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Samsung Galaxy S 4 Review - Part 1by Brian Klug on 4/24/2013 12:01 AM EST
336 Comments
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tarun.chatwith - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkHTC One without a doubt.
Enough of plastic Reply
FITCamaro - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkYou're just going to wrap it in a plastic/rubber case anyway most likely. So to me it's not much of an issue. I just got a new phone at work and went with the Note 2. Loving it so far. A tad large but I have big hands anyway and can text with holding it in one hand so I'm good. Reply
UpSpin - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkDon't generalize. I never used a plastic/rubber case or a screen protector, only used a sleeve/bag to protect and clean the display while in the my pocket. You might enjoy plastic, others enjoy aluminum. Both materials have their advantages and disadvantage, in the end it's a personal decision. However aluminum looks and feels more expensive and looks of higher quality, and considering the price you pay for such a smartphone, it's understandable that people want that the device looks the way it costs. Reply
danbob999 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkIt's a phone. Why would you care how expensive it looks? Reply
DigitalFreak - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkVanity Reply
Thud2 - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkThe vanity of trying not to appear vain. Reply
darwinosx - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkBecause when you pay money for something you want it to look and feel good. Obviously. Reply
Notmyusualid - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link+1 Reply
danbob999 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkEven if it means being larger, heavier, with a smaller display, a smaller battery, and no more resistant? Reply
UpSpin - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkBut this isn't the case here. It has a larger bezel because of dual front speakers which are obviously better than mono back speakers. As long as it's comfortably weighted, heavier doesn't mean worse. (see complaints about too light iPhone). The display is smaller, but the size is a personal decision. The battery life is identical or even better, not worse. The shiny plastic gets easier dirty, is softer and easier to scratch than the anodized aluminum, it's also easier to break thin parts of the frame and thus buttons than to break a unibody case. But alumium is easier to dent. Reply
darwinosx - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkAnyone who complains the iPhone is too light need to reevaluate their priorities. Reply
medi02 - Monday, April 29, 2013 - linkPlastic does NOT get either dirty or scratched easier than metal, this is from an owner of 2+ year old galaxy S+, who never used any sorts of protective cover. The only marks on it are from dropping it on concrete from about 1.6 meters.
This "it must be metal" madness should stop. Go apply that to other gadgets. Reply
hyperdoggy - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkIf it doesn't come off looking like a 5 dollar chinatown toy, then yes. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with plastic, HTC and Nokia does it well, but the fisher price mode that samsung is in, i can't help but to feel Samsung could of done it a lot better. Reply
emkei - Tuesday, April 30, 2013 - linkDo you seriously think galaxy look like 5 dollor toy? lol..... Reply
n3xas - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkYour argument is invalid. Smaller display is not a con for many people. You can't judge battery life by the capacity alone. Larger because of the speakers, I prefer larger any day to cuping the phone with my hands like an idiot and trying to hear something. Resistance to breaking or scratching still unknown. Heavier? yes, aluminum is heavier than plastic. Reply
danbob999 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkSmaller display IS a con. It's just that it often comes with a benefit: smaller overall phone.
Samsung did the impossible and made a phone which is both smaller and has a larger display than the competition.
If the Galaxy S4 was of the same size but with a 4" display it would suck.
Resistance to breaking might be unkown, but it is known that light plastic devices survive better to drops than heavy alluminium ones. Plastic is light, absorbs shock and let waves pass through. Perfect material for a phone. If you want an heavier phone noone stops you from attaching a lead plate to its back. Reply
Thud2 - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link"but it is known that light plastic devices survive better to drops than heavy aluminium ones"
Oh, "it is known"?
That kind of attribution is not acceptable. Reply
danbob999 - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkAre you really denying that plastic is more shock-absorbant than metal? Reply
Krolkrowa - Thursday, May 09, 2013 - linkSmaller display in not a con in this situation. The HTC has a better ppi and it has a LCD3 display which is actually better than the AMOLED screen on the Galaxy S4. The colours on it are just better and the blacks are not that bad. 0.3" is not much difference, if you want 25 reasons why HTC One is better check this video out from PhoneBuff on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHIXtw34wK4 Reply
darwinosx - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkFrom the review;
"If you compare the all-plastic Galaxy S 4 to the all-metal HTC One, there's a difference of 13 grams."
I've seen several articles saying that Samsung is going to be upping their build quality because of the HTC One and iPhone and the constant perception by so many people that Samsung phones and tablets feel and look cheap. Reply
alexvoda - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkThe smaller display on the HTC is a plus point.
However even the HTC is too large for me.
The perfect phone for me would probably be the Xiaomi Mi2S. The only thing it lacks is MicroSD, and popularity(support from XDA for alternative roms).
http://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_mi_2s-5397.php Reply
danbob999 - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkYou could get an S4. It is smaller than the One.
It's never the display that is too large. It's the phone. Reply
darwinosx - Saturday, April 27, 2013 - linkYou might have a point if everything you said wasn't wrong. Reply
angrypat - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkForm follows function, if it does what it is supposed to and fits your need then that is what matters. If you just want the fanciest piece to show off to friends then you should speak to a professional about inadequacy issues or buy a gold plated iPhone. What are you going to do with it, use it, or just sit and stare at it as if it were a rare jewel. It's a phone/toy/tool not a Rolex to wear to dinner parties. Reply
spookyjess - Friday, July 19, 2013 - linkI'd rather not have a phone that's built to be destroyed on FIRST impact...since I paid so much money. Reply
EnzoFX - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkBecause S4 buyers don't buy for looks or vanity? S4 is a looker to some people, there's no denying that. I'm sure we can all imagine an ugly 5" phone.... So don't erect straw man. HTC One is just better in the looks department to most. Reply
kylewat - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkThis is the dumbest thing ever written about something one carries around everyday. It is anachronous to what people said about glasses in the 60s. The fact that you don't care is a representation of who you are as much as someone else caring. Reply
danbob999 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkGlasses are part of your look, just like your clothes. A smartphone is bought for its function, not its look. Also it's hidden 99% of the time in your pocket. Reply
UpSpin - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkGlasses are bought for their function: better eyesight, but because they are your daily companion and visible to anyone, they should not only work but also look good.
Smartphones are bought for their function, too, but because they are, just as glasses, your daily companion and are quite expensive, they should also look good, too.
The whole discussion is totally stupid. You spend $600 for a new smartphone, what's wrong that people want that its body looks worth the $600, and not like a cheap $20 plastic kids toy? Reply
kevith - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkplus 1 Reply
danbob999 - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkGlasses are fashion accessories. You don't choose a specific model because it is more powerful or will give you better vision. You choose a model because it looks good. Reply
UpSpin - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkI need glasses. And I choose the model which not only gives me better vision, but perfect vision. You can choose between glass or plastic, with adaptive dimming in sunlight, a flexibel titan frame, or a huge bold hipster frame, with large or small glasses, with color enhancements, polarisators, AR coatings, ...
If I had perfect eyesight, I wouldn't choose any model at all, so I only buy it because I need it, not because it's a fashion accessory, but this doesn't mean that the glasses I buy must look ugly as hell. I choose the model which fits to my person.
The same with watches. I had a watch, because I had no mobile phone but wanted to know the time. Of course did I choose the watch which had the functions I wanted at a reasonable price and which looked the best for me. We're not talking about Rolex, or whatever, but the useful traditional watches (in my case Casio).
The same with smartphones. And here again do we also not talk about Vertu, etc. but a competive priced high end smartphone, which, even with all those features, can and should still look good, especially if it costs +$600. Reply
danbob999 - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkYou are talking about the lenses. With any model of glasses you can get lenses which will give you perfect vision.
The glasses themselves are fashion accessories.
Unlike your glasses and your watch, a smartphone isn't a fashion accessory. You wouldn't pick a phone just because it looks good. Specs are the most important things to consider. At least that's what I expect on a tech site. If I wanted to know which phone looked the best I woul be reading fashion magazines instead. Reply
UpSpin - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkI think you try too hard to justify that design isn't important for you. I'm not a native english speaker, so I assumed that the meaning of glasses is the whole lenses+frame (dictionary confirmed this), just as the meaning of smartphone is the whole thing, not just the electronics or the casing. Now you reduced it to glasses frame, fine, but this makes absolutely no sense, because you always have to buy and use both and the frame can't be freely choosen either. Some frames only support glass, some require plastic lenses. Some frames only work for thin lenses some people with bad eyesight and thick lenses have to use other frames. You pick what both suits your needs and looks good on you. The same with a watch, the same with a car, the same with a smartphone the same with everything you spend money for. Both design and specs go hand in hand.
Or would you like a 1kg heavy, 10cm thick smartphone if you don't care about design? What's design and what's specs for you?
Again: At such a high price point it should look and feel great, too, thus design is important, too. Sure, if the specs are crap, then the best design is worth nothing. But the HTC One specs aren't crap, they are on par with the S4. And it's a fact that the S4 looks like the S3, and both look like all the other cheaper Samsung smartphones, and all of them have a highly glossy finish which looks, for me, very cheap. So the specs are great, but it just doesn't look like it. Reply
danbob999 - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkMost glasses can be paired with any type of lenses. I am sure you understood my point. Going back to phones, I do care about design. I care about size and weight. I care about the resistance of the phone (if I drop it). I care about the placement of the buttons. I prefer hard buttons than capacitive ones. All these are part of the design. I just don't care how it looks, and even less how it "feels". I knew schoolgirls cared about the look of their phones but I didn't imagine so many people cared about it on a tech site. It's beyond me. Did you also choose your home phone or your TV based on their look? Did you really tell yourself that you can't buy that $2000 TV because it looks like a black rectangle which looks as cheap as that $500 TV next to it? At least home phones and TVs constantly in sight, and not hidden in your pocket most of the time. Reply
TedKord - Thursday, May 02, 2013 - linkLenses are custom ground and fitted into the frames you choose. You can literally get most any lenses in any frames (except if your vision is so bad it requires super thick lenses, then you may have limitations on what frames you can pick)
I've gone through this with my daughter, who has 20/200 vision. I've been lucky so far - while the rest of me is falling apart, my eyesight is still 20/18. Reply
mrochester - Friday, April 26, 2013 - linkPersonally I don't see why as a consumer I can't have both functionality AND looks. Apple and HTC show that you can have both, so I don't see why I would settle for an S4 when I already have an iPhone 5. Reply
danbob999 - Monday, April 29, 2013 - linkThe iPhone 5 doesn't have the functionality of the S4. It's more to the level of the S3, 6 months late to get that shiny metal box.
The One is a good phone but it does make some compromises in order to fit metal. These compromises are SD card, battery capacity and replaceability, overall phone size, included sensors, and even a little CPU speed. The S4 even supports more LTE bands (T-mobile's version supports 6 different ones) Reply
TedKord - Thursday, May 02, 2013 - linkIt depends on which you value more. I'll take functionality/versatility over aesthetics any day, so I chose the S3 over the 4s/5. I would choose the S4 over the 5/One simply because it still has expandable storage and swappable battery, and Samsung releases source/updates much better than HTC. (I've got my S3 in a Seidio Active Extended case, so you can't even tell it's got a plastic back. Plus, I can get an aluminum back for my S3 for $10 off Amazon, if the plastic bothered me - but I prefer to keep the stronger signal) Reply
TedKord - Thursday, May 02, 2013 - linkBut many people DO choose a smartphone based solely on looks, or what others own. Probably not the folks in forums like this, but they're a small minority. The general public is sold on shiny and pretty. Reply
airspoon - Sunday, June 23, 2013 - linkBelieve it or not, some people actually do consider phones to be a fashion accessory -obviously, because that is what the guy is saying. He is telling you that he does, in fact, consider a phone to be a fashion accessory. I happen to agree with you that it is silly and function before form is certainly motto for smartphones, but unless the guy is your employee then it shouldn't matter to you how he chooses his phone. It's one thing to argue OUR opinion that function beats form in the phone department, but you can't really make a reasonable argument that HIS phone is not a fashion accessory.
With that said, the function of a non-unibody plastic chassis beats the form of a unibody aluminum chassis any day. Not because it may or may not provide increased sturdiness or less weight, but rather because it allows you crucial access to the battery compartment and storage I/O. Obviously, a unibody chassis cannot provide said access and a non-unibody aluminum chassis would be far too bulky and a lot less sturdy. In fact, a non-unibody aluminum chassis is simply not feasible in a premium phone worth anything. The fact that I can remove or replace the battery and add an SD card is well worth the plastic to me (and I'm sure the vast majority of S4 owners). The benefits of plastic far outweigh any perceived drawbacks. However, those who choose phones based SOLELY on its fashion statement rather than functionality -would obviously prefer the unibody aluminum (as it does arguable look and feel better). Personally, I like the look and feel of the unibody aluminum shells and if the plastic body of the S4 didn't offer the tremendous functional advantages that it does, then I would much prefer an aluminum unibody. However, the ratio of function to form of the S4's plastic non-unibody chassis makes it a "no-brainer" in my opinion. I sure hope Samsung doesn't cave in to the pressure and go aluminum unibody in the S5 to appease the vanity seeking consumers because Samsung would have to sacrifice major function to do so. I like being able to instantly add 64 gigs of storage in an interchangeable medium. I like being able to carry around a spare battery and not have to worry about carrying around a USB cable and looking for a usable plug when I'm traveling or out on the town. I like the peace-of-mind in knowing that the life expectancy of my phone is not dependent on the cheapest commodity batteries that the telecom company could secure. To me, that is well worth the plastic non-unibody design. Again, the function far outweighs the form -even for those who value form. Reply
speculatrix - Sunday, April 28, 2013 - linkI'm a form-follows-function person but I agree with Upspin
If you're paying quite a few hundred for a phone then you want it made of premium materials and to not be ugly.
Provided the style and materials don't affect performance, which the iphone4 suffered.
I have a note 2 and would prefer if it had more metal in the outer frame to make it tougher. But I am pretty sure RF performance would suffer if it was totally metal backed. Reply
danbob999 - Monday, April 29, 2013 - linkMetal wouldn't make it tougher. Nobody change its phone because the plastic broke. People change phone because it is too old or because the display is broken.
