Home > Reviews > Manufacturer > Helio Fin (Samsung SPH-a513) Cell Phone Review

Helio Fin (Samsung SPH-a513) Cell Phone Review - Imaging

Alfredo Padilla Published on August 29, 2007 Comment on this

Intro Making/Receiving Calls Software Other Features

Tour & Design Messaging Battery Life Value & Comparisons

Audio Quality Organizer Connectivity Conclusion

Imaging Multimedia Hardware Ratings & Specs

Resolution (2.77)
To test the resolution of the Fin's 3-megapixel camera we take photos of an industry standard resolution chart and run the results through the Imatest software. This produces a score called line widths per pixel height (lw/ph), which is a measure of how many alternating black and white lines can be discerned before they start blurring together.
The Helio Fin's camera scored 790.1 lw/ph horizontal and 866.5 lw/ph vertical. As the chart below shows, this is significantly better than most comparison phones, beat out only by the Nokia N73's excellent 3.2-megapixel auto focus camera. For a camera phone we were generally happy with the Fin's performance in this test, but you should note that it won't replace even a cheap stand alone digital camera.

Cell Phone	Helio Fin	Sanyo Katana DLX	LG Chocolate VX8550
Score	2.77	0.45	1.69
lw/ph horizontal/vertical	790.1 / 866.5	316.6 / 249.4	616.8 / 569.5
Image of Resolution Chart (click to view)

Cell Phone	Nokia N75	Nokia N73	Sprint Upstage
Score	1.14	3.98	1.94
lw/ph horizontal/vertical	505.9 / 698.8	946.4 / 1126	678.9 / 547.1
Image of Resolution Chart (click to view)

Color (5.94)
To test how well the Fin's camera reproduced colors we took photos of the industry standard GretagMacbeth color chart and ran the photos through Imatest. Imatest compares the produced colors with the original colors and produces the chart below on the left. The innermost rectangle shows the original color from the chart, the box outside the rectangle shows Imatest's adjusted color, and the outer box shows the captured colors.


Imatest also produces the chart above on the right, which marks the ideal color with a box and the actual captured color with a circle. The longer the line between the two, the more inaccurate the color capture. As you can see, the Fin's camera did a reasonable job of reproducing colors. There is some inaccuracy across the board, with the worst offenders being oversaturated yellows, but nothing nearly as bad as phones like the Sprint Upstage or Nokia N75, whose colors were off significantly. We were generally pleased with the Fin's ability to accurately reproduce colors.

Cell Phone	Helio Fin	Sanyo Katana DLX	LG Chocolate VX8550
Score	5.94	6.54	4.69
Color Checker Chart (click to view)

Cell Phone	Nokia N75	Nokia N73	Sprint Upstage
Score	3.47	5.88	3.85
Color Checker Chart (click to view)

Noise (1.46)
To test the amount of noise produced by the Fin's camera we took photos of the GretagMacbeth color chart at four different lighting levels. We then ran the photos through the Imatest software. The Fin produced slightly higher than optimal levels of noise, but the consistency across lighting levels made up for this. As seen in the chart below, it did better than any of our comparison phones, just beating the Sprint Upstage.

Cell Phone	Score
Helio Fin	1.46
Sanyo Katana DLX	0.83
LG Chocolate VX8550	1.27
Nokia N75	0.41
Nokia N73	1.17
Sprint Upstage	1.45

Live Preview (7.0)
The Helio Fin's screen does a good job of providing a preview of the photo you're about to take. Colors are reproduced accurately and there is no pixelation. The live preview refreshes quickly, and we saw no "ghost" effect when we panned the camera around.

Unlocked Standby to First Shot (0.0)
We test how quickly we can go from phone closed to taking a photo. We repeat this test until we get a consistently repeatable result. The Fin took 6.2 seconds to complete this process. This is a poor time, despite the fact we were able to use the camera shortcut key to quickly launch the application. The camera application is one of the few to take a significant amount of time to launch, although once it was launched we were able to take a photo fairly quickly. As you can see below, the Fin put up the worst time among our comparison phones.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Helio Fin	6.2	3.23
Sanyo Katana DLX	3.1	6.45
LG Chocolate VX8550	2.36	8.47
Nokia N75	4.7	4.26
Nokia N73	5.3	3.77
Sprint Upstage	2.7	7.41

Shot to Shot Time (0.57)
Shot to shot time is a measure of how quickly we can take a series of photos. When possible we try to use Burst mode, however the Fin lacks this function so we had to take photos manually, which severely slowed us down. We were able to capture five photos in 26.5 seconds. This works out to .19 frames per second (fps), a terrible score. We were hampered by the fact that there is no way to turn off the photo review that occurs after you take each photo, and because it took a significant amount of time to save each photo. This poor performance means anyone hoping to take an action shot with the Fin will probably be disappointed with the results.

