Samsung Galaxy S4 zoom SM-C101 - Specifications. Review of the smartphone Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom: depending on which side to look at Memory, memory cards

We got acquainted in sufficient detail with the design of the hybrid smartphone and camera Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom: it makes no sense to repeat the description. If you want to refresh your memories, you can read the material from the At First Sight series. A “boxed” version appeared in the editorial office, which we will test.

Let's start with the package. The Galaxy S4 Zoom is sold in a small wood-look box.

The inscription proudly states that the packaging material can be recycled without residue, and the cardboard itself is made from already recycled raw materials.

The theme of the struggle for the environment is continued by five small books - a warranty card, as well as a Quick Reference Guide (a guide to photography modes and parameters automatically set by the camera) and a Quick Guide (to working with a smartphone in general), moreover, reference books in two languages: Russian and Ukrainian. They are printed on brown recycled paper.

The box contains a miniature Charger with a USB output, a USB-Micro USB cable, a headset with three sets of interchangeable earbuds and a cleaning cloth for the screen and case.

The charger operates in the voltage range from 100 to 240 volts and delivers current up to 1 ampere at a voltage of 5 volts. The socket is located on the narrow edge of its body, so it is advisable to connect the cable before the charger is inserted into the socket. A plug with thin pins, it fits into antique "Soviet" sockets without any problems.

A headset with a remote control (three buttons) on a medium-length wire is enough to carry a smartphone in a backpack or in a jeans pocket. Included are three more pairs of nozzles of different diameters - you can choose a comfortable one. The design is vacuum, for an amateur.

The sound quality - as for a complete headset - is good: there is a lot of bass, although they lack speed and clarity, the middle is legible, the tops do not itch. The volume is sufficient, but do not forget: listening to loud music for a long time is harmful to health.

The version that went on sale outwardly differs little from the sample described earlier. The most noticeable is the battery, the capacity of which corresponds to the declared characteristics.

By the way, about the battery. 2330 mAh is enough for a day of active use. 100 frames of footage review, a few edited photos, an Instagram session, maps via Wi-Fi, email reading - and there is still about 20% left for calls.

During trial operation, the white plastic case showed its best side. With normal (in the sense - not a greenhouse, without a cover, but in a separate pocket, without keys and small change) handling, it does not get dirty or scratched.

Photo opportunities

The optical zoom works in step mode. Focal length magnification factors 1-1.2-1.4-1.6-1.8-2.2-3.1-4.2-5.6-7.9-10. At telephoto, sometimes it becomes necessary to change the frame boundaries, but this is solved by cropping in the editor - a 16 megapixel matrix provides a good margin for reasonable cropping.

The shots were taken from the same point. Left - focal length 240 mm, right - 24 mm. Pictures are shown without additional cropping.

The built-in camera control program has three main modes of operation: fully automatic, smart and manual.

Smart modes - sets of algorithms automatic installation exposure parameters and image processing. The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom has 25 such modes.

"Macro"

"Snow"

"Dawn"

"Landscape"

"Shot of Children"

"Best Frame"

"Continuous Shooting"

« best photo»

"Retouch"

"Smart Mode Offer"

"Paths of Light"

"Fireworks"

"Night"

"Sunset"

"Silhouette"

"Photo with sound"

"Eraser"

"Movement Photo"

"Animated Shot"

"Waterfall"

"Panorama"

"Saturated Tones"

"Freeze"

"Room"

"Food"

Many people have a natural question: why are they needed?

All Smart-modes can be conditionally divided into three groups: entertaining, simplifying the obtaining of any effects (for beginners) and "computational".

For example, "Animated Snapshot" is the creation of an animated GIF file in which some of the objects move against a stationary background (or vice versa). The entertainment modes include “Photo with sound”.

Waterfall, Light Paths, Macro, Silhouette, Freeze Frame, Fireworks modes give fans the opportunity to implement classic creative techniques “at the touch of a button”. By manipulating the settings manually, an experienced photographer can easily make such a shot, but this requires at least an initial photographic education.

Much more interesting "computing" Smart-modes. These include Sunset, Eraser, Night, Landscape, Dawn, Retouch, Motion Photo. It is possible to repeat the results of their application only in graphics editor, and often only on a "large" computer. But editing does not guarantee the best quality, because the camera only records JPEG files.

The idea is this: one or a series of shots are taken with certain parameters set in a certain way, and then, before saving final version, data that has not yet been subjected to lossy compression is processed.

The Sunrise, Sunset, and Landscape modes increase the saturation of blue, yellow-orange, and green/blue, respectively.

Here's how it looks on the example of "Sunset" - the left frame was taken with automatic white balance, the right one in Smart mode.

Night is a very useful mode for shooting in low light conditions. It installs enough high sensitivity and several frames are taken, which are then superimposed on each other to reduce noise.