You want metal either because you think it looks better, or because it will look more expensive and you want people to know you have an expensive phone. Reply
patlak - Saturday, May 18, 2013 - linkSo, all these people that buy Mercedes and BMW are dumb? Why should they cash out 20 grand extra when they can just buy a Kia that provides the same functionality as a car, but also with similar engine power and capacity for much much less. Since you sit inside the car all the time, just like your phone sits in the pocket, why would you bother with the premium look. Reply
TedKord - Thursday, May 02, 2013 - linkThere's nothing wrong with desiring a product look the way you prefer. But using the glasses analogy, which would you buy? The really stylish pair that doesn't fit your head/nose and only corrects your vision to 20/50, or the ugly pair that fits perfectly and gives you 20/20?
I know there are more choices, this is just an example to fit the current discussion. I love the HTC One (especially the front speakers), but I'd have to choose the Galaxy S4 (if I really needed a phone right now). The microsd slot and swappable battery are important to me, and Samsung is much better at updates and releasing source for devs. I choose function over form.
Now, I really wish HTC would at least add the built in kickstand back in. That was a great little touch they had for a while. Reply
dyc4ha - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linklol look at all the designer labels, appearance matters in real life I assure you. Reply
MrSpadge - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkHe didn't say he would. Reply
Reikon - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkIs it that hard to realize that a lot people don't actually use cases for their phones? Reply
darwinosx - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkI never use a case. Lots of people don't. Quit making excuses for Samsungs cheapness. Reply
Notmyusualid - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkExactly - mine won't see a case at all.
I wanted to hold out for my removable battery & SD slot, but since my SGS2 had such poor audio, (thus meaning I often missed calls in a noisy communications / server environment), I gave in, and my new HTC One will arrive tomorrow.
I might have lived with the plastic though, I had no case on my SGS2, and loved how light it was.
A 4" version of either the SGS4 or HTC One with no skimping on internals would have me jumping for joy though... Reply
Thegonagle - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkI usually put phones in a case when I'm going out (and definitely if I'm carrying my smartphone on the job instead of my flip phone), but I like using them naked at home. So design still matters. Reply
cdef - Saturday, April 27, 2013 - linkThis phone really doesn't even need a case unless the owner is especially clumsy. Gorilla Glass 3 is pretty impressive. My Galaxy Nexus is unscathed after two years with it's "fortified glass" of unspecified brand. Naked phones FTW. Reply
sAiyAnstAr - Thursday, May 02, 2013 - linkI don't use cases anyway, so that point to me is not valid. I have the HTC Sensation and ONE X and have dropped them both numerous times on the face and back. The ONE X's plastic case is more worse-for-wear even though its newer than my Sensation. Reply
Diorarat - Thursday, August 01, 2013 - linkGs4 is a cheap plastic phone. It is cheap because of the played out the design. When I shell out cash for a premium phone I want to feel that it is premium. When I hold a gs4 it feels like playing with cheaper variants that look the same. There is the galaxy note, galaxy s3, galaxy s3 mini, galaxy grand, galaxy mega, galaxy duos and a lot more. Don't get me wrong, i had a galaxy s3 and it was a beautiful phone when it came out. But Samsung abused it's popularity by making all phones look the same at the expense of the premium feel of the galaxy S line. Htc is by far the best designed phone you can get with the same price range. It packs the same punch as a galaxy s4 at the same price with better hardware. "build, sounds, and camera *depending on how you use it" Reply
blue_urban_sky - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkI believe that plastic is also chosen so it can be removable. Reply
dyc4ha - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkThe Chinese version of the HTC One has a removable back plate with dual sim AND microsd expansion Reply
theblueprint - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkI'm living in China now and I just found the removable back one quite disturbing, it boost the thickness to 10.2mm, and I have to give up theunibody aluminum, which is the only thing that one is superior to s4. In this case I would definitely go for a s4 with Exynos 5410 Reply
blue_urban_sky - Friday, April 26, 2013 - linkI'd like to see that it must be an engineering nightmare to pull that off well. Reply
Chloiber - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkRight, because all removable backs up until now (including all Nokia phones from the last 10 years) have been plastic.
Oh wait! Reply
blue_urban_sky - Friday, April 26, 2013 - linkNot saying that. the ability of plastic to flex enables the little catches around the case to lock/unlock easily. to do that with alu you need a mechanical release which increases complexity. As a material plastic has advantages over glass/Alu and personally I don't mind it, not saying that I don't appreciate other materials just that as a functional cover it does its job well. Reply
CoryS - Friday, April 26, 2013 - linkThe Droid X had a metal back plate, without a mechanical release. It also always came off in your pocket.. Reply
zero2dash - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkI'd rather have a plastic shell with a removable battery and a microSD slot than a metal frame with neither.
But hey, whatever's most important to you... Reply
xype - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkHow often have you removed/changed your smartphone battery in the past? Just curious how often people who find the feature important use it (since I don't know anyone who does so in real life). Reply
CoryS - Friday, April 26, 2013 - linkI did it daily with my Gnex. But, never have had the need with any other phone. The peace of mind is nice though. I think I have found I no longer need to swap batteries as much because I have changed my usage model to the battery life of the device...meaning I don't use my phone as much so it doesn't die. Reply
RiotSloth - Saturday, April 27, 2013 - linkI have an S3 with 2 batteries - I don't think I have ever swapped the battery out because I have a charger in my car and at work. Love dragging those batteries around and keeping them charged though.... and of course people buy phones because of how they look or what they are - saying that isn't so is just denial. Just because tech geeks don't doesn't mean others don't. How many people do you know who have phones they barely know how to use, but bought because they had heard its 'the one to get'? Reply
Androidtech - Sunday, April 28, 2013 - linkFor all of you talking about removable batteries. I have both the Galaxy S3 and the HTC EVO 4g LTE. Out of these two phones the Galaxy S3 is my primary phone while the HTC Evo tags along and gets used randomly when I think about it. This is because I use my phone constantly and I stream podcast all day long at work to a bluetooth speaker. When I run one battery down I just pop in the other one and start charging the backup with the handy dandy Sammy battery/charger combo pack. Since my job is one that I am always on the move this is a great feature for me. I build oilfield pump packages and rebuild Industrial gearboxes like those used in ships and sugar mills.The ones in the ship turn the giant propellers and the ones in the sugar mills turn giant grinders. I also do welding and fabrication. So in a job like this I am always getting tools and moving from one part of a project to the next part or the next project. I am almost always standing up. This is much different than an office job where I could just plug my phone in at my desk. Even then why would I want a wire attached to my phone. Personally I would prefer a metal phone with a mechanically removable back maybe like the HTC Amaze 4g. Also as far as the case discussion goes There is no way I would use either of my phones with out a case and screen protector especially in my work environment. I like to keep my devices in top shape so when I am ready to get a new one next year I can sell it for top dollar or hand it over to my wife so I can use her upgrade again. That way I can say hey baby here is a nice phone and it still looks brand new ! She does not care about the latest and greatest or the fact that she is a year or two behind current technology and I always have the newest thing out since I am rotating 4 upgrades if you include my stepsons phone. You see there really is no reason to argue or try to decide which phone is better just get one HTC phone and one Samsung phone and enjoy the different qualities that each brings forth. Just be the one that pays for the famliy mobile Bill and you too can use everyones upgrade and stay on top of the cutting edge handset race. Works for me ! Reply
Dug - Monday, April 29, 2013 - linkI don't know anyone or have seen anyone that changes their battery. In a company of 200 tech geeks I would think that this would be the majority and probably why HTC went away from it. Reply
TedKord - Thursday, May 02, 2013 - linkI'm a very heavy user. Hours of streaming Netflix, surfing endlessly. I can carry a second battery, and just swap out when the first runs down. I don't have to worry about carrying a plug,
So to answer your question, I have at times swapped out my battery every day for months on end. Now, I'm rocking a 4500mah extended battery, and I always make it through the day.
I have a buddy at work who had an iPhone 4s, and it's battery had nearly died. He was getting a couple of hours max, but was out of warranty. He'd have killed for a swappable battery. Instead, after using my SGS3 and being impressed, he went out and got a Note 2, and left Apple all together. He hasn't regretted it a bit. Reply
RiotSloth - Saturday, May 11, 2013 - linkAlthough you can change the battery in an iPhone fairly easily... or he could buy a mophie. I think everything has been said now about batteries - to some people it matters, to others it doesn't. Reply
redchar - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkI'm shocked to hear on a tech site that there's a person who would prefer the HTC One. And why not plastic? It's no mystery why plastic is a popular material. It's lightweight, cost efficient, and comes in a variety of styles and textures to allow creativity and good looks (granted, samsung's plastic is rather bland compared to the type you'd find on older HTC phones). Beyond that, plastic even has
That's right. A type of material that withstands drops instead of denting, being put on mobile devices such as laptops and phones. Crazy, right? I wish HTC would go back to plastic, among other bad changes they've made.
And to top it off, the HTC One, like many "high end" HTC phones as of late, does not include a memory slot or a removable battery. With such useful, and easy-to-implement features, it's a wonder that anyone would consider it a high end phone. And no surprise that galaxy phones all sell very well during a time where the industry is leaving out major functionality and at the same time struggling to sell as many units as they'd like (I wonder why?).
While the SGS4 is by no means a perfect device (it's too large, and with a pointlessly high resolution screen that might impact performance in some way [perhaps battery life as a result of trying to maintain good screen brightness, or stressing the GPU more]), it does contain a list of features that you'd expect for a phone of its price. The only thing the HTC One has over it is the sort of camera people wanted all along: quality, not megapixels. Reply
MilwaukeeMike - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkWhile I understand you're point, there are a lot of people who disagree with you. The iPhone has no SD card, no removable battery and is made out of metal and it's sold quite well. I've always ripped them for leaving out a card slot and charging $100 for an extra 16GB. But HTC gives you 32GB in it's base model and charges more for an extra 32, not 16. They also have USB on-the-go, which allows your phone to host a USB drive with a $3 adapter. Sure, that's a workaround, but it's enough for me. No removable battery is a bit of a bummer, but my battery is still going strong 30 months later in my current phone, so I'm not worried about it getting old and dying. I also have chargers everywhere because micro USB is so common, so I'm not worried about getting stranded either. Reply
Thegonagle - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkPlastic is lower cost than metal for Samsung, but not necessarily for me. As a consumer, Samsung's cost is irrelevant. Please don't mention the cost merits of plastic until the S4 is less expensive than the HTC One. Reply
crypticsaga - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link^This. I don't understand why with the iphone5 and HTC one available anyone would buy a Samsung S. You get less for more money. If you make the argument about battery and SD card then I would expect that you use more than 32GB of space and carry around a spare battery in your pocket. The funny thing is I have yet to meet a samsung owner who actually does. Reply
danbob999 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkYou get a faster SoC, more sensors, a larger display, a smaller and lighter device, a larger battery and more supported LTE bands.
Not everyone cares about the look of a phone. Reply
sigmatau - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkYou also get a worse screen and speaker than the HTC One. Reply
mrochester - Friday, April 26, 2013 - linkThose features are of questionable day to day value, however. I gain far more from having a device that looks great every time I use it in comparison to features I might use once in a blue moon, but the device is sinfully ugly. Reply
tipoo - Sunday, April 28, 2013 - linkThe SoC is basically a wash between the One and the S4, it's the same SoC just with the slightest amount more speed in one. Reply
dyc4ha - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkThat is like saying I bought a Ferrari with cheap plastic seats while the same-priced Lambo came with leather seats and it doesnt matter to you. Wha? Reply
blue_urban_sky - Friday, April 26, 2013 - linkYes that is exactly what its like saying. because everyone has the same priorities as you and will buy a super car based on seat material. Reply
K_Space - Sunday, April 28, 2013 - linkHTC 32Gb unlocked costs £540 new
S4 16Gb unlocked costs £615 (refurbished!) (source: amazon.co.uk)
Is the spec difference (including SD card and removable battery which I have never removed) worth ~$100? No...... not for me at least.
But horses for courses. Reply
RiotSloth - Saturday, April 27, 2013 - linkBizarre, had to read that twice to make sure you weren't joking. Have you read the HTC One review? Seriously, you think removable battery and sd card slot is a game breaker? Jokes.... Reply
GotThumbs - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkIMO whether a phone has a plastic or aluminum shell adds absolutely zero to the daily functionality of any phone. If one can make a case for increased signal strength or something other than just that its NOT metal, I'd see that as an acceptable functional difference. It just comes off as unnecessary filler IMO.
Most users will be wrapping thier phones in what.....whats that....some form of plastic or rubber protectors? For those of you who are very good at caring for your phones and choose not to use any form of additional protection, what are the real world odds that the metal case will be better protection over plastic? Perhaps there should be a rigorous test scenario set up by Anandtech to test the reality of true protection using metal over plastic cases?
The 2014 Ford Mustang comes with either a 3.7L V6 (305 HP) or a 5.8L supercharged v8 (631 HP) while the core frame and shell are both the same. My point is.....It's what's under the hood that really counts.
Same with mobile phones today. Please stop focusing on case materials if they have zero to do with operation/specs. Reply
GotThumbs - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkMy point using the Mustang...would you prefer the V6 or the v8?
No factoring cost of fuel of course.
Best wishes you whatever you select as your mobile phone. Reply
Zeratul56 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkYour argument is ridiculous. The 2014 mustang is something most people can agree is well designed and beautiful car.
A better comparison would be would you rather have that supercharged v8 in the body of The current mustang or an old 90's beater. Reply
kevith - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkCorrection: Most people = Most Americans Reply
CoryS - Friday, April 26, 2013 - linkCorrection...some Americans. Reply
Crono - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkLast time I checked, I don't hold my car in my hand. Plus the comparison should between a Mustang and an uglier higher HP car.
And I do prefer the V6 as a daily driver. You can't just leave fuel cost out of the equation because you want to.
HTC One and 2012 Mustang V6 owner. Reply
Kutark - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkWhat you failed to mention in your example is that the base v6 mustang looks almost nothing like the GT500. People would NOT pay the premium for the GT500 if the only difference was the engine/drivetrain. Aesthetics are extremely important to people and not just for outward reasons. The gt500 looks absolutely amazing, the base v6 while it doesnt look bad, is only moderately attractive, but still very "meh". A little goes a long way. Just like why HTC's plastics felt better than Samsungs.
I am a fan of engineering. Its why i tend to prefer german cars over american cars (though there are some im impressed with, cadillac CTS-V for example). If something has brushed aluminum or magnesium, or billet aluminum, etc etc. I'm all about it. And it has nothing to do with what other people think.
