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Megapixel Cameraphones Compared

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the through-the-paces dept.

prostoalex writes "MobileBurn published a 'horribly un-scientific' test of three megapixel cameraphones. The contenders are the Sony Ericsson S700i, the Siemens S65, and the Motorola V710." Sadly, none of the phones seem to be able to perfectly capture a mere school bus in image form.

14 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. Not the point... by mirko · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Of course, it's only a phone, but it's a good tool aimed at taking both vocal and video notes.
    I use mine to take VGA pics and I am very happy with their imperfections...

    --
    Trolling using another account since 2005.
    1. Re:Not the point... by Keruo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      >* Has limited battery life because of it's required small size

      It's not very nice to carry around camera, pda, phone, mp3 player, radio and usb memory everywhere you go, pocket space is sometimes limited.
      Normally embedded devices with multiple functions are designed to last atleast a day without recharging.
      Of course the battery is going to run out if you speak 5 hours straight with the phone or take 100 pictures with the camera, but modern batteries are pretty good and last longer than say, the ones there were 5 years ago.

      >* Ends up getting replaced every two years

      Who says you have to upgrade it every 2 years?
      I usually use my phone 4-5 years before I upgrade it to new model, and that's usually because the battery starts to wear out by then

      >* Marginalizes the performance of each feature (i.e. lenses)

      You're missing the point of such device entirely if you're trying to use the camera in your phone as your only digital camera or your only mp3 player or browser.
      The idea of embedding the devices into one, is to have them available if you need them, not for exclusive use.
      Sure, you cannot put exchangeable telescope lenses on cell phone cameras, but then again, why would someone want to do that in first place?

      > * Reduces cnosumer choice through bundling features

      If I want mp3 player and my cell phone has one already built-in, that won't stop me from buying one.
      The one built-in probably never was intended to completely replace portable mp3 devices.
      Only couple phone models with harddrive exist, due the size limitations, so you won't be able to squeeze much music into the phone anyways.
      Semi-professional digital cameras with exchangeable lenses are just entering the consumer market, those have been available only for professional use with hefty price tag with them.
      No all-in-one device will ever replace all different gadgets, no matter how versatile it is.
      It'll always have some weakness which would engourage consumer to get better separate device for that purpose.

      --
      There are no atheists when recovering from tape backup.
  2. Perfect Basic Functions First by neomage86 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why are they building a phone w/ a three megapixel digital camera, when I still can't get a decent basic cell, that's small and has a weeks worth of battery per charge.

    1. Re:Perfect Basic Functions First by SillyNickName4me · · Score: 3, Insightful

      > not something directly under most mfgs control as they don't design batteries, they buy them from others

      1. I'm pretty sure that if Nokia wants a few milion batteries with certain specifications, battery manufacterors will gladly comply, so your argument does not hold.

      2. The amount of features in modern phones requires them to be more powerfull and contain more electronics and as a result use more power then needed for simple phone and text messaging functions.

      So yes, it is quite in the control of phone manufacterors.

  3. No important stuff by RealProgrammer · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Those were pretty pictures of cars and keyboards. Troll mode off, but who cares about subtle gradations of color in a telephone? I'd rather know about:
    • How much memory do they have for images?
    • How long do the batteries last?
    • Do they have a firewire port, or just lame USB 1.0?

      and most importantly

    • Are they decent phones?
    --
    sigs, as if you care.
  4. Re:Lenses by lordsilence · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Fecking 300£ every year for the latest cellphone? Hell no. I'm happy with my Nokia 6110. It does what it's supposed to do, make calls. Send SMS and eventually even have softwarecrashes. Just like the new cellphones (appart from the camerafunction) just less flashy.

  5. Third time's a charm... by BHearsum · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Can I get a phone that is just a phone please? Or a phone that excels in phone-based things? I've yet to see a cell phone that lets me block numbers at the phone level, rather than PAYING to have a number blocked with the service provider. No I don't want a crappy digital camera on my phone. No I don't want a crappy music player on my phone. No I don't want a crappy web browser on my phone. I WANT A PHONE THAT IS A PHONE. Jesus christ.

  6. Useless features worth billions of dollars by irikar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Cell phone companies (and I work for one of them) are desperately trying to make money out of their cellular phone. One of the huge market is teenagers because they tend to want to differentiate themselves and they are willing to pay for that new and cool ring tone or SMS feature, or game, or color and what not.

    I personally couldn't have imagined someone paying for a ring tone on his/her cell phone; and the ring tone business is apparently worth billions of dollars these days. Those who saw this coming were quite clever I guess, but isn't it sad that people are spending money on crappy MIDI stuff for their cell phone?

    So cell phone companies pack their devices with close-to-useless features like MIDI player for polyphonic ring tones (many people at my work call it polymorphic 'cause that's what they remembered of C++ ;) ), cameras, pictures, games, and what not.

    But seriously, don't you think the majority of people will use those extra features a few times only, mostly to show others how cool and different their new toy is and then they'll forget about them because they are what they are: useless for a cell phone.

