First up are the two big changes offered by the update: a Remote View Finder and new Smart Modes. The Remote View Finder is self-explanatory, allowing users to use a remote view finder app in conjunction with another device that will serve as the viewer. Not all devices will support the feature, but those that do include the iPhone, Galaxy Tab, and Galaxy S. The feature requires a Wi-Fi connection.

And next on the list are the new Smart Modes, of which users will see four additions after updating comprised of: Snow, Food, Dawn, and Party Indoor. This brings the overall Smart Modes count up to nineteen, all of which offer a mode for nearly every shooting situation you may encounter. While these are the two new features, there are also some improvements that concern a Help app and S Memo.

Following the S Memo update, users will find they can create a record with photos that are already saved on the device. And last but not least is the inclusion of a Help app, which is what you’d expect: an app for browing through information on your camera, how to use it, modes, and other such goodies. You can grab the update now from Settings > About device > System updates.

[via Android Community]

The Samsung Galaxy Camera has been working like a boss for SlashGear over the past few weeks and months, appearing in such features as “Our Secret Star of CES” and our full Samsung Galaxy Camera review. This device is essentially a high-powered photography machine able to allow photographers of any skill level the ability to take excellent photos right out of the box. Using a custom Android user interface, Samsung has made it easy to get onboard with the future of smart photography.

The oddest part about this release is the price – while the difference in prices between off- and on-contract devices has been evolving over the past few years, it’s always strange when one is so extremely close to the other as this one is. If you pick this Galaxy Camera up from AT&T attached to a 2-year data contract, you’ll be paying $499.99 USD. You’ll be paying that same price if you buy it off-contract.

It’ll be up to you whether you want to pay an extra $50 for the ability to slot your microSIM card into the device if you’re on AT&T or Verizon this week – we’re thinking it might be worth the few extra bucks. Your other option is to connect to your smartphone in your pocket with your wireless hot-spot using the wi-fi capabilities of the camera – either way, you’ll be tossing down a few bucks this summer!

UPDATE: It would appear that the Samsung Galaxy Camera is now $549.99 on Verizon and still $499.99 on AT&T (but you’ll get an accessory bundle, too!) It’s still up to you!

Have a peek at our fabulous Samsung Galaxy Camera timeline below and let us know if you’ll be picking one up soon!

The Galaxy Camera Wi-Fi is the same as the previously-released model, except that it lacks a 3G/4G mobile connection and instead offers dual-band wifi. Obviously, this means those who purchase this model won’t have the advantage of being able to share their images no matter where they’re located, instead having to rely on a wireless Internet connection. Still, for many users this isn’t a big deal, and so the drop in price is a nice perk.

The Galaxy Camera features a 16.3-megapixel CMOS sensor, a 23mm wide-angle lens, and 21x optical zoom. The ISO range is 100 to 3200 in addition to an auto option. The camera saves images in JPEG format, allowing images taken at 12-megapixels, 2-megapixels, and 1-megapixel to have a wide-screen aspect ratio. Movies can be recorded in full 1080p HD at 30fps, and at 768 x 512 in slow motion (120fps).

As for the Android aspect of the Galaxy camera, there’s a 4.8-inch HD Super Clear display and a 1.4GHz quad-core processor. Internal storage is 8GB, but there’s a microSD slot with support for SDSC, SDHC, and SDXC for more storage space. The camera runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and comes loaded with a host of Google services, including YouTube, Maps, Talk, Places, Chrome, and the Play Store, among others.

No word on pricing yet.

[via Samsung]

A quick recap, if you’ve not been keeping up. Revealed at IFA 2012 last September, the Galaxy Camera blends a 16-megapixel camera with a 21x optical zoom together with Android as per the Galaxy S III smartphone. We had a mixture of AT&T and the recently-released Verizon versions of the Galaxy Camera, each using 4G LTE networks (there’s WiFi b/g/n, but we rarely took the time to hunt down local wireless networks) [Update: The Verizon version uses LTE; AT&T's maxes out at HSPA+]. Just about all of the regular Android apps run on the camera, including Instagram, but we stuck with Samsung’s default app, that can also record Full HD 1080p video.

Our thinking was that, rather than shooting in our normal style – swapping out memory cards and offloading media to a laptop whenever convenient – we would use the Galaxy Camera’s wireless connectivity to upload photos and videos directly to the cloud. By using Smugmug, which has a dedicated app for Android, we could automatically watermark each shot and keep all of the media together in a place where the whole team (whether physically present at CES or otherwise) could access it.

In practice, that turned out to be largely the way the team worked, at least in more time-critical situations. Tag-teaming on press conference coverage, one person could shoot content and pick the best of the images to upload, all wirelessly, while the other person could pull their preferred images from the Smugmug gallery. With product hands-on, there was no “which memory card were those photos on?” confusion, since the images had already been uploaded.

