Samsung has officially announced the Galaxy K Zoom and it's not just a successor to the Galaxy S4 Zoom released last year.

The Samsung Galaxy K Zoom represents the start of an all-new product line for Samsung, one that Pocket-lint was told will co-exist alongside the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note products. Devices in the Galaxy K series will specifically focus on the imaging side of smartphones and this first release is a flagwaver for that philosophy.

It sports a 10x optical zoom lens and 20.7-megapixel BSI CMOS sensor. The lens is capable of 24-240mm at full zoom, F/3.1-6.3. There is additional digital zoom functionality too, optical image stabilisation, ISO 100-3200, and Full HD video recording functionality at 50fps in the UK, 60fps in US. It can also go from lock screen to shooting in just 0.3 seconds and image processing is performed on a dedicated chip.

On the rear, alongside the lens, is a xenon flash and AF assist LED. The front-facing camera has a 2-megapixel sensor.

Other than the standout camera features, of which there are many, the phone itself comes with a Samsung-made Hexa core Exynos processor, made up of 1.3GHz quad-core and 1.7GHz dual-core processors. It has 2GB of RAM, 8GB of storage space - with a microSD card slot capable of expanding that by up to a further 64GB - and comes pre-loaded with Android 4.4 KitKat.

READ: Hands-on: Samsung Galaxy K Zoom review

The screen marks the phone as a mid-range device perhaps, as it utilises a 4.8-inch 1280 x 720 Super AMOLED panel, but the Galaxy K Zoom is a 4G handset with NFC and other features you would expect on a higher specified phone.

A 2,430mAh battery provides the power, while dimensions are 137.5 x 70.8 x 16.6mm (at its thinnest point). Even at the phone's thickest point, it's just 20.2mm, so nowhere near as chunky as the Galaxy S4 Zoom or many compact cameras.

A whole army of camera software features are pre-installed, including AE/AF Separation, which enables you to choose separate autofocus and auto exposure points on a scene to ensure elements of the shot are as well exposed as they are sharp. There are also 28 smart modes, including Pro Suggest, a mode that will give you the option of different smart modes based on the scene presented before the camera.

There is also a Kids mode and Samsung's own S Health Lite software, which provides fitness tracking functionality.

Pricing for the Galaxy K Zoom is yet to be determined, but Samsung told us that it will be available from the end of May in three colours: charcoal black, shimmery white and electric blue.