Samsung Galaxy S4
The Samsung Galaxy S4 looks very similar to its predecessor, Galaxy S3. But, evolution kept only some design works of S3- the rest got bigger in S4. Galaxy S4 is Samsungs flagship device of 2013 and one of the most popular smartphone in the market. It excels in almost all aspects- mind-blowing display, impressive camera, great battery life, fast and powerful CPU and a never ending list of features. The familiar Samsung design doesnt attract all especially when it comes in usual plastic body. The features of S4- as I said- is never ending and most of them are not essential, while some are extremely useful.
Update: 15 Dec 2013
The Google Play Edition Samsung Galaxy S4 has received an update to Android 4.4.2 KitKat.BUILD / DESIGN
The Samsung Galaxy S4 looks very similar to its predecessor, Galaxy S3. The design is almost the same and one may even confuse it as S3 from a distance. Its size is also almost the same as that of S3 and if you note precisely its a bit thinner and weighs less(wont even notice the minute differences). But, Galaxy S4 got a 5inch display and the bezel surrounding the display is slimmer. Galaxy S4 comes in dimensions of 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9 mm and weighs only 130g.
From the front, the Galaxy S4s screen is not beveled but, is flatter compared to the Galaxy S III. The phones front panel is surrounded by a chrome frame, which gives a premium feel to the otherwise staid form factor. The sensor array, notification light, front camera and earpiece grill are above the screen. Below the screen of S4 features the usual physical Home button and two capacitive touch buttons for Menu and Back controls. The plastic used on the home key has been upgraded, with a more solid feel under the thumb.
The phone is solidly built from polycarbonate materials but, doesnt feel alluring when compared to its competitors. It retains the familiar round design of samsung devices. The phone is available in a variety of colours- White Frost, Black Mist, Blue Arctic, Brown Autumn, Purple Mirage, Red Aurora and Pink Twilight. It appears to retain the same glossy plastic finish as S3, but theres a fine diamond pattern beneath the gloss surface. The back with pseudo textured finish on the glossy plastic surface, attracts a lot of fingerprints.
The power button is on the right-hand side and the volume rocker on the left. Both the volume and power/lock buttons are metallic-looking polycarbonate. There is a infra red blaster on the top of the phone alongside the 3.5mm headset jack. Micro-USB port is at the bottom and the camera lens, LED flash and speaker on the back side. The back is removable, which hides the SIM card and microSD card slots, NFC module and the battery.
DISPLAY
The Galaxy S4 features a full-HD 5-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080x1920 pixels that packs 441 pixels per inch. The display is protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 3. This is the first smartphone to use an AMOLED display with a Full HD resolution. While most are not attracted by Galaxy S4s design; Its Display nails it with color saturation, contrast and sharp details.
SOFTWARE / INTERFACE
Samsung Galaxy S4 runs on Android 4.2.2(Jelly Bean) and is upgradable to v4.3 (Jelly Bean). Over the Android is the very highly customized Touch Wiz- Samsungs own UI that includes custom apps in addition to a skinned interface. The interface may not attract all and it may even feel outdated for some, But theres a lot of stunning features that simplifies ones life, work, passion- whatever and keeps one busy entertained and experimenting. It may even keep them busy remembering- Which was which!
Users can enable lock screen widgets and shortcuts that allow them to unlock directly into their respective apps. Users can select the familiar Ripple effect or the new Light effect as the unlock animation. The app plus widgets drawer lets you arrange app shortcuts as per your own preference or alphabetically. The drop down notification tray features a settings shortcut, a clear all notifications button and expandable notifications along with toggles for 20 settings. Long pressing the Home button takes you to the app switcher where you can access the task manager or Google now shortcut. Double pressing the Home key launches S-Voice- Samsungs voice assistant and long pressing the Menu key launches Search.
Samsung Galaxy S4 comes with pre-loaded apps like S Planner, Voice Recorder, ChatOn, Samsung Apps app store, Samsung Hub content store, Samsung Link, WatchON, S Translator, Optical Reader, S Memo, S Health, Story Album and Group Play. S Health is a fitness-tracking app and Samsung Hub is a content store that offers video, books, games and learning content. The WatchOn app allows you to use the phones IR blaster as a universal remote. The S Translator supports speech to text and text-to-text translation for English, French, German, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese and Korean. The Group Play feature allows you to transfer and instantly view or play documents, music files, photos, and other content to other Galaxy S4- connected to the same Wi-Fi network- with just a simple tap. With the Story Album app you can create narrative albums with photos and text, and print (buy) a photo book through the service Blurb.
In the Galaxy S4, tilting the screen up or down while looking at it scrolls you up or down(Smart Scroll) and the Smart Pause feature pauses the video when you look away and resumes it again when you focus back on the screen. Smart Stay feature keeps the screen on as long as youre looking at it. The Eye-tracking software lets you move the cursor or text with the the movement of your eyes and the software knows when youre paying attention and when you avert your gaze. The Easy mode replaces your home screens and reskins some critical apps to pare down the quantity of confusing options. The phone also offers voice commands for accepting and rejecting calls, taking pictures and controlling music.
With Air View feature, hover your finger and you can preview a image or video clip from the gallery, glance at browser tab thumbnails, check out an e-mail, find your place on a video timeline, get a closer look in speed dial and magnify calendar events. you can wave or wipe your whole hand in front of the screen (and the camera sensor) to navigate around. Air gestures can track the users hand up to 7cm and only native apps that support them. The Galaxy S4 is the first phone to feature Knox- Samsungs latest security layer that gives you easy access to your personal and corporate profiles so you can use your own phone in a business capacity.
