Samsung Galaxy Camera With Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Release Date Set For Friday; Price Starts at $499

Unveiled back at August at the 2012 IFA Conference in Berlin, the Samsung Galaxy Camera, the second camera in the world powered by Android, will officially go on sale in the U.S. starting this Friday, Nov. 16 through AT&T. Samsung will sell its Galaxy Camera for $499, and for customers that want to connect their new device to cellular networks, customers will have the option to buy the point-and-shoot camera with or without an additional data plan.

For those unfamiliar with the Galaxy Camera, Samsung has essentially taken the Android interface off a smartphone and applied it to a conventional digital camera -- the trade-off for making phone calls in this device is high-resolution photos and videos with quality editing tools and special effects, as well as easy sharing options directly from the camera itself.

The Samsung Galaxy Camera runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean right out of the box, and with a Google search bar with enhanced voice search built-in, users can access the full Google Play market and download Android apps that can take advantage of the device's camera beyond the bounds of what today's smartphones can accomplish.

With a 4.8-inch HD Super Clear Touch Display, a 16-megapixel CMOS sensor and a 21x zoom lens, the Samsung Galaxy Camera is built for consumers that want to shoot and share high-quality photos with impressive effects. Users can capture slow motion video as it's happening at an eye-popping 120 frames per second, and can use specialized effects built for action (movement), light and water effects.

“The Galaxy Camera opens a new visual communication era and shifts a paradigm in communication,” said JK Shin, president of Samsung's mobile division in a statement back in August. “As we increasingly articulate our experiences through pictures and videos, the Galaxy Camera has been created to lead the way in this new era of visual communication. Communication becomes more vivid and lively with high quality images and instant sharing anywhere, anytime.”

The Samsung Galaxy Camera takes advantage of 3G and Wi-Fi networks for seamless Internet connectivity and automatic back-up to the cloud, which opens up plenty of space on the camera itself and doubly ensures that you never lose a photo. The AT&T version of the Samsung Galaxy Camera will also connect to the HSPA+ cellular network, and though it's not LTE, the speed is certainly capable; the iPhone 4S runs on the same network.

Starting Nov. 16, AT&T will offer different optional data plans for customers that wish to share photos remotely; customers will want to consider how much sharing they plan to do and how high they want the resolution on the photos to be when they share them, as both factors impact the amount of data your camera will be using per month. AT&T will also offer an option to add the camera into one of the company's "Mobile Share" group plans: To Share between 1GB and 20GB per month, customers will pay $10 per customer per month to share. AT&T's simple DataConnect plan for the phone costs $15 for 250MB, $30 for 3GB, and $50 for 5GB.

Of course, customers can always choose to buy Wi-Fi only versions of the Samsung Galaxy Camera, which means they won't be able to share or conned to the Web outside a Wi-Fi zone, but at least you won't be paying out the pocket every month.

Are you interested in buying a Samsung Galaxy Camera? Let us know in the comments section at the bottom of the page.