HomeReviewsSamsung Galaxy K Zoom first cut: Pocketable and not ridiculously designed

Samsung Galaxy K Zoom first cut: Pocketable and not ridiculously designed

The biggest difference between Samsung Galaxy K Zoom and its predecessor, the Galaxy S4 Zoom, is the design and ease of use

Smartphones have been blamed for the fall in sales of point and shoot cameras but camera lovers still swear by the quality of the later. Top smartphone makers know this quite well and they have tried to bring many smartphones that would even attract the point and shoot camera lovers. Nokia did this with its PureView devices while Sony recently came out with its range of lenses that can be attached with smartphones and give them more camera muscle.
Samsung Galaxy K Zoom
Samsung has gone a steap ahead; it has now released a smartphone which itself comes with a retractable camera lens. So basically the phone, called Galaxy K Zoom, looks like a hybrid of point and shoot camera and a normal smartphone.
Samsung Galaxy K Zoom
Though, it not for the first time they have come up with such a smartphone. Last year, Samsung had announced the Galaxy S4 Zoom which too had a retractable camera lens but it was lampooned by the reviewers on both front – camera quality and as a smartphone.

So how Samsung Galaxy K Zoom is different from the Galaxy S4 Zoom?

The biggest differentiator is the design and ease of use. Galaxy S4 Zoom wouldn’t fit easily in pocket and has a weird design for a smartphone. On the other hand Galaxy K Zoom looks like a normal smartphone and its camera module including the retractable lens gels quite well with overall design of the phone. Also, despite having such an elaborate and complex design, the Galaxy K Zoom is quite light with an overall weight of just 200 grams.

X factor:

The highlight of Galaxy K Zoom, where K stands for c(K)amera, is its retracting lens technology that provides 10x optical zoom. Its 20.7 BSI CMOS sensor comes with Optical Image Stabilizer (OIS) and expected to captures pictures and videos in Full HD. In addition, to light up the subject it has a Xenon Flash.

To add juice to the camera capability K Zoom comes with AF/AE Separation (Auto Focus/ Auto Exposure Separation) to balance light and clarity; five preset filter settings that can be chosen before taking a picture by half pressing the shutter and Selfie Alarm that allows users to take timed selfies using the rear camera with ease.
Samsung Galaxy K Zoom
In terms of design it has a perforated back cover similar to Galaxy S5 but its slightly curved. The curved back and recessed lens barrel together makes it easier to slide it in a pocket.
Samsung Galaxy K Zoom
Talking more about the camera module, the lens has nine elements out of which three are placed in such a way that when came is not activated the external module looks flat thus avoids the bulge that was visible in S4 Zoom.
Samsung Galaxy K Zoom
The Galaxy K Zoom comes with a 4.8 inch Super (1080 x 720 pixels) and measures 137.5 x 70.8 x 16.6mm. The dedicated camera button and the power button are placed on the right side. The volume controls can also be used for zoom out or in while using the camera (you can also zoom in and out by pinching on the screen).
Samsung Galaxy K Zoom
The smartphone has a micro card slot in the left panel which makes it easy to transfer photographs to other devices without opening the back panel, or using cables or activating wireless mode. It short we can say it is designed for ease of use which is quite essential for a mobile phone.

Regular stuff:

Samsung Galaxy K zoom comes with a 4.8 inch high definition display. It has the KitKat operating system that runs by a hexa core processor which is a combination of a 1.3 GHz quad core processor and a 1.7 GHz dual core processor. On the connectivity front its supports LTE, WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, and GLONASS. As per its specification, it does not have support for India’s (TDLTE network) network (it has support for the 1800 Mhz but only Videocon will be rolling out the FDD LTE services while all other telecos are to offer TD LTE services in the 2300 Mhz band).
Samsung Galaxy K Zoom
It comes with a modest 2430 battery along with Ultra Power Saving Mode as is found in the latest Galaxy S5.
Samsung Galaxy K Zoom
If we talk about the display, brightness or sharpness it looks decent but not as good as what is found on the high-end Samsung Galaxy phones. During our usage we didn’t find any lag in the device but the real picture will emerge only after we do a review of the device.
Samsung Galaxy K Zoom
Samsung Galaxy K Zoom
In a nutshell, if we leave out the camera capabilities, the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom can be termed as a mid-end smartphone on the basis of its other features.

Can it replace point and shoot camera?

Yes, if priced attractively it has the capability to replace the usual point and shoot camera because it will provide functionality of two devices in one. We took some photos with Samsung Galaxy K Zoom in different natural and dim lighting condition and the output was acceptable. At this moment we will reserve our final thought about the picture quality because we were not able to click snaps in different modes or compare them it with pictures snapped using mobile phone like Nokia Lumia 1020. In the meantime you see the pictures we clicked using rear camera of K Zoom here.

(The correspondent has traveled to Singapore for covering the launch event on the invitation of Samsung)

Verdict

Well to answer this question we have to wait till the price of Samsung Galaxy K Zoom is announced. If priced above Rs 40,000, I would not advise to buy it soley for its camera capability. But if it priced below that mark it will justify your buying decision because a decent camera and smartphone will cost around Rs 20,000 individually and Samsung Galaxy K Zoom which would be a cross over device will give dual functionality in one device for almost the same pricing. It will also be convenient for the user to carry it. But, before you make the final buying decision as soon the price is announced we would like you to wait because we still have to do a detailed review to find out how does it perform both as a camera and as a smartphone in real world scenario.

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