This example also illustrates well the possibilities of an optical stabilizer. The shot was taken at the maximum focal length of the lens 240 mm and a shutter speed of 1/15 second handheld, without additional support. The object was at a considerable distance from the camera.

An excerpt from a JPEG file, previously halved in a graphics editor (50% scale), is shown. The width size is 900 pixels, to see the non-interpolated result, look at the enlarged version. The ISO value when shooting is 1600.

"Saturated tones" - one of the variations on the theme of expansion dynamic range. Works even without a tripod, although moving objects in the frame are bifurcated. The result of shooting in this mode looks very natural, without cartoon drama. If you wish, you can consider halos, but they are not at all striking. Saves from the disappearance of the bright sky, adds details to deep shadows.

On the right - a photo in the program mode, on the left - in the Smart mode "Saturated tones".

Since the Galaxy S4 Zoom has operating system and the ability to install a variety of applications, there are no filters familiar to users of compact cameras. If you want, for example, to simulate a photo taken on medium-quality film in the 50s of the last century, then you will need a third-party program. This - at first glance - inconvenience actually opens up very wide horizons for creative experiments.

The mode that the developers called manual actually includes a classic software machine - setting the shutter speed and aperture based on information about the scene illumination and the sensitivity and exposure compensation set by the photographer, as well as a real manual mode and the "Master of Colors" mode with a number of settings for the nature of the image.

"Color Wizard", although this does not follow from the name, in addition to toning the image with one of the selected colors (imitation of shooting through a color filter), allows you to change a number of parameters for internal data processing.

Saturation, the degree of sharpening (and even a slight blur effect is obtained in the negative zone) and contrast are adjusted.

However, you can change the nature of processing for other manual modes - this is done through the on-screen menu. Naturally, the adjustments will not work in Smart modes.

The "Camera" program offers three options for measuring illumination - spot, center-weighted and matrix.

Both single frame shooting and continuous shooting are available, as well as exposure bracketing (it’s a pity that you can’t change the bracketing parameters through the menu, but for special types of shooting you can download additional applications from Play Store).

Let's move on to evaluating the results. Files from the camera are available for download and self-study.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom has a good white balance implementation. In addition to automatic detection, there are five presets (sunny, cloudy, incandescent and two fluorescent lamps), as well as the ability to enter a color temperature in degrees Kelvin.

When shooting in the studio, the still life was illuminated by incandescent lamps. In automatic mode, the camera tried to make the image neutral (fortunately, it did not overdo it), and with the “incandescent lamp” preset, it conveyed colors very realistically.

During the day in nature and with enough light in the room, the photomodule produces files suitable for both screen viewing and printing.

In poor lighting conditions, the automation does not set the shutter speed longer than 1 second, so you should switch to manual mode, where maximum value shutter speed - 16 seconds.

The noise reduction system works quite aggressively. Under normal lighting, the ISO operating range is up to 800 inclusive, 1600 should be set only if the plot is really worthy of being captured or small details can be neglected in the scene, especially in low-contrast textures.

The dynamic range noticeably narrows with increasing sensitivity, and already with ISO 400. At the same time, it is quite wide (especially if you use the "Saturated Tones" Smart mode) and even at ISO 1600 is acceptable.

Without interpolation, the matrix gives an image that can theoretically be printed on a 30x40 cm format. Of course, you should not do this. But 13x18 cm, subject to reasonable framing, looks great in a home photo album.

Video capabilities

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom records Full HD video at up to 30 fps. Since the smartphone is equipped with a motorized zoom lens, you can change the focal length while shooting.

Zooming is smooth, especially if you use not the control wheel, but the on-screen buttons. Focusing is sometimes delayed, but in general, the speed and accuracy are within the normal range.

You can take photos while shooting video, the buffer is limited to six frames per clip, the image size is 2304 x 1728 (4 megapixels).

The Camera program can also shoot at 120 fps, while the image size is reduced to 768x512 pixels. Playing at normal speed results in "time slowing down". You can choose from coefficients from 2 to 8 (the latter is implemented with interpolation, the reduced frame rate in the finished video is noticeable).

As with photos, the Galaxy S4 Zoom allows you to install third-party video capture apps.

Impression

The presence of an optical zoom immediately distinguishes the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom from the slender ranks of numerous competitors. No other smartphone on the market allows you to take shots like the S4 Zoom.

A standard tripod socket makes it easy to take pictures at slow shutter speeds - for mounting on a tripod, competitors require special covers or other devices that are practically not represented on the Ukrainian market.

Super AMOLED screen with a diagonal of 4.3″ and an image size of 540 × 960 pixels (256 ppi) is the envy of owners of both compact and professional cameras - it is best installed only in the Samsung Galaxy Camera and NX. The in-camera editing capabilities of every other camera on the market are laughable compared to Android cameras.

All of the above clearly characterizes the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom. If you need a smartphone with the widest photo / video capabilities, then there are no alternatives on the Ukrainian market yet.

