I hope you have enjoyed the first 2 parts of the S4 Zoom review and early impressions. To recap on those parts click here.

Today, I am going to cover off some of the issues I have encountered. I probably won’t be able to stretch and test the camera due to the rainy UK weather until the weekend.

So in no particular order these are the issues or observations –

– battery life is fairly reasonable so far. I have used the S4 Zoom constantly and I can get through a day from 6am to 10pm. But no more. That is with using the camera, a few calls, twitter, blog, lots of stuff syncing and Internet. In fairness the battery is fairly hefty and I have 90 apps installed.

– the battery is removable but I cannot so far find anywhere even from Samsung that is selling the battery. In the long term, I would definitely want a spare battery kept with me especially if I was going to be snapping loads of photos.

– charging – thankfully regardless of whether via mains or USB the phone seems to charge fairly quickly.

– car GPS mount – my universal mount can’t handle the depth of the S4 Zoom and in my brief hunt for a new one cannot find anything. Any suggestions would be grateful.

– cases – you must be having a laugh, I have only found one case on eBay which is a silicone type affair for £3.90. It looks shocking, but it is better than nothing. Samsung are meant to have a bespoke case for this device, but nothing is available yet. In fact accessories for this device are going to be few and far between.

– story album – Samsung include an app called Story Album. You select some photos and make an album which you can then get printed and posted to yourself. Except, you select the photos and nothing further happens. Apparently, Samsung have suggested I need to hard reset my phone and some software I have installed might be clashing with it. Well no chance of that for a while until I have tested everything I need, and then I might try again. But I reckon its the app.

– auto focus on the camera – maybe me, but sometimes it seems to struggle to auto focus. I need more time to test camera but indoors this is what I have observed.

– camera – talking of the camera, I need to familiarise myself with the options, but strangely I did find the HTC One concept of taking photos much easier as with the HTC One you didn’t worry about which mode you just took the photo and edited it afterwards

– photos – no question about it, you get a decent quality photo. Optical zoom is brilliant being on your phone as often you do need to zoom in to a photo. I have captured views that no other phone could have managed due to optical zoom. Digital zoom is useless in comparison.

– speed – it takes about 1.5- 2.0 seconds to take the first photo from pressing the camera icon and then using shutter button. The HTC One could have taken 20 photos in the meantime, albeit much lower quality. As the S4 Zoom is more like the S4 Mini it’s processor is not as powerful. I don’t get any issues with its speed, and it is not slow, but then it is not fast like the HTC One. You do get the odd slow down, but it is odd ones and has no impact is usage. Makes you wonder if we really need Snapdragon 800 processors!

– voice control – you have the ability to control many apps by voice. Sometimes it works very well, and sometimes it is a bit hit and miss

– screen – it comes with a lower resolution screen than the standard S4 and you do notice the difference. Put the S4 Zoom side by side to the HTC One and it really shows how incredible the HTC One screen is. It’s a real wow moment. In addition, the S4 Zoom just isn’t a bright screen compared to the HTC One.

– shape, size and weight – it’s heavy. And you notice it in shirt front pockets but it fits with ease. Mainly as its not too wide or too tall. It’s fairly comfy in the hand due to its curves, but the Zoom lens does get in the way sometimes. I’m getting used to it though

– sound – loud and good audio quality, so makes for a good MP3 player, or for listening to podcasts over the loud speaker.

– no notification led – it got none, and no light for charging state either.

In reality you have a camera with a smartphone attached. It’s a good combo as you can do nearly anything and achieve high quality photos. It is still early days, and the main camera test is yet to be done.

If you have any questions, please ask. I should have all the answers.

Anyway, here is a photo taken last night. Zoomed in and cropped.