Samsung Innov8 Review

Permalink: Samsung Innov8 Review
by Franz Bicar

Lots of us are looking for high-performance camera phones. However, that kind of device is either non-existent or too expensive. But once you’ve tried the Samsung Innov8, you will definitely appreciate the power and capability of this handset. The Innov8 is a 8-megapixel camera phone -  sleek, powerful, and armed with everything you can think of.

Photo quality for the Innov8 is excellent, as expected, and the editing features rival those on any standalone camera. The downside though is that there is no optical zoom present and the flash is disappointing. Yet, as powerful as it is, the Innov8’s photo quality is only marginally better than those 5-megapixel handsets. But these are understandable as the Innov8 isn’t all about its camera. Of course it is a phone first and foremost, so it can make calls and offer different applications for both work and play.

The Samsung Innov8 is an incredibly compact phone measuring only about 3.9 inches tall by 1.9 inches wide by 0.6 inch thick. It is a bit heavy though at 4.8 ounces but that’s ok since a lot of people want to hold something solid in their hands. It has a sturdy and minimalist design that is easy to use and operate.

It also has an expansive 2.8-inch display that shows 16.7 million colors. Naturally, it’s bright and beautiful with vivid colors and sharp graphics. You can adjust the backlight time and brightness and you can personalize the display with color themes and wallpapers. The text size isn’t adjustable so you need to have good vision in order to enjoy this phone fully. Furthermore, the Innov8 has an accelerometer that will change the display’s orientation from portrait to landscape as you rotate the phone in your hand.

The Innov8 is powered by a Symbian Version 9.3 OS. This is probably why its dialog and menus are simple and intuitive. It offers access to a user-programmable shortcuts menu, the calendar, the music player, the FM radio, and the personalization menu. Below the display, there is the Innov8’s navigation array. The primary tool is a square four-way toggle with a central OK button. Both tools are raised above the surface of the phone so they’re tactile and easy to grip.

A new feature introduced by the Innov8 is what we call an optical mouse. It’s not the same as the one you’ll find on you computer. Instead, the optical mouse allows you to navigate the phone’s menus by sliding your finger across the OK button. You can either move up and down and side to side through menus and lists.

Its keypad is hidden behind the slider and is really spacious with bright backlighting. On the left spine you’ll find a volume rocker/camera zoom control, the 3.5mm headset jack, and the micro USB slot. The camera lens sits on the back of the phone just below the flash.

As for the Innov8’s features, this is where Samsung poured it on. Let’s start with the 8-megapixel built-in camera which is its star attraction. The camera takes pictures in seven resolutions, from a full eight megapixels (3,264×24,448) down to QVGA (320×240). There are four color effects, bright and white balance controls, an 8x digital zoom, a self-timer, a mosaic-shot mode, three quality settings, an adjustable ISO, exposure metering, and three shutter sounds, plus a silent option. You also get nine fun frames, but they’re available only when you’re shooting in the lowest resolution. You can also choose from 12 scene settings that will automatically adjust the camera for certain shooting conditions. The choices are portrait, landscape, sports, indoor, beach, sunset, dawn, autumn colors, waves and snow, night, fireworks, and text.

The only downside to the Innov8’s camera is its flash which is a dual-LED photo light. On the video side, the Innov8 also goes the extra mile. You can record clips in two resolutions (640×480 and 320×240) with sound. The editing options are just about identical to the still camera’s. Videos meant for multimedia messages are capped at 45 seconds, but you can shoot for much longer in the standard format. In the default mode, the Innov8 records video at an impressive 30 frames per second, but you also can shoot slow-motion video at 120 frames per second.

Without any surprise, the Innov8’s photo quality is very good. Colors come out bright and there is little to no image noise. The Innov8 offers a very generous 16MB of internal storage, but if you need more, the microSD-card slot accommodates cards up to 32GB.

As for basic features, the Innov8’s phone book can accommodate 18 types of phone numbers, a job title and department name, an assistant’s name and phone number, spouse and children names, three e-mail addresses, three URLs, three street addresses, a birthday, an anniversary, and notes. And since the Innov8 is a GSM phone, you can store 250 contacts on the SIM card. You can save contacts to groups and pair them with a photo, but only groups can be paired with one of the 20 polyphonic ringtones. The Innov8 offers a selection of alert tones, as well.

Other essentials include a vibrate mode, text and multimedia messaging, a calendar, a calculator, an alarm clock, a notepad, and a currency/unit converter. You’ll also find HSDPA 3G support, full Bluetooth, a speakerphone, a file manager, a ZIP manager for compressing files, USB transfer and mass storage, PC syncing, instant

messaging, and a voice recorder. The Innov8 supports POP3 e-mail access and it offers an application called RoadSync, which delivers push e-mail for Microsoft Exchange for corporate e-mail contacts and calendar. We particularly like the dictionary app, which allows you to enter and edit acceptable words that the predictive text feature will recognize. And finally, the integrated Wi-Fi couldn’t be more welcome.

The Innov8’s music player isn’t that bad either. Features include playlists, shuffle and repeat modes, and an equalizer. Album art is supported, if the phone can find it, and you can choose from three visualizations. Also, you can use music tracks as ringtones. The player supports unprotected tracks in a variety of file formats (MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, AMR and RealAudio). The Innov8 also offers an FM radio.

The Innov8’s battery life depends on how you use it. The rated talk time is 5 hours on 3G and 8.5 hours on 2.5G. Promised standby time is 13.75 days on 3G and 12.93 days on 2.5G.

Sources:
http://www.mobileburn.com
http://www.gsmarena.com
http://www.t3.com