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Samsung Galaxy S4 Pros and Cons - An In depth Analysis
Samsung Galaxy S4 Pros and Cons
Samsung Galaxy S4 Pros and Cons
Build, Hard Pros
Build, Hard Cons
Display, Screen Pros
Display, Screen Cons
AirView and AirGesture
Camera Intro
Camera Pros
Camera Cons
Network & Connectivity
Audio: Speakerphone calls and general audio playback
Texting and The keyboard
Device's Security and User's Safety
User Interface
Gaming Aspect
Out of the Box and Accessories
Samsung Galaxy S4 Pros and Cons: The Quick Read on Cons
Samsung Galaxy S4 Pros and Cons: The Quick Read on Pros
Bonus Read I: Short Codes
Bonus Read II: Cloud Backup, Sync and Restoration
I have also written an indepth article on the Differences between Exynos and Snapdragon, Samsung Galaxy GT-I9500 and GT-I9505 and other major versions recently emerged like Galaxy S4 Zoom, Galaxy S4 Mini,Galaxy S4 Korean version, Galaxy S4 Active, and Samsung Galaxy S4 Advanced (LTE-A) etc. You can find it
Also a blog post on the Differences between Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-I9500 Vs HTC One Vs iPhone 5 Vs Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Vs Samsung Galaxy S III I9300, you can
check it out here
Samsung Galaxy S4 Build (hardware)- Pros
Weight and Measures
1. 136.6mm tall, the exact height of S3. Width is 69.8mm and density measures at 7.9mm, they are smaller than its older sibling, 0.8mm narrower and 0.7mm thinner.
2. Weights at 4.6 ounces (130 grams), three grams (0.11 ounce) lighter than S3. A featherweight champion.
3. Plastic makes it light. It weights only at 4.59-ounce. For a comparison, HTC One is 5.04-ounce.
4. How weight matters? Its 130g, HTC One is 144g and Xperia Z weights at 145g. Though not a big difference, it will be felt when you watch videos for lengthy sessions or surf for hours.
5. Even how slim flat or light it is, it sports, a higher capacity battery.
6. Its smaller, lighter and thinner than the previous but the screen is bigger.
7. Where it stands against the iPhone 5? 30% larger and 17% heavier.
8. Samsung chose plastic, production cost was cut and doing good at Mass Production. The consumer benefits. It will ultimately felt by the pocket.
9. The back cover lies flat on the faux-chrome edge, less curves.
10. The Back panel, "Bends it like Becham", easy to peel it off.
11. Removable backside, you can hook a flipcover or Sview cover, more importantly, replace the battery.
12. Aluminium cases (found in the likes of HTC One, iPhone 5 etc) can be easily dented and prone to scratches. Thats not the case with Polycarbonate.
13. Polycarbonate (or plastic unibody or whatever), unlike metal bodies, absorbes shock waves. Good for interior components.
14. Its not mere plastic, but polycarbonate. Its lightweight and durable. The case wont break or crack when you drop it.
15. Wireless charging, coming soon. The company is reportedly planning to sell an optional back cover with this capability built-in.
16. Verizon's version of the GS4 will be launched with the Wireless Charging option.
The Bezel
17. The Bezel is "0". Just non existant. Instead, you get more screen and it almost fills the front.
18. Less bezel but device's size remains the same. and makes the S4 is no bigger than the S3. Interestingly, it adds extra 0.2-inches to the screen.
Look and Feel
19. It doesn't look premium and besides all this cheap plastic, not premium look sighs, it feels comfortable to handle than the HTC One.
20. Bigger and manageable.
21. Faux-metal trim, a pleasure to see, it adds color.
22. Look? Premium? Most premium looks will end in plastic covers.
23. Feels durable despite its cheap materials.
24. A firm trim, slips unlikely.
25. A good grip.
26. Though its glossy and somewhat slippery, you can wrap a whole hand around it.
27. Straight edges, more surface to grip.
28. Its slippery (in certain instances) but wont too easily slip through your hands.
Controls, Buttons and Ports
29. While Nexus phones are moving away from physical buttons for navigation, Samsung has opted to include three. There are capacitive buttons for Menu and Back, and a physical, clickable button for Home.
30. The power button is conveniently mounted at the top right. In whichever way the phone is held, its an easy reach.
31. The controls (capacitive Menu, Back buttons and physical Home key) are vested with another executable. With a long press, the Menu key Googles Now, Home key fetches the task switcher and Back button brings the side bar for the Multi-window piece. Likewise, when the home key is clicked twice, Svoice steps in.
32. Wireless charging.
33. Home button is raised a bit. Easy to press.
34. Two plastic banks, the mono speaker wont be bared when put on a flat surface, screen up.
35. The speaker is in the rear (lower left corner). Fingers wont muffle it.
36. A physical home button, a capacitive Back and Menu keys, very handy for a phone of this size.
37. Most buttons remain in the same places. The home button is in the home. Seems reluctant to step out of the comfort zone. The power button, Volume Rocker and Headphone Socket haven't changed their positions. Apparently Democratic!
38. The microUSB port for both data connections and charging. It supports USB host and MHL 2.0 (3D 1080p TV output).
39. To do the MHL 2.0 with microUSB, earlier it was required to plug in your charger in the adapter. Now that drama is no longer required.
40. USB on the go lets the user to connect a USB dongle to Galaxy S4 and transfer files without fiddling with microSD card and peeling off the back plate of the phone. Its a very nifty a feature.
41. Sensors getting spot light this year. A bunch of sensors present. Besides more conventional Ambient light and Proximity sensors, you get a mighty IR sensor.
42. Temperature, Humidity and Gesture sensors included.
43. Besides usual Sensors, (like Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyroscope, Hygrometer, Magnetometer, Proximity sensor, RGB light sensor), Thermometer is also available.
44. Ambient light and proximity sensor collaborate with Air gestures and let the user find a whole new world.
45. The S4 came through iFixit's teardown with flying colors, receiving an 8 out of 10 repairability score for its replaceable battery and straightforward disassembly. A removable battery ups the S4's repairability factor.
Samsung Galaxy S4 Build, Hardware - Cons
1. Its still plasticky with just a little flex in its body. It's made almost entirely of plastic and just a polycarbonate strip runs along the edge of the phone.
2. The silvery band around the sides looks like metal, but its still a part of the plan, Plastic!
3. The plastic back panel is still fragile. Avoid removing it too often.
4. Polycarbonate is rigid and stable but the HTC One wins in the "Design Race". It has a more premium build quality and a look. Its an aluminium unibody.
5. Polycarbonate used doesn't impress enough and doesn't feel premium like Nokia Lumia 920's or HTC One X+'s.
6. The diamond pattern found in the front and back is an uncomfortable eyesight, specially in the Black model.
7. A tiny Bezel, fingers may accidentally slip into the screen and funny things can happen, unless irritating.
8. A fingerprints magnet.
9. Too glossy and Hyperglazed. Sweat will make it slippery.
10. Its a carier's nightmare. Slippery, slimy and smooth and glossy, simply unpleasant in your hand.
11. The checkered pattern is not for a better grip.
12. The 2,600mAh battery also acts as the NFC antenna. If you replace the battery, you loose NFC.
13. Its hard to distinguish where it differs in look from S3.
14. Two capacitive buttons and one physical button. Nexus line has done away with those. A waste of space.
15. The capacitives wont be lit up unless a touch take place. You will find it difficult to identify which side is which, Menu or Back. When you press Back mistakenly, you loose everything you have done on open apps.
16. The volume toggle is bit hard to access when held in right hand.
17. The menu key is in left and back key is in right, a total different layout from other Androids.
18. The physical button is a definite "Hit" when the surface is fiddled, swiped and when fingers reach the bottom of the screen.
19. Samsung has done away with "inspired by nature" model. the pebble look and feel will no longer be available in stores.
20. Its big, small hands should worry.
21. Consumer electronics warranty provider SquareTrade, tested S4 for Durability and concluded that the device is more fragile than its predecessor and the worse, scored weaker than Apple's iPhone 5. They considered water resistance, grip, edges and resistance to drops (the S4 faired in water resistance test and front and back panel designs test).
22. Where it failed to impress the panel? Slide, drop tests, size and grip. Anyway iPhone 5 won the test.
23. Why its breakable than the iPhone 5? The reason is simple, its large or is it just me thinking?
24. Wireless charging options currently not available.
25. Anyway, its better you buy a silicon cover to protect it.
26. Need to force the little plastic clips (back panel) to all sit firm.
27. Pressing Back button long enough, your taken into the side bar for the Multi tasking window. But to get it into work, you have to enable it. Otherwise it wont listen.
28. The HTC One feels premium (but metal phones are notorious for radio signal issues).
29. The white plastic strip between the front and back metal is poorly made and fitted.
30. You will have no idea whether the phone is upright or upside down until you hit a Menu, Home or Back button. Its ridiculous, most times you will even plug headphones into the micro USB port.
31. 16GB of internal storage, but on both versions, Exynos or Snapdragon, they only offer around 9GB of usable space (in the case of the HTC One 32GB, the smallest model, about 25GB is available right off the shelf)
32. USB on the go lets the user to connect a USB dongle to Galaxy S4 and transfer files without fiddling with microSD card and peeling off the back plate of the phone. But you need a separate cable, and they are hard to come by, finding one is hard.
33. Kind a texture present, interestingly, is actually smooth. Wont disturb fingers but its still there for no use.
Samsung Galaxy S4 Display Pros
1. Have you ever heard about a five inches screen that made headlines? With S4, you get one.
2. Its a 1920x1080 pixel, full HD, PenTile RGBG and 441.46 pixels per inch (441ppi) image density, 5-inch Super AMOLED backlit screen.
3. It's the same Super AMOLED technology used in other Galaxy smartphones, but this time it's been extended upto Full HD resolution, which is 1920 x 1080pixels.
4. The S4 features a high-definition Super AMOLED screen with a resolution of 441 pixels per inch (ppi). Apple's iPhone 5 Retina display has a resolution of 326 ppi, thus sharper than the iPhone's 326ppi and only very slightly below the HTC One's 468ppi (though at 4.7-inch that's a smaller screen on the One).
5. The most distinguishable difference between it and the S3 is, it promptly makes the Samsung Galaxy S3 look dated and dull.
6. Although not the first phone to have a 1080p display, it is Samsung's first Full HD phone.
7. High contrast ratios on offer.
8. A new type of screen. Samsung has hooked in a mode to make the colours look more natural. This method does lower the brightness a bit. The hitch is that's already lower than the HTC One, but that extra brightness isn't required due to the contrast ratio it offers. [47]
9. It's bright, but wont burn your eyes. With most modern smart phone displays, you have to take care of your eye sight. S4 is not an eye burner or an oven but a smart phone that is selling like Hot Cakes.
10. Poor performance under direct sunlight, but not so timid under indoor light sources.
11. The screen is capable of sensing touches with gloves on. Not available on majority of phones.
12. The Blues look brighter.
13. Jet Blacks!
14. More pixels mean sharper images.
15. Different colour profiles in the settings menu.
16. Color accuracy is improved compared to early Super AMOLEDs.
17. No yellow or greenish discoloration in white areas.
18. A wider screen which means a wider keyboard and more space to type on.
19. A 1080p display and a pixel density of 441 per inch, more than required to get rid of any traits of pixelation.
20. A bigger and grand gaming experience on a smart phone.
21. A mini theater for movies.
22. HD TVs have the same resolution (whopping 5-inch display with Full HD resolution, the same amount of pixels you'd have seen on a TV).