Also, like someone else said, cost benefits are meaningless unless they are passed on to the consumer, which they typically arent. This phone will likely cost as much as the HTC One and frankly its not a better phone. Its more like comparing oranges to tangerines. Basically IMO if you dont care about a replaceable battery or an SD slot, get the HTC One, if those two features are important to you, get the samsung. Im sure people would be pleased with either phone. Reply
beluga - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkI am fine with the choice of materials. The GS3 looks fine to me. I don't treat my phone like a precious jewel but take it into rough conditions. Plastic is softer than metal so when it drops it acts as more of a bumper for the fragile parts inside. If it gets scratched up I get another back off ebay for a few bucks. And most importantly - it makes the back easily removable to access battery and storage without using tools. Reply
Roffles12 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkfans of the solid aluminum chasis are a very vocal and illogical minority. very annoying in fact. i have yet to hear any logical argument for why it's better. "it feels nicer in the hand" isn't a reason, but rather a completely subjective opinion. by my logical observation, the aluminum phones are actually more fragile and prone to scratching. aluminum is also more rigid which means it will have greater energy transfer on shock impact, resulting in a greater chance of shock energy transferring to the screen, thus damaging it. you're almost forced to purchase a case to protect it.
i think the sales figures for the gs3 alone show that most people don't care if their phone looks like a piece of jewelery. please save your opinions of vanity for the imaginary fashion show in your head. i much prefer polycarbonate plastics for logical reasons. i've been using my gs3 for a year without a case and it looks just like new. if i want to be flashy, i'll wear my nicest watch. my phone is for functionality, so the gs3's build is par for the course. The 45 total second battery swap of a GS3/4 (thanks for flexible plastics) compared to 3.7 hour charging for the HTC One (thanks to a solid metal frame) is all that really needs to be said on the matter. case closed. argument over. shup up. go away. Reply
Crono - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkI like how you dismiss a view as being "a completely subjective opinion", then proceed to give your opinion, " i much prefer polycarbonate plastics", and conclude with a rather immature and unconvincing, "shup up. go away."
Truth is some people prefer a solid aluminum body for the same reason one might prefer a more aesthetically premium vehicle. A phone is a tool, but when you are talking about high-end specs - and the GS4 is only marginally better CPU-wise in real-world, observable performance, about equal in other areas, and lower in some - a better quality chassis might make the difference.
I don't care if someone prefers the GS4 for whatever reason, but stop pretending (and apparently you are by virtually putting your fingers in your ears with that last comment) that Samsung doesn't make cheaper casing and without offering a lower price for the end consumer.
It's not even the fact that it's plastic or polycarbonate or whatever you want to call it, as Nokia and HTC make quality plastic bodies. There isn't a good excuse for cheap looking and feeling bodies, even if it's semi-durable without a third party case. This isn't the equivalent of an econobox in the car world, the Galaxy commands a high price.
If you really are satisfied with the Galaxy line, then feel free to complain when Samsung finally gets the message and decides to make truly premium-bodied phones: because they eventually will have to if HTC succeeds with the One. Reply
Roffles12 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkThere is nothing subjective about the fact that polycarbonate plastics and a better material choice for a hand held daily use device than aluminum because of its durability, elasticity, ability to absorb shock and ability to shape into different sizes and thickness while still maintaining those superior properties. I was obviously commentating on the weaknesses of aluminum in CONTRAST to polycarbonate materials. If you can't read between the lines of my comment and apply some common sense, then you need to go back to school. I'm done with you... go back to the verge where you can all have a circle jerk with your fragile tech jewelery. Reply
RealityMonster - Monday, April 29, 2013 - linkActually, that's entirely subjective. The energy transfer argument is really only meaningful when you're talking about a device with moving parts or parts that are likely to break off because of the shock. The plastic back isn't really going to help the screen very much (that is, if the phone falls on its back, the screen isn't going to break, and if it falls on its front, the back isn't going to help), and there are very few parts inside the phone that are likely to move much at all given the impact. In fact, I see people with phones that have busted glass all the time, and the phone itself is still working. (I've seen both an SGS3 and an iPhone 4 working this way.)
Plastic is more likely to shatter on impact (which is to say plastic shatters and aluminum won't), and if the plastic back falls and cracks, it probably won't snap back on anymore. On the MOHS hardness scale, aluminum is definitely higher than plastic, which means there are fewer things that can scratch it.
Maybe you don't think it's important what the body material is, but I don't think your bias against aluminum is particularly justified. Aluminum is going to have structural rigidity that the polycarbonate doesn't have, which is why you can use it structurally on the outside of the phone.
I'd actually like to know what the relative carbon footprint of the two materials is. On the one hand, aluminum has to be mined and machined, but plastic all comes from oil and I don't know if it's recyclable in this form. That's the sort of thing that I think is important. Reply
Thegonagle - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkJeez, that's kind of like saying "it's annoying that people buy Cadillacs when Chevys do the same thing." It's a matter of style and differing taste. Reply
Kutark - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkIsn't rampant fanboism grand ;-). Reply
blau808 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkGiving up MicroSD and removable battery just for aluminium? Pffft. Reply
dyc4ha - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkWhy is it so hard for you people to understand that not everyone (I am comfortable in saying the majority) uses up ALL 32GB on their phone. Removable battery/External battery pack, both involves carrying an extra piece. I dont see the big difference here. Actually with the battery pack I can have undisrupted continuous use whereas removable battery requires that I switch off the phone and then replace the battery. Reply
jeffkibuule - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkNot only that, in order to charge the battery, it has to be in the phone. POINTLESS. Reply
ojchurch - Friday, April 26, 2013 - linkHave you never heard of external battery chargers?
With an extra battery I can use my phone for 7/8 hours at work for updating spreadsheets, pdfs etc. on a building site with limited access to power and still have a spare battery for use in the evening. Or have a more "normal" usage pattern and not charge the phone for a couple of days. You have more freedom in how you can use your phone. Reply
sigmatau - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkBetter screen on the HTC One. You can't see shit in sunlight on OLED screens. And the speakers are a huge difference. Reply
Thud2 - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkI have an HTC ONE and it's amazing in all respects. Beautiful, fast, great camera, great screen, I've seen all day battery use so far, great phone, I have no complaints, all the complaints I've seen online seem like ninja Samsung reps or fanboys, but one recommendation. GET A COVER!!! I was one of the ones who said "No, it's to nice to cover up!" No joke, the first person I handed it to dropped it handing it back to me, on a concrete bar! IT IS A SLICK PHONE and not metaphorically! It is SMOOTH! To the point of being hard to hold. I love the look, but sadly it needs a cover. Luckily it's so small that it's still smaller than other phones even with a cover. Reply
shaolin95 - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkIs a phone not a hockey puck!
Enough with the stupidity. Reply
Alvar - Monday, April 29, 2013 - link6 Reasons to get the Samsung Galaxy S4 Reply
medi02 - Monday, April 29, 2013 - linkWhat about notebooks, pretty please. Do all high ends now have to be metal body?
How come aluminum (soft metal) is somehow inherently superior to all kinds of plastik in the world? Reply
shaolin95 - Monday, May 27, 2013 - linkSuch a lame comment....you see most users do not use the phone as a hockey puck! So stop it with the BS arguments. Reply
kurama_k - Monday, July 29, 2013 - linkEasy replace the back cover with this
http://www.amazon.com/GINOVO-Brushed-Aluminum-repl... Reply
bromegaman - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link"with the power button about four thirds up the right side, volume rocker four thirds up the left side."
"four thirds"? Seriously? Reply
Brian Klug - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkUgh, reminds me of the 5/4 people are bad at fractions joke, except it's me making the mistake. Fixed!
-Brian Reply
JimRamK - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkMaybe you were thinking of the Camera sensor? Reply
blue_urban_sky - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkI am very interested in the sock browser you mention.
"I find it difficult to hover my finger over the screen without touching it, but in the gallery and sock browser it is admittedly sometimes useful." Reply
wenugopal - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkJust curious, isn't galaxy s4 using LPDDR3 RAM, as opposed to LPDDR2 which is used in HTC One ? Hence, higher speeds ? Reply
Brian Klug - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkAbsolutely true, there's more to it than that though for things like CPU performance.
-Brian Reply
scaramoosh - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkI have big doubts that DDR2 and 3 makes much difference, we never see much of a difference on the PC in day to day use, only benchmarks. Reply
B3an - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkDDR3 is significantly faster than DDR2 on PC now. You can definitely notice a difference without benchmarks depending on what you're doing. Stupid comparison though because phones are too different. Reply
UpSpin - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkbecause the RAM gets used for both CPU and GPU I think the upgrade to DDR3 makes a noticable difference, at least for the GPU. (the same way dual channel gives Intel IGP performance a boost compared to single channel) Reply
Mithos - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkMan, I DO value removable battery as I'm the type that likes buying an extended battery for business trips. I rely on the GPS, constant mail checking and of course calls.
But all that aside, I prefer the construction and UI the HTC One presents, yet it does not have expandable battery.
Ohhhh cruel world and it's first world problems.
Nice review, thank you for the hard work. Reply
Gigaplex - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkWhat's stopping you from getting a portable battery powered phone charger? Reply
Toss3 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkRemovable battery does not just limit you to buying a separate one, but enables you to buy a 4500mAh after market battery that lasts two full days without charging. You cannot do that with the HTC One. Reply
UpSpin - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkbut this dramatically increases the size of the smartphone. I would rather buy a battery powered smartphone charger, which I can store in a bag or jacket and keep the already large smartphone comfortably sized. It's already thin, no question, but it's wide and long, and if it becomes thicker it becomes harder to use and to store it in a pocket. Reply
CoryS - Friday, April 26, 2013 - linkEh, I actually think phones are getting too thin. I put a case on my GS3 because I kept fumbling it due to how thin it was. Reply
nerdstalker - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkWhat's with the QUALCOMM 4G sticker on the top bezel of the device? :s Reply
Haserath - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkThey're using a Qualcomm Snapdragon SOC with integrated LTE (4g)modem, I believe. Reply
nerdstalker - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkGoing the Intel way. :P Reply
Brian Klug - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkThere's been a Qualcomm 4G sticker on the top of Samsung phones since, hmm, T-Mobile SGS2 and AT&T SGS2 (Skyrocket). Even the Droid Charge/Galaxy Nexus VZW edition which had no Qualcomm parts inside did, ostensibly due to some part of the OFDMA/LTE stack being licensed for CMC221, but that was never made clear.
-Brian Reply
nerdstalker - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkInteresting. Thank you for the info. Reply
ranblv - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkIdon't care about removal battery, I do however care about expandable storage. carrying an extra 32GB micro sd card in my wallet saved the day many times when I needed to shoot video or transfer docs.
Great review, I don't always care that much for the minor details but I like it that someone like you is making sure they deliver what they say they do. Reply
janosch.from.afar - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkcannot understand why HTC cant simply add a tray to its smartphone side to insert a battery and sd card. Much like the iphones do it with their sim card tray.
Besides, samsung could simply allow two sdcard slots, instead of one - but they should try to improve the SdExtcard mount first, so to being able install all software to it. Reply
UpSpin - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkIt adds further parts to the bill list, makes the frame less sturdy because you have to drill a huge hole in the side, you have to add some mechanism to lock it and you have to route all wires on the opposite side, because the battery tray side gets lost for antenna, wires, parts. With plastic it's easy because you can bent the back and remove the whole back, with aluminum it's more difficult, you have to use screws.
But I agree, it's still possible. For example they could have used some screws to attach the back. It might have looked even better with screws than without them, but easy swapping won't be possible, so it has little use at all and few people really take advantage of battery swapping, so they probably just risked it with a fixed battery.
And a sd-card could have fitted easily, just as you can exchange the sim card. But here again, it's important for some (I would like one, too), but the majority gets confused with a second storage which is more likely to fail and which can't get used like the internal one, and few understand this. Reply
holyanan - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkI have to say that the browsing time is really disappointing, i fail to understand why iphones provide with supposedly twice as much browsing time - which is one of the primary functions of a phone nowdays. Reply
Exodite - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkThe screen I'd imagine.
The iPhone 5 has a screen that's ~65% the size, and ~35% of the resolution, of the one used by the Galaxy S4.
Its not the only reason of course but the screen matters a lot. Reply
gnx - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkAlso a weakness of AMOLED. Since it needs to lighten up all subpixels max to get to white (and turns off all subpixels for gorgeous black). So web browsing, with so most sites having white background, really cranks up the power consumption of the display, hence the unexpectedly shorter battery life compared to other scenarios. Reply
sigmatau - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkI have a Nokia 900 with a Samsung sourced AMOLED plus which is beyond terrible outside on full brightness. I wonder how this one compares. Reply
lopri - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkIn that chart, iPhone 4S is leading Nexus 4. I have both and I call that bogus. Not sure what kind of iPhone 4S they've got. Reply
kmmatney - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkWe have mostly iPhones at my work, but a few SG3s. It's pretty easy to compare the real-use battery life at a conference, where we have to be on battery all day, and use are phones for normal stuff like email, texts, some web browsing, etc.. Without fail, the iPhones are all still going strong at the end of the day, while the SG3s have dead batteries. I was hoping the SGS4 would fix this, but I can't tell from the review. I hope the Note 3 increases the battery life. Reply
RealityMonster - Monday, April 29, 2013 - linkApple has consistently refused to put tech in their phones unless they can still get 10hrs of battery life out of it. That's why the iPhone 5 is the first one to have LTE--the 4s just couldn't keep a charge long enough. Part of it is the form-factor, since a smaller phone means a smaller battery. Like other people have mentioned, though, the smaller screen is also a smaller power draw.
So while you're never likely to see an iPhone that has a substantially better battery life than 10hrs under browsing conditions, you'll never see one that has a substantially lower life, either. Reply
Gorgenapper - Tuesday, May 14, 2013 - linkThat's a nice thing about Apple, they have a MUCH tighter control on their design and execution than Samsung ever could. People love to bash on Apple, and I admit that I'm not a big fan of many of Apple's decisions and products, but at least they know what they want to do, and go after it.
Samsung, on the other hand, is more concerned with features, and less concerned with the quality of the execution of their overall product plan. I also get a vibe that Samsung caters more directly to the 'buy and throw away' mentality of most consumers, as OLEDs degrade at a faster rate than LCD (particularly blue subpixels), which was a reason why Samsung said that they used a pentile arrangement on the S3.
