Are you wondering if this phone would be a good choice for you?

For me, it really comes down to only a view small factors:

• Size of the phone
• Zoom ability

I will explain:

This thing may say S4 and it seems as fast (even though the processor is slower) but its not an S4. It does not have the screen size, resolution on the LCD, the small form factor or SPEED. So why would you even consider the Galaxy S4 ZOOM???

Well, the phone does one thing and it does it well. IT TAKES EXCELLENT PHOTOS. Are the photos so much better that you should drop your S4 and replace it today. NO. The photos are pretty comparable in all instances except when you need to zoom in on your child riding a ride at the park, or anything that interests you outside of 5 feet basically.  Why is this? Well as the marketing of the phone probably already gave away, it has a HUGE Optical ZOOM lens getting you 10 times closer to anything you point at.

Zoom abilities are not good for group photos, but it does give you some creativeness with portraits or far away objects.  The Macro ability is also alot cleaner than the regular S4. Strikingly so when you look at the details at pixel level.

Overall the larger camera sensor allows slightly better macro and low light level photos. But it is nothing to write home about.  Where this camera really shines is the ability to ZOOM without any degradation. Digital zoom will never be as good as optical zoom for obvious reasons. If you find yourself wanting to take photos at a distance quite a bit, or wish you could get closer quite a bit, then this phone is worth it.

Otherwise for day to day photos, the Galaxy S4 works just fine while coming in a smaller package with a faster processor and bigger screen.

One thing I did not show here is the video capabilities of the ZOOM. It does take amazing videos and allows you to use the zoom during the whole video. Unfortunately you can hear the lens zooming in and out in the video so post processing will be required.

I am slightly sad that this phone is not as popular because I am a big fan of improving camera technology to the point it is easy to carry around. This thing is just too big. I am going to keep the ZOOM for now but am frankly tired of explaining the pros and cons to everyone that asks ‘WHAT THE !?!?! IS THAT”

I would much rather see an even LARGER SENSOR and an expensive prime lens instead of a zoom lens.