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The Galaxy Note’s 8-megapixel camera looks and performs very much like the one on the Galaxy S II, which is good news if you’re after high image quality and easy operation. Samsung has its own custom camera app, but nothing about it will feel too alien to cameraphone users: you have a comprehensive set of adjustments and tweaks, and toggles to switch between front- and rear-facing cameras and between still and movie modes.

As with any camera, the best results from the Galaxy Note will be obtained under good lighting conditions, but it does a decent job in low light as well. While noise and graininess make an inevitable appearance when lighting is poor, the built-in LED flash works well and the camera does a good job of measuring exposure correctly. I didn’t have to retake any pictures because of motion blur. Color balance is mostly accurate, though the camera sometimes gets it wrong and is also occasionally guilty of oversaturating images during processing.





Operating the Note’s camera is mercifully quick, whether you are switching modes or taking a quick series of pictures. It’s not as rapid as the iPhone 4S or the Galaxy Nexus, however. At full resolution, the images taken with the Note can exhibit blotchy patches where noise reduction has been applied, but the camera still captures and maintains plenty of detail — web-sized pictures from it come out looking wonderful.