Pros
- An excellent camera with 10x zoom
- Useful camera scene modes
- Comes with Android 4.2.2
Cons
- Low res screen
- Bulky design
- Slight lag in performance
Key Features
- 16-megapixel camera with 10x optical zoom
- Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean OS
- 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display
- Manufacturer: Samsung
- Review Price: £450.00
What is the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom?
The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom is Samsung’s idea of the ultimate cameraphone – a 4.3-inch Android smartphone with a full 10x optical zoom camera lens. In effect it’s a cross between the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini and the Samsung Galaxy Camera, with its 16-megapixel BSI CMOS sensor, Xenon Flash and 25 Smart modes blurring the lines between camera and smartphone while retaining the simplicity of a regular smartphone camera.The Samsung Galaxy Camera is a decent camera, but it lacks the extra phone functionality that should make sharing your photos so much easier. The Zoom hopes to put the final nail in the compact camera’s coffin. Does it? Let's find out.
See the Zoom S4 in action from the launch event in June:
Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom: Design
The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom follows the design principles of the Samsung Galaxy S4. It has the same white plastic body and while this gives the S4 Zoom a glossy, shiny look, it doesn’t feel as nice to hold as the iPhone 5 or the HTC One – not by a long chalk. Plenty of column inches have gone into the merits of metal vs. plastic so we won’t repeat them here, but we can’t help yearning after something more luxurious considering the price tag.The camera part of the S4 Zoom is modelled closely on the Samsung Galaxy Camera as it adopts the same curved design around the grip. Unlike the Galaxy Camera, however, the lens has what Samsung calls a ‘Zoom Ring’. This lets you control the zoom, access camera modes and quickly share photos just by twisting a ring on the lens.
The 4.3-inch screen means it’s identical to the Galaxy S4 Mini, at least in the display department. At 15.4mm thick it’s essentially double the thickness of the Samsung Galaxy S4 (7.9mm) and a few millimetres slimmer than the Galaxy Camera (19.1mm). It weighs 208g, making it lighter than the Galaxy Camera (300g), but again substantially heavier than the Galaxy S4 (130g).
In itself the weight isn’t a problem, but the lens makes the Zoom feel top-heavy when held in portrait mode. It’s less noticeable when taking pictures in landscape mode, but it’s worth noting that the S4 Zoom doesn't have a textured handgrip like the Samsung Galaxy Camera.
More to the point, the S4 Zoom is simply not pocket friendly. That's really down to the camera lens. It adds the extra bulk to make it press against your leg. It’s definitely more suitable to keep in a bag than to slip into a pair of jeans.
There are a few subtle layout differences between the S4 Zoom and S4, but the major one is the MicroSD card slot on the left edge (it’s under the backplate on the S4) and the addition of a small plugged hole to let you hook up a tripod.
Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom: Screen Quality
It might have S4 in the name, but again the S4 Zoom shares more in common with the S4 Mini than their big name sibling. This time it’s in the screen department, where the S4 Zoom has the same 4.3-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen display as the Mini, though it adds Gorilla Glass 3 to give the display an extra layer of protection.The S4 Zoom’s screen retains the same less than impressive 960 x 540 resolution, too. Its 256ppi pixel density is nothing like as sharp as the S4’s 1080p, 441ppi screen. It’s still vibrant and extremely bright, but the loss of sharpness really shows when you play HD videos or games.
We can’t fault the S4 Zoom’s responsiveness, though. It reacts just as smoothly to touch and gestures like pinch and zoom as any other top end smartphone we’ve tried out. For all its shortcomings in the resolution department, the screen is still more than adequate for camera and smartphone duties.
Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom: Software
The S4 Zoom runs on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI overlaid on top. The combination of Google’s UI with Samsung’s has in the past felt cluttered, but on the S4 Zoom it looks and feels cleaner and more user-friendly.You have access to the Google Play Store, of course, but Samsung’s software takes pride of place on each of the five homescreens. The widgets now look sleeker and more enticing to use, and if you don’t like them they can all be removed.
Among the new Samsung apps is S Travel. Powered by TripAdvisor, it recommends new places to visit around the world. The majority of suggestions generated are quite obvious, but on occasions it does pick out an interesting destination. It would be nice to have some kind of booking functionality built in as well, though.
Story Album, meanwhile, uses photos to create a collage of your photos that you can print as a hard copy. It's a nice addition, but doesn't do anything out of the ordinary.
Other S4 regulars that require a separate Samsung sign-in include ChatOn messaging and the WatchOn video app. It’s also great to see that the brilliant Flipboard now comes pre-installed.
It’s worth noting that Samsung’s software takes up around 3GB of the 8GB storage built-in. That leaves you with 5GB of space. This makes the inclusion of a microSD card slot and 50GB of free Dropbox storage for the first year important to store images.
The virtual keyboard in portrait looks cramped on the screen, but actually responds really well to typing. Despite the small keys, the accuracy is great and the ability to learn words and even login codes is impressive. There's Swype support, but the keyboard works well without it.
Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom Performance
The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom features a 1.5GHz dual-core processor with 1.5GB of RAM. This does have some impact on using the S4 Zoom. Swiping through homescreens and switching between applications have the slightest of lags. It’s more noticeable if you currently own a S4 or a quad-core powered HTC One. It’s not so bad that it affects the user experience, though.When it comes to gaming, the Zoom S4 holds its own considering the power. Real Racing 3 runs and does it with the smallest of frame rate issues. Visuals are not as polished as they would be on a full HD screen, but the Zoom S4 deals with more graphically demanding games just fine. The Epic Citadel demo powered by the Unreal Engine gave a benchmark score of 55fps, which backs up its more than decent gaming prowess.
