Do the facial recognition and auto modes work as promised? And do you get noise?

It says that it can focus on faces, and that it can also detect smiles. Does this work? What about intelligent auto?

I've also read that having many megapixels can cause noise, is this the case with this camera?

It works to a degree. But this smile shutter technology is pretty new and I'd wait a year or two before it works the kinks out for low light situations.

And yes, stuffing a CCD chip with MP can cause a chip to be less sensitive to light, not more, and that means noise at higher ISOs. In addition, MPs above 6-8 won't even be noticed in snapshots and pictures below 8x10. So you end up paying for additional MP that you never even see.

As for this particular camera, unless Olympus improved on the chip size to give the MP more "wiggle room," I expect noise to assert itself much like it does in the 1030, and it's abysmal at ISOs above 400.

You can better.