Numbers ain’t everything. Example, the Nokia N900; Nokia’s current (available) flagship has a 5MP, yet it was released after the Satio or the M8800. Why the 5MP sensor? To keep prices down, and to acknowledge the fact that EVERYDAY people don’t have monitors going over the 1080p resolution (which is not even 2MP). That plus, Nokia did a decent job getting the image algorthyms right on their camera. So with a 5MP, it produces rather decent images.

I’d say to people don’t bother with anything over 5MP. Period. Anything higher, you are paying for under-developed technology that just doesn’t perform as so many uninformed expect it to; some are actually in denial of that fact… (though the same can be said for some 5MP phones, even some dedicated point-and-shoots)

When I said people can’t tell the difference between a 1MP and 12MP image on an A4 piece of paper, I was referring to the everyday, mainstream camera.

I prefer having a camera on my phone for ‘emergency’ events (ie, someone crashes into my car so I’ll want to take some photos for insurance purposes, or someone is acting suspiciously in front of an empty house etc etc). Heck, camera phones for everyday stuff like that are sweet.
BUT
I’m talking about the ‘industry – standard’ stuff. Unfortunately, such cameras are DARN expensive, and the everyday consumer will not be able to afford one. The image quality on such cameras though are breathtaking though. Down in the consumer segment however, it really doesn’t matter if it’s 5MP, 8MP, or 12MP. They are pretty much the same deal. You can sometimes see better quality closeups, but that’s about it. Contrast control is usually hopeless (espeically on mobile sensors), and there is far too much noise on all cameras destined for the mainstream market, fullstop. Manufacturers just simply squeeze more pixel sensors onto their chipsets which really doesn’t help to increase the quality in any way.

That plus, the way marketing is today, the less informed are sucked in by all the adverts and ‘we have a 12MP mobile phone camera’ slogans. Well, newsflash to all those who are; the larger does NOT equal to the better.

Well, Samsung does occasionally release market-firsts from time to time to shake things up in the mobile industry, but that’s not happening this year with the world still recovering from the recession.

And how do you intend to utilise a 12MP sensor? Do you have an IPS monitor capable of displaying 4000×3000 pixels in their full glory?

The unfortunate thing today is people think ‘the bigger, the better’. 12MP sensors, especially those for mobile phones, are still in their infancy. Much too expensive to intergrate them into already high-end phones (no sense sticking a 12MP sensor onto a ‘cheap’ model). Which is WHY you don’t see alot of 12MP phones today. And the chances are, you will see ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENCE between a 5MP and a 12MP in regards to quality; in actual fact the human eye can’t really make out pixels from a 1MP image that is the size of an A4 page.

So why on earth are you after a 12MP in the first place?
If it’s social status? If so, don’t buy expensive gadgetry and maybe sponsor a child in a developing country.
Are you are photographer? Heck, I do photography and some decent amount of LightRoom and NO mobile phone camera (and I mean NONE WHATSOEVER) produces decent photos. You are better off sticking with a US$4k DSLR from Nikon or Sony if image editing is your forte. Well, that plus a 32′ IPS display with a 1200dpi mouse for some serious brush action…

All the specs mentioned in this blog are present. And yeah, Android 2.1 is DEFINTELY present.
Quite surprised with the prescence of J-CDMA though…