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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heleymartin88 - Monday, April 29, 2013 - link
</b><a href="http://is.gd/tDlFss">The bettel between android smartphone begin now.From hands-free gesture controls to a “photobomb”-erasing feature, here’s why you’ll want the Samsung Galaxy S4.6 Reasons to get the Samsung Galaxy S4.....</a></b>heleymartin88 - Monday, April 29, 2013 - link
From hands-free gesture controls to a “photobomb”-erasing feature, here’s why you’ll want the Samsung Galaxy S4.6 Reasons to get the Samsung Galaxy S4 check out..... http://is.gd/tDlFssMugur - Monday, April 29, 2013 - link
Brian, can you please have a head to head comparison between the Exinos and Qualcomm variants of the S4? I am really curios whether the Octa really means something in terms of battery and performance...1ndian - Monday, April 29, 2013 - link
I think, Samsung's design is more repairable. So, for most of the people, its design is practical, easily repairable, makes the parts cheap and longer availability of parts compared to other phones... Yes they could have offered a better hardware design. But the amount of useful customization on the software side cannot be overlooked. I think software is the way to go because the hardware by itself is basically useless. Samsung's is the most customized OS in the android market. And, that hasn't affected the device's battery life or performance is a great achievement. So, as much as I hate the look of the phone... I will have to say the cost of the phone is worth it. Just for argument sake, how much do you think iPhone or SZ would cost with as many features as S4?sAiyAnstAr - Thursday, May 2, 2013 - link
If the build quality is good, then it wouldn't need to be repaired.mandywong - Monday, April 29, 2013 - link
Galaxy S 4 is an amalgamation of various cutting-edge smartphone advancements and features of today - http://bit.ly/11vUzb3SmileyDT - Monday, April 29, 2013 - link
Soon i will have it in my hands but once more the back cover is not the best and you can't use it withaout a case.. One drop and you have to search your pockets very deep! I'am looking for S4 cases and so far i have found only http://www.caseutopia.com to order some protection cases... better be safe than sorry. I hope someday samsung will produce smartphones with stronger materials. This is the only negative i find on this phone everything else is cool!MidianSpawned - Monday, April 29, 2013 - link
Whaa Plastic... Whaa aluminum... Noooo HTC is best... Nut uh Samsung is better... Ya know what.. I have a Galaxy Note 2, am very happy with it. Get whatever phone suits you best, but before you buy, know this... Not a single phone out there tastes as good as, or, looks as good as pussy... Pussy, because any phone can order a pizza. That is all!rauelius - Monday, April 29, 2013 - link
If you compare them, please remember to mention that the Galaxy S4 only offers 9GB of storage for Apps(SD-Cards don't do anything to increase storage for most functions) where as the HTC One offers 25GB for available storage. Music and Pictures can be streamed/uploaded via the Cloud and those are the only two things that the SD-Card really will do for the Galaxy S4. With games getting bigger and bigger and Google Music streaming the minuscule amount of storage on the Galaxy S4 makes the phone feel pointless combined with the excellent underlying hardware. It's like having a Ferrari with a Lawnmower's gastank, where as the HTC One is a Lamborghini with an actual gastank.Dug - Monday, April 29, 2013 - link
I'll admit I got the One for the looks and the camera. But I've found I really like Sense5 and Blinkfeed. Before I got it I thought I would never use it, now I use it constantly. There's a lot about touchwiz I don't like. All personal preference though.