Again in 2013 my spouse, who’s a eager photographer, referred to as me over to have a look at one thing on her laptop computer. This was the brand new cellphone she needed, however what I noticed on that display screen did not look something like a smartphone.
As a substitute, it appeared like a digital digital camera with a smartphone-sized display screen on the again. What the heck was this factor? This was the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom.
The Telephone That Thought It Was a Digital camera
In case you did not know, Android truly began life as an working system for digital cameras, not smartphones, however finally, a touchscreen machine with a digital camera and Wi-Fi is not that removed from a smartphone when you actually give it some thought and so it was pivoted earlier than even reaching any industrial digital camera.
So maybe the S4 Zoom felt like a return residence for the plucky OS that runs a lot of the world immediately. Regardless, the S4 Zoom is one of the strangest phones over made, and looking back, it is shocking that I even received to expertise what it was like utilizing one.
Now, it is likely to be onerous to recollect, however again in 2013, telephones did not include a number of cameras on the again, and the digital camera they did include wasn’t nice. For instance, 2013 was the 12 months of the iPhone 5s, which sported a single 8MP shooter on the rear.
The most important limitation, and the rationale we have phones with clusters of cameras today, was the fastened focal size of cellphone cameras. There simply wasn’t sufficient room within the skinny physique of a cellphone to have an efficient mechanical zoom system. So, nasty digital zoom was the order of the day.
The entire level of the S4 Zoom was to deliver the advantages of a correct, giant zoom lens and sensor to the world of smartphones. The S4 Zoom has a 16MP digital camera sensor, with 10x optical zoom, and an aperture vary of f/3.1-6.3. This nearly put it on par with devoted digital pocket shooters of the day, and much forward of different telephones.
The {Hardware} That Stood Out (Actually)
In a world the place telephones just like the Apple iPhone Air and Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge exist, the S4 Zoom appears further ridiculous, nevertheless it was a real chonker even in comparison with modern smartphones.
8.5/10
- SoC
-
A19 Professional chip
- Show
-
6.5-inches
- Storage
-
256GB, 512GB, or 1TB
- Ports
-
USB-C
From the entrance, it appeared similar to a Galaxy S4 Mini, however from the rear it appeared similar to a standard digital digital camera. Even when totally retracted, that Zoom lens makes even the brand new iPhone 17 digital camera plateau look modest, and the entire again of the cellphone was one massive digital camera bulge when you concentrate on it.
- Show
-
6.7-inches
- RAM
-
12GB
- Storage
-
256 or 512GB
- Battery
-
3,900mAh
- Ports
-
USB-C
- Working System
-
One UI 7
Digital camera Efficiency and Options
So, how did it carry out? I keep in mind on the time that my spouse was thrilled with the flexibility and picture high quality of the cellphone. It actually made a distinction to at all times have a compact digital digital camera along with her.
A 10x zoom with no loss intimately meant capturing photographs that have been actually inconceivable with some other cellphone. Not solely that, however Samsung actually did consider this as a real fusion between a cellphone and a compact digital digital camera. The software program mirrored this, and the digital camera app supplied far more management in comparison with customary cellphone apps of the day. As a shutterbug, she most popular to tweak issues like ISO and shutter pace herself, and right here these choices have been entrance and heart.
As a cellphone? Nicely, it was only a regular Android cellphone for the time, however carrying it round was an actual ache. Made worse by the bizarre holster case she had to make use of with it. To not point out, the one cellphone that appeared stranger up towards your ear was Nokia’s previous N-GAGE and its side-talking design.
To be truthful, again then we did not spend almost as a lot time glued to our telephones. We would browse the net on them solely when wanted, and apps weren’t as all-encompassing as they’re immediately. So seeing it as a digital camera and occassional cellphone helps all of it make extra sense.
Why It By no means Took Off
Other than the poor battery life and bulk, the true cause the S4 Zoom did not take off is that we discovered higher methods to deal with the issues of smartphone pictures. Because of computational pictures, smartphones may make higher footage utilizing the bodily inferior digital camera {hardware} they’d. We additionally began including extra cameras, specialised for particular jobs like extensive angle, portrait, or macro photographs. Micro-mechanical expertise has additionally superior, which is why some fashionable cellphone cameras do have some extent of optical zoom inbuilt, and sensible methods like periscope digital camera design allow us to get extra focal size through the use of mirrors and a lens array down the size of the cellphone reasonably than its thickness.
Samsung truly tried another time with the Galaxy Ok Zoom (aka. the S5 Zoom), however that was the final we noticed of this digital camera and cellphone fusion experiment.
The Legacy of Samsung’s Experiment
Whereas the Galaxy Zoom was an evolutionary useless finish for smartphone cameras, it did push cellular pictures ahead. It additionally confirmed that Samsung isn’t scared to experiment with its phone designs, one thing that may’t be mentioned for the conservative likes of Apple.
My spouse additionally continues to lust after quirky telephones. At the moment, she’s using a Galaxy Z Flip, and would not commerce it for something. So, some issues by no means change.
7/10
- Model
-
Samsung
- SoC
-
Samsung Exynos 2500
- RAM
-
12GB
- Storage
-
256 or 512GB
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