Gadgetory

another day another version of the Samsung Galaxy s4 this time it's the active which is a more rugged version of the s4 line let's get it out of here before we do actually can I just say I don't know why all the galaxy s4 phones are not active or rugged in some way I don't know why you need a different version of a phone that's more dust proof drop true for waterproof since it's been my experience that all phones could benefit from being dustproof drop proof and waterproof nevertheless just gets by a slightly different version if you want it to stand up to your everyday life rant over you know this packaging right yeah I'm kind of over it there is quad-core CPU etc etc the box here now even though it's slightly more ruggedized it actually doesn't feel much larger and heavier there are some slight physical differences that we'll get to in a little bit but it's basically the same sleek thin design as the regular s4 or the s4 mini or whichever s4 you happen to encounter unlike your usual s4 s you've got a sticker back here to tell you sort of how to seat the back cover for maximum protection against humidity and water firmly seal battery cover and USB cover before use make sure to press below the LED flash to make sure it gets nice and secure through here there have been a lot of different tests of the waterproofness of this camera and we will of course connect our own but spoiler sounds like although it can take a splash a dunking might be slightly more questionable okay soft slightly different design and then you can see that there's sort of like a rubberized steel all around the inside of that back case there it looks a little tougher on the inside I will say that for those of you who complain that the expo in the Galaxy line are a little flimsy feeling although the back is plastic it feels a little sturdier and overall the phone has a little bit more heft which is actually kind of reassuring let's turn it on one other physical difference that you see right off the bat is that there are physical buttons as opposed to the touch buttons because those are not always a conductive underwater I don't think you're gonna be swimming with this thing but nevertheless I actually really liked the kind of brushed aluminum look of this compared to something like now obviously the white Galaxy s4 as a slightly different look overall it doesn't have that brush metal the darker versions have obviously darker bezels but this kind of has a cool sophisticated slightly kind of tougher vibe that I'm kind of digging although size-wise you can see basically the same just a tiny bit thicker not bad usually recognized means bulky and ugly although to me that's just another reason why this could be just as tough as let's do the specs the Galaxy s4 active has a 5-inch TFT display with 1920 by 1080 pixel resolution that's pretty good resolution but this is not Samsung's usual AMOLED display in fact reviewers say it's considerably less vivid than the s4 it runs Android 4.2 jelly bean and of course has Samsung's proprietary TouchWiz interface the processor is no joke 1.9 gigahertz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 which is one of the fastest currently available on mobile phones it also has 16 gigs of internal storage and a micro SD card slot that's expandable to hold up to 64 gigs it also has micro USB for charging and 2 gigs of internal ram the battery is 2600 milliamp hours which is rated to 17 hours of talktime and up to 13 days on standby like that would ever happen the s4 active has a 2 megapixel front facing camera and the back camera is 8 megapixels that's a lower resolution than the original galaxy s4 but again it's all about the sensor the camera also features a new aqua mode which lets you control and take photos underwater the active includes all of the extra software features of the s4 such as air gestures air view smart gestures smart pods smart scroll smart unlock and touch wiz widgets it costs $199 with a two-year contract setting aside my rage about the actual existence of this phone or really the fact that there are two to choose from at all I'm thinking that I was in the store and I was trying to choose between the galaxy s4 and the galaxy s4 active and I wasn't totally obsessed with having my buttons you know on the screen have to feedback instead of physical buttons there is no reason not to get the s4 active you can drop it it's dustproof you could take it in the water to me that's exactly what I want my phone to do and it also does all of the same things as the regular Galaxy s4 this seems like the obvious buy life is hard on gadgets for the full review though that aren't over to seen it and check out what our editors have to say