Functionality is useless if the quality is lacking, though happily that wasn’t our experience with the Galaxy Camera. For best results you’ll usually get the most ideal images from a DSLR, unsurprisingly, but heavy, bulky cameras aren’t especially suited to the booth-hopping of a show like CES. In fact, we were able to coax some decent results from the Samsung – our Pebble smartwatch hands-on photos were all taken with the Galaxy Camera, for instance – while the 21x optical zoom proved invaluable for getting closer to items on-stage during press conferences.

Pebble smartwatch photo samples:

The Galaxy Camera isn’t perfect, mind. We experienced the odd focusing issue, where the Samsung would be reluctant to lock onto close-up subjects. That could usually be addressed by repositioning the frame and trying again – or backing off a little altogether – but it was frustrating when it happened, and interrupted our workflow. The uploading process could also be fiddly; we were using the Smugmug app, through which we could choosing individual photos and videos to be uploaded to a gallery in the cloud, but each required separate selections.

It’s also not ideal to be jumping in and out of the camera app, picking content to be uploaded. Some sort of briefly-shown “Upload This” button shown displayed with the preview frame after each shot is taken would be great, as would easy onboard watermarking. A double-save – one lower-res copy for uploading more quickly, and a higher-res original kept on the memory card for later – would also be useful. It’s worth noting that most of our complaints could be addressed by apps, which the Galaxy Camera’s Android OS would make easy to install – not something you could say about most point-and-shoots.

So what have we learned? Our experiment to integrate the Galaxy Camera into our workflow isn’t over, with a trial-by-fire at CES highlighting some of the Samsung snapper’s shortcomings. We returned to an old-fashioned whip-out-the-memory-card style workflow at a couple of points, for instance, usually when there was a particularly urgent image we specifically needed. It proved difficult to edit the upload priority of content in the task list, forcing us to go manual with our offloads. Samsung’s onboard video editing app proved fiddly to use on the go, and we quickly reverted to more traditional editing once the footage was on our computer.

For its balance of convenience and performance, though, the Galaxy Camera has impressed us again. When time is of the essence – and when we’re incredibly excited to bring you the latest news, as soon as possible – the effectiveness of an online camera is demonstrable. We’ll be tweaking with alternative apps and maybe even cooking up some custom software of our own, just so that we can better embed the Samsung into the SlashGear system, so expect to see more photos and video shot on the Galaxy Camera through 2013!

Thanks to Samsung who loaned us a number of Galaxy Cameras, with no expectations as to whether/how we might use them at CES, or indeed subsequently report on them.

Apple and Microsoft are still butting heads over the 30% cut of SkyDrive profits Apple wants, while Twitter has been updated to version 5.2 on iOS, offering a number of new photo filters to users. According to a new poll from Morgan Stanley and AlphaWise, almost half of consumers want an Apple television, with a number of people willing to pay a lot of money for one. Netflix has ranked a bunch of ISPs on video streaming efficiency and Google Fiber came out on top, while we learned that the Wii U sold more than 300,000 units in Japan during its launch weekend.

Speaking of video games, Amazon has a rather tempting offer on Assassin’s Creed III today only, and Apple’s HDTV is rumored to have 3D imaging capabilities. Fuhu has launched its new nabi Notes headphones for children, and Satarii has taken to Kickstarter to secure funding for its second-generation Swivl. We heard that an untethered jailbreak for iOS 6.0.1 will be arriving on December 22, and kids developer Mobbles has pulled its apps in an apparent precautionary measure against an FTC investigation. Honda was spotted teasing an urban SUV concept today, while Audi and Texas Instruments have joined forces for Jacinto 5 processor integration.

Find My iPhone has been updated with driving directions to find your missing device faster, GoDaddy has made former Yahoo and Microsoft executive Blake Irving its CEO, and the “Pantone Universe” collection of cases has launched for the iPhone 5. Microsoft has increased production on Surface RT tablets and will soon putting them on the shelves of its retail partners, while eBay said that last Sunday was its biggest mobile shopping day ever. Finally tonight, Chris Burns goes hands-on with OCDesk for the iPhone 5 and new iMac, so be sure to give that a look. That does it for tonight’s evening wrap-up, enjoy the rest of your night folks!

The Samsung Galaxy Camera will be coming to Verizon with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and will have software that closely relates to the rest of the top-tier Samsung family. This software allows instant sharing between the Samsung Galaxy S III and Samsung Galaxy Note II and of course uploads you media to the web with immense speed with Verizon’s 4G LTE network for mobile data. This device is first and foremost a camera, then an Android device, combining the two for one great hybrid device in its own class.

