Lately Samsung has been busy at work rolling out new devices, this year they've introduced a lot of high end devices including their flagship model the Galaxy S4, S4 Active and the S4 zoom. In this review we will be looking at the Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-I9500 (The international version).
The S4 comes with the usual carbon fiber plasticy-material but that's what makes the device feels extremely light at 130 grams, it does feel like a feather in your hand compared to the Galaxy Note 2 or the Nexus 4, a lot of people has been saying that because of the materials the device does not feel like a premium device but I highly disagree.
The glass used in the front is Gorilla glass 3 which is made of very tough and scratch resistance materials, and it's also not a finger print magnate which is something I love about it.
The aluminum frame is a very nice touch and it gives the device a very comfortable feel in hand and it made the phone look really good, that’s something I'm looking forward to in the next Note device.
The international version of the S4 comes with an Octa-core processor (Exynos 5 Octa 5410) which is basically two Quad core processors - Cortex-A15 clocked at 1.6 GHz & Cortex-A7 clocked at 1.2 GHz- the idea behind that is to make the less powerful -and less power consuming- Cortex-A7 processor handle the casual stuff, and the Cortex-A15 to only work when needed and that will save a lot of battery.
The device comes with 2 gigs of RAM which is more than enough to handle the most popular games and speaking from experience it's gets you through almost all tasks needed of a smartphone.The GPU (Graphics processor unite) on the S4 is something new, it's called PowerVR SGX-544MP3 which I'm guessing is something developed especially for the S4 and its rocking most of the games just right, I haven't suffered any issues with any games or apps.
Samsung hooked the S4 with a Super AMOLED 5 inch screen that is absolutely beautiful, with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels (~441 ppi pixel density) it is one of the best screens out there, With that really really REALLY high pixel density the colors are great and vivid.
The S4 rocks a 13MP camera that produces high quality pictures compared to most current smartphone cameras. The software is an important factor here; Samsung has upgraded the camera software to include a bunch of new modes to play with. and a some new features like Dual Shot, HDR and Simultaneous HD video and image recording along with geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection and digital image stabilization... All these features leaves you with a superb phone camera that will do the job and more.
Also the shutter speed on this device is absolutely amazing, this feature is only available in a couple of Sammy devices including the Note 2 and the all mighty S4, and on the S4 it comes with improved speed and processing time and that is the result of the combining the high end specs, a great sensor and the software to make it all work.
The international version of the S4 lacks 4G connectivity which I find absurd because now 4G LTE is available in countries outside the US and it's considered a downside to the S4 with it packing a lot of features but missing a very important one like LTE connectivity.
The device comes with the latest version of Bluetooth 4.0 and the latest Wi-Fi standard (ac) which is much much faster than the previous standard (n) at a speed of 1300 MB/s instead of 450 MB/s but in order to reach that speed you have to have a router that supports (ac) connectivity.
As for the IR port I did not get a chance to try that becuase I don't have a Smart TV but it supposed to function as a universal remote control for most devices.
The S4 comes
packing the latest version of Android 4.2.2 Jelly bean under the hood, the
Samsung version with some modification and tweaks and of course adding the good
ol’ TouchWiz, with high specs you won't suffer much lags or crashes because the
system has a great set of hardware to work with.
Samsung’s Galaxy S lineup has never wanted for power, and neither does the Galaxy S4 — it’s an impressively fast and powerful phone, capable of handling anything I threw at it. I could get it to drop frames in Asphalt 7 or stutter ever so slightly when closing some apps, but only by turning on and turning up every conceivable feature on the phone — and even then its stumbles are rare. Used more normally, once you've disabled some of the more obnoxious software features, it's flawless.
Samsung beefed up the battery on the Galaxy S4, opting to use a 2600mAh battery. It has a removable cover, so you can choose to carry along an extra battery for days when you’ll be over connected.
I found that the phone lasted with me all day, even with all these crazy software features turned on at all times, and never really failed me once. The Exynos 5 chip plays a big role here, Even with heavy usage the phone will last a decent 9 hours.
Pros:
- Camera is very nice
- Screen is awesome
- Very smooth OS, fast processor
- Lack of 4G LTE connectivity for the international version.
There's already been plenty of general talk about this phone. But, I felt it important to say that so far, it's living up to the high expectations, and that most of the drawbacks described are a bit reaching. It's not hard to use for someone already familiar with Android phones, once one gets past the first few minutes of learning the changes.
- Samsung Galaxy S4 vs Google Nexus 4 [Arabic] :
Samsung Galaxy S4: Lives up to the hype [Review]
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Samsung
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