Samsung W880 AMOLED 12M (review written by Cristian_R)
Samsung W880 AMOLED 12M
Technical Specifications:
| GENERAL | 2G Network | GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900 |
|---|---|---|
| CDMA2000 800 / 1700 | ||
| 3G Network | HSDPA 2100 | |
| 1xEV-DO 800 / 1700 | ||
| Announced | 2009, September | |
| Status | Available. Released 2009, October |
| SIZE | Dimensions | 115.8 x 56.9 x 16.3 mm |
|---|---|---|
| Weight | 145 g |
| DISPLAY | Type | AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors |
|---|---|---|
| Size | 480 x 800 pixels, 3.3 inches | |
| - TouchWiz v2.0 UI - Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate - Proximity sensor for auto turn-off |
| SOUND | Alert types | Vibration; Downloadable polyphonic, MP3, WAV ringtones |
|---|---|---|
| Speakerphone | Yes | |
| - Call recording |
| MEMORY | Phonebook | Yes, Photo call |
|---|---|---|
| Call records | Yes | |
| Internal | 4 GB storage | |
| Card slot | microSD, up to 32GB, buy memory |
| DATA | GPRS | Class 12 (4+1/3+2/2+3/1+4 slots), 32 – 48 kbps |
|---|---|---|
| EDGE | Class 12 | |
| 3G | HSDPA, HSUPA; CDMA2000 1xEV-DO | |
| WLAN | No | |
| Bluetooth | Yes, v2.0 with A2DP | |
| Infrared port | No | |
| USB | Yes, v2.0 |
| CAMERA | Primary | 12 MP, 4000 x 3000 pixels, 3x optical zoom, autofocus, xenon flash, LED flash |
|---|---|---|
| Features | Mode dial, variable apperture, tracking touch autofocus, face, smile and blink detection, Smart Auto mode, image stabilization, Beauty Shot | |
| Video | Yes, 720p@30fps | |
| Secondary | Videocall camera |
| FEATURES | Messaging | SMS, MMS, Email, IM, Push Email |
|---|---|---|
| Browser | WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML | |
| Radio | No | |
| Games | Yes + downloadable | |
| Colors | Black | |
| GPS | No | |
| Java | Yes, MIDP 2.0 | |
| - T-DMB TV receiver, Live TV - MP3/WMA/AAC/WAV player - DivX/XviD/H.263/H.264/MP4/WMV player - Organizer - Voice memo/dial - T9 |
| BATTERY | Standard battery, Li-Ion 1080 mAh | |
|---|---|---|
| Stand-by | Up to 410 h (2G) / Up to 310 h (3G) | |
| Talk time | Up to 6 h (2G) / Up to 4 h (3G) |
Review:
Samsung finally decided to tear apart the competition with the release of the World’s first 12 Megapixel camera phone with 3x optical zoom. The Samsung W880 feels more like a camera than a cell phone but lets us delve into its cell phone features before coming to its camera. Designing a camera cell phone is not a piece of cake; however Samsung’s engineers have managed to integrate a high resolution camera on a small handset.
Originally named SAMSUNG W880 AMOLED features a 3.3 inch touch screen of WVGA resolution, on top of the screen a video call camera has been incorporated for video conferencing. A light sensor and the two stereo loudspeakers give the handset a better rating. Measuring at 16.3 mm in breadth it is quite a thick phone and Samsung ensures a robust build quality with that. However this handset is now only bound to Korea and the user interface will not be similar to its global version when released.
The 12 megapixel camera provides a resolution of 4000 x 3000 pixels similar to the Pixon12. Xenon and an LED flash ensure higher clarity and visibility while taking photos. Capable of shooting HD videos it grasps its competition by the collar, the gap between the cell phones and cameras will soon close. The incorporation of the variable aperture will allow the camera to choose between light density and sharpness. Both manual and point and shoot features will be available with the global release.
The Samsung W880 ups the ante with a world’s first 12 megapixel camera with 3x optical zoom. Featuring a hardware Mode dial and a real zoom lever it does feel like a real camera and you may find yourself struggling to find the mobile phone under the digicam skin. Now while W880 is South Korea bound only, it’s enough to give us a taste of what’s coming in the shape of the rumored Samsung M8920, which should make it our way sometime next year – but with Wi-Fi and GPS on board
Designing a mobile phone (or any other portable gadget for that matter) is a balancing act – the engineers must juggle between cost, size and features, all the while being limited by the current state of technology.
Say cost doesn’t matter – that still leaves only so much that can reasonably be crammed into a mobile device. Progress is made, technology advances, which results in things getting cheaper, smaller and with more features. And quite soon, things that seemed impractical a few years back can now be released as a consumer device.
