The South Korean conglomerate’s smartphone models may not nonetheless have an equivalent cachet or cultural mind share as their Cupertino rivals, however the numbers do not lie. Samsung has sold over a hundred million Galaxy S smartphones since 2010, and that they area unit with ambition about to sell a hundred million of their latest flagship, the Galaxy S4.
After having hit the ball out of the park with the wide acclaimed Galaxy S3, it’s straightforward to grasp why the corporate would be therefore optimistic regarding their newest über-phone. they need a undefeated formula, currently they merely have to be compelled to improve upon it while not antagonistic people who have bought into Samsung’s stigmatisation and selling.
The centerpiece of any high-end smartphone is clearly the show, and Samsung have outfitted the Galaxy S4 with a true beauty. though HTC may need been initial to the market with a 1080p smartphone, via the unnoted HTC Butterfly and succeeding HTC One, the new 5-inch 1080p Super AMOLED show was definitely worth the wait. though we have a tendency to examine the show additional closely on successive page, fulfill it to mention that it's very a sight to lay eyes on and it’s undoubtedly appropriate a flagship device.
At its core, the Galaxy S4 is constructed round the tried 28nm Qualcomm flower 600 chipset. This SoC options four elapid three hundred cores clocked at one.9GHz, a dual-core Adreno 320 GPU with a 450MHz clock speed, and 2GB of RAM. What makes the GS4 distinctive and one amongst the quickest mobile devices on the market at once is that the incontrovertible fact that its CPU and GPU area unit clocked more than on the other flower 600-based device. The a lot of lauded HTC One, as an example, A-one out at one.7GHz and its GPU runs at 400MHz.
As you may apprehend, the international version of the GS4 - the GT-I9500 - options a Samsung-designed Exynos five Octa 5410 chipset. supported the ARM massive.LITTLE design, this SoC contains four Cortex A15 cores clocked at one.6 gigacycle and 4 low-power Cortex A7 cores running at one.2GHz. The Exynos chip additionally options a distinct GPU, in position of the same Adreno half is that the tri-core PowerVR SGX544MP3 clocked at 533MHz. Before you expertise any anxiety at missing out on the Exynos version apprehend that the GT-I9500 lacks LTE and a range of benchmarking tests round the net indicate a mixture of results compared to the flower model, particularly with relevancy battery life.
On the property and storage front, the GS4 is additionally packed. As you'd expect from a contemporary flagship device, the phone clearly options LTE property, however it additionally supports 42Mbps HSPA+ for people who don’t board LTE enabled areas. due to a replacement Broadcom chip, the newest wireless local area network 802.11ac normal is supported – with theoretical transfer speeds of up to one,300 Megabits per second (Mbps) – as area unit the standard wireless local area network 802.11 a/b/g/n. Bluetooth four.0 Low Energy, NFC and GPS + GLONASS spherical out a number of the opposite noteworthy wireless links gift within the device.
Although the Galaxy S4 is listed as returning in 3 completely different storage capacities, as way as we've got been able to verify solely the 16GB version has seen worldwide distribution. some weeks agone, the 32GB model was created out there through AT&T and Verizon within the US, however the 64GB variant remains missing-in-action.
High up on a flagship smartphone’s “must-have” list may be a top-notch camera, and per se Samsung have undraped their latest and greatest mobile camera module for this device. On the rear, the Galaxy S4 options the innovative 13-megapixel sensing element that is joined to a bright F/2.2 lens, with 4X digital zoom capability associated an crystal rectifier flash. The front-facing camera uses a 2-megapixel sensing element that matches the front unit’s 1080p @ 30FPS recording capabilities. That front-facing camera has additionally been utilised to form a cool new camera mode. In fact, the GS4 options a bunch of distinctive settings during this respect, some really helpful et al. slightly additional gimmicky.
As we’ve established, from a strictly technical perspective, Samsung clearly have a winner of their hands, however specs alone don’t build the phone. And whereas they need innovated, increased, and improved close to everything so as to push the envelope once it involves specs, there's still plenty of consistency to be found within the GS4…which is each smart and dangerous reckoning on your purpose of read. once it involves style, materials, and also the TouchWiz parts throughout the UI, this can be clearly associate unvaried product.
