Preview: Samsung M8800 Pixon with its 8 Megapixel Snapper

Overview

With us fast approaching the festive season, it seems that all mobile phone manufacturers are trying to get a slice of the Christmas cake and cash in on their busiest time of the year. Following it’s announcement back in September and it’s proposed released early next month, the Samsung M8800 Pixon is certainly no exception to the rule. Dubbed as a successor to the F480 Tocco, let’ find out and see what gadgetry goodies this phone has to offer to be given a worthy place underneath our Christmas trees this year…

Review

Style

With it slick and elegant black fascia, at first glance it would seem that the Pixon has taken style attributes from some of LG most recent handsets, such as the Viewty; however after taking a more closer look at it, it would seem that it is much slimmer and has a more generous display then some of the LG contenders. This is quite surprising considering as it has managed to fit an 8 megapixel camera (13.8 mm in depth) and as well as large display (107.9 x 54.6 mm) into such as sleek exterior.

Under the Bonnet

The feature that has been talked about the most on this phone is its 8 megapixel camera, so lets start with this. Now when it comes to cameras in mobile phones I have to admit this is something which always gets my attention. Apart from the fact that you’re able to take fantastic pictures, if your out with friends and need to capture those priceless memories then all you’ll need is your camera phone rather than lugging around a bulky digital camera. Now if you’re like me and a bit of a culprit in taking blurry pictures at the best of times or manage to take pictures of people’s knees rather than their faces, then this camera phone includes all the camera functions you would expect from any standard digital camera.

An irritating feature in a lot of the older handsets is not being able to change your photos from portrait to landscape, however with a fab feature which is included in the Pixon is the accelerometer. With this you’ll be able to rotate the screen automatically without even having to go back and changing the settings on the phone. As well as including some fantastic camera features, Samsung wouldn’t be Samsung if it didn’t integrate some it’s home entertainment knowledge to it latest Pixon handset. The Pixon includes Samsung's SRS Virtual Surround system (currently included in it television sets) inside as well as DivX support for watching videos and a TV-Out socket for displaying them on a larger screen.

Now when I heard that this phone included a touchscreen interface I could hear me thinking…here we go again! Apart from driving me crazy with the fingerprints and dirt marks they attract, touchscreen interfaces can be quite temperamental. However, as I didn’t have the phone to test this function out on, from what I have heard the touchscreen accelerator interface is actually quite effortless and responsive, which is a far cry from many handsets on the market.

Other features include its Assisted GPS function, which is great for people like me who need directing to their nearest cornershop! Another popular feature that we are seeing more and more in the latest mobile phone handsets is the geotagging of pictures. As the popularity with social networking sites such as Facebook increases, this feature will become more widely in use so that people can instantly send pictures to their friends whilst on holiday and tell them exactly where they are. Just remember if you’re trying to keep your whereabouts a secret then they don’t get stung by this feature as it could reveal all without you wanting it to!

What is a shame about the M8800 Pixon is the lack of WiFi functionality, which I think is an absolute must if it wants set itself apart from other similar handsets on the market. However, that aside it is a 3G handset with full 7.2Mbps HSDPA support, which means it will offer a fairly fast speed.

Technical Spec

* GSM/GPRS/ EDGE Quad Band (850/ 900/1800/1900 MHz)
* HSDPA 7.2 Mbps (2100 MHz)
* Display 3.2″
* 240×400 262K WQVGA TFT LCD
* 8-megapixel camera with Auto focus
* Dual Power LED Flash
* ASR WDR
* Face Detection
* Smile Shot
* Face Link
* Geo-tagging
* Auto Panorama Shot
* Photo memo
* Video recording & playing (MPEG4, WMV, DivX, XviD)
* Music Player (MP3, AAC, e-AAC+, e-AAC+, WMA)
* FM Radio with RDS
* Bluetooth v.2.0 / USB 2.0 HS
* TV Out connection

Gaj-it Verdict

Design: 9/10
Usability: 9/10
Features: 8/10
Value: 8/10

We Say

If you’re bit of cameraphone fanatic then this phone is definitely one to consider with it 8 megapixel camera. Now don’t get me wrong the phone is certainly jam packed with some fabulous features which include Google Search and Maps, touchscreen, geotagging, photo accelerometer but I can’t help thinking that I’ve already heard about this all before. Apart from the 8 megapixel camera what else can it offer? I think that if the phone included WiFi functionality then this may have given it the edge it needed over some of it’s other competitors on the market.

Image Sources
Samsung M880 Pixon Review at Dial-a-Phone