Samsung WB150F Pro Reviews

Overall, the WB150F is a surprisingly great option. When a camera has this many flashy features up front – Wi-Fi, editing, filters, manual settings – and doesn’t come with the most dependable name in point-and-shoots attached, it’s good to be a bit cautious. Even though the image quality is not the best we’ve seen for this price, the convenience factor, good looks and stable body do an admirable job making up for this caveat. It’s not often that a camera will get such a good recommendation from us, but at the newly discounted price of $200, there’s too much packed in here to ignore. So if you aren’t looking at professional-level compact performance, but want a point-and-shoot – particularly one that’s hitting the connected ground running – then look no further.

In my own view, it's becoming increasingly unacceptable for point-and-shoot cameras not to offer wireless connectivity. Better even is the option to transfer photos from your camera to a phone or tablet. The WB150F offers both of these things, and although it's imperfect, it's the best implementation of Wi-Fi in a camera that I've seen yet. Images taken in good lighting conditions at low ISO are relatively sharp and noise-free. A generous zoom lens is well-controlled for distortion and details, but the very edges of the frame are pleasantly sharp. There's an array of in-camera processing filters and options, as well as full manual exposure modes. Lots of zoom is nice, but the results at the extreme end of the telephoto range are disappointing if you're shooting in less-than-perfect conditions. Anything shot above ISO 400 is lacking in fine detail thanks to a crowded sensor and aggressive noise reduction algorithms.

Though the Wi-Fi enabled Samsung WB150F operates very much as a user-friendly point-and-shoot camera, its manufacturer has packed in more functionality, digital effects, and a diverse range of control options - including manual operability, if so desired - than one would usually expect to find on a camera costing £199. While there's nothing here that we haven't seen elsewhere before, the expansive zoom range provides a broad range of framing options for pretty much any subject, and it can also be utilized when recording video - even if that footage comes with mono sound and isn't quite Full HD; a couple of ways in which the WB150F (rarely) betrays its budget status. As is the overall image quality. While colours are lush and images vibrant straight out of the camera, they are softer than we'd ideally like, especially at the extremities of the 18x optical zoom.

Keenly priced, with comprehensive manual controls, but it’s ultimately an average camera

The 18X-optical-zoom, Wi-Fi-enabled Samsung WB150F has a nice mix of creative modes for casual shooters, but its manual controls require a bit too much menu-diving

When viewed purely as a higher-end compact, the Samsung WB150F is slightly above average: its photos and videos are decent and its big zoom is handy. It’s fairly idiot-proof on the usability front, and there are a handful of enthusiast-friendly modes for those that like to tweak. The Wi-Fi features, which should make the camera more appealing, aren’t quite as compelling as they appear on paper. Yes, they let you share compressed versions of shots and do so fairly well, but the apps feel undercooked (or worse), as if Samsung made a vague stab at them and thought ‘that’ll do’. We reckon the inevitable update in a year’s time might eliminate these issues, but as it stands the WB150F is an intriguing, flawed enigma rather than a game-changer.

It's not perfect, but the nicely priced compact Samsung WB150F camera packs a sharp 18x zoom lens and integrated Wi-Fi so you can email or upload your pics to Facebook easily.

If you're happy with the photos from your smartphone, but wish you had an actual camera with a long zoom lens and wireless sharing and backup, check out the Samsung WB150F.

The Samsung WB150F is a solid camera with a good range of features including Wi-Fi for backing up images or uploading to the internet. The 18x optical zoom lens performs well and the camera has colourful images, which should mean it produces good results the majority of the time. However, with only 720p video, it makes it slightly less appealing when compared to other pocket zooms with full HD and high speed shooting. If you are interested in a compact ultra zoom camera with built in Wi-Fi, then this camera would make a good choice, particularly for those who like sharing photos online.

The Samsung WB150F is a truly versatile compact camera that packs in a useful 18x zoom, manual controls and some genuinely useful Wi-Fi features.