Apps boot up nice and fast and the mid-range processor doesn’t have a negative impact on browsing speed. Whether it’s the stock Android browser or Google Chrome, web browsing is quick and easy.
The Zoom’s speaker, located above the camera lens, offers reasonably clear audio, but it lacks the richness in sound and bass to significantly enhance movie watching or listening to music. It's an even tinnier and underwhelming experience when you turn it up to full volume, though.
Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom: Camera
Clearly the camera is the most important feature, and the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom camera is a really impressive performer once you get to grips with all its features.The 16-megapixel BSI CMOS sensor main camera is equipped with a 10x optical zoom equivalent to 24mm to 240mm. There’s a Xenon flash to help shoot in low light conditions and a built-in Optical Image Stabiliser to reduce blur and generally keep things steady. There’s now a massive 25 Samsung ‘Smart’ scene modes that should make it almost impossible not to take a decent picture.
It shoots videos at up to 1080p at 30fps. The 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera, meanwhile, is just as suitable for selfies and video chatting as other, similar price smartphones.
image: http://static.trustedreviews.com/94/000028305/5283_orh616w616/Samsung-Galaxy-S4-Zoom-Macr.jpg
Shot using macro modeThe main camera offers Automatic, Smart, and Expert options to take pictures. Automatic mode takes all of the tinkering out of stills shooting. Smart mode gives you a selection of shooting options. If you’ve used a Galaxy smartphone or camera before you’ll recognise modes like Best face and Best photo, but ‘Smart mode suggest’ is new. This analyses your surroundings, taking into consideration lighting levels, then recommends the best Smart mode to apply.
image: http://static.trustedreviews.com/94/0000282fa/dedc/s4-zoom-cropped.jpg
For photographers demanding more manual
control, Expert mode lets you alter ISO sensitivity, shutter speed and
Aperture amongst other things to give you more control over the
picture-grabbing.In Automatic mode, some shots can look a little washed out and slightly dull - see the shot below. Select the right Smart mode, however, and the level of detail, quality of colours and exposure is up there with decent quality compacts.
The Smart modes do a really great job of applying the right setting to take a great picture. Sometimes it’s not immediately clear, but the subtle differences in sharpness and clarity are noticeable when you look at the photos on a bigger screen.
image: http://static.trustedreviews.com/94/000028306/5fa9_orh616w616/Samsung-Galaxy-S4-Zoom-zoom.jpg
Shots in automatic mode can look a little dull and washed out, but the Smart modes fix this.But the standout feature is the optical zoom lens. It really pays off for long distant shot where a standard, fixed-lens smartphone camera is useless.
Twisting the ring around the lens lets you hone in closer to objects in the distance and the results, unsurprisingly, are considerably better than the digital zoom you’ll find on most smartphones.
The S4 Zoom also yields great results in low light, too. The macro mode is ideal for close-up shots, with impressive detail and vibrant colours.
Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom - Call Quality
Call quality on the Samsung Galaxy Zoom S4 is good. We didn’t notice any distortion issues or calls dropping out. The built-in speaker while not great for music, is loud and clear enough for speakerphone conversations. Things can start to get a bit tinny when you crank up the volume, though.The only real problem with using the S4 Zoom as a phone is getting used to holding what looks like a camera to your ear. The jutting out lens takes getting used to but if you really like the idea of the phone with a proper camera lens then it’s a tolerable problem.
image: http://static.trustedreviews.com/94/000028300/b87a_orh616w616/Samsung-Galaxy-S4-Zoom-6.jpg
Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom - Battery Life and Connectivity
The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom has a 2,330mAh battery – slightly less than the S4 (2,600mAh) but more than the S4 Mini (1,900mAh). Samsung claims the Zoom should get you up to seven hours of internet usage over 3G and nine hours over Wi-Fi.Over a day’s use the S4 Zoom’s battery copes well browsing the web, playing games and taking pictures. It holds on for well over a day, but you will still need to charge it when you get home.
In terms of connectivity, the Galaxy S4 Zoom has the headphone jack, micro USB charging port and micro SD card support on the outside. Beneath the screen there’s 3G, Wi-Fi and 4G LTE support. Samsung has also included support for NFC, low energy Bluetooth 4.0 and both A-GPS and GLONASS navigation systems.
image: http://static.trustedreviews.com/94/0000282fd/ef8b_orh616w616/Samsung-Galaxy-S4-Zoom-3.jpg
Should I buy the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom?
If a smartphone and camera in one is your dream come true then it’s an unequivocal, yes. The Samsung Galaxy Camera-inspired features really give the S4 Zoom the edge over the likes of the iPhone 5 and the HTC One for snapping photos – enough so to tolerate the extra bulk.If you’re undecided on the idea, however, it’s not such an open and shut case. For instance, you could buy a Google Nexus 4 (£239) and a Samsung WB250F Smart camera and still have change left over from the Zoom S4’s circa-£450 asking price.
There is a trade-off on the design, too. The S4 Zoom is an S4 Mini with a big lens attached, but doesn’t fit as snugly in the pocket. That’s okay if you have a bag to pop it in, but not so if you always carry your phone in your pocket.
It will be interesting to see how it matches up with the Nokia Lumia 1020 as well. The new Lumia looks more jeans-friendly and has some promising camera features, but lacks the long zoom lens. Which is the better approach? We can’t answer that question right now, but it’s an interesting one.