Samsung announces Android-powered Galaxy Camera 2

Samsung has announced the Galaxy Camera 2, the successor to their first Android-powered camera which we found underwhelming for its high price.

The Galaxy Camera 2 is supposed to be faster than the Galaxy, with a 16MP BSI CMOS sensor and 21x optical zoom. Loaded with Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean), the Galaxy Camera 2 comes with an upgraded 1.6GHz quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM. Dropbox is pre-loaded and comes with an exclusive 50GB of free storage for up to two years.

Battery life has been bumped up from 1,650mAh on the Galaxy to 2,000mAh on the new camera, but there is no mention of number of shots rated with the new battery. To be fair, it'd be hard to rate. The Galaxy Camera 2 comes with Wi-Fi and NFC (no SIM slot though), extensive use of these will drain battery life more quickly, as would using the various Android features like web browsing and games.

A new "Tag & Go" feature lets you connect the Galaxy Camera 2 to NFC-enabled smartphones and devices; a tap of the smartphone and camera and devices will be automatically paired.

With Photo Beam, the picture being viewed on the camera is automatically sent to the paired smartphone, while Mobile Link allows photographers to select images they wish to transfer to their smartphone.

Remote Viewfinder lets photographers control the camera using the smartphone, providing greater freedom for setting up and snapping shots.

It comes with a 4.8" touchscreen LCD. A new Smart Mode Selfie Alarm takes five consecutive, high resolution images so that users can select their best angle and share immediately on their favourite social media site. Someone should tell James Franco about this.

Multi Motion Video allows users to set the speed of capture and create speed up or slowed down movies, from eight times slower than normal speed up to eight times faster.

Local availability and pricing have yet to be announced.

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