The back of this camera is a massive 4.8-inch display with HD Super Clear LCD touch screen technology and comes packed with a selection of photography-specific apps such as Instagram (and likely Color, too). You’ll be able to work with this machines lovely 16-megapixel lens, 21x optical zoom, and optical image stabilization for next-level quality in your images and video.

The Samsung Galaxy Camera from Verizon will be released for $549.99 USD and will be available in both white and Cobalt Black. You’ll be able to add the Samsung Galaxy Camera to your Verizon “Share Everything” account for the promotional price of $5 a month – hot stuff! Have a peek at the brief history of the Samsung Galaxy Camera below and get pumped up for the speedy version!

[via Verizon]

Essentially, the Verizon version of the Galaxy Camera looks pretty much identical to its AT&T brethren. However, there is no mention of a CDMA radio in the spec list, which may mean that the cellular capabilities of the device will be completely useless unless you have a 4G LTE plan, but now that Verizon’s LTE is in over 400 markets, you’ll be hard-pressed to not find LTE service in your area.

The Galaxy Camera comes with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean on board, and features a huge 4.8-inch TFT display with a 1280×720 resolution. The camera features an incredible 21x Zoom (23mm-483mm) and a 16MP sensor, as well as all the handy amenities you’d want, like WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS. It also doesn’t hurt that it has a 1.4GHz quad-core Qualcomm chip inside running the show.

There’s no details as to when the Galaxy Camera will launch on Verizon’s network or even how much it will cost, but we’re guessing it’ll be the same $499 for the AT&T version. That’s certainly not cheap for a compact camera, especially for a point-and-shoot device, but the benefit of Android built-in along with LTE connectivity seems pretty worth it to us.

[via The Verge]

Speaking of Thanksgiving, it turns out the holiday was Instagram’s biggest day ever, with tons of users taking pictures of Thanksgiving dinner and uploading them to the service. AT&T is offering refurbished iPhone 5s on its website for $99 a pop, while we caught a glimpse of the HTC Deluxe in a leaked press shot today. Nokia suffered a pretty big setback today when the head of its camera and imaging department, Damian Dinning, announced he would be leaving the company, and T-Mobile’s online stock of the Nexus 4 was brought down to nothing in mere hours after the Google Play Store linked to the listing.

The long-awaited Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition was given a gameplay trailer today while we learned that mobile data usage has doubled in the past year. The Samsung Galaxy Camera will be launching in Canada on December 7, and Nintendo has partnered with HMV to give some early Wii U adopters free games when the console launches in Europe. Nexus 4 LTE functionality has been unlocked through the use of a simple hack, and the Toyota Prius has been named the car least likely to be stolen, despite its relative popularity. Finnish police have taken a nine-year-old’s Winnie the Pooh laptop for suspected file sharing, and scientists have studied the dwarf planet Makemake for the first time.

Finally tonight, we have a number of reviews for you to read through. Cory Gunther gives us his review of the Barnes & Noble Nook HD, while Chris Burns reviews the Acer Aspire S7 and the AERIAL7 TANK DIY over the ear headphones. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy your weekend!

Hardware

You won’t mistake the Galaxy Camera for anything other than a camera: while phones like Nokia’s Lumia 920 are making a play for being taken seriously as photography tools, the Samsung shooter approaches the space from the other direction, adding mobile smarts to a camera housing. In fact, it’s based roughly on Samsung’s existing WB850F Smart Camera, though the interface and controls are very different by virtue of the Android OS.

The 21x optical zoom dictates most of the bulk, and while the body of the camera is – aside from the bulge of the grip – reasonably slim at 19mm, the non-removable lens means the Samsung is hardly pocket-friendly. It’s also quite slippery, and while there’s some texturing to the grip, the large expanse of glass touchscreen and the otherwise smooth plastic body don’t exactly make grabbing the Galaxy Camera an entirely reassuring experience.

It does feel sturdy, though, with decent plastics thankfully taking after Samsung’s camera line, not the more glossy, cheaper-feeling materials of the Galaxy smartphone range. Physical controls fall under the fingers, though they’re sparse beyond the point of minimalism: a recessed power button on the top, a trigger for the pop-up Xenon flash on the side, and the shutter release button surrounded by a zoom-control ring. Everything else is controlled via the touchscreen (or your voice, more on which in a moment).

And what a touchscreen it is. Nearly the entire rear of the camera is covered by a 4.8-inch 1280 x 720 display, the same size and resolution as on Samsung’s best-selling Galaxy S III phone. It’s not the same display technology, however; the Galaxy Camera uses an HD Super Clear LCD TFT panel, rather than the AMOLED-based panel of its cellular cousin. It’s incredibly bright and super-detailed, and usable even in direct sunlight just as you’d hope for a camera. Touch responsiveness is brisk, and there’s plenty of room for a sizable onscreen keyboard, even when in portrait orientation (as some Android apps demand).

