to the phone via a lanyard. This is disappointing, but the QWERTY text entry and standard keypad are actually quite good, amongst the best available on a touch screen phone, so if like me you don’t like things dangling from your phone, it is not so drastic.

Apart from the standard menu layout the Pixon also has the brilliant Widget menu view also found on the Tocco. With Widget view selected, a row of icons can be found located down the left hand side of the phone screen; simply run your finger down the screen to scroll through the available widgets. Once you have found the widget you are looking for, press, hold, and drag the icon onto the main screen. This way you can keep the screen populated with the applications you want. When you have finished using these applications, simply press, hold, and drag n drop them back onto the widget bar. What I like about this is you can drag the network name from the main screen and drop it into the widget bar, so, if you have a particularly nice picture you are using as wallpaper on the phone, you can move the network name out of the way. The widget bar itself can be hidden by touching the arrow at the bottom.

There are many widgets available, offering shortcuts to the clock, for setting an alarm, to the radio, to the music player or to the internet web browser. When browsing the web, pages can be viewed in landscape mode automatically thanks to the accelerometer feature.

The Samsung Pixon has good connectivity options, as well as support for Quad Band GSM, 3G connectivity is also included, boosted by support for HSDPA Mobile Broadband, supporting speeds up to 7.2 Mbps. The Pixon has a mini USB connector, for connecting to a PC via data cable, and has Bluetooth 2.0, which can also be used for wireless audio streaming. 

There is plenty of memory available, with 200MB on the phone and support for 8GB Micro SD cards, offering plenty of storage space for pictures, videos and a good selection of music.

Overall the Samsung M8800 Pixon is loaded with features. From the excellent high quality camera, through the visually excellent TouchWiz interface, to the many additional options available, the Pixon is currently a handset in high demand.

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