However, the advantages of the device result in its main drawback: dimensions. It's only slightly larger than a typical compact camera (due to the screen), but smartphone owners are already accustomed to thin bodies, and the protruding lens may confuse some potential buyers.

Per
+ Android 4.2 allows you to install third party apps
+ 10x optical zoom with 24mm wide
+ 16 megapixel sensor for both cropping and printing

Against
- At ISO above 800, artifacts become noticeable even when reducing
— The battery capacity is not enough for intensive use of communication, entertainment and photo / video functions at the same time
- Not everyone will like the design

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom is new smartphone with 10x optical zoom and 16 MP camera. At the moment, this is the most powerful camera phone on the market among the mass models of major manufacturers. In fact, the Galaxy S4 Zoom is more compact and light version Galaxy Camera, which can make calls and has additional features like an infrared port to control home electronics. What is important, the novelty is cheaper than its predecessor. Let's see how the Koreans managed to combine a camera and a phone in one device. Hi-Tech.Mail.Ru readers can be the first in the world to learn about the new Samsung product simultaneously with the global announcement.

Now outlined new stage camera phone battles. The fact is that consumers want versatility - to carry only a smartphone with them and at the same time get pictures of a quality comparable to “soap dishes”. Gradually, this becomes a reality as technology advances. Now the standard for a modern flagship is 13 megapixels. HTC decided to sacrifice megapixels (they are in the model HTC One only four) for the sake of improving night shooting, while Nokia, on the contrary, is preparing a new multi-pixel smartphone (41 megapixels, as in the 808 model). In general, everyone is trying to offer the consumer their own solution.

Samsung also decided not to limit itself to standard 8 and 13 megapixel modules (by the way, with the highest quality shooting on a par with Apple), but also brings to market the first smartphone with a powerful optical zoom. This is the Galaxy S4 Zoom, which is a cross between the Galaxy Camera and the Galaxy S4 Mini. The model is equipped with a 16 megapixel camera, 10x optical zoom and all the software attributes of Samsung cameras. This novelty has no equal in terms of the set of features, but, as you can see, it was not possible to completely deceive the limitations of modern technologies - the device is quite massive.

In terms of capabilities, the Galaxy S4 Zoom is a simplified alternative to the Galaxy S4 Mini (less powerful processor, no Dual-SIM / LTE, etc.) with a more capacious battery, plus a simplified Galaxy Camera module (10x zoom instead of 21x). Interestingly, the model turned out to be relatively inexpensive.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom will appear in Russia in July for 19,990 rubles at the start. The price is exactly the same as on the Galaxy S4 Mini.

Network: GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, HSDPA
Operating system: Android 4.2.2, Nature UX interface
Processor: Dual-core Samsung Exynos 4210 @ 1.5 GHz
Display: 4.3" qHD sAMOLED (960x540)
Camera: 16 MP, 10X optical zoom, flash, 1080p video recording, 1.9 MP front camera
Memory: 8 GB, 1.5 GB RAM, microSD card support (up to 64 GB)
Communications: Wi-Fi 802.11 a / b / g / n, Bluetooth 4.0, infrared, microUSB 2.0, NFC
Other: S Voice, S Translator, Samsung WatchON, Samsung Hub, Albus Story
Battery: 2330 mAh, removable
Dimensions, weight: 125.5 x 63.5 x 15.4 mm, 208 g

Price in Russia: 19,990 rubles, sales start in July

Design, ergonomics

Externally, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom resembles all the latest smartphones from the company (except for the Galaxy Active) - glossy plastic with a pattern texture, and a metal-like insert on the end. In form, the new smartphone is most similar to the Galaxy Camera, only in a smaller form due to the smaller screen. Let me remind you that the Galaxy Camera is made in a different design - matte plastic, rubberized grip and a dark insert - this design seems to me more successful. Galaxy S4 Zoom decided to simplify as a more affordable product, and at the same time emphasize its belonging to smartphones.

The starting price of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom is 20% lower than the starting price of the Galaxy Camera.

The debate about Samsung's glossy plastic has been going on for a long time. On the one hand, it looks cheap and is not very pleasant to the touch. On the other hand, it is more maintainable and less thermally conductive. In general, the moment is ambiguous. The Galaxy S4 Zoom does not lie in the best way in the hand, due to the massiveness of the body, in particular, its large thickness. At the same time, it should be noted that the new product is significantly smaller and slightly lighter than the Galaxy Camera, there is progress.

The novelty is bulky. The minimum thickness is more than 15 mm, the weight is more than 200 g. For a smartphone, this is a bit too much. Holding the Galaxy S4 Zoom in your hand is hindered by the protrusion of the grip and the lens. In the area of the latter, the thickness is almost one and a half times greater, the presence of an optical zoom affects. And when shooting, the lens extends. Alas, but so far technology does not allow to implement it otherwise. As a result, outwardly, the new Samsung looks like a "soap box" and not like a smartphone.

