The function of optical zooming is really rare in smartphone cameras due to its appearances and dimensions now. The manufactures need to provide a better optical performance and make a new gimmick to attract consumers. As a result, a novel VCM actuator with optical zoom for smartphone cameras is proposed in this paper, it has a simpler structure when compared to stepping motor smartphone cameras. The paper presents a segmented magnetic equivalent circuit method to analyze the magnetic characteristics of proposed VCM actuator and further verified by a commercial finite element model software. Furthermore, the performance of the proposed optical zoom VCM actuator was verified by constructing a laboratory-built prototype, the experimental results shows that the proposed VCM actuator has good positioning accuracy and good dynamic response.