Samsung PIXON M8800 and LG KC910 Renoir are to appear on a roughly same date at a roughly same price, sporting a comparable functionality and quality of assembly and materials. So comparisons are inevitable. The two gadgets will become available in retail starting from November (there’s a fat chance M8800 will be lucky enough to slip onto the shelves during the final days of October) at a price of 550 euros. There’s a comprehensive review of Samsung M8800 already available on our site, as well as a comparison article pitting against each other SE C905 and I 8510. But in those articles the conclusions were mainly drawn judging by the strengths and weaknesses of the product’s cameras, since the rest of functionality of these phones is simply incomparable, for C905 and i8510 pursue goals totally different from the ones set by the touchscreen-equipped, multimedia-focused M8800 PIXON cameraphone.

LG KC910 Renoir is the closest rival to M8800, sharing in common so many features that at times it may seem that the same team of engineers was responsible for the development of either. Camera is the key feature of either model, a 8 Mp auto-focusing unit sporting a multitude of modes and settings. This article is going pay a plenty of attention to the onboard cameras and explore some facts about the rest of features in the final section.

Let’s have some facts and numbers about design and size. M8800 seems to have a better casing featuring metal parts (the whole back panel is actually crafted from metal), it’s resistant to soiling and scratching. The plastic on the side edges has a bumpy texture. The handset feels nice in the hand. The assembly quality is next to ideal, no play between the parts or screeching from pressure at all. LG KC910 has a plastic back panel, sporting a nice-looking texture reminiscent the surface of a CD disk, but it does nothing to conceal the fingerprints, quite opposite to it! The Renoir’s side edges are matte, the screen framing is chromed plastic and not the actual metal. Something of the kind was used for Samsung i900 Omnia, but is more durable. Still, we can’t guarantee it will stay for long.

Just like any other touchscreen devices, M8800 and KC910 are very prone to soiling, the face panel naturally accumulating all sorts of grease marks and fingerprints. In our case, this vulnerability doesn’t extend over a reasonable limit. The size and weight of either handset is optimal for a screen diagonal like that, the handsets feel nicely in the hand. The size, especially thickness, is the same for either of the models. The Samsung handset has a protruding piece on the bottom part of the casing, making it easier to hold and harder to let it slip from the hand on an unlucky occasion. The camera lens is protected with a lens guard in either case, being a hand-driven mechanical piece in the LG and an automated unit in Samsung: the latter slides aside by itself when you press the camera button. We leave to you the final judgment on this point, since that’s a very personal preference.

Let’s have a look at the phones' specifications: :

As you see, the similarity between the two is great. The same type of battery, identical battery life, supported networks, measurements, weight and so on. Either phone has a flash, but LG KC910 makes use of a xenon unit with a dedicated auto-focus backlight, while M8800 has a modest LED flash. The screen of Samsung M8800 is bigger, but the quality of LG’s screen is higher. The screen resolution is the same in either case. The touchscreen sensitivity level is the same for either phone, and is the menu performance. Let’s compare the screen quality levels:

The controls work differently – the central button bounces you back to a higher menu level in M8800, while KC910 uses it for calling up the quick menu. The system of menus seems to be better organized with Samsung, let alone the availability of a dedicated quick menu button and a shooting mode switch. LG has fewer control elements, the right edge of the casing housing the volume / zoom rocker, a block button and a shoot button. The microSD slot is housed on the left edge; Samsung has its firmware headset connector planted on the top edge. Neither of the two phones can boast a 3.5 mm standard audio jack, which is a big hit on any type of multimedia gadget.

LG KC910 / Samsung M8800

LG KC910 is stronger on the technology side, keeping in possession integrated Wi-Fi and full-blown GPS modules (the latter uses Google Maps), while Samsung M8800 has a limited GPS functionality only suitable for geo-tagging. The interface and widget system is roughly the same for either model. A more detailed account of its features will be available in an upcoming article, so let’s shift our attention to the advantages and weak spots of its camera.

As we have already mentioned, the camera is the biggest selling point of these two models. No other devices combining the touch technology with a 8 Mp cam are going to appear on the market anytime soon. This combination is very reminiscent of certain expensive handheld cams that have been featuring sensor screens for quite a good while and actually have this feature marketed as their top selling point. In a cell phone, this doesn’t bring on a huge advantage, yet the possibility to select an active element simply by touching it on the screen feels smarter than anything you could do with a keyboard. As for KC910 in particular, its touch screen was boosted with a Touch Focus upgrade that makes the camera automatically focus on any object in the scene once the user has tapped on it in the viewfinder window. Samsung M8800 is deprived of such luxury, much to our disappointment.

