Both Panasonic ZS1 and Samsung SL30 have 10.0 MP resolution sensors but Panasonic ZS1's sensor is 1/2.5-inch (5.744 x 4.308 mm ) and Samsung SL30's sensor is 1/2.3-inch (6.08 x 4.56 mm ).
Since Samsung SL30's has a larger sensor area with the same resolution, this means that it also has a larger pixel area hence better light collecting capacity for a given aperture compared to Panasonic ZS1.
Below you can see the ZS1 and SL30 sensor size comparison.
As seen above, Samsung SL30 has a 1.1x Larger sensor area than Panasonic ZS1. Larger sensors give photographer more control on the depth of field and blurry background compared to smaller sensor when shot in same focal length and aperture.