Gadgetory

it's probably one of the biggest smartphone releases of the year and it's certainly one of the most anticipated Samsung is storing everything its guide to its newest flagship release so does it live up to all of the hype a Java car from Android Authority what's going on everybody and yes this is the Samsung Galaxy s4 the Samsung Galaxy s4 follows up the tremendously popular key galaxy s3 and helps to not only please those loyal to the line but also to entice anyone who has held out until now the design of the s4 is largely derivative of its older counterpart especially in the white model you have the white bezel shrunken down to accommodate the 5-inch screen flatter sides and a different layout for the rear camera and speaker otherwise the button layout is just about the same as it was on the s3 the back cover is still removable you not only get access to the SD card slot and battery but you can even buy accessory covers like the smart cover or the wireless charging cover for added functionality but the phone continues Samsung's trend of plastic bodies and covers it may be a material choice that is starting to get old but nonetheless anyone who has used a s3 in the past will feel right at home here let me reiterate that the Samsung Galaxy s4 feels pretty much like its predecessor while the general aesthetic might be getting a little played out remember that there is so much improvement everywhere else and yet it is actually smaller than the s3 with the same height that s4 sheds a fraction of the s3 thickness and is even a little bit narrower most important here however is that the s4 is even lighter though it might only be 3 grams lighter there is a balancing to the galaxy s4 that makes it feel like a feather you can definitely call that a victory in the design department as this is the best handling 5-inch screen device out there shortly after receiving this unit I was able to text chat browse and play with one hand comfortably the flat side to make the phone easy to grip with your fingers and palm any ham gymnastics typically needed for a 5 inch screen or at their least required when using this phone only rarely did I need to use my other hand to reach the very top left corner of the screen perhaps the most obvious improvement at first glance is the display Samsung brought their Super AMOLED tech up to a 5 inch screen capable of 1080p resolution and 441 PPI the result is one of the best displays on a smartphone period not only is it easily viewable in almost any condition it is also capable of some very steep viewing angles the Oubre colorful TouchWiz UI benefits from the screens high saturation making colors pop out and basically punch you in the face reading anything on the screen is easy - as text is incredibly sharp move under that screen and you'll find that the galaxy s4 is among the fastest phones around it has the quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor that is only currently found on about a few other devices and is a big leap from the s4 pro it is not the exceed O's octa-core that we may have heard about but this processor package definitely included in North American models is still an incredible performer I was zipping through all elements of the UI and multitasking with no problems a few tests in antutu benchmark put the galaxy s4 right around the very impressive 25,000 mark Epic Citadel puts the tried and true Adreno 320 performance at very high ratings and the two gigabytes are available for all of your multitasking pleasure hardware is what the Samsung Galaxy s4 has in spades the speaker is no front-facing boom sound but it is quite loud and is far from tinny the s4 is then not only sporting expandable memory and a replaceable battery but a host of new sensors and utilities for a bunch of uses first one will list is a IR blaster capable of controlling a host of TV's cept op boxes and players GPS Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are your standards while NFC with SB makes its return but there are many sensors add-in that complement the typical accelerometer and proximity sensor you now have a barometer and a temperature gauge to check the general conditions around you an RGB light sensor that helps adjust the color and white balance of the screen based on its detection of light an infra red sensor for all hands and air gestures and a hall sensor for detecting closed smart comforts and finally a compass what is perhaps best about these additions is that software inclusions make them all useful in one way or another but we'll get to that soon the battery unit included with the s4 is of higher capacity than most five-inch screen device offerings 2600 milliamp hours are able to power this phone for quite a while making the end of the day a little less precarious for the common user with a bit of a robust test using Wi-Fi and Netflix movies the phone finally knocked out at right under the four hour mark otherwise straight browsing time and playing videos from memory certainly came in at impressively long times usually around eight or so hours on Wi-Fi without disabling sync it is definitely among the longest lasting 5-inch screen devices available and with the ability to replace the battery when it finally runs out of juice you really shouldn't have any power issues on the galaxy s4 improvements on the camera start off pretty standard 13 megapixels are what you get this time around while the front-facing camera gets two editions are all in the application itself in which there are now a bunch of new ways to use those optics ones you may expect include best face which takes a burst shot and allows you to replace detected faces to find the right one you need for the shot an animated photo which just basically takes that burst shot and creates animated gifs from them HDR and panorama you are also able to use both the front and rear facing cameras in order to create a dual shot picture or video now the big additions take further advantage of those burst shots via eraser mode and drama shot eraser detects the objects that move aside from your subject and background and erases anything not meant to be