Three megapixel camera phone(s) coming to U.S...but beware quality

From Gizmodo (and other sources) I was pointed to articles that report the Federal Communications has approved a three megapixel Samsung P858 camera phone with a CCD sensor as well as rumors (possibly a hoax) of a Treo 800p with a 3.2 megapixel camera.

The approval of the Samsung phone doesn’t mean it will be offered in the U.S., of course.

The Treo 800p seems like dream device with 1xEV-DO, a WiFi option, 128MB of memory, a 320 x 320 screen and a slimmer form.  The retail price is expected to be under $600 and it’s slated to be available on March 15….assuming this isn’t all baloney.

Three megapixels, regardless…

Regardless of whether the 800p is real and whether the P858 will be available here, I think there’s little doubt we’ll get at least one three megapixel camera phone in the States this year.

Sprint already offers a two megapixel CCD camera phone, Samsung’s MM-A800.

If only the number of pixels were the only factor necessary for producing great photos!  Unfortunately, there are so many other factors — quality of the lens, sensor, internal software, flash, etc. — that are required to produce good looking pictures.

Tipping points

I had thought the introduction of one megapixel camera phones in the U.S. would be a tipping point of sorts because that resolution can result in decent 4” x 6 “ prints.

Unfortunately, most one megapixel camera phones produce rather poor images.  I haven’t tested the MM-A800 so I don’t know how well it performs.

I haven’t tested Nokia’s new two megapixel N90 camera phone with Carl Zeiss optics, but some of the reviews have been less than positive about the quality of the photos for a phone promoting photo quality, including a few wireless magazines I picked up when I was in London last November (to moderate and speak at an Informa camera phone conference.)

However, I’ve seen N90 photos and viewed videos that look great.  So I’m reserving judgment on it.  It’s too easy to criticize a product you haven’t tested.

Turning people off

If most camera phones continue to take poor photos and videos, that function is going to turn off people from using them as a primary or major secondary camera — they the have the potential to be.  Certainly there has been an explosion in the use of camera phones and I’m a big fan, obviously.

But my business is wireless data consulting and my background is journalism (especially creating wireless publications and conferences) so I look very, very carefully at the facts.  So far, most people are “putting up” with camera phone quality because the phones provide sufficient value — just like you put up with cellular and VoIP voice quality (although my AT&T CallVantage VoIP service is 98 percent as good as landline quality — at dramatically lower prices and dramatically more features).

Camera phone quality and features have improved dramatically — much faster than I expected — during only the past couple of years.  So I am convinced that quality will not be too much of an issue in a couple of years — if camera phone manufacturers make a concerted effort to incorporate higher quality components.

Comments

[Chris Dury]

CheckMyCameraPhone.com lists results from testing numerous camera phones for document scanning purposes. Some 1 megapixel models outperform 2 megapixel models in this test.

The Samsung MM-A800 tests well as does the Sony Ericsson K750. But the Sony S710 1 megapixel phone outperforms all others. The Nokia N90 has not yet been tested.