Samsung S4: All the features you need - and more
Better performance is packed into a familiar winning design
Samsung’s Galaxy S4 is truly a successor to the S3. Almost identical in design, the S4 is lighter but has a bigger screen, more power and a longer list of innovative features.
Samsung could have changed the polycarbonate shell and design to give it more premium look and feel. But, perhaps as the S3 was the bestselling smartphone last year, Samsung did not want to fiddle too much with a winning design. Instead, the bezel on the S4 has been shrunk to increase the size of the display and, at 130 grams, it is just three grams less than S3.
Samsung has launched two versions, the 3G and 4G LTE, of the S4 in the UAE. This review is of the 4G LTE version.
It is powered by 1.9GHz quad-core processor with 2GB RAM and 16GB of internal storage capacity, which can be expanded up to 64GB using microSD slot. The S4 runs on the latest version of Android Jelly Bean.
The screen is a thing of beauty. It has a full HD Super AMOLED display (1920 x 1080) with 441 pixel density, which produced rich, vibrant colours. The Gorilla Glass 3 display is scratchproof and very responsive, even when touched with gloves.
Reviewing the S4 was not easy as it is packed with new hardware and software. It might be a long time before people get around to using many of the features.
Samsung has customized Jelly Bean very heavily with its user interface – Touchwiz. Users can very easily activate or deactivate 15 apps in the menu, without going through ‘settings’. Samsung’s Hub lets users download, rent or buy movies, books and games.
The camera is one of the best in the Android market, for now. It has a 13MP sensor with an LED flash. It took good pictures in bright light but failed in dim and dark conditions. There is no shutter lag with either the front or rear cameras.
Samsung has added its app mode selection wheel feature to the S4. Users can switch between shooting modes – including auto, night, sports, panorama, eraser, animated and best face - very easily. The camera can also record audio clips along with photos, similar to HTC Zoe.
The front has a 2MP camera capable of full HD recording at 30 frames per second. The quality of the playback is astonishing.
Some of the innovations on the S4 are:
• Air View: This feature is not new to those using the Galaxy Note 2, which comes with a stylus. With the S4, your finger becomes the stylus and you can hover over content to get more information, without touching the device.
• Air Gesture: This lets you control the device without touching it. Users can scroll up or down a page by waving their hand. This is useful if your hand is wet or dirty. Drivers can attend to a phone call by waving their hand and sending it to speaker mode.
• Smart Pause: If you turn your face away from the screen when watching a movie, it pauses until you start looking at the S4 again. This feature lagged a bit and did not work all the time.
• Smart Scroll: Users can scroll a page with their eye movement. You can also tilt the device up or down to scroll the page. An eye icon pops up on the screen to let you know that it is working. It’s performance was a bit hit and miss and it is better is to use your finger to scroll up or down.
• S Health: Monitors your activity levels - calories burnt, steps taken and heart beat - to help improve fitness. Users need to enter their height, weight and exercise details and you can set your own goals. Samsung is launching a wristband, weighing scale and heart beat monitor for enthusiasts.
• Group Play: Lets users share music, pictures, documents and play games together, but it works only on S4 devices through WiFi.
• S Translator: Translates live voices and text messages into ten languages, but Arabic is not one of them. It absolutely mimics Google Translate.
• Optical reader: Optical character recognition lets users scan a business card and save it to the address book. The S4 also has a QR code scanner.
• Dual Camera: This app takes a picture with both the front and back cameras at the same time and superimposes them on one another. This is fun. It also works in video mode.
• WatchOn: The S4 will transform into an infra-red remote to control your TV, set-top boxes, A/Cs and home theater devices. It works fine but only with a list of brands.
• Story Album: You can automatically create professional quality print photo books and magazines from camera phone images.
As is to be expected, some of these features need improvement.
The S4 can connect via near field communications (NFC), S Beam, WiFi and Bluetooth. A big advantage is the 2600mAh battery. During the test it lasted a day with heavy use, although not with on 4G LTE. The 4G version is priced at Dh2,749 and the 3G version at Dh2,599.
