The Samsung Galaxy Camera 2 ($449.99) is the company’s second crack at a connected compact camera, but it doesn’t deliver a lot of upgrades. There’s a little more RAM to make Android run smoother, and the 16-megapixel compact is wrapped in a more attractive exterior, but it uses the same 21x zoom lens and image sensor as the original Galaxy Camera ($399.95 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) . And some options are missing—you can only get the camera with Wi-Fi this time around, which is a disappointment if you are looking for cellular connectivity. The Galaxy Camera 2 is worth consideration if you’re in the market for a small Android tablet with a camera that trumps smartphone optics, but it’s no threat to our Editors’ Choice superzoom, the Nikon Coolpix S9700 ( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) . The Nikon has a longer 30x zoom lens that captures sharper images, and although it doesn’t offer the Android interface, it does have Wi-Fi built-in.

Design and Features
The Galaxy Camera 2 is a lot bigger than your average compact, which is no surprise when you consider that it sports a 4.8-inch display. It measures 2.8 by 5.2 by 1.4 inches (HWD) and weighs about 10 ounces, which is noticeably bigger than the Canon PowerShot SX700 HS ($189.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) (2.6 by 4.4 by 1.4 inches, 9.5 ounces). Its top and bottom plates have a metallic silver finish, and it’s with either a black or white finish. Both finishes feature a faux leatherette design with a textured plastic finish. The flash hides in the top plate when not in use, and pops up with the press of the release button. It’s mounted on a hinge, but won’t fire when tilted back, so there’s no way to angle it to bounce light off a ceiling.

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Like the original version, the Galaxy Camera 2 is a pure touch-screen device. The only physical controls to speak of are the Power button, the zoom rocker, flash release, and shutter button. And while the zoom rocker adjusts the 21x (23-483mm f/2.8-5.9) lens in the Camera app, it doesn’t work in some of the most popular imaging applications. We loaded VSCO Cam and Instagram, and neither recognized the zoom control—adjusting it when in those apps changes the system volume instead.

Because of the lack of physical controls, you’ll need to make any adjustments to shooting settings via the touch-screen interface. If you’re a snapshooter who prefers to let the camera take control, there’s an Auto mode, as well as more than two dozen Smart scene modes that go from the basic (Fireworks, Snow, Sunset, Macro) to more advanced (Interval, Panorama, Animated Shot). If you’re a more advanced photographer, you can opt for Expert mode, which lets you shoot in Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, or Manual, with full settings available via touch. Expert mode is laid out as a series of concentric half-circles at the right side of the display, with Mode at the far right, the settings available in that mode in the middle, and the value of each of those settings in the leftmost arc.

You can take a photo using the physical shutter button, or you can touch the on-screen camera icon to do the same. There’s a green box that shows the focus area, so you can tap any part of the frame to set the focus point. A new feature to the Galaxy Camera 2 is the ability to touch and drag that box to create a second one that controls exposure, which is useful for shooting in mixed lighting or backlit situations. You can also enable voice controls, so you can say “cheese” or “shoot” to take a photo, and activate the 10-second self-timer by saying “timer.”

The rear display is huge at 4.8 inches. If you’re used to looking at Android phone and tablet specifications, you’ll think of it as a 720p (1,280-by-720-pixel) display, which is the equivalent of 2,764k-dots using the standard metric for discussing the resolution of digital camera displays. It’s a lot bigger than the 3-inch displays that you’ll find on standard compact superzooms like the  Panasonic ZS40 ( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) , but the Galaxy Camera 2 doesn’t include an EVF like the ZS40, nor does it match the ZS40’s Raw capture support.

As you’d expect, the Galaxy includes integrated Wi-Fi with NFC support. It’s easy enough to connect to a Wi-Fi network, and you can browse the Web, post images to Facebook and Instagram, tweet to your heart’s content, and do anything else you’d normally do on an Android device. There’s a headphone jack for those times you want to listen to music or watch a video without disturbing those around you, and Bluetooth is supported as well. But there’s no slot for a micro SIM card, so you can’t add 4G cellular connectivity as you could with the original Galaxy Camera or the premium Galaxy NX ($1,299.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) .

Performance and Conclusions

Android Performance
This is only the second generation of the Galaxy Camera, but the third or fourth Android-packing camera we’ve seen from Samsung, depending on whether you count the Galaxy S4 Zoom ($32.95 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window)  or not. In any case, having used the Galaxy NX extensively at a few trade shows, what was once a complete oddity now feels oddly familiar and even wholly welcome. That’s not to say Android is any more at home in the ergonomics of a camera body, as there’s some room for improvement there, but rather, the union feels far more complementary than it does gimmicky.

With a quad-core 1.6GHz Samsung Exynos 4412 processor and 2GB RAM, the Galaxy Camera 2 has double the RAM of the Galaxy NX and sees a 200MHz speed bump over the original, which used the same Exynos 4412 chip. It’s a capable setup, but whereas the original compared favorably with some high-end Android contemporaries, the Galaxy Camera 2 is more in line with today’s lesser performing tablets. Web browsing, Netflix streaming, and resource-intensive games like Asphalt 8 ran without a hitch. In the Antutu overall system benchmark, the Galaxy Camera 2 eclipsed the Galaxy Tab 4 8.0 ($69.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) , 21,725 to 17,196. On GFXBench, though, the Tab 4 managed a slightly smoother 10fps on the T-Rex test, to the Galaxy Cam’s 9.3fps. Apps typically launch with expediency, and in our tests it had no issue switching between multiple running apps at will, including the camera. Basically anything you can do on a tablet can be done on the Galaxy Camera 2.

