Samsung M8910 Pixon12 – Firing Review

Samsung will soon be coming out with the first 12 megapixel camera phone with the luring 28mm wide-angle lens. This exclusive model will be hitting the market soon. So let’s go on a ride and explore Samsung M8910 Pixon12.

A quick glance at the features of the Samsung M8910 Pixon12:

• Dimensions: 108 x 53 x 13.8 mm, 120g
• Display: 3.1 inch 16M color WVGA AMOLED resistive touchscreen
• Form factor: Touchscreen bar
• Platform: Latest TouchWiz 2.0 UI with Smart unlock
• General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 900/2100 MHz, HSDPA 7.2Mbps, HSUPA
• Memory: 150MB integrated memory, hot-swappable microSD card slot (up to 16GB)
• Camera: 12 megapixel auto focus camera with Power LED flash and xenon flash, wide-angle 28mm lens, object tracking auto focus, automatic lens cover, geo-tagging, image stabilization, Smart Auto mode, face detection, Beauty Shot, Smile Shot and D1 video recording at 30 fps with auto focus and face detection
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, standard microUSB port, GPS receiver with A-GPS, TV out
• Misc: Accelerometer for screen auto rotate and turn-to-mute, FM radio with RDS, DivX/XviD video support
• Battery: 1000mAh Li-Ion battery

The Samsung M8910 Pixon12 runs on the latest TouchWiz UI 2.0 like we have seen in the Samsung S8000 Jet. Just like the Samsung Jet we assume that the Samsung M8910 will be fast ticking and we assume that a similar application processor might be used. There is no Media Gate 3D (the 3D Cube) or Motion UI, but the Smart unlock and Photo contacts features are both on board.

The size of the Samsung M8910 amazed us with its compact size which is smaller than even the LG Arena, however it is a bit thicker (same as on the original Pixon) which is not according to our taste. Still, its compact dimensions are something to watch out for as the Pixon12 makes a nice first impression and can easily slide into the pocket.

Samsung M8910 Pixon12 is the world’s first ever 12 megapixel GSM handset which sports a 12 megapixel camera with a maximum image resolution of 4000 x 3000 pixels. It is an autofocus unit, quite obvious, and there is both xenon and LED flash unit on board. With both in place the Pixon12 gives the extra light output required in extreme darkness and the video light functionality that’s otherwise impossible with the xenon flash alone.

After Nokia N86 8MP, Samsung M8910 Pixon12 is the second handset to sport 28mm (in 35mm terms) wide-angle lens. For all those who are not aware what 28mm wide-angle lens means then it’s a lens which gives you roughly 20 percent larger angle of view when looking through the viewfinder.

The automatic lens cover is something cool that is featured in the Samsung M8910 Pixon12. Talking about the software the phone features, the Pixon12 is pretty well geared with it as well. You can find anti-shake digital image stabilization, geotagging and viewfinder gridlines and also the face detection, smile shot and blink detection. The ISO sensitivity can go as high as 1600 but you will hardly end up with any usable photos at that setting. The Samsung proprietary wide dynamic range option isn’t available here but we are guessing it is replaced by the auto contrast feature. The latter though was only available when recording videos on our unit, but that may as well be a bug.
The Pixon12 also features a Smart auto mode, which picks the best scene preset according to the shooting conditions. This feature is similar to the LG GC900 Viewty Smart which was called Intelligent shot by LG. In contrast with the regular auto mode the Smart auto gives the phone control over other phone settings like the contrast, color balance, saturation, etc. this modifying the output to a great extent.

In conclusion, we can say that the Samsung M8910 Pixon12 is the first handset to sport the tracking touch focus. It’s a simple procedure where you only have to hold your finger over the subject you want to focus on and watch as the crosshairs follows it on the viewfinder. Once you press the shutter key, it will focus on it and continue to capture the actual shot.

Samsung M8910 Pixon12 produces some pleasant images with correct colors. The perfect edge to edge sharpness of the picture shows the use of a high quality lens and the contrast is a little high which is to make the images look more attractive.

On the whole, the images processing is very good and sound with only a slight touch of over sharpening. It’s a nice balance of relatively low noise levels and well presented fine details, good work done by the Samsung R&D team who struck to these features.

We are glad to see that the 12 megapixel camera phone reaches every detail resolved by a true DSLR provided it is given favorable light conditions. So if you know anything about digital photography then probably you might not even consider putting all those devices on a single table. You will get totally impressed by the Samsung Pixon12 image quality when it arrives.