Samsung Galaxy K Zoom takes smartphone imaging performance up a notch
Samsung's Galaxy K Zoom follows up on the premise of the Galaxy S4 Zoom to offer a camera-specialized smartphone that's better than the average smartphone shooter. The new K Zoom offers far better specs and in a much sleeker body while still maintaining the 10x optical zoom feature of its predecessor. Find out how the new pocket shooter fares in our use.
Introduction
Samsung isn’t one to shy away from experimentation - it was among the first to demo the world’s first curved OLED TV and was also one of the earliest to have debut a camera running an Android OS (the Galaxy Camera). Following up on the Galaxy Camera, they packaged most of it in to a phone with advanced camera capabilities which was the Galaxy S4 Zoom. The idea was to create a smartphone with a better-than-average camera for casual users seeking better shooting capabilities on their smartphone and not rely on another dedicated camera. Essentially an S4 Mini with 10x optical zoom thrown into the mix, the S4 Zoom addressed something that smartphone cameras lack: optical zoom.
While smartphone camera modules, sensors and lenses are perpetually improving, they've always lacked the physical space to accommodate optical zoom and that’s what prompted the Korean tech giant to slap a 10x optical zoom onto the rear of a smartphone. However, the Galaxy S4 Zoom was still a fair bit bulky and Samsung went back to the drawing board to to come up with the Galaxy K Zoom. Available in stores since the start of this quarter, the Galaxy K Zoom improved upon two key areas and now features a slimmer body and better internal hardware than the S4 Zoom. Before we jump into the phone’s camera performance and handling, let’s take a look at how the K Zoom compares against the S4 Zoom and Samsung’s leading Galaxy smartphone:-
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Design and Handling
The Galaxy K Zoom (left) has a much slimmer profile compared to its predecessor, the S4 Zoom.
The front face of the Galaxy K Zoom looks very much like any other Galaxy smartphone, but the rear resembles that of a compact camera with its lens barrel. There’s also a built-in xenon and LED flash on the rear, which should theoretically be better since xenon flashes are stronger than the LED flashes used on most smartphones. So far, these characteristics hold true for both the Galaxy S4 Zoom and the new Galaxy K Zoom.
However, unlike the S4 Zoom, the Galaxy K Zoom does not have the hand grip that was found on its predecessor. The K Zoom also sports a dimpled rear similar to the one found on the Galaxy S5, which is an improvement over the smooth finish of the S4 Zoom which didn’t provide much grip when shooting. Other changes include the removal of the tripod screw mount found on the S4 Zoom, which sounds like a step back instead of an improvement since you will need to use a clamp-style tripod mount. Nevertheless, in return, you get a much slimmer body on the Galaxy K Zoom.
On a slightly off-topic note, we couldn't help but notice that the Galaxy K Zoom has a slight resemblance to the old Sony Ericsson W800i mobile phone. You can read more about that old phone here, but we're digressing, so let's get back to the K Zoom.
The Galaxy K Zoom has a dimpled back cover, similar to the one found on the Galaxy S5 smartphone.
While the K Zoom is still relatively bulky when compared to standard smartphones, it’s still impressive when you consider the fact that Samsung has managed to further compact the 10x optical zoom lens on the S4 Zoom, thus making the K Zoom approximately 20mm thick at its thickest point (the lens barrel). The good news about the K Zoom is that there was no problems using it as a smartphone due to its slim dimensions - voice calls, text messaging or surfing the Net felt no different than holding a current-gen smartphonein your hand . While you might have gotten weird looks when answering a call on its predecessor, the S4 Zoom (because it would like you were talking into your camera), we can assure you that there would be none of that with the K Zoom. When not in camera mode, the lens almost completely retracts into the K Zoom's body and since there's no finger grip, the Galaxy K Zoom looks very much like a standard smartphone.
You can access the camera right from the lock screen via a camera shortcut, and the camera loads pretty quickly. We tried launching the camera function of our Galaxy Note 3 and the K Zoom at the same time, and found that the K Zoom launched its camera app slightly faster.
When shooting in landscape orientation, the shutter button will be right below your right index finger.
