Samsung’s Second Attempt at a Camera-Centric Phone : The Galaxy K Zoom

Samsung has launched the Galaxy K Zoom in India, a Galaxy S5 camera variant, and is now up for pre-order exclusively on Amazon India. The exclusive pre-order was opened yesterday at midnight. Its predecessor, the S4 Zoom was also launched on the same day last year but was not received well in the market because of its poor performance and bulkiness.

Samsung is now trying its hands again in the same segment with Galaxy K Zoom that holds a better processor and a leaner body. The leaner body might help this variant since the chunky lens of the S4 Zoom was a major deal-breaker. This s5 camera variant is priced at INR 29,999  and will be delivered  July 9th onwards.

Samsung’s second crack at a modern “phone camera” is based on its popular Galaxy S5. The Galaxy K zoom fashions a huge 20.7-megapixel BSI CMOS sensor at the back accompanied by a Xenon flash and also features optical image stabilizer (OIS) for low-light imaging. The rear camera supports 10x optical zoom.

The rear camera comes with some advanced camera usability features and functions, including AF/AE (Auto Focus/ Auto Exposure) separation. Also Pro Suggest mode that comes with camera offers 5 optimized filter settings. The Selfie Alarm assists users in taking timed selfies. The Galaxy K Zoom also houses a 2-megapixel front-facing camera.

When compared to the Galaxy S4 Zoom that came with a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED qHD display, the Galaxy K zoom features a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED HD (720×1280 pixels) display. The new camera variant runs on Android 4.4 KitKat same as the Galaxy S5, the latest flagship device of the company.

Also it comes with a hexa-core processor (a quad-core 1.3GHz and a dual-core 1.7GHz), 2GB of RAM, 8GB inbuilt storage expandable via microSD card (up to 64GB), and a 2430 mAh battery. The Galaxy K zoom will be available in two variants – LTE and 3G – while other connectivity options include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Micro-USB and NFC.

The K zoom is thicker than the S5, it’s heavier and it has a lower-resolution display. The only area where the K zoom tops the S5, by a mile we might add, is where the camera is concerned. Though it certainly has a great camera, the deal breaker for most of the buyers will be the performance of the phone which also took the Galaxy s4 Zoom down the drain.