Today we’ll be taking a brief but informative view at the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom. As you may know, Samsung has in the past also released a camera with Android on it, so doing this isn’t all that far from that. The difference here is that this one is stronger than its predecessor and it is far more compact and looks quite a bit better too.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom is pretty strong if considered as a phone, as well as a camera. Certain tests were taken o this device actually, in which it provided quite some interesting data, for those that are really interested. I shall try and resume it in a few words here:
- Display: an infinite contrast ratio in nominal conditions and a 3.188:1 in sunlight
- Loudspeaker: we have 73 decibels for voice, 66 decibels for noise and 75 decibels for ringing
- Audio Quality: we’ve got a -91.5 decibels for noise and a -90.5 decibels for crosstalk
- Battery Life: the endurance rating of the battery has landed at around 61 hours
SUMMARY
First of, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom is known under a few names, so don’t fret if you find it with a different code. Essentially, we’ve got the SM-C1010 and SM-C101. While they may be different in name, there are quite few, if not unnoticeable differences between the two. The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom is otherwise a phenomenal device that is capable of quite a lot. In case you were thinking of getting a camera but wanted to get a smartphone too and were strapped for cash, this device is quite a viable option. Also, it won’t set you back a whole lot considering it is valued as somewhere around at about 400 dollars ( which is 200 cheaper than the strongest of smartphones ). If you want to know more about the features and strengths and weaknesses of this device, keep on reading as they will all be discussed in due time.
GENERAL
First off, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom, while 4G LTE capable, is only available as thus in a few locations as it is heavily dependent on the market in that segment. Regarding the rest of the connectivity, these next things can be found on ALL the versions of this device: 2G ( GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800 and GSM 1900 ) and 3G ( HSDPA 850, HSDPA 900, HSDPA 1900 and HSDPA 2100 ). The SIM used in this device is a Micro-SIM format of card. As of yet, the phone is available and ready for purchase having been announced in June and released later in July.
BODY
Regarding the size of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom, there’s really not much to say. The phone / camera is as thin as thin can get considering the things attached to it. The specifics of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom are: 125.5 x 63.5 x 15.4 mm ( or 4.94 x 2.5 x 0.61 in ) and it weighs around 208 g ( or 7.34 oz ). Don’t be fooled, however. It’s not that the phone is actually that thick. What is the matter here is that the Camera Objective in the back extends its size by quite a bit.
DISPLAY
The display of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom is a pretty okay one. It’s not on the same level as many of the other top-phones, but it still is somewhat above the average. We’re talking about a Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen here with 4.3 inch size and a resolution of 540 x 960 pixels. The pixel density of this device’s display is around 256 pixels per inch ( which is okay, by my standards, but some who have only used 300+ ppi phones will see this as a problem ). The screen is also protected with a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 display, which should ensure the screen doesn’t crack the first time you drop it ( I’m not so sure about the camera in the back, though ).
SOUND
There is absolutely nothing out of the ordinary regarding the audio of this device. The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom is pretty much standard as far as this goes: regular vibration, MP3 and WAV ringtones with a normal 3.5 mm jack and a standard loudspeaker. If you were looking to get something which has some enhanced audio, you’re better off searching somewhere else.
MEMORY
Regarding the memory of this device, considering it’s a mix between a phone and a camera, there are a few things which seem a bit out of the ordinary. First off, you will rarely find a phone that has 1.5 GB of RAM ( most tend to have fixed sums like 1, 2 or 3 ). Secondly, the storage space isn’t something you’re quite used to. The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom has 8 GB of storage space, out of which only 5 is user-available. How on earth are you going to store tons of pictures if you have that little, you may ask. Well, the MicroSD card has support for cards of up to 64 GB and it is highly recommended to get one of those if you’re interested in using the camera a lot.
CAMERA
Brace yourself because there are a lot of features to take in here. The main camera on the back of the phone may not seem like much if you only read its name, but the features it is packing more than make up for it. The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom has a main 16 MP camera and a secondary 1.9 MP camera on the front. Of course, the main camera is capable of recording video in 1080p full HD at 30 frames per second. The features of the camera are: Xenon Flash, 1/2.33″ sensor size, Geo-Tagging, Touch Focus, Face & Smile Detection, 10x Optical Zoom ( 24-240 mm ), Optical Image Stbilization, HDR and Panorama. Now all and all, that’s a great camera for a phone.
DATA CONNECTION
Off the bat, we can safely say that this phone has: GPRS, EDGE, NFC and an infrared port. The speed that the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom can reach is: HSDPA 21.1 MB/s, HSUPA 5.76 MB/s, LTE Cat 3 of 50 MB/s UL and 100 MB/s DL. The WLAN of this device is: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n and it has dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA and Wi-Fi hotspot. The Bluetooth is a v4.0 one with A2DP and LE. The USB port of this device is a Micro-USB v2.0 one ( which support MHL ) and it has USB On-The-Go support as well.
BATTERY LIFE
The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom has a Li-Ion 2330 mAh battery which has allegedly the following stats: up to 570 hours of stand-by in 3G, up to 13 hours of talk-tim in 3G and up to 46 hours of music play. Luckily, the stress test has revealed that it can endure around 61 hours of heavy usage of the phone, so all and all it’s a pretty good battery.
HARDWARE
The hardware of this device isn’t as strong as one would expect. Sure, it’s slightly better than the average phones out there, but nowhere near the strongest of devices. The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom is equipped with: a Dual-Core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A9 CPU housed on a Pega-Dual +XMM6262 chipset which also houses a Mali 400 GPU. This hardware can get you some amount of performance, but not with EVERYTHING that can be downloaded.
SOFTWARE
While the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom may not have the latest version of Android on it, the version that it does have is somewhat better and more stable than the latest one. To be precise, you can find Android OS v4.2.2 Jelly Bean on this device.
FEATURES
The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom’s sensors are: Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Proximity and Compass. The messaging is done through SMS ( with Treaded view ), MMS, E-Mail, Push Mail, IM and RSS. The browser uses HTML5 instead of Flash and the phone has no radio support. The GPS of this device has A-GPS support and GLONASS as well. The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom has Java through Java MIDP Emulation too and is available in two colors: White and Dynamic Black.
Below you have a list of what this phone is capable of doing:- S-Voice natural language commands and dictation
- Dropbox (50 GB storage)
- Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
- TV-out (via MHL A/V link)
- SNS integration
- MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.264/H.263 player
- MP3/WAV/eAAC+/AC3/FLAC player
- Organizer
- Image/video editor
- Document viewer
- Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Picasa
- Voice memo/dial/commands
- Predictive text input (Swype)
This concludes our tiny review of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom. I hope it has helped shed some light on the device and maybe convince you about it to some degree.
