Samsung Memoir Is More Than Just A Camera Phone

One of the things that a lot of people look for in a phone is the quality of camera it includes. We see more and more people pulling out their cameras at parties, concerts, and everywhere else. It makes sense, then, that the camera should naturally advance right along with the phone it comes in. Samsung knows what I’m talking about. They sent me a device that’s almost more camera than it is cell phone. It’s the Samsung Memoir, and it’s eight whole megapixels of innovation.

Looks can be deceiving
The phone doesn’t look like a phone at all when it’s laying screen down. It looks like a camera, and it should, because it’s an 8 megapixel camera on the side that’s facing up. Flip it over, and it’s a phone again. It reminds me of the frosted wheat commercials where it’s serious on one side and all fun on the other. Both sides are fun, but we all know which side of this tasty treat is getting invited to the party. The camera side of the phone looks like a camera with an added textured grip and subtle curves. It’s a great looking camera and the illusion is such that when you’re taking a picture of someone, they probably will never guess that there’s a full-featured phone hiding on the other side. Samsung even equipped this phone with a more camera-like shutter release button. I think it’s the first phone that I’ve used that actually feels like a camera when I’m using it as one. I also like the lens cover that closes when the camera is not in use. I’ve long hated the typical camera phone lens getting dust, lint, or fingerprints in the way of my photos.

The rest of the phone lives up to the aesthetic bar that Samsung has raised for their cell phones. The Memoir is a good looking phone from any angle. I don’t know if I’d say it’s better looking than their other phones that I’ve reviewed because they each have their own small details that I like, but it’s definitely a good looking phone. The front of the phone has a large screen and the standard call, back, and power on/off buttons. On the right edge is the shutter release button right where you’d hope it would be, but this phone is a little different in that the volume rocker that is normally on the left edge of phones is now on the right. Remember, this doubles as the zoom rocker, so it’s more convenient to have it here while taking photos. While that may be true, it’s less convenient to have the rocker there when you want to adjust the volume during a phone call. I guess Samsung is putting more importance on the camera usability than that of the phone. The right edge also has the Lock button, which I found was hard to depress to unlock the phone. It’s recessed just a bit too much and I get that it’s that way to prevent you from unlocking the phone on accident, but it makes it harder to do it intentionally. The left edge is reserved for external connections to charge the phone, sync with a PC or connect headphones. There’s also a slot for the microSD card, which is necessary when you’re shooting at 8MP.

Conclusions
The phone uses Samsung’s familiar interface, which I’ve talked about before. It’s a nice interface, but the touch screen is still not perfect. A good test to to play the brain-testing game demo that comes with the phone. You have to react quickly and that’s not easy to do when the touch screen interface requires a harder press to work. This may be something that I would get used to over time, but during this review it was a minor inconvenience. Is I have mentioned in other reviews, Samsung does pack their phones with lots of great stuff. I’d love to see the touch interface worked on a bit and perhaps a better locking solution on this phone. Other than those usability issues, I really liked this phone and I like where Samsung is going with their mobile phone products.