S4 Zoom Unboxing courtesy Phonedog
First off, it runs on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean and boasts a 1.5 GHz Dual Core processor. It has a 4.3 inch qHD Super AMOLED display with a 2330mAh removable battery and 1.5 GB of RAM. In terms of its design it looks like the S4 mini when viewed from the front while it takes the look of a camera when viewed from behind. While the aforementioned specs aren't anything to write home about, this phone really is all about the camera, which we'll take a look at now.
The S4 Zoom has a 1.9 MP front facing camera for self portraits and video chat while it sports a 16MP rear facing camera with f /3.1-6.3, 24-240mm and 10x optical zoom. You won't find any other smartphone with that amount of zoom so the pictures you take will look quite a bit better than your usual smartphone in normal light conditions.
There are also a ton of scene modes to select on this device. Modes like HDR, Panorama, Fireworks, Drama and Landscape are available on this device. There is also a Smart Mode Suggest feature which takes a look at the scene you wish to capture and then suggests the appropriate mode. All these features are quite good and do add a lot to this phone.
Since this phone is an Android device, there are many apps that you can download to edit and share your photos. This gives it an added dimesion when compared to your normal point and shoot camera and is a definite advantage.
The Zoom sports a larger CMOS sensor than normal smartphones but when compared to DSLR cameras it really comes in as just about average. I guess this is to be expected since this is also a phone and not a dedicated camera. The downside to this phone's philosophy is that it gets caught between two worlds's, is it a smartphone or is it a camera. In the end, it just averages in both departments so only those of us that are really interested in the S4 line of devices would probably pick this one up.
Do you like the S4 Zoom? Give your feedback on it in the comment section below.
*Image courtesy Samsung Belgium
