Although nearly every cell phone available today lets you take photos, it's no secret that the cameras on most phones are, well, lame. Shots snapped by your run-of-the-mill phone shooter are plagued by blown-out highlights, soft focus, low contrast, and poor detail. That's not to say that phone cameras don't come in handy in a pinch; in fact, cameras on some of today's most popular handsets, including the iPhone 3G and the BlackBerry Curve, can take decent pictures (especially outdoors) despite their middling 2-megapixel sensors and subpar lenses.
Still, their shots are nothing compared with those from any one of the 5MP camera phones that have hit the market in the past couple of months. Each one of these handsets takes quality photos that, while still not standalone digital camera quality, are easily good enough for archiving—even printing.
Astute digital-camera shoppers know that the number of megapixels means virtually nothing these days when it comes to choosing a camera. But when it comes to cell phones, a 5MP sensor is still rare enough to show that some thought went into the camera. These phones aren't one-trick ponies, either; all of them are solid communication devices, too.
Behold the latest 5MP camera phones. With one of these, you might actually want to ditch your digital camera.
See how the features on all these cell-phone shooters compare side by side, or click through to the full reviews below.
Camera Phones Featured in This Roundup:
Motorola MotoZINE ZN5 (T-Mobile) 
$199.99 - $349.99 direct
Motorola has been struggling lately, but you wouldn't know it from the MotoZINE ZN5, a stellar Motorola/Kodak camera phone that can go toe-to-toe with lower-end point-and-shoot digital cameras. On our tests, we found the ZN5 to have good resolution, little barrel distortion or chromatic aberration, and a fast shutter. It even sports a Xenon flash that's worlds better than the wimpy LED lights you'll find on many other handsets (if they have a flash at all).
Nokia N82 (Unlocked) 
$549.00 – $749.95 list
The Nokia N82 isn't only a quality Symbian smartphone, it also took stellar pictures on our tests thanks to its Carl Zeiss lens, 5MP sensor, autofocus, and xenon flash. The N82 is available only unlocked in the U.S.; which means it will work with either AT&T or T-Mobile SIM cards and doesn't require a contract—but in either case, prepare to pay a hefty up-front fee.
Nokia N95 8GB (Unlocked)
$750 list
Nokia's N95 8GB improves on its successful predecessor by adding 8GB of internal storage and plenty of additional memory. It also features a nifty dual-slider design that's perfect for N-Gage gaming and multimedia playback. Unfortunately, as with the N82, you can get the N95 8GB only unlocked in the U.S.
Samsung Behold SGH-T919 (T-Mobile) 
$199 – $399 direct
The Samsung Behold SGH-T919 gives T-Mobile subscribers a powerful 5MP camera phone with autofocus. On our tests, we found that the handset takes pleasing pictures that are almost on a par with those of the Motorola ZN5, although the Behold's regular LED flash is just about useless. Except for that, it's a dependable touch-screen phone. Mobile Web fiends should also take note: It's a particularly good handset for hooking into T-Mobile's brand-new 3G data network.
Samsung Omnia SCH-i910 (Verizon Wireless)
$249.99 – $496.99 list
The Windows Mobile 6.1–based Omnia includes a fast CPU, a 5MP camera with autofocus, and 8GB of internal storage. Its shutter lag is a respectable 0.3 second with prefocusing and 1.2 seconds without, and the Omnia can even record 640-by-480-pixel videos at 15 frames per second. It also features the same robust Microsoft Outlook synchronization and document editing common to all Microsoft-based smartphones. (story Link)
No comments:
Post a Comment