SAMSUNG GALAXY S 4 FULL REVIEW

The complete guide to what you can expect from the follow up to the world’s biggest-selling smartphone.

“Crammed with features that redefine what we expect from our smartphones”

It was seen as the most threatening answer to the iPhone yet, and as all of those who have got hold of Samsung’s much-hyped handset will confirm, there is little in the way of disappointment with the Galaxy S4. With a launch event in New York that many believed was taking on Apple on its own territory, the South Korean company pulled a blinder, producing a new device that one survey suggested was on the wish-list for a whopping 25 per cent of iPhone owners. Although we wouldn’t wish to keep up the Apple  comparisons, it is clear how far the Cupertino giant is starting to fall behind – its iPhone 5’s biggest selling point was a larger screen; the underlying operating system largely remained the same. Samsung’s new baby – which will likely outsell Apple's flagship.

What’s new in the Galaxy S4?

S Translator 

It’s not quite real time translation, but if you speak into your phone it  can translate it into another language as soon as you stop talking. Get the person you’re holding a conversation with to do the same and you can understand the response, letting you have a full conversation without language barriers.

Air gestures

 There are times when you can’t touch your phone to make or  receive a call or send a text. When driving or if your hands are full of paint after a decorating session, make use of air gestures and Smart Call Accept.

Air View

 Similar to Air Gestures, Air View is not unlike the mouse-over effect  you’ll be familiar with on your PC. Hover your finger over a specific item and you’ll get a small preview of that item – contact details will be briefly expanded to reveal more information, or thumbnail images will blow up to give you a better look.

Thinner with better processor

 The S4 is only 7.9mm thick. It is 137mm tall  and 70mm wide and this is an improvement on the S III, even  though the screen is an extra  third-of-an-inch larger from corner-to corner. There are two versions of the  phone with top-notch processors in  both, with the Snapdragon version supporting 4G.

 Sensitive screen 

Not quite a first for smartphones but the extra sensitivity given  to the screen to enable the handsfree gestures also means the device  can be used when you’re wearing  gloves. It’s only a minor point, yet for  those of us in colder countries it is  likely to become the kind of feature we take for granted.

 Dual camera

 The S4 enables you to capture photos or videos using the  rear-facing 13-megapixel camera and the two-megapixel front-facing  camera. Most interestingly of all, you can use both at the same time, letting the person behind the camera appear in those family snapshots after all. Gimmick or genius? Only time will tell.

Innovative camera features 

The camera app is packed with  interesting features. The most interesting is Drama Shot, which can shoot a burst of up to 100 images  in four seconds, then create a composite of the action shown  within them. There’s also Sound and Shot, which adds real audio to your  still photos, and Story Album, a feature that can turn your images into a rich album of information.

 Smart pause 

The phone knows what your eyeballs are doing. Look away from a playing video and the video will pause. Look back again and it will start playing once more.

 Smart scroll 

The S4 recognises how you hold your device, and the way  you are looking at it, and will subsequently scroll text-heavy pages accordingly. Coupled with the stay awake feature first introduced on the S III, the device moves into fully hands-free operation for eBook and  webpage reading.

  Group Play

 If you have lots of friends who own  Galaxy S4s you will be able to connect them together for the Group Play function. You can combine the speakers on multiple devices for vastly improved audio output, or join them for a session of  multiplayer gaming online. All wireless, of course.


Need for speed 

Will your S4 processor have four or eight cores, and does it matter? 

" It beats all the competition on all platforms by some margin"

The Galaxy S4 will be available in two different variants, with different processors in each. The I9500 model will feature Samsung’s own Exynos 1.6GHz octa-core processor, while the I9505 will have the 1.9GHz Snapdragon 600 CPU (the same as used in the new HTC One, albeit clocked faster).  The octa-core processor is quite interesting, and since more cores have been adopted by spec enthusiasts as a good thing, would appear to be more desirable than the Snapdragon variant. 

                               However, it’s not quite as simple as that. First, the octa-core CPU might actually be more accurately described as a dual quad-core CPU – rather than a straight eight cores – it features four cores for high-power functions and four for low-power usage, with the aim of finding the perfect balance between performance and battery life, so speed  improvements over the Snapdragon may be  negligible and nonexistent. Secondly, the Exynos processor doesn’t currently support 4G LTE networks, meaning the Snapdragon variant has greater future proofing.

                                                                The phone will launch initially in the UK with the Snapdragon processor, and be compatible with 4G networks, although it is widely rumoured that the Exynos version will be available in due course. Most other markets with established 4G networks will also have the Snapdragon offering at launch, with some markets having both. Early benchmark tests of the Snapdragon variant of the S4 put it way ahead of the competition. 

                       Primate Labs, the company behind the Geekbench benchmarking software, has analysed the initial tests of the processor and found that it beats all the competition on all platforms by some margin. This includes the iPhone 5 as well as last year’s Galaxy S III. Primate Labs founder John Poole commented on his company’s blog: “It’s clear that the Samsung Galaxy S4 will be the fastest smartphone available when it is released in April. What’s not clear is how the Galaxy S4 will handle the increased power and cooling requirements that generally come with faster processors.”



Screen test

What is a PenTile matrix screen, and is it any good?

The Samsung Galaxy S4 features a stunning five-inch, 1080p AMOLED display, with a pixel density on a par with the Sony Xperia Z, considerably higher than on the iPhone 5, and bested only by the HTC One, which packs the same resolution into a 4.7-inch panel.  However, display aficionados may be disappointed to discover the S4’s screen uses a PenTile matrix, which some argue actually reduces the effective resolution. Where the pixels on a traditional display are created from red, green and blue subpixels, a PenTile display most often uses a red, green, blue, green subpixel arrangement, just two subpixels per pixel. 

                               The extra green pixels can potentially result in a green tint on the display, while the presence of a third fewer subpixels could be interpreted as meaning the display technically has a lower resolution than is reported. PenTile displays are used in AMOLED screens for reasons of power and lifespan. Blue subpixels require more power to achieve the required brightness levels, which in turn can reduce their lifespan. Halving their number reduces the amount of power needed, and so ensures they last longer as well.  Whether this matters now is questionable. It is generally agreed that at a pixel density below 230ppi, the PenTile matrix is clearly visible to the eye and is therefore much less desirable. At much denser levels, such as the 441ppi on the S4 you’ll have to look very closely indeed to discern them.

EXPANSION OF GALAXY

How the Galaxy and Android have grown together

 

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