Despite the poor sales and lackluster reviews of the original Galaxy Camera and the Galaxy S4 Zoom, Samsung is marching ahead with its smartphone/camera hybrid line. We’re happy to see that the concept isn’t dead, but from the information Samsung has released we may see the same old issues cropping back up.
Our biggest gripe with the S4 Zoom was that it simply wasn’t good enough to justify its size. In our camera-showdown it only just edged-out the Lumia 1020; a much smaller device that easily fits in the pocket.
When we compared it to a much-smaller (and much older) dedicated digital camera, the Canon IXUS 100, we found the S4 Zoom couldn’t quite compete. Ultimately this left us with a device that was too fat to be a smartphone and much bigger than a cheaper camera of better quality.
It should be said that the Galaxy Camera 2 is the successor to the original Galaxy Camera and not the S4 Zoom, so the hardware components and target demographic are different. Size-wise it’s still big enough that it’ll have to take on the market as a camera first and smartphone second.
Camera first
The Camera 2 appears to be using the same 16MP image sensor with 21x optical zoom as the original Galaxy Camera. This may be a problem.
The original Galaxy Camera failed to outstrip its contemporary Galaxy S3 in camera head-on tests.
This was both embarrassing and good for Samsung.
In one hand you had the new GS3 flagship with picture quality so fantastic that it defeated a device with a massive lens system. In the other you had a huge camera-centric device that failed to defeat a smartphone with a compact lens.
Worries aside, the image sensor isn’t everything. If Samsung has improved the lenses on the new Galaxy Camera 2 then it may very well prove to be the camera/smartphone that we’ve been hoping to see for two years now.
Retro is sexy
The Camera 2 definitely gets points for design. Samsung has gone for a retro look that really caught our eye. It’s also been slimmed-down a fair bit compared to the original in weight and size, but still not enough that you’d want to switch your every-day phone for it.
Under the hood
Other specs for the Camera 2 include the same 4.8 inch 720p display as the original, a battery boost from 1650mAh up to 2000mAh, a quad-core 1.6GHz processor up from 1.4GHz, NFC, 50GB of Dropbox storage for 2 years, 2GB of RAM, Android 4.3, and a 8GB of on-board storage with a MicroSD slot for expansion.
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