Welcome back to part 3 of my review of the Samsung K Zoom. To recap on specs and a video highlighting the K Zoom click here https://gavinsgadgets.wordpress.com/2014/04/29/introducing-the-new-samsung-galaxy-k-zoom-video/

To recap and part 1 of the Samsung K Zoom click here https://gavinsgadgets.wordpress.com/2014/06/02/samsung-k-zoom-review-part-1/ and part 2 click here https://gavinsgadgets.wordpress.com/2014/06/03/samsung-k-zoom-review-part-2/

To see the full resolution photos shown below head over to my Flickr K Zoom album. There are other shots there too https://www.flickr.com/photos/gavinfabl100/sets/72157644532639249/

Let me start by saying this will be a longer than normal article and will be the only one today as a consequence. Well, apart from a 10 x zoom separate post.

Over the last few days I mentioned some issues with phone signal strength. I live on Dartmoor, and phone signal inside my home can be zero, one or two bars at most. The K Zoom was losing signal often and seemed to be weaker when out and about. However, after discussing with @stevelitchfield, @1pynt21gigawatt @mobilemandan and @richardcyates on twitter, we came up with a setting adjustment which seems to make a marked improvement. In other network settings, I changed the network from auto select carrier to selecting my carrier 3 UK, and then the band to just WCDMA instead of LTE, WCDMA and GSM. Simple, but effective. It is still not the strongest signal, but it now has signal more times than not!

This in turn left me investigating my universal GPS mount and realised the side arms moved up and down as well as inwards. So I have now tested the GPS and this works fine, especially as I have resolved the signal strength to an acceptable working level.

So from top to bottom, Camera widget, My Magazine which is accessed by swiping to the left on the first home screen, and finally, my main home screen with folder and widgets. The Camera widget is very useful for accessing key camera and photo apps.

On board Samsung have included the latest version of Camera Studio.

Camera studio is an excellent photo editing app with loads of options. With this app you really should not need another photo editing app. Any amendments can be saved as a high resolution 8mp or lower 5mp file.

The Pro Suggest Market app is where you can download shooting mode effects based on what the camera identifies your scene to be. You can either when shooting photos let the K Zoom give you a range or options or use your own. More on that below.

I mentioned in part 1 of my review there was nearly no Samsung bloatware. Well, there is an optional My Galaxy app to download with only Samsung Apps installed. Below is screen shot of My Galaxy and the Galaxy Gifts available for the K Zoom. Warning if you have used some of the free trials already on another Samsung device, you may not get the full trial periods on offer if they have expired. If so, use a different email for your Samsung account.

Now on to the camera options. 27 shooting modes. You can manage which ones you want displayed, and whether a grid or not.

And of course you can manage the modes as mentioned above.

Below are screen shots of the camera settings available.

As you can see from above, selecting the Pro Suggest mode and half pressing the camera shutter button and releasing brings up some suggestions based on the shot in the view finder. Apart from the pre selected modes you can choose Program or Manual mode. The manual range of adjustments in these modes offers a finer control as shown below.

So lets take a look at the impact of using the Zoom feature. Standing in the same spot I took the following 3 shots. One of the front view of Exeter Cathedral, then a close up of the front architecture and finally the top spire which I could have zoomed in even closer!

If you want to see some more examples from the camera click here for my Flickr album https://www.flickr.com/photos/gavinfabl100/sets/72157644532639249/

I have also taken many other photos in all conditions from darkness to daylight and all have been good shots. Without a doubt, this phone is one of the best, if not best cameras on any phone at this time. To give you an idea of its benchmarking score see screen shot below.

Even with some of the issues or weaknesses it has, I am more than likely going to carry on using this as my main device or driver and end up selling the Samsung S5.

In a few weeks time, I will report back with my feelings to see if anything has changed.

Welcome back to my Samsung K Zoom review. If you want to read part 1 again, click here https://gavinsgadgets.wordpress.com/2014/06/02/samsung-k-zoom-review-part-1/

Yesterday, I covered off how it felt moving from a flagship Samsung Galaxy S5 to the Samsung K Zoom, some initial setup observations and a link to a few photos.

I have now been using the phone solidly since Saturday, so that is 3.5 days solid. I have taken nearly 1000 photos on it to see what sort of results I get using different modes. I have also been using as a phone to make phone calls. In terms of in call quality this appeared fine, but what I have noticed is its phone signal strengths is not as strong as the Samsung S5. In my kitchen, the reception is dreadful. It flakes on and off. My wife’s iPhone 5S generally has no signal for 50% of the time. Well the K Zoom is the same. The S5 can hold the signal for 80% of the time, and make a call without dropping it either. Otherwise, as a phone it is ok. Just to highlight it still has options for scheduled SMS messages and Ultra Power Saving Mode first seen on the S5.

