Yesterday the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom was announced. It seems to be becoming a marmite device, some people like it and some people hate it. Personally I think there is definitely a need for a product like this, it’s just for me the design seems a bit off.
Samsung have published this video on their YouTube channel. It shows some of the features of the S4 Zoom and it intrigues me somewhat…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RQpQV9_3oM
Not sure the design is ‘off’ particularly. I can’t think of many other ways they can fit quality optics and zoom into a device of this size. At the end of the day, if a good camera is important to you (and if this, in fact, is actually a good camera – probably?), I’m sure there are some people who’d rather carry this device around with them than a phone and a camera. Can’t ever see this having mass appeal, but I’m sure they’ll shift a few units.
It does just about seem small enough to use as an every day device when the lens is retracted, so it’s a reasonable compromise. Short of fitting it with diamond lenses, I can’t see how they’d ever make the package smaller. I think this has the potential of being a great addition to the S4 range.
I just preferred the Galaxy Camera design that’s all really. More of a camera that ran Android. As opposed to a mid range phone with a good camera.
Yup, take your point. The Galaxy Camera did seem pretty cool, although I’ve never actually seen one in the wild. I just looked up the specs for this device, though, and it doesn’t seem half bad to me, if you forgive the lack of storage. A mid-range Android smartphone these days is of a very good standard generally (probably beats the base specs of most Windows Phones at least). I suppose it all comes down to price.
I shan’t be buying one myself, but I don’t really think the specs will put too many off who are looking for a really good camera phone.
I really like this idea (no surprise huh?). As a first attempt it isn’t too bad. Why didn’t they phoneify the galaxy camera though? That would have looked so much better than this.
And what a cheesy advert….. ‘Look at this, it is so simple even a pretty girl can use it’
how many times you leave home with your phone AND camera? mostly people just leave home with their phones. and then in the evening they go for a walk downtown, near the lake, in a park etc and don’t necessarily have a camera with them. so this one comes in very handy. of course other smartphones also are great for this scenario, although which one can claim 10x optical zoom? just because it won’t appeal to the mass, i wouldn’t say it’s a useless phone..:-)