Samsung Pixon12 vs. Sony Ericsson Satio

The Samsung Pixon12 and Sony Ericsson Satio herald a new wave of high-resolution camera-phones. This time, we're looking at a tiny image sensor that delivers 12-megapixel (4,000 x 3,000-pixel) pictures. That's a lot of pixels and a lot of room for cropping. The Pixon12 is available at S$998 (US$734.78), while the Satio is due to launch soon for S$1,098 (US$808.41). Prices aside, Samsung has the first-to-market advantage, but can the Pixon12 hold its ground when the Satio arrives?

For this shootout, we've compiled a series of pictures taken off the camera-phones without any editing save for resizing, so that they fit into the width of the page. However, you can download full-resolution versions by clicking on them. The images were taken in default auto settings unless specified otherwise. On the following page, we have a breakdown listing of the camera settings available on each handset.

Our verdict follows right after the comparisons.

User interface
Samsung Pixon12	Sony Ericsson Satio
Samsung and Sony Ericsson engineers probably worked on the same drawing block when they were designing the user interface of their camera-phones. Camera settings are arranged in two columns on the left and right of the touchscreen. These are transparent overlays, so they won't block out part of the frame when you're shooting in 16:9 format. The biggest difference here is that the Pixon12 uses arrow tabs to navigate the various menu pages, while the Satio employs scroll bars. In our tests, we found the Pixon12 slightly more responsive when switching camera settings. Activating the camera on the Pixon12 is via a dedicated button on the right edge of the handset. The Satio, on the other hand, does that with a mechanical slider at the back. Both are equally efficient, so it boils down to a matter of personal preference. But we do like the option of a physical button to switch between still image and video capture modes on the Satio.

Dynamic range
Samsung Pixon12	Sony Ericsson Satio
The dynamic range refers to the ability of the image sensor to collect highlight and shadow details in an exposure. An overexposed image has clipped highlights, while an underexposed image results in clipped shadows. Both mean there's loss of details in the image which is irrecoverable. The Pixon12 and Satio performed admirably for a camera-phone in this aspect. The devices were able to capture a decent amount of details in both the highlight and shadow regions even though there was obvious loss of information on both ends. A point to note is that the Pixon12 by default uses center-weighted metering which could affect the dynamic range of the picture when framing a shot. The Satio, on the other hand, doesn't have any setting to adjust the metering.

Color accuracy
Samsung Pixon12	Sony Ericsson Satio
Both the Pixon12 and Satio delivered accurate colors when viewed on the desktop. On the devices, however, the Samsung displayed more vividness, likely due to its AMOLED screen and internal processing algorithms, while the Satio gave more natural but slightly muted colors. During our tests, the Satio occasionally suffered from white balance mishaps when outdoors. A slight shift in the framing resulted in a cooler white balance (bluish cast) in some of our snaps.

Lens quality
Samsung Pixon12	Sony Ericsson Satio
The Pixon12 has a slightly better edge-to-edge sharpness here, but this is only marginal and most users probably won't notice this, nor would they bother to. There wasn't any lens flare or purple fringing in our pictures for both devices, so that's good.

Xenon flash
Samsung Pixon12	Sony Ericsson Satio
Both the Pixon12 and Satio come with Xenon and LED and that's typically the ideal situation for pictures and videos, respectively. When taken at the same distance, the Pixon12 had a stronger flash output, but you can clearly see light falling off at the edges. The Satio, on the other hand, had a more gentle flash and lit up the scene more evenly. There's no forced flash option on the Sony Ericsson, so you can't use it to light up subjects which are backlit.

Low-light setting
Samsung Pixon12	Sony Ericsson Satio
We took a series of pictures using different settings for this test. The Smart Auto option on the Pixon12 did better than the Auto option on the Satio, choosing not to fire the flash when shooting landscapes at dusk/night. The Program modes generally gave the best compromise when taking these snaps. Using the Night landscape scenery mode lowered the ISO, but at the same time reduced the shutter speed. For the first set of images, the Pixon12 performed marginally better with a faster shutter speed, which aided in reducing camera shake. For the second set of images, it was impossible to hand hold the devices as the shutter speed was reduced to 0.5 second.

Macro mode
Samsung Pixon12	Sony Ericsson Satio
We used the Macro focus mode for this test. These can be activated in the settings under Focus mode for both devices. The Pixon12 was more consistent in focusing and gave a more accurate indication of whether the subject was in focus. The Satio, on the other hand, would on occasion display a green box (meaning it has locked focus) despite the screen obviously showing that the first Lego man wasn't in focus. The Pixon12 also had a closer macro-focusing distance at about 5cm compared with 8cm on the Satio. Plus, it had more depth-of-field.

Verdict