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At first glance, it’s a bit confusing to figure out if the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom is indeed a compact camera or a smartphone with really large camera lens. We got a quick hands-on yesterday here in London just in time for the global launch we’re covering.

The design and form factor of the Galaxy S4 Zoom is geared towards a compact camera. It feels a bit bulky in the hands for a smartphone, but light enough for a hand-held camera. Event the posterior design really looks like a camera, with that protruding hand grip and the large, silver lens barrel.

The body has a glossy finish (comes in white and black colors) and has a plasticky feel to it.

At the back is the large, 4.3-inch Super AMOLED screen with a size and design reminiscent of the Galaxy S4 Mini. Samsung admits the DNA of the smartphone is exactly similar to the S4 Mini:

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom specs:
4.3-inch qHD S-AMOLED display, 256ppi
Corning Gorilla Glass 3
1.5GHz dual-core processor
1.5GB RAM
8GB internal storage
Expandable up to 64GB
16MP BSI CMOS Sensor
ISO Range: 100-3200 (full-stop increments)
Focal range: 24-240mm
Aperture range: f/3.1 – f/6.3
Built-in XENON flash
3G/HSPA+ or 4G LTE (selected markets)
NFC
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, dual channel
Bluetooth 4.0
A-GPS w/ GLONASS
Li-Ion 2,330mAh battery
Android Jelly bean v.4.2
Dimension: 125.5 x 63.5 x 15.4 mm
Weight: 208g

And to make it more usable as a camera, aside from the grip, Samsung added a dedicated camera shutter button on the top side and a tripod socket when you want to mount it on regular-sized monopod/tripod. The lens ring ring can also be set up to do Manual Focus.

Because of the built-in NFC, Samsung also copied some of the features of the S4 and S4 Mini like Group Play. There’s an In-Call Photo Sharing that allows you to send and share a photo to a person you are currently talking to on the other line, without cutting off the call.

To make taking photos with the S4 Zoom, a bunch of features and pre-sets were created for new users — 25 Smart Mode presets for the usual scenes, a Smart Mode Suggest (gives recommendations for up to 3 scenes based on the subject or environment), and a Photo Suggest (tells you what nearby places to go to for getting good shots, powered by TourWrist, Panoramio, TripAdvisor).

A Story Album allows you to make properly laid-out albums of your photos for presentation and even allows you to send them to Blurb to print (available in 75 countries).

Samsung is expected to ship the Galaxy S4 Zoom some time later in 3rd quarter of this year. As for retail price, there was no information as of this writing but we’re guessing it will be between the S4 Mini and the Galaxy Camera.

Update: Overheard from local sales/dealer that estimated retail price of the Galaxy S4 Zoom is Php23,000.

The post Hands-on: Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.

Probably the most surprising product to be launched today by Samsung here in London is the Android-powered Samsung Galaxy NX, the first mirrorless inter-changeable camera running an Android Jellybean OS.

The Galaxy NX follows the recently released NX300 although the real big difference here is the operating system. This means that the Galaxy NX is closer to the Galaxy Camera and Galaxy S4 Zoom in terms of function. Of course, you have the option to also change lenses (currently 13 different lenses available for the NX series).

The camera is powered by a dual-processor — one is the custom Samsung DRIMeIV Image processor for the camera and another quad-core 1.6GHz CPU for the system. The two chips complements and even works hand-in-hand in creating a more accurate image with every shot.

Just the like Galaxy S4 Zoom, the Galaxy NX also comes with built-in features that gives you two sets of custom controls — one for advanced users, to be able to fully manually control the settings; and one which is for beginners, who will held some smart assist to pick the right settings.

Probably the most welcoming feature of the Galaxy NX is the very large screen — at 4.8 inches, it’s by far the biggest built-in display we’ve seen in any camera. That gives the user better view of the subject and easily able to see if the focus on the subject is correct.

New owners will also enjoy 50GB of free storage for 2 years from Dropbox.

Here’s the most complete hardware specification we’ve got so far.

Samsung Galaxy NX specs:
4.8-inch Touch HD Super Clear LCD
Corning Gorilla Glass
Pega-Q 1.6GHz quad-core processor
2GB RAM
16GB eMMC internal storage
Up to 64GB via microSD card
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, dual-band
Bluetooth 4.0
GPS w/ aGPS support, GLONASS
3G/HSPA+ or LTE 100Mbps
micro-USB port
Li-Ion 4,360mAh battery
Android 4.2 Jellybean

For the camera itself:

20.3MP APS-C Sensor
Fast Hybrid AF System
ISO up to 25600
1/6000 second shutter speed
8.6fps burst frame rate
1080p @ 30fps video recording
720p @ 60fps video recording
Eye-level Electronic Viewfinder
Samsung DRIMeIV Image processor
Built-in Flash and Hotshoe connection

The Samsung Galaxy NX comes with a 18-55mm kit lens (as shown in photos above) with an expected release date sometime in 3rd quarter of 2013. No suggested retail price as of this writing.

Our best guess is that the expected price will be somewhere in the vicinity of Php36,990, almost the same as the Samsung NX300.

The post Samsung Galaxy NX officially announced! appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.