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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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!