Photos: Hands-on with the all-converging Samsung i100
The Samsung i100 is the latest in the company's globetrotting I series. We got one in our hands at IFA and took a look at a 10-megapixel camera with multimedia options coming out of its ears
Having encountered the most recent tranche of cameras from Chelsea sponsors Samsung in a garden in West London, it seems fitting to meet the latest iteration of Samsung's globetrotting I-series in Berlin. Although it isn't new at IFA, this was the first time we were able to get our hands on the 10.2-megapixel i100, with its multitude of uses.
The I series puts the I in convergence, as it were, by combining camera functions with portable media player (PMP) features.
Camera-wise you get optical image stabilisation, face detection of up to nine subjects, backlight compensation and in-camera red-eye fix. It has a fairly average wide-angle equivalent focal length to 38mm on a 35mm camera, and goes up to a maximum ISO speed of 3,200 at 3-megapixel resolution. There's a bunch of flash options, including red-eye reduction, fill-in flash and slow sync.
If you prefer your pictures moving, movie mode records MPEG4 videos at 800x592-pixel resolution, and 20 frames per second.
Like the i7, i70, i8 and i85 before it, the i100 has a tonne of converging options. It's a PMP, MP3 player, world tour guide, text viewer, storage device and voice recorder. The MP3 player features something called SRS Wow HD SRS surround sound mode, which sounds like a right load of old cobblers to us. When the i7 first showed up, we had a bit of a laugh at the Engrish stylings of the tour guide, and we'd like to report that that's been cleared up, but sadly we don't speak German. If we did, we'd probably ask this lady why she's parked her bike in the middle of Samsung's stand. Lazy parking, that is.
Playback of video files such as movies and music videos is supported, although Samsung conversion software may be required. How much of a faff that is is exactly the sort of thing we test in our in-depth reviews.
Of course, there's no point having a multimedia player with a poky little tiny screen, so click to the next photo to find out if the i100 disappoints. -Rich Trenholm
No, this 76mm (3-inch) screen shouldn't disappoint -- unless you're David Lynch.