23. The screen is super-sensitive which allows it to track your finger, even when it's hovering above, but not touching it.
24. The thin screen bezel makes it look as if the screen is coming out of the edge of the phone.
25. The air gap that fils the gap between the screen and the touch digitiser is drastically tiny. It makes it feel almost as if you're touching the colourful interface rather than the glass on top of it.
26. It's crisp and sharp. Text is crisp, colors are vibrant and blacks are deep.
27. Not even a single trace of pixelisation when having a closure look on application icons or text (no pixelated edges in the margins of the icons and text). From web pages to video, looks great. Large passages in Web pages are pleasurable to read.
28. 441 pixels per inch, text she sent is crystal clear but not the hell she means.
29. The Gorilla Glass 3 resides millimeters below the edge of the screen. This makes the screen less vulnerable than the GS3 (glass sits slightly above the edge in it). This will make your screen safer when dropped.
30. The Gorilla Glass 3 is based on a new glass composition. The third gen screen coating delivers increased impact and scratch resistance. The Galaxy S4 is actually harder to scratch than its predecessor.
31. Sony Z has same size screen. However, Sony Z's home, menu, and back buttons are part of the screen. It means the screen size is less than 5" while the S4 is realistically a jumbo 5".
32. An impressive contrast and perfect viewing angles make everything on the screen eye candy, regardless of your viewing angle.
33. An advanced capacitive touchscreen powered by Synaptics, also known as ClearPad. The all brand new "Synaptics ClearPad" detects finger from just 2cm away.
34. The ultra sensitivity makes it possible to use AirView without an S Pen, touch the screen while wearing gloves. And the good news is you can manage that extra sensitivity if you've activated the "extra sensitivity mode" in the settings.
35. S Pen doesnt work on S4s. It lacks a Wacom digitizer. But C-Pens and other capacitive styluses would do the trick.
36. The 441-pixels-per-inch resolution compensates for the weaknesses of the PenTile Matrix to a certain extent.
37. Can change the brightness from the very notification bar.
38. You can let the Auto Brightness mode to optimize the brightness for you.
39. The Auto Brightness mode even lets the user to customise the auto level. Salubrious for the battery life.
40. You are well guided through your two centimeters away finger hoverings, a light flickers under your finger.
41. High-definition images are a please to see.
42. Colours are rich and bold.
43. The resolution of the S4 display is comparable to that of the iPhone 5's Retina display.
44. A bigger screen is also better for viewing charts, portfolio list, and company snapshots.
45. Dont have to worry about the tints of the previous version.
46. Samsung making over-saturated screens is a thing of the past.
47. The color saturation is way beyond the reach of any LCD on the market. It makes even the gloomiest image appear majestically vibrant. Besides, if you are not a guy of the oversaturated look of AMOLEDs, Samsung provides you an option to slow down the saturation to more down to earth levels. There's a dedicated Adobe RGB setting that gets this done. So you can relish both of the worlds.
48. The structure of the PenTile matrix has been changed too. Now green sub-pixels are twice as many as blue and red sub-pixels, and the arrangement is changed as well. Thankfully, the 441 ppi pixel density makes sure you won't be able to spot much the hated cross-hatch pattern.
49. Its whopping 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution. That's Full HD and an impressive boost from the 720p display of the Galaxy S3.
50. The touchscreen controller, a Synaptics S5000B is the chip which is responsible for the S4's super-sensitive touchscreen, which even works with gloves, is hiding behind the screen.
51. The level of color toned down from the GS3. Images match the natural color reproduction of the HTC One.
52. Screen's overall brightness and color quality is as good as on any AMOLED display, including the Galaxy Note 2.
53. It's not as high resolution as the HTC One, because it's larger with the same amount of pixels, but when viewed closely, viewer struggles to find any flaw with it.
54. Where lies the strengths of OLED? When a pixel is displaying a black image, it's completely off, thus consumes less power and looks darker. On contrary, LCD screens have a backlight to light the colours in front which means that the blacks will never be as black as found on an OLED.
55. Truly, the colours look too strong on the device thanks to the OLED technology used.
Samsung Galaxy S4 Display Cons
1. The Galaxy S4 is not the first to have a 1080p full HD display. 1920 x 1080 pixels can also be found on the Sony Xperia Z and HTC One.
2. The HTC One's 1080p SuperLCD screen is best known for its color accuracy.
3. Super AMOLED, as it destined to be, shows massively contrasted and vibrant colors. Reds and Oranges just bursts out of the screen, simply colors inaccurate.
4. The blues and greens really pop.
5. A bigger screen, you have to get used to it.
6. Pentile Matrix, greenish.
7. Pentile Matrix, annoying when reading texts.
8. Who ever you are and whichever Galaxy you came from, you have to struggle with reflections under the direct sunlight.
9. Bright colors, pitch blacks, but Galaxy S4's SuperAMOLED panel struggles in bright daylight compared to LCD and IPS screens. These issues are worsened by the phone's sub par auto-brightness mode. Besides, the new Gorilla Glass causes extra reflections.
10. When it comes to Sunlight contrast ratio, Nokia 808 PureView, Apple iPhone 5 and Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III are the real winners.
11. Whites are brighter and viewing angles are better on the One.
12. Reds are a bit too saturated. Actually, Colours are rich and bold, but little oversaturated. Its a fact that AMOLED panels, in general, are more saturated in color than LCDs.
13. Though the Galaxy S4 display isn't as bright as the iPhone 5, color accuracy seems pretty dead on arrival cause its over-saturated.
14. Though its a Full HD and an impressive boost from the 720p display of the Galaxy S3, for many tasks, you probably won't notice much of a difference.
15. The HTC One has the same resolution, but its slightly smaller screen size means its pixels are filled tighter. The One boasts 468 pixels per inch (ppi), which narrowly beats the S4's 441ppi. iPhone 5 manages 326ppi.
16. S Pen won't work on the GS4 due to the lack of Wacom digitizer.
17. Most prefer the screen on the HTC One cause it looks matte like a magazine beside being accurate in color reproduction.
18. Samsung is always troubled when it comes to screen brightness settings. S4 is no exception. The GS4 cannot set the proper brightness levels its screen should be vested with. It changes suddenly and dramatically without a prior notice. You better turn automatic brightness off.
19. AMOLEDs look best when the brightness settings are set to the highest. But at lower brightnesses, its gloomy and dull. On the other hand, higher brightness levels kill the battery levels.
20. Though Gorilla Glass 3 is durable like a King Kong, the screen protector will need a case. Keys, coins and such are the usual suspects.
21. SLCD is superior to AMOLED. If your thing is the screen, then maybe a 1080p LCD2 is the one to get.
22. A considerable amount of discolouration occurs when viewed from an angle (not an issue when viewed from the front). Its a familiar situation with most AMOLEDs.
23. Its hyper sensitivity, you can even swipe wearing gloves. But it only works with lighter gloves. It wont work with a thicker pair of gloves. So you'll have to take working gloves off.
24. Its larger than its 4.8-inch predecessor. But the 5-inch GS4 display is really narrower. Its just 69.8mm wide, S3 was 70.6mm. Thus it has got more vertical screen space and skinnier bezels.
25. Nokia has showed what a brighter AMOLED can do in direct sunlight. Even in them its not a dramatic enhancement.
26. Enabling the auto brightness setting in the screen option limits the maximum brightness to under 300 nits.
27. The brightness levels of the Samsung Galaxy S4 are about on par with the other AMOLEDs, which is not very high either.
28. Wearing gloves, AirViews, AirGestures, while you're holding your finger over the screen to scroll up and down, it might be interpreted as a press.
29. Giving commands with gloves, the feature first brought by Nokia on the Lumia 920.
30. The PenTile matrix which means there are only two coloured sub-pixels per pixel instead of three. So S4 cannot be compared to LCD-based Full HD handsets, such as the HTC One. Samsung' pixel principle is too basic, is using too many of one colour of pixel, or sub-pixel which is why Galaxy smartphones have had something of a blue or green tint, or been a little low-resolution when viewed close up.
31. In the front, the screen is surrounded by a diamond pattern. A distraction, it contrasts with the pitch black of the display.
Samsung Galaxy S4 Battery - Pros & Cons
Battery Pros
1. Battery capacity upgraded to 2,600mAh, up from 2,100mAh on the GS3.
2. A full day of moderate usage. From 8 hours to 14 or 15 hours of regular use out of the battery cells. With the screen's brightness ranging betwixt 50% and 75%, 4G switched on, and a few apps and services running in the background, you can get through a full day with moderate use.
3. Nine hours long continuous video playing at 40% to 50% brightness.
4. When the phone is not in use and is idling, it doesnt drain any considerable power.
5. Battery is removable. Can change batteries or more importantly, can pop in a more powerfull battery. On the other hand, when integrated batteries wear out and no longer holds a charge (or screen cracks, speakers fizzle out or you mess up your aux jack), you have to drop the phone. The HTC One is unrepairable.
6. 2,600mAh battery is removable. You can use a spare if you like. The spare battery will take the space of the charger. She said you dont carry both. If you actually carry one (charger), dont let her find out where you stop to refill it in the way back home.
7. If you stream HD Netflix videos constantly, mind that, it dies in about five hours during such a continuous catastrophe.
8. With Power Saving Mode, you can limit processor speed, screen power and haptic feedback.
9. You can control display brightness directly from the notification bar. Thus the main power sucker can be controlled too easily.
10. S4 will last for seven hours during a continuous surfing period which include both text and images. Droid DNA manages for five hours and HTC One dies before five-hours.
11. Does not beat the Motorola RAZR HD. But better than the Sony Xperia Z.
12. Background syncing processes wont juice down battery like crazy.
13. To do mostly text based things like checking email accounts, social networks etc, it will give you a full day. In most cases, at the end of the day, you can manage to spare even 50% of the cells.
14. You can have your lunch. Not necessary to have the lunch and plug the phone to a socket at the same time and check out for bars.
15. The stand-by has had a substantial improvement.
16. Can be preserved avoiding 4G and keeping screen brightness down.
17. 17 hours of talk time.
18. A 30 minute music playing will drop battery by about 3% (Bluetooth headphones jacked in).
19. Streaming video over 4G for 30 continuous minutes (full brightness on), will drain down about 9% of the battery cells.
20. Downloading heavy media files, app files or games (ex: 10Mb) over 4G, will cost about 4% from the cells.
21. Camera features wont suck much. Taking couple of snaps and capturing videos of few minutes, are power efficient.
22. Apt for the regular usage of a modern citizen, starting the phone at 7am, browsing the web and tweeting for a couple of hours, two hour-long vanilla satellite navigation, Samsung's "Driving mode" turned on, he will get the last few drops of power by 5pm. A full day's considerable use of browsing, gaming, email checking reserves a bit for video playback on the way back home.
23. The battery can be wirelessly charged using a Qi standard special charging pad (sold separately) that utilizes magnetic resonance to produce a magnetic field through which power can be transferred.
24. Using the Sprint Galaxy S4 in New York City on 3G and 4G, one journalist managed to get 14 hours of normal use. It involved three hours of screen-on time, browsing and social networking over 3G, 4G and Wifi, and extensive use of the camera app. Half of that time he had the S4 set to automatic brightness. The rest of the time he manually adjusted the screen to between 50 and 75 percent brightness for improved visibility. "It's particularly impressive to see this kind of battery life given the variable network conditions we were up against on our CDMA/LTE Galaxy S4," he writes.