Hardware

The camera lens doesn’t stick above the casing surface in either case, KC910 has a regular mechanical lens guard while Samsung M8800 features an automated lens guard. The flash units used are LED for Samsung and a weak xenon for KC910, doing worse than the xenon flashes installed on Nokia N82 or Motorola ZN5. But still it’s an option by all means better than LED. Both cameras sport a high performance. It takes less than 2 seconds for the camera to initialize and another 4 seconds to focus and save the picture. The viewfinder is a bit inert, but not to an extent to feel annoying.

Camera interface and settings

Either instance of the camera interface looks very similar to the one used in Samsung i900, handy, intuitive and having a lot of functions at the same time. The general options are accessible from a bar on the right side of the screen:

• Go to gallery,
• Flash mode (auto, red eye filter, off),
• Shooting mode selection
• Exposure adjustment

LG KC910 / Samsung M8800

Samsung M8800 features a more intuitive interface, the setting icons put into rows on either side of the screen. M8800 allows choosing a focusing mode (auto, macro, face detection) and a scene preset right from the main screen, but that’s not the case with LG – you have to go all the way through the menus until you reach the camera settings tab where you finally can apply the needed action.

LG KC910 / Samsung M8800

The zoom slider is located at the bottom and looks a bit out of place because it duplicates a function already available with the volume buttons which switch their purpose to zoom adjustment while in the viewfinder mode. On the left, you will see a photo / video mode button switch and a shortcut to the misc settings tab.

The following scene settings are available for LG KC10:

• Auto
• Portrait
• Landscape
• Night
• Beach
• Sport

LG KC910 / Samsung M8800

The choice of scenes is larger as far as M8800 is concerned, but the scene effects are simpler. The following entries are added on top of what LG has:

• Party/Indoor,
• Sunset,
• Dawn,
• Fall Color,
• Firework,
• Text,
• Candlelight,
• Backlight.

Screenshots from Samsung M8800

KC910 the following resolution options:

• 3264х2448 (8М)
• 2592х1944 (5М)
• 2048х1536 (3,2М)
• 1600х1200 (2М)
• 1280х960 (1,3М)
• 640х480 (0,3М)
• 320х240

LG KC910 / Samsung M8800

The effects, white balance and quality options come in a standard pack, nothing extraordinary on this side. The two features that might deserve some attention are Blink Detection (once you’ve blinked, the camera takes a picture) and Back Light Compensation, serving as an alternative to the namesake scene setting available on Samsung M8800, helping to take a better picture of an object standing in the way of a strong source of light.

LG KC910 / Samsung M8800

The miscellaneous options include the storage location for the pictures, geo-tagging, image stabilization, shutter sound, viewfinder grid. The ISO setting varies from 100 to 1600 in the both models with an Auto option traditionally available.

LG KC910 / Samsung M8800

If we were to compile a list of handy camera features that Samsung M8800 offers to the user, the top position on this list would surely be occupied by the WDR (wide dynamic range), followed by the contrast, exposure and sharpness smart meters. KC910 has none of these. The availability of WDR means that the phone can detect multiple contrast levels in a scene with a number of objects located at varying distances from the camera lens. This proves especially handy when you are shooting a scene split into two parts, the top being a bright sky and bottom a sort of darker object. This option is commonly found with digital handheld cameras, but doesn’t play a really big part, but nevertheless is helpful.

Screenshots from Samsung M8800

On the other hand, KC910 possesses the Touch Focus capability, mimicking a same feature of Sony Ericsson G900. All in all, the camera application interface is a bit handier on M8800 PIXON, but this difference is very marginal, if any.

Screenshots from LG KC910

The video settings also look very similar. The maximum video resolution for Samsung M880 is 720x480, KC910 sticking to 640x480. The framerate is 30 fps with either model, reaching 120 fps in the Slow Motion mode. A Fast Motion option is additionally available with the LG handset. The Samsung handset allows tweaking contrast, exposure and sharpness levels for any video, as well to keep the flash active during video record. The xenon flash mounted on LG wouldn’t allow the latter trick, anyway, but you get a better sound quality for your videos for compensation. The Noise Free Microphone feature, if turned on, does a good job cutting the unwanted background noise.

LG KC910 / Samsung M8800

Sample video shot with LG KC910
Sample video shot with Samsung M8800

Comparison

Let’s compare a bunch of picture taken with Samsung M8800 and LGKC910 in varying environments:

Daytime photos:

LG KC910 / Samsung M8800

As you see, during daytime LG KC910 provides a better quality for landscape photos; the colors turn more vivid and natural, while photos from Samsung often come too dark. We were able to detect an unhealthy pink hue in a few LG photos but it’s hard to say what conditions should be met for this issue to surface.