Theres a lot of features and apps included in S4. You may confuse one with other, for a while. Some features work slowly, may be because the phones sensors take time to initialise and some like the Smart Scroll are hit and miss. But, most features and apps does an impressive work.
CAMERA
Samsung Galaxy S4 sports a 13MP rear camera and a 2MP front camera and both these sensors does a fantastic job. Photos taken using the rear camera in day light and artificial light excels in amount of detail and accurate colour reproduction. Galaxy S4 cameras major weakness is low-light shots. The photos under low light are good to an extend, but doesnt match up with the low-light performance of the HTC One.
Both the front and rear cameras are capable of 1080p videos of good quality; front camera with 30fps and rear one with 60fps. Both cameras are capable of dual video feature. Samsung Galaxy S4 camera features usual features like Dual Shot, Simultaneous HD video and image recording, geo-tagging, touch and auto focus, face and smile detection, image stabilization, HDR and LED flash. The burst mode can be activated by by simply holding down the on-screen shutter button. The S4s camera app provides a lot of customisation options.
There are lot of special photo modes you can experiment with and they are really usefull. With the Dual Shot mode, S4 uses both the front and back cameras to simultaneously capture two images, which it combines into a single image. The Animated Photo mode takes a short video clip, identifies moving parts from the results and then allows you to freeze or animate those while the rest of the frame remains still. The Eraser effect lets you remove unwanted moving elements in a shot by combining five shots together. Drama Shot overlays one pic on top of another so you have multiple images of your subject in one shot.
Best Photo is a simple burst mode that takes a short burst of eight shots and then you can pick which of them (if any) you want to keep by putting a thumbs up on a thumbnail. Best Face uses face detection and takes five shots in quick succession and then you can choose which face you want from each shot. Sound and Shot leaves up to nine seconds of a voice recording attached to the photo. Not all features are unique to S4 and some are really useless. But, in overall Galaxy S4s camera does an outstanding performance.
BATTERY
The battery of Galaxy S4 is larger than S3s, well- many other things are too. Even though Galaxy S4 has many super features that drains the battey, like the 5inch HD display, fancy features like air gesture and other sensors and high end hardwares- The Li-Ion 2600mAh powerhouse provides an excellent battery life. S4 would defenitily run non-stop for a more than a day for an average user.
MEMORY
Samsung Galaxy S4 comes in 16/32/64GB internal storage variants. Out of the 16GB of internal storage 8.89GB is available as user memory. 64GB variant is not common as theres already an option to expand memory using microSD card(upto 64GB).
PERFORMANCE
Samsung Galaxy S4 is- as you know- blazing fast. The Galaxy S4 is one of the fastest smartphones available. Samsung Galaxy S4 runs on a quad-core CPU along with 2GB RAM and PowerVR SGX 544MP3 GPU- sounds fast, powerful and Simple!
Actually the CPU setup is a little complicated. There are two variants of S4- the GT-I9500 and GT-I9505. The GT-I9500(no 4G) model S4 is powered by Samsungs Exynos 5 Octa processor which is essentially a set of two quad-core processors- a 1.2GHz Cortex A7 quad-core processor and a 1.6GHz Cortex A15 quad-core processor that work together to maximise performance and battery life. The GT-I9505(4G) model S4 is powered by a 1.9GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor.
SPECIFICATIONS
Display
5inch Full HD Super AMOLED (1920 x 1080) display, 441 ppi
AP
1.9 GHz Quad-Core Processor / 1.6 GHz Octa-Core Processor
The seletion of AP will be differed by markets
Network
2.5G (GSM/ GPRS/ EDGE): 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz
3G (HSPA+ 42Mbps): 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 MHz
4G (LTE Cat 3 100/50Mbps) : up to 6 different band sets (Dependent on market)
OS
Android 4.2.2 (Jelly bean)
Memory
16 / 32 / 64GB memory + microSD slot (up to 64GB), 2GB RAM
Camera
Main(Rear): 13MP Auto Focus camera with Flash & Zero Shutter Lag, BIS
Sub (Front): 2MP camera, Full HD recording @30fps with Zero Shutter Lag, BIS
Camera Features
Dual Shot , Drama Shot, Sound & Shot, 360 Photo, Animated Photo, Eraser, Night, Best Photo, Best Face, Beauty Face, HDR (High Dynamic Range), Panorama, Sports
Video
Codec: MPEG4, H.264, H.263, DivX, DivX3.11, VC-1, VP8, WMV7/8, Sorenson Spark, HEVC
Recording & Playback: Full HD (1080p)
Audio
Codec: MP3, AMR-NB/WB, AAC/AAC+/eAAC+, WMA, OGG,
FLAC, AC-3, apt-X
Additional Features
Group Play, Story Album, S Translator, Optical Reader, Samsung Smart Scroll, Samsung Smart Pause, Air Gesture, Air View, Samsung Hub, ChatON (Voice/Video Call, Share screen, 3-way calling) Samsung WatchON, S Travel (Trip Advisor), S Voice Drive, S Health, Samsung Adapt Display, Samsung Adapt Sound, Auto adjust touch sensitivity (Glove friendly), Safety Assistance, Samsung Link, Screen Mirroring, Samsung KNOX (B2B only)
Google Mobile Services
Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail, Google Latitude Google Play Store, Google Plus, YouTube, Google Talk, Google Places, Google Navigation, Google Downloads, Voice Search
Sensor
Accelerometer, RGB light, Geomagnetic, Proximity, Gyro,
Barometer
Temperature & Humidity, Gesture
Dimension
136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9 mm, 130g
Connectivity
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (HT80)
GPS / GLONASS
NFC, Bluetooth® 4.0 (LE)
IR LED (Remote Control), MHL 2.0
Battery
2,600mAh
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