There’s no thumb rest on the K Zoom, so it will be a challenge to shoot in landscape orientation with one hand. In this scenario, even though your right thumb might be resting on the virtual back button, you won’t exit the app by accident as Samsung has designed the K Zoom to only exit the camera app when you press the Back button twice, which is a plus point for the team handling the K Zoom’s camera interface. Similar to a compact camera, the shutter button sits right below your right index finger when shooting in landscape mode, making it easy to fire off shots.
Zooming using the volume rocker will bring up a zoom bar on-screen, but the difference it holds over standard phones is it true 10x optical zoom.
The K Zoom with its lens fully racked out.
Since there’s no dedicated zoom lever on the Galaxy K Zoom, zooming is achieved pressing on the volume rocker. You can also pinch to zoom on the K Zoom just as you woul on a smartphone. Using the volume rocker to zoom will bring up a zoom bar on-screen, so you can tap on the edge of the bar to quickly hit 10x zoom. However, it's a bit more difficult if you have a specific zoom ratio in mind since tapping on the bar becomes a trial-and-error affair. In this regard, tapping on the screen or using the volume rocker is understandably less responsive than the zoom lever found on standard point-and-shoot cameras.
You will be more likely to use the virtual shutter button when shooting in portrait orientation, since it will be difficult to press the physical shutter release button with your thumb.
The smartphone shooter will definitely spend more time in portrait orientation and while the shutter button works well in landscape mode, it is hardly relevant while shooting in portrait mode due to its position. As shown in the photo, the shutter button sits right at the bottom of the phone when holding it in portrait mode, which is too low to press with your thumb; as such, you are more likely to use the on-screen virtual shutter button when shooting in this orientation.
User Interface and Camera Performance
The Galaxy K Zoom comes with quite a few modes, including a manual mode
While the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom sports a better camera than your usual smartphone, it's still aimed at those who are casual shooters. Thus the K Zoom's default camera app comes with quite a number of pre-set modes such as Program, Landscape and more; it even has a Manual mode. Samsung lets you arrange these modes on the camera interface, so that you can quickly utilize the modes that you will use often instead of having the phone display all of them. This makes for a neater interface.
Do take note that the K Zoom’s optical zoom may not be available on all your apps. For example, pressing on the volume/zoom rocker when using Instagram only served to increase or decrease phone volume. This is because apps that do not utilize the default camera app/function would not be able to make use of the optical zoom.
Manual mode is more streamlined in the Galaxy K Zoom. All you need to do is tap the variable you want to adjust, i.e. shutter speed or aperture size.
You can select another spot in the frame to set the desired exposure level while focusing on your subject.
While the manual mode in the Galaxy S4 Zoom felt clunky, it’s been refined in the Galaxy K Zoom. The list of settings that you can adjust (shutter speed, aperture size, ISO) all appear at the top of the screen. Tapping on each of these settings will bring up the available choices for you to choose. As shown in the above photo, the Galaxy K Zoom also lets you split the autofocus and exposure areas, so you can focus on one spot in the frame, while choosing another spot in the frame to determine your exposure. It’s certainly useful when faced with situations that have varying degrees of lighting, though this may not present any apparent benefit to those who are less proficient in photography.
For images that will be uploaded online to social media channels, or if you don't usually view your images at full resolution, the imaging capabilities of the Galaxy K Zoom will definitely suffice.
The Galaxy K Zoom has a 20.7-megapixel sensor that’s also larger than the one found in the Galaxy S5. A larger sensor should result in better pictures right? The problem is much more complicated than that when you bring in sensor resolution and optics. With so much resolution crammed into a small sensor, details get blurred when you zoom in, though we doubt the average smartphone shooter will be looking at the images in full resolution. If you’re the typical smartphone user who uploads photos to social networks and only views them on your phone’s screen, then the Galaxy K Zoom’s image quality will be more than sufficient.
It was a bright and sunny day, but the K Zoom's white balance put a bit too much blue into the picture.
When shooting scenes with varying levels of light, it's helpful to be able to base exposure off a different part of the frame. The shot on the left was with Program mode with exposure taken off the autofocus point. For the shot on the right, we've split the exposure and focus points, resulting in a more balanced exposure instead of being too dark.
