For cell phone users in parts of Asia, camera phones with resolutions of up to 10 megapixels are yesterday's news. But for folks on this side of the globe, a 3.2-megapixel camera phone that just hit the streets is a big deal. The 3.2-megapixel Samsung SCH-a990 is now available through Verizon Wireless, but it ain't cheap. At $400 (with a two-year contract), it costs considerably more than the Motorola Q smartphone, which goes for $300 with a two-year contract from Verizon.
Though the steep price seems hard to justify, there's a lot to like about this thoughtfully designed (for the most part) clamshell-style phone that you flip open to use. Its cover rotates 180 degrees, automatically triggering the camera mode. Once the camera is activated, you can use the 2.2-inch internal LCD to frame shots and take videos.
If you hold the phone in landscape format, it works much like a normal camera, with the shutter button at the top right, exactly where my index finger lands. Opposite the shutter (on the other side panel) is the MicroSD expansion slot. In view of the SCH-a990's high price, I would have hoped to get some kind of memory card--even a low-capacity 32MB card, say--bundled with the phone. Alas, you have to buy it separately. The phone does include 72MB of user-accessible memory for storing content.
Solid Phone Features
Weighing 4.4 ounces and measuring 3.8 inches high by 1.9 inches wide by 0.8 inch thick, the SCH-a990 is about the size of a two Motorola Razrs stacked together. It may seem large at first glance, but it's comfortable to hold during extended conversations.
Navigating the phone is less pleasant. The keys on the dialpad and other controls inside (two soft keys, camera, voice mode, five-way navigation button, send, clear, and end) are too flat, slippery, and plasticky for my taste. (I prefer tactile and slightly rubbery keys.) Nevertheless, the phone is reasonably simple to use. The BREW-based user interface is straightforward and the menus are easy to follow. But like many phones, the controls for some features and settings (for example, lock mode) lie layers deep in menus, which means lots of clicking.
As a phone, the SCH-a990 works well and provides adequate call volume. I had no problem hearing folks on the other end, and vice versa. Calls sounded clear and the signal was reliable in my stomping grounds--the San Francisco Bay Area.
The SCH-a990 also offers voice dialing and a helpful voice-mode feature that uses speech recognition to enter text in picture messages. Unfortunately, this voice feature doesn't work for entering contacts in the address book, though it can handle this task by taking a picture of a business card and recognizing the text--no manual entry of the information necessary. The device highlights areas of the business card and asks the user to match each one up with the appropriate field (for example, fax number) in the address book.
The phone plays music stored on a memory card or on the phone, too. You can buy and download songs over the air from Verizon's VCast service. I also downloaded VZ Navigator, the GPS-supported navigation tool that provides maps and turn-by-turn directions and finds local businesses such as movie theaters.
Pics, Flicks, and More
The main attraction of the SCH-a990 is its camera. Its 3.2-megapixel resolution yields up to 2048-by-1536-pixel images, and it permitted me to adjust light metering (which determines proper exposure) and ISO (level of sensitivity to light), do rudimentary in-phone photo editing, and set up a slide show. (These features are becoming more common in mid- to high-level camera phones.) It has a flash, too.
The camera's 1- to 2-second shutter lag was frustrating in my tests because I sometimes moved the camera before it had captured the image, blurring the picture. Editing photos was easier: I rotated images, resized them, applied effects such as blur and sketch, and merged two photos into one (not surprisingly, the final outcome sometimes looked odd, depending on the images I chose to merge).
The phone comes with a TV-out cable (an unusual extra for a camera phone) so you can show off your photos on a television. To print photos, you can use a Bluetooth connection, PictBridge, or a USB cable (not included). I printed 4-by-5-inch snapshots at a Bluetooth-ready photo kiosk in my local drugstore.
The prints--especially of outdoor shots--looked pretty good, with adequate color and exposure, though I noticed some banding on a few images. The SCH-a990 didn't do as well on my indoor photos, displaying discoloration and image noise when I viewed them on my monitor.
Another bothersome thing is the automatic size reduction that the device performs when you send photos via e-mail and text message. I would have liked to have the option of sending the file at its original size, which was in the range of 300KB to 500KB. Instead, the SCH-a990 sends files that are about 100KB in size. You can print 4-by-5 and (maybe) 5-by-6 snapshots with these files, but nothing larger. Given that the phone supports Verizon's broadband-like EvDO network, I don't see what the problem would be with sending a large image. (Of course, a reduced-size photo works fine for sharing online.)
This phone has a lot going for it. The buying decision comes down to whether you have the budget to enjoy its features.
Comments or questions? Drop Grace Aquino a line.
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