    I wonder how this confusion will end? The difference between your average PDA and a cell phone is what now? They both play MP3s, take pictures, are organizers, are wireless cell phones, support bluetooth, are WIFI enabled, can act as vibrators; but generally speaking, they do one thing hopefully right: your PDA is probably (hopefully) a better organizer than the organize feature on your cell phone; the rest is useless crap designed to differentiate the device on the market.

    When we received our new cell phone at work, everyone, for about a week, was spending countless hours on ring tones, taking pictures, playing that stupid mini putt game, enabling Bluetooth and wandering around for another Bluetooth soul willing to answer, etc., etc.

    Now; yeah sure everyone has his/her own "personal" ring tone differentiator, but the damn cell phone is used a cell phone, the extra features are now what they are: useless.

    1. Re:Useless features worth billions of dollars by swiftstream · · Score: 2, Insightful

      yeah sure everyone has his/her own "personal" ring tone differentiator...

      The funniest thing about it is when people change their ring tones so often that they're never sure what they are, and everybody reaches for their phones anyway...

      --
      Be a PATRIOT--because the only thing we have to fear is the lack thereof.
  7. Convergence isn't a bad thing! by Ianoo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A lot of people come out with comments like "I want a phone that's just a phone" or "I don't need/want these features when I can get better separate units that do the same thing". This is really silly.
    I don't know what the American market is like, but here in the UK, I got a Nokia 7610 for 50GBP (that's less than $90) on a very reasonable contract (500 free minutes per month and other goodies for 25GBP / $40 pm).
    Although I have a much better PDA (Palm Tungsten T3), and a much better digicam (Canon Powershot A80) and a much better MP3 player (iPod Mini), guess how much of the time I'm carrying all of these around with me? Practically ziltch. But, I do almost always have my phone with me, 24/7.
    So, the times I've forgotten my camera, the megapixel camera on the phone is great for a quick and dirty picture of something interesting or important. When I don't have room for my PDA, the phone is great for recording a memo or checking my diary (I sync both with the same desktop PIM, and it mostly works). It's also cool that when I don't have time to pack the iPod, I can take a short journey and still listen to almost a whole album at 128kbps from the 64MB SD card.
    The phone is a great phone by itself, with excellent contact management, call management, logging and other features. Since it was so cheap, these extras are essentially bonuses. It's also hardly bigger or heavier than a "normal" cellphone. It also has the trademark Nokia battery life of several days. This is quite sufficient even when on the road, especially since every third person you meet seems to have a universal Nokia charger stowed away somewhere.
    I look forward to the day when I can put my PDA, iPod and camera in the drawer forever, and I think we might only be a few years shy of it. Until then, I will enjoy my phone and its extras, using the additional separate devices when I want better quality.
    And thanks to my contract, I get a brand new smartphone every year.

    1. Re:Convergence isn't a bad thing! by ajs · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Let's go a step further. I don't want a phone! I want a house and a car and a computer and whatever else... and they should all have build-in phones. We should stop thinking of the phone as a device with low-end appliances built in. We should be building phones into the best-of-breed appliances. Why shouldn't an iPod come with a cell phone build in? Reduces the number of items you have to carry by one, and doesn't even require a form-factor change.

      Why not have that base-unit for your wireless keyboard and mouse also provide a (physically switched, thank you very much) speakerphone that speaks VoIP? Why do I need a second device on my desk?

      Why should a car ever ship without a built-in phone?

      Of course, much of the reason for this is financial. The cell companies fight hard against making it easy to move your phone between services, and if appliances came with built-in phones, people would demand that they be able to sign up or not sign up for a service of their choosing at their leisure, otherwise it's more of an extra fee, and they'll prefer devices without phones.

      I think that can be overcome, though, regardless of how much the industry likes it.

  8. *cries* by EvilStein · · Score: 2, Insightful

    For the love of god, I just want a phone that can actually make a phone call from within my apartment. Or even on my patio.. or down at the corner.

    I have T-Mobile (work phone) and have 0 signal within a 1/8th mile radius of my apartment. AT&T, Cingular, MetroPCS, and Sprint are all terrible around here as well. Only phone that gets "2 bars" is a Verizon one, and even that's spotty.
    I do *not* live in the boonies. I'm in an east SF bay area with over 250,000 people. Definately not BFE.

    Instead, we get ringtones, games, and flippin *cameras* that take lousy photos.
    GSM seems to suck in the US. I rarely had coverage problems with my old TDMA phone.

  9. right tool for the job by vijayiyer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    People have already mentioned why camera phones aren't up to snuff. I have a diminutive Canon SD200 which I love. I wish I could find an equally good phone. Instead, all the phones with bluetooth seem to also have a camera built in and therefore suffer in size and weight. Not everyone wants a mediocre phone/camera/camcorder/mp3 player, and I don't think it's possible due to ergonomics to make something that does all of those well.

  10. I'm holding out for a phone-cam.... by lucason · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm not that interested in a phone that can take pictures.

    Now if someone would start selling cameras that can make a phone call... I'm there!