The Galaxy Camera 2 runs Android 4.3 with Samsung’s TouchWiz skin, and the UI remains unchanged from what we saw most recently on the Galaxy NX. Instead of an app dock, there are persistent Camera and App Tray icons to the left and right of a four-by-four grid for shortcuts and widgets. There’s still full access to the Google Play store, meaning thousands of apps, camera related or otherwise. The bad news is that the Galaxy Camera 2 is running already dated software thanks to Android 4.3, and with Android L incoming, it’s soon to be two generations of Android behind, with no update path in sight.

After a few stints with the Galaxy NX, we were sold on its always-on cellular connectivity. But there’s a key differentiating factor here—the Galaxy Camera 2 is a Wi-Fi only device. It supports 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi on the 2.4 and 5GHz bands, and speeds were in line with the Galaxy Tab 4. Any type of Internet connection is useful, but cellular connectivity opens up a whole new world of possibilities. With mobile broadband on tap, the NX became a go-to camera and connected device in our tests. We shot, we tweeted, we emailed. Hell, we think we could have brought nothing but the NX and done our jobs during our review. With the Galaxy Camera 2, you’re relegated to either carrying around a mobile hotspot, or waiting until you’re within range of Wi-Fi to upload or share photos, just like with a regular standalone camera.

Image Quality and Conclusions

Image Quality and Conclusions
The Galaxy Camera 2 wakes from standby and captures an in-focus image in about 2.6 seconds, which is a bit longer than you’ll see with other superzoom cameras. The Nikon S9700 does the same in 1.8 seconds. You’ll have to wait quite a bit longer if the Galaxy is powered down completely; in Standard mode it requires about 25 seconds to start and shoot, but that drops to 3.6 seconds if you enable Fast Power-On in the main Android settings menu.

Autofocus speed is a beat slower than the competition; the Galaxy Camera 2 requires about 0.2-second to lock onto a stationary target. In continuous drive mode images are captured at 3.7fps. The S9700 is faster here as well, locking focus in 0.1-second and capturing a 5-shot burst at 5.7fps.

See How We Test Digital Cameras

We used Imatest(Opens in a new window) to check the sharpness of images captured by the Galaxy Camera 2’s lens. The results were disappointing, as the camera doesn’t reach the 1,800 lines per picture height we use to mark a photo as sharp. It scores 1,631 lines at its widest angle using a center-weighted metric, with edges that are noticeably blurry. Performance drops when zoomed to the 4x (90mm) setting, where the camera records 1,550 lines, but at that focal length the performance at the edges is just as good as at the center of the image. At the 9.75x zoom position (225mm) the overall sharpness drops to 1,445 lines. The Canon SX700 HS captures sharper images, scoring 2,118 lines on the same sharpness test at its widest angle.

Imatest also checks photos for noise, which can detract from image quality and add an unwanted grainy quality to photos as the sensitivity to light (ISO) increases. The Galaxy Camera keeps noise below 1.5 percent through ISO 1600, but there’s a noticeable loss of image detail when you push the camera that far, as you can see from the ISO crops in the accompanying slideshow. We took a close look at the crops on a calibrated NEC MultiSync PA271W($999.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) display and found that image quality starts to drop as early as ISO 400, which is disappointing to say the least. The Nikon S9700 keeps noise under control through ISO 800, and images captured at that setting show as much detail as those shot with the Galaxy Camera 2 at ISO 400—giving it a clear advantage at even moderate ISO sensitivities.

Video is recorded in MP4 format at up to 1080p30 or 720p60 quality. The footage is crisp, with colors that are accurate if a bit muted. The lens can zoom in and out while recording, and it’s fairly quiet in doing so. Image stabilization is optical, and it does a good job steadying footage when zoomed, although there were a few instances when it introduced a wobbly effect to the footage. Rolling shutter, which causes the bottom of the frame to appear to advance more quickly than the top, is evident when panning quickly when zoomed in on your subject, but that’s typical for compact cameras.

The Galaxy Camera 2 charges via its micro USB port. Samsung doesn’t include an external battery charger with the device, which is fairly common for compact cameras. It’s not a major issue, unless you plan on buying a spare battery. If you do, you’ll likely want to invest in an external charger as well. There’s a headphone jack on the side, and a micro HDMI port in the battery compartment. You can save images to internal memory, or to a microSD memory card.

The Galaxy Camera 2 is a unique product, but it’s not one without issues. If you’re willing to forgo the Android interface and application ecosystem, you can get a better camera for less money—both the Canon SX700 HS and our Editors’ Choice Nikon Coolpix S9700 can be had for $100 less, and feature longer zoom lenses, Wi-Fi, and better image quality. As an Android device, its performance is unexceptional, and its operating system is a generation behind, with no upgrade to KitKat on the horizon. The original Galaxy Camera was sold in a version with 4G cellular support, but this one isn’t. That’s a big minus, as it limits you to using the online features when Wi-Fi is available.

If you’re looking for a small Android tablet that puts an emphasis on photography, the Galaxy Camera 2 is worth consideration, as long as you understand its limitations. But if you’re in the market for a superzoom, and you already own a good smartphone, you’re better off with a Wi-Fi equipped camera—you’ll have to copy images over to your phone to put them online, but you’ll be rewarded with images that are of better quality. And you’ll end up with a little bit more money in your pocket when you consider the price differential.