The cell phone with a 10x zoom

 

Samsung continues to try to push the boundaries of cell phone photography by integrating an optical zoom lens. The Galaxy S4 Zoom was not well received, likely due to its 28mm thickness. Try, try, trying again, they have announced the Galaxy Zoom K. Notably, it is just 18mm thick. That is, admittedly still a bit thick by cell phone standards. The Galaxy S5 is 8.1mm. But that extra 9.9mm does get you a 24-240 equivalent lens, which is impressive.

Ranging from F3.1 to 6.3, the lens is a bit on the slow side, but that will be somewhat mitigated in non-action situations with the optical image stabilization. The rest of the hardware is solid, if not groundbreaking. You have a 4.8 inch screen, six core CPU, 2GB RAM, and the usual radios.  It will be interesting to see if the idea can catch on, bringing some of the other manufacturers into the expanded camera capabilities game. You can find more info and pictures at DPReview.