Samsung is not shy about cramming the pixels into its mobile phones, and the Pixon follows on from the i8510 which packed the same 8-megapixel punch. It bears noting time and time again that pixel count alone is not enough to make a good camera, and if you want superb shots you would be better every time looking at a dedicated digital camera.

Still, pixel count does seem to be important for Samsung and others when it comes to mobile phones and the Pixon combines a high count with some nifty additional features. The camera lens is protected by a cover that you slide away to activate the camera software. There is auto focus, a macro mode and a dual LED flash.

Shake reduction, face detection and smile detection are all designed to help you get good quality photos. And there is something called Face Link. You can use this to tag photos and then search for them later by name. Oh, and the handset's GPS antenna is on hand for geotagging.

We particularly liked the panorama shooting mode because it is both easy to use and effective. You take the first shot then move the camera along your chosen panorama. It automatically takes the photos it needs to build its shot. This worked really well for us during testing.

It is usual for higher end handsets these days that the screen reorients between landscape and portrait aspects as you turn the phone in your hand. That happens here and it is great for viewing photos, but we also like the way you can tilt the phone in your hand to move through a slideshow.

Importantly, image quality impressed us and the macro mode was particularly good.

Of course we mustn't forget that this is a high end mobile phone and to that end it sports a range of other top-notch features. There is 200MB of built-in storage, for example, and this can be augmented with a microSD card. You get a 1GB card with the phone.

The Pixon supports HSDPA to 7.2Mbps. And you can customise the home screen by dragging widgets off a side panel. Some go online, such as the one which gets weather information, others use the phone's resources, such as the controllers for music playback and the phone's FM radio. Notably absent from the array of features is Wi-Fi, which is a shame.

The Pixon is a bit sizeable at 108mm tall, 55mm wide and 14mm thick. It weighs 122g, but that size allows it to have a 3.2-inch, 240 x 400-pixel screen on which to display its information.

There are just three front buttons; Call, End and a back key. If you want to get to the phone's applications you can either use a side-mounted shortcut key that offers six features - messaging, the browser, the call screen, music player, back and the main menu - or tap the main menu icon on the touch screen.

Verdict
With Wi-Fi missing from the features line-up the Pixon isn't quite the all-singing, all-dancing mobile phone it could have been. But the camera does well and has some interesting features, and overall this is an impressive high end mobile.

Company: Samsung

Contact: 0870 7267864

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