Samsung Juke Cell Phone Review - Imaging

To test resolution we take several captures of an industry standard resolution chart, which is essentially comprised of alternating black and white lines of different widths. We then run the resulting images through our Imatest software. Imatest analyzes the pictures to determine how many individual alternating lines it can see before it starts interpreting them as a swath of gray. This point is measured by line widths per pixel height (lw/ph).

The Juke only managed to score 300 lw/ph horizontally and 295 lw/ph vertically on this test. This is really bad, as evidenced by its incredibly low score. Given the phone's size and class, this didn't come as much of a shock. We really doubt consumers who've played around with this phone, perhaps even checked out the live preview, would think they were investing in an image capturing powerhouse with the Juke.

Cell Phone	Samsung Juke	LG Chocolate Vx8550	Sony Ericsson W580i
Score	0.4	1.69	6.35
lw/ph horizontal/vertical	300/295	616.8/569.5	1195/960
Image of Resolution Chart (click to view)

Cell Phone	Razr2 V9m	Samsung Blast	Apple iPhone
Score	4.34	0.68	4.18
lw/ph horizontal/vertical	988/958	392.1/345.6	970/879
Image of Resolution Chart (click to view)

Color (5.5)
Here we again take pictures of an industry standard chart, this one with different color swatches on it. We again run the captures through Imatest, but this time it analyzes how far off the color representation is. The following charts are graphical representations of the phone's range of error.

    

The Juke actually doesn't do a bad job rendering color. While not above average, we would've expected lower given its resolution. Colors tend to be undersaturated, but this is the case on virtually all cell phone cameras. Some blues are skewed toward the red end of the spectrum, but again, you probably won't notice the difference on the Juke's little screen.

Cell Phone	Samsung Juke	LG Chocolate Vx8550	Sony Ericsson W580i
Score	5.5	4.69	5.61
Color Checker Chart (click to view)

Cell Phone	Razr2 V9m	Samsung Blast	Apple iPhone
Score	5.71	4.48	5.22
Color Checker Chart (click to view)

Noise (1.5)
Typically phones with poor resolution do well on this test, simply because they don't capture as much information. The Juke certainly doesn't disprove this. While its score seems very low, it's actually relatively good for phones; all noise scores have been low so far simply because current phones are notoriously bad at handling noise. Even though it's slightly higher than other phones, the difference doesn't mean you'll be receiving crystal-clear pictures in lower lux; it just means your pictures will have slightly less heavy noise.

Live Preview (1.0)

The Juke's live preview is so tiny it could almost be considered adorable. Unfortunately, this is one of its only redeemable qualities; the Juke's live preview suffers from a litany of problems. First and foremost, you'll want to enable the full screen option, as otherwise the live preview will only take up about one-third of the already tiny screen. Even with this mode enabled, there still isn't much screen for the live preview to fill. Of course, the smaller the picture, the less detail you can see, although the full screen size should suffice for most users. What's more, even close objects appear far away, which means they'll appear even tinier than they normally should. By far, however, the biggest problem we encountered was how the live preview handles movement. Any sort of movement turns the preview into a blurry mess; even in medium light panning looks terrible.

One thing to keep in mind when taking pictures is that you can hit the camera shortcut key to take the picture. If you attempt to use the select key you'll notice the grip puts your fingers squarely over the lens. In fact, keeping your fingers out of the frame would mean adopting an awkward hand position. Using the camera key is much more comfortable, though you still should be wary of where your fingers fall.

On the positive side, the image shown does appear to be true to the image captured. Regardless, the live preview is one of the worst we've seen.

Unlocked Standby to First Shot (10.58)
This timing test starts with the phone unlocked and closed. We then open it up and snap a picture of the timer. The resulting image shows the total time necessary to complete this task. The Juke and its spin-open form factor were able to take a picture in 1.89 seconds. This is incredibly fast. The Juke's time was, again, thanks in part to its form factor, which allows access to its keypad more quickly than with a flip phone, and with a more stable grip, as well. The other factor was an impressive load time for the camera application. If you need to take quick pictures, the Juke is more than happy to oblige.

Shot to Shot Time (1.68)
For shot to shot time, we start with the camera application open, aim the camera at a timer, and press the shutter key and start the timer simultaneously. We then take a series of five pictures in a row, using the image captured in the final picture as the total time. We enable Burst mode if it's available, which it wasn't on the Juke.

