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With the ever growing digital camera market, the competition between manufacturers has reached to a point where a 10.1 megapixel camera is available for less than Rs. 10,000. And now with 12.2 megapixel cameras hitting the consumer market, the race is just going to get stronger. But Samsung is a step ahead with their newest offering, the ST 550, the camera with the unique feature of a front LCD for Portrait shots. With this feature Samsung will claim to be at the top of the pile, but does the camera deliver on its own. Let’s find out –

With the dimensions of 99.8 (W)x 59.8 (H)x 18.6 (D)mm and weighing at 165.7g without the battery and memory card, the ST550 is a very compact camera overloaded with features. With a complete black body and a gold lining running between it, the camera is a sure treat for the eyes. With a solid metal body at the back to hold theLCD, the front panel has a clean piano finish.

On the front, the camera features a 1.5”, 61K LCD. A trend setter by all means, Samsung st 550 is the first camera to feature a front LCD screen for portrait shots. To activate, simply start the camera and tap on the front LCD. Somehow, the touch sensitivity on the front LCD is not that responsive, as you have to tap hard to activate it. A very innovative feature in itself, the front LCD is put to very good use which we will talk about in the feature section.

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Whatever Toshiba can do, Samsung can do… um, equally well? Evidently that’s the game being played over at IFA, as the latter company has issued a 640GB portable hard drive of its own nary 24 hours after Tosh did likewise. The unspeakably cute S2 portable is getting a much-needed capacity bump, making the largest drive in the line 640GB. In related news, the company’s 3.5-inch S3 Station external HDD has seen its maximum storage level creep north to 2TB, though storage freaks will have to wait patiently until "early next year" in order to take one home. Prices for both remain a mystery, but if we had to guess, we’d put the MSRPs about a penny under whatever Toshiba settles on. Call it a hunch.

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We reviewed the really tiny ultra compact – Fujifilm A100 – last week; moving from that tiny critter to this week’s bulky mammoth – the Samsung WB500 – was quite a size jump!
The WB500 is 105 x 61 x 37 millimeters in size, which fits it into the compact (rather than ultra compact) camera segment. It weighs a whooping 249 grams, which is heavy. The reason behind this though is the camera’s powerful zoom lens, but let’s leave that discussion for a bit later.

The camera hosts a powder finish metallic, dark gray, plastic exterior and is curved lusciously. The entire body’s smooth, with no jagged edges, making it one of the most ergonomic compacts around. The grip side of the camera protrudes out more than the rest of the body, and smoothly curves back in on the lens side of the camera. Nested besides the lens, is a small textured rubber grip for your right hand’s middle and ring finger, giving you that extra bit of grip and comfort while yielding the camera.

Even the shutter button’s positioned perfectly – not too far away from the right side of the camera, and not too close either – just in place for the last link of your index finger to rest on comfortably. The zoom toggle ring’s placed neatly around the shutter button, and is easy to access. Besides it sits the metallic mode dial with a textured rim that helps you change modes with easy. The power button rests on the other side of the shutter button, and it hones the glowing blue ring (when your camera’s powered up), giving it that snazzy high-tech look. Call me shallow if you like, but I just love the way this blue light looks.

Moving on – the facing side of the camera has a unique toggle towards the top that lets you change f-stop and shutter speed with ease in manual mode. Its functionality is limited though, making it feel like nothing more than a filler for the empty space. Below that lie the three buttons – function, effect and preview. The effect button is a cool feature that allows you to add really good effects such as warm, cool, forest, retro etc. looks to your pictures before they’re taken. Apart from that, you can pick from a plethora of styles including the standard sepia, black and white, amongst others, and tweak your sharpness, brightness, contrast settings on the fly as well.
Besides these buttons there’s a 3-inch LCD display that hones 460,000 pixels, which is far denser (hence gives more detailed output) than the standard 270,000 dots screens you see on most compacts.
While its bulk makes it really hard to fit the camera in your pocket, the WB500 exudes style and ergonomics, while being tough and sturdy as well.

