Samsung HMX-U20 Full-HD Camcorder: an Unfortunate Disappointment

After Flip released their small and compact, handheld video camera, many other companies tried to jump on the HD bandwagon by providing similar services at competitive prices. The only problem with this type of competition is that many of the competitors found it difficult to provide comparable specifications for any less money than Flip was already charging. Flip had broken into the market and kept its foothold without much effort at all and companies like Samsung struggled to match what Flip was already doing. The HMXU20 is such an example of one failed attempt by Samsung to try and capture the pocket HD camera craze. Here’s why your money is better spent elsewhere.

Samsung HMX-U20 Full-HD Camcorder

EverydayGuide Rundown

Price: $169.00

Buy Samsung HMX-U20 Full-HD Camcorder

Good

• USB Connectivity
• Fully HD Recordings
• HDMI Out To Your TV

Bad

• Noisy Video Picture
• Still Picture Quality is Poor
• No Cover Over Lens

Let’s Be Blunt…

In short, the HMX-U20 isn’t worth your money at all. The list of things wrong with it trumps the “good” list 3 times over and yet Samsung are still trying to off this horrendous product. Harsh? Sorry. If there was anything good to come of this devices it’s that it takes full 1080P HD video and can store it in internal memory. A few hours of footage in and you’ll move over to your computer to transfer what you’ve snagged via a built in USB arm (as they call it). Of course, transfer via USB can often be slow, but that’s not a major inconvenience if you’re in the home recording market. Or if you’re not interested in playing back your video on your computer, you can easily hook up the camera to your TV via an HDMI cable. All sound well and good, right? Wrong.

Before we dive into the most prominent failure of the device, let’s cover a few of the other tidbits attached. There is no lens cover for the camera which means that throwing this pocket sized camera into your pocket will get quite a bit of lint, hair, and who knows what else into the crevices around the lens, potentially smudging or scratching it. Next is the fact that although there is a built in still camera, you’d be better off blinking a few times and remembering the moment instead of wasting your time trying to take a photo of it. The camera is very slow and unresponsive and when it finally manages to snap a shot, the final quality is shoddy and poor, which leads us to our final point. The video quality of this video camera is appalling. The only good footage that came from it was on a clear day, outside, with plenty of light. Any other scenes such as indoors at the dinner table or sitting on the couch came out terrible. The lens quality on the camera is poor and without adequate lighting you can expect bad results. In summation, if you’re looking for a $150 paper weight, Samsung HMX-U20 has a deal for you.