Ah, release creep hits Samsung. It’s been only 8 months since the company shipped its NX210 mirrorless interchangeable camera and the company’s already lining up its replacement. Granted, the NX210 did feel a little like a stopgap — it was essentially the same camera as its predecessor with some wireless capabilities tacked on — but if I’d bought one, I’d be a little cranky about now, because the NX300 offers some significant enhancements that potentially make it a much better camera.

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The most obvious difference between the generations is the new retro two-tone design, à la Fujifilm. I find that the lenses look a little too modern, though, to really carry it off. The grip has also grown a bit, with a larger thumb rest area on the back. Samsung dropped the control dial in the back in favor of a five-button control; while I tend to like the dials more than the buttons (they seem faster at scrolling through settings), overall I’m relatively indifferent between the two types of controls.

As for more substantive changes, Samsung jumps on the hybrid autofocus bandwagon with a same-resolution-but-different CMOS sensor that combines contrast autofocus and phase-detection technologies. The new generation of its image-processing system has doubled the clock speed, which hopefully will alleviate some of the functional sluggishness I found with the NX210.

In addition, Samsung increased the size of the LCD and made it tilt and touch-capable. Wireless operation gets streamlined as well; the individual device apps have been combined into a single connectivity app (with the added ability to automatically push photos to the device) and it now has dual-band Wi-Fi support (2.4G/5G). It also gets a bump to 1080/60p video.

One nice touch: the camera will ship with Adobe Lightroom rather than a proprietary software package.

On the not-quite-dead-yet front, the camera offers 3D capture at 5 megapixels for stills and 1080/30p for movies. Previous models won’t be firmware upgradable to support 3D; according to the company, the image-processing systems in earlier cameras can’t handle the bandwidth requirements.

The company’s also rolling out a dual 2D/3D version of the 45mm f1.8 lens it announced last Fall at Photokina. (3D operates by two alternating LCD filters that slide in; the effective aperture is f3.5 in 3D.) The lens is slated to cost $599.99 $499.99 and ship in March.

Here’s how the NX300 stacks up against a few competitors: