We were all waiting for it. What can this phone do? What kind of upgrades does it have? Was the Samsung Galaxy S4 worth all the hype and mayhem? What was all the fuss about? Here’s what you need to know. You can make up your mind
Samsung Galaxy S4 – Look and Feel
As we inched closer to the date of Samsung Unpacked more images and footage was leaked. This made us further speculate about the device. Most of the leaked images showed a bigger looking Galaxy S III. At the event you would see that they were mostly right.
The new Samsung Galaxy S4 is a taller and thinner Galaxy S III. At least that’s what it looks like. The phone is a lot lighter than its predecessor. Samsung used the same plastic that so many loathe. The back has a different finish that makes it a lot less slippery than the S III. If you’re used to holding the Galaxy S III, the S4 will feel no different. It has a more squared look as Samsung has squared the edges of the S4 more than the S III. The display has been upgraded from 4.8 inch screen to a 5 inch screen with 1080p display. Colors are vibrant and jump out at you. It begs for you to watch movies and videos.
The phone is so thin, that I’d put a case on it just for gripping purposes. I’ve never felt comfortable with thin phones, so it would help me.
Under the Hood
While the GS4 looks a lot like the S III, there are changes under the hood. Depending where you are, you will have a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor (United States) or the Samsung Exynos 5 octa-core processor. It comes with 2 GB of RAM which should make for smooth use and interaction.
Storage
There are three storage options with the S4. You can get 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB. There is also a MicroSD expansion slot that allows you to add up to 64GB more of storage.
Software
The Samsung Galaxy S4 will ship with Google Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2. That is latest version of Jelly Bean available. Jelly Bean 4.2 has features such as Daydream, Photo Sphere, a keyboard with Gesture Typing and more. You can learn more about those features HERE
Samsung focused on their Android skin TouchWiz. It seems that they want you to rely more on their features as opposed to vanilla Android. At Samsung Unpacked many new features were announced. Here are some of the most notable ones:
Samsung Smart Pause – Sensing where you’re looking, with Smart Pause, the S4 will control video playback. When watching a video, if you look away, the phone will pause the video and will continue playing it once you look at it again.
Samsung Smart Scroll – With face recognition and wrist movement, users can scroll through emails or the web by just looking up and down. Depending on where you’re looking the screen will scroll with along with you.
Samsung Translator – This feature instantly translates texts, emails, and ChatON conversations. You can type the text, or say the text. This is great for all you jetsetters. When testing it, it conjugated Spanish a lot better than Google Translate has.
Group Play – If your friends have S4s you can easily share documents, photos, and music without any signal (Wi-Fi or cellular). At the presentation, they said you could connect up to 8 S4s at once. You can have the same song playing on all devices with the Share Music option. You can even assign speaker titles to each phone (left Surround, right surround)
S Health – With the increase of health trackers and wristbands, Samsung took it upon themselves to make it easier to track exercise. The Galaxy S4 has built in humidity sensors, temperature sensors and a pedometer which help monitor your environment. With the addition of a food and sleep diary, and an additional wristband (S band), you can monitor your quality of life easily. It will also sync with third party apps.
Air View – By just hovering your finger over your S Planner, email, or photo gallery; you can see the body of the email message, photos or planner content. Air Gesture allows you to answer calls or change music tracks by waving your hand. I find little tricks like this complete awesomeness.
IR Remote Blaster – Taking a note from their tablets, Samsung put an IR blaster on the S4 to help act as a TV control. Along with Samsung WatchON, you can control your entertainment system. It will learn your likes and suggest shows for you to watch.
Samsung Galaxy S4 – Camera
The camera was the biggest upgrade from the Galaxy S III to the Galaxy S4. The S4 sports a 13 megapixel camera (the S III has an 8 megapixel). It doesn’t have any chips or special sensors. It did come with many new features to enhance picture taking from a smartphones.
Dual Video Call – allows you to show the other party what you’re looking at during a video call (they see both you and the other cameras view)
Sound & Shot – If takes an audio clip and a picture to save the special moments.
Drama Shot – Think of it as an upgraded version of “Burst Shot”. It can take up to 100 pictures in four seconds. You can capture all the stages of action. For example, someone getting ready to dunk a basketball. You can see everything from the jump to the dunk.
Eraser Shot – This feature allows you to remove moving images from your picture. Leaving your pic nice and clean.
I enjoyed playing with the camera. Being heavy into social media, it’s one of the things I use most in on my smartphones. These features were a major plus for me. The Samsung Galaxy S4 is for the person who snaps away at life with their smartphone.
Samsung Galaxy S4 – Hands On and Conclusions
It’s too short of a time to make concrete conclusions on the S4. When having a quick hands on the phone ran smoothly. I’m sure the processor had something do with it. It didn’t have any programs running or tons of apps downloaded (as my smartphone would) also. The interface was smooth. The display is gorgeous. It’s something that you have to see for yourself.
This phone joins the Galaxy S III and the Galaxy Note II in the Samsung KNOX program. It can be used for both work and personal purposes. With the Knox program, you can your business can manage the work and personal side of your phone efficiently.
If you were looking for a change in body, you were probably disappointed. Many are tired of the plastic look. They grew less enthused when HTC introduced their new flagship Android device the HTC One last month. The aluminum unibody design is the new and innovative refreshing look and feel that many Android users are looking for.
The leaks were pretty much on point when it came to the look and design. So there weren’t too many surprises.We don’t have an official release date yet for the Samsung Galaxy S4. We do know that AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint will be carrying the device. It should be released sometime in April.
Are you impressed with Samsung’s new Galaxy smartphone? Are you over the Galaxy series? Is there a better phone out there. Let us know what you think!
