Samsung first out of the gate with 12-megapixel camera phone

Sony Ericsson's sleek Satio, due to arrive in October, was supposed to be the world's first 12-megapixel camera phone. But Samsung is now poised to steal Sony Ericsson's thunder with the 12-megapixel Pixon12, which is set to debut in Europe this month.

Details on the Pixon12, announced early Monday by Samsung HQ in Korea, are still a bit sketchy. According to Engadget, the phone will come with a 3.1-inch AMOLED touchscreen, a microSD expansion slot (for up to 16GB of storage), plus 3G, Wi-Fi, and GPS support.

The Pixon12's camera features looks pretty tight so far, including a "superb" 28mm wide-angle lens and Xenon flash, touch auto-focus (good for keeping specific subjects in focus, even while they're in motion), easy uploads to social Web services like Facebook, Picasa, Flickr, and MySpace, and (according to Engadget) 720 by 480-pixel video recording at 30 frames-per-second.

All well and good, but keep in mind that picture quality isn't all about megapixels; most camera phones tend to disappoint because they skimp with tiny lenses and weak flashes. Still, the latest high-end camera phones are starting to close the gap—take last year's Motorola Motozine ZN5, a 5MP camera phone that took some of the best snapshots I've seen from a handset yet. Whether the 12-megapixel Pixon12 and the Sony Ericsson Satio (formerly known as the Idou) manage to continue the trend remains to be seen.

No pricing details on the Pixon12 just yet, nor is there any word on when it'll arrive in the U.S.; all we know for now is that it'll arrive in Europe by the end of June, and in "other regions" in August.

[Image credit: Engadget]

Related:
Samsung's Pixon 12: a dozen megapixels of cameraphone nonsense in June [Engadget]