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Review: Samsung Instinct S30

Form Basics Extras Video Wrap Up Comments 20

Music Camera Photos/Video Browse/Customize Extras

Camera

The S30's camera, sadly, is another feature that appears to be unchanged. It is OK, but definitely not great. There's pretty much nothing you can do with the camera but take pictures. There is no menu for altering the resolution, brightness, quality, etc. That's a disappointment. The camera does launch fairly quickly, however, and you can start taking pictures in about three seconds. Pictures take about one second to capture and save. There is one little indicator in the bottom left corner of the screen that lets you know how many pictures you have left. I sorely wish Samsung and Sprint had added some of the features we know Samsung is capable of producing.

The video software is pretty much identical. Same controls, same issues, and same wacky limitations. You can set the video camera to take videos with a max time of 2 minutes, or set it to allow for full access to the memory card and record until the card fills up.

Gallery

The gallery software assumes that you'll be using it with the camera, so it is permanently oriented in landscape mode. Your photos can be set to appear as a grid, or in a tiled carousel. Using your finger, you can scroll sideways through your pictures until you find the ones you want. Once you find it, tap it once to load it on the screen.

With a picture selected you have 8 different options, with four buttons flanking each side of the picture. On the left side are icons that let you trash the photo, send it via Bluetooth, play a video, or zoom in/out. On the right side, the four buttons let you jump back to the camera, send the image as a MMS, upload it to a photo sharing service, or switch to the other gallery view.

This is it, though. You can't rotate or crop images or make any improvements or edits to the image. What you shot is what you got. You'll have to use your PC to make any improvements after the fact.

It's not a bad gallery, by any stretch of the imagination, but it doesn't offer any improvements, nor make any leaps and bounds in usability.

Next page: Photos/Video

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Samsung Instinct S30

3.2" display 240 x 432 pixels
1,000 mAh battery
Memory Card Slot, Headphone Jack (3.5mm)

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