Gadgetory

the Galaxy s3 was one of Samsung's most successful products ever and the company aims to one-up itself in 2013 but what's changed between galaxies let's find out I'm Michael Fisher this is PocketNow and this is samsung galaxy s4 vs samsung galaxy s3 before we get started two things first these are the American variants of the galaxy s3 and s4 because those are the review units we were able to secure so this comparison is us focused second we have a ton of additional galaxy s4 content on our website at pocketnow.com and here on youtube as well follow us so you don't miss any of it for the galaxy s4 samsung decided to iterate conservatively on the design of its 2012 flagship presumably reluctant to change a good thing as a result these phones look quite similar side-by-side despite the varying colors of our demo units here but there are some significant differences between the two generations of galaxy and we'll be checking them out in four main areas hardware UI camera and some test notes Samsung pulled off quite a stunt in the construction of the s4 at first glance it doesn't look much different than the s3 because it's not but from a certain perspective that's the real accomplishment here the s4 is 3 grams lighter and a bit over half a millimeter thinner yet it packs a larger display 5 inches to the s3 s4 point 8 that Super AMOLED display is also 1080p resolution to the s 3s 720p resulting in an astonishing pixel density of 441 PPI to the s 3s 306 PPI all those numbers boil down to this both of these phones feature stunning screens but the Galaxy s4 s is almost impossibly sharp it offers automatic color adjustment some air gestures we'll get into in a while much thinner bezels and the protective layer shielding it from the elements is Gorilla Glass 3 not too it's an improvement in every possible sense and when the software takes advantage of it it looks fantastic the rest of the device has also been refined button travel is sharper and less mushy the cheap looking border plastic has been replaced with a more refined ring that glints more without looking tacky an IR port has been added and the notification LED has been reduced in size slightly the camera lens has been expanded along with the sensor size from 8 megapixels to 13 and the speaker has been moved down low and expanded significantly in size as on the galaxy note 2 the whole device looks much higher end than its predecessor though its hyper glaze coating gives it the same slick feel in hand and it's just as adept at collecting skin grease it's also remarkably easy to scratch moving inside and once again these are the American specs the Qualcomm processor has taken a step up from the dual-core Snapdragon s4 to the more modern quad-core Snapdragon 600 at 1.9 gigahertz LTE is of course still here and the galaxy s4 adds AC support to its Wi-Fi suite the 2 gigs of ram stay the same as do the storage options 16 32 or 64 gigs of storage with expandability to an additional 64 gigs via micro sd finally the battery gets promoted from 2100 to 2600 milliamp hours we have more thoughts on battery life in our full review but for now we'll say that the increase in size has served the new device quite well getting past the lock screen we can see that despite the additional android point bump Android 4.2.2 on the galaxy s4 and 4.1.2 on our GS 3 here there's not much different sure their support for lock screen widgets and all the other goodies from the latest version of jellybean on the s4 but TouchWiz looks almost exactly the same there are some adjustments here some good ones like an expanded rearrange able toggle area in the notification shade and some bad ones like a tabbed Settings menu that's somehow more confusing than before the s4 also brings easy mode for first-time smartphone users by and large though those comfortable with Samsung's TouchWiz skin will have no learning curve with the look of the UI it's the new functionality that might take some getting used to in the form of the new air view and air gesture features air view is familiar from the galaxy note 2 but here it requires no stylus just hovering your hand over the screen lets you preview messages magnify text and so on and it's quite useful in some situations the you need to be careful where you put your hand air gesture is less useful and more buggy but for those who often handle their phones with dirty hands it could prove handy once or twice added features like these and the new bundled s health and s translate apps among others in concert with the redesigned Samsung hub and a refocused push on home media integration are the big hallmarks of the s4 software as it relates to its predecessor the new TouchWiz is familiar yet refined its aging but it works and it's responsive usually there's probably some additional optimization needed here as there are a few bugs and stutters to be found but overall the new TouchWiz experience is a pretty standard iteration we've talked a lot about the 5 megapixel boost and resolution on the Galaxy s4 s camera over the s 3s but there are a few caveats here the camera is capable of 13 megapixel photos but those are captured at a four to three aspect ratio resulting in a very square picture so out of the box the galaxy s4 defaults to nine point six megapixels at sixteen by nine that's probably the mode that most users will shoot photos in additionally the galaxy s4 camera offers a narrower field of view than the galaxy s3 now that means the s4 can render sharper photos but you have to step further back to get as much in the shot that's a pet peeve of ours it makes us feel like you were perpetually zoomed in too far while shooting but fortunately the results outdoors in good light are often sharper on the galaxy s4 with more color depth indoors there's a bit more noise to the shots and photos can easily appear washed out in some situations the s4 s camera still produces more detailed photos than its predecessor but it's once again a marginal improvement not a revolution the real upgrade comes in added camera features and a UI overhaul of the viewfinder offering a simpler Galaxy camera inspired interface and new fun features like animated photo drama shot dual shot and others these won't appeal to everyone but they definitely follow the trend Samsung started with the s3 of throwing as many features as possible into a smartphone camera almost a year ago we called the Sprint Galaxy s3 a solid performer in terms of voice calls and that holds true for its successor solid though is all it is the past year has seen some great improvements in smart phone call quality as a result of noise cancellation hardware and software but it looks like Samsung has focused its attention elsewhere callers said we sounded just okay talking on the s4 and the device didn't deal with background noise like wind very well at all some colors said we sounded less fuzzy on the s4 but otherwise there wasn't much difference reception was OK in our time with the s4 but keep in mind we're comparing a sprint unit to a Verizon one here Sprint's 4G deployment in the Greater Boston area lags significantly behind its larger counterparts connectivity was less reliable on Sprint and speeds were often considerably slower again that's a complaint against the network not the device speaker phone calls were comparable on each device but the speaker on the newer s4 outperformed the smaller unit on the earlier device in media playback it's still rear mounted on the s4 which is a shame but it's definitely louder with a richer fuller sound saying the s4 is a moderate iteration over the s3 is true but it isn't terribly useful the question is does it offer enough improvements to justify the cost of buying one over the s3 well if you're in the market for a phone with a beastly CPU and a top-of-the-line display in arguably one of the best you can find on any smart phone the s4 is for you that also applies if you're interested in an above-average camera remote control and media hub capabilities slightly more modern aesthetic design and a new suite of features that are half useful half gimmick on the other hand the s3 is still no slouch it doesn't pack the latest and greatest anymore and most American versions will likely be waiting longer and longer for updates to the newest version of Android but it's still a great all-around smartphone and it's going to be selling for a lot less once the s4 hits the shelves if you're in the market for a solid proven performer at an affordable price point there's no shame in springing for last year's Galaxy s3 and because it looks so similar 9 out of 10 people you pass on the street won't know the difference folks we have a lot more coverage on the Samsung Galaxy s4 both here on YouTube and at pocketnow.com so follow us on social media like I say before so you don't miss that throw us a like here on YouTube if you liked the video leave us a comment if you have some feedback stay tuned for a lot more from PocketNow thanks for watching we'll see you next time