This is how the Samsung W880 AMOLED 12M came to be – it contains all the mechanical elements of a point-and-shoot camera, but still has enough room left for the phone parts. It’s not the first phone to achieve that but it’s the first 12-megapixel one and the added 3x optical zoom and xenon flash pretty much put it on par with a typical point-and-shoot camera.
The Samsung W880 has some high-end imaging functions too – tracking touch autofocus, 720p@30 fps video recording, 3.3″ big AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with WVGA resolution. That’s not something you see every day on a cameras and it’s top notch in mobile phone terms. Even the degree of control over how a photo is taken beats out consumer cameras, let alone cameraphones.
Now, keep in mind that the we’re previewing a prototype here and it’s a prototype of a phone meant for the South Korean market only and although it has tri-band GSM and support for UMTS, those are meant for roaming only – the AMOLED 12M is for South Korea and South Korea only.
So, why bother with a preview then? Well, there’s a global version coming in the beginning of next year and that might actually land in a store near you. It will look just the same but will drop the T-DMB TV receiver, which has little use outside of South Korea anyway, swapping it for the more practical Wi-Fi and GPS. Supposedly, the global GSM version will be allegedly called Samsung M8920, but that has yet to be confirmed by an official source.
Design and construction
The Samsung W880 AMOLED 12M looks more like a digicam than a mobile phone. We’re not really sure how many times we’ve said that before, but it’s here that the words meet its true meaning. The protruding lens, the rubbery hand grip and the rotating mode dial on the edge will hardly allow you to guess that it’s a mobile phone we’re displaying here.
The front panel is dominated by the 3.3-inch touchscreen of WVGA resolution. It’s a capacitive unit and naturally its sensitivity is among the best in the business. Above the display is the videocall camera, the ambient light sensor and more importantly – one of the two stereo loudspeakers.
Below the display there are two call receiver keys and the Back key plus the second of the set of stereo speakers. The two receiver keys are the only elements that give off the dual purpose of this digicam look-alike.
The back of the Samsung W880 is where it gets interesting – the protruding lens is what distinguishes this cameraphone from the most other that you may have seen. Purely, digicam style, once you turn the camera on, the lens protrudes outwards and retracts back again when you’re done taking your snapshots – and those are some snapshots, but more on that later. The opening and closing of the zoom lens is extremely fast, causing no delays in the camera start time.
Image quality
The image quality is of course the most crucial part about the 3x optical zoom equipped Samsung W880. The problem is that all zoom-equipped handsets so far have been more or less a failure in the sense that image quality degrades noticeably at the furthest (tele) end of the zoom range.
The Nokia N93 was so bad that it was almost pointless and while Samsung G800 and G810 were a nice step in the right direction they were still not quite there yet. That’s why we were extremely happy to see that the Samsung W880 AMOLED 12M has perfect optics with the image quality remaining the same throughout the zoom range.
As you will see from the photos posted below, with the Samsung W880 there isn’t almost any difference in captured resolution between the two ends of the zoom range.
The general image quality is also excellent, although we have to admit that the amount of fine detail captured was slightly lower than that of the Pixon12, or at least in our pre-release unit. All the other components were already nicely tuned with the photos having low noise levels, good contrast and pleasant colors. There are no visible image defects like over-sharpening or compression artifacts either.
But let’s cut to the chase and give you some photos taken with the Samsung W880 12MP camera so you can see for yourselves how good it actually is.
Amazing video recording
The video recording of the Samsung W880 is equally impressive. The handset manages the incredibly sounding 720p videos @ 30 fps – more than any handset available on the market (including the Omnia HD, as well).
The W880 video recording is nothing short of impressive and surpasses the Omnia HD output in a great extent. The zoom-equipped handset produces extremely smooth videos with plenty of resolution and nicely saturated colors. Also as we mentioned earlier the frame to frame jitter is gone and considering how irritating it is on hand-held videos this is certainly one of the biggest improvements.
To put it simply the Samsung W880 AMOLED 12M video recoding is the best the mobile phone industry has ever seen. We bet it would rival the output of most low-to-mid-range dedicated point-and-shoot cameras and camcorders (the ones without optical stabilization at least).Here are the sample videos taken with the Samsung W880 camera for you to enjoy.
Final words
The Samsung W880 AMOLED 12M didn’t need an awful long time to convince us that it’s the most complete photography tool among the mobile phones. Combining optical zoom with splendid image and video quality has certainly resulted in something way beyond the powers of its competitors.
It’s almost unquestionable that the handset will become immensely popular and get iconic status once it gets released outside Korea. The touch experience that Samsung are providing recently is pretty good and we don’t see any reason for the handset not to become a dream device for every self-respecting geek.
Combined with the proper pricing it might also cash in on its popularity as it will convince quite a lot of people to leave their point-and-shoot cameras at home next time they’re out and about. Additional thanks to other sites which helped us elaborating the preview with the information. Pictures made by Cristian_R.
Review written by inews10.wordpress.com
