Advances in camera technology continue to shape the future of Samsung mobile phones. This latest offering - the G800 aims to sit at the top of the tree as the Korean manufacturers halo model. To do that they have endowed it with a 5 megapixel camera equipped with a 3x optical zoom, auto focus and xenon flash.

To date most mobile phone camera's have used a digital zoom for image optimization. The drawback of this is a reduction in image size / quality the further you zoom. With the 3x optical zoom offered by the G800 you are able to compensate for not being up close to your chosen subject without such an immediate reduction in quality. The Samsung G800 has other options you may also expect to find on a regular compact camera such as the Auto Panorama mode and Face Detection, which picks out faces on the screen with a red box to help compose the shot. Add to that special effects like negative, sepia and greyscale and a host of on-board editing options and the G800 puts in a convincing camera performance.

Although photo ability is a key measure in choosing your next mobile phone, it is not the only consideration. Samsung include many other class leading features in the G800 to ensure its success. Firstly it is HSDPA enabled to allow fast network access over 3G in addition to having a tri-band GSM antenna. Bluetooth connectivity is of the v2.0 standard and this offers the G800 an A2DP stereo profile for listening to music on the in-built MP3 player or FM radio. Storage of music and photo's can be shared between 160MB of on board memory and a microSD card, the slot for which is on one side of the phone.

In all Samsung have done well to pack the camera and these other features in to a device measuring just 101mm x 51mm x 18.8mm and weighing only 134g. The screen resolution is excellent, boasting 262k colours and measuring 2.4 inches, with the added bonus of a slider design offering more space for both display and keypad. If that isn't enough though, Samsung have provided a TV out socket for speedy connection to a larger screen to share your pictures and videos.