Samsung announces Galaxy Camera 2 Android-powered point-and-shoot

A little over a year ago, Samsung released the Galaxy Camera, a mash-up of Android and a point-and-shoot (see our Samsung Galaxy Camera video review.) Today, the company is announcing Galaxy Camera 2, a more refined version that's been tweaked to highlight the things customers loved most about the original.

As expected, the Galaxy Camera 2 is faster and more powerful, sporting a quad-core 1.6 GHz processor (up from the dual-core 1.4 GHz chip found in the original) and 2 GB RAM (similar to the original.) Samsung has also increased the battery capacity from 1650 mAh to 2000 mAh, almost a 33% increase.

While the design of the actual camera housing has increased ever so slightly, the majority of the optics system remains unchanged. The Galaxy Camera 2 has the same 16-megapixel BSI CMOS sensor with 21x optical zoom that was found on the original model. That said, the actual image processing software has been improved, which Samsung says will result in better actual image quality.

While last year's model shipped in both Wi-Fi-only and cellular models, so far Samsung has only shown off a Wi-Fi version of the Galaxy Camera 2. Who knows, there may be a cellular model as well, but we'd likely have to wait until next week at CES to find out.

Pricing and availability have not yet been announced, but if last year is any indication, the Wi-Fi Galaxy Camera 2 should retail for roughly $399, while a cellular model (if it exists) will be $100 more. If you're the kind of person who wants to take better pictures than your typical smartphone can take, and likes to share them immediately with social networks and send them to cloud storage services, this is one camera you might want to check out.