A solid smartphone with a solid camera

When we met the Samsung Galaxy Camera, a photo camera with 4G connection and Android operating system, the big question was: why not also has phone? Samsung doesn’t like leaving a single part of the market without cover, well that said and done. The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom is a smartphone with a compact camera integrated. Or it is a compact camera with an Android phone. Or what you prefer. Anyway, what and if you look ahead is a Galaxy smartphone range with the features normally found on a mid-range phone. But if you look on the opposite side, is a compact camera with a lens ten negligible increases.

The design is certainly strange. And it is not uncommon to use a phone that is not flat on the back, but has a huge target shaped projection. However, the use of the screen, once we have picked up the phone becomes quite simple. It is a 4.3-inch panel. There will still be who they seem too big, but is far from market giants in this regard.

For the non-navigational uses of that presumed, is neither too bulky nor heavy. It has a weight of 208 grams, so that adding a camera has not done that the design will suffer in this regard. In terms of thickness, it must be borne in mind that the objective is deployed as in any digital camera with zoom analog. Therefore, the thickness is variable depending on how we are using the Zoom S4 at all times. However, the important fact is referred to with the lens retracted, as it is understood that we would use it in hand when we are doing a photo. In this case, the terminal has a thickness of 15.4 mm, although it must be borne in mind that the surface is highly irregular.

The display type is SAMOLED with 16 million colors and a resolution of 540 x 960 pixels, yielding a density of 256 dots per inch. It is a mid-range phone, so this figure is not spectacular compared to most leading mobile market. However, a high number, you can enjoy the screen and photos that we draw without any problems.

The camera is half the Galaxy S4 Zoom. Clearly, if the camera is not a priority this is not the phone you are looking for. And the Korean brand has spared no details in this regard. Care has been the quality of the sensor and the lens, but also the ergonomics and the final appearance. The experience of use is very positive in this regard. In its hand is simple and intuitive, mainly thanks to the large rear screen, buttons and the focus ring.

If to take the terminal as a phone can feel strange, this feeling does not play when using it as a camera. The shutter button is where it should be, at the height of the index of the right hand, and the left is easily operated zoom ring, located at the base of the lens. In addition, the large touchscreen that occupies the back serves several.

On one hand we display a menu of options that are handled with the thumb of the right hand, imitating a wheel. Here we can choose the picture modes, change the aperture (only two steps of course), or the sensitivity of the sensor. We can also do more or less use the zoom with the touch screen, but is easier to use the virtual wheel.

Get more attention other aspects of the camera, especially the zoom lens, which gives its name to the gadget. The ten optical zoom magnifications, i.e. the longest shot 10 times telephoto image trimmed more angular. If we clarify better with the traditional numbers, this lens is equivalent to a 24-240 mm in 35 millimeters photography. This gives us much more game with this model we can have with the regular phone camera.

To think about the practicality of this model we simply think we are two machines in one, and it makes an acceptable manner which would make each of them separately. However there is a more interesting space, which is where the advantages of both devices are the same. For example, we used to upload photos to social networks like Twitter, Facebook or Instagram from your mobile wherever you are. But these pictures are usually quite limited quality by virtue of being made by a mobile camera. With the Galaxy S4 Zoom on the one hand, we have the connectivity that allows us to share the photos from anywhere. And secondly, a quality of the photos is very difficult to achieve with a mobile phone camera.

This contributes to the fact that Samsung has an integrated camera clearly superior in this model, but has not made its concessions in the software. A camera is accessed via the “House” of Android, as any other model in the Galaxy range, and is the camera that is used by default when an application wants to take a picture. The model is also capable of recording video in Full HD (1,920 x 1,080 dots) at 30 frames per second.