The Next Big Thing.. Well to start off, the device looks very similar to last year’s Samsung Galaxy Note 2 N7100. It’s not as curvy as the S III was, rather more rectangular jumping back to all popular Galaxy S II's design.
CPU
The International version uses Samsung’s very own Exynos 5 Octa with ARM big.LITTLE architecture with fours Cortex A15 chips clocked at 1.6 GHz and four Cortex A7 chips running at 1.2 GHz powering the device.
Basically, 4 cores are used for performance but consume more power, and the other 4 cores are meant for energy efficiency. It maybe confusing for not-so-geeky public, but at a time only Quad Core is functional, and depending upon the system load, transition takes place between the two.
The US version features a slightly inferior Snapdragon 600 Quad core processor clocked at 1.9 GHz.
GPU
The International Exynos version features an insane Triple Core GPU clocked at 533MHz to ensure the buttery smooth rendering of the most graphic intensive games and the US Snapdragon version features the Adreno 320 GPU.
SCREEN & DISPLAY
The display is exactly what you would expect from a device of this calibre, a 1080p Full HD Super Amoled display with whopping 441 PPI of pixels-per-inch. The screen size is 4.99 inches, and all this brute force is encased in 7.9 mm of Samsung’s well known Hyperglaze plastic finish.
The new Samsung Galaxy S4 is the first device to feature Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3 with Native Damage Resistance™.
CAMERA
The Galaxy S4 features a 13mp rear snapper, and a 2mp front for video calling. Featuring a revamped Camera interface, the iPhone breaker impressively captures 1080p videos using the front camera, needless to mention about the rear beast.
Samsung has worked a lot on their Camera Software, with clever selection of shooting modes, that does not feel redundant. The camera software outshines the competitors distinctly.
In the tests with Sony Xperia Z and HTC One, the Galaxy S4 outbursts the result with dominance.
MEMORY
The device comes with 2 GB of RAM, more than enough to multitask seamlessly with the blazing fast Octa Core chip.
STORAGE
With flexibility to choose from 16/32/64 GB, we were not complaining about the space. Moreover it features expansion slot supporting upto 64 GB, that we complained about while encountering the HTC One.
BATTERY
Featuring a decent 2600 mah Battery, the Galaxy S4 is able to handle all things you can throw at it and still keep the battery chugging along at the end of the day. For the battery sucking geeks out there like me, it features a removable battery - A big advantage over the Xperia Z and HTC One which both feature embedded batteries, still keeping the premium feel underneath the Hyperglaze finish.
SOFTWARE
The Galaxy S4 runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with Samsung’s TouchWiz UX user interface on top.
VERDICT
PROS
- Superfast Processor
- Great camera
- Lightweight, attractive design
- Removable Battery
- Stunning Super AMOLED screen Full HD
- Tons of features, many very useful
CONS
- Feels cheaper than the competition in plastic finish
- 'Innovation' makes things too complex
- Mediocre battery life
You can see the various benchmarking scores here.
With amazing TouchWiz features, Great camera, blazing fast processor, and a beautiful Super AMOLED display, the Samsung Galaxy S4 certainly turns out to be the iPhone breaker. Let's see if it does equally well in the world of Android and follow up with the success legacy of S line of smartphones..
THE BEST OF SAMSUNG.. REVIEWED BY AMAN GUPTA
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