Samsung's 8-megapixel Pixon gets official, ships in mid-October

Samsung was content with teasing us all weekend long, but it has finally seen fit to officially reveal its next 8-megapixel handset, the Pixon. Boasting a 3.2-inch touchscreen, 13.8-millimeter thin design and an inbuilt camera with Auto Focus, face detection and geotagging, the handset clearly emphasizes the importance of taking a few photos each and everyday. Sammy has confessed that the currently unpriced mobile will start shipping in around a fortnight for those in France, while most other European / Asian countries will see it shortly. As for North America? Take a wild guess.

[Via PhoneScoop]

[normgarry @ Sep 29th 2008 10:36AM]

I can just imagine the R&D departments of most of these cellphone makers nowadays.

"if it doesn't work as good as the iPhone, throw that design out"

[Nick @ Sep 29th 2008 10:57AM]

Yeah because business class smart phone use the iphone as a benchmark.

[hacktothefuture @ Sep 29th 2008 10:36AM]

Very sexy phone! Love it

[Flashpoint @ Sep 29th 2008 10:36AM]

I can just imagine the R&D departments of most of these cellphone makers nowadays.

"if it doesn't work as good as the iPhone, throw that design out"

[Shinigami @ Sep 29th 2008 10:38AM]

Its just because iPhone has a nice UI, is fast and easy to manipulate. Its not perfect, but nice. Touch screen isn't a bad thing either.

[DoomGaZer @ Sep 29th 2008 11:13AM]

- for duping the guy at the top. - - if you are the same guy as the guy at the top.

[Hashbrown Hunter @ Sep 29th 2008 11:32AM]

wait....

Flashpoint has a non-identical TWIN?!

DUN-DUN-DUUUUUUUUUUN

[phanbouy @ Sep 29th 2008 11:55AM]

i guess normgarry is your alternate username

[Shinigami @ Sep 29th 2008 10:36AM]

If I were you, I'd skip this thing and wait for February when we are rumored to see some superior device from Samsung (superior to M8800 Pixon) versus superior device from HTC (superior to Touch HD, which is hard to believe).

[bandigolo @ Sep 29th 2008 12:01PM]

device from HTC that is superior to the Touch HD?

explain yourself, please.

[Shinigami @ Sep 29th 2008 12:48PM]

On mobile-review they posted an article recently, stating that HTC Touch HD is just a prototype of another device, Touch XD (eXellent Device so to call it, no names were called) and it will be interesting to see which one people would prefer - M9900 (not a real name, just a next generation of M8800) versus Touch XD (not a real name).

[Ike Turner @ Sep 29th 2008 1:08PM]

Link?

[fh @ Sep 29th 2008 4:04PM]

Touch HD only a prototype? But O2 Germany and Telecom Italia are already planning to release it by year's end. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure HTC is up to something (since when are they not?), but it's a bit late to be dismissing the HD as a prototype; your source sounds a bit flaky.

[bandigolo @ Sep 29th 2008 6:01PM]

I don't think I understand what you (or your source) are saying, but I fully expect to have a Touch HD in my hands by Thanksgiving. And I seriously doubt that HTC will be releasing a superior version of the HD anytime soon.

[Brooks @ Sep 29th 2008 10:46AM]

Wow all those features and NO WIFI! What a waste of a good phone.

[chefgon_ign @ Sep 29th 2008 11:12AM]

Lack of a real operating system killed it for me well before I ever noticed the lack of Wifi.

[RyanTV @ Sep 29th 2008 10:50AM]

Looks pretty hot, but Brooks is right, if it really has no WiFi then that's kind of a bust!

[Dagreenman18 @ Sep 29th 2008 11:24AM]

please for the love of god make the touch movement have momentum like the iphone. The scrolling on most touch phones are jarring and ugly.

[kjb434 @ Sep 29th 2008 11:27AM]

HTC has added this to all it's touch phones. Even there older models can be adjusted to do this.

[Imran @ Sep 29th 2008 11:32AM]

This could be a good format for future S60 Touch...

[B @ Sep 29th 2008 11:49AM]

WIFI? WIMAX?

[phanbouy @ Sep 29th 2008 12:03PM]

BUELLER?

[StalematE @ Sep 29th 2008 11:58AM]

hahahahahahaha pixon... hahahahahaha

[phanbouy @ Sep 29th 2008 12:03PM]

pixon
pixoff

miyagi want focus

[KilgoreTrout @ Sep 29th 2008 11:58AM]

Who said that the pixon will lack wifi?
Since they 've put it on the omnia I doubt that it will be forgotten on the Pixon that should be their flagship model.

