Ok, I've owned this Camera Phone now for the last three weeks, and I can not find that many reviews about this great phone, so I thought I'd share my thoughts with you all.
The Deal
First off, this version of the Samsung Pixon is in Silver and on the T-Mobile network. For £31.50 a month I get 1000 minutes/photo messages/video minutes or 2000 texts, plus 1GB download allowance and 5 free international texts a week. Having used the Pixon a hell of a lot for internet I am still under 30MB's of my allowance!!! That is a bargain!
The Looks
The phone itself is a very good size. It's thinner than my old SE k850i and about the same height, width ways it is slightly wider than the k850i. To put this into perspective, it is a millimeter or so bigger all around than an LG Viewty, but thinner! In Silver it looks absolutly amazing compared to the black version of the phone. It is very light, no more heavier than a standard mobile phone.
On the front of the phone is a huge 3.2 inch touch-screen, and below the touch screen are three buttons. One dial button, one button used for going back during an operation and one button to end calls and go straight back to the main menu.
At the back of the phone, the 8MP camera projects slightly, so when you are holding your phone in your hand, it actally looks like you are holding a digital camera. The whole camera is very pleasing to the eye.
The Pixon in use
Firstly, this phone gives really good call quality. That is most important obviously, as first and foremost this is a phone! The conversations are very loud, so even in a noisy environment you will be able to hear the other person. So far, it's the loudest phone I have used, and it makes a huge difference. All calls have kept connected, and the phone can give excellent results even in the lowest signal areas.
Then there's the 8MP camera. This can be accessed through the menu, or simply by holding the camera button on the phone for a couple of seconds. The camera is ready for action as soon as it registers you want to use it, which is awesome for when you need a fast photo. Photo quality is very good, and the camera works well in low light. The camera has an LED flash, which, although not as good as a "proper" flash does a respectable job in most environments. The camera also supports GPS tagging of photos, so when you are out-side, the photos you take will be marked with the coordinates of where the photo was taken... Very useful for my trip to San Francisco in a couple of weeks!
There is a great photo viewer, which let's you admire and even edit the photos you have taken. You can drag photos accross the screen and touch up photos using your fingers to point out the areas that need refining. The phone comes with an 8MB memory card, so there is plenty of room for thousands of photos and videos. The video camera supports full DVD resolution and speed recording, plus there is a 120 frames per second mode which allows you to have super-slow motion. Every thing you could dream of is support in the photographic department.
The next most important feature to me is the internet. This is handled well by the Pixon, and with download speeds of over 7mps the internet is very fast compared to other phones. It handles "real" internet, so you can view pages as they are meant to look, and to be fair, they look very good on this phone. There is no wi-fi sadly, but again, with my data-plan this is irrelevent to me. If I want to use the internet that much while travelling I have my netbook with me anyway.
One feature that is overlooked by many is the GPS. Some sites wrongly state that only the Camera supports GPS tagging. This is incorrect, the included Google Maps and any GPS applications you download work well with the Pixon, so you need never be lost again! This feature has already come in handy for me when I forgot my GPS system in the car... Out came the phone and destination was found!
The phone is also a great media player, it handles .avi divx files and many more, it also handles almost every audio codec out there. Pictures are sharp and contrast is great while watching films on the screen. I have watched Transformers on it, and it looked and sounded great. The built in speakers are loud, and if you so which, the phone comes with a 3.5mm jack adaptor to add your own headphones, though the ones supplied are actually very good.
Other applications on the phone allow you to use Facebook, Twitter etc, and also there are some great to-do list and calender programs. There's also a great easy to use alarm on there and much much more. Programs can be installed easily if they are Java compatible, which can make the phone quite a formidable force.
Overall
The only thing that this phone is lacking is wi-fi. This may annoy some people, but with a great data-plan it is no real loss, definitly not as much as I thought it would be. To date, after using a Nokia N95 for work, a SE k850i for personal use and having spent a lot of time with the iPhone, the Pixon is easily up there with the iPhone and because of the camera and fast internet abilities is my favourite phone by quite a margin.
Battery life is now excellent, after a few initial charges I now get a good three days use, which includes around 2 hours of phone calls, internet use and GPS and photos.
Highly recommended.
