Galaxy S4 zoom disappoints.

The Galaxy S4 zoom will be start selling in South Korea this week. It comes in black and white colors.
It features a 16 megapixel rear-facing camera, Xenon flash, dedicated camera button with 10X optical zoom and the Zoom Ring that allows easy zoom in/zoom out. Moreover, the phone comes with in-call Photo Share to share images during an ongoing call, Photo Suggest, Sound & Shot, Smart Mode Suggest and a 1.9 megapixel camera on the front.

The phone runs Android 4.2.2, which in all likeliness will be upgradeable to Android 4.3, LTE support, 4.3-inch qHD display (960×540), 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1.5GB RAM, NFC, 2330mAh battery, microSD card slot.

The phone is priced at 649,000 won(about $597 US).

There is no doubt that photography is becoming increasingly important in the way that we express ourselves and share with the world, and the Galaxy S4 zoom is a good way of Samsung acknowledging this and providing something for people who want more camera in their phone. We’re not entirely convinced that what they have provided is the right sort of something, and certainly not at the extortionate price that’s being demanded for it.

If you consider that the Galaxy S4 mini has better internal hardware than the Galaxy S4 zoom, and that (at launch) the Galaxy S4 zoom is something like 30% more than the already-a-bit-too-expensive price. All that extra money for the novelty of having a camera stuck on the back of a fairly mediocre smartphone?

Personally,I think you’d be better off spending the money on a separate camera!

Galaxy S4 zoom is neither a particularly good smartphone, nor a particularly good camera. In fact, although conceptually very solid (as a more ‘smartphoney’ version of the Galaxy Camera), the shoddy hardware and inflated price puts this quite far down on my wishlist.