beautiful, not quite satisfactory beach accompaniment

I've had some waterproof beach and snorkel cameras from Pentax, Sony, Olympus, Panasonic and Nikon. Whenever I'm on the road in the southern countries or to Scotland, I like to use also weatherproof and safe beach cameras also accompany me into the water.
The main problem in the water are clean and proper seals that guarantee is then severely limited at each manufacturer, so I change my cameras in each year.
The AW cameras from Fuji, Canon, Panasonic have been rather disappointed me.
For me, the cameras must be apart from the good sensor and sharp imaging bring four important things: a lot of intensity, a lot of image angle (short focal length), speed and ease of use.
A colorful camera is usually at an advantage, because they are found more easily again, black, dark green or Flecktarn- cameras I would not choose for the beach.
The Nikon AW120-orange like so initially quite good, the operation is learned largely logically and quickly.
The camera is aimed more at children playing, because for ambitious photo fans show the banal scene programs, because, unfortunately, can be speed, aperture and exposure programs here not adjust. In addition, the exposure is only in 1/3 increments possible I hold levels for meaningful and effective. In addition, 2 aperture can only be corrected by +/-, which is little standard are 3 stops and often are also 5 aperture possible.
The 5x zoom sounds good and starts from 24 mm to 120 mm depending on the better wide-angle, especially under water here I am still waiting to create the 20 mm cameras. But the weakness is light with f: 2.8 to f: 4.9 then rather underwhelming because the camera needs a lot of light. On the beach, which is still ok, but the water then no longer, here should be a camera at least f: 2.0 or better f: 1.4 or bring a larger, light- sensitive sensor.
The 16 MP sensor of the Nikon is tiny, 1 2/3 ie only 4.5 x 6.2 mm.
The tiny, built-lenses whose light beam is deflected to the sensor are also known to be to be not a very good resolution not in comparison to a conventional Panasonic TZ41 (best performance) or Nikon Coolpix S9500 camera travel. The photos of the AW120 are in DHW position not really sharp edges and in the telephoto range suffers generally the resolution a bit.
So Nikon can not really good.
It has been my experience with various waterproof cameras that on the beach and in the water quickly scratched the large monitor. A really good protection but there are not.
I would personally since the publication of the much stronger light Olympus TG-cameras (f: 2.0 = twice the light intensity in the WW area) prefer, especially as it also true underwater housings and lens attachments are additional. But that is for Nikon fans probably can not be considered
The additional functions such as GPS, height, depth, air pressure meter & Compass give pleasure, at least GPS still costs but much Accu-performance. This is perhaps interesting for the treasure hunt, but otherwise more of a power-sapping gimmick. WiFi is of course on board. Films dominated the camera in FullHD, the tone is rather lousy.
I fear Nikon and Co will receive the new Samsung smartphone also on the beach and in the water much unloved competition simply would put significantly better image quality, however.
If you compare the AW-cameras the manufacturer (not Nikon represents something even long ago) is striking that often the same sensor / lens construction is built and only a manufacturer as a more intense lens out of the ordinary. In any case, it is much more attractive than the previous cameras from Nikon (AW110 etc). My first choice would be but certainly not better, and UW-photos you get only with expensive housings, special lighting and a lot of practice. The picture quality is nevertheless higher than what provide the GoPro previously. On the beach and in the rain it is certainly a better choice than the usual compact cameras that have no seal, particularly sand is very critical for any other camera.

I am practical and user no fanboy and do not have strong brand preferences, basing myself only on practicality, technical implementation and price / performance.
5 star corresponds with me the theoretical maximum performance in the prior art and therefore I forgive when cameras are extremely rare and not because to me a product like. Really bad cameras there is virtually indistinguishable from the leading brand manufacturers and after a bit of study of photography and the camera normally succeed each so good photos.
In hard comparison, but differences become visible that would otherwise remain hidden.

LIGHT particularly postiv
+ Small and handy to 18 m supposedly waterproof
+ 24-120 mm lens 5x = true Wide
Installed + VR Image Stabilization
+ Shockproof to 2m
+ Supposedly cold-resistant to -10 degrees
+ Relatively fast reactions
+ Can be operated even halfway with thin gloves
+ Gesture control
+ Learns fast
+ Almost completely silent as all AW Cameras
+ Height & depth & Barometer & Compass Knife
+ WiFi on board

SHADOWS - lugubrious:
- Faint f: 2.8 4.9
- No exposure modes only Scene programs
- Exposure compensation in 1/3 increments only & only +/- 2 EV
- Image edges in the WW resolved relatively low and out of focus
- Shutter speed & Aperture can not be selected manually
- Details suffer from ISO 400
- Zoom button is very small, not optimal to use
- Very small Accu with 1050 mAh
- Accu can be easily plugged in backwards
- Side closure shaky
- Only supplied USB cable for charging
- No accessories, no additional lens or underwater housing
- Short range is not in the entire zoom range
- Close only look good very small distance

Achievable image quality up to 800 ISO: **
Achievable image quality above 800 ISO: *
Viewfinder / Monitor: ***
Speed: ****
Lens zoom range: ***
Perceived quality: ****
Creative Potential: **
Height Weight: ****
Price-Performance: ***