Is It A Phone? Is It A Camera? Nah! It’s The Samsung Galaxy K Zoom!


Samsung seems to have a very different approach to its camera-centric phones. In the past, we have seen their implementation of the “phone camera” in the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom. With the launch of the Galaxy S5, the company had to follow up the S4 Zoom with something, and that thing is the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom, the newest camera-centric phone from Samsung. Let us quickly delve in to what the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom has on offer. Before we start, I should add that while the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom has design cues from the Galaxy S5, Samsung has placed it in an entirely new category. Wonder why?!

The Camera

The Samsung Galaxy K Zoom would be bought by most people for its camera. If phone functions is what you were looking for, the mobile giant already has a better flagship, the Galaxy S5. But for someone on the lookout for serious camera features and that all-important optical zoom in a package which also includes a phone, the Galaxy K Zoom is the one to go for. The device features a 20.7 megapixel sensor for still images.

The Samsung Galaxy K Zoom features 10x optical zoom

It can also do full HD videos at 60 fps. The highlight is, of course, the ability to optically zoom in to your subject. The nine-element retractable lens gives it 10x optical zoom capability. This enables the phone to shine in an area that is unmatched by most of its competitors – even the mighty Nokia Lumia 1020. With this being a very heavily camera centric device, you will also spot a bunch of slightly advanced features including something known as the Pro Suggest, which will suggest optimal settings based on real time data from surroundings. It also has a pro user friendly manual mode where you can tinker around and experiment. Samsung even has an advanced selfie mode which takes the concept of a selfie to new heights. Should you prefer low resolution selfies and like Skype chatting, there is a front 2 megapixel camera thrown in as well.

Display/Hardware

If you forget about the camera bit and concentrate on other areas of the device, you will realize that the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom is pretty much a mid-range Android device with decent hardware. It is powered by Samsung’s own Exynos 5260 chipset – famous for being used on the Galaxy Note 3 Neo. This is a Hexa Core chipset with something known as HMP that basically lets the chip use all the six cores together while executing a processor-intensive task. My experience with this chip has been decent.

From the front, the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom looks like yet another Samsung phone

You can find out more about that in my review of the Galaxy Note 3 Neo, which I have been delaying for a while now. The Samsung Galaxy K Zoom has 2 GB of RAM and 8 GB of internal storage capacity. You will require a micro SD card to expand it further. The display on the device is a 4.8 inch Super AMOLED panel with a resolution of 1280*720 pixels – which is decent. There is a 2430 mAH battery under the hood that will power the device for quite some time.

Software

The Samsung Galaxy K Zoom runs Android 4.4 at launch – which is awesome. It also features the updated TouchWiz UI that is also seen on the new Galaxy S5. Apart from new additions to Samsung’s S Health and other applications, this phone also features a bunch of camera centric software enhancements.

Connectivity

On the connectivity front, pretty much everything is covered as far as the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom. This phone features full support for LTE and 3G although we are unsure at this time if Samsung would knowingly disable LTE support. Then there is the usual stuff: Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n 2.4+5GHz, HT40, Bluetooth®: 4.0 BLE, USB: USB 2.0, NFC and A-GPS + GLONASS.

Pricing/ Availability

The Samsung Galaxy K Zoom will be launched in select Asian and European markets starting May 2014. The company hasn’t revealed an expected pricing.

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