Everybody appears to be bettering their cameras in smartphones, so why not the reverse? The Samsung Galaxy Digital camera EK-GC100 is a full-fledged Android machine that, courtesy a SIM card slot, connects to AT&T’s community. So, as soon as you are taking a photograph or video, you possibly can immediately add it to your social networks. And, with a bigger 16-MP sensor than may be discovered on most smartphones, this camera can take higher images, too. However is it price plunking down $499 — plus a minimum of $10 per 30 days for knowledge — so to replace your Fb account wherever you’re?
Design
Click on to EnlargeLike a lot of the corporate’s industrial designs, the Samsung Galaxy Digital camera is a slick-looking machine. The entrance of the camera is clad in white, with a big 23mm lens on the correct, and a small rubberized grip on the left. The again is just a big 4.8-inch contact display.
General, we just like the design, with one caveat: There is no place to comfortably relaxation your proper thumb. If we had been to put our thumb on the camera the place it felt most pure, it could keep in touch with the contact display. As a substitute, our thumb was left to hover, considerably uncomfortably.
Bodily controls are minimal, too. The highest has a shutter button surrounded by a small round zoom ring, and a minuscule energy button within the center. The left aspect has a button to activate the flash. On the correct aspect is a 3.5mm headphone jack and a small flap that covers a microUSB port. The underside has a tripod mount in addition to a door that opens to disclose the battery, SIM card, microSD card and a microHDMI port.
Measuring 5.07 x 2.79 x 0.75 inches and weighing 10.8 ounces, the Galaxy Digital camera falls someplace between compact point-and-shoots and micro four-thirds cameras when it comes to weight and measurement. Whilst you’ll have hassle becoming it in a pants pocket, it slid simply into our jacket. Nonetheless, we observed its weight. By comparability, the smaller Android-powered Nikon Coolpix S800c weighs solely 6.5 ounces.
Show
Click on to EnlargeThe 4.8-inch 1280 x 720 HD Tremendous Clear LCD show on the Galaxy Digital camera is loads massive for browsing the Net, watching YouTube clips, and sure, taking images. This is similar measurement show as you may discover on the Galaxy S III, however it’s a lot brighter than that handset’s AMOLED display. We’re speaking concerning the distinction between 426 lux and 210 lux on our mild meter, which suggests you shouldn’t have any drawback utilizing the Galaxy Digital camera open air.
Click on to EnlargeWhen watching the trailer for “Skyfall” on YouTube, the whole lot from the blue of Daniel Craig’s eyes and the reds of Macau had been vibrant. Viewing angles had been ok in order that we might tilt the camera at excessive angles and nonetheless see what was on-screen; that is useful not only for watching motion pictures, but in addition for composing pictures.
Interface
The Galaxy Digital camera runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with the nonintrusive TouchWiz, so those that are conversant in Google’s cell working system on sensible telephones shouldn’t have any hassle navigating the Galaxy Digital camera. One distinction, although, is that the Digital camera app is all the time current within the decrease left-hand nook of the display.
Correctly, whenever you first activate the camera, it opens proper into the Digital camera app. Solely by urgent the on-screen House button do you get to the Android interface. Samsung begins you out with three residence screens, although you possibly can add extra. Flattening from the highest brings up notifications, in addition to settings for wi-fi connectivity, cell knowledge and brightness.
As with smartphones, the Galaxy Digital camera has full entry to the Google Play retailer and all of the apps inside. Whereas it doesn’t help Google Now, it does have Google voice typing, in addition to Samsung voice typing, which makes use of Vlingo technology.
Efficiency
Click on to EnlargePacking a 1.4-GHz quad core Exynos processor, the Galaxy Digital camera can dangle with the highest Android smartphones available on the market. Its An3DBench rating of seven,589 is about 400 factors increased than the typical, and even beats out fire-breathers such because the Droid DNA by about 300 factors.
On the CPU portion of the Benchmark check, the Galaxy Digital camera scored 4,047, which is 1,400 factors increased than common, however bested by the DNA (4,752) and the Droid RAZR HD (4,685).
Navigating by means of menus and opening apps was fast and easy, though we observed occasional slowdowns when attempting to entry the gallery whereas importing video to Dropbox.
The camera has 8GB of storage inbuilt, and may settle for microSD playing cards as much as 64GB in measurement.
Digital camera Options
Click on to EnlargeAlong with a 16-MP sensor, the Galaxy Digital camera includes a 21X optical zoom lens, enabling you to get rather a lot nearer to your topic than any smartphone. The camera’s ISO ranges from 100 to 3200, the f-stop from 2.8 to eight.0, and shutter speeds as much as 1/2000th of a second.
The Galaxy Digital camera has 14 capturing modes, together with burst, panorama, macro, waterfall and sundown. In Auto, the camera selects what it thinks is the most effective mode for capturing, however we want there was some on-screen indication of what the machine picked.
[sc:video id=”M0dDNqcTolvN8B4QDqh0zPrlSejnnhKf” width=”640″ height=”410″]
Whereas the Galaxy Digital camera has a completely handbook mode, we discovered it very cumbersome to make use of. The on-screen dials used to alter shutter pace, f-stop, and the like obscure the majority of the show, so you possibly can’t simply see what’s altering. Plus, the animation to show or cover the controls takes a second or so to finish, so that you would not wish to use this mode when attempting to seize one thing on the spur of the second.