Inside, components fall either under the “camera” or the “phone” heading. For the former, there’s a 16.3-megapixel 1/2.3-inch backside-illuminated CMOS sensor, with optical image stabilization, ISO 100-3200, and a 21x optical zoom. It’s capable of Full HD 1080p video recording.

For the latter, there’s a quadcore 1.4GHz Exynos 4412 processor, 1GB of RAM, and 3.87GB of onboard storage, in addition to a microSD card slot (compatible with up to 64GB SDXC cards); that internal memory can be a life saver, as we discovered on one outing with the Galaxy Camera when we realized we’d forgotten all of our memory cards. Connectivity includes 4G on the AT&T Galaxy Camera offered in the US and Europe gets quadband HSPA+ as well; both include WiFi a/b/g/n (2.4/5GHz) and Bluetooth.

There’s also a 3.5mm headphone jack and, under a flap, a microUSB port on one edge, while a microHDMI port is found when you open the battery door on the bottom (which sits alongside a tripod mount) though you can also prize open a small “sub door” to expose just that video output. It’s also where the microSIM card is slotted in, and where the 1,650 mAh battery is inserted.

Samsung has made some mildly interesting decisions in the specs. The Galaxy Camera can’t be used as a phone for voice calls, though since Android offers various VoIP apps like Skype, there’s a microphone and earpiece speaker; however, you don’t get an ambient light sensor to automatically adjust the backlighting of the screen, which seems an odd omission given a mixture of indoor and outdoor use is likely. GPS/GLONASS, an accelerometer, gyroscope, and a digital compass are all present, just as you’d find in a phone.

Software

With Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the Galaxy Camera is running a newer version of Google’s smartphone software than some recent phones we’ve seen; it’s also several versions ahead of alternative Android-based cameras from Polaroid and Nikon. Turn the camera on, and the interface is instantly familiar if you’ve used any of Samsung’s recent TouchWiz smartphones, albeit in landscape orientation by default.

So, you get the Android homescreen with widgets and user-customizable wallpaper, access to the Play market to download third-party apps, all the cloud-integration and sharing tools you’d expect, and the usual gamut of Gmail, IM, messaging, and other communication apps. The only icon missing, in fact, is for the phone. Samsung pins the camera app shortcut to the bottom left corner of the homescreen, or you can simply press the shutter button to wake the app and power up the lens. The Galaxy Camera can go from idle to ready to fire off a shot in a couple of seconds, on a par with regular point-and-shoots.

The bulk of the apps are as you’d expect from an Android phone, though Samsung has modified the camera app to suit the greater flexibility the Galaxy Camera allows. There are three modes – Auto, Smart, and Expert – stepping up through the range of manual options; Auto mode takes all of the decisions upon itself, while Smart mode has fifteen presets to suit different shooting styles, environments, and desired effects.

So, you get Landscape, Waterfall, Sunset, Night, and Fireworks for the more typical scenes, along with Panorama, Action Freeze, and Silhouette for more specific situations. There’s also Rich Tone, for enhancing the colors, and Light Trace for the smeared-light patterns that look particularly good when you’re taking photos of moving cars. Finally, there’s Beauty Face, which softens skin tones, Continuous Shot, Best Face to combine different faces from group scenes, Best Photo which fires off multiple images in one go and allows you to pick your favorite, and Macro for close-ups.

Finally, there’s Expert mode, which half-fills the touchscreen with concentric dials for the various manual settings. Options are selected roughly speaking from the right edge inward: first the overall mode, whether P/A/S/M priority or camcorder, and then granular control over ISO, shutter speed, exposure, and aperture (depending on which priority mode you’re in). It works, but it’s not the most ergonomic of arrangements, and we wish there was a way to save user-presets (we’d even allow Samsung to blunt some of its minimalism and add a few dedicated preset keys along the top).

Of course, since this is all based on Android, you’re not limited to Samsung’s interpretation of the camera app. The Galaxy Camera can also run third-party camera software downloaded from the Play store, such as Instagram, Paper Camera, or any of the hundreds of options out there. Not all take full advantage of the hardware, however; outside of Samsung’s own app, the zoom control is recognized as a volume rocker instead. Still, we were able to quickly get up and running with Instagram.