Cell Phone	FPS	Score
Helio Fin	0.19	0.57
Sanyo Katana DLX	2.10	6.30
LG Chocolate VX8550	0.38	1.14
Nokia N75	0.43	1.29
Nokia N73	0.52	1.56
Sprint Upstage	0.20	0.60

Shutter to Shot Time (3.33)
Shutter to shot time is a measure of how long it takes for the camera to actually capture a photo once you have depressed the capture button. We repeat this test until we get a consistently repeatable result. The Fin's shutter to shot time was 0.6 seconds. While this isn't good, it could be worse. The Nokie N73, for example, took 3.1 seconds, although it should be noted that it has an auto focus camera that takes time to  focus before the photo is captured. Compared to the other phones, the Fin's time was slower than the Katana, Chocolate, and Upstage, but slightly better than the Nokia N75's.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Helio Fin	0.60	3.33
Sanyo Katana DLX	0.38	5.26
LG Chocolate VX8550	0.22	9.09
Nokia N75	0.73	2.74
Nokia N73	3.10	0.65
Sprint Upstage	0.30	6.67

Interface (8.0)
The Fin's photo interface is well designed, with the option of four different viewing types. We prefer the option that lets us use the entire screen as a viewfinder. Most views provide you with icons showing your current photo settings, as well as convenient markers that indicate which keypad shortcuts allow you to change each setting. The left soft key opens a menu for additional settings, with a nice camera-like interface reminiscent of the one we've seen on some HTC phones. In this menu, you can move between a series of icons along the bottom using the left and right buttons, with the related settings appearing on the screen above it. All in all we were very pleased with the camera interface of the Fin.

Photo Album Software Internal (6.0)
The Fin's album software is fairly straightforward. When in the "Snap" menu you can choose to view either an internal or external album. When you select one, you are shown a list of folders. A single Default folder is automatically created, but you can create more to better organize your photos. Once you open a folder, the photos/videos stored inside are organized into a 3 x 3 thumbnail view. The left soft key is assigned to "check," which allows you to select multiple photos for moving or deletion. The left soft key opens a menu to access various functions. There is also a fairly advanced slide show feature, which allows you to build a slide show by inserting photos into the order you want and adding effects. The slide show interface is a little complicated, but we appreciate the additional functionality. Overall, the album software on the Fin is a step above what you will find on most phones, although not as advanced as that found on smart phones like the Nokia N75 or N73.

Manual Control (0.0)
The Fin does not include any manual settings for functions like scenes, aperture priority, or white balance.

Zoom (0.0)
The Fin has a digital zoom, however it is not available at the highest resolution setting. We don't award points to phones that can't use their zoom at all resolutions.

Focus (0.0)
The Fin's camera is fixed focus, commonly used on most cell phones. This means what you see is what you get as far as photo focus goes. Some more advanced camera phones like the Nokia N73 have an auto focus lens takes sharper shots, although it slows down the process of taking a photo. We do not award points for a fixed focus lens.

Flash (0.0)
The Fin does not include a flash. Most phones include at least an LED light, but with the Fin, you'll need to use a torch if there isn't enough light to capture the subject.

Metering (6.0)
The Fin has manual brightness settings, but it is also one of a handful of new phones we've seen with true metering controls. Metering allows you to control from which point or points in the scene lighting is judged. The Fin includes two metering options, center-spot metering and center-weighted metering.

White Balance (2.0)
Like most phones, the Fin has a few preset options for white balance, including Daylight, Cloudy, Incandescent, and Fluorescent. There is no support for the more advanced evaluative metering, which tries to set white balance using a "true" white card.

Image Handling (0.0)
Unlike most phones that offer few image handling options, the Fin has a whole menu of editing options in its "Photo Studio". This includes fun stuff, like applying effects and adding "stickers," but also includes more advanced options like adjusting contrast, brightness, and hue, as well as resizing and rotating photos. All in all this is an impressive selection of image handling options, almost as good as what we see on the Nokia N75 and N73, smart phones with slightly better image handling options.

Video

Overall Video Score (5.0)
The quality of video captured by the Helio Fin was quite good, for a cell phone. Video capture is at a maximum resolution of 240 x 320 at 14 fps. It's a little fuzzy, especially when viewed at full screen resolution, but unlike a lot of mobile video is not overpixelated. The quality should be more than sufficient for MMS, and you can probably even throw a movie taken by the Fin up on YouTube.

Video Resolution (4.66)
To test video resolution we take video of the same industry standard resolution chart we use for the still resolution test. We then run frames from the video through Imatest to produce the same line widths per pixel height (lw/ph) score, which indicates how many alternating black and white lines can be discerned. The Helio Fin did fairly well in this test, scoring 214.1 lw/ph horizontal and 217.7 lw/ph vertical. This is better than any of our comparison phones except for the Nokia N73 and N75. Nokia has a reputation for making phones with good video capture, so it's not surprising that the Fin doesn't match their quality.

Cell Phone	lw/ph horizontal/vertical	Score
Helio Fin	214.1 / 217.7	4.66
Sanyo Katana DLX	200.5 / 181.2	3.63
LG Chocolate VX8550	218.3 / 200.8	4.38
Nokia N75	307.1 / 346.3	10.97
Nokia N73	272.5 / 224.8	6.13
Sprint Upstage	77.11 / 109.5	0.84

Video Compression (2.0)
The Fin only captures video in a variant of the 3GP standard for mobile video. Other popular formats like MPEG-4 are not supported.

Interface (8.0)
The video camera interface on the Fin is very similar to the still camera interface. You have a choice of views, with indicators along the top and right of the screen for various settings. When you launch the menu it appears in a strip at the bottom of the screen, with the specific settings for the selected item appearing in a small pop up above the strip. All in all it's very camera-like and easy to use.

Manual Control (0.0)
As with the still camera there are no manual controls for the Fin's video camera.

Zoom (1.0)
The Fin offers a digital zoom on its video camera, which is available at the highest resolution setting, unlike the still camera. As always, we are not very impressed by digital zoom, which simply crops and enlarges what you are seeing, but since it's occasionally helpful we award a point for it.

Editing (0.0)
The only editing option available is to rename the video. We don't consider this sufficient to award any points, so the Fin receives a zero here.

Modes (3.0)
Video capture on the Fin doesn't include presets for MMS or e-mail, however you do have preset white balance settings and metering options similar to the still camera.

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