Click on to EnlargePanorama mode labored, however there have been a number of situations the place it stitched images collectively incorrectly. We did like that the on-screen information helped to maintain the camera stage, although.
Voice controls allow us to say a phrase — i.e “Say cheese,” “smile,” “seize,” or “shoot” — to fireplace off the camera or activate different controls, together with zooming in or out, utilizing the flash or recording video. This labored properly, and is very helpful if you happen to’re attempting to take a bunch photograph.
Like its Galaxy S III telephones, the Galaxy Digital camera has quite a few Samsung’s sharing options, together with Buddy Picture Share, Share Shot and AllShare. Buddy Picture Share acknowledges your mates’ faces and makes it simple to share images with a faucet. Share Shot makes use of Wi-Fi Direct to allow you to share images with a number of customers without delay (supplied they’ve a Samsung Galaxy telephone, pill or camera with this function). Lastly, AllShare allows Galaxy Digital camera house owners to beam images and movies to suitable TVs.
Picture High quality
Click on to EnlargeGeneral, images taken with the Galaxy Digital camera’s 16MP appeared good, however not overwhelmingly higher than what we would see from a smartphone.
A nighttime shot of a lit Christmas tree was illuminated properly, as had been the encompassing timber, however we would have liked to take a number of pictures to get a transparent picture. Even at an ISO of 3200, we observed a good quantity of noise in images, however to not the purpose the place it was overly distracting.
Utilizing the macro mode, we might make out the finer particulars in a rose in addition to the infant’s breath in a bouquet of flowers, and will see particular person hairs on a cat.
Indoor pictures of a fireside and purple leather-based chairs had been additionally lush and vibrant, however in comparison with a photograph taken with an iPhone 4S, reds appeared artificially shiny.
Video
The Galaxy Digital camera can report video as much as 1080p at 30 frames per second. It did an ideal job capturing the spirit of the vacations once we filmed a sextet taking part in Christmas tunes. The camera zoomed in easily, however briefly misplaced focus as we zoomed again out. Nonetheless, we might make out the main points in all of the devices, and the camera’s lone microphone picked up the tune completely.
A nighttime shot of a prepare arriving at a station additionally got here out properly.
Whereas capturing video, you may also press the shutter button to take nonetheless pictures of no matter you are recording. This function additionally labored properly; as we filmed vehicles passing by, the camera was capable of seize crisp stills of particular person autos.
The camera can even report slo-mo video at 120 fps (768 x 720). A movie of our good friend operating towards us at full tilt appeared hilarious when replayed on our pc, although we want the decision had been increased.
Apps
Click on to EnlargeSamsung contains two enhancing packages, Picture Wizard and Video Wizard, on the Galaxy Digital camera. Each had been simple to make use of and helpful for making easy edits. The Picture Wizard additionally has quite a few filters, from the fundamental Sepia and Retro, to extra superior filters resembling Tilt Shift.
Nonetheless, when utilizing Video Wizard, we discovered it would not run within the background. It’s a must to watch for it to complete exporting a file earlier than you are able to do the rest with the camera.
The Galaxy Digital camera has entry AT&T Locker, a free photograph and video sharing service. Accessible by way of an app on the camera, customers get 5GB of cloud storage free of charge, the place they’ll add images and video, and share the content material by way of Fb, MySpace, Twitter or e-mail. If you’d like extra storage, it is going to run you $3.99 per 30 days for 30GB or $9.99 per 30 days for 100GB.
Information Speeds
Click on to EnlargeSadly, the Galaxy Digital camera can solely use AT&T’s HSPA+ with enhanced backhaul community, not its a lot sooner 4G LTE community. Utilizing Speedtest.internet, the Galaxy Digital camera averaged 1.65 Mbps downloads and 0.9 Mbps uploads in our testing. Importing a 16-MP photograph (a 3.8MB file) to Dropbox took 1 minute and 50 seconds, versus 17 seconds over our Wi-Fi community. A 30-second 1080p video (62.5 MB) took greater than 10 minutes to add, in contrast with about 2 minutes by way of Wi-Fi.
Information Plans
AT&T gives its Cellular Share plans for many who wish to join the Galaxy Digital camera by way of mobile. For instance, if you happen to already personal an AT&T smartphone, the beginning plan prices $40 per 30 days for limitless discuss and textual content and 1GB, plus $10 per 30 days for the camera. The following tier is 4GB for $70 per 30 days, plus $10 per machine.
A person 4G Digital camera DataConnect plan begins at $14.99 a month for 250MB of information; the following plan prices $30 a month for 3GB, and a $50 per 30 days plan will get you 5GB of information.
Verdict
Click on to EnlargeContemplating all of the images and movies which can be uploaded to social networks from smartphones, the Samsung Galaxy Digital camera EK-GC100 looks as if a sensible concept. You get a better decision than most camera telephones, plus a 21x optical zoom and built-in enhancing apps. Plus, the Galaxy Digital camera gives a number of sharing options. Nonetheless, $499 plus $10 per 30 days is rather a lot to ask for a camera that is not solely cumbersome however does not help AT&T’s quickest 4G LTE speeds.
Though you may need to spend a bit extra, we would advocate a compact interchangeable lens camera, resembling one from the Sony NEX line. What you may lose in on the spot gratification might be made up with higher photograph high quality.