25. Automatic brightness.
Battery Cons
1. Of all techs, Portable Power systems (I meant battery) evolve the slowest, the least. RAM or processing are progressing by leaps and bounds. Did I say something about S4?
2. A High Resolution 5- inch (full HD) display, a number of sensors, a plethora of advanced camera features, software gimmicks and powerful processor cores will drain your battery more quickly.
3. Powered by a Li-Ion 2600 mAh battery which does not seem to be enough, as the processor is whopping eight cores.
4. The screen is the biggest culprit in the battery drain. 1080p SuperAMOLED display takes the grandest labour on the Galaxy S4's battery life (besides that, you wont notice any severe [6] battery drain in any of the bundled apps).
5. A marginal improvement in continuous video playing compared to other devices.
6. Air Gesture, Air View and Smart Scroll drain battery juice heavily.
7. Low or poor signal areas also contributes tremendously towards fast battery drainage.
8. Is not even close to RAZR MAXX HD in battery performance. Does not beat the Motorola RAZR HD. Its probably better than the Sony Xperia Z, but if you are after the battery life, go for RazrMaxxHD.
9. LTE will suck more power.
10. With heavy usage, you will have to recharge it after 6 to 8 hours.
11. Worst, "Takes" time to get it fully charged. Takes couple of hours to get a full charge.
12. The 1.6GHz Exynos 5 eight-core powered version of the phone was initially expected to hit the UK. Instead the 1.9GHz quad-core option will be shipped to British shores which lacks the battery saving enhancements promised by its eight-core sibling.
13. Heavy use with full brightness on and on 4G network - the most diabolic things turned on - it eats half of the battery within 3 hours.
14. Even the phone is used lightly, it wont make it to the night. It still needs a charge in the eve. Have to charge it every night in other words.
15. If "Heavy Use" meant 10% of the battery in fiction, you could be in the safe zone for 10 hours. But the most reported time from users for heavy usage is 5 hours.
16. You can save energy through few tricks. But If you switch off all the bells and whistles and other power suckers, what is left in your hands? Its just another Android smart phone. No longer what you paid for, S4!
17. Video playback and web browsing consumption has only been improved a bit.
18. Pack Mentality: Multiple back-up batteries, you may never use them even. When the phone is hagged and out of fashion, they will be just another pile of garbage. You cannot pop in a S4 battery into S5 or S6.
19. You get insurance with other unibody phones. If your battery goes out, they'll replace it for free.
20. Batteries usually last for 2 to 3 years. Can battery removability be an issue?
21. "I've been using cell phones for about 12 years now. Never had to replace a battery. I also have about 100 gigs of free online cloud storage," one user comments.
22. The widest selection of non-touch controls. Some of them are better than others and all of them consume battery like it's going out of fashion.
23. Integrated battery last longer because it is less affected by the environment and never really discharged.
24. Integrated batteries are more likely to be recycled with the phone than just sit in a drawer somewhere.
25. iPhone 4 replacement battery is between $8 to $15. Besides, you dont have to replace something until it breaks!.
Samsung Galaxy S4 AirView & AirGesture - Pros & Cons
[] Personal Computing History rewritten, AirView and AirGestures let you input commands from the Air.
[] In assistance with capacitive sensor (AirView) and IR sensor (AirGesture), phone detects when your finger is hovering over the screen, but not touching it. Literally, it turns your finger into an S Pen. All you have to do is just wave finger above the display and a preview of extended information of selected content in a form of a pop-up will be displayed or some functions are carried out without the intervene of a touch. For an instance, hovering finger over an email or a folder in the gallery app, you can see the content inside.
[] AirView detects your fingers 1cm / 0.5" away from the display.
[] AirGestures let you change tracks, swipe photos, answer calls, switch between tabs in the browser and scroll through a web page from giving commands to the phone by sweeping your hand over the screen. It turns the S4 into a mini-Kinect and can detect your hand up to 7cm (just under 3"). Wave a finger left and right to switch between items on open apps, Up and down for scrolls.
"AirGestures" Varieties
1. With "AirJump," , by waving your hand up or down, you can do page-up and page-down scrolls.
2. AirBrowse lets you switch from one browser tab to another. Just wave your hand from side to side.
3. Relocating icons can be carried out with AirMove, such as apps and calendar appointments etc to other pages by holding them with one finger and waving your free hand left or right.
With them both you can,
Have information previews for SMS texts, calendar entry text, videos (pointing to a spot in the timeline), S Planner events, folders and speed dial contacts.
Move between tracks in the music player (the next track in the music player by hovering over the next button and the previous with previous button).
Accept a call.
Move app shortcuts.
Magnify links in web pages.
Scroll web pages in the browser (vertical waves) and switch between open tabs (horizontal waves).
AirView & AirGesture Pros
1. It was present in Galaxy Note 2 in a similar fashion, but on S4, no S Pen is needed.
2. Air view detects your fingers 1cm / 0.5" away from the display. So, no worries of your fingers accidentally tapping the screen when you intend to use Air View instead.
3. Believe it or Not, AirView will find its way into your daily life.
4. Works in Photo gallery, the dialer, Samsung's native browser, email client and Flipboard. Emails can be previewed (Emails show first lines of received messages.). and also lets you preview messages. So you can check you have the right thread rather than going in and then back again.
5. The ability to preview images from a gallery, when you have a plethora of photos in the Gallery, Air View becomes handy in navigating them all promptly.
6. The calendar pops up day's appointments.
7. In the video player, hovering over the progress bar, brings previews of the playing videos. The timeline brings up a thumbnail of that part of the video, allowing you to easily skip to the scenes you like. Most importantly, it wont disturb the main action.
8. You can see which speed dials are assigned to which number. The other way around is to press and find.
9. Effective than Smart Scroll.
10. Accurate and responsive.
11. It keeps track of swift and erratic movements and there's little lag or stuttering.
12. Nice for zooming in out of web pages. In the Browser, you are provided with a magnification window to view small text with ease. It magnifies texts in the browser.
13. Flipboard is the only third party app that supports AirView. You can open a small preview of items there.
14. In the Setting menu you can customize its performance, turn it on or off for emails, messages, video previews and web text magnifying etc.
15. Gimmicky or not, its actually usefull in the Calendar.
16. Enable the haptic feedback for AirView, it gives it a physical tangible response. It will be easier to navigate with Air View this way. A tiny laser pointer guides you on the lock screen when you are Air Viewing over it.
17. Soon it will have an SDK. Developers will be able to integrate the feature into their own apps.
18. Perfect for the busy, who make their meals on online recipes in haste, always dirt on their hands and thousand things on their minds. You can scroll the screen without touching the screen.
19. Good for regular eaters (or eating). Now dont have to feed the phone with dirty fingers or worry about "Fingers licking Good" or not before answering a call in the mid of a food session.
20. I started using it while I had something in my hand. It will find its own way to your daily life too.
21. Extremely usefull when your hands are wet.
22. Stop worrying, your Air Gesturing. 'Call accepting' is unnecessary while driving. All you have to do is wave the finger when accepting a call. I seriously wanted to write "Make sure that you are wearing a Handsfree". Nah! It goes automatuically to the speaker phone.
23. You can set a locked phone so that it recognize when you gesture toward it to pick it up. Doing that, when it's turned off, gives you a quick glance at such stuff like the time and unread e-mail count etc.
24. Can scroll through PDFs.
25. You can jump at large scales when scrolling through web pages. Read with leaps and bounds.
26. AirGestures, AirViews and SmartPauses, all in one.
27. Note that, only the native apps support them, third party apps will not work with them (even Chrome that comes preinstalled on the phone).
28. Air Gesture, debut in Note 2 with Quick Glance. A year old technology. But usability is expanded this time.
29. Hover your fingers near a contact in your address book, it reveals more details without your having to open the contact.
30. You can turn pages by waving your hand nearby.
AirView & AirGesture Cons
1. To find the most effective way to use the feature, have to spend time fiddling with it. To use Air View properly, you have to master it. Practice holding finger inches away from the screen hovering it daily, if not hourly.
2. Useless in video scrolling. There you can slide finger on the screen to do the same which is easier to perform than Airviewing.
3. Air View only works in Samsung's native apps (Flipboard is an exception).
4. Not available on Gmail and Chrome (both standard apps of Jelly Bean though).
5. The screen is bit over sensitive. While you are Air Viewing the email client, info can pop out like pasta and screen can get cluttered. If you are sane enough, you will be irritated.
6. Its fiddly and nearly useless in the Samsung browser.
7. AirGesture, you have been warned! It's pretty often inaccurate.
8. When browsing photos not with Air Gestures but with physical touches (or doing anything similar) it can still lead to unnecessary "forwards" or backwards. Your finger on air might be misinterpreted as an Air Gesture.
9. Can answer calls with a wave of your finger over the screen, but limit it only to situations such as in a car.
10. Simply unpredictable! You will be taken backwards when you intend to go forward. Resetting or retrying the process will make things worse. It's hyper sensitive.
11. Often scroll backs when you're just moving your hands around. It sometimes tempted to jump as you point something out or showing someone a photo.
12. You might end up leaving both Air View and Air Gestures on, mostly, just to show off.
13. Takes effort than it should to be.
14. Most times, touching remains as the best option.
15. Delivered in the middle of a developing process. Not plenary.
16. AirView is well integrated. Air Gestures are much more difficult to reliably activate than AirView.
17. Maybe they will ever remain gimmicks in your phone, though how much effort put into it building it at billion dollar labs of Samsung.
18. Most prominent of all cons is, "YOU CAN SIMPLY TOUCH THE PHONE!." You are paying couple of hundred bucks for waving a finger over an already touchable phone.
Samsung Galaxy S4 WatchOn Pros & Cons - RockOn or WatchOn? (or WatchOut?)
1. WatchOn, the four-in-one power house is a universal remote control for home and office appliances (from TVs, DVDs and Blu-ray players, media streaming to airconditioners), a TV guide, an entertainment and a Netflix portal. Its a nifty control system for the entire home theater system in association with a built-in infrared port.
It combines S4 with TV service providers and remotely controlls appliances. Lists Programs, channels, lets pick shows and channels simply working as a remote in the meantime. Only thing it lacks is, it doesnt have a button to controll your children. Quite similar to "Peel" but customized. It asks your zip code and piles up a number of TV service providers in your region. A large database preinstalled, thus, out of the box functions.
1. A universal TV portal. It houses descriptions of shows, popularities based on votes and their comments. You can cast your own vote and have your own saying.
2. Powered by Peel.
3. The setting up process is straightforward. You can instruct WatchON on which way you get your channels, from TV, set top box or cable. Then it inquires couple of questions and set up the controller to perform the task in the proper way.
4. Some providers let you change channels with TV remote. With some others, you have to use the set-top box remote for the same purpose. Most times, same goes for the audio output. Either have to use the TV to output the sound or an AV receiver. What a mess! Interestingly, it knows the nature of the messy home setups. The app will ask about your setup and present a unified remote control interface even if you have multiple hardware remotes to control all the devices. End of excruciating home setups.
5. Very brisk at getting the right codes for devices.
6. A new design and UI is enhanced.
7. Buy a brand new Samsung Smart TV, can wirelessly mirror from the TV to the phone (transfer live video from the TV to S4) over Wi-Fi network.
