Samsung TL34HD

 

Front (8.00)
The front of the TL34HD is a sleek little number, with a curved accent along the upper left corner made of smoother plastic that morphs into a wrist-strap hole. Apart from this little area and a small section on the lens, the rest of the camera's front is made of a matte black plastic that appears to be pretty resistant to fingerprints. There's a slight projecting ridge, which acts as a grip. To the upper left of the lens are two small glass circles, the left one an IR receiver for the optional wireless remote and the one on the right for the auto focus assist lamp. The lens itself is set forward from the base by a smooth curve of about 4mm, and is ringed by a small strip of blue, and concentrically engraved rings on the metal. The right side of the body gracefully curves away around to the back.
 

The grip on the left adds a touch of stability.

Back (6.00)
As one would hope from a touch-screen camera, the main feature of the TL34HD's rear is the three-inch, 460,000 pixel LCD. Thankfully, Samsung haven't completely lost their mind and gone entirely touch based, instead keeping a column of four buttons along the right. The top two are conjoined and used for zooming in and out, and the two lower lozenge-shaped buttons are used for accessing the menu or switching to playback.
 

The back of the TL34HD is mostly rectangular, but the top right corner curves away to reveal the wrist-strap eyelet, and the mode dial poking out the top.
 

The LCD is large and easy to use.

You can just see the microphone holes at the top.

Right Side (5.00)
The right side of the camera offers us a little visual flair when compared to the left. Mostly comprised of smooth curves, the two halves of the case gracefully arch inwards to meet the protruding wristlet-strap. Above this, you can see the mode dial, projecting slightly to make it easier to reach.

The business end of the controls

Bottom (6.00)
Flush on the left side of the camera botom is the housing for the battery and memory card. While the door guarding them won't stop a concerted assault, it feels like it will stand up to everyday use. Contrarily, we have some issues with the durability of the proprietary port on the camera's bottom. The issue isn't whether it's tough enough, but rather that it's completely exposed to the elements, with the working parts flush with the surface of the camera. This just screams for sand, water, mud and potentially damaging objects (like keys) to get pushed into it and ruin its functionality. Seeing as this is the only included way to hook your camera up to your computer or charge the battery, it would be a bit of a problem to work around if it broke. We did like having the tripod mount lens-centered, which makes framing your shots a little easier.

Exposed ports are a bad move