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
Software - Camera
Samsung spent comparatively little time talking about the Galaxy S 4 hardware and instead chose to focus mostly on software. While Android 4.2.2 is the underlying OS, Samsung’s customizations are very visible and present throughout the Galaxy S 4 experience.
The user interface and experience is distinctly Samsung. The Touchwiz icon stylings and water sounds that permeate the experience remain intact and mostly unchanged. UI performance is finally at the point on most of these modern devices where it’s just amazingly smooth throughout everything. The Galaxy S 4 is no exception here.
Samsung spent a lot of time adding functionality to its camera app, which now includes the ability to shoot stills and video out of both cameras simultaneously. This is similar in nature to an LG feature we covered last month at MWC, Samsung calls it Dual Camera.
Dual Camera is very easy to activate (there’s a dedicated button in the top left of the camera app). Once activated you can choose from various filters/effects, including a basic split screen mode.
As a way of enhancing stills, Samsung includes support for Sound & Shot - a feature that captures up to 9 seconds of audio alongside a still image.
There’s a new mode dial that allows you to switch between shooting modes, including some new ones like drama shot which lets you take multiple stills in a burst mode and combine them all together to show character progression in a still frame.
Burst shooting can also be used to erase a photo bomb with eraser mode, a feature we’ve seen before (highlight and remove a character from a scene).
On the video side, the Galaxy S 4 introduces Cinema Photo - a feature that lets you shoot a video, highlight areas that you want to continue in motion and have the rest remain static - resulting in an animated gif.
In its final new camera feature is the ability to create, group and stylize albums of your photos. You can create albums locally on the Galaxy S 4, style them with templates, and send them off to print via Blurb. There’s Trip Advisor integration to pull in highlight information about the locations you’ve taken photos at.
The camera software features are aimed at bringing as much of the photo processing/organization experience onto the smartphone as possible. Samsung clearly has the point and shoot market in its crosshairs and it is leveraging the fact that modern smartphones are sophisticated computing platforms in order to go after that market.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
206 Comments
View All Comments
toldenburger - Saturday, March 16, 2013 - link
Yeah I was wondering about this too. Couples of times obvious lag between pressing a button and something happening. Also some scrolling lag. And definitely when using these new s-features which I think are a gimmick. Also from someone who has not used Android for a long time, is the UI supposed to look so non-conform? Looks different in a lot of places and in my mind ugly especially in the 'messaging' app.beginner99 - Friday, March 15, 2013 - link
Well nothing surprising. In the end all those top of the line phones seem a tad too big. I would probably choose the S4 over HTC One. Bigger screen in almost same sized body and lighter, More importantly SA had SD-card slot. Sou you can cheap out with the 16 GB and get a large SD card.BPB - Friday, March 15, 2013 - link
The One's camera has me seriously considering it. I have a Lumia 920 through work but am looking to leave the job and as a result the phone. Sprint doesn't have the 920, so I think the camera of the One will get me over the S4. I really like being able to take good pictures in low light with my 920, so getting the One makes sense for me. Having only 32GB with the 920 hasn't been a problem for me, so that or more with the One will be fine.krumme - Friday, March 15, 2013 - link
Go check the pictures before you do. The ones i have seen have been very disapointing bordering on there must be a flaw with the phone. The corners are unbelieveble unsharp, and are really big. Second, i dont quite see the benefit of going to 4pix. So sad, it could have change the idiotic race for more mpix, but something went wrong with the execution.BPB - Friday, March 15, 2013 - link
Check out Engadget's review. They beg to differ:http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/12/htc-one-review/
Galcobar - Friday, March 15, 2013 - link
Normally not one to complain but since Blackberry 10's launch on Jan. 30 Anandtech has published six phone hands-on articles, yet still hasn't come out with anything on the Z10 since you closed the Live Blog with "11:23AM EST - The announcement is coming to a close, thank you all for following, we'll have more on the announced devices later today."Considering RIM (technically the name still hasn't changed) was handing out Z10 at the launch, I'd much like to know why we've not seen anything on a platform which, while ridiculously behind the top two, still holds more than double the share of the fourth-place Windows Phone (who has gotten Anandtech phone reviews). http://gigaom.com/2013/03/06/comscore-android-stil...
Mugur - Friday, March 15, 2013 - link
I hate to see (again) that Samsung is selling the same phone with different internals. Fortunately for me, I think they will screw (again) only the US market... :-)Krysto - Friday, March 15, 2013 - link
It seems like the A15 cores were underlocked from the rumored 1.8 Ghz to be more in line with the S4 Pro's performance in US, even though it's clocked at 1.9 Ghz.mattgmann - Friday, March 15, 2013 - link
This phone seemingly has it all. Too bad the off-contract price is surely $650+. I'll wait for whatever google has next.Gunbuster - Friday, March 15, 2013 - link
I honestly do not understand the current Samsung design language. I always have the lingering thought in the back of my head that it looks like some kind of prototype medical device for socialites to do a home sonogram with. They consistently look plasticky, fragile, and every unit not wiped down for the press shot is a hot greasy mess.