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For those that are leaving reviews based on what you've read or watched, please purchase the item first, use it for at least a couple weeks, and then give us your "user experience." We appreciate the help that you may be trying to accomplish, but if you haven't used the product how can you rate it? Anyway, below is my review of the product.
I'm sure you can find all the specs and un-boxing videos as well as picture quality reviews and so on all over the internet, so I won't waste your time typing about that. Instead I'll talk about my personal user experience and you can relate to it or not.
I took the GS4-Z (or "Ph-amera") for a spin when my wife decided to take us on a mini 5 day vacation. I have to say, this thing is pretty useful. It takes quality photos and at the same time, you can share the pictures with your personal network without having to upload it to a computer or swapping micro SD cards (Although swapping can preserve image quality). If you share images on Whatsapp or other messenger, the quality of the photos will decrease due to their file size limitation. Instead, I chose to send them through email, and they turned out very good. The 10x's optical zoom is great, just be sure to keep your hand steady or place the gadget on a tripod. NOTE: Don't plan on standing this on it's side like a common compact camera to take timed shots, as the curves make it impossible to position it like so without some type of assistance.
The camera is heavier and thicker than your average modern smartphone, so be prepared to have this brick swinging in your pocket should you decide to run. I'd say it's just about as heavy as the Galaxy Note 2. I wore the S4 Zoom around my neck with a metal camera lanyard (wrapped in clear rubber), and it worked out very nicely. I hear people complain about the plastic body, but the weight gives it a "quality" feel. Battery life is great when using it as a phone. You will however notice a drain if the back facing camera is used a lot. I'm planning to purchase a 2nd removable battery as a backup, so I'm not too worried.
If you're planning on using this on a car dash/window mount as a GPS or small viewing screen, start planning on doing heavy modifications or forget it at all. The lens on the phone (as thick as about 3 s4 minis) makes it really hard to fit on standard mounts. Again, I just used my neck lanyard (If you don't mind the occasional swing) on the rear view mirror, and it was fine. Just adjust it a bit shorter, or it'll crash into your window if you happen to slam on the brakes.
This device is definitely for a target audience. Currently the GS4 Zoom only comes in white, and although I enjoy the screen quality, many will not be pleased with the resolution provided. If you like thin light phones, this is definitely not it. There are many people that say this device is ugly, but I've handed this over to people to take our photo and they were intrigued! I've heard comments like sleek, nice, different, and very useful to name a few.
I'd recommend this camera to anyone on a budget,who no longer wants to carry a compact camera and a smartphone at the same time. You could get the Nokia Lumia 1020 ($700-$1000 No contract/Unlocked price estimate as of 8/2013), but for $400, the GS4 Zoom is a great quality buy at about half the price of the Lumia 1020.
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