Nikon's 1-series has seen a host of releases in the past few months, which has also introduced the latest entry-level model, the Nikon 1 S1. 

Pocket-lint sampled the latest 1-series goods at the Nikon stand at this year's Consumer Electronics Show to get to grips with what this entry-level model could muster.

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The 1-series has done a good job carving out its own niche in the market. The UK adverts focus heavily on its special shooting modes, but what we've been waiting for from Nikon is a more coherent menu system that makes for a simple yet effective user experience... and the S1 looks like it may have cracked it. 

There's no main mode dial to worry about. The S1 feels rather like a compact camera in many respects, and if you do want to adjust settings then there are six main tiles that cover shooting modes, playback, special shooting modes, movie capture, image processing and set-up options.

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A little menu digging isn't unexpected at this level, so for point-and-shoot snappers we think the S1 will make good sense. And when you need manual controls they are still available.

Just because this is the entry-level model doesn't mean it comes at any cost to performance. The autofocus system is still super fast and responsive - we snapped some dancers on stage with little problem, even in the limited light.

Ever fashion-conscious, the S1 will come dressed in a variety of colours, including black, white, pink, red and khaki, plus there will be lenses to match. We played around with the white version, though did catch glimpse of the khaki and pink too which, frankly, we're a little (ie, a lot) less sure about.

It's simple and stylish, it's well promoted, it's fast to respond and it'll appeal to the point-and-shoot user who wants better-than-compact quality. It's still not our most favoured compact system camera, but the S1 does turn the Nikon CSC ship in a new and welcome direction.