Nikon Coolpix S620

Overview

The Nikon S620 comes in five fashionable colors—Noble Purple, Sky Blue, Dusty Pink, Rich Pearl, and Jet Black. Most of our time playing with the camera at PMA in Las Vegas was spent with the Dusty Pink model. The shape of the S620 resembles a rectangle, but both the left and right side have rounded edges. This makes for a more comfortable grip when you wrap your palm around the side of the camera. Stylists beware—the entire body of the S620 is smooth and glossy making much of the surface prone to fingerprints and smudging.

The S620 in Dusty Pink

Front

The front of the S620 is where you see most of its color. The lens takes up a little less than half of this side, with the flash, and autofocus-assist lamp located above. The camera's tiny microphone hides behind the three dots to the lower left of the lens.
 

The S620 is bursting with style.

Back

In the back you've got the 2.7-inch LCD screen taking up most of the space. There's also your usual collection of buttons—camera/scene mode, playback, menu, and trash. There's also a scroll-wheel here that doubles as a 4-way control. The design of the wheel/4-way control combo is sloppy and it makes the camera difficult to control at times.
 

The 4-way control has features associated with each direction — up is flash, right is exposure adjustment, left is self-timer, down is macro focus, and center is select.
 

The scroll wheel/4-way control can be difficult to use.

Sides

Neither of the sides on the S620 have much to report. The right side does have a small port cover that houses the single A/V-out and USB port. Other than this, however, the left and right sides are simply made up of shiny, rounded edges.
 

The left and right sides shine with silver brilliance.

Top

The top of the S620 also has a sleek design. The only buttons located up here are the on/off switch, the shutter button, and the zoom toggle.
 

The top of the S620 isn't loaded with controls.

Bottom

The bottom of the camera is where both the rechargeable battery pack and SD/SDHC memory card slot live. Both are behind the hinged port cover that swings open to the right.
 

The rechargeable battery and memory card both load from the bottom.