In terms of hardware, the superzoom is equivalent to a lens that runs from 23-483mm on a 35mm camera. There's roughly 4GB of storage for images built-in, which you can expand with an SD card. The touchscreen is 4.8" and it offers up to ISO 3,200. All of these are decent features, augmented by great, modern software from Android 4.1. The pictures are decent, colours are bright and for the money, this is a camera that just about holds its own. But its the software that makes all the difference.
Indeed, within the camera itself only the capture, zoom, power and flash have hardware buttons because everything else comes via the touchscreen. Aside from the usual array of clichéd filters, each setting is adjusted with a 'wheel' on the screen for speed, aperture, exposure compensation and sensitivity. Thanks to Android, there are voice commands too, although when I used them these were as hit and miss as voice commands are in every phone. Generally, menus are straightforward and better than other cameras that don't benefit from the touchscreen.
Android also allows users to, say, use maps or check their email and offers synchronisation with Dropbox – it's a handy way round the problem of emailing individual pictures, and 50GB comes free for two years. Some may feel this is too much, but settings can be customised to hid annoying notifications.
In terms of picture quality, image stabilisation and low light performance were particularly good, even when filming at full zoom. The screen is big enough to make editing a sensible idea too. If there are gripes they are around battery life, which varied from a couple of hours to four, because this is basically a super smartphone, and around the time it can take between pressing the power button and the phone waking up. Video is limited to 768 x 512 in 120fps slo-mo mode (which saves at 30fps), but that's a very small complaint. Standard 1080p is available for normal requirements. Standard features, too, such as best picture, work remarkably well, but many may at the same time find that if they are using this camera in places it feels slower than a smartphone.
It's hard to know, perhaps, to what extent the Galaxy camera should be judged on its qualities as a camera or on its overall performance as a connected device. While better cameras are available for the money, this is still a great device. If it's on the pure connectivity, however, then this is a unique foretaste of the future – of course all cameras should have maps built-in to let you see where you're going, and should easily be able to let you send your pictures on. These are all features available in some form or other elsewhere, from Eye-Fi to most smartphones, but Samsung has put them together in a uniquely coherent way. There are now fewer excuses than ever for your photographs to languish on a memory card unseen.
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