Compared to the Galaxy Camera, the thickness of the Galaxy S 4 Zoom has been reduced by more than a third.

The SIM card slot is located under the battery cover (by the way, it is removable, so you can take a spare with you). key Galaxy difference S4 Zoom from Galaxy Camera is that the former can make calls. Thus, it is a full-fledged smartphone. As well as the player, remote control, camera and generally a universal gadget - this is the main advantage of the Galaxy S4 Zoom.

Comparison with Samsung Galaxy S4:

Comparison with Samsung Galaxy Camera:

Comparison with Nokia 808 PureView:

Hardware stuffing

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom is based on the Samsung Exynos 4210 dual-core processor with a frequency of 1.5 GHz, Mali-400 MP graphics.

One of the significant disadvantages of the Galaxy Camera is a low-powered battery of only 1650 mAh. The Koreans have corrected this shortcoming in the Galaxy S4 Zoom, the model has a 2330 mAh battery. As a result, the operating time of the device is more than a day, the video is played for more than 9 hours. For comparison, the Galaxy Camera had the same video played for less than 5 hours.

Compared to the Galaxy Camera, the battery life has almost doubled.

In power saving mode:

Communication is in full order. There are modules Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, NFC and GPS. Support for LTE in the version for Russia is missing. As noted, there is an infrared port. All in all, standard set for the middle class. The reception quality is also at the usual good level for Samsung. But the speaker is not of the highest quality, it wheezes noticeably at maximum volume.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom has 8 GB of internal memory, of which about 5 GB is available to the user. For expansion, there is a microSD slot with support for cards up to 64 GB. For most users this will be enough. Volume random access memory is 1.5 GB, which is typical for mid-range Samsung models.

A detailed commentary on the screen quality was given by our display expert Mikhail Kuznetsov:

The Samsung GALAXY S 4 Zoom screen is a familiar 4.3-inch AMOLED panel with qHD (960x540) resolution and 256 ppi pixel density. Yes, these numbers may not be impressive anymore against the backdrop of modern madness with 440 ppi and above. However, the image quality is not affected much, and except for the smallest details, it is not too noticeable.

Do not be afraid of OLED technology - in this case, Samsung, as well as on other GALAXY models, prudently gave the opportunity to choose a color profile to your liking. There is also a typical AMOLED setting with "screaming" saturated colors, and there are also "calm" profiles.

The maximum measured brightness was 337 cd/m2 in the "Standard" profile and about 295 cd/m2 in the "Movie" profile (provided that "Adaptive brightness control" in the display settings is turned off). The headroom is quite high, this 4.3-inch panel is brighter than the screens of the GALAXY S3 or S4, which is a nice bonus in exchange for a lower resolution. At the same time, the image begins to "wash out" only under very bright light - in all other cases it is amazingly deep, thanks to the stunning native contrast ratio of the OLED display. Of course, some of the light is reflected off the screen, reducing contrast, but the anti-glare properties are effective enough to hide these losses as much as possible. The viewing angles are very wide, and the colors shift slightly.

The gamma setting pleased us with stability, the average value in all screen modes is very close to the target 2.22. The brightness of all midtones is close to optimal, and the readability of bright and dark details is very good.

Accordingly, the DeltaE color deviation also drops from 12 to 6 units and lower on average, which can already be called a very decent quality of the factory settings. Profiles "Professional Photography" and "Film" are really successful in this respect.

Color gamut is another controversial area of AMOLED, by default it is extremely wide and far exceeds the sRGB standard. On the one hand, this allows the colors to look more saturated, but at the same time, not so natural. The Dynamic, Standard, and oddly enough, Professional Photo profiles have a wide coverage that distorts colors in photos or videos. It is unlikely that photographers who use Adobe RGB relatively rarely will be happy with this situation. As a result, the “Film” profile turned out to be the most adequate again - the secondary colors here are very close to sRGB, and the primary ones are not so strongly oversaturated. The average DeltaE here is 4.48 points, a good result for a supposedly "wrong" AMOLED screen. Moreover, the brightness of the colors is consistent with each other, which makes the image in the Movie profile the most suitable for photos and videos to get natural colors.

In general, the Samsung GALAXY S4 Zoom screen turned out to be quite good. Clarity can cause the main complaints here - the PenTile matrix does not have the highest ppi, although, in my opinion, this has little effect on everyday use. The issue of color reproduction and other "horrors of AMOLED" is completely solved by switching color profiles. In general, in terms of contrast, few can argue with AMOLED, so I think most users will like the screen. Although someone may find LCD screens more familiar.

Camera

This is the most important thing in the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom, which makes the model stand out from other smartphones. Optical zoom allows you to change the focal length of the lens optically, while digital zoom does it programmatically. In the second case, the increase noticeably spoils the picture, but in the first case it does not. Simply put, you can magnify an object in a frame ten times without losing quality. Agree, the opportunity is at least interesting. In practice, this allows you to naturally photograph animals, people, and distant details. Pleases in Galaxy Zoom and the resolution of the image - as in the Galaxy Camera, there is 16 megapixels, which gives good detail.

