The GPS was a more tricky beast. It geotags photos OK, and works when you fire up Navigator, which is Samsung’s own navigation software, but there’s no separate menu option for it so you can’t simply fire it up to check your location, and it isn’t the speediest at getting a fix.
Quite a dinky little thing really
The web browser has no pinch to zoom function. Instead you press one finger on the screen and use another to zoom. It is awkward and didn’t work well for us. Thankfully, you can use the side mounted volume/camera zoom rocker to zoom and then fingerpan around. It is a bit tedious that Web links need a double tap to open them, and that fingerpans tend to run on of their own free will, which can mean tedious backtracking through longer Web pages.
Tapping the on-screen Qwerty keyboard to enter text was a quite comfortable affair. Physically the Pixon 12 is not that different to other full frontal screened handsets in size and weight coming in at 107.9mm x 53mm x 13.8mm and 119g. The three buttons beneath the screen are familiar offering Call, End and menu features. Long press the menu button and a display of running apps opens up making it easy to switch or close any you don’t need.
The main screen houses Samsung’s usual four touch shortcuts to keypad, phonebook, messages and menu, while sitting on the left edge of the screen is the Widgets bar from which you can draw shortcuts onto the main screen. It’s all very familiar.
One novelty in this department is what Samsung calls Smart Unlock. There is a lock button on the left side of the casing. You use this in the usual way to lock the handset and then to call up the main screen when you want to use the phone. The novelty comes as you can draw a letter on the screen having first matched this up to an application, and then launch straight into that app. It is quite a time saver, though if you set up lots of shortcuts to apps in this way you’ll need to memorise them.
Basic control for calls and a fair bit of space too - it's not all touchscreen
Another nice touch is that the main menu of applications extends across three screens and you can rearrange the icons to suit your preferences. The most effective way to do this is to turn the handset so the screen drops into wide mode. All three menu screens are then shown side by side and you can drag items between them as you choose.
COMMENTS
@Youvegottobe Joking
My beef is with the credulous reviewer failing to have any perspective - yes, I am well aware that people who don't know better will buy the thing because of the megapixel number. But reviews are supposed to reflect reality, not parrot marketing material, and thus HELP people NOT make those mistakes. The sample photos posted here are not in any way shape or form "clear and of good quality", by any objective measure.
The best you could possibly say is that they're marginally better than the 5mp camera on a $100 phone. But the reviewer just lets the hype skate. That's the problem. The reviewer explicitly said that the phone existed to be a camera - so your argument is that we shouldn't complain about the camera quality because it's obviously not going to be good? Huh?
If the thing is meant mainly to be a camera, then the only reason to choose it over a DSLR is size - and there's no reason at all to choose it over a pocket point-and-shoot of similar size and far better glass quality - and then put the difference toward buying a really nice phone. The job of a review is to point this stuff out, and that wasn't done.
3.2mp
My K800i produced some awsome photos, 3.2mp is all the normal person needs PERIOD
if the dam thing had not kept breaking down I would still be using it.
whats with the numpties comparing a phone camera with digital cameras and DSLR's?
This phone camera is not meant to replace your digital camera. Of course the pictures from even a decent 5Mp camera can be better, they have bigger sensors and lenses etc. But this is on a phone that you carry everywhere with you and will take a picture when you otherwise would have had nothing. No-one is expecting to get DSLR or even good 5Mp camera quality pictures, but this phone camera will do when there is nothing better.
Obviously most people/consumers/sheep think that 12Mp phone cameras are going to be better than the ones on the last phone model so that reason along with ITS THE LATEST PHONE LOOK AT ME I AM COOL will be the main reason people buy this model and ones like it.
I dont expect wedding photographers are going to be pulling this out and taking snaps when the groom puts the ring on the brides finger. So can the camera snobs please gtfo and get a life.
@Pointless !! #
Why don't u think before u start typing ? The camera has a nice wide angle lens. Divx at 320x240 on a 3 inch screen is fine, in fact the pixels will be much smaller than the ones on a 1080P TV with a 32 inch screen. And as for the phone only being aimed at the people who are going to buy it.......well who else would they aim it at ?????
@Dick Emery Yes so many mugs are spouting bull about pixel density that a few companies are using a reduction in mega pixels as a marketing gimmick and your falling for it.
"Clear and of good quality"?
What are you smoking? Or have people stopped looking at actual photos, so now they think that noise-reduced, interpolated, smudged crap looks good?
How about this: Here's what a mid-level DSLR setup will do, from a friend of mine in the Czech republic. It doesn't cost a whole lot more than this phone, I suspect:
http://don.vn.cz/photos/springdogwalk/01.jpg
http://don.vn.cz/photos/mazda3night/03.jpg
THAT is "clear and of good quality" - not the tripe sample shots you posted. And they're barely 1 megapixel as displayed. Huhh...
If the main reason for that phone to exist is the camera, then the lot of them would do well to pop out of existence immediately.