Since it’s Samsung, there’s no shortage of tweaks and gimmicks, some more successful than others. As on the company’s phones, there’s AllShare Play for wirelessly streaming your media to a nearby smart TV, or alternatively you can use WiFi Direct and beam images directly to a compatible phone, tablet, or computer. Of mixed use is Voice Control, which allows you to not only fire off a shot by shouting at the Galaxy Camera – potentially useful if you yourself are the subject – but control zooming and the timer. It works, most of the time, as long as background noise is minimal, but without a swiveling screen it’s tough to know exactly what you’re taking a picture of in the first place.

Point-and-shoot cameras claiming any degree of flexibility have had onboard editing tools for some time now, and the Galaxy Camera comes equipped with a number of options. More basic edits can be done in Photo Wizard, such as crops and rotation, while Paper Artist plays up the effects side, with filters, textures, frames, and layers, as well as the ability to add text or handwritten notes directly to the frame. There’s also a video editor, carried over from Samsung’s phones, which permits basic cuts, music backing to be added, some titling, and combining clips into longer videos.

None of them, it must be said, are especially successful, and what Android needs is a true iMovie and iPhoto alternative now that devices are powerful enough to run – and capable of producing sufficiently good photos and video to warrant – capable editing apps. As it stands, we would struggle to put together a video at, say, a tech event, or watermark hands-on photos, all on the camera itself, but it’s not hard to imagine being able to do so with the right app.

Samsung is making a big deal of the sharing potential of the Galaxy Camera, and since you’re paying no small premium for the integrated wireless connectivity, that comes as little surprise. All of Android’s regular sharing options are present, so you can quickly fire off a photo via email, but since it’s Android any app with a sharing facility – such as Box, DropBox, Facebook, and other social networks – is added to the list for easy access. That’s before you get to auto uploads, either offered by third-party services such as Google+ – automatically shuttling off your photos and video to a (private by default) online gallery – or, when it launches in time, Samsung’s own cloud-based alternative.

Camera

All the flexibility and the connectivity would be for nothing if the Galaxy Camera produced poor quality photos and video, of course. The reality is mixed, and depends considerably on your expectations from a camera. If, for instance, you like the instant sharing options of your smartphone’s camera, but want a step up in image quality, then the Galaxy Camera will undoubtedly be an improvement on what you’re used to.

Above: Click image for full-sized version.

However, the added complexity of the quadcore processor, 4G radio, and other components means the hardware cost of the Galaxy Camera overall is disproportionately high when compared to point-and-shoots in its class. For instance, the Samsung WB850F it shares its key photography components with has an RRP of $380 (and a street price $120 less than that). $499.99 for the AT&T Galaxy Camera, meanwhile (with a month-to-month data plan, rather than a two-year agreement), puts it alongside a Micro Four Thirds camera from Panasonic, Olympus, or others, or a Sony NEX-5N, or even one of Samsung’s NX-series models.

Unsurprisingly, you’ll get better results with a dedicated interchangeable lens camera from that list. The Galaxy Camera does well in good lighting, but noise increasingly becomes an issue as the ISO climbs; the camera tops out at 3200, but you really don’t want to get anywhere near that in practice. There’s a tendency toward over-saturation of colors and a blunt approach to contrast in low-light, meanwhile, which leaves shots looking vivid at first glance but, with closer examination, sacrifices accuracy for artificial warmth.

Step out of Auto and take the time to tweak the Smart mode to suit your situation, and the results improve. The Galaxy Camera still buts up against the limits of its CMOS size, but fast-moving subjects such as running water really are caught well in, say, Waterfall mode, and the creative options do a good job of distilling some of the more popular photo effects into something that’s user-friendly.

Video, meanwhile, benefits considerably over smartphone cameras by virtue of the optical zoom and image stabilization. There’s some focus hunting as you reach maximum zoom, but the level of detail and the absence of blur in panning shots is impressive; the optical image stabilization belies the reach of the lens, too. Colors are generally accurate, if somewhat on the cool side, and low-light performance is considerably better than what a smartphone could achieve. It’s also worth noting that video playback looks particularly good on the 4.8-inch display, certainly not something that could be said about all compact cameras.

Battery

Samsung quotes up to 168 hours of 4G standby (280hrs for 3G) from the 1,650 mAh battery, or up to 4.5 hours of “in-use” time. It’s a gray area in a sense, since traditionally cameras would be measured in shots-per-charge but Samsung is obviously expecting Galaxy Camera owners to spend more time editing, sharing, and generally being social.

In practice, after roughly an hour of photography, with auto-upload to either Dropbox or Facebook, and video to YouTube, the Galaxy Camera’s battery gage dropped to 70-percent. That suggests just over three hours of practical use, though you could obviously extend it if you were more selective with your uploads.

