Gadgetory

at pocket now we do more than our fair share of comparisons most are serious drag races comparing the features and performance of two very similar smartphones this is not one of those comparisons this showdown between wildly dissimilar devices might go down in history as one of our strangest some would say at least necessary yet but there's a method to our madness so let's dive in I'm Michael Fisher this is PocketNow and this is Samsung Galaxy camera vs. Samsung Galaxy s3 this devices have the same heart beating underneath under the hood of each is the same Exynos 4412 quad-core cortex a9 CPU running at 1.4 gigahertz actually our Verizon version here packs a Snapdragon 4 LTE but for argument's sake let's call it the International Version they're close kin in displays as well while the galaxy camera swaps Super AMOLED for a super clear LCD panel the displays bear identical measurements each is a four point eight inch 1280 by 720 capacitive touchscreen at 306 PPI on those screens Android runs nearly identically on each unit with the galaxy camera running Android 4.1.1 and our Verizon sgs3 running the older 40.4 still responsiveness and app launch times are so close as to be identical as I mentioned yesterday in my software tour of the galaxy camera this is no hobbled version of Android you have access to the whole Google Play Store for customization just like on the s3 finally there's more similarities on the radio side with each device sporting quad band HSPA in addition to Wi-Fi and regional and carrier variants building an LTE support see we're halfway done with this comparison already of course there are substantial differences in these units as well and we're not just talking about the lack of telephone hardware on the Galaxy camera meaning no conventionally located speaker and mic though the device does have both the galaxy s3 is a svelte eight point six millimeters thick and a featherweight 133 grams in the hand and it disappears easily into a pocket it's easy to cradle in a hand and its curved body is quite economic it's a comfortable device to hold in any orientation the galaxy camera is none of that at 19 millimeters thick not counting the lens and a whopping 300 grams it's a beast no matter what orientation you hold it in the preferred orientation is obviously landscape with two handed use and your fingers wrapping around the front of the right side grip here but as we've seen portrait mode is supported in the software you just have to get used to grabbing onto the lens cover with your fingers it actually looks okay in this perspective almost like a smartphone it's only when you come around to the side that you realize just how awkward it is to hold battery life is another point of variants the 1650 milliamp power pack in the galaxy camera pales on the spec sheet to the 2100 milliamp power unit in the sgs3 and that translates to real-world performance as well it must take a lot to power the optics and the radios in the galaxy camera because I've got to charge this sucker every night with even moderate use and then of course there's the camera itself the sgs3 packs one of the better smartphone cameras we've seen an 8 megapixel autofocus shooter with a killer set of features built into its viewfinder software from granular settings to filters to scenes almost everything you need but the added bulk of the galaxy camera means it can accommodate much beefier optics and the fact that the word camera is a part of the devices name should make the enhanced shooter here no surprise it's a 16 point 3 megapixel sensor paired to a wide-angle 23 millimeter lens with 21 X optical zoom capability augmented by a pop-up xenon flash and with the ability to shoot video in 1080p or 768 by 512 at 120 fps for slow motion capture for this informal comparison I captured these shots in out of box settings for each device that means photos from the galaxy s3 were shut at 8 megapixels while the Galaxy cameras default setting was 5 megapixels as a result the Galaxy camera delivered photos that were softer and its color reproduction was somewhat less vivid than the galaxy s3 though it did do better in low light when I cranked the resolution all the way up to 16 megapixels results got better from the Galaxy camera but it still didn't seem much more impressive than the sgs3 I'm not sure the optics alone are worth the added weight and size penalty of carrying a second device but the 21 X optical zoom and the much more involved software suite with many many many shooting modes including expert customizations definitely is again check out our earlier software tour video for more on that if you're still wondering why anyone would make this comparison between a dedicated camera running Android with an HSPA radio built-in and a smartphone that happens to have a camera built-in well you'll have to tune in next week to find out or listen to this week's episode of the pocket now weekly podcast to get a sneak peek and some more candid impressions of the Samsung Galaxy camera folks that's gonna do it for our latest comparison and for my last video of 2012 I'd like to thank you for a wonderful year and I will look forward to seeing you next year in the meantime if you liked the video leave us a thumbs up here on youtube if you have a comment leave a comment on the post at pocketnow.com you can follow us on twitter at pocket now it's you can follow me on twitter at captain 2 phones we discussed the Galaxy camera the galaxy s3 and pretty much every other mobile device imaginable on the pocket now weekly podcast every week and be sure and check in to the pocket now daily broadcast for Jaime Rivera's take on the news almost every day once again thank you for watching and we'll see you next year