After releasing the best-selling
Android smartphone of all time, Samsung now takes things full HD with the 5”
Galaxy S4.
The Korean company opted not to reinvent
the wheel with the design of the Galaxy S4, which is actually 3g lighter and
0.7 mm thinner than its predecessor, packing an enhanced 5” (1080 x 1920; 441
ppi) screen that delivers exceptional picture quality. Samsung again ‘clothed’
its king in plastic robes, making this smartphone feel like the pauper to HTC’s
princely One, which boasts an aluminum body.
The S4 currently has no equal when it comes
to battery life, benchmarking performance and software features.
Samsung
Galaxy S4
Powering the Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean)
operating S4 is an Exynos 5 Octa 5410 chipset. This calls upon four Cortex-A15
cores (1.6 GHz each) for processing-intensive tasks, and four Cortex-A7 cores
(1.2 GHz each) during lighter workloads. Samsung’s S4 humbled all other rival
devices during benchmarking, but the real benefit of the Octa-core is the vast
difference experienced in the speed between the S3 and new S4.
New software a must?
Samsung is known for including numerous
software features to enhance its devices and the S4 packs more than ever. In
practice, we found them more gimmicky than useful, with the only exception
being the universal remote control functionality. This allows users to control
an array of compatible electronic devices via the IR blaster on the top of the
smartphone and Samsung’s WatchON app. We had no trouble using our S4 as a
remote control for an old school LG and Samsung full HD TV.
Samsung
is known for including numerous software features to enhance its devices and
the S4 packs more than ever
Samsung upgraded the rear-facing camera
from 8 MP to 13 megapixels, with this main shooter reinforced by a 2 MP
front-facing snapper. It’s a great tool and users can employ both cameras
simultaneously to remain in the picture even when you are taking photos or
recording videos.
To the point
Samsung’s Galaxy S4 currently has no equal
when it comes to battery life, benchmarking performance and an extensive
line-up of software features. The plastic design still bothers, which means
alternatives such as the equally excellent HTC One deserve a look S3 owners
looking to upgrade and fans of value-added software features, no matter how
useful they actually are, will definitely love the new Galaxy S4. RRP: $912.
Samsung
upgraded the rear-facing camera from 8 MP to 13 megapixels
Specifications
Modes
·
LTE 700 / 850 / 1700 / 1900
·
WCDMA 850 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100
·
GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
·
only T-Mobile version has WCDMA 1700 (band IV)
Weight
·
4.59 oz (130 g)
Dimensions
·
5.38" x 2.75" x 0.31" (137 x
70 x 7.9 mm)
Battery
·
Talk: 17 hours max. (1020 minutes)
·
Standby: 300 hours max. (12.5 days)
·
2600 mAh LiIon, Removable
Display
·
Type: OLED (Full-Color)
·
Resolution: 1080 x 1920 pixels 5"
diagonal
·
Colors: 16.7 million (24-bit)
·
Samsung Super AMOLED, with Gorilla Glass 3
·
OS / Platform
·
Android version 4.2.2
Processor
·
1.9 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 8064T
·
quad-core (or Samsung Exynos 5 1.6 GHz
octa-core in some overseas markets)
Memory
·
16 GB internal storage, raw hardware
·
9.6 GB internal storage, available to user
·
2 GB RAM
·
also available in 32 or 64 GB versions
|
