Flashback: Samsung Galaxy S4 zoom, the phone that was above all a camera

Back in the days before multiple cameras, before periscope lenses and NPUs, the only way smartphones knew how to zoom was digitally and usually with poor results because they had small, low resolution sensors (well, there was p>

that one Nokia

, but we are not going there now).

the

Zoom Samsung Galaxy S4

Goed for the classic zoom approach – having a lens that can change its focal length. From the back, this camera was nearly indistinguishable from your typical point-and-shoot camera.

Official photos of the Samsung Galaxy S4 zoom

From the front, however, it was clearly a

Galaxy S4 mini

. The S4 Zoom isn't the first phone-camera hybrid, it's not even Samsung's first. the

W880 AMOLED 12M

(just take a second to admire that name) came out in 2009 - a 3G phone with a 12MP rear camera, 3x optical zoom and xenon flash (and yes, an AMOLED display). Then, in 2012, Samsung unveiled the

Galaxy Camera

, which ran on Android, although it lacked the “phone” part.

The mid-2013 Zoom S4 is one of the first Android-powered camera phone hybrids. Modern social networking was still in its infancy (especially on mobile), but the advantage of combining the superior image quality (and zooming capabilities) of a compact camera with the selection of apps of a smartphone was very promising.

Let's see what we have to work with. The lens could sweep from 24mm to 240mm, with a 10x optical zoom. And it was a smooth transition too, unlike modern telecameras with fixed focal lengths that jump between zoom levels and use digital zoom for the steps in between.

It's the feature that gave the phone its name and there are still no phones that can match its 240mm focal length. The Huawei P40 Pro+ is supposed to

get there

later this year, but it will have a much smaller sensor behind that periscope lens.

What a difference with the 10x zoom

The Galaxy S4 zoom had a 16MP sensor that was quite large for the time, 1/2.33". For comparison, the Galaxy S4 had a 1/3.1" sensor, the iPhone 5s a 1 /3.0". The camera also benefited from optical image stabilization, which was almost non-existent at the time - the Nokia Lumia 920 released a few months earlier was the first phone to have it.

The Samsung also had xenon flash, a feature that phones evolved from as they strived to be thinner and thinner. But that wasn't a problem for this phone, the mechanized retractable lens set a lower limit on the thinness of the device. It ended up being 15.4mm thick (although impressively the same height and width as the S4 mini).

The Galaxy S4 Zoom wasn't a slim phone

The camera interface was borrowed from the Galaxy Camera. It mimicked the rings of a DSLR lens and managed to be both intuitive and fast.

In fact, the phone had its own lens ring. It could be used to zoom in and out (strangely it couldn't be configured to change manual settings). It also served as a quick launch shortcut, allowing you to select a specific mode instead of searching for it in the settings menu.

The lens ring can be used to launch the camera in a specific mode

You can change the lens aperture. It was only two steps, but it was still twice that of most phones on offer. At 24mm you could set it to f/3.1 or f/8.8, at the longest focal length of 240mm your choices were a weak f/6.3 and a fine f/17.8 slow.

However, you had control over that, shutter speed and ISO and so on. Samsung has included detailed menu explanations to help newcomers. It was never going to replace a DSLR, but it was a great practice camera.

There was an Info button that explained basic terminology • Manual controls in Expert mode

If you just wanted to shoot in Auto mode, there were several Smart and Expert modes that configured the right settings and let you enjoy the moment.

Smart Modes • Smart Suggest

The Remote Viewfinder feature let you connect to the Galaxy S4 Zoom over Wi-Fi and control the camera with another phone (complete with a video feed from the viewfinder).

Overall, image quality benefited from the large sensor and good quality optics, but it wasn't spectacular. The zooming capabilities, however, were unmatched. The camera even offered the silent zoom function, which let you zoom in and out freely during video capture, without worrying that the sound of the lens motor would also be recorded.

Phew, it took a while, but the camera part is covered. And the phone? The external similarities with the S4 mini are obvious, and the screen was the same – a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED with a resolution of 540 x 960px. The excellent sunlight readability really helped with outdoor photography (there was no viewfinder, the screen was all you had to frame your shot).

The phone was powered by a different chipset, however, with a dual-core Cortex-A9 processor, which was noticeably slower than the mini's Snapdragon chipset's dual Krait 300 processor. The Mali-400 GPU actually stood up to the Adreno.

The battery was another difference, this time the advantage goes to the S4 zoom - 2,330 mAh versus 1,900 mAh. The extra capacity was needed because there was a lens zoom motor and xenon flash to power.

The lens sticking out of the back made this device quite clumsy to hold as a phone, but the grip made it perfectly nice to operate as a camera. There was even a tripod mount at the bottom, which clearly shows that the hardware design is more camera than phone.

The S4 Zoom was clunky to hold as a phone, but comfortable as a camera

Inside was Android 4.2 Jelly Bean (and later 4.4 KitKat), topped with TouchWiz, so all smartphone features were at your fingertips. An advanced image editor and a simple but powerful video editor were just a few advantages over a regular compact camera.

Preloaded photo and video editors

And if you weren't happy with the ones Samsung had pre-installed, the full Play Store was open to you. Snapseed came to Android the previous year, as did Instagram. What else could you find there? Facebook and Twitter, of course, allowing you to directly share photos and videos. WhatsApp, Skype and Viber too, you name it.

There have been zoom sequels, like the Galaxy K Zoom (based on the S5) and the Galaxy NX, an Android-powered mirrorless camera with an APS-C sensor and interchangeable lenses using the NX mount. This one was more of a sequel to the Galaxy Camera, as it lacked telephony.

After that, things stopped, even Sony ditched their "lens cameras", which

made their debut. the same year

than the S4 zoom. These also used traditional point-and-shoot camera hardware, albeit packaged as an external accessory instead of built into a phone. It offered more flexibility, but the demand just wasn't there.

We can't say for sure why the Samsung Galaxy S4 zoom and similar phones failed. Was it the clunky material? That smartphone cameras keep getting better, even without a retractable lens? Or just that running Android apps on a compact camera (which is also a clunky phone) wasn't so great after all?