First Impressions Of The Samsung Galaxy S4

First Impressions Of The Samsung Galaxy S4

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Opinions will undoubtedly vary with the Droid Horizon team, but this is my personal take on the yesterday’s Samsung unveiling of the Galaxy S4.

The Hype and Unpacked Event

The teaser videos with that Jeremy Maxwell kid and his glowing box was beyond lame.  This kid is Samsung’s Wesley Crusher or Jar Jar Brinks (depending on your preference).  After watching this kid on stage and listening to the unfunny host, my patience was gone and I switched off.  The internet gets me all the facts I need without sitting through all the BS.  If the event got a whole lot better afterwards, then my apologies Samsung.

The Hardware

Display: 5 inch Full HD Super AMOLED (1920 x 1080) display, 441 ppi

This has a slightly bigger screen than the S3 with a similar footprint, while upping the resolution to 1080p.  I’m a fan of AMOLED and if this really is sharper than Samsung’s previous screens then I’m sure it will look gorgeous.

Increased touch sensitivity means you can use gloves with the display, along with getting previews when you hover your finger over certain icons and increased gesture support.  Nice.

Processor: 1.9GHz quad-core processor (US), 1.6GHz octa-core processor (International)

8 cores.  Competing smartphones have 4.  My PC has 4.  Does a phone need or benefit from 8 cores?  I don’t know the answer.  It remains to be seen how this Exynos 5 compares to the Snapdragon S4 or Qualcomm 600, but if this translates into real-world performance this is going to be a beast.

Rear Camera: 13 Mega pixel Auto Focus camera with Flash & Zero Shutter Lag, BIS
Front Camera: 2 Mega pixel camera, Full HD recording @30fps with Zero Shutter Lag, BIS

Again, impressive specs.  Hopefully it gives impressive photos.

RAM: 2GB
Internal Storage: 16/ 32/ 64 GB User memory + microSD slot (up to 64GB)

No complaints – plenty of memory and a microSD slot.

Dimensions: 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9 mm, 130g
Battery: 2,600 mAh removable

The S4 looks a lot like an S3, just a little bit longer and thinner.  I’d have preferred they had kept the S3 thickness with an even bigger battery, but this battery is pretty decent.

The Software

Samsung should be congratulated for managing to get Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean on there. Take that Phil Schiller.  As expected Samsung have heavily skinned Android.  While they do add lots of features over stock Android, if you’re used to a more AOSP experience the Samsung way of doing things will take a little getting used.  Of course the launcher can be replaced and there are sure to be a wide variety of custom ROMs for this device.

Although it is good for headlines, it remains to be seen how useful new features such as Smart Scroll, Smart Pause (video pauses when you’re not looking) and Group Play (allowing multiple Galaxy devices to play music simultaneously) will be.

Overall

Based on Samsung’s recent offerings, I didn’t expect a radical change in design with the S4.  However I was a little disappointed to see it looking so much like the S3, giving the first impression that this isn’t much different.  I do prefer the look of something like the HTC One and have little doubt it would feel nicer in the hand.

Plastic doesn’t give the same premium feel, but has the advantage of being more flexible and often bending rather than breaking.  Drop a Samsung phone and the back will fall off and the battery will fall out, but in doing so absorbs a lot of the shock and it has a better chance of surviving.  If, like me you put a case on your phone then you’ll probably never come into contact with those premium materials anyway.

I find a lot of the software innovations gimmicky and would prefer a more stock Android experience, but in terms of hardware specs the S4 can hold up against any of the competitors.  It even has an IR remote like the new HTC One.  If you’ve already got an S3, One X or Nexus 4 then there probably isn’t a great deal here to compel you to change.  For me (although a very nice piece of hardware) the Sony Xperia Z is let down by the screen’s poor viewing angle and the quality of it’s photos.  Motorola has yet to show the Google influence, leaving my choice between the HTC One and the S4.  I won’t know for sure until the reviews come out, but assuming the camera is as good as the HTC One then this could well be the worthy successor to my Galaxy S2.

Associate Editor and part of the team of gadget reviewers at DroidHorizon. Also been known to dabble in software development to pay the bills.

1 Comment

  1. Agreed, I’m very interested to see if the S4 mini rumours are true

    Reply

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