The Price: $250 with two-year contract, $50 rebate and qualifying data plan

The Verdict: A pretty damn good cameraphone. The TouchWiz UI is pretty much the same as the version on the Samsung Behold. In short, it's more usable as a touchscreen phone (keyboard is fairly decent) than Windows Mobile phones, but not quite as good as say, Android or the iPhone. It does have haptic feedback, meaning there's a slight rumble as you press down on the screen. And yes, that implies that the Memoir doesn't have capacitive touch. You still have to press down when you want to click things. Let it be known that Jesús Diaz does not like some Samsung touchscreen UIs.

The front of the phone looks like a Samsung touchscreen phone, but the back actually looks a lot like a Samsung camera. Which is kind of the point. The 8-megapixel camera is very good. So good, in fact, that it's (give or take) about as good as my Samsung NV3 point and shoot from a few years ago. The gallery below has comparison shots.

And here's how well the Memoir's Xenon flash works in complete darkness. Spoiler: Pretty damn well.

I haven't had enough experience with Nokia's high end N-series cameraphones to say whether or not the Memoir is better. We've already established that more megapixels isn't always better, but if the Memoir can take photos that are just about as good as Samsung's NV3 (which doesn't take FANTASTIC images, we have to admit), it's a great alternative for a point and shoot camera.

The phone, which we first saw hints of in December, will run on T-Mobile's 3G network. Besides the 8-megapixel camera, it also has a full-touch virtual QWERTY keypad, a music and video player, built in GPS, and Bluetooth.

SAMSUNG MOBILE AND T-MOBILE USA INTRODUCE BEST-IN-CLASS
8-MEGAPIXEL CAMERA PHONE

Samsung Memoir™ Captures and Shares High-Quality Images
With Advanced Features and Touch Screen

DALLAS, and BELLEVUE, WASH. — Feb. 5, 2009 — Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile) and T-Mobile USA, Inc., today announced the upcoming availability of the Samsung Memoir™, a full touch-screen mobile phone equipped with an 8-megapixel camera and premium multimedia features, placing it among the highest quality imaging phones available in the U.S.

The Memoir, available exclusively from T-Mobile, is designed to look and feel like a customer's current point-and-shoot digital camera. The built-in 8-megapixel camera with Xenon flash, 16x digital zoom and five shooting modes empower customers to capture exceptional photos and videos from their phone — whether they're on the go, on a vacation or just hanging out around the house.

The touch-screen phone, enabled by Samsung's TouchWiz™ user interface and powered by T-Mobile's high-speed 3G network, makes sharing photos easy. Samsung's new photo widget allows customers to post images taken with the Memoir directly to their favorite online photo sharing source, such as flickr®, Kodak® Gallery, Photobucket and Snapfish.

"With the 8-megapixel Samsung Memoir, T-Mobile customers can capture and share little slices of life in all their vibrant brilliance," said Denny Marie Post, chief marketing officer, T-Mobile USA. "With the ability to share photos at your fingertips, the Memoir helps make those connections more meaningful by their immediacy."

The Memoir's full-touch virtual QWERTY keypad and multiple messaging capabilities, including text, multimedia messaging, instant messaging and e-mail, make staying connected quick and easy while on the go. The Memoir is complete with a music and video player and built-in Assisted GPS navigation, which allows customers to utilize location-based services including turn-by-turn directions. For hands-free use, the Memoir features stereo Bluetooth® technology, speakerphone and voice-activated dialing.

"This is the camera phone that will make people want to leave their digital camera at home," said Bill Ogle, Chief Marketing Officer for Samsung Mobile. "When you combine the Memoir's imaging capabilities, customizable menus and music player, not only is it a great phone, but the entertainment possibilities are unlimited."

T-Mobile's 3G coverage available in select markets. Samsung Memoir also works on T-Mobile's 2G network. See coverage maps at T-Mobile.com

Model number: SGH-t929

Asia and Europe have been enjoying the C905 since the summer, but the FCC report lists the 850/1900 WCDMA banding, which means it will support 3G on AT&T. It also packs in a Xenon flash, LED video light, image stabilization, face-detecting autofocus and video recording.

Since you're reading Gizmodo and you're smart, you already know that blowing out resolution to 8MP doesn't mean squat when you're dealing with a tiny cellphone-chip sensor, but if you need to be able to take three-megabyte JPGs with your cameraphone, one of these two will do you you right. [FCC via Boy Genius]

• Quad-band GSM, tri-band HSDPA
• 107.9x54.6x14.9mm, 110 g
• 3.2-inch touch screen display (240 x 400 pixels)
• 8 megapixel camera, auto focus, face recognition with smile detection and blink detection, WDR (wide dynamic range), ASR (advanced shake reduction), GPS geotagging, ISO 1600, WVGA (720x480 pixels) and VGA (640 x 480 pixels) @30fps video recording
• Built-in GPS receiver
• Accelerometer
• DivX playback
• FM radio with RDS
• microSD card slot
• Bluetooth
• Landscape virtual QWERTY keyboard
• Handwriting recognition
• ShoZu integration - direct image and video upload
• Office document viewer

Interestingly, there's no mention of Wi-Fi in that list of specs. It'll be out early November (in Russia, at least) for around $800. [ via GSMArena]

The full list of specs are as follows:

•2.8-inch QVGA (240×320 pixels), 16m colors
•8 megapixel camera with auto-focus, xenon flash and 120 fps video recording
•UMTS with HSDPA support, WiFi, GPS, TV out, DivX support, dedicated 3D graphics chip
•Optical mouse (same as i780 and i900 Omnia)
•200 mAh battery
•106.5×53.9×16.9 mm metal case
•16 GB internal memory (possibly an 8 GB version as well)

Impressive. Conflicting reports have the i8510 running either Feature Pack 1 or 2 and there is no word on whether we are talking tri-band or quad-band GSM here. However, as with any rumor, we will just have to wait and see what holds true. [Forum2 via Estato via IntoMobile via BGR]

For an 8-megapixel camera, the Norcent DC-820 is certainly slim. Introduced at CES, the new camera also includes SD/MMC slots, PicBridge support, MPEG-4 video recording at 640 x 480, 3x optical zoom, a 2.4 inch LCD and 32MB of on-board memory, all for just $300. Seems a little cheap for that, but it's certainly a good deal. Though Norcent may not be a brand that most of you have heard much about, I'd like to take a few shots with this baby.

Norcent Introduces 8 Megapixel DC-820 [Digitalcameratracker]

Specs and pricing for more 8 megapixel cameras [Shopping.com]

A few months ago, BenQ announced three digital cameras into their lineup, and now the C800 is standing out from the crowd as an 8-megapixel camera with 3x optical zoom lens and an extremely low-cost $260 pricetag. Small, sleek and pretty versatile, the C800 can also shoot MPEG-4 movies and sports a fairly large 2.4-inch LCD. It also comes with 32MB of built-in memory, a Secure Digital Slot for added memory, has a built-in microphone and speaker, and runs on two AA batteries. And check out the "burst mode," which lets you take four images in one snap.

BenQ Sub- 150 8.0-Megapixel Camera [Bios Magazine]

Specs and pricing on more BenQ cameras [Amazon]

Acer Sexy Sub- 200 8-Megapixel Camera [Bios Magazine]

Press Release in Korean (Google Translation) [Samsung via I4U]

Ricoh GR Digital introduction [LetsGoDigital]