Wrap-Up

Is the Galaxy Camera a game-changer? Yes, and no. In itself, it’s the best of the Android-based cameras, though that’s hardly a well-stocked category. Judged purely on its photography abilities it struggles, falling short of what similarly-priced rivals can produce while costing significantly more than the point-and-shoots it’s quality is on a par with. Taken into context as an all-in-one photography, editing, and social sharing studio, however, and it’s a different matter, occupying a niche sweet spot between the flexibility (but underwhelming photos) of a smartphone, and the quality (but cumbersome sharing options) of a camera.

Then there’s price. AT&T offers the Galaxy Camera for $499.99 with a month-to-month plan, not the usual two-year agreement, and if you’re an existing smartphone customer you can add the Samsung to Mobile Share data plan for an extra $10 per month. Alternatively, you can get it a data plan of its own, starting at $14.99 for 250MB per month, or $30 for 3GB, or finally $50 for 5GB. Given the increasing number of users with mobile hotspot functionality on their phones, or willing to simply take advantage of WiFi hotspots, we can see plenty opting out of a cellular data connection altogether, which does somewhat undermine the Galaxy Camera’s abilities.

Far more interesting, perhaps, is the potential for Samsung to build upon the Galaxy Camera with a range of Android-based smart-cameras. Going from the Galaxy Camera’s intuitive Android interface to a regular camera feels like a step back in time: we quickly got used to being able to offload new shots in an instant, whether that involved social sharing or simply pushing them to our computer for editing. Not having to mess with cables or memory card readers has a big impact on workflow, and we’d love to see that added to a more capable interchangeable lens camera.

The Samsung Galaxy Camera is a first-generation product, and they inevitably carry a compromise. In this case, it’s a case of price and expectations: do you spend your money on a great camera, or on a good camera with the added benefit of social options we simply haven’t seen offered on a point-and-shoot before? It’s undoubtedly a niche product, but the convenience and flexibility is addictive, and we’re left hoping Samsung sticks with the concept for at least a second-generation to broach the mass market.

The device is ready to rock right out of the box, with its pop-up flash and full 21x optical zoom, 16-megapixel camera up front. Normally we’d say that the camera on this side of the device is on the “back” of a smartphone, but because this device is first and foremost a camera, it’s now the front. The “back” then brings on a brand new user interface built on Android – but here with a mind for photography.

The user interface is quote different from what you’re going to see on a Samsung Galaxy S III with a brand new interpretation of Android allowing you to quickly access mainly photography-centered apps easily. The apps you’re using here we’ll be having a closer look at in the full review, of course. For now we can say this: they’re just as impressive as they were way back at IFA 2012 when we got our first look at this device.

This device has extremely simple physical controls around its sides and a single speaker on one side. Samsung certainly expect you to be using the touchscreen interface here primarily with only the most basic reliance on the physical buttons – as it is with a smartphone. Note also that this isn’t a device that’s mean to replace your smartphone, instead acting as a replacement for your everyday point-and-shoot camera.

Now we’ve got to decide if it makes sense to add another device to our pockets since we’ve been using nothing but the smartphone for such things for some time – we’ll see!

We’ve had our hands on the international edition of the Samsung Galaxy Camera and will certainly be having a closer look relatively soon. For now, hear this: you’ll have a quad-core 1.4GHz Samsung-made Exynos processor inside (same as the Galaxy Note II) and mobile data onboard. That means you’ve got heavy firepower, of course, and you’ll be connected to the web – so no more need to connect to your computer with a USB cable just to unload all your photos.

This device is also coming to AT&T with a deal you’ll want to think about. That is, for a limited time, up to $100 off the purchase of a second Samsung connected device – including the Galaxy Camera – when you purchase any Samsung Galaxy smartphone. So it’s not a $100 if you buy the camera, but $100 off the camera if you buy a smartphone first – same thing in the end.

This device has a lovely 4.8-inch Super Clear LCD screen on the back, Samsung’s own TouchWiz-enhanced Android user interface, and connection to the Google Play app store for all your favorite apps – including photography apps, of course. In this way you’ll essentially be working with an Android smartphone, but one that just so happens to have a massively powerful camera on its back. Have a peek at the timeline below for all the Galaxy Camera action you can handle.

On the camera side, there’s a 16.1-megapixel backside-illuminated CMOS sensor, paired with a 23mm aperture lens and optical image stabilization. It also packs a 21x optical zoom – unheard of on a smartphone, and reasonably rare on compact cameras too –  together with Full HD video recording and 120fps slow-motion 720p videos.

As for the phone side, the Galaxy Camera will do just about everything your Android smartphone can, bar making voice calls. There’s HSPA+, WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, HDMI 1.4, and 8GB of internal storage, plus a microSDXC card slot, while Android itself is running on a 1.4GHz quadcore processor. Control is via a sizable 720p touchscreen.