I will especially note the software part, here Samsung offers all the features of the Galaxy Camera in a smartphone, which is very interesting. The most important thing is the abundance of shooting modes, this is an important point for inexperienced users (in fact, they will be the majority among Galaxy S4 Zoom buyers). A total of 26 modes are available:

There is also a manual shooting mode with a change in exposure, ISO (by the way, up to 3200), etc. Of course, the automatic mode has not gone away for the most undemanding users (more than half of them, according to statistics). Moreover, hints are available in Russian. The interface is already familiar, proprietary Samsung, it is quite convenient and functional, contains many settings.

By default, the Galaxy S4 Zoom uses 16:9 (12 MP) mode, here are examples of shooting in this mode:

Optical zoom operation:

Macro is especially good - here are a few examples in maximum quality (16 MP), photos clickable to the original:

When you look at these pictures, you do not immediately understand that they were taken on a smartphone, and some will not believe you.

For comparison with the Nokia 808 PureView, I used the 4:3 (16 MP) mode:

Left Nokia 808 PureView / Right Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom

As you can see, in terms of smartphones, the Galaxy S4 Zoom is doing great. And this is on the first firmware, in subsequent firmware, the quality of the shooting will be further improved. And thanks to the presence of an optical zoom, the model is completely unique. But if we compare it with traditional cameras, then everything is not so rosy here, you should not expect the level of full-fledged cameras from a smartphone, our photo expert Alexander Babulin comments:

In terms of photographic capabilities, this smartphone is, in fact, a smaller copy of the Samsung Galaxy Camera, a kind of pocket version with an optical zoom cropped slightly more than twice (4.3-43 mm versus 4.1-86.1 mm with very similar characteristics luminosity). On the one hand, this is a plus - the Galaxy Camera was distinguished by a curious and convenient control system through touch screen. On the other hand, it is rather a minus, because the photographic capabilities of this module are more than limited compared to traditional cameras.

A small matrix does not allow you to get good quality pictures at high ISOs - very strong chromatic noise pops up. And you will have to “lift up” the sensitivity - the lens does not have a high aperture ratio, at the long end you will have to use aperture 6.3, which will lead to a small amount of light entering the matrix. However, the very presence of optical zoom already favorably distinguishes the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom camera - not only due to the ability to shoot relatively distant objects close-up, but also due to the ability to get the correct frame geometry when shooting, for example, portraits. The Galaxy S4 Zoom also allows you to get atypically good background blur for smartphones.

Detailing for a smartphone is not bad, but this is the level of entry-level compact cameras, nothing more. The color reproduction is quite natural, the white balance is measured normally. The lens makes it possible to provide a good sharpness of the object in the focus area, and noticeably "soaps" along the edges of the frame. In general, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom camera module does not seem revolutionary to me - it is good for modern smartphones, most of which lack optical intelligence, but is inferior to the vast majority of specialized cameras.

In the near future, a large comparative test of cameras and smartphones will be published on Hi-Tech.Mail.Ru. Stay tuned!

Software, interface

Software Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom is typical for smartphones of this brand -here latest version Android 4.2.2 OS and TouchWiz Nature UX proprietary interface. The difference between the models is only in the feature set. In particular, the novelty does not have such features of more expensive devices as multi-window mode, smart scrolling, gesture control, etc.

Most of the functions of TouchWiz are placed in the extended submenu of the notification center - 10 icons. From here, you can activate Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, and more. The settings menu is divided into four horizontal tabs. The simple screen display mode has not gone anywhere if you do not need desktops.

There is S Translator, which provides on-the-fly text translation, reading both voice and text (and capable of translating text into voice and vice versa). There is a recognition function directly from the camera. This is useful in foreign countries: just point the camera to find out the meaning of an unfamiliar word. The mobile assistant provides instant translation of words, letters, messages and chats, and also supports voice input.

With Group Play, you can share music, photos, and games without active Wi-Fi or cellular networks; communication is supported by the smartphone itself without outside help. Another interesting feature is the voice assistant S Voice. This is especially useful in car mode: you can set a meeting, make a reminder, find out the weather, turn on the player, navigation, etc. You can even select a caller from the phone book with your voice, dictate a message and send. The application supports the Russian language, but if everything is fine with recognition, then electronic speech in Russian leaves much to be desired.

The Galaxy S4 Zoom has an infrared port on the top of the case and the WatchON app to control the equipment. Not only Samsung devices are supported, but also other brands. It's all working properly. But with one caveat - Russia is not supported by the TV program, which means that the functionality of WatchON for our country is limited only by the remote control. By the way, unlike the Galaxy S4, there is no pre-installed Flipboard. The latter also does not have the support of Russia, because of which, apparently, they decided to abandon it in the supply of the original software.

