Zoom in with style

Photos account for 54 percent of all posts on Facebook. And on Twitter majority of all images posted are those of lunches never to be eaten but only to be admired. Which explains why the mostly average cameraphones are so popular.  You get to carry them with you to snap the instant selfies. Cameras are bulky business.
Samsung released their latest marriage of phone and camera with the K Zoom. Precious attempts have been bulky and absolutely failed the pocket test. You need a purse (man AND woman) to carry those. This new unit seems to have hit the sweet spot between form and functionality.
Powered by an Exynos 5260 Hexacore processor, it has two fast Cortex-A15 cores running at 1.7GHz and four lesser powered Cortex-A7 cores at 1.3GHz. The by-now-standard 2GB RAM is added to provide a smooth experience to be viewed on the 4.8 inch 306ppi display. Which all spell out a wonderful mid-range spec. But what this phone is really about is the camera.
The camera unit is a terrific mid-range point-and-click device with a 1/2.3" sensor; the 20.7MP resolution should keep the size-matters crowd happy. The 24mm lens is reasonably wide with aperture ranging from ranging from f/3.1 to f/6.3 in conjunction with its 10x optical zoom. There's also a powerful xenon flash that properly albeit a little harshly lights up the darkness. An LED is available for assisting in focusing in low light conditions. It can shoot video too at 1080p max. Obviously, anything less will not do these days.
The camera software has a whole lot of features too numerous to mention. Suffice to say it is exhaustive for a camera phone. There are plenty of 'auto' features that take advantage of certain situations and help to promote certain situation like portraits of certain colors in landscapes. The 2MP front facing camera is kind of meagre for selfies but you can turn it around and let the camera detect your face for that perfect high-res selfies for Facebook. Not only that you can use the remote viewfinder app to use another phone to see what the KZoom sees from a distance by hooking up over Wi-Fi. For those preferring a bit more control, Program and Manual modes offering different levels of manual control over exposure, ISO, aperture and shutter speed
At just about 0.65 inch thick with the lens fully retracted, it still makes for a thick phone but one that now easily passes our 'pocket-test'. The dimensions are roughly that of the S4 and the rounded edges mean the phone slips into pockets easily.
So what's your option? There's really not much like this out there. It's a heavy and slightly thick phone. But it provides excellent image quality and video along with a good phone experience. The screen is sharp and the new UI with its streamlined look is fluid.

Verdict

Is this a daily driver? We tried it out for several weeks now. You get used to the heft very quickly. Samsung has made the design as sleek as possible while incorporating a quality zoom lens. The design actually looks sleek and continuous. The camera responds quickly with a flick up of the camera icon from the lock screen. And its performance for those group shots and travel pictures is second to none in the world of smartphones. For those that want a quality snapper without the additional bulk of a separate point-and-click shooter, this is it.

SPECS

Display: Super AMOLED, 720 x 1280, 4.8"(~306 ppi)
Processor: 1.7GHz Dual + 1.3GHz Quad
Operating System: Android 4.4.2
RAM: 2 GB, ROM: 8 GB
Camera: Primary- 20.7 MP, 5248 х 3936 pixels, 10x optical zoom, Xenon & LED flash, Secondary- 2.0 Mega pixels
Sensors: Motion sensors: Accelerometer, Proximity, Gyro sensor etc
Battery Capacity: 2430 mAh
Price: Tk. 47,000/-