As for me, personally, I think I'll wait to see how the next gen iPhone looks like (rumored 4.5 ~ 4.8" screen), or more likely I'll wait to see how the next gen Nexus is. Assuming that I can't score a cheap 32gb Galaxy S4 after the big hype dies down. Reply
mike55 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkI'm definitely torn between this and the HTC One. I'm also a bit disappointed that 32 GB of NAND isn't the standard minimum for flagship smartphones these days. Reply
Toss3 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkBoth are great phones, but I'm buying the S4 because of the larger screen and smaller bezel. I also cannot stand the button layout of the HTC One. Was very surprised to see that the HTC One was very fluid, whereas the S4 stutters a bit. Especially considering the latter runs the SoC at a higher clockspeed. I also believe the camera of the S4 to be superior; even if the HTC One takes better night-shots, they're still not good enough for print or even watching on a 1080p TV(lots of noise and weird white-balance). The daylight shots from the S4 look pretty good, and are among the best of any phone right now. Reply
UpSpin - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link4MP (2688x1520) translates to 22,76x12,87cm (8,96x5,067in) @ 300 DPI print resolution, I think that's enough. It's also above 1080p. People also forget that the HTC One contains a simple OIS!
But you're right, at best lightnig conditions, the S4 is superior, but I mostly never take pictures at best lightning conditions, but outside on a normal day, indoors poorly lit or indoors to scan documents.
According to other reviews the S4 stutters because of the gimmick features, once you turn off those advertised stuff, it should run better. Reply
mike55 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkOne of the reasons I am considering the One is because of the camera. 4 MP should be enough for me since I would be viewing it on a 1080p display (2.1 MP) tops. But then I found out the field of view is really large, which would mean I would probably be more likely to crop photos. The images also aren't very impressive in good lightning conditions. It almost looks like it would be a downgrade from my iPhone 4 in terms of photos taken with good lightning. Of course the low light shots would be much better on the One.
With the GS4, it feels like the camera is an upgrade in every way, and not just some ways, from my current phone. That, the larger screen, and the fact that the screen is OLED is pushing me towards the GS4. Still conflicted though, haha. Reply
UpSpin - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkI agree, 4MP should be enough, but is the lowest acceptable size. 6MP or maybe 8MP would have been better and safer.
The HTC One photos in this review seem to be very blurry and poor compared to the same photos taken for the HTC One review:
I don't know what happened.
The field of view is large, which normally is an advantage, especially indoors. But you're right, outdoors, with the lower resolution it might be an issue.
Regarding OLED: I wrote it in another comment, too. I own a HTC Desire with one of the first OLED screens for smartphones. But also have access to a Galaxy Note with OLED. The colors are stunning, but just false. The max. brightness is poor compared to LCD, so outdoors it becomes more difficult too see the content. OLED consumes more power displaying bright objects (webpages), so much shorter battery life. The sub-pixel size is smaller which shouldn't be an issue any longer at such a high resolution and it also doesn't have pen-tile. The real advantage is that black is almost 100% black which is great :-) The disadvantages however are huge, and while I still like OLED technology and also use simpler OLED displays in my own projects, I think it's just inferior to LCD in smartphones right now. (see this review highlighting some issues). But the screen is larger, another advantage for the S4. Sad that the One has such a huge bezel. Reply
Silellak - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkThe difference is likely that the camera was set to default or -1 Sharpness in the original HTC One photo and -2 sharpness in this review. Reply
gnx - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkIf my memory is correct, the OLED in HTC Desire was from CMI, not Samsung, so I'd think slightly inferior. That said, from all I can gather, AMOLED is still a technology in progress, each generation better than the last, though still with some trade-offs compared to the much more mature LCD. If there is one console, Samsung leads the OLED development, with it's Super AMOLED screens, so if you decide to stick to OLED, at least you know you're getting the best OLED out there with the SGS4. Reply
nerd1 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link4MP is not enough, unless the sensor is Foveon. Reply
DroidTomTom - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkButton layout. That is my biggest gripe with the HTC One. The power button should never be on the top. I hated it on my Palm PDAs and on every smartphone I have had since. My Galaxy S has a button layout that just works. Reply
creathir - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkBrian, the HTC's audio is flat out amazing.
How is the audio on the GS4?
Are you planning on doing audio tests in the future? I know compared to my iPhone 5, the One blows it completely out of the water. Reply
Toss3 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkAre you talking about headphone performance or external speakers? Reply
creathir - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkExternal speakers Reply
scaramoosh - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkHow is plastic a downside? It's much better than dented scratched up metal that you'll have to wrap in a plastic case to protect it anyways. Just find it funny how the only two times people see their metal phones is when they buy it and when they sell it, the rest of the time it's in a stupid case. Having to buy a case alone is proof that metal isn't a good material for a phone.
I dropped my Nokia, what did I do? Bought a new back cover, replaced it. What will I do with the One if I did the same? Oh, I'm fucked unless I want to pay HTC hundreds to fix it and be without a phone for a month. Reply
slatanek - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linksame goes for plastic - it can crack and scratch. and it just feels like... well plastic. Samsung phones being one of the worst when it goes to quality feel. Nokia and HTC make the best "feeling" plastic phones I recon Reply
slatanek - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkoh, one more thing. materials such as aluminum, glass etc. have a premium feels to them. same for polycarbonate. the difference being how these material age. my friend has an iPhone 4S with a cracked back, but it doesn't look that bad, if anything it has a vintage look and this is how premium materials age. if you have a plastic phone thats scratched or cracked it looks pretty much like garbage. and Samsung is particulalry bad at this - making their phones plastic glossy which means it reflects light in an uneven fashion and it just looks cheap. now bare in mind we're talking about flagships, they just should feel premium. I don't mind having a plastic midrange phone but at highend I expect top notch quality not only from the internals. same applies to cars - a tuned Honda may be as fast as a Ferrari but does it mean it is equally good? I don't think so. And I don't often hear Ferrari owners complaining about leather seats "cause they scratch much more than the regular ones". Reply
superflex - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkSo you only cracked the back cover. How about the millions of people who dropped their plastic phone and cracked the bezel or non removable shell?
Do you really think people only break the removable battery covers? Reply
lopri - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkWhat other Snapdragon 600 devices? (plural) It's just the S4 and the One. (OK, LG has Optimus G Pro but you didn't see the markings on the chip on it and only ran browser benches with that) Reply
Brian Klug - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkI have an LG Optimus G Pro here, so that's three I guess.
-Brian Reply
CrystalBay - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkHi Brian , I would have also like to see a comparison of the external speakers quality. It seems Sammy did not learn from previous Galaxys. Reply
Roland00Address - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkFrom Wikipedia
Asus Padfone Infinity, HTC One, LG Optimus G Pro, Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-I9505), ZTE Grand Memo V9815, Xiaomi Mi-2S, Pantech Vega Iron Reply
gnx - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkThe Pantech Vega Iron seemed interesting, at least in terms of casing. The soon due Lenovo K900 also is supposedly a metal-alloy, though we'll wait to see. Reply
Toss3 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkNot as thorough as the HTC One review, but the best I've read thus far. THIS is how you write an objective review. Great comparisons, and detailed information about every aspect of the device. Reply
UpSpin - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkWell written review.
Especially your battery run down and display analysis are one-of-a-kind. Reviews on Engadget or TheVerge test it very subjectively and dim the display to 50% software brightness (which favors OLED because at 50% the OLED display is much darker than the LCD to save power, thus SGS4 scores much longer battery life, because the test is just wrong) You set it to fixed 200nits and test it very objectively.
You also highlight issues occuring with OLED (overheating and thermal issues). Personally I think OLED is the future-proof technology (I also bought a smartphone with an OLED display), but sadly the brightness is nothing spectacular and so the color accuracy. I wouldn't buy a smartphone with OLED again, at the moment.
LCD is just better, even if black isn't true black any longer. That's a small tradeoff, therefor I get outdoor usability, color accuracy and larger sub-pixels.
In the end, one can choose between HTC One (spectacular design, great display, usable camera, usable speakers, smooth and simple software) or the SGS4 (faster SoC which sadly overheats, removable battery, expandable storage, software loaded with gimmick features which sadly slow down the whole smartphone).
Because I won't use the gimmick features, rather just even switch to Cyanogenmod, bought but almost never used the second replacement battery in my current smartphone and the whole battery life improved to at least 3-4 years (my current battery is 3 years old and runs fine), never switched my SD-Card (32GB is plenty), but want it as point-and-shoot replacement and like the look of the HTC One, it's my personal favorit. Reply
krumme - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkComparing at 200 nits, is fine, but at that brightness you actually get a more contrasty picture of Oled because of the darkness. For all practical usage - depending on your eyes - you can turn brightness relatively more down on the Oled.
You might note that the color accuracy of the S4 is far better than the One. Thats not to mention the contrast. Ofcourse it lacks the brightness. But the presentation here is one sided.
If you find yourself at bars at night or shooting food at the restaurant go for the One camera. But before you do, you might want to compare the pictures plenty available on the net on fx. gsmarena or phonearena Reply
UpSpin - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkIf the surrounding is bright, you need a bright display, which OLED struggles at, even with a better contrast, which gets more and more negligible the brighter your surrounding is. At night however you really see the difference between the true black OLED and greyish LCD.
I don't know how to properly interpret the color charts, so I judge by the impression of the author which favors the HTC One display (see the HTC One review and this review 'Admittedly this mode does tighten things up a bit, but it still isn't perfect and I'd still like to see Samsung do something to reign this in at some point. ') and the numbers in the article:
HTC One vs. SGS4
Grayscale 200nits Avg dE2000: 5.391 vs. 7.511
CCT Avg (K): 8118 vs. 7020
Saturation Sweep Avg dE2000: 3.365 vs. 7.823
GMB ColorChecker Avg dE2000: 4.656 vs. 7.440
The color charts seem to look better for the SGS4, the 'Total gamma' and greyscale charts however disastrous. Reply
krumme - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkFor practical usage i agree the brightness for most people can be an issue in sunlight. We just have to remember there is much more at play here than just brightness.
But at the same way using a phone in bright surroundings favor the saturation of Oled.
I never understand the standard setting on the S2 or S3. It gave stupid colors imho (and the sharpness wasnt there either imho compared to LCD competition). But if you chose fx. natural on the S3 i think you are pretty much where the colors is okey for everything personal. Its the grey scale that suffers - the shaddow details is very bad imho. Apparently thats still an issue on the S4.
But the basic problem about reviewing the display this way, is that we get zero numbers for the all important dynamics of the picture. And its just so obvious for the eye that oled got something here. Reply
nerd1 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkWhat matters is the perceived CONTRAST, not the brightness itself.
Practically AMOLED has better contrast overall, which helps sunlight reading a bit although bit dimmer. Reply
sigmatau - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkI feel you are just guessing based on what you see on paper. My Samsung AMOLED plus screen is useless in the sun with full brightness. Most reviewers said that the HTC's screen kills the S4's screen. I am thinking of buying an HTC One and trying it out for a day or two before deciding. I really do like the blacks on OLED screens. Reply
krumme - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkNonsense. Plenty sites gives the edge to Samsung. But i guess most just turn the autopilot on. Something happened since your amoled screen. Sunlight legibility is a personal matter, because reflection also plays a big role. Reply
sigmatau - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkBull shit. My OLED screen is the best with Nokia's superior filter and still is terrible in the sunlight. I have to find shade just to use the phone. And remember, mine is a plus OLED screen, these on the S3 and S4 are not, which makes them worse. Reply
UpSpin - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkThe glass reflects a lot of the sunlight.The display must be brighter than the reflections to remain readable. That's independent of contrast in the first place. So either reduce the reflections (AR coating, Nokia polarisation) or increase the brightness. The contrast isn't important in the first place here. OLEDs have a lower brightness than LCD, thus, and just as every review talking about outdoor use agrees with, LCD is much better readable outdoors.
If you have a very dark display with an impressive contrast you won't see anything in sunlight, because the reflections are much brighter than the content on your display.
Special outdoor display also don't just have RGB, but RGBW, just to make it even brighter for outdoor use. Reply
krumme - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkGo here to see an measurement of sunlight contrast ratio:
S4 is quite good, and if i recall about the same order as One. Reply
ssj3gohan - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkWait a sec... you have an LTE/HSPA synthesizer, right? Why don't you try out battery life with that, so you're guaranteed to have equal signal strength, bandwidth and latency throughout the tests instead of having to rely on different vendors, signal quality and concurrency. Reply
jeffkibuule - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkPretty sure he only has that on loan for brief periods of time. He doesn't own it, too expensive. Reply
B3an - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkBrian, will you be getting the Exynos 5 octo-core version of the S4 in for testing? I find the SoC interesting. Reply
Bramsey89 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkWow biased much? Why did anantech let this guy review this? He's already shown he's biased towards the HTC One. Reply
maximumGPU - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkhe said if X,Y,Z are important to you then get the S4, but if put more weight on A,B,C then HTC one is the better bet. How is that bias? go away. Reply
slatanek - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkSamsung is bringing out the trolls... brrrrrrrrr Reply
superflex - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkThey never stop. It's like they get paid for their comments bashing HTC.
Oh wait, they do according to DailyTech Reply
berantle - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkThe Samsung astroturf trolling is highly disappointing. Reply
krumme - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkWhat a sour taste
Is 50M S3 users are victims of Samsung brand and marketing?
The screen mode "The sanest of them all" (we understand they are sick) actually beats both Iphone and especially One on accuracy. And no words about the all important dynamics of the picture.
And the BSI camera on the S3 is the same quality as the S2? LOL. Every one on this planet shooting with both will know this is nonsense - comparing the international versions. Go to dxomark to get the numbers.
Why does this admiration of the One leads to this sour subjective nonsense about Samsung and S4?
Didnt the ultrapixels pan out as expected?
I like it more professional Reply
Reikon - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkWhat are you talking about? Look at the table. The iPhone 5, One X, SGS3, Droid DNA, and the One all beat the SGS4 on accuracy, i.e. a lower dE2000. Reply
krumme - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkAnd the color charts. Not that the perfect RGB spectrum is the most important.