8. WatchON chooses programs for you.
9. You can see a full channel list, or a curated selection of TV shows and movies.
10. A very nifty "Peel" based search and recommendations for your cable box, Netflix, Blockbuster, and some other players in the industry. Not only Google is having an Algorhythm, it calculates your up votes and down votes you cast at shows and provides a personalized guide for shows based on your preferences. Great recommendations come from WatchOn or Netflix.
11. Convenient. Changing the channel is a breez of ease.
12. Bear the traits of Peel-based apps. The experience can be familiar.
13. Setting up can take some sweat. Errors may occure. Mostly, since it tunes itself to your TV set, cable box and sound system. But from then onwards, its cheese.
14. Categories.
15. Categorized by show titles, not by channels.
16. Can set favorites.
17. Can set reminders for upcoming favourites. It will remind you when show is "Now Showing."
18. You can also set reminders for shows you want to watch.
19. It has got a plethora of content than HTC One, specially the Video Hub implanting itself with its own zone inside the app.
1. Soon the remote controll world will be smart phone driven. The OEMs will deliver deep integrations to smart phone universal remote controll systems like WatchOn.
2. Devices are organized by rooms. Users can configure different rooms of their home or office with different device types allowing you to take the phone with you and still have it as a remote.
3. The remote control functionality is not demarcated to Samsung products. Recognizes products from other brands. Thus, eliminates the biggest barrier to most universal remote controls.
4. Functional and easy to set up. Can be connected to multiple entertainment systems without hassle or dazzle.
5. Get rid of messes of remotes.
6. A lock screen widget for the remote control potion of WatchOn. Can change a channel or turn the volume up or down from the lockscreen.
7. The remote control gets in in the notifications menu or on lockscreen as a widget. HTC One lacks this feature. The only phone that carry this besides S4 is Optimus G Pro.
1. The app is hard to navigate. It's good but not the best.
2. It wont connect to some Media boxes including those made by Samsung.
3. If you are trying it for the first time, mind that, it wont work properly. Give it a second try.
4. A too simple interface. Lacks more complex buttons or functions and only fewer buttons present.
5. The remote (of Galaxy S4) cannot compete with Logitech Harmony Touch.
6. WatchOn wont work with the Note 8.
7. Netflix portal wholly available. Just one hitch, those features's functionality depends on cable provider and equipment you use.
8. To get the best, out of Netelix features, you have to have a Google TV.
9. Peel dependant smart remote and listing apps debut on the HTC One and Galaxy Note 8.0. Thus, its not new.
10. At the initial steps of the setting up process, app tunes itself to your TV, cable box and sound system. So process undergoes trial and error.
11. Even when tested with a Samsung TV, TV's inputs get mixed up.
12. Can't stream content you buy, wirelessly. Only possible way is, to a TV with a wired connection. Screen mirroring should be enabled.
13. HTC One wins in setting up process. Its mightier. Though S4 runs the process smooth, not all the functions are functional at the end of the day. You have to reset the codes.
Samsung Galaxy S4 Hub - Pros & Cons
1. Samsung's online media content empire, TheHub lets you buy (and in some instances sample) Books, games, music, digital magazines and online newspapers etc.
2. Samsung has integrated all hubs (Hubs like Music, Game and Book which previously existed in different locations) into one mighty warrior Hub. What triggers your mind? Sorrow, passion, cheating, beating and lying all built into one entity? You can even replace your own Hubby with it.
3. Free music samples. You can see a preview of a song which lasts for 30 seconds, before buying any solo titles. A relief when you buy boring "White" labels from YankeeYork. Do they still produce music?
4. You can buy individual tracks or whole albums.
5. Vested with a "Windows Mobile Tile" like image centered interface. Its the only piece that differs from the rest of the UI.
6. You can buy or pre taste Premium games. It lets you try the games before buying them.
7. Social games present.
8. Some Gameloft and EA titles are exclusively available which are not available on the Google Play Store otherwise.
9. WatchON app is built right into the Hub. Nice and Wonderful.
10. Swipes present, which will let you get through a hell lot of content in no time.
11. The home screen (of the Hub) suggests media for you. After all, you are a buyer, right?
12. MusicHub is utilized with search, charts and lists of new releases.
13. Some premium and exclusive apps available.
14. Buy one and take one home free.
With the advent of the Hub, you get under two roofs when it comes to buying entertainment, in a more clear sense, you get two official app stores, two video stores and two music stores. Here comes the "Hubs" and Google Play is staring at the corner.
15. Hub is totally redesigned, an impressive work and a look.
16. Prices seem not right.
17. You can access content you buy on Hub from other Samsung's devices like TVs, tablets or phones.
18. A considerably large library of music, TV and movies.
19. Hub is integrated. Now you can sign in with one ID and pay with a single payment system for media and content.
20. Unlike other regions, U.S. gets a special kind of favour. They get the largest selection of content.
21. Samsung is an Innovator . You may see other integrations it will do in the future (in the days to come which will roll in as upgrades maybe) to the Hub in accordance with other products they build in home labs like TVs and Blu-ray players etc.
1. The Hubs are comparatively less populated than other Dictators like itunes, mighty Google Play, Amazon and Nook (specially when eBooks on Amazon and Nook are taken into consideration). But surely more titles will catch on like fire in the following months.
2. After Smartphones, comes the Restrictions!
If you want to watch bought movies on other big screens, a HomeSync device is required (connected via an HDMI cable with HDCP). Neither you can use AnyCast to port movies into Samsung TVs nor stream video connecting to a TV using AllShare. Its a pity. You buy the ticket but you cannot enter the theatre. But "HTC Watch" is an exception here. It lets you do that even for cheaper prices.
3. For its hefty high price tags and restrictions, its not the best place yet for buying Entertainment.
4. Samsung currently - I think due to wide usage - is having licensing issues with major movie studios.
5. Netflix in the VideoHub for streaming? Nah!
6. eBooks are more expensive on the Hub than Amazon (and maybe anywhere else).
7. "Sociability" is absolutely gone in the Hub. You have to find a way around to socialize the Hub. A pros or con?
8. Pretty old stuff are often categorized as "new releases" in some Hub home pages.
9. The games dept caters you with only few noteworthy titles. Titles are nearly sparse.
10. Availability of Movie, TV and music content is country dependant.
Camera - The Introduction
The Press
"The snaps it takes are hardly ground-breaking" - Cnet
"All these modes sound fun, but is the Samsung Galaxy S4 camera good? The short answer is, Yes!" - GSMArena
"It struggles to stay focussed and the results often lack details" - Cnet
Camera Basics
A 2-megapixel BSI camera on the front for photography (and video calls) and a status LED (up from the 1.9-megapixel one found on the S3).
A 13-megapixel back camera (up from the 8-megapixel found on the Galaxy S3) with f/2.2 aperture and BSI (backside illumination) tech.
The 13MP camera captures photos of up to 4,128x3,096 pixels.
The Rear Camera Lens uses an f/2.2 aperture, 4.235mm focal length and a 69-degree angular field of view; the 1/3.06-inch sensor offers a pixel size of 1.12 microns (compared to 2.0 microns on the One).
Its 13MP resolution is set at an aspect ratio of 4:3, so 16:9 fans will need to go down to 9.6 megapixels for a widescreen option.
The S4's focal length mode seens way far 'zoomed in' than the others. Its annoying when you want to capture a wide scene.
Zoom function is useless. Zoomed in to 100 per cent and images crappy. It kills detail and leaves spots.
One of the most exciting features of the Galaxy S4 is, its new camera sensor that's back-illuminated. It does capture more light which means, you can take photos that are brighter and well detailed even without a flash. It plays a role when it comes to better low-light sensitivity.
13 megapixels rear camera, video mode will record videos in 1,080p Full HD resolution at 30 frames-per-second and it comes with an integrated flash.
2-megapixel front cam, 1080p HD Video Recording @ 30fps.
It shoots 1080p Full HD video from both its rear and forward cameras (but it lacks the optical image stabilization).
Back-illuminated sensor.
New Dual Shot mode lets you use both cameras simultaneously. Dual Shot lets you take a photo or shoot a video with both cameras. Front camera view appears as a small 'in-picture' thumbnail.
Video capturing at a maximum resolution of 1080p at 30 fps, and offers a bit rate of 17Mbps.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 stores videos in MP4 files with 17Mbps bitrate on average.
Stereo audio is recorded at 128Kbps bitrate and 48kHz sampling rate.
The videography doesn't come with many shooting modes like the still camera does, but dual shot is available and you can do slow-motion and time lapse videos too.
Fast-motion available in 2x, 4x and 8x range and Slow-motion (1/2, 1/4 and 1/8) for video capturing.
Slow-motion videos can go up to 8x slow down, but resolution drops to 800 x 450 and framerate to 15fps.
Time lapse videos can speed things up to 8x, with resolution and framerate remaining at 1080p @ 30fps (time lapse actually requires less processing power than regular video capture).
Touch focus is available before and during video recording and you can switch back to continuous autofocus if you prefer.
You can capture 9.6MP (16:9) photos during recording as well.
Videos have a good of fine detail and little noise. Colors and white balance are similar to those in still images, overall accurate but slightly oversaturated and with a passionate white balance.
Narrow field of view, narrower than that of the Galaxy S III and the HTC One.
The video quality is not much better than that of the Galaxy SIII.
Video recording is slightly worse than on the Galaxy S III, FOV in video is pretty narrow.
Shared camera interface makes framing tricky.
In video capturing, the mic records audio flawless. It filters wind and noise effectively.
Quality is exquisite but there isn't quite as much details as video on the HTC One.
Lacks optical image stabilization, but the camera isn't sensitive to motion.
When the Digital Video Stabilization turned on, vids are more detailed and contrast improves. Thus stabilization not matter a lot.
Its recommended to keep video stabilization on, only if you are not bothered by the field of view. In Video Stabilization, it gets even narrower.
Dynamic colour management.
Slightly sharper 1080p video.
Improved dynamic range (noticeable in daylight footage).
Camera Modes and Features
Modes and features at a glance (there are 13 camera modes)
Rich Tone
(HDR or High Dynamic Range)
Drama Shot
Drama Shot Pros
Shoots several shots in succession, of a moving object and stitches them all together but keeps an unchanging, still background. It lets you capture hundreds of frames and outputs a photo of continuous action.
Drama Shot Cons
The HTC One houses a similar feature.
Results might not come as expected. Can be disappointing.
If the subject that matter, is not moving in required speed or moving too fast, it shows error messages.
Have trouble fully focusing on moving targets.
Often times, images are blurred or dots can be seen across the images.
Moving object is frequently duplicated.
The resolution for this mode drops to 1080p.
Have to stand still and have nothing moving in the background to take the best results.
Sound & Shot or Sight and Sound
Sound & Shot Pros
It takes pictures and records concurring audio (nine seconds). The recording is played every time you view the image.
The sound quality is bold, sharp, clear and vivid.
Sound & Shot Cons
Its not applicable to Dual Shot. What a miss!
Can only be shared with other S4s. Can only be viewed on another Galaxy S4.
Sharing is problamatic. S4 sends the image (JPEG), and the sound remains on the phone.
Samsung isn't using the standard Audio note feature of JPEG photos.
Usefull? You can simply record a flawless video that can be easily shared.
Eraser or Photobomb mode
It captures five successive photos in quick succession and highlights any unwanted moving objects, if someone walks into the shot unwillingly, the phone will recognise the intruder and give you the option to remove it. Detects what changes between each frame and allows you to erase moving objects or literally, remove unwanted 'photobombers'.
