Samsung's HMX-U10 camcorder is cut from the same cloth as the very popular Flip Ultra; compact, highly portable and stylish. Samsung have attempted to push the boundaries by including Full HD 1080p capabilities and a 10 megapixel sensor, which, on paper, all points to quite a tasty prospect. There are host of other features included and if you're looking for a reasonably priced point & shoot camcorder to bring even more detail into family movies, you may well be considering the Samsung HMX-U10.
Samsung are quick to point out what they believe the HMX-U10's key selling points: ultra-portable and ultra-comfortable; one-touch uploading to your PC or straight to Youtube; "beautiful video" recorded through 1920 x 1080 resolution and also high quality still pictures "dripping with rich colour" and "deep, dynamic detail". Sounds good from the horses mouth, but let's take a closer look and see how the HMX-U10 performs in the real world......
Straight out of the box and you're greeted with a pleasing design and an immediate impression of portability and comfort. Available in black, purple, red, green and silver you'll be no slouch in the style stakes with the slightly unusual form of the HMX-U10. The camcorder follows the lead of other compacts such as the Flip, Kodak Zi8 and Sony MHS-PH1 in basic shape, but with one key difference; the "handle" veers in at a 7 degree angle, which although seems small, actually improves your grip substantially.
There's also a speaker for playback and a microphone for recording, with slots for a USB (which you can charge up from)and A/V cables as well as space for an SD card. The SD is pivotal to the HMX-U10, as there's not much to speak of in terms of in-built recording ability, so be aware that the more you film, the more SD cards you will have to buy. Strangely, there's no slot for HDMI, meaning you can't hook up to your HDTV.
The slick-looking front panel of the camcorder is sparse, featuring just the lens and CMOS sensor. Flip around to the back, and the HMX-U10 looks a little bit like a mobile phone interface; a 2" LCD screen is housed at the top, with recording, playback and function settings just underneath and the menu control at the bottom. The buttons respond well, as does the touch-control menu panel, which altogether give a very simple and minimalistic, yet effective design and build.
However, the control system is a little bit strange and may take some time to get used to. A good example of this would be; to prevent shaking whilst simultaneously recording and pressing buttons to zoom in and out, you just hold down the zoom and rock your thumb. This is a great idea in principle, but in practice I found it to be over-fiddly and at some points, it didn't even work; meaning I had to press down repeatedly anyway.
The Samsung HMX-U10 boasts Full HD capabilities, so it's no surprise that picture quality is excellent. Bearing in mind this camcorder costs a little over £100, there's some impressive detail on show. Colours are full, vibrant and lifelike in both video and still - particularly in full light. Performance does dip a little in low-light, but that's no real surprise for a camcorder at this price-point and this certainly is apparent with other similarly-sized pocket cams on the market.
Audio quality is a little weak. The microphone is very open, meaning the slightest hint of wind when filming outside has a massive affect on the sound. With no external noise you should be OK, but as any music producer will tell you, background ambient noise is notoriously difficult to control - sound booths aren't soundproofed just for the neighbour's benefit.
The features on the HMX-U10 are pretty good. The one-touch PC link makes it incredibly easy to transfer all your movies to your desktop or laptop and if you're a Youtube acolyte, you'll be loading up movies quicker than an MP can fill out an expenses form. There's some basic editing options available once you've shot your movie but, whilst shooting in Full HD, you may be disappointed to find out that the zoom function is disabled.
On the power side of things, you'll get around 2 hours of battery life when filming, which is fairly average for this type of camcorder. From "start to shoot" took us over 6 seconds, which means that the HMX-U10 maybe not the ideal camcorder for those spontaneous movie moments.
CONCLUSION
This is by no means a bad effort from Samsung, and the HMX-U10 has a lot going for it - particularly the price. A unique design makes the U10 highly portable and the simple features should attract beginners. It's not perfect by any means - the Flip Ultra is certainly better with regards to video performance, but as a simple point and click camcorder, the HMX-U10 has a lot of decent features that make it worth the entrance fee.
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