Samsung Galaxy Camera hands-on:

According to Jessops, the Galaxy Camera will be £399.99 and available in white and black; it will also be sold via cellphone stores, and – a day early, from 5pm on November 7 – at Samsung’s official Brand Store. In the US, the Galaxy Camera will be offered “in the coming weeks” on AT&T.

There’s more on the Galaxy Camera in our hands-on, as well as photo samples

This device will have 4G – but not 4G LTE mind you – with AT&T – that’s HSPA+ and still certainly worth a tap. It’s got a 4.8-inch HD Super Clear LCD on the back, a 21x optical zoom lens up front, and works with a 16 megapixel BSI CMOS sensor inside. Inside you’ve got a quad-core Exynos processor from Samsung itself – just as we’ve seen with the international Samsung Galaxy S III and the Galaxy Note 10.1. This device works with Smart Pro Mode technology for pre-set options configured for professional-level images – so sayeth Samsung.

Chris Penrose, senior vice president of AT&T Emerging Devices, notes that this is going to change everything for the video and photo sharing universe.

“Wirelessly enabling Samsung’s Galaxy Camera will create a significant shift in how consumers share and communicate with photos and videos. By posting instantly to social networking sites or sending directly to another device, the person behind the lens is essentially offering family and friends the opportunity to share in the moments as they are actually experiencing them.” – Penrose

It’s with AT&T’s HSPA+ 4G network that you’ll be connecting, and with Samsung’s advanced technology in both the Android-wielding device universe and photography environment that you’ll be taking full advantage of. You’ve got AllShare Play, Share Shot, and Buddy Photo Share working on the device for more sharing than you’ll ever know what to do with, too. Have a peek at our hands-on with these features on the Galaxy S III to see what it’s all about – and note that the Galaxy Camera has not been priced, but AT&T has said that it will be in stores “in the coming weeks.”

We’ve not modified or edited the shots, bar the watermark, to give you an idea of what the Galaxy Camera alone is capable of. Still, it’s worth noting that there’s a reasonably comprehensive photo-editing suite onboard by default; you can make basic brightness/contrast style tweaks, crop shots, or fix redeye, or make more noticeable changes such as adding clipart, text and Instagram-style frames, as shown in our hands-on video (also shot using the Galaxy Camera):

As you can see, there’s some focus-hunting when filming close-up, with the Galaxy Camera struggling at times to keep a lock on the subject. In terms of functionality, mind, being able to instantly upload to services like Instagram, all from the camera itself, or indeed send the shot to Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or via email, is a real benefit. Moreover, you can set the Galaxy Camera to automatically upload all new shots to the cloud as you take them, perfect for instant sharing.

Samsung has pushed the camera option to the forefront of the TouchWiz interface – by default the icon is first in the homescreen quicklaunch bar – but it might be nice to have a dedicated hardware button to launch it. Otherwise, the 4.77-inch Super LCD touchscreen makes navigation incredibly straightforward, with enough space for clear previews of shooting modes and effects, not to mention easy text entry on the onscreen keyboard. It’s worth noting that some Android apps prefer portrait orientation, whereas the Galaxy Camera is most comfortable in landscape: Instagram is a notable offender, refusing to rotate.

Stills look solid though not outstanding; this is, after all, a point and shoot. Touch-focus makes framing easy, and there’s little lag when you hit the shutter button; we did find that we initially kept tapping the silver onscreen button on the right, thinking more of camera apps on Android phones, but which on the Galaxy Camera actually pulls out the mode menu. Samsung is quick to point out that the camera isn’t running final software yet, so both photo and video output – not to mention things like focus hunting – may be changed by the time it reaches shelves. We’ve more hands-on impressions with the Galaxy Camera here.

Just to reiterate, all of the photos in the gallery are unedited and as they came from the Galaxy Camera itself; the watermarks are the only thing we’ve added. Let us know whether you’re convinced by Samsung’s newest model in the comments.

We, of course, have a hands-on with Samsung’s latest phablet for you to check out, but the Galaxy Note II wasn’t the only device that got a reveal at IFA 2012 today. The Samsung Galaxy Camera was revealed as well, and we spent some quality time with it shortly afterward. Samsung also further detailed a pair of new Windows 8 slates – the Series 7 and Series 5 – alongside the Series 5 ULTRA refreshed, a new touch laptop running Windows 8.

As the day went on, the Galaxy Note II got even more attention, as Samsung saying that the new device will be hitting the United States later on in the year. We also compared the Galaxy Note II to the original Galaxy Note, and then we compared it to a more traditional 10.1-inch tablet (in this case, it’s the Note 10.1). How does the Galaxy Note II stack up? You’ll just have to check out those stories to find out.