And then the all important numbers - or impressions - for dynamics of the picture is missing. Excactly the one most important factor deciding how real we judge the picture. Reply
Reikon - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkUm, you said the SGS4 beats the other phones on accuracy. I'm pointing out that you're wrong. And now when I do, you claim accuracy isn't important.
And I have no idea what you mean by "dynamics." Do you mean contrast? It's shown on the charts even though he didn't separate them out. And preference between higher contrast and accuracy is a subjective one. You can't say which one people prefer more. Many people prefer accuracy more than "feeling." Reply
krumme - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkYou might want to look at the color charts again. The S4 beats the One on color accuracy.
And yes the dynamics of the picture is the contrast for black white, and each of the individual colors. The S4 is what 100 times better?- ofcourse that does not directly translate into perception, but everyone can see the difference. Everyone prefers the livelyness of the picture here.
You better get used to it. Every high-end phone will have amoled in 2 years. The reason only Samsung have it now, is because they are the only one who masters it on this production scale. Reply
sigmatau - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkGood luck with the S4 in sunlight unless you don't crawl outside at all. Reply
krumme - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkYeaa
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s4-review-9... Reply
UpSpin - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkThat review is pretty inconsistent:
'The brightness levels of the Samsung Galaxy S4 are about on par with the rest of the company's AMOLEDs, which is to say not very high. However, due to their low reflectivity, this doesn't affect outdoor performance'
But a a few lines below they suddenly write:
'The Galaxy S4 is a solid performer outdoors, although surprisingly not any better than the Galaxy S III, despite its slightly higher brightness. Perahps, the new Gorilla Glass causes a dash of extra reflections and offsets the advantage.'
So it's as bad as the Galaxy S3. First they say it shouldn't be reflective, but then they say it's even more reflective than the S3, which already has a poor outdoor performance, just google for something like 'galaxy s3 outdoor visibility' and you'll see that people aren't happy with it outdoors.
Your mentioned review also says:
'Its impressive contrast and almost perfect viewing angles make everything on the screen pop, regardless of your viewpoint. '
Which is exactly the opposite to:
'Then come the AMOLED displays of the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S III, which are quick to become bluish even when looked at a slight angle. Otherwise, they do well retaining relative contrast and brightness. However, the quality LCD screens of the iPhone 5 and One do equally well, and even manage to retain a more natural color balance'
Phonearena however does not only write some false stuff, but also proof their statements with pictures.
Regarding outdoor usability they say:
'This lack of brightness also leads to worse visibility in outdoor conditions for the AMOLED screens. The Galaxy S4 isn't unusable, but it's perceptibly harder to read than the bright screens of the Apple iPhone 5 and HTC One, which lead the pack in this respect.' Reply
krumme - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkSpin it what ever you want, but gsmarenas measurements, not personal assessments, show the S4 to have a sunlight contrast ratio of 3353 vs. 2500 for the One. No other way to put it.
I dont know about phonearena. Their review is 4 small pages, with no measurements only blog talk. They give S4 a higher rating than One, but i would not put to much credibility in this blog.
And you say Phonearena had pictures? Yeaa i know i look at them with both new oled, ips and pls screen. Have you read their camera comparison?
http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Camera-compariso... Reply
sigmatau - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkMy personal assessment shows that you can't read shit on a Samsung OLED screen outside. Even Anand said that the HTC One's screen kills the S3's. We are talking about the screen, btw, not the camera. Nice try of a deflection. Reply
krumme - Friday, April 26, 2013 - linkIf you leave the S4 in automatic brightness mode, the screen can go as much as 34% brighter compared to the maximum of manual mode. That's 68% brighter than the maximum of the Galaxy S III
There is a difference to Oled screens you know. Reply
hyperdoggy - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkyes, yes...and yes? Reply
krumme - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkremember to charge between each "yes" Reply
mayankleoboy1 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link1. Out of the box, how does SGS4 display compare to HTC one ?
2.This review feels a bit cramped, mainly because Samsung/QC hasnt given much info on the SoC. (To be clear, the reviewer cant do much here). Reply
netmann - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkApple iPhone 5, Google Nexus 4, HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4....they all being reviewed at AnandTech while Nokia Lumia 920 keep getting ignored!? Reply
aelwyn - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkBecause, with the exception of the iPhone, they're comparing Android phones. People interested in the S4 are probably not even considering a Windows phone. The iPhone is included simply because, right or wrong, it's the benchmark against which other smartphones are measured. Reply
kyuu - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkHe was talking about the phones actually getting reviewed, not their inclusion or exclusion from the charts in this article.
Quite a while ago a Lumia 920 review was supposed to have been in the works, but it never materialized and I have never seen an explanation for why it was (apparently) canned. Maybe we'll get a review of the 928, which, despite a few change-ups, is largely identical. Reply
maximumGPU - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkindeed, we were promised a 920/HTC 8X review and never got one. I think it's a bit unfair towards the windows phone community. Reply
jeffkibuule - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkWindows Phone 8X: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6692/from-mango-to-a...
I think what you really want is an in depth review of the 920, but from a hardware standpoint, there's little remarkably new about either when it was released or now. Perhaps it would have been more honest to have a review of Windows Phone 8 in general, but there's not much new to show for it. Reply
val580 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - link18 unread sms and 23 missed calls :-) wish I had that number of girlfriends lol Reply
bmgoodman - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkMany of you will regret buying this phone with Android 5 rolling out in the coming weeks! Trust me, as a Galaxy S2 owner, I know only too well how many upgrades that Samsung/AT&T combined to totally bork my phone! The worst was the "Sleep of Death" that was added in 4.0.4 and took nearly 4 months to correct. Then there were other "features", like not reconnecting to the wifi after waking the phone, potentially using LOTS of extra data from your cellular data plan. Samsung has also stopped providing technical information to the developer community and many of the custom ROM developers are giving up. There is *still* not a stable version of CyanogenMod based on Android 4.1 for the Galaxy S2, for example.
Sure, there's a lot I love about my phone, but I'm reluctant to buy another Samsung. That said, if you're happy with 4.2.2, and you can manage to keep Samsung from "upgrading" you, you may well be pleased with the phone for a few years. (I won't even get into hardware reliability, other than to say that my phone is now exhibiting some strange minor Bluetooth issues.) Reply
Gray05 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkIf you don't run custom ROMs, you are likely going to wait a long time to get updates. And just like the version the phone ships with, the updates suck. That is reality. From what I see, that is independent of what carrier/OEM you use.
If you insist on using CyanogenMod as your ROM, ok. But there are plenty of stable ROMs out for the S2. Reply
sigmatau - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkI am extremely leery about Samsung. I've owned a GS2 and hated it. It had a hesitation issue with the UI and I have noticed it in the GS3 too. I find it annoying having to wait for it to flip my screen when I want to type an email. It seemed like a second too late and I found myself shaking the phone to try to activate it. The lock screen was beyond stupid where you couldn't set a time before it would ask for your PIN. There were the options in the settings, but they didn't work.
And don't start me on the fail built in email. I use my phone for work and find myself typing many emails on it. My GS2 would crash so much during email typing that I had to throw it one day. So much lost time on that POS. Samsung also took about a year to upgrade it to ICS even though it came out a month after the US's release.
Then there were random times that my SD card would be wiped randomly and all my music with it. It's fairly annoying having to reload almost 20 GBs of music on those slow memory sticks. Reply
sigmatau - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkOh and I own a Nokia 900 and am looking to go back to Android. My phone works great. The email is perfect, never a crash, and the UI is smooth and flood. What is lacking is software. I just bought a Camaro and can't even use the OnStar app for it. The battery could be better and the camera isn't the best. For work, though, it is perfect. Email and IE is tops for my job. Not sure why portal websites still don't work as well on Android. I, also don't understand why the screen (OLED made by Samsung) is unreadable in sunlight. Reply
Hrel - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkWow, what's with all the hate on Sprint? Even camping in Wisconsin I have service on Sprint. Who cares if the phone is made of metal or plastic or cow dung? You should ALWAYS be putting your smartphone in a case, ALWAYS! So I say use the cheapest durable material possible. Since it's ALWAYS in a case, it's fine. If you aren't putting your 600 dollar+ phone in a case NO, you are WRONG, it ALWAYS goes in a case, ALWAYS! Reply
MilwaukeeMike - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkAlright, I had to jump in here... I'm a sprint user in Wisconsin and their network is terrible. They are the only major carrier who's speed tests must be measured in kpbs instead of mbps to avoid the heavy use of decimals. He put a caveat on the review because a slow network makes the phone work longer and hurts battery life and because Sprint's network is so much slower, you'll see much better results from other networks. He made the right choice to leave out a 3G browsing graph because it wouldn't be an accurate showing of the phone's battery life.... especially since his other phones are on other (better) networks.
You do realize some people care about materials... if you don't, fine use a case. but if you do care, then the metal phones are nicer. Apple's had success with their metal phone too you've probably noticed. Reply
Hrel - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkApple had success because it's Apple. People who buy Apple buy Apple, they could release a phone powered by human blood and people would buy it. If you live near MIlwaukee or Green Bay then I'm not sure what you're talking about. If you live podunk then yeah, you need Verizon. But Verizon is 110/month. Virgin Mobile (Sprint) is 35/month. I'll take a slower network over 900/year. Reply
dolo4delf - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkI have an Ipod Touch...love it....would not buy an Iphone though... Reply
kyuu - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkNo, you are wrong. Do what you like with your own phone, but I'm not putting mine in a case -- adding extra weight and thickness, ruining the in-hand feel, or covering up the exterior -- because you say so.
And no, I don't own an iPhone. Reply
sigmatau - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkGo shove your case! You are wrong! If your phone needs a case, than it is a sorry POS. The only case I've had for a phone was a terrible Samsung phone. Not for a blackberry, not for an iphone, not for my Nokia 900. So you are wrong. Put your laptop in a case when you use it. Reply
gnx - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkGlad to hear the camera is an upgrade. Looks like Sammy was primarily concerned about comparison with the Iphone5, focused on pixels, aperture, software enhancements (including aggressive night mode), etc. I have to admit, since I take photos oft in well-lit situations, outdoors and indoors, and don't take photos with friends in low-light bars often, this is what I'm looking for as a daily driver. Also, less noise in background colors is an important plus for me, since I blow up parts, and crop out others for the optimal photo to share.
Hopefully Klug will update his review when he gets a hand on the international Exynos Octa version? I'm going for that one, even if I have to lose LTE, since it's more useful for travel abroad, and hopefully will have better CPU/GPU performance and maybe battery too. I don't think there's been a actual customer product with ARM's Big.Little architecture (Exynos Octa being a variant), so I'm looking forward to an analysis by Anandtech on that.
Battery is my third concern, but when you can buy a spare battery and chargers that charge both the phone and the battery at the same time, it becomes a mute problem.
AMOLED is always something of a hate-love relationship. It's oversaturated and power-hogger in browsing mode (cause of the white background), but I have to admit, unlike a laptop or desktop screen, in the relatively cramped phone, it does make the screen pop-out more. Especially with the minimal bezel on this SGS4! I remember each time I'm in carrier stores, the AMOLED screens really catch one's eye when side by side with a LCD screen, even though under further use, the LCD seems to have better clarity, even it it seems subdued. But what I really want to know is if the AMOLED tech used on this SGS4 has matured enough that we don't need to worry about gradual burn-in, which was a real problem in older AMOLED screens.
Touchwiz is still too chaotic for me, but at least I can always install a custom launcher. Just wish they provided an optional color theme for settings, etc, but that's probably asking for too much. At least, if this sells well, we'll have ample support from XDA developers.
Plastic is the bummer here. Gees, is it really impossible to build removable batteries and sd cards without resorting to plastic? My originally HTC Nexus One had a removable backcover. Surely, Samsung can do something close too? (No?) Or has Apple cornered so much of the aluminum supply, that it's prohibitively expensive and detrimental to timely large scale production? (as some Sammy sources imply?) Can't help wondering, with the competition from the HTC One, the next Note III due this fall will have a metal or some other upgraded case.
In anycase, further reviews on international SGS4 models with different parts, and updated reviews for the HTC One with US carriers and updated software would be appreciated!!
Thanks, Anandtech!! Reply
BestPal - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkBrian, you guys always do the best reviews, thanks!
Y'all also do the most technically comprehensive reviews too, which is great for us gear heads :)
In that vain, and since you have the Sprint variant, I would like to ask a bit of a technically curious question I have about the Sprint variant...
Sprint is now finally going back to using removable SIMs on their GSM-capable devices, which is awesome for folks who travel overseas. Even better, Sprint is fairly liberal about unlocking their devices, albeit with having the OEM modify the device such that it won't do GSM inside the US on US bands, which is a long-standing Sprint thing but is absolutely fine. The main thing is that it allows using the device with a foreign SIM outside the US. However, on this device Sprint appears to have had Samsung do something strange, which is even though the device passed the FCC with UMTS 850 in it, Sprint appears to have requested Samsung to disable it, EVEN FOR overseas usage, leaving it with only UMTS 1900 and 2100. For those of us who frequently travel to South America (and a bunch of other places in the world too), crippling that band for overseas use is very problematic. Any idea why Sprint did that? Since in Sprint's case that band won't be useable in the US anyway. Anyway, I can think of no good reason to do this. Reply
antef - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkSamsung doesn't know how to do UI and they prove that with every phone or tablet they put out. TouchWiz is like Windows XP and IE6 with a million extra toolbars installed. The hardware menu key is awful and if they stopped and thought about it for a few moments they would realize why it's bad for new users, the platform, and those switching between tablets and phones. As the owner of two Samsung Nexus devices, I think they're hardware is great, but they can't get it together with usability and UI. Reply
casteve - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkThanks for the review - I look forward to Part 2. Also, it's good to know the highway is clear so you can run away from the killer bee swarms. Reply
gnx - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkA request to Brian Klug, and Anandtech!
Any chance you'd start implementing comparisons of heat measurements for smartphones. Some of these latest flagships have so much horsepower in the them, the back cover heats up quite a bit under heavy use (not only games, but also navigation). It's almost like early light-n-thin laptops that became unusable cause of the heat on the palmrest or underbelly. Just hardware wise, such heat is detrimental to the phone itself in the long term. It could be a problem with last years flagships, so I'm guess this years ones could be more. A more strict analysis/measurement of how these smartphones manage and dissipate heat would be greatly appreciated! Reply
Arbie - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkI'm amazed that people want anything OTHER than plastic in a phone. If you go with anything metallic you have to jump through major technical hoops to get good reception. Why even consider spending all that design money, not to mention making the many unseen compromises that this involves?
