SAVE $400.00 - Samsung Memoir t929 8 MP Camera Phone, Black (T-Mobile) $99.99

The best reasonably accessible camera phone available Before I dive into reviewing the Samsung Memoir SGH-929 first some notes regarding my perspective/biases. I am memorized by cameras and have been messing around with them for 40 years on and off. I have been shooting with digital cameras for nine years and they have come a long way in those short years. My "regular" cameras include a prosumer Nikon SLR and a Fuji compact. My previous camera phone was a Samsung FlipShot. In spite of "only" being 3MP I got some awesome shots with it. All this is to say that my critical comments will be primarily focused around the camera. I can see someone NOT into photography getting the Samsung Memoir but for all-around phones there are clearly better choices - starting with the iPhone. My bottom line is similar to others. This is probably the best reasonably accessible camera phone available right now but it does not even match a $75 dedicated compact camera. First off, it does not have an optical zoom. Since the Memoir has 8 MP, under ideal conditions, you can zoom in around 50% and still have a pretty good shot, which is a partial work around to no zoom. Outdoor shots with strong light look surprisingly good. Nice resolution and very accurate colors. Edge to edge sharpness is pretty good too. Focusing is a bit slow but works extremely well. Even in low light situations where a red focusing assist light illuminates. Exposure is good too and the ability to select matrix, center weighted or spot is very useful. Unfortunately if you focus on something (with the shutter button pushed half way) and then recompose the shot, the Memoir WILL hold the focus but the exposure continues to adjust in real time. Bummer that. Indoor pictures are pretty grim. With the flash off, almost all the pictures are dark and the white balance is way off. If there is a light source it tends to be surrounded with purple fringing. And, as others have noted, there is a yellow cast to everything. Activating the Xenon flash gives a little welcome light but actually aggravates the yellow cast. Ah, but there is something that will help the more critical half of this situation, that no one else seems to have noted. Take the camera off auto ISO, with or without flash. Set it on ISO 400. The pictures will be a bit grainy but you do get the shot and the dreadful yellow cast can easily be fixed in post processing. Of course, using ISO 400 also "turbo charges" the light from the flash moving it from an almost useless range of a couple of feet to 6 or 7 feet. In Auto ISO, even in very dimly lit rooms, the camera simply doesn't seem to push past ISO 200, resulting in the dark pictures. The camera is slow. It is faster than my FlipShot but that still leaves it as sad. Push the shutter and a second or two later the picture is taken. Then several painful seconds must pass before another picture can be taken. Sports photography is out; even capturing the dog is a challenge. A quick rant. When, oh when, will the BS marketing MP thing end? My first dedicated digital camera had only 3MP and its pictures walk all over the 8 MP Memoir due to an excellent Carl Zeiss lens and an excellent digital processing engine. Put 6MP max in a cell phone, then it is easier to make it work in work in low light and shoot fast. This year we'll see cell phones with 12 MP. Please. Make the camera better, not the marketing. Back to the Memoir. The layout and controls of the Memoir are superb. It looks and handles like a dedicated camera. As stated before the only important thing missing is an exposure lock button. The screen is large enough and of sufficient quality to see if you got the shot and to share pictures with other people. Nice. The geotagging works well but it is slow to lock. I do wish, when one is reviewing the details of a phone in camera, that it would display the ISO setting of the picture. Videos seem surprisingly good for a phone but I am less critical about video than the photo picture quality. Non-Camera Stuff The phone works better for me than my Flipshot did. The quality of the calls also beats my wife's iPhone but that's not saying much. For strict phone quality, the various Motorola phones I have used were head and shoulders above the rest. I downloaded one game, Asphalt 4, and it is unplayable. Abysmal. A total embarrassment. Dodgy controls, horrible ancient graphics. My 3-year-old FlipShot had far superior driving games available. And T-Mobile's selection of games for the Memoir seems juvenile and poppy. Web stuff is OK but it's no iPhone. The weather widget is cool. Simple pleasures. The keyboard is great and texting is a pleasure. The phone book is robust. The music player is more than serviceable but the proprietary headphone jack flat out sucks. The size of the phone to me is just right. For actual phone conversations I prefer the clamshell design but for photos a larger screen is required. However, the Memoir is not so big that it is uncomfortable to use as a phone and it doesn't look like you are holding a tablet up to the side of your head. I am sure someone else has said this but my POV is that the best camera is the one you have with you. I often carry my compact camera with me, and on most near and far adventures I try to take my SLR. But most of the time the only device on my person is my phone. The Memoir is not the camera phone I would design for myself or other real camera buffs but as far as subsidized camera phones go only the Sony c905a comes close. Nokia makes a better camera phone but it is not subsidized. With patience and some skill shots that will blow away most people when they learn they came from a cell phone are as close as the Samsung Memoir in your pocket. Rating: 5 (TECK13, 2009-12-22) Product reviewed: Samsung Memoir t929 8 MP Camera Phone, Black (T-Mobile)

great phone- camera is a blur The phone is fun and I loved it, but the camera has no image stablizer, the shots need to be still pictures, if your wanting to takes pictures of kids that run (like all kids do) well than they will be blurry pictures, other than that it s a great phone. Rating: 3 (A. Fisher, 2009-12-18) Product reviewed: Samsung Memoir t929 8 MP Camera Phone, Black (T-Mobile)

Terrible amazon cell phone department customer service, don't buy from amazon, cancelling amazon order Amazon refuse to send replacement phone when the package was lost during delivery (amazon delivery the order without signature required). It's way too much trouble when dealing with amazon cell phone department compared to other deals. They don't have live person to talk to on the phone when there is a problem with the phone activation and lost. And only email is available when you stuck in a situation like I did, while the CSR who sending the email does not even response to your question/request, what they did was just putting more burden on their customers after all the trouble. They even require you to fill police report on order you never received before process your refund. Terrible. I'll cancel the order and service. NOT RECOMMEND CUSTOMER SERVICE. Rating: 1 (Vincent, 2009-12-04) Product reviewed: Samsung Memoir t929 8 MP Camera Phone, Black (T-Mobile)

Ordinary not a good phone, too good for just phone users(take and accept calls). and too bad for those who browse on the phones. touch sensitivity is not that great. battery life is not that good. it discharges in a day, have to charge everyday. there are good features in call register, phone book, camera. etc..but those are basics. I got it for $50 with contract, good for that price. but if you putting anything more than that is not worth. Rating: 1 (Nazeer B. Shaik, 2009-11-02) Product reviewed: Samsung Memoir t929 8 MP Camera Phone, Black (T-Mobile)

Smartphone.... devoid of essential smartphone features I bought this phone a couple of weeks ago, but returned it last week. This phone is being marketed as a smartphone, which is actually devoid of features like wi-fi, built-in modem to be used with laptops, and lack of downloadable applications (both from Samsung, and T-mobile). Its not worthy of a smartphone based only on 8MP camera. Hopefully, Samsung should make better phones in coming months with better all-round phone performance, and can increase downloadable applications to provide a better experience while using the phones. Camera is good, but lack of wi-fi is short-sighted. Overall, the phone should be nothing but a free phone. Rating: 2 (Monti, 2009-08-23) Product reviewed: Samsung Memoir t929 8 MP Camera Phone, Black (T-Mobile)