Talking about battery, the 720p screen seems to be a godsend. Taking several hundred photos and having all sorts of notifications and push email active, the battery got me through to around 10pm from a 6.30am start. I am happy with that. I was asked if I experienced any heat build up. I haven’t. However a 7 hour snooze with phone on standby, battery dropped by 18%.

With regards to the camera photo shots from the K Zoom, these seem natural in reproduction. If you compare the photos versus those taken on the S5, my S5 photos seem to pop out with great colours. Most of these are using the excellent HDR mode. The K Zoom does not go mad on the contrast and it takes getting used to the difference. Also the S5 panoramic mode is also better as it can take 20mb sized shots with ease. The K Zoom are around 5-6.5mb. The other factor with the S5, its waterproof meaning you can take great shots still in the rain. I would not want to do that with the K Zoom. But the S5 strengths are really good light HDR and macro shots. The S5 HDR mode is also capable of shooting nearly straight into the sun with no lens flare. You can’t do that on the K Zoom. Whereas the K Zoom does not care what the environment is. It takes a good shot. I have also found that after taking a photo on the K Zoom, I am able to crop in with so much better detail. And having the optical zoom is absolutely amazing.

So as a comparison to see what I mean re the S5 HDR shots have a look at my S5 flickr album https://www.flickr.com/photos/gavinfabl100/sets/72157643875623354/

And now look at my K Zoom album, which now has even more photos since yesterday. https://www.flickr.com/photos/gavinfabl100/sets/72157644532639249/

Tip – I know many of you use Macs and transferring photos from an android phone to a mac is a PITA. However, there is an android app called WiFi Explorer Pro. Open the app, type the URL address as shown on whatever web browser you use on your Mac. And voila. You can copy anything from the mac or K Zoom. You can access all the folders both on the internal storage and micro sd card. When you download an entire camera roll, you click into the download all box, and it creates a zip on the Mac download folder. It is as simple as that.

The K Zoom has a shooting mode called Pro Suggest. Basically, you half press the shutter button and release. A suggestion of Pro shooting modes/filters appear. You can then try out all sorts of effects. You can also head over to the Samsung Pro Suggest market and download you own modes. They are hundreds to choose from. This is a really smart feature, as it makes anyone be able to take creative quality photos. Of course, they are another 26 shooting modes from macro, waterfall and HDR to select. As mentioned, yesterday, I will cover these off shortly.

I mentioned I was suffering constant crashing. Since realising that exiting the camera by pressing the home button, instead of the back button, I now have not had any more crashes. And that is a relief. I also have not suffered slow downs or any general lag. I am using Touchwiz. What I have noticed is that viewing photos on the K Zoom seem a little dull whereas on the S5 they explode into vivid colours. Thats the 720p screen versus the incredible 1080p screen on the S5 for you!

Well no issues until I connected Bluetooth headphones to listen to music and then check some web pages, twitter, hangouts and more. The music stuttered occasionally and a few times actually stopped playing and disconnected my headphones. Simply ran out of memory to multitask this way. Clearly the phone in my mind is setup to maximise camera performance at the cost of other apps.

I nearly dropped the phone shooting yesterday in Exeter. I was holding the phone trying to take a vertical photo. The weight balance changes dramatically, so I recommend finding a lanyard and attaching it asap. It is a shame that Samsung felt it was not necessary to include. Otherwise, the phone is superb to hold. Also, as the phone was pre ordered, Samsung were meant to have sent a free case which has not arrived yet. That would have been handy to have had already. Also, there are no accessories available for it yet. A spare battery as it’s a camera based phone surely should be available. Maybe, these will arrive in the next month or so.

Talking of gripping the phone , my in car universal gps mount cannot be used as it touches the power and camera buttons on the side, when tightening the sides. So no turn by turn navigation for me at present.

Tomorrow, I will look at more aspects of the K Zoom. On Saturday I felt like returning the phone. I was suffering crashes. The photos I took towards the sun had lens flare that I would not have got with the S5 and overall I was feeling a little disappointed.

But 4 days later, I have a slightly different view. The K Zoom is starting to grow on me more and more but I’m not sure whether some of the sacrifices can be lived with. I thought the low user memory would be the key reason not to keep this phone. That’s ok as it turns out. The Bluetooth issue, gps mounting, poor phone reception and average audio quality are niggling me. Just for the record, I have been using this since Saturday as my main phone. My Samsung S5 is boxed up in a drawer. I hope Samsung release a software update to fix the issues.

I really would like this to be my main phone. It offers something quite unique but at a sacrifice on a few other items.