The Samsung Galaxy S4 was launched on the 14th of March amidst a lot of fanfare. The pre-orders for the Galaxy S4 have begun. The S4 is priced at $199, sames as the iPhone 5. The S4 received a lot of buzz before it was released as a user on YouTube posted a few videos which highlighted a few of the key features of the Samsung Galaxy S4.
Design
The Samsung Galaxy S series of phones has gotten thinner, now at just 7.9mm thick. The S4 retains the plasticky look and feel of its predecessor the S3. The S4 if of the same height of the S3 and the width is reduced by a millimeter. The most impressive design feature, is how they have managed to fit a 5" screen in the body of sub 5" screen phone. It weighs only 130g, 3g lesser than the Galaxy S3. For such a large phone the lightness is amazing. The S4 is straight as compared to the subtle curves of the S3.
Display
One of the main features of the Galaxy S4 is it's 5" Full HD 1080p Super AMOLED display with an amazing pixel density of 441ppi. It has a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels. The screen is Utra Sharp and you cannot distinguish the pixels. The Gorgeous display is protected by Gorilla Glass 3 to protect it from fingerprints and scratches.
Hardware
The S4 runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 1.9GHz quad-core Cortex A-15 processor or the Samsung Exynos 5 1.6GHz octa-core processor depending on where you buy it. The processor has 2GB of RAM to work with. The GPU is a PowerVR SGX 544MP3. The S4 has Bluetooth 4.0, with A2DP, EDR and LE. It also has a NFC chip built-in. It has Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac. It is 4G Capable. The Galaxy S4 also has an IR blaster to control your TV, with an already loaded app. The S4 has a micro-USB port. It can be wirelessly charged. The S4 has a 2600 mAh Lithium-ion battery.
Camera
The Samsung Galaxy S4 has a primary 13MP Camera with LED Flash. It also has a 2MP front Camera. The primary camera can shoot 1080p videos at 30fps. Another impressive feature is that you can take photos and videos using both the front and back cameras and combines them into one photo or video. Also included is the option of taking many photos with Audio.
Software and OS
The Samsung Galaxy S4 runs on Android 4.2.2, the latest version of Android you can get now. As usual you get the Samsung TouchWiz interface on top of Android, which is really getting long in the tooth now. Samsung uses Touch Wiz to add a lot of software enhancements and a beefier notification bar which provides all the functionality of SB Settings in the iPhone. Also included are some features from the Note 2 such as split screen. NFC can be used to share files between NFC enabled phones. Another great feature is the S Health which is a calorie counter and a pedometer. It uses the phone's Accelerometer and Barometer to track steps, etc. Samsung also released a fitness band which works with the S4.
New Features including Eye Tracking
Samsung introduced a whole array of new features with the Galaxy S4, including some amazing eye tracking features. The 2 new eye tracking features are Smart Scroll and Smart Pause.
Smart Scroll
The Smart Scroll feature works by recognizing your face as you look at the screen and sensing movements of the wrists, the pages scroll up and down. As you near the bottom of the screen, more paragraphs of text will appear.
Smart Stay
The Smart Stay feature recognizes your face when you are watching a video, and if you look away from the screen the phone automatically pauses the video for you.
Air View and Gestures
Samsung has added new hovering features to the Galaxy S4 which don't use styluses but use your own fingers. Hover your finger over a picture and you get a preview of the photo, hover over a video and you get a preview of the video, you can magnify calendar, preview emails, speed dial, etc. Flipboard has also launched an Air View compatible app. In addition to hovering with a finger, you can also swipe your hand over the phone to navigate photos in the gallery, answer a phone call and also change the song playing, move to another tab in the browser, scroll up and down by waving your hand.
Verdict
Most of us expected the Galaxy S4 to be revolutionary phone, but it isn't one. What it is, is an evolutionary phone which pushes the boundaries of mobile computing and gives us immense power to do whatever we want to do with our phones. The only thing missing from the S4 is a Full HD projector, I'm sure that it will be included in the S5 for sure. The S4 is reasonably priced at $640 which is approximately Rs.35000, but expect it to be priced well above Rs.40000 in India. The S4 is surely one of the best utlrasmartphones out there now.
Images Courtesy
C-net and Samsung
