Last week I posted some information on a newly announced Coolpix S800c camera from Nikon that is powered by the Android mobile operating system. The same OS commonly found in a number of different smartphones. Today, Samsung announced their own Android camera that has some welcome and distinct differences from Nikon's offering.Both the S800c and the new Samsung Galaxy Camera feature 16-megapixel sensors but their similarities pretty much end there. Samsung slapped a 4.8 inch HD touchscreen on the back of their device, stretching it form edge-to-edge in the process. That's considerably larger than the 3.5 inch OLED screen found on the S800c. That's not all however, as Samsung also managed to squeeze in a 21x zoom, far more useful than the 10x lens found on Nikon's new toy. And while Nikon saw fit to choose an older version of Android (Gingerbread 2.1), Samsung is powering it's device with Android 4.1, AKA Jellybean.
Those specs are just the tip of the iceberg however. Samsung also mixed in a 1.4Ghz quad-core processor to power this beast and added both WiFi and 3G or 4G networking depending on the model. That means you'll be able to share your photos while on the go, uploading them directly to Facebook, Twitter or a laptop without the use of a cable. Photographers will even be able to edit their images directly on the Galaxy Camera using special Android apps designed just for that purpose.
The new camera is due to hit the market in the fourth quarter of this year and prices have yet to be announced.
This looks like an interesting new option in what could be a new niche for cameras. By making these cameras "smart," consumers are getting some new options that they've never had before. While I'm not personally looking to add one of these to my arsenal of cameras, it will certainly be interesting to see how they evolve.
