Samsung Galaxy S4
It’s been around nine months since Samsung launched hugely popular and successful Samsung Galaxy S3 in United States, and on 14th March, the company followed up Galaxy S series with Samsung Galaxy S4. Even before launch, the Smartphone has been able to create the buzz with large number of speculations and rumors about its features doing rounds on the internet. The tagline of the phone is aptly given as ‘Life Companion’, perhaps that is because of our increasing dependability on them.
Let’s take a brief look at what the S4 has to offer:
Design & Display
Samsung Galaxy S4 looks pretty much like the larger version of its predecessor Galaxy S3 with a larger display screen of 5 inches and dimensions of 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9mm.The display is a Full HD Super AMOLED with 1920 x 1080 resolution and pixel density of 441 ppi. The phone feels very light having the weight of just 130g because of Polycarbonate body. The phone comes in two colors- ‘Black Mist’ and ‘White Frost’.
Under the Hood
A device is as powerful as its hardware is! And, Samsung knows this very well, Samsung Galaxy S4 is power-packed with great hardware, let’s take a look:
Processor: 1.9 GHz Quad-Core Processor / 1.6 GHz Octa-Core Processor (will be launched depending on the market)
RAM: 2GB RAM
Memory: 16/ 32/ 64 GB User memory + microSD slot (up to 64GB)
Battery: 2,600 mAh
Connectivity: NFC (Near Field Communication), Bluetooth® 4.0, IR LED (Remote Control), MHL 2.0 (Mobile high-definition link)
Software
The phone comes with the latest Android version- 4.2.2 aka Jellybean, customized with its Touchwiz interface.
S4 comes loaded with an array of apps and features giving ample evidence of Samsung’s brilliant software-hardware integration. Some of these intuitive features are:
Smart Scroll: Depending upon the way one is looking at it, the phone can be tilted up or down for scrolling.
Smart Pause: The video being played in the phone will be automatically paused if you’re looking away from the phone.
Air View / Air Gesture: Samsung did some copying from its Galaxy Note II, where you can hover with the S Pen (stylus) over screen and it will preview information. The S4 take this concept further; this can be done by your finger. Hovering over galleries will preview their content, email headers lets you see the first few lines, or text in the browser for magnifying something. In similar manner, gestures let you switch between tabs in the browser or skip tracks by passing your hand left or right above the screen, scroll by passing it up or down over the screen, or answer calls by waving at it. Even when you’re wearing gloves, the phone responds to the touch.
S Health: Like a dedicated fitness tracker, this app tracks your steps, stairs climbed, and the ambient temperature and humidity, even tracks your food intake and estimate calories consumed/burned. It can even track your sleep with an optional accessory.
S Translator: A built in translation service that works as a standalone app (for doing voice to voice translation), but also integrates into email, messaging, and Samsung’s ChatON service. Although it’s not integrated with Google Talk.
Group Play: Simultaneously 8 devices can be connected directly via NFC for sharing photos or music or even play games.
Adapt Display: It gives you the optimized display settings. There are 7 automatic modes and 4 manual modes which allows user to see one’s favorite videos, play games,read books and emails being displayed with amazing color quality.
Adapt Sound: Similar to Adapt Display, Adapt Sound gives the user an optimal sound experience tailored for them.
Camera
Specs wise, Galaxy S4’s main camera is 13 MP shooter with Flash & Zero Shutter Lag, and the front-facing camera is having 2MP. But, here as well, Samsung has done an amazing innovation with the camera software and apps:
The Dual Camera mode allows to have the photo of the photographer with the front camera along with the photo being taken by the photographer.
Through Sound and Shot feature, one can add a sound to all the photos clicked.
In Drama Shot, you can get a sequence of photos in one frame to create a collage which tells the story better than a single photo could.
Story Album allows you to modify the photos and create an album setting the themes for specific events.
Verdict
Samsung has given a worthy successor to its Galaxy S series with Galaxy S4, with an excellent combination of powerful hardware and innovative software. At the time of launch, Samsung has not announced any price for the phone. The success of the phone depends a lot upon the price, especially at a time when its competitors Blackberry, HTC and Sony have already released their flagship phones Z10, One and Xperia Z respectively.
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