Samsung Galaxy Camera 2 to be available in March 2014 for $449.99(RM1,649)

Samsung announced this week that the long-awaited update to its Galaxy Camera will become available for US$449.99 in mid-March (about RM1,649).

I bought my Galaxy Camera last year for RM1,490. It was retailed for RM1,699 but street price went down to about RM1,500 after being in the market for one year.

Galaxy Camera 2: Not too much of an update, just looking more sleek.

Galaxy Camera (old): Bulky, bigger than most compact cameras.

The Galaxy Camera 2 is built around the premise of integrating apps and other features typically found on handsets. The camera will run on Android 4.3, and have a 4.8-inch LCD screen and a quad-core processor. 

The new camera is a followup to the original Galaxy Camera, which was bulky and oversized compared to other point and shoot cameras. At 283 grams, the new camera is lighter and more portable. The older version weighs 300g.

Features and Specs

With a 16.3-megapixel CMOS sensor, the camera has a 21x optical zoom and up to 3200 ISO. The device will have 8GB of internal storage (the older one has 4GB), and a micro-SD slot that can accommodate storage cards of up to 64GB. 

The camera will be able to shoot full high-definition video at a 1920 x 1080-pixel resolution and 30 frames per second. It will shoot video in AVI, MP4, MKV, FLV, WEBM and WMV formats. The camera has also advanced its predecessor's connectivity features, so images can be transferred more easily. 

Like smartphones, it will have Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC so the camera can connect to other devices wirelessly. Users will also be able to access Google's online services such as the Play app and media store, Maps, Hangouts and YouTube. 

The smartphone interface on the Galaxy Camera 2 makes it easy to share files with the company's TVs and mobile devices. Samsung's Kies software will allow transfer of pictures from one device to another.

Source: CM