[rwp-review id=”0″]
The world of mobile phones is no stranger to odd devices – anyone who remembers the old Nokia handsets in the long-lost era can attest to that – so it is refreshing to see Samsung bringing out a device that is odd and quirky and isn’t for everyone, but one that certainly has its audience. Cameras have become as important as the entirety of any mobile device and, as we have seen with the Lumia 1020, the phone is essentially a camera with smartphone functions.
How does the Galaxy K Zoom fare, though? In short, it isn’t quite there yet, and the hybrid of phone and camera does not work in either department’s favour for different reasons. It does have a niche audience, but for all practical purposes, there is a lot of work to be done.
Hardware and Design
Designing the Galaxy K Zoom must have been a nightmare – how much is one to compromise in the phone department to accommodate the camera, and how much to sacrifice in the camera to make it a useable phone? The answer is not really clear since both aspects have been compromised a bit too much.
Right off the bat you’d feel the heavy weight of phone. At 200 grams (~7oz) it is heavy to hold for prolonged periods of time. If you’re a power user of the phone functions (texting, browsing, games, etc) it can be exhausting. It is ergonomically comfortable however. The curves and contours fit in the palm and the “band-aid” pattern actually works well to give it a good, solid feel and firm grip.
The screen is 4.8″ Super AMOLED at 720p. It isn’t the high resolution screen you’d want from a phone that sells itself as a camera, but quite frankly I didn’t find it as jarring; I did not find any problems browsing the photos or using the phone for browsing and texting. It isn’t as sharp as the other phones but not hugely detrimental to the user experience.
As for the pocketability of the device, let’s just say that you’d need big pockets or comfortable jeans. The phone is otherwise uncomfortable in the pocket.
Camera Capabilities
The camera specs are quite impressive: 20.7MP sensor with 10x zoom (equivalent to 24mm-240mm) with optical stabilisation and a plethora of shooting options. In practice though, it doesn’t always deliver or rise up to its potential. This I reckon is due to the sensor size and sensor quality – in other words, the photo quality from the 20.7MP camera is not always consistent.
The main problem is in the aperture range. At the widest zoom it sits at F/3.1 and at 10x zoom it drops to F/6.3. I’m not expecting an F/2 throughout the range of course, but the aperture range will force the camera to compromise on image quality by increasing the ISO. In plain English, since this isn’t a DSLR sensor, you’ll end up with soft and noisy images.
To its credit though, the most likely scenario is that people will end up sending the images to Instagram, Facebook, email, or other social networks. Since they will be resized to a smaller resolution, the images will end up sharper on the screen than they are at 100% crop.
Accessing the camera is done from the lock screen. There’s no button to directly take you from sleep mode to the camera, so you’ll lose a precious few seconds if you’re after that timely shot. The camera takes some time to jump into gear as well. It’s slow to zoom (you can pinch to zoom or use the volume buttons) so pre-planning is required.
Samsung has thrown in all the photo modes available on its flagship phones for almost any possible situation you can encounter. Auto mode works well, and depending on your subject it will give you possible modes to choose from. For example, if you’re shooting foliage, it will recommend you switch to the vivid mode should you want to.
The choice of modes is overwhelming, so I found myself using five modes for simplicity: Auto, Macro, Night, HDR, and Manual. Switching to Macro mode will disable any zoom capabilities, so you’ll have to get up close and personal with your subject. I found that macro shots tend to be of the best quality of all modes.
As a final note, shooting backlit subjects will likely produce heavy chromatic aberrations. In plain English, the subject will have a purple outline.
One of the best features though is full manual control. You can set the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO to get the creative effect you desire. This opens up a world of new possibilities in phone camera photography, although people who will be using full manual control of the camera are likely to be owners of standalone cameras to begin with.
The Phone as a Phone
The phone is powered by android 4.2.2, 2GB of RAM, a 1.3GHz quad-core processor and a 1.7GHz dual-core processor. Having six processors is fancy on paper and the phone does a very good job in providing a smooth operating experience. The dual-core is usually active and the quad corse are powered up when needed. Photo editing is a lag-free breeze as well thankfully, since it is expected you’d be firing up photo editing apps frequently on the phone.
Battery stands at 2430mAh which doesn’t seem much given the purpose of the camera. However it is a good performer as long as you’re not going all-out shooting. So you need to keep in mind that this isn’t a camera but rather a phone with a zoom camera. If you’d be out shooting, though, expect the battery to die by noon. Moderate shooting and phone use can be sustained until evening.
Overall
The camera-phone hybrid is a bold move from Samsung that is certainly not for everyone. It’s weight is too heavy for typical phone use, and the camera is let down by a generally spotty performance. It doesn’t work particularly well as either, although there is a certain appeal to it in terms of its zoom and the convenience of having both a phone and a camera in one device. So in that regard it is difficult to recommend to everyone because there is a lot of work to be done – at least in the form factor above everything else. But for what it is though, it’s pretty decent, and those for those who have to have such a long zoom, there is no other option.
