Samsung announces Galaxy K Zoom smartphone for picture taking

Samsung made the leap into high-end camera smartphones when it launched the Galaxy S4 Zoom last year, and now it is adding to that range after it announced the Galaxy K Zoom, a smartphone that sports a 10x optical zoom and 20.7 megapixel BSI CMOS sensor. The K Zoom is much like a Galaxy S5 in many ways. It has the same look and includes a 4.8 inch HD Super AMOLED display and Android KitKat, but it packs significantly boosted photo features.

Even though smartphone cameras have improved a lot over the years, there’s one feature that “real” cameras still hold over them: an optical zoom. That is, unless your phone happens to be the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom, which has a lens that extends from the back of the camera to bring distant objects up close. How close? The lens magnifies up to a decent 10x, or pretty much exactly the same as last year’s Galaxy S4 Zoom, Samsung’s first attempt at an optical zoom-equipped smartphone. However, where the S4 Zoom was a bulky mess that barely fit in a pants pocket, the Galaxy K Zoom is more phone than camera phone. At 7 ounces and 0.80 of an inch thick, the K Zoom is impressively compact considering the technology on board.