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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darwinosx - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
Very few people have seen a Nexus phone or pure Android so its not correct to assume they prefer Touchwiz.nitenichiryu1 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
i agree! i actually prefer vanilla android to all the companies' versions of android.seamonkey79 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
Won't buy a phone without a removable battery. After two iPhone batteries and my friend's One X battery crapped out, it simply isn't worth it. Wouldn't mind a little bit better build from Samsung, but honestly my Note 2 is as good as my HTC Incredible was.Grandpa - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
Wow. That's saying a lot. My old HTC Incredible had the most incredibly bad battery EVER. So bad I bought an iPhone with a terrific battery and lovin every minute of it.lilmoe - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
let me guess, part 2 is for the Exynos GT-I9500 version.....berantle - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
Thanks for the review. I'll be going with the HTC One. It is a better fit for me and my phone usage. I really like the HTC One's front stereo speakers. The S4 has too many new features/functions that I have little interest in using.The removable battery of the S4 is not important to me because even having had phones with a removable battery, I never felt a need to swap it out. Much better to recharge using a recharging battery pack - it's universal for charging other portable devices, plus the current packs can store 3-4x the energy that the batteries fitted in the phones can store.
Don't need removable SD card feature. Backed up my contacts/data to the cloud and to the PC. Do that regularly. I don't use my phone as a dumping ground for my music and movie files. Those go into my phone selectively and actively managed as to what I want in my phone storage.
The camera in the phones. I don't use them to replace my normal cameras. It's for the occasional shot and these skew to more indoors than outdoors. Thus, the HTC One's camera makes a better fit for me than the S4 camera. In my brief use of an HTC One, I tried the HTC One in a close macro shot and liked the results very much.
Aluminium or Polycarbonate? I have no problems with polycarbonate if it is nicely done like the recent Nokia phones and the HTC One X/Butterfly phones. The feel of the S3 was offputting and since the S4 is more of the same, then, no thanks. Holding the aluminium-cased HTC One, the big difference in feel makes me abhor the S3's feel even more, what more the S4 which is supposed to be the same.
rohini - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
The SGS4 is surely a great smartphone but there are many other things which the buyers want from their smartphone. The aesthetics is the most important feature on the wish list of smartphone buyers. Samsung, you should know that people are now bored of your old plastic design. Why can't you come up with something made out of metal or glass or even sapphire?All Samsung has been doing for years is stuffing up its phones with the best in class hardware but forgot about what most of the persons like.
HTC One on the other hand is a an excellent example of innovation even though there are chances that it will fail to attract masses in the Indian market. http://goo.gl/VBNDG
nitenichiryu1 - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
Some have posted comments on how the S4 will have a locked bootloader (bummer), and that the HTC will be unlocked, but what about the recent article from engadget stating that it will change for the HTC, and most likely be locked. http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/15/htc-one-att-boo...teiglin - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
Skimming through the comments makes my head hurt. I wonder what percentage of idiotic commenters are marketers and what percent are legit fanboys. I hope they're mostly marketers; it's a bit scary to think that Samsung and HTC might have developed reality distortion fields that rival Apple's.Anyway, on the off chance you're still reading any of this garbage, Brian, I wanted to ask why you never do any reviews of custom ROMs/kernels. I realize this is a potential deathtrap of complication, so is it just that it's easier just to avoid even opening the door to it? I mean, the number of boneheaded manufacturer moves that can be fixed by some minor aftermarket tweaking is phenomenal: everything from silly button bindings (One) to janky design language (Touchwiz) to miserable screen calibration (Nexus 4) can be solved by spending 10-30 minutes on xda--and that's without even going into the less-stable areas or just-for-fun tweaks.
AndroidsFinest - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
I think I will wait to see what Google has to offer at Google I/O, if its just a revamped Nexus 4 than I might go for the HTC One. Samsung's plastic is getting a bit tiresome and off contract the 8 core international variant is extremely overpriced.