But of the smart functions, only one remained - intellectual expectation. This is when the screen is on while you are looking at it. Turn, pause and scroll from the Galaxy S4, unfortunately, is not here. Design aside, TouchWiz is by far the best third-party interface for Android.

Opinion Hi-Tech.Mail.Ru

Our study shows that less than half of smartphone owners use camera settings, and only 17% of users potentially need optical zoom when the smartphone body is enlarged. The Galaxy S4 Zoom model is technologically interesting, but now the mass consumer is quite satisfied with traditional cameras.

Samsung's new product is aimed at a niche of users who want the versatility and quality of a camera in a smartphone at any cost. Moreover, the main compromise here is in size / weight, but not in price - the Galaxy S4 Zoom is cheaper than a bunch of similar separate devices, and its price is 20% lower than the initial price of the Galaxy Camera. At the same time, the shooting quality is ambiguous - it is higher than that of any smartphones, but lower than that of most cameras - in general, the situation with the Galaxy Camera is repeated.

As a versatile gadget, the Galaxy S4 Zoom is pretty good. In one device you get a full-fledged smartphone, good camera and many additional functions (player, remote control, etc.). The only question is how much you are willing to sacrifice the compactness of a smartphone for this and how much you need an increase in camera quality compared to conventional smartphones. What is important, in this case, the experiments cost adequate money. The recommended price of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom at the start is 19,990 rubles, which is one third cheaper than modern flagships. So many will be able to try the new Korean camera phone.

As for competitors, they do not exist now and will definitely not be in the near future. Many see an alternative in the 41-megapixel Nokia 808 PureView (more precisely, in the future Windows phone smartphone based on it), but this is not the case - the main feature of the Galaxy S4 Zoom is optical zoom, which Nokia does not have. Accordingly, the devices are too different to be compared. Nevertheless, you could evaluate examples of shots from both of these models in this review.

In the bottom line, we have a massive (especially in terms of thickness and weight) smartphone with average characteristics, a simple design, but functional, relatively affordable and with an excellent camera. If you are looking for a versatile gadget and you need high-quality shooting, I recommend taking a closer look at this new product. The solution is unique and has no analogues at the moment, and therefore it can be very interesting for its audience. But be prepared to compromise.

@dryab, ryabinin(at)corp.mail.ru

Starting with the third generation of the Galaxy S line, the flagship smartphone has satellites. The first experience was the release of the Galaxy S3 Mini, this experience was taken into account and continued. This year, almost immediately after the release of the Samsung Galaxy S4, four more smartphones were introduced. One of them stands out noticeably against the background of its brothers, this is the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom. In fact, it has become an evolution of the Galaxy Camera.
The release of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom itself was not a discovery, in 2013 there is a general trend of increased attention to the camera used in smartphones. With the release of new Samsung flagships, Sony, LG, cameras with a resolution of 13 megapixels have become an unspoken standard. Other manufacturers have picked up on this as well. However, a simple race for the number of pixels cannot drastically change the quality of the resulting images, and optics is no less important.

Reducing the thickness not only negatively affects the battery capacity, but also does not allow you to install a high-quality optical system. Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom with 16 MP camera, 10x optical zoom and flash was introduced on June 12th. It was followed by the Nokia Lumia 1020, a smartphone with a 41 MP camera and an optical image stabilization system. From day to day, another bright premiere will take place - this is the Oppo N1, and after them the new items from Sony and LG. The second half of this year promises to be interesting and intriguing. So let's get started.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom Availability

At the time of testing, the average cost of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom, according to Yandex.Market, is 17,014 rubles. It is not possible to compare its cost and select competitors at the moment. The nearest serious competitor will be presented on August 31 in the face of Oppo N1. We can assume that the price comparison will not be in favor of Samsung.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom

Supplied Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom in a compact box, stylized wood. It is made using recycled raw materials. The same materials are used in the manual, warranty, and a quick guide to photography modes.

Unfortunately, the camera phone came to our editorial office not in a complete set, so we will limit ourselves to a dry listing. Together with the device, the buyer receives a charger, a USB-micro USB cable and a headset with interchangeable earbuds.

Appearance Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom

Externally, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom has retained the features of the flagship S4: it is a glossy plastic with a textured pattern and a metal-like bezel. At the same time, the heritage of the Galaxy Camera is also recognized, but unlike it, they began to emphasize the features of the smartphone more.

Reduced dimensions and weight, but the body remained massive. It is unusually bulky, the thickness in the thinnest part of the case is 15 mm, and the weight is more than 200 grams.

Unlike the traditional performance back cover, a protruding lens and a grip protrusion appeared here. In these areas, the thickness doubles. It is because of them that holding a smartphone during a conversation is not very comfortable.

In fact, the entire back side is a "soap box", it's hard to guess that the phone is hidden on the back side.

