Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom Review

Immersion; that’s what I needed to fully understand the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom. I used it in school, in a birthday party, in a theme park & in my everyday life, and there & then I understood that this device isn’t for everyone, but it is a wonderful device to specific people. Read on our full review to find out if this is the gadget for you.

samsung galaxy s4 zoom

Design & Construction

Part phone, part camera; Phamera.

When Samsung announced the Galaxy Note, we can’t quite understand why they would do it. The Korean company seems like they want to experiment with several form factors, and that experimentation is obvious here again with the Galaxy S4 Zoom. ‘Phablets’ weren’t a thing years ago, and it looks as if Samsung wants to make another Galaxy hybrid. I’m calling it a ‘Phamera’.

This is going to be one of my longest “Design & Construction” pieces as this new form factor really is worth all the words.

samsung galaxy s4 zoom

The moment my friends & family (who are average consumers) saw the S4 Zoom, they were really impressed. They took it in their hands and they exclaimed their love for this ‘genius’ form factor. After which, they said that it was all they ever needed.

samsung galaxy s4 zoom

On the flip side, my much geekier friends & those engaged in photography were slightly turned off. “What is that thing?” was one of the things said in disgust. When I told them that it takes good photos and is a phone, they just simply said they didn’t want it.

“Photographers & geeks don’t like the ‘phamera’, but average consumers do.”

samsung galaxy s4 zoom

For the gripes & issues that I’ve had with it, they were mostly major irritations. One, you can’t rest the phone flat on a surface. Two, it won’t stand horizontally; it just falls to it back most of the time. Third, safe for holding it to take a call (which looks weird too), there is no way to hold the phone comfortably.

samsung galaxy s4 zoom

Over to the left is the micro SD card slot & a place for accessories and the tripod. On the right are the volume controls, the power button and the two-stage camera shutter key. On the bottom of the device, you’ll find the place for the micro USB port, the microphone and the flap that opens to reveal the battery & the micro SIM slot, while on top you’ll find the 3.5 audio jack, an IR blaster and the secondary microphone.

All-in-all, the design of the device is both hit & miss – but it’s an experiment, so I’d say mostly miss.

Display

In the world of HD smartphones, the S4 Zoom packs a 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display. Text was decently sharp, and all the colors were punchy and oversaturated just as you’d expect from an AMOLED panel. Viewing angles were quite well too as objects didn’t deteriorate in quality when looking from different sides.

samsung galaxy s4 zoom

It’s going to be small for most people’s standards, but I completely understand that they should never go larger. This abomination is more than large enough to handle.

OS, Apps & UI

Not much has changed from the original S4 to the S4 Zoom; it’s still the same Touchwiz UI on top of Android 4.2. Here, however, Samsung made the exchanges of removing a lot of its sensor & gesture features for the big-ass camera.

os apps and ui s4 zoom

S-Voice, S-Planner, S-Translator, S-ettings and the rest of Samsung’s Apps are still found here; there’s no escaping that. To add, this phone also supports the ability of being your remote control. Love it or hate it, the rest of TouchWiz is S-History.

Multimedia & Camera

samsung galaxy s4 zoom

The speakers of the device are found on the backside of the S4 Zoom. They’re actually very loud, but the quality may be a little questionable as it wasn’t as crisp as we’d expect. Watching video on the other hand is very enjoyable; just go adjust the display settings if you find it too saturated & vibrant.

samsung galaxy s4 zoom

Like what we’ve mentioned above, this is part phone, part camera. Without further ado, here is the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom‘s 16 megapixel camera with 10x optical zoom.

20130901_145327

On top of a Ferris wheel with maximum zoom

20130902_100717

No zoom; through a building window

20130901_145215

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom’s washed out photos is evident

20130902_172711

Xenon flash helps a lot.

[fancygallery id=”43″ album=”46″]

With all of that laid out, I have to say that the Zoom has its set of strengths & weaknesses. For the strengths – the optical zoom does help for all the far shots that you need to take, details are sharp enough when compared to other smartphones and the Xenon flash rarely makes low-light photos worse.

Now for the bad news, the Zoom takes washed out shots. The Super AMOLED display will deceive you into thinking that you did take good shots, but most often, they’ll be undersaturated. That could probably be the biggest gripe that I’ve had with the camera; post-processing won’t always be the way to go.

Video capture features the same characteristics as the photos too. You should definitely check out the sample video as we slowed down a 720p HD @ 60fps video and it looked very smooth and awesome. The zoom works very well too, however, there’s a catch – every time you zoom in or zoom out, sound gets muffled and distorted. You should check that out above.