The ATIV S Windows Phone 8 got a reveal today, as did a pair of Samsung Windows tablets – the ATIV Smart PC Pro and the ATIV Tab, which runs Windows RT. Intrigued by a Samsung Windows 8 tablet? You’re in luck, because it just so happens that we have a hands-on with the ATIV Smart PC Pro and a hands-on with the ATIV Tab. Qualcomm announced that its S4 processors will be powering both the ATIV S and the ATIV Tab, while Samsung promised that Jelly Bean will soon be coming to the Galaxy S III and the Galaxy Note 10.1.

Finally, Samsung did indeed talk about its loss to Apple in the high-profile patent case that wrapped up last week. We’ll have plenty more news from IFA 2012 in the coming days, so keep it right here at SlashGear for all you need to know!

Control is via a 4.8-inch 1280 x 720 touchscreen running at 308ppi, along with the voice control that’s part of Android. There’s also the same sort of in-device intelligence that we’ve seen on the Galaxy S III – in fact it runs on a 1.4GHz quadcore processor too – with the Galaxy Camera able to create folders automatically, identify faces, and tag with location. It will also sift through your shots and make suggestions as to which might not be up to scratch and which you might want to delete.

Reviewing photos can be done in the usual Android gallery manner, but there’s also support for multi-tag searches, allowing users to pull out images from a certain holiday featuring a certain individual. 35 photo editing options are available, including brightness, contrast and filters, though if you have a third-party camera app, like Instagram, you can use that instead. Finally, all of Android’s usual sharing options are on offer, so it’s possible to fire off photos and videos to Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or other social networks, along with WiFi Direct for device-to-device sharing. Images are automatically backed up to cloud storage for safe-keeping.

In fact, most of what you’d find on an Android phone or tablet is present, bar voice calling – even though there’s that HSPA+ modem, it’s only for data. Still, that means there’s support for browsing on the vast display, managing all your email accounts and contacts, calendar and gaming, as well as support for third-party apps downloaded to the camera. Storage is courtesy of a microSD card, and there’s an HDMI output for directly hooking up a TV.

While Samsung is among the smartphone manufacturers pushing the envelope with phone-cameras, the Galaxy Camera is definitely a camera first. There’s an Expert mode with support for manually adjusting aperture, shutter speed, ISO and other settings, and of course the dimensions are more akin to a point-and-shoot camera than they are a phone. You also get a pop-up Xenon flash.

Samsung is in talks with carriers regarding potential subsidies, and isn’t talking about specific pricing as yet. Still, it says we should expect the Galaxy Camera to be priced akin to a premium model, so we’re guessing in the region of $500+. It will go on sale in Q4 2012.

If you’ve used a recent Samsung Android phone, then the Galaxy Camera’s interface should be familiar. It’s primarily intended for landscape orientation use, though an accelerometer will flip it into portrait mode if you rotate it. Three homescreens with the usual app and widget support, along with support for third-party software, email, browsing and more, are pulled directly from phones; the 35 tool editing suite is a new addition, but is equally straightforward thanks to the expansive touchscreen.

The face-combining tool we’ve seen on BlackBerry 10 – allowing you to pick out faces from multiple frames, and add them into one image to get the best shot of each person – works well, just as we’ve seen before. It’s not clear whether it’s powered by Scalado, as per RIM’s implementation, but we wouldn’t be surprised.

We were able to quickly snap off photos – and indeed you can shoot video and stills simultaneously, though the optical zoom proved more ponderous when clips were filming – and then have the Galaxy Camera automatically identify faces in the frames. Match each person to a contact, and the camera tags each frame with that person for easier recall later. You can search using multiple tags, and so can pull out images that were taken at the same time, with the same people showing, in the same location if you choose.

Sharing uses the normal Android share-to menu, though sized up to make the best use of the display, and so any app you have which supports sharing can be used with the camera. That should help longevity, such as if you find yourself addicted to a social network Samsung didn’t guess to include out of the box. Uploading can be either via WiFi or 3G/HSPA+, though you can’t use the latter connection to make calls. Given Android’s popularity with modded ROMs, though, we wouldn’t be surprised to see that change shortly after the Galaxy Camera’s Q4 2012 launch.

Cameras running Android are still rare, with Polaroid announcing one model at the top of the year but still yet to release it, and Nikon joining the rarified club in recent weeks with the Coolpix S800c. They’ll both need to be good to compete with the Samsung Galaxy Camera, however; its photographic abilities have Samsung’s lineage, and its camera tech significantly improves the usability experience overall. Pricing may end up being the deciding factor, however, so hopefully carriers won’t pull the rug from under the Galaxy Camera before it ever has a chance to shine.