We have reviewed quite a few Samsung TVs already this year, so I think it’s time we shift focus to the more personal, more engaging product segment which is PC monitors. Samsung has a respectable name here too, and today we have something they term as ‘hot’ on their website! The model is Samsung Syncmaster 2033SW and it’s a 21.5 inch LCD monitor…

Design
The unit has all the bearings of a typical Samsung design released in the past 3 years. The bezel is their regular high piano gloss finish, with a shiny surface going all the way down to the oval stand. The monitor is pretty light, weighing in at 4.45 kg. The back panel is fancier than the front. We have little flowers etched out, or rather magnified snowflake patterns all around. Why have they done this, I have no clue, as designs should be where the eye can see them, not at the back of a screen.
The bottom panel has the Samsung logo printed in the center, with a thick transparent hard plastic strip accenting on the bottom edge. This edge is curved too, and the center houses a thin blue LED strip that lights up when the power is on. All in all this section looks good, and reminds the user  of the older TV models. They have this same design.

The build quality is overall pretty sturdy, there are no loose corners or weak joints. There is one thing I want to make a complaint about: the stand, at least in our package, did not come attached, and this model has a weird ball and socket style joint between screen and stand. Once fixed it is sturdy, though fixing it can be a pain as it is not well illustrated in the manual, and it takes a bit of trial and error. Also, the joint allows the screen to rotate on one single vertical axis (up to down), and not left to right which can sometimes be required in LCD monitors. In the package we get a CD with essential stuff like a user manual and drivers, plus Samsung has thrown in a nice soft blue cloth to the clean the unit. Overall the monitor is quite no frills, and that is a good thing as USB ports, speakers etc. are not really what make a good monitor.

Features and specs
This monitor is a 16:9 screen measuring 21.5 inches. The resolution is 1600:900, and the brightness is 300 cd/m2. Contrast is rated at 15,000:1 dynamic and 1000:1 native. Response time is at 5 ms (gray to gray). They have a name now for this feature, Samsung calls it Magicspeed. The features of the monitor are expectedly numerous, as is typical to the brand. There is proprietary stuff thrown in like Magicbright and Color effect, which actually is nothing but a set of presets, which we will go over in the performance section. Lastly the viewing angle is 170 degrees. Samsung has not mentioned it anywhere, but we are assuming that this monitor is a TN panel, as the viewing angles are not that hot when actually looked at from the side, and the cost is less. Samsung does state 16.7 million colors which would be 256x256x256 steps in the Red, green and blue parts of the pixel. 256 would then obviously mean 2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2 (8-bit). It is a fact that general TN panels are generally only true 6 bit, not 8 bit, meaning that the pixels cannot actually have 256 different levels of gray… but brands use something called frame rate control or FRC to dither their way into 8 bit color. Thus we are also assuming that the panel is an 8 bit one, albeit enhanced 8 bit. I wish Samsung and all brands provided this info directly to customer, so there are no assumptions to be made.

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We’ve reviewed quite of few ultra compacts lately that go all the way when it comes to packing features, but suffer considerably when it comes to performance. Samsung hopes to break away from that trend by balancing the two, with the Samsung NV9.

To start off, the NV9 boasts of a really compact frame that measures a measly 95 x 60 x 21 millimeters. Add to that the fact that it weights just 180 grams, and you have a really portable camera. The left and right sides of the camera are rounded and there are no protruding parts, ensuring that its portability isn’t marred by the odd edge that tugs at your pocket when you slide it in.

The camera features a black metallic finish (it’s available in silver too) that looks great and doesn’t attract fingerprints. The button placement’s pretty much on target – the shutter button and mode dial are placed on the top side (towards the right) of the camera, while the power button’s on the far left, ensuring that you never press it by mistake. Between these buttons, nest two analog meters to show your current battery and memory’s status. While it’s not the most useful feature, it works well and adds to the camera aesthetically; call me silly, but I find the touch of analog in a digital camera really cool.

Getting back to the button placement, the facing side of the NV9 has a zoom toggle near the top. It isn’t the most convenient placement for it, since it’s a little high for your thumb to reach naturally, but it’s in no way a deal breaker. Below the toggle are the Image Stabilization, Function, Preview and Exit buttons. In between them is the navigation pad with a menu/ok button in the middle. Besides the buttons sits a 2.7 inch, 230,000 pixel screen.

Overall, the NV9 boasts of simplistic design, accentuated by a few features like two analog dials and a lit up blue ring around the power button, that add aesthetic appeal and a touch of individuality.

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