[Anku @ Sep 29th 2008 12:01PM]

I think it would be nicer, as it is a "business class smart phone," to at least have a bona fide mobile OS to enable those business users to extract the full potential of the device. you know, like Android....

[Kyledl @ Sep 29th 2008 12:24PM]

Screw android, it may look nice and function nice but lets get down to what it really is. An OS designed to entrap you in all things google, that will give you targeted ads based on your usage habits. Its a little too much big brother for me to handle.

[neodorian @ Sep 29th 2008 1:12PM]

Your point? iPhone's goal is to trap you into all things Apple. Windows Mobile gets you hooked up with all things Windows. It's pretty standard for these guys to try to build their own framework in which they can make a profit. It's kinda the point of business. The question is whether or not the services rendered are worth the price and I'm glad to see Google entering into the competition. Their model is a lot more aligned to what people have forseen mobile computing heading toward for a while, ie, location aware services and low-key advertising a-la Google's mail, search, and maps software for the desktop/notebook.

[Zachius Maxiumus @ Sep 29th 2008 12:53PM]

Do these new 5+ megapixel phones take quality action photos, or do they still blur when someone moves as the picture is taken?

[Zak @ Sep 29th 2008 1:05PM]

Thus proving the fact that the "megapixel" buzzword is what sells devices, despite the fact that if you have a crappy lens, a million billion megapixels won't give you better pictures. The amount of megapixels doesn't matter, only the quality of the lens does. 2 megapixels is more than enough for the vast majority of people who take pictures with their phone. If you need higher resolution than that, you need a real camera. That's all there is to it.

Even with a 2MP picture you're going to have to downsize it to post it on the web. If you need higher resolution for printing, then you're going to use a real camera, not a phone. I'm constantly amazed by how many people think more megapixels in a phone makes it 'better".

[Magallanes @ Sep 29th 2008 1:41PM]

Not really, while the lens is important to the quality but more important is the photo film. Of course in the analog world, you can switch between different kind/quality/price of films but the lens is "forever". In the digital world is different, the lens and "film" (ccd/cmos) are not interchangeable, the election of both is key important to obtain the best quality.

So, no matter the quality of the lens (a carl zeiss for example), a 2 megapixel camera is crap and you miss several detail in your photo, even if its a single portrait in a lit scene.

[Pde @ Sep 29th 2008 1:53PM]

Very true, but in a same time Samsung actually have the best picture quality on INNOV8 8mpx not sure if this is using exactly the same module.
Thought 2MP is a bit too low i have to say. Go up from 3.2mpx and then make optics better.

[Zak @ Sep 29th 2008 2:26PM]

No, there is no analog equivalent to megapixels since MP is a designation of resolution. The equivalent to different kinds of film is ISO, not MP, and you can't change the ISO equivalency on any cameraphone that I'm aware of. The only difference more MP makes is the resolution, and that doesn't do anything for you if your lens is crap. There are 2MP cameras that take better pictures than the 8MP camera in this phone, I guarantee you that.

Furthermore, do you really think people are using their phones to take high resolution portraits of people? If you want to take a *good* picture of something, are you really going to use your phone to do it? Any photographer knows it's the glass that makes the difference, not the resolution. If you need 8MP because of the detail, you're going to get a much better picture from a Digital Rebel than a Pixon phone, even though they're both 8 MP. So what's the point of having 8 MP resolution in a phone with a tiny, crappy lens?

There is no point, other than buzzword bragging rights.

[J.L @ Sep 29th 2008 3:25PM]

Got a say that I have yet to see 2mp camera on a phone that takes good enough pic to even see text from low range. After owning one these good camera phones it's really hard to come back from it to downgrade. I have been taking a lot of pictures after buying N82 and quality really is so good that i don't use my cam for anything else than trips and even there i take more pics with my N82. For some one who takes these things more seriously camera phones aren't enough of course.

[Maciek @ Sep 29th 2008 3:15PM]

The sad part here is that while Samsung makes a very nice sturdy phones, they choose to cripple them by injecting only a tri-band GSM most of the time with a single band WCDMA. And the second thing is their OS. Being Symbian and WinMo licensee they still are convinced that people want nice phones with shitty proprietary OS (of their own). Why not sticking to Symbian, WinMo or Android for a change and let people make the choice of what to have on their phones.

[shin @ Oct 4th 2008 8:20AM]

No WiFi - that's a joke! For me it is a must in every modern cell phone.