Samsung Galaxy S4 zoom, a Camera with a Smartphone

Samsung, which is known to experiment with its devices and follow a mantra of launching a device every week has come up with a very unique gadget this week. They have actually outclassed the entire segment of the digital cameras by integrating a fully fledged smart phone(their flagship Galaxy S4) into one of their digital cameras and revealed Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom. According to Samsung, this a “Smartphone” with a 16MP camera, 10x optical zoom, but as far as it looks, I believe we should better call it a Camera with a Smartphone.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom

Though we already had a 41MP camera in Nokia 808 PureView, if you thought that was insane, well Samsung wants that crown so badly with this release. In comparison the PureView, Samsung S4 zoom stands out on insanity on the grounds that it hardly looks like a phone. Why would I, or someone carry a smartphone with a huge SLR like lenses in their pants. The handling surely would be a concern and so would be the regular usage.

Tech Specs

Take a Samsung Galaxy S4 mini, i.e. Android 4.2.2 Galaxy phone, add a big lens with a 16MP point-and-shoot, which brings a 10x optical zoom lens to bear the first phone to do so on planet earth. And the smartphone which is glued on the back of this camera has a 4.3-inch qHD display, runs on 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, 1.5GB RAM, 8GB of internal storage which is as usual expandable via microSD slot and a 1.9MP front facing camera(Wow, we have a dual lens on a digital camera, that too first time ever). At 125.5 x 63.5 x 15.4 mm, it's bulkier than most high-end smartphones today, but the Galaxy S4 Zoom truly sounds like it might fulfill the promise of bringing the "best of both worlds,"

• General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz; UMTS 850/900/1900/2100 MHz, HSDPA 21 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps; LTE (market dependent), Cat3, 50 Mbps UL, 100 Mbps DL
• Form factor: Touchscreen bar phone with optical zoom lens
• Dimensions: 125.5 x 63.5 x 15.4 mm, 208 g
• Display: 4.25" 16M-color qHD (540 x 960 pixels) Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen
• CPU: Dual-core Cortex-A9 1.5 GHz processor, 1.5GB RAM, Mali-400 GPU
• OS: Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean)
• Memory: 8 GB (5 GB user available) of inbuilt storage, microSD card slot
• Still Camera: 16 megapixel auto-focus camera with 10x optical zoom and Optical Image Stabilization; xenon flash and LED light; control lens ring
• Video Camera: Full HD (1080p) video recording at 30fps; 720p @ 60fps
• Connectivity: Dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0+HS, NFC, MHL-enabled standard microUSB port, GPS receiver with A-GPS and GLONASS, 3.5mm audio jack, FM radio, USB-on-the-go
• Battery: 2,330mAh
• Misc: TouchWiz 5.0 Nature UX, XviD codec support, built-in accelerometer, multi-touch input, proximity sensor, gyroscope sensor, smart screen

Source: http://www.gsmarena.com/

The camera includes optical image stabilization and a Xenon flash, along with a special "Zoom Ring." That ring surrounds the camera, and when twisted (even while on a call) it can launch in-call photo sharing, or go straight to other camera modes. Extra software features are also on hand to advantage of the combo device's capabilities including Photo Suggest that shows great photos taken by others in the area, Smart Mode auto settings and more.

Galaxy S4 zoom will come to the US and the rest of Europe as well, at some point in Q4 but there is no official world on its pricing yet.