If you read our launch piece, you’ve probably already heard and and seen much of what I’m going to talk about regarding the Surround’s camera. That said, things have been fleshed out a bit since the launch piece.
First off, the Surround packs a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash. Photos are 2592 x 1944 on the Surround and average around 4.5 MB between 700 kilobytes and 1.6 MB (update: mistake on my part), which translates to a lot of compression. Interestingly enough, the WP7 camera interface on the HTC Surround only lets you change shooting resolution (from VGA to 5 MP in 1 MP steps), not how much photos are compressed. The camera again can be launched either by holding the camera button for 4 seconds with the device off, by pressing the button while it is on, or by launching it from the applications list. Launch is pretty speedy averaging almost exactly 2 seconds from tap to live preview.
When I put the photos in our smartphone camera bench gallery, I accidentally missed one - the very last one. When I settled on the locations for our camera bench, I didn’t realize that the one at the very end would actually be the most useful. It features a wide range of colors, varying spatial frequencies (small and large objects on various backgrounds), and best of all, controlled lighting. Anyhow, that photo is now in the gallery and below:
Likewise, there are photos from the Surround in our more controlled lightbox tests with the lights on and off:
The photo taken with the Surround in the dark does have a noticeably blue cast which is a bit strange, and illumination isn’t as even as some of the dual LED flash phones. That said, exposure in the center is dead on even in the darkness.
Unfortunately, WP7 (at least on the Surround) neglects to illuminate the scene with the LED flash while running the autofocus routine with the shutter button pressed halfway down. The result is that shooting photos in darkness or near darkness results in missed focus a lot of the time. The capture flash in darkness is double - one dim followed closely by one bright, so it’s obviously pre-illuminating the scene with the flash for the sake of metering, and then capturing, but focus is somehow left out.
This is admittedly something that a ton of smartphone vendors are getting wrong in their products, but I’d like WP7 to get it right. If there’s an LED flash onboard that can be left on continually without overheating, use it to illuminate the scene during autofocus, tap to focus, or whenever showing a preview in pitch darkness. Just do it. Otherwise it’s virtually impossible to compose the scene or know if you’re at focus. For devices with a Xenon flash, obviously this isn’t possible, but it’d be nice to see continual illumination leveraged in a useful manner whenever possible.
In good illumination, the Surround’s camera isn’t much better than HTC’s other cameras I’ve tested thus far. Specifically, there’s a ton of extra sharpness that is being added, which is very apparent when viewing almost any of the images 1:1. The level of sharpness rivals (if not exceeds) the HTC Incredible.
But what’s strange about the Surround is that its focal plane is very curved. Check out this photo of the ground taken completely normal to it.
Note how field dependent focus is. It’s clear there’s some very field dependent aberrations (most dominantly, field curvature) contributing to a strong increase in softness at the edges. The Surround is the first device I’ve noticed with so much field curvature that I felt it was worth noting, but I’m going to start rigorously testing more smartphone cameras for it. Overall, I’m not super impressed with the Surround’s camera. It’s totally fine for casual throwaway shots, but still reminds me a lot of the Nexus One’s all around mediocre performance. You can compare for yourself and see in the galleries.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
39 Comments
View All Comments
banvetor - Sunday, November 14, 2010 - link
Really? Wow, the US cellphone companies are really screwed... But anyway, I'm from Brazil and currently I live in Italy, and in both places you can have the plan you want with whatever cell phone you have...Since I believe that many Anandtech readers do not live in the US, the "offline" analysis should still be valid... and also, maybe this screwed behavior is only at AT&T?
strikeback03 - Monday, November 15, 2010 - link
No, common on the major US carriers at least. And while it is an added expense, IMO data on the go is the reason to have a smartphone. I almost never use mine on WiFi, as places I have WiFi I usually have a computer as well. If they did offer pay-as-you-go Data, it would likely be at high enough prices to encourage getting a plan anyway.Nataku - Monday, November 15, 2010 - link
really? they did that without telling you and that's legal?im amazed... now i need to think about whether or not I should even be getting one... I hope the rules aren't the same in Canada lol
Brian Klug - Monday, November 15, 2010 - link
Hey Leo,That's actually a very valid point - I realize we have a large international audience and am pushing to get a lot more international devices into our coverage. I realize so far it's been a bit myopic with this tunnel-vision like focus on devices for US carriers, but we're working hard to mix it up with everything from abroad as well. I've actually got the LG Optimus One here (which is UK/Orange bound, if I'm not mistaken), which will be our first international device.
Anyhow, I digress. Yeah, I'll definitely include some discussion about what you can do with data off. Thankfully WP7 does let you turn cellular data off entirely - then you're basically limited to text and voice when out and about. I know with WP7 everything is required to be cached, so apps should work, they just won't serve much purpose if they require a data connection. Obviously WiFi will work whenever you're connected as well.
Honestly these smartphones are of marginal use without cellular data. I think Vivek rolls without a data plan most of the time, and he manages to get by just fine with the G2 and a bunch of others.
Thanks again (sorry about the delayed response),
Brian
QueBert - Sunday, November 14, 2010 - link
So basically this is the loudest speaker on a cell phone, yet it's still close to 10db quieter than the Sunchip bag. Apple, Samsung, Moto, some cell phone manufacture obviously needs to incorporate the same technology Frito-Lay used to make the Sunchip biodegradable bag so damn loud.JimmiG - Sunday, November 14, 2010 - link
I can see this as becoming something very annoying in schools, on trains and buses etc. I think the world would have been a better place without this phone.DaveGirard - Sunday, November 14, 2010 - link
those photos are awful. It's all filter and no camera.Tros - Sunday, November 14, 2010 - link
Maybe the phone needs to be in boombox-aspect to expose the microphone properly.Brian Klug - Monday, November 15, 2010 - link
This is a very interesting suggestion - if I get time, I'll test it out. That actually might end up being the case.-Brian
rackley - Sunday, November 14, 2010 - link
Nice review - I'm looking forward to seeing the review of the Focus, especially since you mentioned the PenTile display.Personally I think the Focus's display of text looks pretty bad with PenTile next to a Surround or LG, but I'd love to hear your always-detailed analysis of the issue.