October 06, 2005
Samsung E910 (Serene)
Mobile-Review.com reviews the new designer Samsung E910 (Serene), a camera phone that looks a lot like a woman's powder compact. Mobile-Review notes that the phone's shape makes it ideal for a woman's handbag but definitely doesn't make for a smooth fit with men's jacket pockets, yet the official materials all show pictures of men using the phone.
As for the camera? Mobile-Review.com says, "The camera lens placed on the end makes holding the device like an exotic butterfly directing it from you. The camera is VGA, which allows taking photos of 640x480 pixels, also available � 320x240, 160x120 pixels. The last resolution is applied when taking a photo to show it at a call. For photos four compression types are applicable - Super Fine, Fine, Normal , Economy. During the shooting you can regulate the picture brightness. In fact, there are no effects as such, only turning a white and black mode. In the speed mode you can get series of 6, 9 or 15 photos. Night mode is also present."
Their conclusion? "In the end we have a device that will be interesting to people who got used to showing their status with such devices not bothering about their functionality and any application to real use. The phone audience is small, but inside it will be very popular mainly due to its price." (The price will likely be in the $1000 range).
The International Herald Tribune reviews the Bang & Olufsen Serene and writes, "The phone has a camera that takes amazingly good pictures, though at tiny resolution (640 by 480 pixels, too small to print). The lens is mounted on the side of the hinge, at 90 degrees to the screen. That side-mounted arrangement is great for taking surreptitious photos on the subway, but self- portraits are impossible."
CNET reviews the Bang & Olufsen Serene and writes about the phone's VGA camera: "The Serene also comes with a basic VGA camera with fairly lackluster settings. Camera settings include three resolutions (640x480, 320x240, 160x120), four quality settings (superfine, fine, normal, economy), a multishot option, a night shot option, and a black-and-white option. The phone's internal memory of about 16MB is small as well, but considering the size of images, it is acceptable. The images taken look pretty good for a VGA-quality camera phone, but we would expect a lot more from a phone of this price."
Infosync reviews the Bang & Olufsen Serene and writes, "The phone includes a WAP browser, SMS messaging capabilities, and a VGA camera. Image quality was not only bad, the camera is placed on the hinge, making framing impossible. We had a very difficult time framing even the simplest snapshot, and when we did, pictures were horrendous. Images had a blurry, run-together quality that made self-portraits seem like Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe silk screens. The phone comes with an attractive, mirrored docking station for charging. While docked, the phone will open itself automatically when it receives an incoming call, which is very cool. Unfortunately, without a speakerphone, you have to pull the phone off the dock to use it."
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Posted by BJ at October 6, 2005 12:41 PM