If you mistook this phone for a Galaxy S3 or a Galaxy Note a pair of, it might be laborious responsible you. esthetically, the GS4 undoubtedly shares its style language with the 2 same models. that's to be expected although since Samsung is attempting to make the most what has currently become a trademark look and that they have very been specializing in making a way of Apple-like consistency across their smartphone lineup.
Looks area unit ultimately a private matter, however the continuing use of cheap-feeling plastics by Samsung remains some extent of competition for several. Despite a reasonably convincing trying chrome-coloured frame, the Galaxy S4 is entirely product of plastic. This material is nice attributable to its huskiness, lightweight weight, and low producing prices, however the things Samsung uses simply doesn’t feel deserve a $650 flagship device. will be} a shame since firms like Nokia have shown that sure plastics can have nice tactile feel while not sacrificing all that a lot of else. Despite this reality, there's no denying that the build quality and sturdiness of the GS4 area unit glorious.
Because of its same all-plastic construction, the phone weighs in at a svelte a hundred thirty grams and it will feel flash within the hand. Also, attributable to the spectacular work Samsung did in minimizing the bezels and really reducing the dimensions compared to the Galaxy S3, the GS4 fits okay in my small-to-medium sized hands. However, i used to be perpetually disturbed that it might slip out of my hands.
Although I ne'er truly born the device, it absolutely was within the back of my mind when I handled the device whereas walking. the rear panel is simply very slick and sort of gross feeling, for the dearth of a additional technical term. Simply put, though its snug it’s laborious to feel assured whereas handling the S4 and worse, it’s simply not pleasant to the touch.
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The front’s bottom-most [*fr1] is wherever you'll realize the outstanding physical Home button. This redesigned button currently options a definite beveled edge, that makes it simply locatable together with your finger, and it additionally currently includes a consoling click thereto. Quite nice.
Functionality wise this button is command all the way down to switch between a listing of active programs or flick through numerous system settings. though it appears like Samsung still hasn’t browse Google’s memoranda regarding the death of physical buttons, this explicit interface is absolutely enforced associated it ensures that no screen area is wasted by an onscreen Home button.
One either facet of the center-mounted Home button may be a combine of electrical phenomenon areas that house the Menu and Back functions. once victimisation the GS4 with one hand, reaching across the screen for either of those buttons was an excessive amount of of stretch, therefore a amendment in hand grip was typically needed. On the left facet of the device is that the ample volume rocker and on the correct is that the power button. each have an equivalent glorious beveled edges and responsive feel because the physical Home button.
At the terribly high of the S4 from left to right is that the notification lightweight, associate IR sensing element, the earphone speaker, another IR sensing element, the close lightweight sensing element, and also the front-facing camera.
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The backside of the phone options a awfully skinny piece of plastic, and though quite bendy once removed it's rigid once truly hooked up the device. Our explicit GS4 came within the Black Mist color scheme and also the back of it's super shiny, nearly mirror-like. though Samsung was likely for a carbon fiber look, the particular style is additional a diamond board pattern.
The new 13-megapixel camera module creates alittle hump on the rear, however the protrusion is basically quite bottom and unnoticeable in every day use. below the lens is that the crystal rectifier flash, that is sort of effective as you’ll see in our camera tests. At the lowest left may be a tiny raised cutout for the mono speaker, that ensures that the sound isn't muffled once the phone is placed on a surface face-up.
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Once you take away the rear cowl, one amongst the merchandising points of the Galaxy S4 is disclosed. not like several trendy high-end smartphones, the Galaxy S series includes a removable battery and a microSD receptacle. The battery may be a terribly giant a pair of,600mAh / 9.88 Wh unit with close to Field Communication (NFC) intrinsical. The GS4 will support wireless charging via the vitality inductive power normal if you buy the $90 wireless charging kit.
The microSD slot, another quickly vanishing feature among different high-end phones, permits users to put in up to 64GB of further cupboard space which may be accessed through a file manager or as a separate folder once connected to a pc. To the correct of the receptacle is that the microSIM card receptacle.
Below the battery is that the same back-mounted speaker. This may well be a mono unit, however it’s terribly loud and distortion-free even at the very best volume levels. though bass is clearly lacking, we have a tendency to didn’t realize the sound quality to be hollow or tinny. Subjectively, we have a tendency to found the GS4 to be quite bit louder than the iPhone five, that options 2 bottom-edge mounted speakers, and solely slightly inferior acoustically.
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