Crazy Galaxy S4 Zoom combines phone with proper camera lens (pictures)
Half phone, half compact camera, the Galaxy S4 Zoom has a 10x optical zoom lens on the back. It could be the perfect marriage of phone and camera, but the trade-off is its bulk.
Jason Jenkins
Jason Jenkins is the director of content for CNET in EMEA. Based in London, he has been writing about technology since 1999 and was once thrown out of Regent's Park for testing the UK's first Segway.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom has a compact camera lens on the back with a 10x optical zoom.
The software on the phone looks like a normal Galaxy S4's, although some of the menus have been changed to make the camera functions easier to find. It runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean.
Here you choose how much control you want over how your pictures are shot.
When the lens is shut, the S4 Zoom feels more like a normal compact camera than a phone. That lens adds some considerable bulk.
You control the zoom by twisting a barrel around the lens.
A 16-megapixel, backside illuminated CMOS sensor is inside this camera/phone.
As it's as much camera as it is phone, you get a Xenon flash, like you find on a normal compact camera.
The lens is made by Samsung.
There's a big Home button on the front.
The 2,330mAh battery is removable via a slot on the side of the phone.
The camera software has a bunch of scene modes for you to try out, including HDR, Panorama, and Night.
That's going to be hard to put in a jeans pocket.
This is a phone. Honestly.
This is also a camera. Seriously.
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