Samsung ST1000 review

There's also an enhanced face-detection system that can identify mugs it's seen before and give them priority, and the auto scene-selection mode uses 15 different scenes, whereas equivalent modes on many rival cameras use just a handful of the most obvious, like 'portrait', 'macro' and so on.

Minor gripes
Unless you're the sort of person that reads a manual from front to back before using anything, you probably won't realise that photos sent wirelessly are resized to a smaller resolution (1,600x1,200 pixels), which is disappointing, although they're still fine for all kinds of on-screen use and snapshot-sized prints.

The 5x zoom and 12.2-megapixel sensor delivered very crisp results with our test chart, and there's little distortion or chromatic aberration, although the definition does drop off at the edges of the frame (click image to enlarge)

On a practical level, you might wish the ST1000 had a wideangle zoom, rather than the 35-175mm equivalent lens supplied. Also, while the image processing makes coarse detail look super-sharp, it smudges finer textures. The ST1000 relies on microSD and microSDHC cards, too, although these are easy enough to come by now.

Conclusion
As if the Samsung ST1000's ultra-high-resolution touchscreen weren't enough, you also get straightforward and effective bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS features. The ST1000 is technically ambitious, but everything works well. If you're looking for outright picture quality, you can do better than this, but, if you want 21st century-connectivity, the ST1000 rules.

Edited by Charles Kloet