The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom release date has formally pegged as a somewhat vague ‘summer 2013’, but that isn’t stopping a number of retailers letting you register interest in the camera heavy smartphone right now.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom marries an Android 4.2-based smartphone with a 16-megapixel camera that uses a 10x zoom lens.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom marries an Android 4.2-based smartphone with a 16-megapixel camera that uses a 10x zoom lens.
(Credit: Samsung)
Samsung's S4 Galaxy Zoom -- which combines an Android smartphone with a 16-megapixel camera and 10x zoom lens -- is real.
The model isn't likely to appeal to the mainstream smartphone buyer. But in an Android marketcrowded with options, a niche that caters to a particular subset can be a reasonable approach -- especially if that subset is as passionate, enthusiastic, and willing to part with money as photographers often are.
The Korean electronics giant announced the new smartphone Wednesday, the latest in a series of S4-branded phones that began with the Galaxy S4 flagship model, continued with the smaller, cheaper Galaxy S4 Mini, then the rugged Galaxy S4 Active.
Samsung's Galaxy S4 Zoom, the point-and-shoot smartphone
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The company had dipped its toes in the Android camera waters last year with the $550 Samsung Galaxy Camera, which has an Android interface, a 4.8-inch touch screen, a 21x zoom lens, and mobile-network connectivity. Though its camera is better than what's in the vast majority of smartphones, it's not a real smartphone, even though the full potential of photo and video sharing requires customers to pay for a new monthly data plan.
The Galaxy S4 Zoom is a real smartphone, though -- something to go up against Nokia's 808 Pureview and, more realistically, the Windows Phone-based but still officially only rumoredNokia EOS.