Pictures wont be tarnished again.
Works really well.
Very quick.
The five photos taking is rapid, but the camera takes ample time to capture enough details to edit.
The final output quality is satisfactory.
It doesnt work in the standard camera mode, you have to activate it manually.
It doesn't always pick up every moving object.
Night Mode.
Best Photo.
Takes eight instant sequential shots and allows you to pick the best.
Best Face.
The Best Face mode captures five portrait shots of a group, then lets you pick up the individual faces from all images to merge together in the way they fit the best in the image. You can tweak each face in the photo individually.
Looks seamless.
Introduced its "Best Face" and " Best Photo" features with the Galaxy Note II. So its not totally new.
Beauty Face.
Enhances the facial features in a portrait shot.
It's difficult to observe difference that it makes.
Panoramas Pros
Panoramas take 360z photos.
When the phone is vertically held, the resolution doubles.
Produces panoramas of 50 megapixels or more. Fine details.
Panorama mode enhanced.
If you hold it smooth, the Galaxy S4 can produce panoramas of 50 megapixels or more. It does that magic without loosing too much of image quality.
On the S3, they are choked out to 1.8 mega pixels.
The stitching is subpar.
Sports modes
Dual Shot
(Dual Shot / Dual Recording / Dual Video Call dual pitures)
Dual Shot Pros
A small square image of your face is embedded onto the picture taken by the rear camera.
The tiny frame is taken from the front camera. But you can switch views, front to back and back to front.
This works in photo and video mode too. Simply Delicious.! Can take pictures and record videos with both, the front and rear cameras simultaneously.
Frames are resizable.
The tiny overlapping front frame can be moved to any part of the viewfinder.
The front image can be customized. It can be assigned with a form of a box, heart, stamp or a floating cloud. A set of presets.
Dual Cam mode supports video calls. It means, Dual video conferencing with both front and rear camera. This becomes very usefull when having Skype calls with several people in the same room.
Cinema Photo
Animated Stills - Pros and Cons
Cinemagram built into the Cam app. Similar to Cinemagram app of iPhone or the Cinemagraph feature of Nokia's Lumias.
It takes a tiny five second video clip and lets you choose which parts of it should animate as a still. You can change the direction, go back and forth, edit the length of the animation and export the resulting file as a GIF.
Cant share easily. Cannot share on social networks. Images are too big for Twitter, and Facebook doesn't support that kind of gifs.
You can view them only on another S4.
Have to hold phone stable. Otherwise results will be poor. Not for shaky hands. Photos can be better with a tripod
Lacks artistic values. It quite often produces crappy gifs.
Cannot edit them later.
Other Features
Touch to focus
Digital image stabilization.
Face detection
Smile detection
Exposure compensation
White balance presets
Digital zoom
Geo tagging
Self- timer
Voice activation
Story of the Story Album
GS4 comes with a new app called Story Album. In it, Photos can be organized into "Story Albums." Sorting out can be carried out based on location, people or date and time. Then you can use your phone to order a physical, professional-style version of that collection, in printed format as a photo book. Its an outcome of a partnership between Samsung and self-publishing outfit Blurb.
Layout designs, hardcover, softcover or magazine format, five layout designs
Can add your own captions.
Blurb claims that photo books will be offered in up to 75 countries.
Pricing varies. in the US, you will be charged a minimum of $9 for a 20-page 5x5- inch book.
The feature is not excellent.
The setting up process of the app is little bit onerous.
Albums resemble poorly formatted, JPEGs embedded PDFs.
Images often stretched.
Panoramas are horrendously pixelated.
Not a grand way to share photos.
The HTC One, with its video-centric Zoe Share feature, do things majesticaly.
Despite tagging right faces in pictures, the wrong faces are focused.
The themes are of poor quality.
The speed of rendering is pathetic for such a monster device.
Samsung has to further develop it.
Beaten to dust by HTC One Zoe.
The setup process is old fashioned.
Samsung Galaxy S4 Camera - Pros
1. The second generation of resolution, SII and S III, both were 8MP siblings.
2. Camera app opens up briskly.
3. The interface is improved. No longer hard to use.
4. It's simple and fast.
5. The most widest feature set of a smartphone camera so far.
6. Names photos in accordance with the geo location, provided GPS enabled.
7. Viewfinder handles both still and video capturing. Switching modes is unnecessary.
8. While capturing videos, you can snap a still at the same time.
9. HDR mode has been enhanced and baptized as "Rich Tone HDR". Promises much improved HDR performance.
10. Can set the HDR mode (Rich Tone) to save a normal and an HDR photo or just the HDR version.
11. Keeps details of shadows, thus much needed details are lost. You can use the HDR mode to rectify it.
12. Panorama mode has been re-enforced. It produces 50 megapixel panos and interestingly, it doesnt loose the image quality for the sake of it.
13. Though the lock screen lacks a camera icon, you can add this via the settings menu. (No camera icon on the lock screen so that you can shot an instant snap).
14. Has thirteen different camera options (modes).
15. Panorama is an easy access.
16. Purple flaring is gone.
17. Though HTC One has stolen low-light performance throne, the superior dynamic range and detailed daylight shots enthrone it as "the all-round performer".
18. Can enable Night Mode automatically.
19. Direct gallery access from the Cam app.
20. It lacks a dedicated camera key, but you can use the volume rocker for that purpose though it wont quite match a two phase shutterkey.
21. Mastering Night Mode: If you can hold the phone steady, you can get the most from nightmode. It dispells most of its dirt this way.
22. 13MP is just a number until you capture stills and see how much details it can capture. The added muscles are for in depth details.
23. Auto mode is considerably considerable. It lets the user to capture grand photos regardless of the framing, which means the S4 can handle both, take a picture of a landscape one minute and then take a close up in the next minute efficiently.
24. One has an amazing LED flash, but GS4's is brighter.
25. Cinemagraph is an ease to use. Its simpler than HTC Zoe.
26. In Drama Mode (however it is called in HTC) S4 takes brighter, bolder, clearer and quality images than HTC. The HTC One's images are dull.
27. Dual mode, video or stills, it takes them all. It lets you take stills from the front cam and back and same goes for videos. Comes in handy for video marketers.
28. Old flames like the Autumn colors, Backlight, Candlelight, Sunset and some other modes are now fully integrated into the Automode. Now you can select the best scene based on each vibe of the situation.
29. Galaxy S3 had dedicated macro shooting mode. But S4 lacks it. But it does not fail capturing macro shots thanks to its mega megapixel count.
30. The settings can be found in two places. The Mode button being the first (located under the shutter keys) brings up a carousel with an array of shooting modes. The other is the arrow at the bottom of the screen which fetches color effects.
31. In the carousel, each mode is assigned with a descriptive image and text.
32. The carousal also accomodates a grid. It doesnt have the descriptive text and image. So its faster than the previous.
33. A lot of frames for your face in the Dual shot.
34. "360photo" is similar in function to PhotoSphere.
35. Can set the volume rocker to act as a still shutter key, a video shutter key or a zoom lever (within a camera app).
36. Can automatically tag friends in pictures, and instantly share photos with the people in them.
37. "Stabilization", trims off the outer edges of the viewfinder. Even with shaky hands, you can grab candy snaps.
38. Settings under the hood, Setting now can be easily located.
39. Picks up close-ups in Auto mode easily, a plethora of fine details in the resulting JPEGs.
40. Dynamic range is considerably better. Photos aren't as oversharpened as the One. S4 wins again.
41 AF, ISO and white-balance settings are quick toggles.
42. Shutter lag is minimal.
43. Colors are accurate.
44. Flash on, results in better pictures than HTC One.
45. Dual shutter buttons, one does the stills and the other captures videos.
46. Video calling can be done with the Dual Camera mode.
47. If you are skeptical, have a look at full images, it's easy to see the advantage of more pixels. larger photo though. Its 13 megapixels result in a much more detailed image.
48. Massively improved HDR.
49. Massively improved panorama mode.
50. More cropping and more definition: The extra pixels enables you to crop into the photo without sacrifising much image quality.
51. Can zoom in further than the One and GS3.
52. A surprising amount of depth of field.
53. More information, finer details without loss in quality.
54. The user is left with few manual settings.
55. Has a more balanced composition. It doesn't intentionally over expose.
56. A Night Mode champion. Usual shits are minimal. In places where in fails due to the low light, you can increase the exposure or enable night mode.
57. You can download more color effects, a download button is built into the Camapp.
58. Can pre test filters in real-time. It comes with Live Filters. You get real-time effects and previews for photo and video before capturing them. Each color effect is empowered with a live preview so you can see what the upcoming scene will look like with it.
59. Unlike the Galaxy S3 and many other devices, there's no dedicated macro shooting mode on the Galaxy S4, but it excels at macro shots regardless, in part thanks to its sheer megapixel count.
Samsung Galaxy S4 Camera - Cons
1. Doesnt beat HTC One or Sony Xperia Z when it comes to Cam.
2. In low light, the HTC One with its UltraPixels is miles ahead of the S4.
3. HTC One has the best definition. Which means finer details.
4. New camera modes, many fall under the category "For Showing Off Purposes Only."
5. White balance is lukewarm.
6. Color reproduction is slightly oversaturated.
7. Keeps details of shadows, thus much needed details are lost.
8. Drama Shot stitches frames poorly where HTC stitches seamless, flawless.
9. Settings menu is unreachable when your in a haste to take snaps.
10. No camera icon on the lock screen.
11. Still a dedicated camera key is missing. You can use the volume rocker for snapping photos, but it can't quite match a two-stage button, a Shutterkey!.
12. Cam operates brisk. But zero shutter lag is still a promise that hasnt been kept.
13. Outputs of some camera modes (such modes as Animated photo, Sight & Sound etc) are not universal formats. Can only be shared with limited number of devices.
14. 13-megapixel images takes up to 5 megabytes a pop.
15. Nokia's approach to Cinemagrams is better implemented than the Cine Photo of S4. A way to capture moving objects is Cine Photo. It creates cinemagrams. The resulting animated GIF file, actually, Nokia's implementation is better here.
16. Your regular News Channel wont broadcast this news, but truth speaking, "Contrast" isnt impressive.
17. HTC One's colours are more accurate.
18. HTC One has Wider-angle lens, you get more of the scene in the shot.
19. SII and SIII let the user to customize all photo parameters. In S4 you are left with just ISO setting.
20. PhotoSphere that Google introduced on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean is not available.
21. A Dedicated Macro shooting mode is not available on the Galaxy S4.
22. Some scene modes are dropped, such as Autumn colors, Backlight, Candlelight and sunset etc.
23. Viewfinder handles both still and video capturing and eliminates the need to switching modes. This sucks where you're shooting full resolution 13MP photos but turn to video capturing. In that scenario you'll have to frame your videos using a 4:3 viewfinder.
24. A poor focal length, have to stand further away from the subject that matters most. Again HTC One wins here.
25. Autofocus stumbles in low light. To get a shot with proper focus, you have to snap few shots.
26. Zero shutter lag only feasible to things that are already focused. When capturing moving objects, its totally absent. Shots often come out blurry. This is not the case with One.
27. The settings menu in the Viewfinder is bit confusing. Menus bear different traits in each mode and cannot absolutely be found in some modes.
28. Night mode does miracles when its dark. The cold part with it is, you have hold the camera steady. Otherwise it will blur a thing or two.
