Samsung Galaxy S 4 Review - Part 1
by Brian Klug on April 24, 2013 12:01 AM ESTGPU Performance
Both CPU and GPU clocks are higher on Samsung's version of the Snapdragon 600 (APQ8064AB). While the Snapdragon 600 used in HTC's One (APQ8064T) features a max GPU frequency of 400MHz, in the Galaxy S 4 the max frequency moves up to 450MHz. The increase in max frequency alone is modest (~12.5%), but the gains in GLBenchmark are far more pronounced for whatever reason.
As always, we'll start with low level analysis beginning with GLBenchmark's fill rate test:
Interestingly enough, fill rate is actually lower than on the HTC One. With so many variables at work here it's difficult to say exactly why this is, but the lowest hanging fruit is to blame it on memory bandwidth differences. Without getting inside the Galaxy S 4 (or more extensive poking around) it's unclear what speed Samsung is running its memory at, which could explain the differences here. We tried tossing the Galaxy S 4 in the freezer and re-running the test but performance didn't improve substantially. Note that GLB's fill rate benchmark is the only one that did not show the Galaxy S 4 ahead of HTC's One in raw performance.
The low level triangle tests all show significant performance gains over the only other Snapdragon 600 based phone we have (HTC One). Again, I'm not really sure what's going on here with APQ8064AB but the gains here are greater than what clock speed alone can be responsible for. Samsung could be running at higher GPU frequencies more aggressively than HTC or it could have software advantages (a newer Adreno driver perhaps?) or there could be more to this APQ8064AB mystery than we realize.
Egypt HD delivers a fairly sane number however. The Galaxy S 4 manages to outperform the HTC One by around 17% here. Again it's unclear why we're seeing greater performance than clock scaling alone would provide but the net is that the Galaxy S 4 does deliver better GPU performance than other Snapdragon 600 based devices today.
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Reikon - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
Um, you said the SGS4 beats the other phones on accuracy. I'm pointing out that you're wrong. And now when I do, you claim accuracy isn't important.And I have no idea what you mean by "dynamics." Do you mean contrast? It's shown on the charts even though he didn't separate them out. And preference between higher contrast and accuracy is a subjective one. You can't say which one people prefer more. Many people prefer accuracy more than "feeling."
krumme - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
You might want to look at the color charts again. The S4 beats the One on color accuracy.And yes the dynamics of the picture is the contrast for black white, and each of the individual colors. The S4 is what 100 times better?- ofcourse that does not directly translate into perception, but everyone can see the difference. Everyone prefers the livelyness of the picture here.
You better get used to it. Every high-end phone will have amoled in 2 years. The reason only Samsung have it now, is because they are the only one who masters it on this production scale.
sigmatau - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
Good luck with the S4 in sunlight unless you don't crawl outside at all.krumme - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
Yeaahttp://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s4-review-9...
UpSpin - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
That review is pretty inconsistent:'The brightness levels of the Samsung Galaxy S4 are about on par with the rest of the company's AMOLEDs, which is to say not very high. However, due to their low reflectivity, this doesn't affect outdoor performance'
But a a few lines below they suddenly write:
'The Galaxy S4 is a solid performer outdoors, although surprisingly not any better than the Galaxy S III, despite its slightly higher brightness. Perahps, the new Gorilla Glass causes a dash of extra reflections and offsets the advantage.'
So it's as bad as the Galaxy S3. First they say it shouldn't be reflective, but then they say it's even more reflective than the S3, which already has a poor outdoor performance, just google for something like 'galaxy s3 outdoor visibility' and you'll see that people aren't happy with it outdoors.
Your mentioned review also says:
'Its impressive contrast and almost perfect viewing angles make everything on the screen pop, regardless of your viewpoint. '
Which is exactly the opposite to:
http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Screen-Compariso...
'Then come the AMOLED displays of the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S III, which are quick to become bluish even when looked at a slight angle. Otherwise, they do well retaining relative contrast and brightness. However, the quality LCD screens of the iPhone 5 and One do equally well, and even manage to retain a more natural color balance'
Phonearena however does not only write some false stuff, but also proof their statements with pictures.
Regarding outdoor usability they say:
'This lack of brightness also leads to worse visibility in outdoor conditions for the AMOLED screens. The Galaxy S4 isn't unusable, but it's perceptibly harder to read than the bright screens of the Apple iPhone 5 and HTC One, which lead the pack in this respect.'
krumme - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
Spin it what ever you want, but gsmarenas measurements, not personal assessments, show the S4 to have a sunlight contrast ratio of 3353 vs. 2500 for the One. No other way to put it.I dont know about phonearena. Their review is 4 small pages, with no measurements only blog talk. They give S4 a higher rating than One, but i would not put to much credibility in this blog.
And you say Phonearena had pictures? Yeaa i know i look at them with both new oled, ips and pls screen. Have you read their camera comparison?
http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Camera-compariso...
sigmatau - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
My personal assessment shows that you can't read shit on a Samsung OLED screen outside. Even Anand said that the HTC One's screen kills the S3's. We are talking about the screen, btw, not the camera. Nice try of a deflection.krumme - Friday, April 26, 2013 - link
If you leave the S4 in automatic brightness mode, the screen can go as much as 34% brighter compared to the maximum of manual mode. That’s 68% brighter than the maximum of the Galaxy S IIIhttp://www.displaymate.com/Galaxy_S4_ShootOut_1.ht...
There is a difference to Oled screens you know.
hyperdoggy - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
yes, yes...and yes?krumme - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
remember to charge between each "yes"