For me this phone hits all the right points, including these two key items:
• SD card so I can easily swap media sets in and out. Internal fixed memory can't begin to compete with with the speed, capacity, and convenience of micro/SD chips.
• Replaceable battery , so that when it eventually dies I DON'T have to send the phone in for service. Reply
hyperdoggy - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linknothing wrong with plastic, as long as it isn't fisher price plastic. Reply
eallan - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkwhich it is Reply
dyc4ha - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkInternal memory is much faster than microsd, fact. It is more convenient if everything is in the same place rather than having to swap things out, no? If you really need 32/64GB+ then sure microsd might be better for you, but with USB OTG this is not a big problem at all. Reply
sigmatau - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkWhy did they have to use the cheapest plastic found in 25 cent toys from a gumball machine? I have a plastic phone, a Nokia 900, which kills this phone and any Samsung phone made in feel and durability. Reply
superflex - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkThe GS4 is evolutionary, not revolutionary.
Reminds me of a Cupertino company and their latest phone.
Oh, how the Sammy trolls berated them for that.
HTC One FTW Reply
Shlong - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkAnd the HTC One is evolutionary (compared to HTC One X). Reply
berantle - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkCompared to the HTC One X (and the rest), the HTC One is revolutionary in at least a 3 ways.
1. The front-facing stereo speakers. If it was evolutionary, it would have been making a better quality rear-ward facing single speaker.
2. The 4Mp UltraPixel camera. If it was evolutionary, it would have followed the herd towards 13MP camera and even smaller pixel-size sensors than the 8MP camera.
3. The HTC Zoe (which I understand is short for "Zoetrope"). Automatically packaging short movies and photos taken into a simple 30 second presentation. You don't find that with other phones as best as I can see to-date. This is a big change from how it is done by cameras. Reading the reviews of the S4 here and elsewhere, what the S4 is doing seems like a belated response after seeing what the HTC One could do. A lot of people were caught flatfooted by what the HTC Zoe could do.
These are 3 main revolutionary things that the HTC One has done. The S4? I can't see anything revolutionary. The Samsung Galaxy S4 is all about putting everything but the kitchen sink into it. If Samsung could shoehorn the kitchen sink into the S4, they would do it too - just to boast that it has a kitchen sink and no other phone has it. Reply
nerd1 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkFront facing speakers are revolutionary? Nothing beats a 'real' speakers or even a quality earbud. 4MP cameras revolutionary? It is sacrificing resolution for slightly better noise performance (which is actually helped by f2.0 lens and IS, not low MP sensor) and Zoe? It's just another gimmick, which GS4 has a ton. Reply
Rits - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkThe One. Its just a much better all round package. Those minor differences in performance are not something that will ever affect anybody in real-world usage, so I don't think the S4 has a real performance advantage at all. And as soon as you get out of the guts, one represents taste and an eye for quality, while the other represents Fisher Price. I know what I'd go with. 64GB is more than enough for me and a battery that lasts through the work day is plenty. Reply
Shlong - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkDid you ever look inside the HTC One? I saw the breakdown and it looks like it was made by Fisher Price. If Samsung sold a whole bunch of S3 & Note 2 phones using the same material, what makes you think they wont with the S4? Different strokes for different folks. Reply
kmmatney - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkI don't care about the plastic, but the speakers of the HTC One look really nice. I often play music on my phone while working, just using the built-in speaker at lowish volume. Real stereo sound would be awesome. Reply
nerd1 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkOne is worse in every aspect except for the case. Reply
superflex - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkKeep trolling. You might get off Samsung's fecal pond one day.
Camera, display, speakers, graphics and UI are all better on the One. Reply
nerd1 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkCamera is not any better (bit better at night but way worse in daylight, only 1/3 pixels). Display is smaller and has less contrast. GS4 has higher clocked GPU and DDR3 ram. UI are personal preference and I think GS4's additional features are a clear plus (like 2-panel multi tasking)
I agree that twin speakers are plus for One. Reply
cryosx - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkI really hope overall picture quality has improved with this update http://www.androidpit.de/htc-one-update-fotos?utm_... Reply
sigmatau - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkDisplay on the HTC One kills the Samsung's. Try again. Reply
krumme - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkTry at look at the pictures here, and do your own judgement:
http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Camera-compariso... Reply
UpSpin - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkThe camera in the One has an OIS, the LCD is brighter, has better color accuracy, better outdoor visibility and larger sub-pixels. The SoC is the same, just higher clocked in the S4, yet it overheats. Add this to overheating OLED and you won't be able to take advantage of the full power of both SoC and OLED in the S4 at intensive usage, like gaming. (just as written in this review). The UI is bloated with gimmicks which slow down the whole system and have to get deactivated to get a smooth experience back (just read the damn reviews).
I agree that DDR3, micoSD Card, removeable battery and 2 panel multi-tasking is a plus for the S4.
As you see, both phones are impressive, both have their advantages and disadvantages. Reply
nerd1 - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkDpreview has done a proper comparison betwen phone cameras. Go and see how absolutuly pathetic One's camera looks compared to higher MP phones. And all the optional things are optional, which means you can turn off most stuff if you hate em. Reply
UpSpin - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkI read the review and it says what we know already:
S4 is great at well and medium lit scenes. Thanks to 12MP it offers the most details there.
HTC One is great at darker scenes, has the best flash and thanks to OIS allows longer exposure times at night.
Or in the words of dpreview:
'None of the devices in this shootout are good at everything. So, if you're planning to take a lot of pictures with your smartphone, you should be clear about where your priorities are.'
My personal priorities:
Indoors or document scans, which means not well lit. If I go away on a sunny day I often take a real camcorder with me.
I agree that 4MP is very low, and 6MP or 8MP might have been better. But 4MP is not generally worse than 12MP, it's just a different approach for a different usage. Reply
krumme - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkThe One 4MP is plenty. People very seldom crop.
But the optics is broken, shown by the extremely unsharp sides. Its unusable. Period. Its an error.
Secondly the sensor is simply bad. We get better lowlight ability in some situations and Brian have show the camera from its best side. Here comes the problems:
1. At night you will always use a HDR mode. No matter the phone. Using that the S4 gives superior pictures even at night.
2. The dynamics that was supposed to be better on the sensor of the Onejust didnt deliver. The sony sensor in the S4 despide smaller pixels, and smaller pixels than the S3/IP5 delivered the all important better dynamics here.
The Ones camera is a disaster from what it could have been. If sony had made a 4MP sensor the same size and Samsung implemented it, it would have been a blast and a revolution under all situations. Reply
oshogg - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkDoes Galaxy S4 actually support UHS-1 speeds for the microSD slot? Were there any SD card read/write speed benchmark?
Osho Reply
Chaser - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkLove my HTC One. Best phone I have had the pleasure to use. Reply
vision33r - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkI don't have a problem with the plastic but the sheer number of Samsung phones that just look all a like.
S4, S3, Note, Mini, etc all look a like just different sizes and SOC inside. Where is the premium Samsung phone? It has to look and perform top notch. The S4 maybe the flag ship phone but it looks like many of the Samsung cheaper variants. Reply
slatanek - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkCouldn't agree more. Even my HTC One SV looks and feels better than all the Sammy phones. I've had a Galaxy Note before and it didn't feel like a premium device at all, quite the opposite. It's interesting how many people don't care about the looks of a 600$ handset. I'm starting to think that Samsungs customers are uneducated and their only argument is about throwing their phones onto the pavement and how well plastic will bare. Funny enough in all drop tests I've seen (quite a few that is) Galaxy S3 lost to iPhone 5 (which is not plastic!). People tend to forget that it's not only about the materials but the shape as well when it goes to dropping the phone. The rounded Samsungs shape doesn't distribute energy as evenly as the iPhone squareness does. Anyway, fact of the matter is they will sell millions but if Ford sell millions of cars does that mean there's no space for Porsche anymore? Hopefully not. Wouldn't like to wake up one day to find out that we live in a Samsung's world (plastic nightmares anyone?) or any other company for that matter. Reply
Connoisseur - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkOMG I need to buy one of these THIS WEEK. My Galaxy s3 with the official extended battery pack was stolen last week and I'm trudging along with an iphone 3gs in the meantime. LOVED the S3 with extended battery pack since it lasted me a day and a half with medium/heavy use and was still pretty damn thin. I didn't use any of the gimmicky options. While the HTC One looks sublime, i'm debating between that and a chance for an extended battery (and SD storage). Reply
nitenichiryu1 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkI'm currently using the i777 Galaxy S2, so both the HTC one and S4 are in the running for me. Currently I'm leaning towards the S4 because of the removable battery and microSD slot. Touchwiz vs. Sense isn't as big a deal for me since I'm going to root and rom Cyanogenmod 10.1.
The only thing that I wish the S4 had isn't even the metal construction of the One, but the boomsound speakers! Reply
bmgoodman - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkIf you want a custom ROM, like Cyanogenmod, take a look at some of the XDA Developers forums. Samsung enthusiasts are bailing out in droves, disheartened by the increasingly secretive nature of Samsung. Reply
Gray05 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkYou and I are in the same boat. I am still using my i777 and run Task650's 4.2.2 AOKP ROM.
I love being able to swap batteries with my i777. It is a major plus. But, I could settle for getting a small/medium size external battery to hook up when needed. Something easily carried around like a spare battery but with a lot more capacity.
I won't make a decision until I see how the XDA world reacts to the S4 and can hold both phones in my hand at the store. But, I am leaning towards the HTC One. The stereo front facing speakers, good low light photography, and 64GB internal storage are hard to argue with. I am nervous about denting the aluminum body... Reply
Hunt3rj2 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkThe GS4 has a locked bootloader. I wish I was kidding but both Brian and Engadget have confirmed. Reply
cryosx - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkh8rift has an alpha of cm10.1 up already and seeing as how team hacksung no longer supports sasmsung. . . go HTC! Reply
roltzje - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkWell done article, I enjoyed it.
Anyways, regarding the One vs S4. Really, its a debate between aesthetics and function. The HTC One is more aesthetic with pleasing materials and a sharp, expensive look. The S4 is far more functional, with more features that most people can use, and in general is more ergonomic to use.
So would I rather have an amazingly looking phone that functions acceptably, or an acceptable looking phone that functions amazingly? The latter, which is why I'm going for the S4. Reply
nerd1 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkA obvious solution is attaching a metal case to the GS4. Reply
kyuu - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkUh, what functions does the S4 have that the One does not? Let me guess:
1) SD card
2) Removable battery
SD card is nice for phones that ship with 16GB or less of internal NAND, but with 32 or 64GB, I personally can't see any need for it. It'd still be nice, sure, but I can certainly live without it.
Removable battery I have zero need for. Modern batteries don't suddenly turn to crap after two years (hell, even my old iPhone 4 battery was still going strong after over two years before I ditched it), and if I need some extra juice, USB chargers are ubiquitous. There's also cheap USB-powered external battery packs to charge up with on-the-road.
If I was looking at Android, I'd go with the One hands down. The camera (low-light perfomance and stabilized video are more important to me than performance in ideally-lit scenarios), speakers (One's best feature IMO), non-AMOLED screen (yeah blacks are nice, but it sucks battery and is oversaturated), and, yes, superior industrial design easily put it over the SGS4 for me. Reply
dyc4ha - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkCant agree with you more! Why not give android a try btw? I came from the iphone 3gs and I glad I made the switch! Reply
nerd1 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkThen what functions does One have that iPhone 5 does not? Some people can argue none as they are happy with iPhone. Reply
Omiaz - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkS4 is a BEAST !!!
Im waiting for octa core variant . And the Anand review ;) Reply
darwinosx - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkVery few people have seen a Nexus phone or pure Android so its not correct to assume they prefer Touchwiz. Reply
nitenichiryu1 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linki agree! i actually prefer vanilla android to all the companies' versions of android. Reply
seamonkey79 - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkWon't buy a phone without a removable battery. After two iPhone batteries and my friend's One X battery crapped out, it simply isn't worth it. Wouldn't mind a little bit better build from Samsung, but honestly my Note 2 is as good as my HTC Incredible was. Reply
Grandpa - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkWow. That's saying a lot. My old HTC Incredible had the most incredibly bad battery EVER. So bad I bought an iPhone with a terrific battery and lovin every minute of it. Reply
lilmoe - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linklet me guess, part 2 is for the Exynos GT-I9500 version..... Reply
berantle - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkThanks for the review. I'll be going with the HTC One. It is a better fit for me and my phone usage. I really like the HTC One's front stereo speakers. The S4 has too many new features/functions that I have little interest in using.
The removable battery of the S4 is not important to me because even having had phones with a removable battery, I never felt a need to swap it out. Much better to recharge using a recharging battery pack - it's universal for charging other portable devices, plus the current packs can store 3-4x the energy that the batteries fitted in the phones can store.
Don't need removable SD card feature. Backed up my contacts/data to the cloud and to the PC. Do that regularly. I don't use my phone as a dumping ground for my music and movie files. Those go into my phone selectively and actively managed as to what I want in my phone storage.
The camera in the phones. I don't use them to replace my normal cameras. It's for the occasional shot and these skew to more indoors than outdoors. Thus, the HTC One's camera makes a better fit for me than the S4 camera. In my brief use of an HTC One, I tried the HTC One in a close macro shot and liked the results very much.
Aluminium or Polycarbonate? I have no problems with polycarbonate if it is nicely done like the recent Nokia phones and the HTC One X/Butterfly phones. The feel of the S3 was offputting and since the S4 is more of the same, then, no thanks. Holding the aluminium-cased HTC One, the big difference in feel makes me abhor the S3's feel even more, what more the S4 which is supposed to be the same. Reply
rohini - Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - linkThe SGS4 is surely a great smartphone but there are many other things which the buyers want from their smartphone. The aesthetics is the most important feature on the wish list of smartphone buyers. Samsung, you should know that people are now bored of your old plastic design. Why can't you come up with something made out of metal or glass or even sapphire?
All Samsung has been doing for years is stuffing up its phones with the best in class hardware but forgot about what most of the persons like.