29. Most of Samsung's new camera modes offer little to no practical use.
30. Pictures taken in lowlight are grainy. Again, details are lost.
31. The One and the Nokia Lumia 920 beat GS4 in poor lighting single handed. Night-time shots from S4 mean increased noise and reduced fine detail. They are clearly visible even when the images are reduced to one or two megapixels. The four-megapixel sensor on HTC's Ultrapixel sensor picks up more light in its standard setting than the GS4 does in dedicated. HTC's Ultrapixels have 300 per cent more capacity to absorb light. It takes a while for the camera to focus but manages it so well. Even its not required to turn the flash on it.
32. Burst mode works in haste and captures 20 completely useless shots without spending time to better focus or implement the right measures of exposure.
Samsung Galaxy S4 Browser - Pros and Cons
1. Two built in browsers, native Samsung browser and Google Chrome. Phones were known to have one native browser earlier.
2. Browser now supports gestures.
3. Browsing and downloads are fast.
4. 4G browsing.
5. Android web browser interface hardly changed.
6. A powerfull processor to handle laying out of all complex Flash or Java Script elements.
7. A large display, a candy browsing experience.
8. A sharp screen and clear texts
9. Grand colors.
10. Supports double tap.
11. Pinch zooming.
12. Two-finger tilt zoom.
13. Multiple tabs.
14. Text reflow.
15. Find on page.
16. New Air gestures lets you switch between opened tabs. Just swipe left and right. Good for comparing notes or prices in different online shopping destinations.
17. New Air gestures lets you scroll up and down. Just swipe up and down, allow users to jump through content in double-pace.
18. Air view, Smart scroll and Smart stay all compatible with the browser.
19. Air View lets the user to hover a finger over any component of loaded web page and takes the place of a mouse cursor. Nice feature for websites not yet optimized for mobiles or not responsive in other words.
20. Can manually install Flash.
21. Manually installed Flash plays FullHD (1080p) YouTube videos.
22. Manually installed Flash supports touch-optimized Flash games.
23. Incognito mode, which lets you surf in rose. It doesnt keep the tracks of history or store cookies.
24. Pinch zoom out to the maximum levels, opens the tabs view.
25. The brightness and colors settings of the browser provides four different presets to tune the screen to the users taste.
26. Navigating is quicker than HTC One.
27. A very fascinating add on, the drop down option to load a site's desktop page.
28. Automatic brightness is an option.
29. The default browser (Samsung) has been upgraded.
30. JavaScript, being Fast and Furious, beats all others.
31. The massive resolution means you can get more of webpage on the screen at once. Everything is razor sharp. The HD screen offers ultimate levels of detail. You will be blown away by the difference between this and a WVGA screen.
32. Chrome is little faster.
33. Google Chrome got cloud bookmarks. It enables to sync with a desktop browser which means you can see which tabs you've got open across both devices.
34. The tabbed view changed (Samsung browser). Now it works vertically. It's easier to switch through all opened pages now.
35. HTML performance, in Vellamo benchmark test, Galaxy Note 2 steals the throne. Even HTC One, Sony Xperia Z and HTC One X (Tegra 3) beat it. But scoring 2060, Samsung Galaxy S4 throws HTC Butterfly, Samsung Galaxy S III, LG Optimus 4X HD, LG Optimus G and Nexus 4 out of the track.
36. SunSpider Java Script performance tracker enthrones it as the King Of Scripts. Scoring 810 it beats the rest including iPhone 5, Nokia Lumia 920, Samsung Galaxy Note II, HTC One X+, LG Optimus G Pro, Motorola RAZR i XT890, HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S III, Sony Xperia Z, LG Optimus G, HTC Butterfly and Nexus 4.
Samsung Galaxy S4 Browser - Cons
1. The text is small, the screen size is less than optimal.
2. The text is small. But if you need larger fonts, there's an option to have the text fit the zoom level of your preference in the menu settings, but it's not enabled by default.
3. Air Gestures, It takes a bit to get used to, but is a nice feature once mastered.
4. Flash is not installed by default.
5. HTC One loads pages faster.
6. Text Zooming in and out is inefficient. The browser is not the best at text reflow. Zooming in on text, often results in overshoots and a bit irritating. Lacks centering.
7. Texts, sometimes zoomed in flawy.
8. Does not allow the user to spin the full text across the screen.
9. The bookmarking is little wierd. Previously it was possible to have bookmarks brought from Gmail account, but now the functionality is cut off.
10. Beaten by the auto-reflow (text) of the HTC One. It was great from the HTC Hero. But Samsung still falls behind.
11. Two browsers to do the same thing, surfing!
12. To find Google's Chrome browser, you have to dig deep within the application menus.
13. Flash, 'You don't have the correct version of Flash' errors occure though installed aside.
14. LTE tried on T-Mobile US, got 7Mbps. Its 21Mbps for an iPhone 5 on Verizon. Whome to blame? Is it T-Mobile? Verizon? S4? or iphone 5?
15. The appearance of the default browser is very blocky.
16. You cannot have favourite pages drawn in from the cloud now.
Multimedia Pros and Cons
Video (Player) Pros
1. The best video player found on smartphones.
2. Its even upgraded.
3. A five inches Full HD Super AMOLED screen streaming, who thought it would be possible in such a tiny display other than your HD TV?
4. In the video player, the last watched video is always placed on top for quick access.
5. 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions available to serve as your multimedia storage.
6. Three tabs, Personal, Download and Nearby devices.
7. Personal tab shows the videos on local storage.
8. Download tab lets you access into the Samsungs Videos store.
9. Nearby tab shows the PCs and players on local Wi-Fi network.
10. In the Grid view, the functionality of videos auto-playing as thumbnails, video thumbnails are actually playing the videos instead of being idle.
11. The SoundAlive audio-enhancing technology is present.
12. Can adjust video brightness and color tone.
13. Can enable outdoor visibility.
14. The chapter preview which captures chapters in videos. It displays a rectangular grid, with live thumbnails. Its similar to the grid view.
15. A wide range of supported multimedia extensions, the Samsung Galaxy S4 supports all sort of audio and video file types, DivX, XviD, MP4, AVI, MKV, WMA file types and Sorenson Spark and VP8 file types, the Galaxy S4 plays them all.
16. The Samsung video editor doesnt come out of the box but it can be downloaded from Samsung Apps.
17. PopUp play lets you multitask (while watching videos) moving the playing video in a small floating window.
18. Pinch zooming you can adjust the size of the video.
19. Htc One is on fire, it would heat up after 30 minutes of playing a video.
20. The Galaxy S4 supports High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) video decoding.
21. A quad-core processor, end of low-bitrate, crap quality video play backs.
22. Three crop modes to choose from for how the video fits the screen.
23. Audio codecs too played flawless, even AC3.
24. A tidy interface.
25. High-bitrate, 1080p MKV file with MP4 encoded videos, even played without a hitch.
26. Its not necessary to the subtitle file to have the same name as the video file. S4 offers a list of subtitles and let you pick. It scans for all subtitles.
27. Smart Pause.
28. A higher resolution screen, phone can be held further away from the face if you are comfortable that way.
29. Hovering finger over the timescroll, results in previews of the video in a small thumbnail.
30. A link is provided to the videos you've downloaded from Samsung's Video Hub. It becomes very handy and a time saver when you've got multiple titles in the cloud. Otherwise you will have to scramble in the main Video Hub.
Video (Player) Cons
1. Smart Pause, there's a delay.
2. When the phone is held far from face, Smart Pause struggles.
3. Clarity, doesnt beat Sony Xperia Z powered by Bravia 2 engine which cater nice scenes.
4. A grain of salt! 16GB version, have a little over 9GB of accessible storage.
Audio Pros
1. Speaker outputs bold sound.
2. During video playback, it thwarts too much distortion at higher volumes.
3. Quick access to media, home screens can be filled with music and video widgets.
4. Multimedia widgets are nifty. Easy to place.
5. The silicone tipped in-ear headphones come out of the box.
Audio Cons
1. HTC One paired with Beats audio combined by forward-facing stereo speakers, multimedia capabilities of S4 fall behind.
Network & Connectivity
Connectivity on the Samsung Galaxy S4 is well catered for, Samsung has packed every kind of sensor on earth into S4.
Connectivity List
1. Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi :802.11 a/b/g/ n/ac (2.4/5 GHz)
The Samsung Galaxy S4 supports all means of Wi-Fi connections inclusive of a/b/g/n/ac, specially new ac standard, with both 2.4GHz and 5GHz band compatibility.
The Galaxy S4 is also one of few phones that support the newer 802.11 ac Wifi standard, based on this standard, you get higher data speeds over newer wireless networks.
Can hook on to the signal even when the ongoing signal is weak, due to dual-channel bonding that stabilize the data transfer.
SGS 4 uses wifi ac vs just g/n, that will be gigantic, if you use wifi more than 4G.
No drops in connections or flagging speeds.
When downloading large files, no dropouts or speedlosses occur.
2. Wi-Fi Direct
3. Wi-Fi Hotspot
The AllShare DLNA functionality which was once a standalone application, is now fully integrated. It lets you share or access content from nearby DLNA-enabled devices directly from the My Video app and the Music Player.
5. Miracast
Miracast sucks. Too much lag and poor picture quality. Sbeam is better.
NFC or Near Field Communication, enables user to do non-touch payments (at shops that utilise specially equipped NFC cash registers) and share all type of media between back to back touched S4 and other later generation S devices.
Unlike other models which contain an NFC-A secure element, the SC-04E model is equipped with a FeliCa secure element. The NFC-A secure element on the SC-04E is provided on the SIM card.
A vast number of speakerdocks and headphones now uses NFC for easy Bluetooth pairing.
SBeam and NFC, both present. They work in collaboration to grab things from other back to back tapped phones. It uses a Wi-Fi Direct connection to make it easier to send items.
You can share with other NFC devices. But there is a hitch, the sharing is limited to what the stock Android Beam has to offer.
8. Bluetooth 4.0
Low power Bluetooth (Bluetooth 4.0), can be connected to a wide range of sensors - like trainers - and have them send back up data without taking up loads of power and sucking the battery dry.
9. Infrared
Infrared Port (Both models feature an infrared LED that can serve as a universal remote control).
(Micro-B port, USB charging)
11. USB On-The-Go 1.3
USB On-The-Go, you need an adapter for that and there isn't one included in the box.
(TV-out, via MHL A\V link)
MHL 2.0 port, its a microUSB port and works as a charger port too.
MHL 2.0 port enables video output by using a MHL-to-HDMI dongle. Plug the dongle into the phone, you are required to plug a charger into the additional microUSB port on the dongle and the Galaxy S4 screen will be mirrored on the TV screen.
The MHL 2.0 port features USB On-The-Go, plug it into the Galaxy S4 and plug a standard USB cable on the other end and you are ready to go.
An MHL-to-HDMI dongle, one isn't included in the retail box too and those can be hard to find.
Connectivity: Bands
S4 offers up to six sets of radio frequencies. The global models, the Snapdragon 600-powered I9505 and Exynos-powered I9500, offer quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, quad-band 3G, HSPA+ (850/900/1900/2100) and up to six LTE bands. The S4 GT-I9505 includes a multiband LTE transceiver.
Unlike on 3G, on 4G you can stream HD videos without hiccups.
Cons of Bands
If it has Exynos chipset, then it doesnt support 4G (and Exynos octa core has over heating issue).
How on earth you going to pick one when a device has several variants? Even the brightest telecom engineer from Samsung cannot (I assume) define network performance in this case.
