The Samsung Galaxy K Zoom was unveiled just this morning with a hybrid design that marries a point-and-shoot camera with a smartphone. It features a 20.7MP camera with 10x optical zoom, along with downgraded specs compared to most current flagships. Below are a few hands-on pictures and videos of the device, along with all the details that they revealed to us.
First up is Samsung’s official introduction video for the Galaxy K Zoom, which starts by focusing on the camera aspect while rotating the phone in all angles to showcase the protruding element that houses the optical zoom. The video also shows a few colorful images taken by the phone, the Xenon flash, and eventually ends with the phone functionality of the K Zoom while also demo’ing its 3 different colors.
Next is a hands-on video from TechnoBuffalo that goes quickly over the phone’s specs and exterior, pointing out the K Zoom’s dedicated quick launch camera button and microSD card slot. That is followed by a short demo of the camera functionality, including Pro Suggest, which suggests filters and modes based on the scene it detects, and the Selfie Alarm, which lets you point a specific area of the photo that you want to be in and then beeps and takes 3 shots with the full-res back camera (as opposed to the front-facing camera).
[email protected] also has a very long write-up about the K Zoom. Most interesting are the side-by-side comparison shots with the Galaxy S4 Zoom, showing how slimmer and more phone-like the K Zoom is.
Hi-Tech were also able to take several photos with the K Zoom’s camera to demonstrate its capabilities, as well as comparison shots with the S4 zoom and the Galaxy S5. They also posted a video sample taken by the phone.
And lastly, TechRadar went over the Galaxy K Zoom’s camera options too, highlighting several new interesting features. For example, in the Auto Mode, you can split the Auto-Focus area and Exposure area, allowing you to focus on one part of the photo while deducing the exposure from another, for more interesting results. The K Zoom also allows you to pinch-to-zoom, and instead of just doing digital oversampling, it uses the optical zoom element. That part seems, however, hard to master, with a difficulty getting the exact level of zoom needed. There’s also a fully manual mode, and the Pro Suggest feature mentioned above is explained. It apparently comes with a Market where users can upload various filters for you to download and add to your camera.
TechRadar included some image samples from the Galaxy K Zoom, with and without the flash, indoors, and with various exposures and settings. Personally, I am not fully sold on the camera capabilities of the device, but that might either be due to the lackluster photography skills of the persons who took those images, or because the phone is still using pre-release hardware and software.
We’ll keep an eye on the Galaxy K Zoom and will get our own unit for a full review and comparison against the smartphone world’s best shooters. But in the meantime, what do you think of this point-and-shoot / smartphone hybrid? Would you be willing to sacrifice some specs to get a higher quality camera performance, or are you happy with the 13 and 16MP snappers on regular flagships?
