Samsung's Galaxy S 4: Introduction & Hands On
by Anand Lal Shimpi on March 14, 2013 7:30 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Samsung
- Mobile
- Galaxy S 4
Final Words
With a release scheduled for sometime in Q2 of this year, today’s announcement is more of a preview. We’re sure to have more details on hardware and software in the coming months. For now, the Galaxy S 4 seems like a logical evolution of the Galaxy S lineup. Faster hardware and a larger higher-resolution display were both expected and delivered upon.
Power users will be pleased by the modern SoC integration, and I’m sure there are some that will still be happy with the removable battery and micro SD card slot.
Samsung has continued to increase its focus on delivering enhancements through software, which is very obvious based on the list of launch features for the Galaxy S 4. Although I’m sure power users will still prefer unmodified Android, it’s important to note that many of the features Samsung is introducing with the Galaxy S 4 will be very easy to market to mainstream consumers. The ability to control your smartphone without ever touching it or pause/unpause video with a glance are marketing messages that are very clear and easy to deliver.
The same is true for the enhancements to the camera app. While Samsung continued down the path of the megapixel race, truth be told it will have an easier time selling the Galaxy S 4 to mainstream consumers based on specs and the added features enabled by the new camera app.
Round it all up with S Translate and S Health, two more features that aren’t really new but definitely speak directly to consumers. It’s Apple’s Siri strategy, but coming from many different angles. Samsung’s consumer focused strategy is one that has done very well and I see the Galaxy S 4 continuing that. The real question is how well all of these features will perform/work in final software. Conceptually the Galaxy S 4’s software suite makes a lot of sense, the proof as always will be in the execution and how long it takes Samsung to get to the appropriate level of polish.
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staticx57 - Thursday, March 14, 2013 - link
If it's like all of samsung's other devices, it will most likely be uncalibrated.staticx57 - Thursday, March 14, 2013 - link
But still, I prefer AMOLED anyways. Insane contrast and very deep blacks cant be beat.UltraTech79 - Friday, March 15, 2013 - link
Sure, if youre always in your moms basement when you use it.Stuka87 - Friday, March 15, 2013 - link
AMOLED screens are notorious for having horrible color accuracy. But many consumers do not care about that. They like having the over-saturated colors.rats_u - Friday, March 15, 2013 - link
I hate the oversaturated colors too on my Note 2.... until I found a solution. In Settings -> Display change the screen mode from Standard -> Natural. Viola, screen looks GREAT!rats_u - Friday, March 15, 2013 - link
Have you tried Settings -> Display -> Screen mode and changed it from Standard -> Natural ?Makes is so much better, feels like a different phone.
Synnöve - Thursday, March 14, 2013 - link
Anand, are you able to confirm RGB stripe is the sub pixel pattern on the S4? I read a leaked overview of the phone earlier today containing a microscope shot of the pixel structure: one red or one blue surrounded by four greens.Maybe the device they had was a test variant, but I find it hard to believe they'd use RGB in their first commercial full HD display.
MadMan007 - Thursday, March 14, 2013 - link
I would be surprised if it was RGB actually. If you look at the history of Samsung OLED phone panels, they introduce a new resolution with RGBG or some such Pentile pattern, then the next iteration they use the same resolution with RGB. It's not a perfect pattern, but it makes a lot of sense from a manufacturing standpoint - if RGB OLED is more expensive to get right, it gives them time to perfect the new subpixel size before moving over to RGB.althaz - Thursday, March 14, 2013 - link
It's a pentile screen. Samsungs RGB stripe screens are called "Super AMOLED Plus" (like on the Lumia 900).To the best of my knowledge Samsung doesn't have a production 1080p RGB-AMOLED coming out of their factories any time soon.
That said, I'm not sure you'll be able to tell the difference at 1080p and only 5" (that's small, no matter what your girlfriend told you).
codedivine - Thursday, March 14, 2013 - link
It is likely a Snapdragon 600 and not 800. GLBenchmark results of an alleged S4 are here: http://www.glbenchmark.com/phonedetails.jsp?benchm...The renderer is reported as Adreno 320 while the 800 comes with Adreno 330. The CPU clock speed is reported as 1890MHz, right in line with Samsung's announced 1.9GHz speed.