Gadgetory

everything you love about the Galaxy s4 only it's whatever proof well that's the tagline AT&T is using to sell its latest Samsung flagship variant but is the feature trade-off worth it let's find out I'm Michael Fisher this is PocketNow and this is our video review of the Samsung Galaxy s4 active when Samsung's flagship Galaxy s4 debuted earlier this year it premiered two reviews which were overall positive but not perfect we loved the powerful Hardware under the hood and the large 13 megapixel sensor on its camera but we weren't quite as taken with the software gimmicks or the glossy cheap feeling casing with the galaxy s4 active Samsung has fixed some of that in the quest to deliver a lifeproof version of its top-selling smartphone and in this video we'll take a tour of the new device in hardware software and some test notes our unit is the dive blue version a very exotic casing color that plays nicely with sunlight and wraps around almost all the way to the display making the phone easy to spot though an orange flare version is available if you really want to stand out and a more subtle urban grey version exists for you more reserved folks out there regardless of color though you're still getting the faux ruggedized look of exposed corner screws and textured plastic cross hatching on the top and bottom with springy clicky buttons below the display that look like rubber but feel like plastic this device gets the active in its name from its ip67 ingress protection rating now the six means the phone is totally protected against dust and the seven means it's protected against the effects of immersion in water up to a meter deep for up to 30 minutes but throw the active in a bowl full of water or drop it in the Charles River as we did a few times and you'll get a real heart-stopper as you see bubbles rising from the battery door prying off that cover provides a clue as to why only the vital heart of the device is protected the zone including the battery sim and microSD card slots and connection points the rest of the internal volume is allowed to pre-flood which doesn't seem to bother it as long as you make sure to close the USB cover and fully seal the battery door and out of box sticker tells you that you need press below the camera flash to seat that gasket it's something that's not obvious by sight we'd like to have seen more robust protection here like a coin turned tightening screw and it's probably a safe bet that a lot of people will miss that sticker warning and inadvertently flood their phone something the warranty certainly doesn't go out of its way to cover in the hand the active feels quite nice at 153 grams it's got a mild heft without feeling too heavy and at 9.1 millimeters thick it's well balanced enough to hold comfortably the 5-inch display is fairly readable across most lighting conditions and while you can tell it's an LCD by the bright gray blacks it's still a 1080p 441 PPI panel and as such it's gorgeous the 1.9 gigahertz Snapdragon 600 processor is familiar as are the 2 gigs of RAM and 16 gigs of storage with microsd expandable 'ti and 4G LTE support and the 2600 milliamp hour battery are standard as well but the combination of these familiar elements results in a hotter running device here the active is not a phone that runs cool so it's a good thing it's rated for the occasional dip in the sink of the swimming pool powering on the active delivers few surprises Samsung's TouchWiz skin is here in all its glory bringing positives like utility toggles and a fleshed-out UI to Android 4.2.2 and also negatives like too many half-baked features something we talked extensively about in our galaxy s4 coverage that said the active does modify the software loadout in some pretty interesting ways if you enable the torch function the phone becomes the most convenient flashlight ever via a simple long press of the up volume key this is something you'll use a lot more often than you think and you'll start to wonder why it's not included by default on every phone fittingly s health is still preloaded for fitness aficionados s translator is here for travel buffs and if you've got wet or gunked-up hands and you don't feel like testing the actives liquid resistance some of the standard gestures remain for answering calls and the like in normal use you do need to get used to switching between the taps and swipes of the screen and the physical presses of the navigation buttons but once you get past that it's just like using a stock Galaxy s4 we tested the Galaxy s4 active over the course of six days in the Greater Boston area on AT&T the exclusive launch carrier for this device coverage and speeds were excellent in and around the city as we've come to expect from AT&T in Boston while we engaged in more than our fair share of immersion fun out and about with this device we didn't live as active a lifestyle as we might have with a truly rugged phone it's important to make that distinction because ip67 is not milspec and the galaxy s4 active is not technically a rugged phone it's a water and dust resistant phone so it's important to define the word active a bit narrowly when referring to this device using the phone when wet also poses its share of challenges even minor water spray on the display renders the screen useless until it's dried off the physical keys don't really help with this either on a modern Android phone you really need the screen for anything and everything and when the speaker gets wet it loses more than half its amplitude until it dries off and the microphone stops working until it dries off too so using the active in the shower isn't going to work out for all you hardcore multitaskers but Samsung definitely comes through in terms of the camera software which has been optimized not just with its own aqua filter for underwater photos but with new front and center positioning of shortcut options so you can use the volume rocker underwater to snap pictures and start video rolling and thanks to the water resistance you can feel perfectly safe taking super low angle videos or photos just put the phone in the water it's awesome those photos themselves aren't bad at all indoor photos and mix lighting are prone to noise and blown out areas and have strange color balance and low-light photos are pretty sad but once you get outdoors where Samsung presumably expects you to spend most of your time with the active the 8 megapixel shooter is capable of some really wonderful pictures with nice saturation and crisp edges some options like dual shot have been removed but much of the s4's original feature load is here including HDR which helps a lot in challenging lighting scenarios it's harder to get quality snaps underwater but it's possible video is probably your safer bet there though and above water video is crisp and clear with great color saturation and reasonably quick auto exposure though autofocus is a little sluggish as is the case on most phones now the Galaxy s4 active doesn't fare as well in phone calls even when dry callers said we sounded just okay and one caller said we sounded better on the five year old HTC dream using the same network on our end call quality was average and so was battery life we were able to get through a full day of moderate use with the 2600 milliamp hour battery and Samsung earns a pat on the back here for including a removable power pack in a water-resistant phone AT&T deserves credit for really getting the targeting of this device right and it's advertising the Galaxy s4 active isn't necessarily for outdoorsmen it's more like the Galaxy s4 for clumsy people or folks who are accident prone people who have destructive children or people who really don't mind the minor sacrifices and features to get a little more peace of mind if you took a pass on the first Galaxy s4 for feeling flimsy the active deserves at least a glance it gains points for its water and dust resistance but loses a few for the camera downgrade and accident waiting to happen back cover so the Galaxy s4 active sticks with its stock s4 counterpart on the scoreboard we give it an eight point eight out of ten folks don't miss the rest of our coverage on the Galaxy s4 active and every other smartphone and tablet we can get our hands on subscribe here on YouTube and visit us at pocketnow.com but before you go please drop us a like if you did enjoy the video leave us a comment if you have something to say follow us on social media where we do all of our talking and thank you for watching we'll see you next time