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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emkei - Tuesday, April 30, 2013 - link
It's funny when article was about cpu/gpu performance and people comment on looks/cover...I guess people cannot read....indtail - Tuesday, April 30, 2013 - link
I'm buying the iPhone the nest time for sure. Enough of no battery and bad cameras for me. I respect Android and have and still will be a loyal fan and even develop some. But my daily phone to be used is definitely the iPhone.In the Android world I'd pick the One simply because of it's premium feel, better camera, and smaller screen. Bigger isn't always better and HTC has realized that. Might as well buy a tablet if you think screen size is so important?
Also, the true spirit of Android is the custom ROMS and once your phone is ROM-ed the only thing that counts is hardware which is better on the ONE. And yes, the S4 is faster but not ver(compared to the S4).
And a good review nonetheless.
indtail - Tuesday, April 30, 2013 - link
This is coming from a year long S3 owner by the way.kgh00007 - Thursday, May 2, 2013 - link
Are you going to stick with this new headache inducing site layout? I just realised that I haven't visited Anand since about 2 weeks after the new site went live and I'm disappointed that you are still sticking with this layout. Why is the text so small?Such a pity, one bad decision has forced me to use the site less and less, there was a time when I checked it a few times a week. Ah well, bye bye Anand, I wonder how many other people you have lost with this terrible new layout? You expect technology to progress, but your site is going backwards in terms of readability and is a lesson in how not to do web design, it hurts to read.
Good luck
Oo凸 - Friday, May 3, 2013 - link
Camera sensor is not IMX135?Latzara - Sunday, May 5, 2013 - link
the plastic is easier to scratch, break and so on - and it's also, and that is absolutely a crime to ignore, much cheaper and easier to replace, as is the case with the battery, the SD card which I for the life of me can't understand some manufacturers not using as it limits the user, but hey the can charge a kings ransom for a few chips that cost way less than the difference in price between let's say an 8GB device and a 16 GB device ... and so on and so onAs someone said earlier it's a matter of choice and tastes and absolutely nothing more -- the real differences are the durability, repairability, customizability as well as what's in my opinion the most important, the inner workings, the CPU, GPU, memory speeds and so on --- you're arguing about a shell which is a simple covering and nothing more...
When i hear about someone judging a device by how it 'feels in my hand' i can't do anything but smirk ...
unbible - Wednesday, May 8, 2013 - link
iphone 5 battery hours seems opposite between 3G/LTE in Web Browsing Battery life test. Shouldn't be 3G 8.19 hrs and LTE 4.55 hrs??Omiaz - Wednesday, May 8, 2013 - link
Im still waiting part 2Quorbach - Saturday, May 11, 2013 - link
Same here. Where the fuck is it ?lilmoe - Thursday, May 9, 2013 - link
Seeing that the Note 2 gets a lower battery score than the iPhone 5, i'm seriously questioning your battery life benchmark Brian...Also, my Galaxy S4 charges from 15% to 100% in 1:40 to 2:00 hours (depends on whether I'm using it while charging, personal experience really). Are you sure you used the official charger?
Guess the best reviewer to any device is myself.........