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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CoryS - Friday, April 26, 2013 - link
Eh, I actually think phones are getting too thin. I put a case on my GS3 because I kept fumbling it due to how thin it was.nerdstalker - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
What's with the QUALCOMM 4G sticker on the top bezel of the device? :sHaserath - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
They're using a Qualcomm Snapdragon SOC with integrated LTE (4g)modem, I believe.nerdstalker - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
Going the Intel way. :PBrian Klug - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
There's been a Qualcomm 4G sticker on the top of Samsung phones since, hmm, T-Mobile SGS2 and AT&T SGS2 (Skyrocket). Even the Droid Charge/Galaxy Nexus VZW edition which had no Qualcomm parts inside did, ostensibly due to some part of the OFDMA/LTE stack being licensed for CMC221, but that was never made clear.-Brian
nerdstalker - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
Interesting. Thank you for the info.ranblv - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
Idon't care about removal battery, I do however care about expandable storage. carrying an extra 32GB micro sd card in my wallet saved the day many times when I needed to shoot video or transfer docs.Great review, I don't always care that much for the minor details but I like it that someone like you is making sure they deliver what they say they do.
janosch.from.afar - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
cannot understand why HTC cant simply add a tray to its smartphone side to insert a battery and sd card. Much like the iphones do it with their sim card tray.Besides, samsung could simply allow two sdcard slots, instead of one - but they should try to improve the SdExtcard mount first, so to being able install all software to it.
UpSpin - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
It adds further parts to the bill list, makes the frame less sturdy because you have to drill a huge hole in the side, you have to add some mechanism to lock it and you have to route all wires on the opposite side, because the battery tray side gets lost for antenna, wires, parts. With plastic it's easy because you can bent the back and remove the whole back, with aluminum it's more difficult, you have to use screws.But I agree, it's still possible. For example they could have used some screws to attach the back. It might have looked even better with screws than without them, but easy swapping won't be possible, so it has little use at all and few people really take advantage of battery swapping, so they probably just risked it with a fixed battery.
And a sd-card could have fitted easily, just as you can exchange the sim card. But here again, it's important for some (I would like one, too), but the majority gets confused with a second storage which is more likely to fail and which can't get used like the internal one, and few understand this.
holyanan - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link
I have to say that the browsing time is really disappointing, i fail to understand why iphones provide with supposedly twice as much browsing time - which is one of the primary functions of a phone nowdays.