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March 18, 2008

Samsung i85 review

Part digital camera, part media player, the Samsung i85 packs a lot into its sleek, glossy frame.

The feature-packed Samsung i85 is great for those who don’t want to stuff their pockets with multiple gadgets.

The chic, dark red Samsung i85 we got for our review has a 20.2mm thin stainless steel body. Its high gloss brushed metallic body weighs a moderate 158g.

While the button placements don’t pose a problem, the Samsung i85's interface can be confusing at times. We liked the clean front fascia with a non-protruding lens that has an 8.2Mp sensor.

A generous 3in TFT screen, onboard speaker and 2.5mm headphones port are other handy features of the Samsung i85 - although we prefer a more standard 3.5mm headphone jack.

The Samsung i85 has four shooting modes: auto, program, anti-shake reduction (ASR) and movie. The ASR reduces blurring and delivers sharper images with the flash off in low-light. Its multi-face detection produces well-exposed images and works on up to nine faces. The Wise Shot feature takes two shots of the same picture with the flash on and off giving the user the choice to save the better shot. There are 14 scene modes and ISO settings up to 1600. Visit Photo Advisor for reviews of the latest cameras, and digital photography hardware and software products.

The Samsung i85 plays back the Samsung’s own SDC videos which were converted with provided software. Captured videos are stored in Mpeg4 format. The audio player supports MP3 and WAV files, and has different sound presets including SRS WOW HD enhancement. Programs such as Text Viewer and World Tour are fun add-ons.

We wish the Samsung i85 came with a mini-USB cable instead of the proprietary one though. The Samsung i85 runs on Li-ion battery rated at 1100mAh.

Start me up

The Samsung i85 took 3 seconds to boot up, which is about average. Owing to its large screen and multiple features which eat up more processing power, the overall response in most operations took quite a bit to get the job done.

Our first test involved shooting in auto mode under different lighting conditions. While shooting outdoors, there were slight purple fringes on the images. As with most digital cameras, the colours were vivid. This makes the Samsung i85 ideal for holiday pictures or casual shoots. But the details blurred under too much light, pictures looked washed out and the white balance was not very accurate. The Samsung i85's 5x optical zoom worked effortlessly.

While shooting indoors, the flash takes quite a bit of time to fire up (usually 4 seconds). But it is quite powerful and lights up subjects 9ft to 12ft away. Pictures had life-like colours and natural skin tones. The Samsung i85 came up trumps when it came to close-ups. Pictures captured in Super Macro mode showed excellent details.

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Independent customer reviews from

Samsung i85 scored:
8.5 out of 10 100% real reviews

The 2 most helpful reviews based on 9 reviews:

17 Oct 2007 Anonymous verified purchaser

9

Good Points

Great camera very easy to use, with loads of features. 5x optical zoom is very useful particularly in a camera that will fit in pocket

Bad Points

travel guide is of very limited use, switching between internal memory and memory card is only possible by removing the memmory card

31 Dec 2007 warren, london

10

Good Points

quick,easy,small

Bad Points

no camera bag with it

See more Samsung i85 reviews on Reevoo.com

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3/5

Features

4.5/5

Value for money

3.5/5

Overall

3.5/5

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Samsung i85

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