Unlike the Galaxy Camera, the controls of the camera unit have changed, now the rotary ring around the lens is used for control. It can be used to zoom in as well as trigger the camera. There is a point worth mentioning: after unlocking, accidentally turning this ring leads to the camera launch window, which interferes with applications.

A positive constructive solution was the presence protective glass at the eye of the camera, thanks to this, dust will not accumulate.

Apart from the shutter button next to the grip block, all the controls typical of smartphones have been preserved. This is a mechanical Home button on the bottom, paired with touch Menu and Back. As well as the power button and volume rocker on the right.

On the left side is a micro SD card slot with a protective cover. As well as a standard tripod groove, a great addition.

It is easy to guess that the cover of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom is non-removable. Access to the battery and the SIM card slot is opened by a flap on the bottom.

During testing, the white plastic case proved to be excellent. It doesn't get dirty or scratched. There is no backlash and creaking of parts, everything is assembled soundly.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom Display

A 4.3-inch AMOLED display with qHD (256 ppi) resolution is used. Against the backdrop of the craze for Full HD and Retina, these numbers do not look very impressive, but the image quality cannot be called low, pixelation is noticeable only upon close examination (watching movies and a number of fonts).

We have already encountered this display before, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom retained all the pros and cons of this solution. The advantages are high contrast and color reproduction. The latter can be customized using preset profiles, getting rid of, for example, oversaturated and bright colors. The disadvantages of this matrix is the maximum level of backlight brightness, here it is 315 cd / m², as a result, in direct sunlight, the image will be difficult to make out.

Inside the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom

Despite belonging to the flagship, the manufacturer did not use a powerful filling. The already aging Exynos 4212 chip with two Cortex A91.5 GHz cores paired with Mali-400MP4 400 MHz graphics has been selected. Available 1.5 GB of RAM. Brakes during the operation of applications are not observed.

Lags are observed in the camera application, it does not respond very quickly to user actions, jerks are periodically noticeable during operation. The TouchWiz interface, which is to be expected from Samsung, works without delay or lag for the most part, except for demanding games. But for productivity applications, it is quite enough. The only exception was the camera utility, which takes a long time to load and is very reluctant to respond to user actions, with jerks.

Connectivity Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom

Bluetooth 4.0 (LE) - the average file transfer rate on this protocol is at the level of 12 Mbps. Works stably.
USB - unfortunately gone here USB mode Mass Storage, it was convenient and easy to transfer files to a PC using this mode.
Wi-Fi - 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac. In general, the functionality for working with wireless networks has remained unchanged, only the configuration wizard has appeared.
Wi-Fi Direct - In the future, this standard may force Bluetooth out of the market. After searching for a phone that supports this technology on the network, it becomes possible to view and transfer files from another device.
NFC - allows you to interact with applications on different devices.
S Beam is a combination of NFC and Wi-Fi Direct. The benefits are clear when transferring large files.
Infrared – The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom can be used as a universal remote. You can control your home appliances with your smartphone, very convenient.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom camera

It uses a 16 megapixel BSI CMOS sensor with 10x optical zoom and xenon flash. Many "soap dishes" can envy such a filling. This sensor is not the best, but it clearly stands out against the background of those used in smartphones with its dimensions - 0.285 cm².

Distinctive feature of Samsung The Galaxy S4 Zoom is exactly Zoom, no wonder it's in the name. The engineers didn't go the way of Nokia, increasing resolutions for subsequent summation of values, but chose a zoom from 24 to 240 mm. As a result, the possibility of not only increasing without loss of quality, but also macro photography has opened up.

Another feature is a xenon flash, unlike common LED solutions for smartphones, it compares favorably. All this functionality is used to the full with the help of software Samsung. We have already encountered and considered the main elements when testing the flagship. Here, a number of modes and functions have been added to this.

Smart modes are available to the user: "Macro", "Snow", "Dawn", "Landscape", "Shot of Children", "Best Frame", "Continuous Shooting", "Best Photo", "Retouch", "Smart Mode Suggestion" , Light Paths, Fireworks, Night, Sunset, Silhouette, Photo with Sound, Eraser, Motion Photo, Motion Picture, Waterfall, Panorama , Deep Tones, Freeze Frame, Room, Food.

The whole set can be divided into modes for obtaining effects, entertaining and technically complex. There will be something for a photography lover to do, even a simple enumeration of all the possibilities can take more than one exciting hour.

At the same time, people who at least understand photography are not forgotten, a manual mode is available with aperture, shutter speed and sensitivity settings. A pleasant discovery was the presence of work with white balance. Both automatic detections and presets and color temperature input are available.

A fairly aggressive noise reduction system works. ISO operating range up to 800, expandable up to 1600. Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom images can be printed on 30 x 40 cm paper without interpolation, 13 x 18 cm for a home album will look great when cropped.

The functionality for recording Full HD video at up to 30 fps is not forgotten. Thanks to the zoom lens, you can change the focal length right during shooting.

