Some pretty exciting news came in for photographers today when Samsung announced that they would be continuing the Galaxy Zoom line this year with the Galaxy K Zoom smartphone. Some of you may remember the Galaxy S4 Zoom from last year, a phone that Samsung created that attempted to blur the line between your typical digital camera and a camera on your smartphone. However, to many, the Galaxy S4 Zoom would have been a hard sell. In my opinion, the phone made a better camera than it did phone when it needed to be a healthy mix of both. It was a big, bulky, and rather disappointing smartphone.
The Galaxy K Zoom, however, seems to do the idea a little more justice.
There were two big problems with the Galaxy S4 Zoom: the phone was too bulky, and the specs weren’t really that good. This year, however, the changes made to the Galaxy K Zoom pretty much looks to have fixed both of those problems. The phone looks quite a bit slimmer, and the specs aren’t exactly anything to sneeze at. Furthermore, I’m glad that Samsung decided to get rid of naming the phone after the Galaxy S line - that got confusing. Instead, the Galaxy Zoom this year is sort of branched off with a name of its own.
The specs on the Galaxy K Zoom are decent. The phone has a 4.8-inch 720p AMOLED display, a hexa-core processor (1.3GHz quad-core, 1.7GHz dual-core), 2GB of RAM, 8GB of onboard storage with microSD card support, 2430mAh battery, 20.7-megapixel camera on the back, and a 2-megapixel camera on the front. The device runs on Android 4.4 KitKat.
There are a couple of things that I think a lot of people would like to change about the specs in the Galaxy K Zoom, but when it all comes down to it, Samsung seems to want to branch the Zoom out to be a device of its own. Without the Galaxy S name attached to it, there’s no reason to be upset that it doesn’t share a lot of the same features of the Galaxy S5 (something that I thought was worth pointing out between the Galaxy S4 and the S4 Zoom). The Zoom is really all about that 20.7-megapixel camera with 10x optical zoom, and for people who have been wanting a sleek device that combines both smartphone and digital camera, the K Zoom might have actually hit the nail on the head.
With the slimmer design, it won’t feel so awkward in the hand. I’m also glad that Samsung didn’t make the screen that huge, which they seem to be doing with a number of their phones at this point in time. A 4.8-inch screen is still a bit on the larger side, but if it’s anything like the HTC One (M7) was it’s still wieldy. I still think that the actual optical zoom and lens of the device needed to be slimmer, but I suppose it’s still a work in progress. The K Zoom is definitely a big step up from the Galaxy S4 Zoom, even to the point where I would probably pick one up for myself if it ended up being available to my carrier.
Which is another thing - hopefully Samsung doesn’t make this a carrier exclusive again. Maybe it is a niche device, but just because it’s niche doesn’t mean that everybody interested in the phone wants to be with a carrier not of their own choosing to get it.
All that being said, I am pleased that the Galaxy K Zoom turned out the way that it has. The Galaxy S4 Zoom was a major disappointment in my eyes, but this device has managed to actually blur the line between digital camera and smartphone camera a lot better.
Readers, what are your thoughts on the Galaxy K Zoom? Is it a device that you’re hoping to pick up, or is it still not quite your style? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Images via Engadget, Hi-Tech.Ru
