Five flash camera phones coming your way

There seems to be a spate of super-powered camera phones in the offing, so we thought we’d give you a round-up of the five most exciting flash mobs on the horizon. These handsets give DSLRs the willies…

Sony Ericsson Satio
You’ve known it as the Idou since February, but Sony Ericsson recently did a Prince on this handset and changed the name to Satio! What that means, well, we have no idea. What we do know is that the Satio will sport a whopping 12-megapixel sensors that shames most DSLRs, a 3.5-inch touchscreen, a Xenon Flash, and a 16x digital zoom. GPS also means you can geo-tag your snaps. The Satio will hit the shops in October.

Samsung Pixon12
No sooner does one 12-megapixel phone surface, another one is hot on its heels. The Samsung Pixon12, although announced after the Satio, looks like it might actually beat it to the shelves with a release later this month. Packing heat in the form of a 12-megapixel sensor, a 28mm wide-angle lens, a 3.1-inch AMOLED screen, GPS and a micro SD storage card slot, the Pixon12 looks like one accomplished camera phone.

Is LG releasing a handset with Hi-Def video capture? Find out here…

LG Viewty Smart
Described by us as “more camera than phone”, the LG Viewty Smart is out this month and takes fantastic photos courtesy of an eight-megapixel sensor. “‘Only’ eight megapixels?” you scoff. Well, megapixel count isn’t everything. Besides that’s more than most camera phones and compact cameras. With Intelligent Shot mode analysing the scene in front and multi-face detection, the Viewty Smart is packed with snappy features. Like we said: more camera than phone.

Nokia N86
Nokia releases so many handsets we could have picked any number of its camera phones. We decided to plump for the Nokia N86, though – the Finnish phone company’s first eight-megapixel offering that’s hitting the stores this month. Apart from that improved sensor, Nozza’s also included optics from our old friend Carl Zeiss, a wide-angle lens and ultra-quick mechanical shutter. Plus it has 8GB internal storage, plus a microSD storage for expansion up to 16GB. Very handy indeed.

Sharp AQUOS SHOT 933SH
Apart from the annoying name, the Sharp AQUOS SHOT 933SH looks like being a pretty snazzy camera phone. Boasting a twisty case that transforms it from clamshell to pocket-sized snapper, it has a 10-megapixel sensor and an ISO sensitivity level of 12,800! Sharp is even throwing in auto-focusing software, LED flash, and a 3.3-inch touchscreen. The only downer? It’s Japan only for now. But we can only hope it comes out here…