What do Wifi and other connectivity means mean for the battery life?
"Its great, on average, you get around 12 to 14 hrs using wifi 90% of the day, bluetooth about 10%, GPS 5%, sync set for every 4 hrs for email, about 1hrs of web reading and 3 hrs on screen time using auto brightness," one user shares his experience.
Audio: Speakerphone calls and general audio playback
1. A clear output when attached to an active external amplifier.
2. No distortion occur when a pair of headphones plugged in.
3. Noise Reduction built in, the person on the other side is clearly audible, and they can hear you without any interference thanks to noise-cancellation.
4. Can turn noise reduction on and off and can boost the volume when needed.
5. It supports the aptX codec which improves Bluetooth-headset connectivity.
6. Phone's speaker is loud, perfect for those a little harder of hearing.
7. While the HTC One produces deeper sound, the Galaxy S4 is louder.
8. Clever volume management.
9. Supports HD voice which is carried over the 3G/4G networks, your offered the best clarity.
10. 'Adapt Sound,' it asks you to hook in a pair of headphones and listen to a range of sounds at different frequencies, thus adjusts the output to your ears.
11. You can also choose to have 'Clear Sound' or 'Soft Sound' during the calls.
12. GS4 offers loud sound from its rear facing grille. Though not very rich and is very compressed, it's loud enough.
13. To get good sound out of the S4, use a set of headphones with a built-in microphone or plug into car stereo or home stereo by USB.
14. Wolfson Micro WM5102 audio chip.
15. Not effected by Stereo crosstalk.
16. Calling quality of the SGS4 is outstanding, in speakerphone calls and general audio playback, the Galaxy S4's rear-facing speaker is reasonably loud and clear and fairs in low signal areas. Phone has no trouble delivering good quality calls.
1. Mono speaker.
2. The tiny sound that comes from the tiny speaker on the bottom back of the phone is qualifed enough to make you miss a call or text when you are few meters away from the phone. This thing is aggravated when the phone is put down screen up, especially on something softer.
3. HTC One's got dual front speakers.
4. Average volume levels when attached to an active external amplifier.
5. Small tiny speakers suck the battery fast at full volume.
6. When plug in a pair of headphones, the volume levels remain average.
7. A bit narrow earpiece range and the speaker is on its backside, audio is muffled by your hand and sound is felt generated away from your ears. Have to be careful where you position it in relation to your ear.
8. Speaker, hold it too close and too hard against your ear and callers sound muffled and heard like it comes from a distant.
9. Manipulating 'Clear Sound' or 'Soft Sound' during the calls, all you get is a slight variation in volume.
10. Making calls, the volume is loud, the external speakers used on S4 are louder than the GS3, but bit quieter than on the One and iPhone5, specially, not as loud as the One's BoomSound stereo speaker. HTC One offers front speakers, they are dual, stereo, front-facing speakers. Dual front speakers, why nobody has done that before on a smartphone?
11. There's only one place where the sound comes out from the cover. This makes it block the speaker and reduce the sound.
12. It would have been nice to have stereo speakers, because, that inferior sound doesnt do justice to that majestic display.
Texting and The keyboard
1. The keyboard which is a sliding keyboard and has enough spacing between the keys and also bears a dedicated numbers row now, is one of the best manufacturer keyboards found on smart phones.
2. The keyboard has been modified.
3. The keyboard now features the number row on the top. Layout has been retouched and it displays an aditional row above the letters for numbers so that you don't constantly have to keep pressing 'Shift' to get them up each time you need it.
4. Can use S Voice to dictate or use Google's built-in voice recognition software, if you are too lazy to type.
5. Can also use voice typing without a data network connection, if you have downloaded the required language packages.
6. SwiftKey (the popular third party keyboard app), might be an option (and certainly is) but, the native thingy takes less customisation at the start.
7. A floating keyboard that takes up less space on the screen and can be moved around. The keyboard can be detached from the bottom of the screen and use it as a floating keyboard like the Galaxy Note 2's.
8. A camera typing mode, which allows you to pick out text from printed docs in assistance of the optical character recognition. Such irrealistic text can be put into any text field.
9. Space to Type!
The keyboard, unlike the previous ones which were full of cluttered space etc, this time S4 has gone for a bigger screen and such problems are solved.
10. A Swype like option on board, Samsung's SwiftKey-based keyboard, unlike the previous ones, which were horrible in predicting in words is now inclusive of SwiftKey predictive technology built in. There's a Swipe-like mode which tracks your finger and guesses the word you're trying to type. The Keyboard uses SwiftKey prediction through the company's SDK but has its own skin.
11. The Samsung's own implementation is also accurate thanks to the larger 5-inch screen.
1. You will still miss the stock Jelly Bean's native keyboard that is shipped with the Nexus 4 or SwiftKey.
2. Samsung's SwiftKey-based keyboard isn't still capable of what the stand-alone SwiftKey app can deliver.
3. The Swipe-like mode has limited language support for now.
4. The autocorrect isn't great.
Device's Security and User's Safety
Three safety and security features, namely, Cloud Backup and Restore service, KNOX security and brand new Safety Assistance.
1. The Security feature Knox, provides two services.
Case A:
In this case, phone is split into two completely independent sides. They separate your personal information from your work data to isolate work data, so that corporates dont have too much to worry about security. The work mode can be locked down and managed solely by your company, while the personal side is totally yours to do whatever you want with it. It separates your business and personal lives on the phone or provides a business and personal side of the phone, so that you only have to carry one device.
Case B:
The other section is "Security tracking", the most cute part of the Knox security suite (similar to Find My iPhone). It lets you track a stolen phone online. Security tracking built in by partnering with Absolute, the maker of the "Computrace laptop tracking software. There is another plus side for Case B, though Apple's system is erased when a reset take place, S4's one wont. The tracking software resides right in the firmware and it can survive a full hardware reset, since Firmware Persistence technology is built into the Galaxy S4.
2. Safety Assistance
Cited as one of the cleverest features on the GS4.
When you are in an emergency and want to send a message to someone who might care, there is Safety Assistant which can be activated by holding down volume up and down for three seconds. It will prompt the phone to take a picture from both cameras and automatically send them to a pre configured contact. Once you've done this, the phone locates you via GPS, and is then able to send a alert to numbers you specify. You can also opt to send photos from the front and back cameras as MMS messages.
Can be usefull to the elderly.
The two-button pressing thing is bit fiddly.
Safety Assistance, US models won't get it.
Locating can be inaccurate.
User Interface
1. Up to seven Homescreens.
2. Home Screen panes, pinch zooming will get you to the overview mode of all homescreen panes.
3. Home panes can be easily added, removed or organized from the overview mode.
4. Home of all homes, a pane is specifically marked as "Home", which is the one you go to when you press the physical Home button.
5. Can select any home pane as the default home screen.
6. The app drawer remains the same and still bears the remnants of Nature UX.
7. You get the app shortcuts in the form of a customizable grid, alphabetized grid or a list.
8. Can hide shortcuts from the app drawer.
9. If you want to see downloaded apps only, its provided.
10. Can uninstall apps from the app drawer.
11. Can add folders to the app drawer.
12. Full fledged Multi Window feature. All you have to do is "Press and hold the back button" and a tab appears. Tapping on it lets you see a sidebar of apps that support the feature.
13. If you don't like the UI, try a different launcher. Apex and Nova are two to name.
14. Touchwiz is laggy, but Sense is a memory hog.
15. Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, lock screen widgets and "Daydreams" right out of the box.
16. Latest TouchWiz Nature UX.
17. One of the first non-Nexus devices to ship with Android 4.2.
18. Can change the colors in the stock messaging app.
19. Settings organised. The main Settings have been repacked into a tabbed menu, now they are split into "Connections," "Device," "Accounts," and "More" tabs.
20. If you are in necessity of quick toggles, there is 'Power Toggles', it has an option to be in the notification window. It's more customizable.
21. TouchWiz has managed to keep most from the S3, Smart Stay, Multi Window and S Beam are few to name.
22. Two of the most usefull features, Multi Window (the ability to split the screen between two full-screen apps) and the "Swipe Screen Shot."
23. Security, UI and performance updates in time.
24. The extra stuff, otherwise known as Bloatware, is easily ignored if you don't feel the urge to use them.
25. HTC Sense and that app drawer, they collectively make one vomit.
26. The water ripples have been replaced and now there is a lens flare effect. You can even switch back to the old one or disable it all together.
27. Can use the phone while wearing gloves.
28. Eye tracking to scroll up and down.
29. The new Peel-powered TV app and IR blaster, it becomes an interface for your light entertainment device, TV.
30. Can get rid of Blinkfeed, install a launcher from the Play store. For example, massively installed Nova launcher.
31. No matter how much negative talk is there on street on Blink feed, unlike HTC One's one, Blinkfeed is customizable.
32. HTC One's blink feed feature, sucks battery.
33. Can answer phone calls and page scroll up and down by a hand wave. 34. The lockscreen has multiple panes and each can be adorned with a widget.
35. The page just to the right of the default pane, can hold a list of your favourite apps or can act as a shortcut for the camera app.
36. The pages to the left, inclusive of many different widgets, from email, Google Now, Messaging, music player to Yahoo! Finance and News. If its not enough, you can download apps from the Play Store that populate new widgets.
UI Cons
1. Settings organized. The main Settings have been repacked into a tabbed menu, now they are split into "Connections," "Device," "Accounts," and "More" tabs which are supposed to make the navigation of menues much easier, but the tabs further obscure things. Now, you cannot quickly swipe down one list, have to tap and swipe down all four. Its not always clear where to locate certain settings, under the three main tabs or the "More" tab. This is inherent throughout the UI.
2. This time its new Sense (HTC). Sense 5 has remarkably decreased the resource hogging. Lags nearly non existant on One now. Sense was heavy, bloated and lagged, but from the recent past, Sense is retouched and now it causes less lags.
3. The difference between 4.1.2 and 4.2.2 is minimal. The biggest element in that upgrade, the PhotoSphere is not available for non Nexus devices. This wont be like upgrading from GB to ICS or ICS to JB.
4. Yes, luckily there are launchers, but they cannot cover up the ugliness of the neon green laden notification shade and the UCLA Bruins color themed messaging app. The two most used UI elements that were refered to as two of the worst visual design fails in recent mobile computing history.
5. Samsung working on a lot in the same time without working on few selected. It would have been great if Samsung did R&D on half of what they put into S4.
6. There are no app shortcuts at the bottom of the screen.
7. Most of the issues you faced with the S3, remain unaddressed, unattended. "TouchWiz is still a confusing Technicolor explosion of a UI, with little visual cohesion," one reviewer from a major reviewing site writes.
8. The little tab that gives you access to the pane of favourite apps on the left side of the default screen, there is a hitch with it. That tab does not go away unless you hold the back button down until it totally vanish (how you going to know that when Samsung aint tellin it?). You'll even accidentally click it when scrolling through email or web pages.
9. HTC One, you will miss couple of fundamental elements of a modern phone there, like blocking mode for calls and notifications and notification toggles etc.
1. Notifications, GS4 offers access to more and more settings, Samsung tweaks Android's default notification panel and adds their own settings. It opens up a sort of command center, which lets you turn off everything from Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to Smart Stay. You can quickly access Bluetooth, WiFi, NFC (Samsung seems to have pioneered the radio and connectivity toggles in the notification windowshade), Air Gesture, Voice Control, Smart Stay, Brightness Slider and number of other controls right from the panel.
