AT&T, Samsung announce pricing for Galaxy Camera
The connected 21x zoom Android-powered point-and-shoot requires some deep pockets.
- More than two decades experience writing about PCs and accessories, and 15 years writing about cameras of all kinds.
Editors' note: This story has been updated to clarify purchasing requirements.
Are you ready to buy a camera with a data plan? AT&T sure hopes so.
After announcing in October that Samsung's connected Galaxy Camera would be coming to its network, AT&T kept quiet about pricing for the 16-megapixel, 21x zoom point-and-shoot. That's no longer the case, as AT&T will start selling the Android 4.1-based camera on November 16 for $499.99 with or without a data plan.
However, for a limited time, AT&T customers can get up to $100 off a second Samsung Galaxy handset or other Samsung connected device, including the Galaxy Camera, when they purchase any Samsung Galaxy smartphone with a two-year service agreement.
Current AT&T customers with a Mobile Share plan can simply add the camera to their plan for $10 a month to share between 1GB to 20GB of data with their other connected devices or smartphones. Or you can buy a separate data plan for only the camera starting at $15 for 250MB per month.
You can also just buy the camera for $499.99 without any plan whatsoever. It does have built-in Wi-Fi, so you can still do plenty with it, but you just can't do anything over AT&T's HSPA+ network. And should you decide you really want the mobile broadband service, you can add it later.
On the other hand, while the giant 4.8-inch touch screen and Android interface do bring a lot to the user experience (and using your pick of apps is nice, too), for people interested in its photos and video, Samsung's WB850F camera with Wi-Fi has the same lens and 16-megapixel BSI CMOS sensor, but will cost you only about $330.