Galaxy S4 Zoom: More camera than a phone

Thursday, Aug 08, 2013

Dubai

Samsung’s Galaxy S4 Zoom is a fusion of Galaxy S4 Mini and a digital still camera. The Zoom is more of a camera than a phone with 16MP CMOS image sensor, 10 x optical zoom function, xenon flash and 1.9MP front-facing camera.

The 4.3-inch super AMOLED device is powered by dual-core 1.5GHz Cortex A9 processor and Mali 400 graphics processing unit (GPU). It has 1.5GB RAM and runs on latest Android Jelly Bean operating system with new TouchWiz features. The device sports qHD resolution with 540 x 960 pixels and 256 pixels per inch. It weighs 208 grams.

It is bulkier than S4 Mini smartphone and it will be awkward to use a bulky device to make calls but it is very useful when you go on a vacation. Instead of carrying two devices, you need to carry only one device. It is pocketable.

The design of the phone is that users can take photos with single hand. There is a ridged control ring around the lens to zoom the camera in and out or a user can do it on the touch screen.

The battery and microSIM card slot is covered by a flap and sit on the bottom of the device. The microSIM can be easily removed without touching the battery..

On the left side of the device are the microSD card slot and tripod mounting hole. The device has 8GB internal storage and out of this only 5.03GB is available to users. The storage capacity is disappointing but the microSD card can boost that by up to 64GB.

The camera features are absolutely superb by smartphone standards. Pictures are detailed; low light performance is solid despite being clad in plastic.

Some of the features in Galaxy S4 are not included in the Zoom like Air View, Smart Pause, Smart Scroll but the familiar features like Smart Display, Smart Stay and Smart Rotate, are enabled too.

The Photo Suggest app gives access to most popular locations around you which are good when you are on a vacation and you will know which places to visit and shoot photos are.

The other interesting app is the Paper Artist where users can apply an effect on the photo and paint on the photo to highlight a specific desired area.

The In-call Photo Share feature lets users take a shot and send it to a friend while talking on the phone. At the same time, while taking a shot users will never miss an incoming call. The camera has lot of features for both casual and professional users. The camera is set to automatic mode by default and users can change to the desired mode.

The Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) works in both video and still photo camera. There are four modes - Auto, Smart, Expert and My mode.

The 1/2.3-inch senor is bigger than most of the smartphones in the market. The photos taken have rich details and colours aided by an f/3.1-6.3, 24-240mm.

Regarding connectivity, it has Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi, 3G, NFC and Android Beam.

The Zoom has a 2330mAh battery and it is bigger than the 1900mAh battery packed into the S4 Mini and lesser than S4’s 2600mAh.

During my test, the battery lasted almost a day of playing games, taking pictures and surfing the internet on WiFi. It gives a talk time of more than 15 hours and more than nine hours of video playback.

The advantage of zoom is the price. The S4 Mini is priced at Dh1599 and consumers pay an extra Dh300 to get the hybrid device for Dh1899.

By Naushad k Cherrayil Staff Reporter