SINGAPORE: Shoot first, talk later

Mobile phone makers race to take lead in megapixel camera phone battle

The Straits Times
Tuesday, November 20, 2007

For teenagers, having a cellphone without a built-in camera is social suicide.

For avid photographers, holding a yakking device without at least a 5-megapixel camera is like having their arms ripped off -- pure torture.

It's no wonder, then, that mobile phone giants try to outwit each other in the megapixel war.

Not satisfied with (by now) measly 3-megapixel shooters, phone makers are frantically squeezing up to 5 megapixels worth of cameras into their puny handsets.

Sony Ericsson and Samsung, for instance, have just unveiled their 5-megapixel shooters this month.

And even before you can say 'cheese', the new range of 10-megapixel phones are already in the works.

Samsung, for instance, has just unveiled the world's first 10-megapixel mobile phone, the SCH-B600.

Not to be outdone, camera lens maker Carl Zeiss says that its next generation of 10-megapixel cellphones will soon hit the shelves.

That is something, especially as most professional cameras have not even reached that level yet.

The surge in pixel numbers seems to be meeting the needs of local users, evident in the large number of people buying these devices.

Research firm GFK Asia says that 1.05 million camera-enabled cellphones flew off the shelves in the first six months of this year, an increase of 13 per cent over the same period in 2006.

Camera phones also made up nearly 83 per cent of all mobile phone sales in the first half of this year, with sales rising 18 per cent over the same period last year to about 870,000 units.

Despite the fact that the fan base of camera phones is booming, industry experts like Andrew Koh, director and general manager of the Consumer Imaging & Information Group of Canon Singapore, believe that these gizmos will not replace digital cameras. At least, not yet.

Said Andrew: 'Though megapixels are the indication of the resolution of the sensor, the size of the sensor in a camera is much bigger than those in phones. This enables the camera to capture details that are much superior in clarity and noise levels, as well as greater colour fidelity.'

Be that as it may, some prefer to put aside their snap-and-go digital cameras in favour of camera phones.

Lai Huei Min, a 32-year-old accounts assistant, is one.

Said Huei Min: 'I hate lugging around (many) gadgets in my bag, so I love it that the new generation of cellphones also have great imaging power, so I can replace my digital camera with the phone.'

This Samsung G800 user added that camera phones are useful when she wants to choose gifts for her husband.

She said: 'When I'm out shopping and see something that my husband might fancy, I snap a picture, and send it to him, so he can tell me if he likes the item before I buy it.'

Digital Life tests the latest 5-megapixel camera phones based on design, ease of use and camera quality, to see which shooters hit the bull's eye, and which fired blanks.

Date Posted: 11/20/2007