Samsung ST1000 review

For those who like their cameras gadget-laden, it doesn’t get much better than this.

The ST1000 has a 3?in touchscreen, GPS for geo-tagging photos, WiFi and Bluetooth. It can email photos over WiFi, upload them directly to Picasa or Facebook and even upload videos to YouTube. HDMI output is available but only with an optional adaptor that costs £30.

With so much technology for such a low price, we tried to keep our expectations in check as we started testing. The screen impressed us immediately with its 1.1-megapixel resolution, and the touchscreen interface is among the best we’ve seen, although its edges were less responsive to prods than the middle.

The GPS chip often took around 10 minutes to lock on to a new position – too slow for many photographic opportunities – and failed completely in cloudy weather. When it did work, it was usually accurate to within a couple of metres, although sometimes it was around 100m out. WiFi emailing and uploading to Picasa and Facebook were positively elegant, and GPS locations were plotted on Picasa’s maps automatically. However, we had to change our network from WPA to WEP encryption, even though the camera claims to support both. YouTube uploads were also easy but limited to 30-second 320×240 clips – well short of the 1,280×720 resolution supported by both the camera and YouTube.

The ST1000 is reasonably accomplished at taking pictures. Aside from the bizarre Smart Auto mode, which airbrushed all the texture out of faces, photos were well exposed and reasonably detailed. Low light resulted in blur-inducing shutter speeds, and upping the ISO speed produced aggressive noise reduction that obliterated detail, but no more than most 12-megapixel compact cameras. Performance was slow, though, particularly with the flash.

The ST1000 isn’t quite a resounding success, but it’s far more elegant and enjoyable to use than we expected. Those who like fancy new gadgets, and accept that they don’t always work perfectly, won’t be disappointed.