Performance & Battery Life

BENCHMARKS s4 zoom

Even with above near mid-range specs, the S4 Zoom doesn’t seem to lag or stutter. Everything worked smoothly and we had no problems with it for the most part.

Antutu Benchmark – 10,434
Quadrant Standard – 5,174
Nenamark 2 – 59.9fps

samsung galaxy s4 zoom

During our standard battery bench, we tested the battery life to last at about 7.5 hours by looping a full HD movie at 50% brightness and 0% volume. That’s slightly lower than our average of 9 hours with most other handsets and significantly much lower compared to the Galaxy S4 which got 11.5 hours.

Taking a lot of photos, deleting them & editing them on the phone took a big chunk of the battery, and it always made the back of the phone very warm. We didn’t have a SIM card on in that time too, so it’s really safe to say that the battery on the S4 Zoom is below average.

Conclusion

I was very excited during the first days that I had it, but eventually, in a few more days, I said to myself – “I give up.” I can’t use a phone this thick, I can’t text properly on this thing & an identity crisis is something that the Galaxy S4 Zoom suffers from.

samsung galaxy s4 zoom box

Think of it as a mid-range phone duct-taped to a mid-range point & shoot camera. It’s good if you look at it as separate entities, but put them together, you might want to think again. If you think the word ‘phamera’ is cool, then I think you’re totally up for this Samsung experiment.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom has an SRP of Php23,490USD 400INR 33,934EUR 381CNY 2,915.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom SM-C101 specs:
4.3-inch qHD S-AMOLED display @ 540×960 pixels, 240ppi
Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Samsung Exynos 4212 1.5GHz dual-core processor
Mali-400 MP Graphics
1.5GB RAM
8GB internal storage
up to 64GB via microSD card
16MP BSI CMOS Sensor
ISO Range: 100-3200 (full-stop increments)
Focal range: 24-240mm
Aperture range: f/3.1 – f/6.3
Built-in XENON flash
3G/HSPA+, 4G LTE
NFC
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, dual channel
Bluetooth 4.0
A-GPS w/ GLONASS
Li-Ion 2,330mAh battery
Android 4.2.2 Jellybean
Dimension: 125.5 x 63.5 x 15.4 mm
Weight: 208g

What we liked about it:

Interesting form factor for some
10x optical zoom is useful
Camera captures sharp details
Xenon flash works beautifully well

What we didn’t like about it:

Thick, heavy & everything in between
Difficult to manage
Subpar battery life
Washed out colors
Muffling audio when zooming in taking video

Bob Freking

Bob Freking occasionally contributes articles to the website. He is a UST Graduate of Commerce & Business Administration, Major in Marketing Management, and a full-time Sith Lord with three dragons.

15 Comments

abuzalzal says:

11 years ago

The Zoom mechanism is a power hog I see

Should’ve been at least 3,000 mAh
- Reply
jian says:

11 years ago

I have the Samsung Galaxy Camera and I use it often to browse and what-not because of its big ass screen. It’s the same as this “phamera”. Heavy, disfunctional and everything in between. lol
- Reply
allen83 says:

11 years ago

Good review! Keep up the good work! question for you is it a viable camera? Because it was stated on your review that the camera took washed out colors. And if you are going to compare it on any other point and shoot camera which brand is the better rival for the s4 zoom? Thansk and more power!
- Reply
evosieg says:

11 years ago

I don’t think it can be called a “phamera”. It’s just 4.3 inches, in should be at least 5+ inches, enough to qualify as a phablet, to become a “phamera”
- Reply
Mr. Curious says:

11 years ago

Nokia 1020 =))
- Reply
Ryan says:

11 years ago

My officemate had this. I hold it for awhile then I said to myself… watajerk. lol
- Reply
wew says:

11 years ago

bad move samsung andami na ngang nagbash dito nung una pa lang dahil tingin nila di magandang combination ang point-and-shoot cameras at smartphone…tapos ngaun may lalabas pa na mga problema tulad ng sound distortion,washet out photos at below ave. battery life…eh kung ako mas pipiliin ko pa ung ibang smartphones na kayang kumuha ng magagandang litrato at video kaysa naman na ipagpalit ko ang quality sa optical zoom lang…
- Reply
marky says:

11 years ago

for photography on mobile device… i still go for lumia 1020
- Reply
jed says:

11 years ago

better win the LG G2 with Yugatech’s index finger challenge

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtube_gdata_player&v=QsSode7AMNU&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DQsSode7AMNU%26feature%3Dyoutube_gdata_player
- Reply
jed says:

11 years ago

win the LG G2 with Yugatech’s index finger challenge

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtube_gdata_player&v=QsSode7AMNU&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DQsSode7AMNU%26feature%3Dyoutube_gdata_player
- Reply