Samsung Galaxy S4 hands-on review

NEW YORK, USA – Samsung unveiled its latest flagship smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S4, during its launch event at the Radio City Music Hall, Thursday evening in New York (Friday morning Manila time). 

There were little surprises, as Rappler previously reported, and the leaked high-resolution photos from Chinese tech website Mobile IT168 were indeed of the device. The leaked specifications sheet was also pretty much spot on except for the dual sim slot, eye tracking functionality, and wireless charging.  

Taking design inspiration from its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S4 looks almost identical to the Galaxy S3 but it is thinner, lighter, feels sturdier, and has a larger screen.

Speaking as a tech journalist who’s followed smartphone releases over the last 5-7 years, there wasn’t anything groundbreaking about this release but overall it’s a great phone. Compared to other leading smartphones in the market today, the Galaxy S4 is competitive, if not superior.  

SPECS

If specs were the only consideration, the Galaxy S4 competes with the two top smartphones in the market today – the HTC One and Sony Xperia Z. All 3 phones have 1080p full HD displays. The HTC is still the monster in terms of pixels per inch (ppi) with 468 crammed into its 4.7-inch display. The S4 has a 5-inch, 441ppi Super AMOLED display and the Sony Xperia Z an almost equal 5-inch 440ppi display. 

The S4’s display blows the 326ppi iPhone 5 out of the water. Images are really crisp and dynamic.

Not all S4s will have the octo-core processor. Units will either have a 1.6GHz 8-core Exynos processor or a 1.9GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor depending on the region. No word yet on what iteration of the device will be available in the Philippines. 

Camera-wise the S4 is also tops, with a 13 megapixel main camera that can shoot 1080p video. In front is a 2 megapixel camera. Both can be used at the same time using a new feature called Dual Shot/Dual Video.  

The phone’s battery has also been improved, with a slight bump compared to the S3. At 2600mAh it isn’t as great as the 3100 mAh battery of its 5.5-inch brother – the Note 2 – but it is rated to last longer than the model it replaces. 

Other specs are standard. 2GB of RAM. 16, 32 or 64 GB configurations – upgradable via microSD card slot up to 64GB, and 6-band LTE support. The phone runs on a customized version of Android 4.2.2 Jellybean.

BUILD 

One major complaint about any Samsung smartphone is the cheap plastic feel and build of the device. While the S4 is made of the same polycarbonate shell, this device feels different. Gone are the rounded tapered sides, instead you’ll find an aluminum-like flat edge reminiscent of the iPhone. At launch, the device will be available in two colors: white frost and black mist (My test device was the white one hence no photos of the black S4 in this article).

LIFE COMPANION

3 years after the release of its the first Galaxy smartphone, Samsung says it has learned lessons from the past and is ready to present a phone that will “wow” users. The marketing pitch is an emotional one, Samsung is dubbing this phone as your “life companion”.

The South Korean based company said the design of the Galaxy S4 is based on 4 pillars. Having fun, creating and nurturing relationships, adding convenience to day to day life tasks, and life care.

FUN. As mentioned earlier the camera has been given major design improvements. The new menu is similar to that seen on the Samsung Galaxy Camera. Features include:

• Sound and shot – record up to 9 seconds of sound with each picture.
• Drama Shot – take a burst of photos and combine them into just one.
• Cinema photo – which allows you to keep a still photo of yourself over a moving background.

You also get dual video recording capabilities. This means you can use both cameras at the same time. Several overlays are possible including split screen mode.

There’s also a cool feature that will put an end to photo bombers. It is called Racer shot where the phone can detect motion in the background and remove moving people from the background.  

RELATIONSHIP. A feature called Group Play allows you to play games with friends (who also own S4s) at the same time. Two titles that currently support Group Play are Asphalt 7 and Gun Bros 2. You can also listen to one song on several devices – providing a surround sound experience. Both features rely on the phone’s built in NFC chip and Samsung’s internal WiFi system and does not require a WiFi access point or data connectivity. 

Samsung is also building STranslate into native communications apps like email and Chat On. The latter has been updated to support  3-way video calls, use of two cameras at the same time during video calls, screen share, and share annotation. The translate feature was built because of Samung’s desire to break down language barriers and its belief that the world is much more global.

LIFE TASK is where it really gets exciting. Remember on the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 you could use your S-pen to hover over the screen without touching it to bring up contextual menus?

You can now do that on the Galaxy S4 but this time with just your fingers. The feature is called Air View – you can preview emails by just hovering over them. The same way you can hover over days of the week on Calendar, or video thumbnails. FlipBoard is the first 3rd party app to support this feature – hover over tile and you can see articles behind that tile which you can click through. 

Another nifty new feature is called Air Gesture which allows you to navigate through your phone with just a wave of the hand. You can swipe through images, skip a track you’re listening to, scroll up and down a web page or from left to right to accept a call. I can imagine this will come in handy if you’re eating fries and don’t want to smudge the screen. 

Eye tracking is not on the phone as rumored but the phone does have features called Smart Pause and Smart Scroll that rely on you looking at the device. If you are watching a video and you look away, Smart Pause will pause the video for you until you look back at your phone. Smart Scroll on the other hand will scroll up and down a webpage when you tilt your phone back and forward – but it will only work if you are looking at the device.

Just like the newly announced Galaxy Note 8 – the S4 comes with a built in IR blaster that turns your phone into a remote if paired with a TV that has IR receiver capability.

Last but not the least is the four pillar LIFE CARE. The S4 has some nifty features in the health and wellness department.  A built-in app called SHealth – tracks movement with the phone’s built in pedometer. It can count how many steps you have taken, how many were running, how many were walking, how many stairs you climbed up and down. Temperature of the environment and even humidity. It can also track this data over time and show you how you progressed. 

The phone also understands what type of content you are viewing – it will adjust to maximize viewing experience. If you are reading a book it will adjust the screen brightness so it will become more natural for your eyes. 

Are you happy, amused, or annoyed by the Galaxy S4? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. – Rappler.com

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