Review: Samsung Continuum
Photos
The 5-megapixel camera on the Samsung Continuum took some very good photos. Indoors and outside, I was pleased with the results all around. Details could get a little fuzzy at full zoom, but some images were good enough to be print-worthy, so they'll definitely be worth sharing on your favorite social sites. Colors were usually accurate, and though the camera did oversaturate deep red colors, it still held onto details and performed better than many other camera phones in its class. The flash was bright enough to light up a scene. Some images suffered when there was a dramatic mix of lighting. Details in the shady areas would be lost in the darkness. But the camera did a fine job keeping backlight at bay, and there were no noise problems, neither in the dark spots nor in the brightly exposed areas.
Video
Video quality was also above average. The camcorder shoots in a variety of resolutions up to full 720p, that's 1280 by 720 pixels. Videos looked sharp, and there was no wavy look while the camera was in motion, like on many cheaper phones. I encountered some very strange issues with the sound, as you'll hear in my sample video below. The microphone sounded great at first, then cut out almost completely. I had to double check to make sure I wasn't covering the microphone, but that was not the case. I wonder if there was some noise reduction happening, and perhaps the wind noise outside caused the mic to clam up. It's too bad, because when the mic worked properly, the sound was very clear and present.
Be sure to change the video resolution on the YouTube clip below to 720p, and watch the video full screen to see the best quality sample.