(iTers News) – Imagine that your friend has a digital camera that runs on as sophisticated OS as your upscale smartphone does. You would be also surprised to find that its CPU and other hardware are as powerful as yours, supporting HD video playback, full Internet browsing, app and video download, SNS services,  and even email search and check.

It even has a built-in cellular and Wi-Fi baseband chip, allowing your friend to upload or send them immediately after he takes snapshots.

You might be wowed at first, exclaiming ”It’s awesome”. Think twice, however, and you might say that its hardware and software configuration seem to overshoot a typical digital camera.

If you know that your friend pays his data plan for the cellular service every month the same as you pay your phone bill, you might hesitate to buy one questioning whether it is a value-for-money, or not.

Samsung’s Galaxy Camera is typical of the overshooting technology.

After Samsung Electronics debut it first in the U.K. and France in mid-November, the world’s largest mobile phone maker started to sell the Galaxy Camera in the Korean market effective from Nov. 29 in what the company said is the world’s first LTE-enabled digital camera.

(JK, Shin, president with Samsung Mobile Business)

At a product launch event held in Seoul, J.K. Shin, president with Samsung Mobile Communications business said, “Galaxy Camera is now opening up the era of the connected camera. It has already become a runaway hit in the Europe.”

Overshooting hardware and software specs

Yet, his remarks seem to be elusive. Running on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS, the latest and the most sophisticated Android OS family, the Galaxy Camera is powered by a 1.4GHz ARM Cortex-A9 quad-core CPU-based Exynos SOC. It has also built-in LTE and 3G cellular baseband chip as well as a Wi-Fi connectivity technology, sporting a 4.8-inch HD super clear touch-enabled LCD screen as well as 16.3 mega pixel BSI CMOS image sensors.

That software and hardware specs are no less than that of Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S3. Alas, however, you had better make a long checklist before you buy it on the impulse.

It cost 750,000 won in Korea, while selling for US$500 in the U.S. On top of that, you have to pay extra money to buy service carriers’ data plan for LTE, or 3G cellular connectivity.

If you are a professional photographer, it will be a good buy. Buy, if you are a weekend goer, it will overshoot you. Is it a waste of money to buy the data plan for the weekend hobby?  Of course, if you buy a Wi-Fi only version, you don’t need to pay a data bill.

How about a battery life? Samsung’s specs show that it will survive 4 and half an hours in a talk-time mode. Taking multiple snapshots via a landscape-like 4.8-inch HD super clear LCD and whizzing up a CPU and base band chip for an upload will soon drain its battery life to the bottom, however.

Camera alone: an excellent buy 

This overshooting convergence is why the commercial success of Galaxy Camera is now being thrown into question.

When it comes to the camera functionality alone, however, the Galaxy Camera is nothing short on a professional camera.

For example, the built-in ‘Smart Mode’ allows amateur users to take a photo shot as good as a professional photographer even in low light environment or take a excellent snapshot of fireworks and roaring downstream of a cascade. It has a 21 x zoom-in and –out function as well as auto freeze functionality, too.

Equally amazing is its ability to automatically upload multiple shots on a cloud server or share them with family members and buddies.

Videos and Photos by JH Bae