The Samsung Memoir is the first phone available from a U.S. carrier with an 8-megapixel camera, complemented by an auto-focus lens and a Xenon flash. Other features include a 2.97-inch touch screen, GPS, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, and a microSD card slot. The Memoir is now available from T-Mobile for $249 with a 2-year contract.

From the front, the Memoir looks like your average touch screen phone. From the back, it looks exactly like a dedicated digital camera, complete with an automatically-retracting lens cover. Despite the two disparate looks, the Memoir still manages to look pretty stylish with a little retro flair.

The Memoir’s proprietary operating system leverages the touch screen interface fairly well most of the time, though we didn’t find it as responsive as other touch screen devices we’ve reviewed and navigation wasn’t always smooth, particularly in the web browser. Dialing, however, does go very quickly, and you can store a lot of information about your contacts in the phone book application.

The Memoir does not come with any synchronization software out of the box, but the device itself can do a decent job of keeping track of a not-too-busy schedule in the calendar application. Tasks and notes applications area also on board, though there’s no voice memo application.

Email on the Memoir is handled through a dedicated web portal, not a native application, and you can’t create, view, or read emails unless you have a network connection. Additionally, T-Mobile will charge you for each email read and sent as if it were a text message, so it’s definitely not ideal for users who email frequently. Creating text and MMS messages is easy, with good integration to the camera and saved photos and videos.

We expected web browsing on such a large screen to be quite enjoyable, but found that the web browser didn’t take advantage of the screen real estate very well at all. The browser could handle bookmarks but offered no other advanced features such as the ability to keep multiple pages open at the same time.

The music player and organization software worked well, allowing the creation of playlists on the device itself and showing album artwork during playback, among other features. The video album software is less robust and intuitive than the photo counterpart. During video playback, the Memoir will sense the phone’s orientation and automatically change the display accordingly.

The Memoir does not have Wi-Fi, though it does have 3G connectivity on T-Mobile’s network and will also be compatible with many 3G networks outside of the U.S. Its Bluetooth radio supports multiple profiles so you can use headsets and stereo headphones with it.

Performance (read the full lab performance results at www.wirelessinfo.com)

The Memoir demonstrated mixed performance in our audio tests. While the sound sent by the phone is good, the sound received had some major problems where sounds across a wide range of frequencies would be artificially amplified. Side tone, the amount of your own voice piped back to you to help you gauge how loudly you’re speaking, is a bit on the low side and will cause you to speak more loudly than you need to in order to compensate for what you’re hearing.

In terms of imaging performance, the Memoir posted excellent results in still image and video resolution. Color accuracy was also pretty good, though noise levels were just about average. The Memoir is definitely a good choice if you want a good camera built into your cell phone.

The Memoir’s claimed call time battery life was 4.8 hours and it exceeded this time by reaching 5.5 hours in our tests, which is a pleasant surprise. Music playback battery life was also very good, coming in at 14 hours and 9 minutes. Web browsing battery life was not as good, which is not surprising since keeping the screen’s backlight on is battery intensive, coming in at 4 hours and 42 minutes.

Comparisons (read more in-depth comparisons at www.wirelessinfo.com)

The next closest camera phone competitor to the Memoir is the Motorola ZINE, also offered by T-Mobile, which also posted excellent still image resolution results but it faltered significantly in video resolution. Feature-wise, the ZINE has a slight leg up on the Memoir with Wi-Fi, but it lacks the GPS that the Memoir has. At $99 with a 2-year contract, the ZINE is significantly less expensive than the Memoir.

The current touch screen phone king is the iPhone 3G and the Memoir doesn’t come close to knocking it off the hill with a less intuitive and clunkier interface. When it comes to camera performance, however, the iPhone 3G is absolutely dismal with a 2-megapixel camera and no video recording capability. With over 25,000 3rd-party applications available and out-of-the box PIM syncing and strong email capability, though, the iPhone 3G offers a more functional package that can satisfy even demanding business users.

While the Memoir does have an excellent camera, it still won’t offer the performance of a dedicated digital camera with the same number of megapixels, and we find it hard to recommend the Memoir if you want keepsake-worthy photos since you’d be better served by getting a cheap or free cell phone and a separate camera. But, if you must absolutely have them both in one device, the Memoir is not a bad choice.