Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom review

Is it a phone? Is it a camera? Do you care?

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom review
Zoom! ZOOM! ZOOM! It's still a phone though.

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The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom doesn't give you the same wealth of video options as it does photo options, but it's still a more than capable little shooter.

It can shoot in 1080p at 30fps, but if you'd prefer you can drop the quality down to 720p (or lower) and have it shoot in 60fps.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom review

There are also a couple of sound options such as quiet zoom and windcut, both of which go some way to removing background sounds. You can also mute the microphone altogether if you'd rather shoot a silent video.

To start or stop shooting you just tap the camcorder icon on the screen, at which point it's mostly point and shoot- though you can zoom in and out while shooting or pause the video.

We found close ups with the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom worked ok. Get too close though and it really struggles, but things a bit further out (though still close) aren't bad at all.

Landscapes come out impressively well, with the foreground in particular looking good. Detail does start to fade further into the background though and it can also do a decent job of capturing fast moving objects. There's minimal motion blur even when shooting high speed traffic.

James Rogerson

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.