Samsung Galaxy NX review

We’ve seen some weird and wonderful cameras this year, but the Samsung Galaxy NX might just top the lot. From the front, it’s recognisably a Samsung NX camera, which means interchangeable lenses and an APS-C sensor for SLR-level image quality. View it from behind, though, and it could almost be mistaken for a smartphone. Only the viewfinder hump gives the game away.

This isn’t the first Samsung camera to run the Android operating system – the Samsung Galaxy Camera takes that accolade. It’s certainly the most audacious, though – and the most expensive. At £1,250 including VAT, this camera is going up against some heavyweight rivals, including the Canon EOS 70D and Panasonic GH3 .

For us, cameras at this price needs to be practical, flexible and reliable, letting keen photographers concentrate on being creative. A camera that runs a mobile phone operating system doesn’t seem like the most obvious candidate to meet these criteria, but we were determined to put our preconceptions to one side and take the Galaxy NX at face value.

FEATURES AND HANDLING

After we got over our initial feelings of bewilderment, our immediate impression was that this is a quality piece of kit. The substantial handgrip fits the hand perfectly, with a sculpted thumb rest on the rear for comfortable one-handed operation. The viewfinder comes on automatically as the camera is raised to the eye, and it’s big and detailed, with a 1.4-million-dot resolution. Then there’s the main LCD screen, with its 4.7in diagonal size and 1280×720 resolution. Some people may be disappointed that it isn’t a 1,920×1,080 AMOLED screen, but compared to any other digital camera, its size and sharpness are nothing short of a revelation.

The controls took a bit longer to get used to. There’s a command dial that acts as a mode dial by default, while pushing it inwards cycles through exposure-related settings. It works well enough, but we’d have preferred a dedicated, labelled mode dial. The iFn button and focus ring on the lens provide access to the same exposure-related settings, and are quicker to adjust.

There’s a physical button to raise the flash, but all other functions are accessed via the touchscreen. This is perfect for moving the autofocus point, which simply involves touching anywhere on the screen. However, this means that autofocus point selection isn’t possible while using the viewfinder. On a couple of occasions we set the point, raised the camera to eye level and inadvertently moved the point again with a prod of the nose. If Samsung could turn nose control into a carefully implemented feature, it might really be onto something.

For everything else, it’s a trip to the menus. These are well organised but can’t compete with the physical buttons on similarly priced cameras for speed of operation. We had to wait for around five seconds after capturing a RAW image, and anything up to 40 seconds after a burst of frames, as the cog icon to access the menu is unavailable while photos are being saved.

To its credit, continuous performance is seriously quick, delivering 8fps shooting for 18 JPEGs or five RAW frames before slowing. Even after that, it still managed 4.2fps for JPEGs, although RAW performance was less impressive at 0.7fps. Shot-to-shot times in normal use were excellent at 0.7 seconds. Autofocus was generally quick, but it sometimes struggled to lock onto vague or moving subjects in low light.

VIDEO QUALITY

1080p video capture is at 25 or 30fps, with a 1,920×810 option at 24fps that mimics the CinemaScope format widely used in cinemas. There’s full control over exposure settings for creative videographers. Videos were seriously sharp, although diagonal lines had a pixelated appearance. Some videos suffered from frequent focus hunting, where the autofocus system struggled to lock onto its target. In most cases, we were able to suppress it with an onscreen manual focus button that appears during recording. The camera also includes a focus peaking function, which highlights sharply focussed subjects in manual focus mode, but it’s not available during video capture.

PHOTO QUALITY

Our photo tests delivered some of the sharpest details we’ve seen from a compact system camera. Focus from the kit lens was crisp from corner to corner throughout the zoom range, and JPEGs made the most of the 20-megapixel resolution. Dense foliage was captured faithfully, but even at ISO 100 we spotted a few occasions where subtle textures such as grass looked a touch noisy. This became more noticeable when shooting in subdued outdoor lighting at ISO 400 or 800. It was far from intrusive, though, and processing RAW files in Lightroom produced great results up to ISO 3200. It struggled at ISO 6400 and above, especially for JPEG output, falling short of the standards of the best CSCs and SLRs. This might rule out making big prints of dimly-lit photos, but for most practical purposes, photo quality stood up to scrutiny.

Details here are pixel sharp, with smooth surfaces in the masonry and plenty of fine detail in the sculpture – click to enlarge

This dark foliage is superbly rendered, too, but there’s a hint of noise in the grass – click to enlarge

There’s a little noise here too, especially in the strip of concrete, but details are – as usual – seriously sharp. Click to enlarge

ISO 6400 results in heavy noise reduction, with smeared details and coloured blotches. It’s fine for sharing at modest sizes, though – click to enlarge

CAM-DROID

It’s important to remember that this isn’t merely a camera. It’s also a fully featured Android device – the one exception being that it can’t make or receive calls. We’re not sure how many keen photographers want to check emails on their camera, but there’s more appeal in being able to edit photos in apps such as Snapseed or Photoshop Touch before uploading to Facebook or Flickr, all without leaving the camera and from anywhere with a 3G signal.

The quad-core 1.6GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 12GB available storage and Android 4.2 are typical specs for a high-end Android device, and there’s a microSDXC slot for additional storage. We achieved identical performance test results from the internal storage and with a Class 10 Sandisk Ultra card. 3G and 4G are supported for mobile internet access, but bear in mind that you’ll need to pay monthly fees on top of your existing phone contract to use it. The camera can communicate with another Android device over Wi-Fi for remote viewfinder duties, with one-megapixel copies of photos transferred across. It’s not possible to transfer other photos from the camera to a smartphone, which would have allowed users to avoid having to pay for two SIM cards.

Power management is more of an issue than with conventional cameras. A Fast Power-On option let us switch on a capture a shot in 2.3 seconds. However, after 24 hours of inactivity, it shut down completely and took 23 seconds to take a photo from a cold start. The 440-shot battery life is shorter than usual at this price, and it’ll probably be much less if other functions are used extensively.

NX APPEAL?

It’s difficult to rate the Galaxy NX. There’s lots that we love about it, a few things that aren’t so impressive, but the crux is that we’re not sure who would buy it. Most serious photographers would probably be utterly bemused by it – and find more to tempt them in a more conventional SLR or CSC. We doubt there are many gadget lovers who are willing to stump up over £1,000 for a camera. But perhaps there are people who want SLR quality, performance and ergonomics, the flexibility of interchangeable lenses and the ability to edit and upload photos – and perhaps check the weather, train times or emails – all on the same device. If the idea appeals and the price doesn’t deter you, this camera lives up to its own concept.