Samsung Galaxy S 4 Review - Part 1
by Brian Klug on April 24, 2013 12:01 AM ESTCPU Performance
For our CPU analysis we're left with our usual browser based benchmarks. Again this isn't an ideal list of tests but it's the best we've got for now. Where necessary we'll show results using both stock and Chrome browsers. We did notice a single case of thermal based throttling under SunSpider 0.9.1 (the benchmark alone is ine, but running it after a bunch of others caused throttling), so we're once again presenting results in our standard test environment as well as inside of a freezer to show peak performance. Although the Galaxy S 4 managed to throttle in one of our tests, the device never felt all that warm to the touch. We could be seeing some of the same aggressively set thermal governors that we saw back with the Nexus 4. It's also worth pointing out that we're simply in an era of pushing the limits of just how fast you can go at 28nm LP in many of these smartphones. The mobile SoC vendors also need to do a better job of power management, enabling controlled bursting to these high frequency states vs. sustaining the higher frequencies until there's a serious enough thermal issue that the CPU cores have to throttle themselves significantly.
Under Kraken in particular we see a measurable improvement in performance over the 1.7GHz S600 used in the HTC One. Qualcomm still can't attain the peak performance of ARM's Cortex A15, but once again we're looking at a much lower power profile.
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UpSpin - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
The camera in the One has an OIS, the LCD is brighter, has better color accuracy, better outdoor visibility and larger sub-pixels. The SoC is the same, just higher clocked in the S4, yet it overheats. Add this to overheating OLED and you won't be able to take advantage of the full power of both SoC and OLED in the S4 at intensive usage, like gaming. (just as written in this review). The UI is bloated with gimmicks which slow down the whole system and have to get deactivated to get a smooth experience back (just read the damn reviews).I agree that DDR3, micoSD Card, removeable battery and 2 panel multi-tasking is a plus for the S4.
As you see, both phones are impressive, both have their advantages and disadvantages.
nerd1 - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
Dpreview has done a proper comparison betwen phone cameras. Go and see how absolutuly pathetic One's camera looks compared to higher MP phones. And all the optional things are optional, which means you can turn off most stuff if you hate em.UpSpin - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
I read the review and it says what we know already:S4 is great at well and medium lit scenes. Thanks to 12MP it offers the most details there.
HTC One is great at darker scenes, has the best flash and thanks to OIS allows longer exposure times at night.
Or in the words of dpreview:
'None of the devices in this shootout are good at everything. So, if you're planning to take a lot of pictures with your smartphone, you should be clear about where your priorities are.'
My personal priorities:
Indoors or document scans, which means not well lit. If I go away on a sunny day I often take a real camcorder with me.
I agree that 4MP is very low, and 6MP or 8MP might have been better. But 4MP is not generally worse than 12MP, it's just a different approach for a different usage.
krumme - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
The One 4MP is plenty. People very seldom crop.But the optics is broken, shown by the extremely unsharp sides. Its unusable. Period. Its an error.
Secondly the sensor is simply bad. We get better lowlight ability in some situations and Brian have show the camera from its best side. Here comes the problems:
1. At night you will always use a HDR mode. No matter the phone. Using that the S4 gives superior pictures even at night.
2. The dynamics that was supposed to be better on the sensor of the Onejust didnt deliver. The sony sensor in the S4 despide smaller pixels, and smaller pixels than the S3/IP5 delivered the all important better dynamics here.
The Ones camera is a disaster from what it could have been. If sony had made a 4MP sensor the same size and Samsung implemented it, it would have been a blast and a revolution under all situations.
oshogg - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
Does Galaxy S4 actually support UHS-1 speeds for the microSD slot? Were there any SD card read/write speed benchmark?Thanks,
Osho
Chaser - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
Love my HTC One. Best phone I have had the pleasure to use.vision33r - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
I don't have a problem with the plastic but the sheer number of Samsung phones that just look all a like.S4, S3, Note, Mini, etc all look a like just different sizes and SOC inside. Where is the premium Samsung phone? It has to look and perform top notch. The S4 maybe the flag ship phone but it looks like many of the Samsung cheaper variants.
slatanek - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
Couldn't agree more. Even my HTC One SV looks and feels better than all the Sammy phones. I've had a Galaxy Note before and it didn't feel like a premium device at all, quite the opposite. It's interesting how many people don't care about the looks of a 600$ handset. I'm starting to think that Samsungs customers are uneducated and their only argument is about throwing their phones onto the pavement and how well plastic will bare. Funny enough in all drop tests I've seen (quite a few that is) Galaxy S3 lost to iPhone 5 (which is not plastic!). People tend to forget that it’s not only about the materials but the shape as well when it goes to dropping the phone. The rounded Samsungs shape doesn't distribute energy as evenly as the iPhone squareness does. Anyway, fact of the matter is they will sell millions but if Ford sell millions of cars does that mean there's no space for Porsche anymore? Hopefully not. Wouldn't like to wake up one day to find out that we live in a Samsung’s world (plastic nightmares anyone?) or any other company for that matter.Connoisseur - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
OMG I need to buy one of these THIS WEEK. My Galaxy s3 with the official extended battery pack was stolen last week and I'm trudging along with an iphone 3gs in the meantime. LOVED the S3 with extended battery pack since it lasted me a day and a half with medium/heavy use and was still pretty damn thin. I didn't use any of the gimmicky options. While the HTC One looks sublime, i'm debating between that and a chance for an extended battery (and SD storage).nitenichiryu1 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
I'm currently using the i777 Galaxy S2, so both the HTC one and S4 are in the running for me. Currently I'm leaning towards the S4 because of the removable battery and microSD slot. Touchwiz vs. Sense isn't as big a deal for me since I'm going to root and rom Cyanogenmod 10.1.The only thing that I wish the S4 had isn't even the metal construction of the One, but the boomsound speakers!