Samsung’s Pixon Launch held at A.Venue on December 3 was an all-out party bash that surprisingly was not celebrating the launch of a cell phone per se, the whole event revolved around the Pixon’s strong performance as a camera and multimedia device on top of its seemingly more mundane call phone functionality.

                                             Samsung's Pixon launch hosted many interpretative performances perfect for sampling the Pixon's photographic prowess.

This is no surprise – even this Samsung phone’s name is centered around a distinctly “photographic” flavor based on Pixels – nicely applied to the Pixon name. The 8 megapixel resolution count certainly helps too, as does the phone’s “dual face” design – the “rear” of the phone mimics a digital snapper’s façade perfectly. The venue provided a perfect proving ground for the Pixon – shifting light points, a generally dark ambiance, fast moving dancers and a smoky atmosphere (due to the smoke machines gracing the stage area) all gave a kind of obstacle course over which the Pixon romped – lady demonstrators showed the attendees the Pixon’s unique camera features and displayed captured photos on specially set-up screens.

                                            Samsung Pixon 8MP camera phone.

                                             Ms. Fe Varilla, Head of Samsung Phones Philippines, posing with the star of the show.

It’s a tribute to the Pixon’s good performance that the resulting prints did not suffer unduly from the adverse photography conditions, displaying more than adequate results on-screen given the low-light conditions. Features such as Shake Reduction, Face Recognition, and Auto Contrast Balance, combined with the aforementioned 8 MP resolution, power LED flash, and auto focus give casual photogs the ability to capture good pictures with the eminently portable Pixon. The Pixon’s performance as a ready snapper is further improved by the phone’s touch screen interface, a design point primarily for the Pixon’s multimedia functionality.

                                            Camera performance and features such as face detection were demonstrated during the event.

The Pixon’s multimedia performance was also explored during the event, especially emphasizing special software enhancements to both the photograph-handling and browsing features and the “song recognition” feature useful when listening to an unfamiliar tune. In more detail, the browsing feature has the capability to browse according to face – the Pixon is able to group pictures according to face – this feature is called the Face Tagging service.

                                             Software is made full use of in the Pixon, especially when it comes to sorting pictures.

Sorting by location, time or file name is also available, and Samsung follows this up with the capability to instantly upload your pictures to a blog or popular user-generated websites such as Flickr, Facebook or Twitter through the use of the Shozu service. The smart software is also apparent in the Pixon’s Music Recognition feature, an application that can be used to record a song on-the-fly and have the phone identify it using an extensive database.

                                             The M8800 Pixon's feature list reads like that of a dedicated digital camera.

An extensive list of typical features for an everything-in-one phone earned multiple check-marks from the Pixon, including quad-band GSM, 3G capability, high-compatibility video playback, an FM radio, business and office features, Bluetooth and organizer functions. This combined with the more than capable camera makes for a much more palatable all-in-one device, with more emphasis on picture quality than ever before.

                                             Nikki Gil serenading the attendees before the event proper.

                                            Ms. Raine Javalera, PM for Samsung Mobile gives a quick introduction of the Pixon.

The event did not only focus on the phone, it was after all a party bash attended by some well-known entertainers and performance artists, including Nikki Gil, an actress, host and singer famous for her rendition of High School Musical’s hit songs “Breaking Free” and “Gotta Go My Own Way”, as well as for her work as voice talent in various commercials and for her original song “Sakayan ng Jeep”. As the night’s host, she was accompanied by Trishan Cuaso, an up-and-coming model. The evening also brought out Billy Crawford, a world-renowned musician born in the Philippines, who performed some numbers reminiscent of Gary V at his best, but with more of an R&B and soul flavor. Needless to say, it was perfect accompaniment to the Pixon’s multimedia capabilities. Bringing out the dynamic vibe of the Pixon was the Philippine All Stars, a hip-hop dance crew who many argue is number one in their scene – a perfect reference for the Pixon as a camera-phone.

                                             Billy Crawford performsliveduring the launch.

With the Samsung Pixon’s laundry list of features, superb looks, and extreme functionality, the launch event essentially had two competing sources of distraction for the attendees, put together, the resulting evening bash was a memorable one, fitting for the well-named Pixon from Samsung. We’re looking forward to reviewing an actual unit in future entries and in our print edition. Watch out for it! More pictures to follow.

                                              Mr. Charles Choi, VP for Marketing, is assisted by the hosts during the raffle drawing.

                                             Mr. Charles Choi expounding on the Pixon's features.

                                              Face detection technology at work.

                                              The venue for the event - smartly named "A. Venue".