Samsung Australia has announced that it will be bringing the Galaxy S4 zoom smartphone to Australia. It is pretty much a lower-spec version of the Galaxy S4 – featuring a 1.5GHz dual core processor and a 4.3-inch display (compared to the S4’s quad-core/eight-core processor and 5-inch screen) – with a better camera than the flagship phone.
The biggest selling point of the Galaxy S4 zoom is the fact that it has a 16-megapixel lens, with 10x optical zoom and optical image stabilisation. It is more a successor to the Galaxy Camera, given the focus on the camera-side instead of the overall smartphone – except this time you can make calls while uploading pictures via the Instagram app. The smartphone will also include Samsung’s “Smart Mode” – automatically adjusting the camera to get the best shots.
Other hardware specs include 8GB of internal storage with a microSD card slot, 1.5GB of RAM, and a 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera. It will also include 4G LTE, NFC, and Bluetooth 4.0 + LE support.
The Galaxy S4 zoom will run Android 4.2 with a new addition to its TouchWiz interface. It has a new feature called “Zoom Ring”, which lets users activate certain features while in a call – so if you want to share a picture to the other person on the call, you can send a MMS message easily.
It will be available next week through selected Samsung retailers and through the Samsung Experience stores in Sydney and Melbourne for $699.