in the picture drama shot instead adds the moving subject on top of the stable background creating a nice-looking one picture burst subject both are nice to use as long as your device and the general background are stable picture quality on the s4 is really quite good just as the s3 was considered a great performer in the 8 megapixel space the s4 is among the best in the 13 megapixel space you get a great deal of detail and the color shot saturation is high enough to make any picture nice and vibrant with great quality in a host of ways to take a picture the Galaxy s4 is definitely at the top of the list of smartphone cameras and finally we get to the software TouchWiz is an Android UI that you either love or hate personally I've never been a big fan of its more bloated and yet a colorful look though the great quality of the screen certainly helps make those colors really go nuts but this time around with the jelly bean 4.2.2 powered version of Samsung's UI I actually didn't immediately replace it with a different launcher while that might happen eventually I have found why it is more tolerable this time around it's the size of the screen high-resolution displays often run the risk of making things uncomfortably small or weirdly spaced out but the already enlarged and bloated TouchWiz elements translate perfectly to the 1080p display what you get is an easily accessible interface that even with the smallest font size is simple to navigate without having to squint or pinpoint there are a number of new ways to get around in built-in applications it might be a little daunting to look through all of these but a large power widget in the notification drop-down gives you a quick glimpse there are motion features that return like direct calling which caused the contact currently displayed automatically when the phone is brought to your face or muting when turning your phone over onto its face a sensitive screen allows you to get around even when wearing gloves as well as use your finger like an S Pen to get quick previews of gallery albums I think the most practical application of this air view is previewing your last received text and then there are all of the different air gestures that take advantage of the motion sensor you can jump through a web page go to the next picture change the music track my favorite one is a quick info screen that pops up after you wave your hand it's a brilliant way to quickly get the time date and notifications of missed calls and texts quick tip though use some finesse the sensor has to pick up the movement for the gesture to register so you don't have to do so fast smart screen capability is utilized the front-facing camera to detect if you're still looking the screen will stay on as long as the phone is at an angle and eyes are still on the screen and smart pause will pause the video playing when you look away I personally like the smart squirrel let the phone detect your eyes after which you can slightly tilt your head to look at the bottom or top of the screen which will scroll a webpage accordingly you just have to take that extra second or two to allow the phone to detect your eyes new apps included are the s translator which allows for voice and text translations among about a dozen different languages story album which put your pictures together in a nice flip book format and group play which allows you to connect to a bunch of other s4 devices to share pictures documents presentations and music well I don't have other units to demonstrate this right now I can say it is a really cool feature especially when you have five total devices put together and make every single one play one of the five channels of music and finally there's s health perhaps the biggest endeavor if you have ever used multiple diet or exercise tracking applications Samsung has tried to consolidate them all into s health you can track food from a database or from information you add in yourself track physical activity log weight and even use the thermometer and barometer to check humidity and temperature of your surroundings the gyroscopes in the s4 can also be set on for tracking your steps if your phone is in your pocket why not put it to some work still all of these features will be further augmented with a number of accessories you can buy like a heartrate monitor a wrist predominator and a weight scale it's actually a nice suite of diet applications that can help anyone who gets into the habit of tracking to get into shape to end we have the price the Samsung Galaxy s4 should be coming out on pretty much all major carriers most of whom have already posted pre-orders in America it will be around 200 with a two-year contract while the uncarrier t-mobile plan will ask 150 up front with $20 device payments each month for two years with the galaxy s4 slated to come out on just about any carrier you will be able to get your hands on one no problem unlocked prices will likely get around the $700 us mark and so there you have it I will say this Samsung put a lot of work into making sure there are s4 offers the most to its users all of the sensors give many ways of performing tasks we've gotten used to doing with just our fingertips other features like group play and the camera editions are neat tricks that are fun to use once you find a time to use them and s-health will help anyone proactive enough to use it and that's about the gist of the live companion samsung galaxy s4 it may not be particularly revolutionary but it does get close to perfecting what is already in place while giving you a new alternative ways of how to do them you're given choices on how to tackle pretty much any typical task and if you don't want to use those particular features well you really don't have to but just like Samsung the company itself it's all there for you and one day you just might end up trying it out serendipitously or even out of sheer boredom and then before you know it you fallen in love for all the Samsung Galaxy s4 coverage stay tuned to android authority youtube channel and keep up with android authority comm because we're your source for all things Android