With a jungle of camera phones on the market, we dig deep into our scoreboards to find the top performers.
Having a hard time figuring out which phone you should choose when camera performance is an important aspect? Fortunately, every phone we review here at infoSync World is closely scrutinized, including their integrated digital cameras and photo management software.
In this first article of a long feature series, we give you better insight on our lab results for five of the best integrated cameras we've seen on reviewed phones. Below the scoreboard, you'll find our final verdicts of each phone's overall camera performance.
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CAMERA SCOREBOARD
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| Name |
Image quality |
Viewfinder quality |
Camera capabilities |
Editor capabilities |
Photo management |
Total score |
| N95 |
80% |
80% |
100% |
80% |
100% |
88% |
| Heat |
60% |
80% |
70% |
100% |
100% |
82% |
| Drift |
60% |
80% |
70% |
100% |
100% |
82% |
| Maxx Ve |
80% |
80% |
70% |
100% |
80% |
80% |
| SCH-A990 |
80% |
80% |
80% |
80% |
70% |
78% |
Nokia N95 - Overall camera score: 88%
The Nokia N95 has a 5-megapixel camera on its back and a VGA camera up front. The rear camera features auto-focus with a two-step shutter release and a Xenon flash. The Carl Zeiss optics are hidden behind a lens cover, opened with a switch. Pictures taken with the phone were among the best we've seen on camera phones. We still don't think the image will replace a good, dedicated camera, but images from the camera would have been fine for Web publishing or small print jobs.
The phone includes plenty of camera options, including various shutter modes for fast-moving subjects or night time portraits. The phone also has a variety of transfer options, including e-mail, printing, IR transfer and Bluetooth capabilities, as well as direct access to Flickr accounts.
Video looked very good as well. Again, we don't think the N95 will replace a nice, standalone camcorder, but its recording quality, at VGA resolution and 30 frames per second, means that videos will look just as good on a television as they do on the 2.6-inch screen, though our review unit lacked the TV-out cable included in the retail package. Our only complaint is that we can't use the front-facing VGA camera for video calls. Read the full review »
Helio Heat - Overall camera score: 82%
After criticizing an endless stream of lousy camera lenses on phones, we're happy to report that the Heat has an adequate lens on its 1.3-megapixel camera. Pictures still came out a bit oversaturated, causing some blurriness and overexposure at the edges of details, but overall the pictures were much better on this phone than we've seen on recent cameraphones, even those with higher-resolution sensors.
Helio's camera interface is very easy to use, with numbers next to icons indicating which keys map to which features. Also, editing and special effects capabilities on the Heat are robust, with frames, clip-art stickers, frame grabs for videos and plenty of fun options. The phone can also upload pictures to MySpace, indirectly via a special Helio server, which is a feature unique to Helio's network.
Unfortunately, the 136MB of internal memory is all the space you have to work with, as the Heat lacks an external memory slot. Read the full review »
Helio Drift - Overall camera score: 82%
Working with photos on the Drift can be entertaining. First and foremost, by sending your pictures as a message to UP (87 on the keypad), Helio will store your photos for uploading to MySpace. Image editing on the Drift is robust, with fun frames, filters and cropping options, as well as stickers, tiny graphics you can create and slap on your photos, and text overlays to add captions and cartoon bubbles.
The Drift can send photos easily via MMS and Bluetooth and can print to USB and Bluetooth printers. With all these options, we're disappointed that Samsung has chosen an adequate lens on the camera. Our snapshots looked blurry even on the camera's small screen; blown up to full 2-megapixel resolution, they looked fuzzy, pixilated, and overexposed, even while our white balance was set to Auto. Read the full review »
Motorola RAZR Maxx Ve - Overall camera score: 80%
The camera on the MOTORAZR Maxx Ve was better than most camera phones we've tested, perhaps owing to the autofocus feature. Colors were bright and accurate, and details were fairly sharp. We did notice some aberration around the edges of objects in photos, but overall we thought the 2-megapixel sensor did a fine job. Videos were okay, certainly better than many cameras we've seen, with a sharp focus and good color. Still, we noticed a lot of digital artifacting on videos, even played back at QVGA resolution. Read the full review »
Samsung SCH-A990 - Overall camera score: 78%
Ready to snap some pictures? Rotate the flip and the main LCD turns into a viewfinder, complete with a heads-up display and options such as a burst mode and a self-timer. The A990 snaps some of the best photos we've seen from a cameraphone. Pictures looked vivid and detailed, with plenty of shadow detail and good color reproduction. The auto-focus took a couple of seconds to zero in on our subjects, but the razor-sharp results were worth the wait. That said, video captures looked murky and choppy, and the camera application slowed to a crawl while storing large images files. Read the full review »
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