Samsung Galaxy S 4 Review - Part 1
by Brian Klug on April 24, 2013 12:01 AM ESTGalaxy S 4 - Powered by a Better Snapdragon 600 (APQ8064AB)?
At a high level, Samsung's Galaxy S 4 integrates Qualcomm's Snapdragon 600 SoC. From what Qualcomm told us about Snapdragon 600, we're dealing with four Krait 300 cores and an Adreno 320 GPU. The Krait 300 cores themselves are supposed to improve performance per clock over the original Krait CPU (Krait 200) through a handful of low level microarchitectural tweaks that we've gone through here. The Krait 300 design also allegedly improves the ability to run at higher frequencies without resorting to higher voltages. This isn't the first time we've talked about Snapdragon 600, but since then a few things have come to light.
Snapdragon 600 from HTC One - Chipworks
For starters, Chipworks got their hands on a Snapdragon 600 SoC (from an HTC One) and delayered the SoC. In its investigation, Chipworks discovered that Snapdragon 600 had the exact same die area as the previous generation Snapdragon S4 Pro (APQ8064). Also, although you'd expect APQ8064T markings on the chip itself, the part carried the same APQ8064 label as previous S4 Pro designs.
Avenger 2 Markings on Snapdragon 600 die from HTC One - Chipworks
Chipworks did note however that there were some subtle differences between a standard APQ8064 and the Snapdragon 600 SoC from the HTC One. The Snapdragon 600 from the One is labeled with an Avenger2 codename rather than Avenger, the latter was apparently present on prior APQ8064 designs. Chipworks also noticed differences in the topmost metal layer, although it's not clear whether or not they stopped there or found no differences in lower layers.
All of this points to a much more subtle set of physical differences between APQ8064 and the earliest Snapdragon 600s. Metal layer changes are often used to fix bugs in silicon without requiring a complete respin which can be costly and create additional delays. It's entirely possible that Krait 300 was actually just a bug fixed Krait 200, which would explain the identical die size and slight differences elsewhere.
That brings us to the Galaxy S 4. It's immediately apparent that something is different here because Samsung is shipping the Snapdragon 600 at a higher frequency than any other OEM. The Krait 300 cores in SGS4 can run at up to 1.9GHz vs. 1.7GHz for everyone else. Curiously enough, 1.9GHz is the max frequency that Qualcomm mentioned when it first announced Snapdragon 600.
Samsung is obviously a very large customer, so at first glance we assumed it could simply demand a better bin of Snapdragon 600 than its lower volume competitors. Looking a bit deeper however, we see that the Galaxy S 4 uses something different entirely.
APQ8064 from a Snapdragon 600 based HTC One - Chipworks
Digging through the Galaxy S 4 kernel source we see references to an APQ8064AB part. As a recap, APQ8064 was the first quad-core Krait 200 SoC with no integrated modem, more commonly referred to as Snapdragon S4 Pro. APQ8064T was supposed to be its higher clocked/Krait 300 based successor that ended up with the marketing name Snapdragon 600. APQ8064AB however is, at this point, unique to the Galaxy S 4 but still carries the Snapdragon 600 marketing name.
If we had to guess, we might be looking at an actual respin of the APQ8064 silicon in APQ8064AB. Assuming Qualcomm isn't playing any funny games here, APQ8064AB may simply be a respin capable of hitting higher frequencies. We'll have to keep a close eye on this going forward, but it's clear to me that the Galaxy S 4 is shipping with something different than everyone else who has a Snapdragon 600 at this point.
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emkei - Tuesday, April 30, 2013 - link
It's funny when article was about cpu/gpu performance and people comment on looks/cover...I guess people cannot read....indtail - Tuesday, April 30, 2013 - link
I'm buying the iPhone the nest time for sure. Enough of no battery and bad cameras for me. I respect Android and have and still will be a loyal fan and even develop some. But my daily phone to be used is definitely the iPhone.In the Android world I'd pick the One simply because of it's premium feel, better camera, and smaller screen. Bigger isn't always better and HTC has realized that. Might as well buy a tablet if you think screen size is so important?
Also, the true spirit of Android is the custom ROMS and once your phone is ROM-ed the only thing that counts is hardware which is better on the ONE. And yes, the S4 is faster but not ver(compared to the S4).
And a good review nonetheless.
indtail - Tuesday, April 30, 2013 - link
This is coming from a year long S3 owner by the way.kgh00007 - Thursday, May 2, 2013 - link
Are you going to stick with this new headache inducing site layout? I just realised that I haven't visited Anand since about 2 weeks after the new site went live and I'm disappointed that you are still sticking with this layout. Why is the text so small?Such a pity, one bad decision has forced me to use the site less and less, there was a time when I checked it a few times a week. Ah well, bye bye Anand, I wonder how many other people you have lost with this terrible new layout? You expect technology to progress, but your site is going backwards in terms of readability and is a lesson in how not to do web design, it hurts to read.
Good luck
Oo凸 - Friday, May 3, 2013 - link
Camera sensor is not IMX135?Latzara - Sunday, May 5, 2013 - link
the plastic is easier to scratch, break and so on - and it's also, and that is absolutely a crime to ignore, much cheaper and easier to replace, as is the case with the battery, the SD card which I for the life of me can't understand some manufacturers not using as it limits the user, but hey the can charge a kings ransom for a few chips that cost way less than the difference in price between let's say an 8GB device and a 16 GB device ... and so on and so onAs someone said earlier it's a matter of choice and tastes and absolutely nothing more -- the real differences are the durability, repairability, customizability as well as what's in my opinion the most important, the inner workings, the CPU, GPU, memory speeds and so on --- you're arguing about a shell which is a simple covering and nothing more...
When i hear about someone judging a device by how it 'feels in my hand' i can't do anything but smirk ...
unbible - Wednesday, May 8, 2013 - link
iphone 5 battery hours seems opposite between 3G/LTE in Web Browsing Battery life test. Shouldn't be 3G 8.19 hrs and LTE 4.55 hrs??Omiaz - Wednesday, May 8, 2013 - link
Im still waiting part 2Quorbach - Saturday, May 11, 2013 - link
Same here. Where the fuck is it ?lilmoe - Thursday, May 9, 2013 - link
Seeing that the Note 2 gets a lower battery score than the iPhone 5, i'm seriously questioning your battery life benchmark Brian...Also, my Galaxy S4 charges from 15% to 100% in 1:40 to 2:00 hours (depends on whether I'm using it while charging, personal experience really). Are you sure you used the official charger?
Guess the best reviewer to any device is myself.........