The Juke is able to take about 0.56 frames per second (fps), which isn't bad for a phone without a Burst mode. Phones with Burst mode can typically capture 1 to 2 fps.

Shutter to Shot Time (22.22)
Taking quick pictures is by far the Juke's strongest imaging feature. We timed the Juke at slightly less than 0.09 seconds, which is a testament to the speed of simplicity. If you want to sneak out pictures before your subject can blink, the Juke will be happy to lend its services.

Interface (7.0)

The camera interface is very simple. The top of the screen holds pertinent info such as resolution and mode. The middle third of the screen is the viewfinder. The bottom half reminds you that left and right will zoom, though only at lower-than-max resolutions, and that up and down toggle brightness. The very bottom contains soft key and select button reminders. The Options menu contains all the areas you can customize, such as setting resolution and quality, toggling night shot on and off, adding a timer, and adjusting white balance. Overall, a very simple setup for a very basic array of options.

Photo Album Software Internal (2.0)

    

The Juke does not have good album software. Again, the Juke's screen steps all over its functionality. Only four thumbnails are displayed at a time, which means a faster loading time, but also a lot more scrolling. Viewing pictures in full screen is also somewhat unintuitive. You have to start a slide show first, then view that in full screen. As for slide shows themselves, we're pleased to see their inclusion, but they aren't very good. They simply cycle through all your pictures. The only control you have is pause and, as previously mentioned, full screen.

The Juke doesn't allow you to organize pictures. You can rename them, but they're still only sorted in the order they're taken. You can't create folders or even rearrange pictures. This is very limited, even compared to other entry-level phones.

A final bewildering aspect of the phone is that you can only get your pictures off the phone by sending them via MMS or uploading to PIX Place. Given how reliant the phone already is on a USB connection, we think it's strange to not be able to pull pictures onto your PC via the connection as well. Granted, most entry-level users won't think about pulling pictures off their phone, but it seems like an odd feature to dump.

Manual Control (0.0)
The Juke doesn't provide any sort of manual control.

Zoom (0.0)
The Juke allows for digital zoom. Digital zoom essentially crops and enlarges the image, which results in a lower resolution overall. We would normally still award a point for this, but in the Juke's case, it won't allow you to zoom at the highest resolution. Given the max resolution is already so low, lessening the resolution just to use a zoom that further degrades resolution simply isn't worth it.

Focus (0.0)
The Juke has a fixed focus lens.

Flash (0.0)
The Juke doesn't have a flash.

Metering (0.0)
The Juke doesn't provide you with metering options.

White Balance (2.5)
The Juke has four preset options for white balance in addition to an Automatic setting. Also, while scrolling through the presets, it keeps the live preview up so you can judge how the setting will affect the picture. This is a rare feature in phones, and one we're very happy to see included.

Image Handling (2.0)
Surprisingly, the Juke actually has some image editing software. Once you've taken a picture, you can view it, select the edit option from the menu, and then click on "Revision." This gives you four options for correction, which includes brightness, saturation, and sharpness. Each option gives you a slider bar where you can either increase or reduce the levels of each. Though they're very limited in their use, we're impressed they are even included.

Also included, but not worthy of points, are options for frames and to insert small graphics into pictures, very similar to the Samsung Blast. We discussed how the cut-out-face frames on the Blast aren't very functional, as we found it incredibly difficult to get our subjects to line up properly. You can also add them in after the fact, but then there was absolutely no chance of getting the picture to line up. On the Juke, you can only add them after the fact, unfortunately, which essentially writes off all the cut-out-face overlays.

Video

Overall Video Score (0.0)
The Juke can't capture video. This makes sense given the size of the screen, but it unfortunately brings the score for this section down considerably. Many people won't miss the video feature, but it would have been nice to be able to have the option of capturing candid videos of family events.

Video Resolution (0.0)
N/A: Can't capture video.

Video Compression (0.0)
N/A: Can't capture video.

Interface (0.0)
N/A: Can't capture video.

Manual Control (0.0)
N/A: Can't capture video.

Zoom (0.0)
N/A: Can't capture video.

Editing (0.0)
N/A: Can't capture video.

Modes (0.0)
N/A: Can't capture video.

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