HTC One on the other hand is a an excellent example of innovation even though there are chances that it will fail to attract masses in the Indian market. http://goo.gl/VBNDG Reply
nitenichiryu1 - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkSome have posted comments on how the S4 will have a locked bootloader (bummer), and that the HTC will be unlocked, but what about the recent article from engadget stating that it will change for the HTC, and most likely be locked. http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/15/htc-one-att-boo... Reply
teiglin - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkSkimming through the comments makes my head hurt. I wonder what percentage of idiotic commenters are marketers and what percent are legit fanboys. I hope they're mostly marketers; it's a bit scary to think that Samsung and HTC might have developed reality distortion fields that rival Apple's.
Anyway, on the off chance you're still reading any of this garbage, Brian, I wanted to ask why you never do any reviews of custom ROMs/kernels. I realize this is a potential deathtrap of complication, so is it just that it's easier just to avoid even opening the door to it? I mean, the number of boneheaded manufacturer moves that can be fixed by some minor aftermarket tweaking is phenomenal: everything from silly button bindings (One) to janky design language (Touchwiz) to miserable screen calibration (Nexus 4) can be solved by spending 10-30 minutes on xda--and that's without even going into the less-stable areas or just-for-fun tweaks. Reply
AndroidsFinest - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkI think I will wait to see what Google has to offer at Google I/O, if its just a revamped Nexus 4 than I might go for the HTC One. Samsung's plastic is getting a bit tiresome and off contract the 8 core international variant is extremely overpriced. Reply
Solandri - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkStructural engineer here. The reasons Roffles12 cited are valid, objective engineering reasons to use plastic over metal. When you're designing an item and selecting what material it's made of, a myriad of factors come into play including: elastic modulus (flexibility), toughness (ability to withstand piercing), hysteresis (energy absorbed during bending vs. energy bounced back), yield strength (how much stress it can take before it breaks), fatigue (tendency for cracks to grow), fracture strength (tendency for cracks to propagate), corrosion resistance, heat and electrical conductivity, thermal expansion, weight, density, and yes cost.
For a phone with an expected 2-3 year lifespan (plastic tends to get brittle after many years), plastic is actually superior to metal in many of these characteristics. A similar thing happened in the 1940s and 1950s with cars. As they got faster, more people were dying in accidents. Automakers responded by building the cars stronger and stronger, and more people died. Finally they took a step back and did some crash testing, and found that making the exterior stronger was actually the *worst* thing they could do to protect the people inside. It transmitted all the impact forces directly to the occupants. Now they build cars with crumple zones which bend and yield to absorb the energy of an impact, while a stiff passenger compartment protects the occupants. Similarly, if designed right, a phone with a flexible plastic exterior but a strong interior construction can survive impacts better than one with a stiff metal exterior.
Unfortunately, for most of the uneducated masses, their analysis is much simpler: metal = good, plastic = cheap. Which is really too bad since it will lead to them making a lot of non-optimal purchase decisions. About the only plastic which has escaped this stereotype is carbon fiber, which is just strengthening fibers embedded in a plastic substrate. Probably because the stuff is expensive, and most people automatically assume expensive = good. Reply
UpSpin - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkI normally don't sit in my smartphone and throw it with 100 km/h against a wall. And I don't know a car made out of plastic, the cars I drive are made out of steel and aluminum and last more than 10 years.
I don't understand what you want to tell us at all with your car story, because it's not related to smartphones at all.
You also forget that the front of the smartphone consists of glass! which breaks easily. So if your body is highly flexible and very soft, it won't break, but your glass will have to absorb the whole energy and break. And as you can see in the S4 photos, there is barely a bezel thus no 'crush zone'.
You also don't buy a rugged device which must withstand permanent drops. (I haven't dropped my 3 years old smartphone even once).
I agree with you that plastic has its advantages compared to metal but so does metal compared to plastic. Plastic is more flexible which is negligible because the glass isn't flexible. Plastic breaks easily, wheras metal deforms, whatever you prefer.
And as you said, plastic is a broad term. You can find cheap and expensive variants (Kevlar, carbon fiber), with different properties (soft, hard, ...) and different finishes (matt, glossy).
But the plastic (or let's say polycarbonate) Samsung uses is shiny, glossy, cheap. Reply
nerd1 - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkPhones get dropped on hard surfaces a lot during its lifetime. Metal gets dent, while polycarbonate ( which is NOT cheap material) absorbs the shock and keeps its shape. If you are gonna baby your phone you may be fine with metal exterior but I do not. Reply
gnx - Friday, April 26, 2013 - linkActually it's not the plastic per se but the additional gloss that makes is bad. The plastic that Samsung uses in their phones is quite high grade, very flexible, very durable. The problem is the shiny gloss they put on top of it. I think in an interview Samsung said they add the glossy finish cause it prevents scratches and provides a halo effect. Both personally dislike both, since the instead of scratches it attracts finger prints, and the halo effect is just distracting. I wouldn't mind plastic at all, even prefer if, plastic if they'd leave it matte. Reply
Osamede - Friday, April 26, 2013 - link"...You also forget that the front of the smartphone consists of glass! which breaks easily. So if your body is highly flexible and very soft, it won't break, but your glass will have to absorb the whole energy and break...."
- This is not accurate. The idea is that the body absorbs energy and transmits less of it. The more solid and less flexible the body, the more the body will transmit the energy further forwarding it to the glass.
"Plastic is more flexible which is negligible because the glass isn't flexible. Plastic breaks easily, wheras metal deforms, whatever you prefer..."
- this is a gross generalization. Metals come in a huge range of properties. Some metals are also brittle (what you refer to as "breaks easily". Even the same metal can be more or less brittle depending on if it is cast or extruded or treated in various ways.
We cant just go around equating looks to durabiity. I can show you plastic body Nokias I have in my drawer that lasted years and could last another half decade if I take it out and use it today. Plastic body with a metal frame under or even just plastic body/frame can be highly effective and long lasting in protecting what's inside, even if it scratches.
We need to stop generalizing like this. It's beyond shallow. This is engineering - there are many ways to skin a cat and acheive a specific type of durability, at various tradeoffs and price points.
If you like the phone - fine, buy it. If you dont, then hey buy what you like. Free choic. Reply
A_Smith - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkFeatures and other specs wise this phone is on top, but I'm not happy with its design. Samsung has kept rolling their newer model with almost similar designs for years now. Aren't they planning to modify their smartphone designs? Reply
Jaegs - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkAnandtech doesn't do review scores so we have to use "Klug Pages"
HTC One is 17
Galaxy S4 is 9 Reply
ShieTar - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkI am somewhat surprised that the articles does not discuss the apparently protruding camera optics in more detail. I have a Huawei Mediapad with a similar protruding lens fixation, and it is rather annoying because it wobbles around if you lay it down on a table. For me that is actually a relevant point, even for a phone. About 7 hours a day, the phone is lying on my table while I work, and if a text or Mail comes in, I don't actually pick it up, but rather just operate it on the table.
Is this possible with the Samsung, or is the protruding optics a problem?
I also wish that someone would make a great smartphone without cameras, which I never used in my life, but I'm getting the distinct feeling that I am the only person alive with that problem. Reply
richy184 - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkYep, HTC One for me. GS4 is just too cheap and tacky looking (software and hardware) with too many gimmicky features ill never ever use. Reply
krumme - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkI am surprised Brian had an micro sd card :) - naughty Reply
Crocography - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkI really wish Anadtech would start comparing all of these to the Nokia 920. Reply
GTRagnarok - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkWhat's part 2 going to be? Just the Exynos version? Reply
theduckofdeath - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link"he weight argument is an interesting one. If you compare the all-plastic Galaxy S 4 to the all-metal HTC One, there's a difference of 13 grams."
The Samsung also has a much larger battery, which is the most dense and weight-adding element in a phone. It also has a larger display. So, the real benefit is a lot more than 13 grams. Reply
scaramoosh - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkhttp://www.displaymate.com/Galaxy_S4_ShootOut_1.ht...
What's that? The GS4 actually has an amazing screen? Reply
risa2000 - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkMy Galaxy Note 2 with Samsung charger charges in around two and half hour since the beginning until now (6 months). Could it be because of different power voltage (as I am in Europe on 230 V AC)? Reply
jleach1 - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkWhy the heck would you call the inclusion of a mucroSD slot "disappointing"? What geek in their right mind would say that?
And who in their right mind would pay $100 for an extra 16gb of NAND, when we all know it costs pennies, and we can buy a 32gb Class 10 card for $20? Reply
ziggybiggunz - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkIts $100 more for an extra 32gb on the HTC actually, for a total of 64gb Reply
ziggybiggunz - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkHTC One buyers have become a very vicious cohort. Some poor chap on youtube had to remove his voice and disable comment because be was getting death threats for disliking the One. Every single comparison video on youtube is loaded with " fuck you for liking the S4", "Samsung paid you to like it, you fuck", "fuck plastics", "fuck Samsung"....."fucking magnest, how do they work". These are the same people who not to long ago where sucking Samsungs dick over the GS2, Gnex, and the Note 1/2. Chill out. HTC One is good phone, but dont start shitting over samsung all of a sudden because someone came along and gave you a metal body. Was the pain of having your hipster friends making fun of your plastic phone becoming that unbearable? Before the One came out, Android users prime ammunition for iPhone users was the removable battery and expansion option, and all the "gimicks" of Samsung flagships. So samsung gave you that again, but used polycorbonate, so its chopped liver now? As soon as someone says anything good about the S4, you hear..."nope, its not aluminum like the One". Give me a break....remember who your daddy is Reply
cryosx - Sunday, April 28, 2013 - linkThe HTC One deserves the praise but the extremists are kind of getting out of hand... Reply
bhima - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - linkPlastic is sort of bleh when it comes to this price bracket, but I feel Brian and Anand dismiss the desire for a removable battery too easily when comparing this phone to say the HTC One. On one hand, they say the removable battery isn't an issue because you upgrade your phone in 2 years (its implied), but on the other hand, they rightly make the point that we will most likely be buying these phones like how we buy computers in the near future due to carriers moving away from contracts. If this is the case, and we will be shelling out full retail, I would assume people would start to buy their phone like a computer and want to keep it LONGER than 2 years because they don't want to drop $300+ dollars on a new phone.
Hell, the HTC One or the S4 are both such powerful phones that they could easily last much longer than 2 years, but the S4 is the only one that can actually last past this point... whereas the HTC One will be bricked due to a dying battery. I just find it strange that they had such great insight on how we will look at purchasing phones in the future without adding the foresight of battery concerns due to people keeping their phones longer. Reply
superflex - Friday, May 03, 2013 - linkQuit being a drama queen.
My three year old HTC EVO 4G has the original battery and still gets me through a day just fine. Reply
xaml - Friday, April 26, 2013 - linkThis is one beautiful device, if you can't see that and you're trying to blame the materials for it, I'm sorry but it shows. Reply
Random Kkkkk - Friday, April 26, 2013 - link" what will probably be 2013's most popular smartphone" Did you somehow forget about Apples iPhone 5? You can't be serious if you think this will outsell it considering the iPhone 5 has had a quarter of sales already. Reply
Spikey01 - Friday, April 26, 2013 - linkThere is a difference between popular and units sold...
The S4 will be a huge sucess!! Reply
medi02 - Sunday, April 28, 2013 - linkCheck charts on these page:
Galaxy is only slightly behind iphone sales, on the other hand, its sales were doubling with every release. Reply
puremind - Friday, April 26, 2013 - linkBrian, what color meter do you use for display checks? The color temperature on the HTC One in your comparison seems like an overestimation. In my measurements, it should be 7200K for the Taiwan factory (serial numbers starting with HT) and 6670K for the Argentina factory (serial number starting with FA).
It does not change the results, though, seeing as all your phones are measured with the same color meter, this is still a fair comparison.
Just to give you an idea, on the HTC One, the Eye One Display Pro overstimates color temperature by up 500K depending on the spectral profile used, the Spyder 4 usually overestimates even more.
When I look at the color temperature values for the other LCD phones, it also looks to me like there is a 500K overestimation as well compared to what I have seen elsewhere. This is also why we see wild fluctuations of color temperature across all reviews.
Could you maybe post the first two letters of the serial number of your HTC One unit, as it could be yet another factory with a different screen calibration. Either way I am curious about this.
Of course even a spectro like the i1 Pro 2 has a temperature shift of up to 300K upwards depending the point of initialization. Again, the comparision still holds because the same method and instrument was used for all phones, and usually even if some color meters have errors in color temperature readings, the rest of the spectrum is usually read correctly on those newer devices.
mike 3283 - Friday, April 26, 2013 - linkok people just to shut all of of you up about the aluminum htc one. samsung is already in the works making their next phones metal.including a metal s4 later this year. and also dustproof and waterproof s4 too. So when the phone that's better in every way already except it's plastic will murder the htc. listen the s4 is selling ten million units to htc's 2 million. So wait till the s4 is metal. then what? then everyone who gets the htc now will be wishing they hadn't. come on the s4 is way ahead of htc. it has so much more to offer. all the extra features and gorilla glass3 which is way stronger and ddr3 memory which is faster and uses less power. all the accessories coming out for the s4. expansion of memory and removable battery. and not to mention the repairability of the s4 kills the htc. if you break anything on the one you are screwed. there's no replacing a cracked screen. if you even try to take the glass off you will ruin the phone. check out the review on ifixit for the htc. worst rated phone to repair ever. s4 rated easiest to repair. htc tried but failed. and anyone who says they are buying the metal htc because it's more durable is an idiot. they are buying it so they can brag to their friends and say look at my phone. it's htc. it's just a boring phone with no wow factor except the body which is useless. their blinkfeed is a ripoff of Windows tiles and flipboard both of which are better. as far as phones go htc has high end hardware but anyone can put that on phone. there are all kinds of companies that have the same stuff as htc coming out on their phones. but samsung at least has innovations with that hardware. That's why they will flat out sell htc 5 to 1 if not more.in fact they are probably going to beat iphone sales for a 3 month period. New record coming and its plastic. OMG! HTC ONE will fail just like every other htc that had ever tried. they just don't have what it takes. and their stupid speakers on the front ate worthless. nobody ever listens to their phone out loud or if they do its for a very short time. in headphones is where it matters and s4 has a wolfson chip which is the best sound chip in the biz. So as a conclusion s4 wins htc loses. That's life. htc one x failed to the s3 so how well this be any different. it won't it will be even worse. Reply
fackamato - Friday, April 26, 2013 - linkDo you have to try really hard to write such useless, false and unreadable posts or does it come naturally to you? Reply
bhima - Saturday, April 27, 2013 - linkIt isn't just the fit and finish of the htc one... the camera is the most useful camera in real world lighting scenarios. If it had a removeable battery, I'd have already bought it. Reply
gaasedal - Friday, April 26, 2013 - linkThanks Samsung for keeping the plastic back plate:) I don't care if it is plastic, alu or paper, as long it is light weighted. I have an HTC Desire HD and I don't want a heavy smartphone again, and I want to insert a 64GB MicroSD card and I want to be able to change the battery.
