So, after months of speculation, more leaks than a rainy day in Wales and a high-profile launch event in New York that was also streamed live in Times Square, the Samsung Galaxy S4 is now official. DOTCRUSH Tech is over in the Big Apple and has had first-hand experience with the handset that will do… more battle with the Sony Xperia Z, the HTC One and Apple’s next iPhone for the title of ‘best phone in the world’. Click through our hands-on gallery for our initial impressions.
Firstly, let’s talk aesthetics and Samsung Galaxy devotees will be pleased as the Korean company has decided to stick with its usual Galaxy-style for the new smartphone. In fact, the Samsung Galaxy S4, on first impressions at least, is a dead-ringer for its predecessor – the Galaxy S3.
But stick the two handsets side by side and you’ll start to notice the differences. For a starters, the bezel is much thinner – meaning that Samsung has been able to cram in much more display real-estate into the S4: 5 inches compared to 4.8 on the S3.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 also skinnier than the S3 at just 7.9mm. Its full dimensions are 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9mm and it weighs in at 130g. It’s a comfortable handset to hold although anyone going from the smaller screen of an iPhone to the S4 is in for a shock as it’s much bigger. We prefer a larger screen on a smartphone.
inches on offer on the S4 are superb for multimedia. 5In the looks department, it’s probably not as strikingly bold as the Sony Xperia Z or the HTC One – two of its main rivals. Samsung has, as mentioned, stuck to a traditional design for the S4 and people who bemoaned the ‘plastic’ feel of the S3 are once again going to have something to complain about as the build is the same material as its older brother.
The display is probably the most startling thing about the new Samsung flagship smartphone – a Full HD 1080p Super AMOLED one with an incredible 441 pixels per inch count. The visuals are stunning and text is incredibly clear. Samsung has also thrown in some new tech so as the S4’s display adapts to your situation – so its settings will be altered when reading an ebook, for example.
The build quality is sturdy, albeit not as reassuringly solid as the HTC One. It’s basically the S3 but in skinnier jeans. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but anyone hoping for a major revolution for the Galaxy S series in terms of design and build are going to be left wanting.
Samsung Galaxy S4
Once you fire the Samsung Galaxy S4 up you’ll see that Samsung is sticking to its guns with regards to the user interface that it applies to Google’s Android platform. If you’re looking for a native, vanilla-Android experience, the Galaxy range is not for you. The S4, like its predecessors and its smartphone and tablet relatives, uses Samsung’s TouchWiz UI over the top of the Android OS. Android is still there (version 4.2.2, in case you’re interested) but it’s hidden beneath the overlay that Samsung has been evolving over the last few years.
Samsung has also added a number of key control features, including the much-rumoured Smart Scroll and Smart Pause. Smart Scroll allows you to move the text on the screen using tilt movements as it tracks where your eyes are looking and Smart Pause freezes video action if you look away from the screen. In our short play with the S4 we found these control methods a bit fiddly but we’ll reserve judgement for now until we’ve had a much longer play – so be sure to check back for our full review.
Other new control methods include a Minority Report-style gesture based set of options including Air Browse to swipe through media libraries without touching the screen, Air Jump to quickly go to the top of a page and Air Call Accept to easily answer calls.
Finally, a much-loved feature of the Samsung Galaxy Note series has made its way to the S4. You can hover over stuff – such as emails, photo collections, videos and so on – with your finger and you’ll get a preview without even touching the screen.
Powering the show, for the UK versions of the Samsung Galaxy S4, is a 1.6GHz 8-core Exynos processor. This makes the S4 the first ‘octo-core’ smartphone and we were certainly impressed with the speed that the device switched between and loaded apps. There’s 2GB of RAM built in and storage is 16, 32 or 64GB. You can also add a microSIM of up to 64GB. The battery on board is a fairly big 2,600mAh one – we will tell you exactly how well it stands up during our full review.
One area that has always been a strong point of the Galaxy S series is the photography aspect of the smartphones and the S4 is no exception to this rule. The rear camera, a 13-megapixel one, not only shoots super high-res shots but can also record Full 1080p video. There’s also a front facing 2 megapixel camera.
The camera’s hardware skills are matched by the awesome image software on board the S4. The front and rear cameras combine for one of the standout features of the new onboard camera setup (which mimics the menu system on Samsung’s Galaxy Camera) – Dual Shot. Dual Shot allows you to take pictures (or indeed record video) from both cameras. So you can take a photo of something and also take a photo of your face at the same time. You can switch what way the cameras display on the image and you can also play around with the borders and effects of the final image. It’s not a game-changing bit of tech at all, but it is great fun.
The S4’s camera features also extend to a range of new shooting modes where you can do a massive range of stuff from shooting burst modes that all appear at once – to creating still images with moving backgrounds. You can also add sound to your photos.
Another notable features of Samsung’s new baby is the new Samsung Hub which is your one stop shop for movies, games, music, ebooks and so on. You can, of course, completely ignore this and simply use Google Play – that’s the beauty of Android.
So what do we think after our initial play with the Samsung Galaxy S4? Well, after spending plenty of time with its main Android rivals – the HTC One and the Sony Xperia Z – as well as living with the BlackBerry Z10, we have to say that it hasn’t exactly blown us away. However, It’s a major improvement on what was already a fantastic device (the S3) though – so we shouldn’t be too harsh on Samsung. It’s a reflection of how far the company has come in the mobile arena that we feel slightly let down when its new launches aren’t totally mind-blowing. This is also a situation Apple faces whenever it announces a new iPhone. Minor disappointment aside then, and Samsung should be applauded for cramming in a wealth of new tech (both hardware and software) into a slimmer chassis and also offering up a far superior display to what we’re used to.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 will be hitting the shops on 26 April. It will be free on the top-level contracts, Three and EE have already stated that they’ll be stocking the new Samsung flagship phone and we’re sure others will follow suit soon.
Click through to the end of the gallery for more hands-on shots of the new Samsung Galaxy S4 – and check back on DOTCRUSH Tech soon for our full comprehensive review.
The eye-icon indicates that it recognises your presence and sight.
It’ thinner than the S3 at 7.9mm
Here it is side by side with one of its main rivals for the top smartphone spot – the HTC One.
Samsung Galaxy S4 v HTC One
It’s available in black and white
The rear plate comes off, as per the S3.
Samsung Galaxy S4 v Samsung Galaxy S3
- Introducing the Apple AirTag - July 20, 2023
- Slavish Thinking: غلامانہ سوچ - April 27, 2017
- Android is expected to welcome BBM before October - July 21, 2013
About The Author
No Comments Yet