The strength of the Galaxy K Zoom lies in its optical zoom, which provides much better quality at a further reach than the digital zoom used by standard smartphone shooters. You can get much closer to your subject and with no image degradation, the Galaxy K Zoom wins hands-down when it comes to shooting from afar. The device also comes with optical image stabilization, which helps to keep your shots steady even when you’re shooting at 10x optical zoom.
The K Zoom’s color reproduction and exposure were good (for a smartphone), but there were situations when the auto white balance produced pretty cold shots, with a bit more blue in the picture than was actually present in actual view.
If you're not the type to meddle with the camera's settings, the Galaxy K Zoom has quite a few modes for the casual shooter. This was shot with the Sunset mode.
The K Zoom performs rather well in low light for a smartphone though pixel peeping will reveal the limitations of a small sensor.
Thus far, we've been showing off what the Galaxy K Zoom can deliver on its own, but we decided to also make a quick comparison against a standard smartphone for one of the trickier low light shots. For this purpose, we had on hand a Galaxy Note 3 phablet. It might be nearly a year old, but it has one of the best camera modules for its class and would make an ideal candidate to represent what some of the better smartphones are capable of.
For comparison purposes, here's a shot taken by the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom at ISO400.
Here's a shot from the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 also at ISO400. There's definitely less detail and more noise here, compared to the image taken by the Galaxy K Zoom.
While the shots aren't exactly identical as there are strobing light effects, it does give you an idea of what the Galaxy K Zoom with its 20MP sensor is capable over a 13MP sensor found on most top tier smartphones today. Additionally, the Galaxy K Zoom has 10x optical with optical image stabilization, so these are noteworthy attributes to have at hand in a smartphone form factor to give you better imaging capabilities without resorting to a dedicated digital camera to get an edge over most mobile devices.
Conclusion
The Galaxy K Zoom represents Samsung’s effort at producing a handy device that functions well as both a compact camera and a smartphone. However the camera aspect could use improvements, even though it’s a more polished effort compared to its predecessor, the Galaxy S4 Zoom.
At a glance, the Galaxy K Zoom's design and slightly larger proportions may lead consumers to believing that it has the best camera for a smartphone, bar none. When put to the test, the image quality of the Galaxy K Zoom is definitely better than most smartphone cameras, but we’re sure there might be situations where the best smartphone cameras might outperform it in terms of detail retention. But what you get in return for its larger footprint is the extra reach and better image quality since it uses optical zoom, and also less blurry pictures when shooting at its longest end thanks to its optical image stabilization.
There’s also a bunch of shooting modes and a manual mode if you like to tweak the various shooting settings. The Samsung Galaxy K Zoom definitely gives you more control than your run-of-the-mill smartphone, but with many top-end smartphones offering similar image quality (albeit without optical zoom) and better hardware specs such as a better screen or a faster processors, it’s difficult to justify purchasing this near S$800 device solely based on its camera performance alone. Furthermore, it's still outfitted with only 8GB built-in storage - hardly adequate for a either a serious smartphone user or a trigger happy shooter. You'll still have to rely on its microSD expansion slot to get your preferred storage capacity.
Value aside, if you're not too picky on specs from a smartphone perspective and you enjoy the fact that the Galaxy K Zoom doubles up as as an entry-level compact camera replacement of sorts with a true 10x optical zoom while still retaining a form factor not much thicker than the usual smartphone, this niche product could be your ideal everyday shooter. For some of you, this might even be your only shooter since most users carry a smartphone with them them all the time, but not a stand-alone digital camera or camcorder.
In some ways, you can also think of the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom as a travel compact companion as it doubles up duty as a smartphone and compact camera. Having less devices to manage and lug around is always a good thing, but be warned that unlike a 2-in-1 device like the ASUS Padfone series where both the phone and tablet elements are standalone devices with their own battery and can complement each other to extend the battery of any one device, the Galaxy K Zoom is a single product serving both functions of a phone and camera, but its battery pack is not rated any higher than other standard phones. If one were to use both functions in excess, the Galaxy K Zoom's battery would get depleted fast. As such, it's good to know the merits and limitations of the device to see if it suits your needs.
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