now that the Samsung GALAXY S4 zoom is official, we can safely conclude that the GALAXY Camera was just a testbed. still, we might be wrong, but who really cares when now you can have a smartphone and still enjoy the benefits that comes with a dedicated camera? and that btw, is what the Korean electronics maker is trying to achieve: a single device that fills the shoes of “an industry leading smartphone”, as well as being a high-end compact camera. the zoom is the first smartphone to sport a massive 16MP BSI CMOS camera (F3.1-F6.3) with 10x Optical Zoom. read again. it is 10x Optical Zoom, not digital zoom. amazing indeed. assisting in fulfilling its camera duties are built-in Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), Xenon Flash, up to ISO 3200 and “a revolutionary new interface” by the way of Zoom Ring. in a nutshell, the Zoom Ring is your quick access to all the handset’s camera features such as in-call photo share, quick launch, access to multiple camera modes et cetera.
powered by a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, other highlights include a 4.3″ qHD sAMOLED display (it’s just 960 x 540 pixel, in case you really want to know), 1.5GB RAM, 8GB internal storage, a microSD slot that supports up to 64GB, a 1.9MP front-facing camera, 3G and LTE radios, WiFi (5GHz, supports a/b/g/n), Bluetooth 4.0 LE, NFC, A-GPS with GLONASS, plus the usual collection of sensors, which we shall dispense with the regurgitation. the Samsung GALAXY S4 zoom runs on Touchwiz-skinned Android 4.2 Jelly Bean which offers the usuals such as Google and Sammy suite of services. as for the physical size, it is a tad smaller by height and width (125.5 x 63.5mm, respectively), but being a real camera, it is inevitably thicker at 15.4mm and tips the scale at 208 grams (or about 7.3oz). as might have already guess, Samsung is still mum about the availability and pricing at this point.