SG4 is better than HTC One in all parts.
On monday I will have a new SG4 :) Reply
Roy2001 - Friday, April 26, 2013 - linkNo plastic and AMOLED which SUCKS. Reply
medi02 - Sunday, April 28, 2013 - linkNever heard something as idiotic.
Samsung's AMOLED is the reason I don't even consider other manufacturers. Reply
superflex - Friday, May 03, 2013 - linkUntil you get it in direct sunlight. AMOLED definitely has it's limitations. Reply
Belard - Saturday, April 27, 2013 - linkI find the HTC One a truly exciting design compared to the SGS4... The cheap plastic look and feel of Samsung is why I bought the AtrixHD instead (same feature set, but crappy camera) as it looks different and looks better. The HTC feels like a well made product... looks great all over.
But why it MAY NOT matter how the Samsung looks is for people who ALWAYS puts an external protection case over their phones, so with the HTC One & iPhones - you don't get to see sign industrial designs that make them sexy and made the purchase... silly, isn't it?
So... for the case protectors, it doesn't matter.
I like my phone to be as small as possible... I don't use them... and so the HTC One will matter more. Also, all that touchwiz stuff is... kind of ugh. Reply
RiotSloth - Saturday, April 27, 2013 - linkI love Anandtech, and in particular Brian Klug's excellent and objective reviews. If you really want to know all about a new phone, it really is THE place to come and read. I assumed others would feel the same, but NO, there seems to be the same infantile nonsense on here as on other sites. Why do people get so fixated with people's phone choice? As I pointed out on another site, both of these phones are capable of explaining the sum of human knowledge to you almost instantly. they take pictures, they can direct you anywhere, they play music and HD video. In short they are probably the most amazing thing ever created in the whole of human history. And yet people make infantile remarks over whether one is plastic or metal?! Reply
MarkHunt - Sunday, April 28, 2013 - linkHave to say it, but majority of the new Chinese Android quad core phones do nearly everything the S4 does for a pittance for a similar performance level. The build quality of the S4 looks no better either. Reply
medi02 - Sunday, April 28, 2013 - linkExactly how much does Samsung save but not using metal cover?
Is it really more than couple of bucks?
Got Samsung's first Galaxy S (9001).
About 2 years old.
Never used any kind of protection for it whatsoever. I bet most people whining about it being plastic would use some protective cover on it anyway. Reply
medi02 - Sunday, April 28, 2013 - link"Most users admittedly don't care however and just see "bright" colors."
Uhm, check any pro-sumer camera out there, which of them does NOT oversaturate taken pictures in JPEG mode?
This can't be a hardware fault, can it, after all, RAW looks fine.
So the only reason they oversaturate is because MOST CONSUMERS ACTUALLY LIKE IT THAT WAY. Models that use TFTs can't go as far, since, well, you know, cough, they are actually inferior to AMOLEDs, cough... Reply
rohini - Sunday, April 28, 2013 - linkAnd finally the Galaxy SIV has been launched in India for INR 41500 which is a bit expensive but it is well under the asking price for the 16GB version of iPhone 5 16GB and HTC Butterfly.
People in India who are planning to buy the S IV should also be aware of the other alternatives close to 40k INR. http://goo.gl/MbJ95 Reply
Alvar - Monday, April 29, 2013 - link<a href="http://tinyurl.com/cunrjq6">6 Reasons to get the Samsung Galaxy S4</a> Reply
heleymartin88 - Monday, April 29, 2013 - link</b><a href="http://is.gd/tDlFss">The bettel between android smartphone begin now.From hands-free gesture controls to a "photobomb"-erasing feature, here's why you'll want the Samsung Galaxy S4.6 Reasons to get the Samsung Galaxy S4.....</a></b> Reply
heleymartin88 - Monday, April 29, 2013 - linkFrom hands-free gesture controls to a "photobomb"-erasing feature, here's why you'll want the Samsung Galaxy S4.6 Reasons to get the Samsung Galaxy S4 check out..... http://is.gd/tDlFss Reply
Mugur - Monday, April 29, 2013 - linkBrian, can you please have a head to head comparison between the Exinos and Qualcomm variants of the S4? I am really curios whether the Octa really means something in terms of battery and performance... Reply
1ndian - Monday, April 29, 2013 - linkI think, Samsung's design is more repairable. So, for most of the people, its design is practical, easily repairable, makes the parts cheap and longer availability of parts compared to other phones... Yes they could have offered a better hardware design. But the amount of useful customization on the software side cannot be overlooked. I think software is the way to go because the hardware by itself is basically useless. Samsung's is the most customized OS in the android market. And, that hasn't affected the device's battery life or performance is a great achievement. So, as much as I hate the look of the phone... I will have to say the cost of the phone is worth it. Just for argument sake, how much do you think iPhone or SZ would cost with as many features as S4? Reply
sAiyAnstAr - Thursday, May 02, 2013 - linkIf the build quality is good, then it wouldn't need to be repaired. Reply
mandywong - Monday, April 29, 2013 - linkGalaxy S 4 is an amalgamation of various cutting-edge smartphone advancements and features of today - http://bit.ly/11vUzb3 Reply
SmileyDT - Monday, April 29, 2013 - linkSoon i will have it in my hands but once more the back cover is not the best and you can't use it withaout a case.. One drop and you have to search your pockets very deep! I'am looking for S4 cases and so far i have found only http://www.caseutopia.com to order some protection cases... better be safe than sorry. I hope someday samsung will produce smartphones with stronger materials. This is the only negative i find on this phone everything else is cool! Reply
MidianSpawned - Monday, April 29, 2013 - linkWhaa Plastic... Whaa aluminum... Noooo HTC is best... Nut uh Samsung is better... Ya know what.. I have a Galaxy Note 2, am very happy with it. Get whatever phone suits you best, but before you buy, know this... Not a single phone out there tastes as good as, or, looks as good as pussy... Pussy, because any phone can order a pizza. That is all! Reply
rauelius - Monday, April 29, 2013 - linkIf you compare them, please remember to mention that the Galaxy S4 only offers 9GB of storage for Apps(SD-Cards don't do anything to increase storage for most functions) where as the HTC One offers 25GB for available storage. Music and Pictures can be streamed/uploaded via the Cloud and those are the only two things that the SD-Card really will do for the Galaxy S4. With games getting bigger and bigger and Google Music streaming the minuscule amount of storage on the Galaxy S4 makes the phone feel pointless combined with the excellent underlying hardware. It's like having a Ferrari with a Lawnmower's gastank, where as the HTC One is a Lamborghini with an actual gastank. Reply
Dug - Monday, April 29, 2013 - linkI'll admit I got the One for the looks and the camera. But I've found I really like Sense5 and Blinkfeed. Before I got it I thought I would never use it, now I use it constantly. There's a lot about touchwiz I don't like. All personal preference though. Reply
emkei - Tuesday, April 30, 2013 - linkIt's funny when article was about cpu/gpu performance and people comment on looks/cover...I guess people cannot read.... Reply
indtail - Tuesday, April 30, 2013 - linkI'm buying the iPhone the nest time for sure. Enough of no battery and bad cameras for me. I respect Android and have and still will be a loyal fan and even develop some. But my daily phone to be used is definitely the iPhone.
In the Android world I'd pick the One simply because of it's premium feel, better camera, and smaller screen. Bigger isn't always better and HTC has realized that. Might as well buy a tablet if you think screen size is so important?
Also, the true spirit of Android is the custom ROMS and once your phone is ROM-ed the only thing that counts is hardware which is better on the ONE. And yes, the S4 is faster but not ver(compared to the S4).
And a good review nonetheless. Reply
indtail - Tuesday, April 30, 2013 - linkThis is coming from a year long S3 owner by the way. Reply
kgh00007 - Thursday, May 02, 2013 - linkAre you going to stick with this new headache inducing site layout? I just realised that I haven't visited Anand since about 2 weeks after the new site went live and I'm disappointed that you are still sticking with this layout. Why is the text so small?
Such a pity, one bad decision has forced me to use the site less and less, there was a time when I checked it a few times a week. Ah well, bye bye Anand, I wonder how many other people you have lost with this terrible new layout? You expect technology to progress, but your site is going backwards in terms of readability and is a lesson in how not to do web design, it hurts to read.
Good luck Reply
Oo凸 - Friday, May 03, 2013 - linkCamera sensor is not IMX135? Reply
Latzara - Sunday, May 05, 2013 - linkthe plastic is easier to scratch, break and so on - and it's also, and that is absolutely a crime to ignore, much cheaper and easier to replace, as is the case with the battery, the SD card which I for the life of me can't understand some manufacturers not using as it limits the user, but hey the can charge a kings ransom for a few chips that cost way less than the difference in price between let's say an 8GB device and a 16 GB device ... and so on and so on
As someone said earlier it's a matter of choice and tastes and absolutely nothing more -- the real differences are the durability, repairability, customizability as well as what's in my opinion the most important, the inner workings, the CPU, GPU, memory speeds and so on --- you're arguing about a shell which is a simple covering and nothing more...
When i hear about someone judging a device by how it 'feels in my hand' i can't do anything but smirk ... Reply
unbible - Wednesday, May 08, 2013 - linkiphone 5 battery hours seems opposite between 3G/LTE in Web Browsing Battery life test. Shouldn't be 3G 8.19 hrs and LTE 4.55 hrs?? Reply
Omiaz - Wednesday, May 08, 2013 - linkIm still waiting part 2 Reply
Quorbach - Saturday, May 11, 2013 - linkSame here. Where the fuck is it ? Reply
lilmoe - Thursday, May 09, 2013 - linkSeeing that the Note 2 gets a lower battery score than the iPhone 5, i'm seriously questioning your battery life benchmark Brian...
Also, my Galaxy S4 charges from 15% to 100% in 1:40 to 2:00 hours (depends on whether I'm using it while charging, personal experience really). Are you sure you used the official charger?
Guess the best reviewer to any device is myself......... Reply
vipuls1979 - Wednesday, May 22, 2013 - linkI have posted a comparision on http://mobiknowhow.blogspot.com and i personally think one should go ahead with S4 instead of HTC One Reply
srihari - Thursday, May 23, 2013 - linkAnand, non-technical people will not be able to judge the better phone by looking at the GPU benchmark onscreen numbers(with varying screen resolutions for different phone). so, i suggest you to post *only* GPU benchmark off-screen numbers. Reply
cadjak - Saturday, May 25, 2013 - linkThis device has a primary function that seems NOT to get examined in reviews. How well does it send and/or receive a simple voice communication? The S3 had some serious issues around reception in areas with marginal LTE signal. I have had to tweak mine to get it to reliably work as a phone, by setting it to CDMA auto (PRL). I am trying to find out if the S4 will have similar connection issues, but I'm not having much luck. Reply
vipuls1979 - Monday, May 27, 2013 - linki would sincerely like to go with Galaxy S4 rather then HTC one, updates released by Samsung are more quicker then HTC and
did you know a recent Press Trust of India Release says Camera sales are down due to Smartphone camera
full report at http://mobiknowhow.blogspot.com Reply
paul_59 - Monday, May 27, 2013 - linkInteresting comments about differences between S4 8064AB &.HTC One 8064T
I ran a custom kernel and overclock HTC One to 1.89Ghz (S4 1.9Ghz)
Got sunspider 0.91 benchmark result 550 ms .
I realise benchmarking is subject to lots of variables Reply
vipuls1979 - Thursday, June 06, 2013 - linkGuys, i hope you must be aware of latest blackberry Q10 launched in India
for more details visit http://mobiknowhow.blogspot.com/2013/06/blackberry... Reply
MonkeyK - Thursday, June 13, 2013 - linkAre the battery test stats really right? 1 hour of additional Wifi web browsing time is huge. But every other review that I have read shows the S4 having slightly longer battery life. So what gives? Reply
elucid - Tuesday, June 18, 2013 - linkI guess Part 2 is not coming? If it still is, a battery test with a real LTE network like Verizon (or even ATT) would be interesting. Reply
reapergato - Tuesday, June 18, 2013 - link2 months later and still no Part 2? I sure hope with all that extra real world testing the part 2 article will knock our socks off.... Reply
Optimummind - Sunday, June 30, 2013 - linkIt's been over 2 months and still no Part 2?
Also, after re-reading the review, it seems the article has been edited from its original release. Reply
Streamlined - Sunday, July 21, 2013 - linkWhy did you use the 3rd gen ipad instead of the current model? Just because than Apple would have been at the top of every GPU chart? Reply
DGPickett - Sunday, September 22, 2013 - linkWhat, no 3G, 4G and wifi comparative data bandwidth tests? Communications power is a big part of the things "raison d'etre" ! Reply
hizoka - Saturday, December 14, 2013 - linkgalaxy s4 best smartphone ever
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BV1NKCW?_encoding=UTF8... Reply
EDDYSEGARAN - Thursday, April 16, 2015 - linkHi,
I have problem with wifi connection at some hotspots and hotel rooms.
I was told IPhone and IPad wifi power are not strong comparatively with Samsung or other android phones.
Is it true ? Are there any official test or comparisons done.
If there is, please provide website links.
Thanks Reply
EDDYSEGARAN - Thursday, April 16, 2015 - linkMy current model is IPhone 5 and IPad Mini.
Are there any official test or comparisons done.
If there is, please provide website links or email to me: email@example.com.
Thanks Reply
EDDYSEGARAN - Thursday, April 16, 2015 - linkI was told Iphone / Ipad battery last longer due to the weak wifi power. is it true ? Reply
WPX00 - Friday, July 15, 2016 - linkI know this is years late, but my S4 is utilizing an IMX135, not an IMX091. Reply