Soft Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom

Operating room is used Google system Android 4.2.2 with TouchWiz shell. The keyboard has improved by an order of magnitude: a new word prediction algorithm, T9 mode. Typing just got easier. Briefly talk about the main features of the new smartphone:

SMS and E-Mail - profile icons appeared in the message list. Understanding a large volume of messages has become easier. There was a function of sending according to the schedule, you can, for example, schedule important congratulations or messages without fear of oversleeping or forgetting.

Calendar - stickers and icons have appeared, the number of fields and the display of the calendar have increased.

StoryAlbum - the application allows you to create a thematic album in a couple of clicks. You can select the necessary photos, at the output they will be arranged in the form of pages. If desired, such albums can even be printed as a classic album.

And, of course, there is a record of calories eaten. Additionally, you can purchase sensors - scales, a bracelet, a glucometer and a tonometer.

Samsung Hub is an analogue of Google Play. You can download music, videos and books. Usefulness is questionable.

Battery Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom

Installed battery with a capacity of 2330 mAh. The battery is removable, if active shooting is planned, you can purchase an additional one. In the Antutu battery test, the device scores 460 points.

The battery life in different modes is:

Antutu Benchmark Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom

In Antutu Benchmark, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom scores 11,202 points.

Vellamo Benchmark Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom

Good results were obtained in the Vellamo Benchmark, confirming that there were no problems with content processing and web surfing. The smartphone copes well with modern games, in our tests we do not consider casual birds and pigs, only hardcore in the form of Real Racing, GTA 3. No problems were found with them, there are no freezes or lags.

There are no problems when watching high-quality video, it coped with all the test videos perfectly. However, I think that it would be better to pre-convert the movie to HD or qHD resolution to save free space on your smartphone.

Video review Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom

Summing up Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom arouses interest and curiosity during testing. However, non-traditional forms are not very conducive to everyday use, it will take time to get used to the body of the camera phone. But all this is reflected mainly when making calls, there is no discomfort when using the Google Android functionality.

Despite belonging to the flagship family, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom received truncated functionality, there are no a number of successful features of the older smartphone. In spirit and content, it turned out to be closer to the S4 Galaxy Mini, not counting, of course, the camera, which is the principal advantage of this device.
Pros - camera, high image quality, zoom lens, xenon flash, battery life, workmanship.
Cons - filling (processor), cost, large mass.

The result of the test is the reward "Hit..

The control processor is a dual-core Exynos 4210 chip with clock frequency 1.5 GHz, and the Mali-400 MP processor is responsible for graphics processing.

The main feature of the entire Galaxy S4 Zoom was, of course, a zoom lens. No modern smartphone can boast of a tenfold optical zoom. In a sense, the Galaxy S4 Zoom is still out of competition. Zooming and focusing are quite fast and accurate. However, the lens does not have a high aperture ratio. At focal lengths of 24-240 mm, the aperture changes from F3.1 to F6.3. Samsung Galaxy Camera compares favorably with twice the zoom ratio and brighter optics.

All shooting modes, in fact, migrated here from the Galaxy Camera. Manual mode allows you to set the shutter speed, aperture, white balance, metering method and ISO. Continuous shooting is available at 4 frames per second. There is also a function for gluing HDR images, shooting panoramas, a macro mode, a gif-animation tool, as well as a double-sided snapshot function using the main and front cameras.

Another disadvantage of the camera is the long startup time. Taking into account the extension of the lens, it takes about three seconds to turn on, which is quite a lot even by the standards of Android smartphones. As already mentioned, you can launch the camera using the application icon on the desktop or using the lens ring. However, the PV module cannot be quickly activated from standby mode.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom is provided with 8 gigabytes of internal memory. This is quite small by modern standards, and given that only 5 GB is available to the user. A 16 GB version is also on sale. However, the cheapest way out is to buy a more capacious microSD card - the device supports media up to 64 gigabytes.

Moreover, it supports Wi-Fi 802.11 a / b / g / n, as befits a self-respecting smartphone. At the same time, no dancing with a tambourine is required to transfer files. You can send pictures to Facebook or Instagram directly - however, for this you need to install the appropriate applications. Naturally, you can install not only the mentioned clients, but also Vkontakte, Flickr, Tumblr - whatever you want. Or rather, everything that is compatible with Android 4.2.

Test shots, videos, battery life

You should not expect miracles from the small matrix of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom. Compact cameras costing $200-$300 with the same sensor size can take pictures much better. The lens, although it allows 10x zoom, is too small at the long end, and using high ISO values is fraught with a strong deterioration in image quality. It remains only to rely on the manual mode for setting the shutter speed and a tripod. Many shots look frankly blurry, with a noticeable decrease in sharpness at the edges of the frame. In addition, during testing, metering and white balance errors appeared. In general, it is not necessary to talk about the Galaxy S4 Zoom as a worthy replacement for a compact camera.