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Samsung Galaxy Camera 2 Hands-On

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Ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show this year, Samsung had announced a second generation version of its Galaxy Camera smart camera appropriately called the Galaxy Camera 2, and at the show we finally got some hands-on time with the shooter. The second generation revision is an overall refinement of the original bringing an evolved experience, rather than a revolutionary change, to the Galaxy Camera series.

The Galaxy Camera 2 is a bit slimmer, a bit faster, and has slightly improved image quality than the model that it will succeed. The Galaxy Camera 2 features a faster quad-core Exynos processor, 2 GB of RAM rather than 1 GB from the original, and a design that’s more classic and elegant. Samsung is porting its faux leather trim from the Galaxy Note 3 on the mobile side and on some of its higher end mirrorless cameras to the Galaxy Camera 2. Along with metal-like trims on the top and bottom plates of the camera that are fashioned from plastic, the Galaxy Camera 2 looks more retro and elegant than the all-black or all-white plastic bodies of the original.

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The Galaxy Camera 2 on the surface, however, bears similar specs to the original in terms of imaging power. Though Samsung did not have production-ready units at CES and the company would not allow us to take sample images with the pre-production samples on hand, the company did promise that the image quality will be better than the original. We still have a camera-sized 16-megapixel camera backside illuminated (BSI) sensor, a 21X optical zoom, and 1080p video recording capabilities.

You still have the same 4.8-inch rear 720p resolution display, which serves as the viewfinder for the camera.

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The camera is powered by Android 4.3 Jelly Bean and has a larger battery so hopefully users won’t need to recharge quite as often for a full day of shooting, especially if you add in wireless radios to the mix. Right now, Samsung is saying that only a WiFi edition has been announced, though we are hoping that like the original there will be variants with support for 4G LTE as well.

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The Galaxy Camera 2 also supports NFC so you should be able to use S Beam and Android Beam to tap to share between two Galaxy or Android devices with NFC support.

And though the newer model looks impressively slim, looks can be deceiving. Thanks to the chrome-like top and bottom plates along with tapered edges, the Galaxy Camera 2 does appear to have shaved off a large portion of its heft. However, when compared to the original the difference is more muted.

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According to Samsung camera representatives at the show, the original Galaxy Camera is the best selling camera during the holiday season in the $400 price range, though company officials were unwilling to give Gotta Be Mobile specific sales figures.

 

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