The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom is a direct spin-off of the first Samsung Galaxy S4 but there are significant changes in the design to ensure the ultimate compact camera experience. The touchscreen display was shrunk from 5-inches into 4.3-inches to ensure its ergonomic shape stays naturally in the hand, as a stand-alone compact camera would.
From the front it is impossible to differentiate the legitimate nature of this Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom, which looks like another smartphone.
Camera
A hands-on experience with this device will shortly have users denying that it is in fact a smartphone. The camera of the hybrid device is pretty striking with a 16 camera lens and more importantly there's a 10x optical zoom. I mention this as most camera phones have a digital zoom which leaves them lacking than some standalone compact camera.
The zoom is operated by twisting the lens which protrudes from the rear of the device and this is a much more natural experience when compared to camera phones which run via pinch-and-zoom on a touchscreen display.
During my time creating a review of this Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom I was truly astonished at the quality of the images and those were in a league of their own when compared to results from other camera phones.
Just like a compact camera there are many modes to choose from to make sure the best picture is recorded. The auto mode will match most circumstances but the night mode is well worth activating in the evenings as the results far exceed those shot in auto mode. There is also an expert mode for those who want a little more control and from here I could adjust the shutter speed, ISO, aperture and brightness.
Smartphone
This smartphone works exceptionally well and incorporates lots of the features appreciated on the original Samsung Galaxy S4.
There's a dual core 1.5GHz chip to deal with complex tasks and also the same Android v4.2 operating system is included and this provides access to Google Play for brand new app downloads.
Conclusion
The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom is advanced as a compact camera and works nicely as a smartphone, even although the original exceeds it if the telephone specifications are seen side-by-side.
This is probably the first camera smartphone that I have seen where I would suggest, hand-on-heart, leaving your camera in home as this phone/camera combo is all up to the job.
