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Samsung's Galaxy S4 Zoom official: 16-megapixel cameraphone with 10x optical zoom

Samsung's Galaxy S4 Zoom official: 16-megapixel cameraphone with 10x optical zoom

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Samsung is taking the wraps off its new Galaxy S4 Zoom variant today, the latest in a series of spinoffs for its flagship handset. The phone features a 10x optical zoom lens in front of its 16-megapixel CMOS sensor, with a Xenon flash for adding some extra light to your images.

Like we'd heard last week, the newest S4 has a 4.3-inch qHD (960x540) Super Amoled display and 1.5GHz dual-core processor, runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, and supports LTE. Predictably, it's big and heavy, at 208 grams and 15.4 millimeters thick — nearly double the thickness of the original Galaxy S4. It is, however, measurably slimmer than last year's Galaxy Camera, Samsung's first crack at adding an Android interface to a consumer point-and-shoot. Photographically speaking, things look similar between the two: both devices shoot at the same resolution and max out at ISO 3200, although the older Galaxy has a much longer 21x optical zoom range. Its lens is also slightly (less than a third of a stop) faster, at f/2.8-5.9, compared with the S4 Zoom's f/3.1-6.3 maximum aperture.


Samsung is taking its cameraphone public at the same time as details of Nokia's 41-megapixel 'EOS' Windows Phone are trickling out of Finland. So far there are no details on pricing, availability, or carrier partners for the S4 Zoom, but we'll be on the lookout for any additional information.