First Look: Does the T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide smart phone have the best camera?

HTC claims its myTouch 4G Slide, available for $200 from T-Mobile on July 27 with a two-year contract, has the best camera of any smart phone on the market, promising outstanding performance in low- and high-contrast lighting conditions, "zero" shutter lag, and a clever method for taking panoramic pictures. The phone's 8-megapixel camera joins a growing list of models that can record video in 1080P.

Our in-house camera expert, associate editor Terry Sullivan, put the camera of our Slide press sample through its paces and concluded that while it may indeed be the best camera phone we've tested, it still has shortcomings. Like all other camera phones, the myTouch 4G Slide lacks an optical zoom, manual aperture and shutter controls, and other features that put it at a disadvantage when pitted against even a basic point-and-shoot camera.

I was impressed with the phone's 3.7-in. WVGA display, slide-out keyboard, 4G connectivity, and several interface-related features that include a Genius search button, top-notch voice-recognition performance. I'll report later on these and other features, many of which are carryovers from the phone's cousins: the myTouch 3G Slide and myTouch 4G.

In the meantime, here are the details on the myTouch 4G Slide's imaging prowess:

Still camera. The Slide joins the iPhone 4 in having a backside illuminated sensor that is supposed to give you better performance in low-light situations. And it appears to do just that. Overall, low-light performance was quite good, even better than that of the iPhone 4. However, photos were a tad grainier than those taken with a typical point-and-shoot camera.

Another myTouch camera advantage is ClearShot HDR (high dynamic range). This feature is designed to balance the exposure levels in high-contrast situations, such as when shooting a subject in the shadows on a bright, sunny day. It works by taking several pictures at varying exposures to accommodate details in both the shadow areas and highlights, and then merges the best portions of each exposure into one photo. We found the feature worked quite well, though not as well as stand-alone cameras we've tested. You need to hold the camera still while it's making those shots. If you move, you'll get a ghosted image. ClearShot doesn't provide a way to adjust the HDR settings for a better result. However, at least one free aftermarket app for the iPhone does.

Another Slide feature called SweepShot lets you take panoramic shots. Just push the button and slowly turn while holding the camera steady. The camera takes a series of pictures, and stitches them together to form one ultra-wide pic. This works well for far-off subjects like mountains and oceans, but up close the distortions from imprecise splicing become obvious. For example, in a family photo, Uncle Ned's ear may end up glued to Aunt Edna's nose. Terry has had better stitching results using a similar feature on several point-and-shoot cameras from Sony. Even Pano, a free app for iPhone, works better.

The myTouch camera does a great job snapping pics out of the box, but it also lets you switch to several modes for special situations. Some worked better than others, but overall they seemed to work pretty well: Macro (close-up) lets you get a bit closer, but didn't always focus correctly. And the night scene mode seemed to improve things in low-light. Burst mode is limited to 5 shots, but worked well. Also, smile detection, which is very useful for shooting babies or toddlers, worked very well. And the action mode was able to freeze the action a bit, but I still saw some blurriness, even in a well-lit environment.

Video. The videos looked good, especially those shot in normal or bright light. Low-light performance was slightly better than that of other cell phones, including the iPhone 4. And you can edit video on the phone without any additional apps. But iPhone 4's audio sounds much better, particularly with loud noises. Overall, videos weren't as smooth or stable as those taken with stand-alone camcorders (images are a bit grainier, as with other cell-bound camcorders).

Camera interface. It's very easy to navigate around the various menus. All camera modes are accompanied by short, helpful on-screen descriptions to simplify their selection. But the on-board tutorial, which links to a YouTube video, lacked the shooting tips and other in-depth information you'd expect from a camera phone of this caliber.

Bottom line: With its conveniently portable case, the smart phone has become a sort of black hole among electronics devices, sucking in the functionality MP3 players, GPS units, and a host of other devices. While the T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide hasn't been able to fully match the performance of a better point-and-shoot camera, it is very good. Good enough, in fact, to prefer it to a point-and-shoot when you're on the go and only have one pocket to spare.

—Mike Gikas