Macro shooting:

LG KC910 / Samsung M8800

There’s no absolute leader in this test, some of the pictures turning out better with M8800, others proving the virtue of KC910. The total percentage of successful shots is higher in the case, the gadget seems to do a better job focusing. The sharpness and colors are equally good in either case.

Indoor shooting:

LG KC910 / Samsung M8800

An indoor test revealed Samsung’s advantage over the competitor. A lack of lighting is the biggest peril for KC910. Under such conditions, the latter produces blurry, unnaturally tinted pictures, some of them featuring blobs and clouds of transparent, woolly fog covering parts of the scene.

Nighttime shooting:

LG KC910 / Samsung M8800

Samsung retains the leadership in the nighttime shooting test. There’s less noise in the picture, it looks sharper than the sample obtained with the competitive camera. But this is only true about shooting distant objects and landscapes. At closer distances, e.g. for portrait shots, the xenon flash of LG KC910 is always a better option, helping to preserve the level of detail in a photo.

Gallery

The two handsets have very similarly looking gallery applications. The accelerometer is used to some extent or another, e.g. with M8800 you can literally roll the photos around, tilting the handset left or right will cause the photos to slide aside and that looks awesome.

LG KC910 / Samsung M8800

Video showcasing the functioning of the gallery:

Photos can be listed one by one or viewed as a list or a thumbnail grid. In either of the two latter modes content sorting is possible – by file size, date or file name. In addition to these three basic options, Samsung has added a fourth, less canonic way – sorting by color. All the photos in the gallery are analyzed and sorted according to each photo’s predominant color. The ones rich with red will go first, followed by green, purple and so one. Also it’s possible to identify a person’s face from a photo with the rest of the instances in other photos or with a phonebook record.

Screenshots from Samsung M8800



Screenshots from Samsung M8800

The integrated photo editing software has nothing special about it, either of the two phones offering but a very basic functionality like a few simple effects, changeable frames, color balance tweaks, etc.

Screenshots from LG KC910

Screenshots from Samsung M8800

Smape's opinion

These two expensive phones form a new caste in their native market segment, either equipped with a large touchscreen and a quality camera. If you’re looking for something to replace your Viewty or F480, these two are the best thing that you could ever narrow down your scope to. They provide a variety of new features and an improved usability, but neither makes a challenge on the design front. The looks now lack originality, leaning all the more towards the utilitarian side. Once we were through with the camera tests, the things turned out way more complicated than they seemed at first. Either model scores comparable results when it gets down to the camera. In certain situations Samsung in leading, yielding to LG on other occasions. The xenon flash of KC910 provides some much needed help if you are taking pictures at night and gives some marginal quality boost during daytime, but indoor shots turn perceptibly better with Samsung M8800. As for video recording, M8800 has a higher maximum resolution but KC910 comes with a Fast Motion mode and a better soundtrack quality.

There’s a great deal of similarity between the interfaces, but we can’t avoid mentioning a larger number of modes and the overall comfort that you get with Samsung M8800. All the main settings are reachable through a single tap, no need to get into any menu at all. These small benefits finally sum up into bigger ones, especially noticeable after you’ve spent enough time getting around with the phone. Each of them saves a quant of your time when you use it, and it’s really annoying to go all the way through the menus to reach the macro mode option and scene selection menu in LG KC910 after all the handiness and simplicity which are the key principle of Samsung’s interface. But LG’s creation doesn’t score an epic failure on this front, on the contrary – you get a bunch of features missing from M8800. This list includes Touch Focus (focusing on any spot in the scene initiated by the user’s touch), various artistic post-processing effects and Back Light Compensation. Samsung offers a better organized gallery application sporting more options and making use of the onboard accelerometer. But LG’s gallery wins on the aesthetical side, sporting some cool effects like transparent pop-ups and stuff alike.

So if your choice is only determined by the camera, either of the two would suit your needs well, the choice entirely resting on your preferences. There’s no absolute leader, but there’s for sure a parity between the strengths and weaknesses of either model in question. The photo and video quality keeps on a very high level. But if the two are viewed as complex solutions, the differences become more distinct. Despite comparable size and ergonomics, Samsung M8800 has better materials (even including metal). But it doesn’t have any support for Wi-Fi, and GPS is limited to geo-tagging only. Summing the bare facts up, it’s still hard to tell a winner. Samsung M8800 has fewer features, but is much more careful about the ergonomics and usability while LC910 bets on a functional variety stretching outside the domain of camera. More detailed information on LG KC910 will become available shortly in an upcoming review that’s currently in the works. Stay tuned!

Author: Anton Spiridonov, spiridonov@corp.mail.ru

SMAPE.com

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