2. There are now 18 toggles in the notification pull down. In fact, if you enabled all of the buttons in the Notification panel, there will be one-touch buttons for Wi-Fi, Sound, Bluetooth etc. You can have 19 options to choose from.
3. Can also customize what should appear at the top by dragging and dropping the icons.
4. If the notification shade is a menance, get a replacement messaging apps from the Play Store.
5. Sense, its notification light times out after 5 minutes, simply worthless and it is a native feature. So its not going away too soon.
1. Some complains that there are too much in Notification panel.
1. One of the best navigation systems on the market.
2. Google Maps natively supported.
3. Google Maps, a map app that keeps getting constantly upgraded.
4. A large, HD resolution display means detailed details than ever before on a non SatNav unit. With a screen as large (or larger) than most dedicated SatNav units, with excellent sunlight legibility and plenty of storage, you should think twice before spending money on a dedicated satellite navigation unit. Better buy a good app rather than a separate SatNav unit.
5. You will have no issues whatsoever using it as your primary navigation device in car.
6. Can cache map data pertain to parts of the world. In fact, the only time you need a data connection is when you initially plan the course - navigation will cache the needed maps. When abroad and lost, you wont be in necessity to use loads of data.
7. 3D maps of big cities.
8. StreetView, a 360-degree view of the surroundings.
9. Indoor maps.
10. Google Maps upgraded for Full HD phones. UI looks sharp due to vector graphics.
11. The screen, bright and crystal clear.
12. The GPS and GLONASS combination, you get one of the most accurate and quick locating, positioning facilities.
13. GLONASS, the Russian counterpart of the GPS system, you get loads of satellites, more satellites to choose from, thus a much more accurate location experience.
14. When you are selling a smartphone to a Russian, you have to offer GLONASS.
15. Its even accurate when a metre or so away from the window when inside the house.
16. Can get a lock in under a second.
17. GPS receiver gets a satellite lock in minutes with A-GPS turned off.
18. With Internet access, A-GPS can speed up satellite lock.
19. The barometer, however, can speed up GPS locks even without a data connection.
20. Voice-guided navigation.
21. Vector maps are smaller and easier on the data traffic and reroute is an option if you go off course without the need to connect to the Internet.
22. When the digital compass is turned on, it becomes a virtual tour of the place.
23. If Google Maps Navigation doesn't fit for you, there are both free and paid Map apps in the Play Store.
Gaming Aspect
[] Gaming on the Samsung Galaxy S4 is handled by the Adreno 320 GPU.
[] AnTuTu's 3D benchmark places it ahead of any other Android phone.
[] Out of the six benchmarks, the GS4 set records in five.
GPU benchmarks
About Framerate
[] GLBenchmark 2.7 (in 1080p off-screen mode), Galaxy S4 S600 beats HTC One (S4 Octa being the fastest in generating frames).
[] In GLBenchmark 2.5 (1080p off-screen mode) Samsung Galaxy S4 scores 40 and outwits HTC One, Sony Xperia Z, LG Optimus G, HTC Butterfly, iPhone 5, Nexus 4, Note II, S III, HTC One X+ and HTC One X.
[] GLBenchmark Egypt 2.5 HD Offscreen, S4 scores 39, S3 scores 34, and HTC One scores 15.
3D Imaging
[] In the Epic Citadel test which uses Unreal Engine, which is sometimes used in high-end 3D mobile games and shows real-world performance, Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa) tops, generating a couple of frames ahead of S600.
[] In Epic Citadel benchmark test, it outperforms everything else scoring 57.1. The rest, including HTC One, Sony Xperia Z, LG Optimus G Pro, Nexus 4, LG Optimus G and Samsung Galaxy S III, kiss the dust.
[] 3DMark benchmark, scores 11,169 on the Ice Storm test and 6,873 on the Ice Storm Extreme test. The HTC One scores 11,140 and 6,609 respectively.
[] AnTuTu and Quadrant place the Samsung Galaxy S4 above all (Octa version again being slightly faster). The HTC One and the LG Optimus G Pro, both fail to impress.
[] S4 tops in AnTuTu scoring 24716 and punches out HTC One, Sony Xperia Z, LG Optimus G Pro, HTC Butterfly and its older sibling Samsung Galaxy S III.
Samsung Galaxy S4 I9505 Snapdragon 600 vs Samsung Galaxy S4 I9500 Exynos 5 Octa from a benchmark angle
[] GLBenchmark 2.7 Egypt (1080p off-screen) (GPU benchmarks)
(The Higher the better kind)
Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa) scores 43
Samsung Galaxy S4 I9505 (Snapdragon 600) scores 41
[] Epic Citadel (GPU benchmarks)
(Higher the better)
Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa) 59.8
Samsung Galaxy S4 I9505 (Snapdragon 600) 57.1
[] AnTuTu
(Higher is better)
Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa) 26275
Samsung Galaxy S4 I9505 (Snapdragon 600) 24716
Based on Snapdragon 600 chipset, No Exynos 5 Octa
[] GPU Benchmarks
[] In GLBenchmark 2.5 (1080p off-screen mode) Samsung Galaxy S4 scores 40 and outwits HTC One, Sony Xperia Z, LG Optimus G, HTC Butterfly, iPhone 5, Nexus 4, Note II, S III, HTC One X+ and HTC One X.
[] In Epic Citadel benchmark test, it outperforms everything else scoring 57.1. The rest, including HTC One, Sony Xperia Z, LG Optimus G Pro, Nexus 4, LG Optimus G and Samsung Galaxy S III, kiss the dust.
[] S4 tops in AnTuTu scoring 24716 and HTC One, Sony Xperia Z, LG Optimus G Pro, HTC Butterfly and its older sibling Samsung Galaxy S III.
Gaming Pros
1. Raging Thunder 2 and its details rendered flawless. From Super Hexagon, Need for Speed to Hot Pursuit, Grand Theft Auto, Need for Speed, Riptide, Asphalt 7 to NOVA 3, Galaxy S4 has no problem in handling them.
2. It heats up while playing heavy games. GangstarVegas, ModernCombat 4 are few to name. But after the upgrade, it is considerably reduced.
3. Impressively, gaming wont suck much battery juice.
4. A wireless gamepad where you insert your S4 and it becomes a full-fledged portable gaming machine.
5. Now can store apps in SD card. Use a 64GB class 10 Ultra SD card. If it fails, "Gl to Sd" can store gamedata and appdata on the external SD card.
6. It's not a console but a close bet.
1. It heats up quite a bit around the camera while playing heavy games, GangstarVegas, ModernCombat4, Batman, and Nova3 are few to name.
2. Games can be moved to SDcard, but not the 1 GB+ HD variety. You are left with about 9GB (16GB version) of internal memory for that kind of ventures.
3. Its a winner when its processing prowess is concerned, but it doesn't always behave as quick as it should, when it comes to gaming.
4. Android doesn't have a lot of stand out games in the Play Store at the moment.
5. After the latest update, can move apps to sd card, but the additonal data for games like Asphalt 7 and Real Racing3 are taking up device storage instead of microSD. It results in insufficient storage error on new app installations.
Something About the Memory Card
[] A common reason for heating and lag is cheap microSD cards. When memory cards have minimal writting/reading speeds, CPU spends more time in copying/reading the files. Thus, more heat generated and lags occur. Never store app data on Class 4 or 6 microSD cards. Use only class 10 SD cards. An ultra one is preferable.
Whats up in the CLASS?
[] A CLASS 2 memory card guarantees a minimum writing speed of 2MB a second or higher while a CLASS 4 one writes in a minimum writing speed of 4MBs a second or higher.
[] CLASS 6 has a minimum writing speed of 6 MBs a second or higher and CLASS 10 manages a guaranteed minimum writing speed of 10MB or higher.
[] Again, the minimum speed capability depends on the OEM of the host device and model.
Out of the Box and Accessories
Out of the Box
1. Eco friendly retail box, Samsung's newest retail packaging is made entirely of recycled paper and interestingly, printed with soy-ink. Thus, 100% recyclable.
2. A new pair of headphones, a pair of redesigned earphones, a huge leap over the ones bundled with the Galaxy S III. The new earphones are dubbed HS330 and feature dual-speakers (8mm tweeter and 10mm woofer) for improved performance with both high and low frequency sounds. They offer better bass than any pair of headphones comes with any smartphone retail package.
3. Size of the ear tips, they are more comfortable than ever. You get two other size options for the ear tips supplied in the box.
4. A tangle-free flat cable is supplied with the headphones.
5. The A/C adapter that you need to use with the supplied microUSB cable boxed.
6. All accessories are painted white, they are cohesive in color than ever.
7. The remote control has also been improved, and now offers larger buttons (by about a third over the Galaxy S III EHS64 headset), despite being 17% smaller itself.
1. An HDMI port to throw your movies directly to an HD TV, not boxed.
2. Though it's Qi wireless charging capable, the wireless charging pad not included in the box. You have to buy it separately.
3. The headphones, won't fully replace any high-end aftermarket earphones.
1. Starting from health accessories which monitor your activities, weight and heart rate, to a gamepad that you can hook the phone into and a wireless charging dock which lets you charge the phone by putting on a charging pad, Samsung S4 is equipped with a wide range of, a large selection of accessories.
2. There are again Plastic cases and flip cases.
3. Brand new "SView case". The back cover of the phone can be replaced with it and it has a protective front cover attached to protect the screen.
4. Brand new "S View case", the newest flip cover, the latest Samsung flip case has a magnet in the cover which can switch the screen on and off. The window on the top lets the user view things and answer calls using touch input without opening the whole thing.
Samsung Galaxy S4 Pros and Cons: The Quick Read on Cons
None of the following facts are included in or taken from other chapters and this is not a summary of other chapters either. This is a very seperate read.
1. What about HTC one? Its display is sharper, it produces natural colours and its brighter.
2. Lags in Contacts and Dialer apps, S4 still takes a second to open the contacts and logs even after a number of updates. Even premium apps from Playstore are dependant on stock dialer and contacts app.
3. The speaker is very loud and sounds great, but lacks bass.
4. Call log is a pain. You cannot view a pure call log there like incoming, outgoing, missed calls etc. You have to view message log along with it. Even if you mark only call view in log view settings, log quickly changes to its default. After sending a message, it compels you to view all messages which you sent or received within the Call log.
5. Sub standard material body. Many users complain its not worth what you pay for.
6. Its not Sony, the display might be disappointing.
7. Heats up a bit while charging.
8. The camera has a 1 sec lag at start up.
9. After every reboot, you get about 1.3 to 1.4GB free RAM. 2GB RAM only available in paper.
10. Users are jiggerd to find a mysterious function that when they take their eyes away from a plying video, it pauses for no any apparent reason. Reportedly, they are literate, but not techliterate.
11. Hangs.
12. No sign whatsoever of an imminent camera app update.
13. Photo capture, motion blurs with fast motion.
14. Note1 beats GS4 hands down with crisp stereo effects and clarity.
15. Metal phones dont have good reception? What about Nokia E-Series then? N8, another metalic, has one of the best receptions a phone can offer. Its storied that even in the elevators, it gets full signal. Samsung mysteriously avoids metal for there bodies.
16. Its plastic rear is flimsy.
17. Camera is slow in functions.
18. Camera can be slow to respond when changing modes.
19. Though megarpixel count is enhanced than the 8-megapixel S3, both use the same size of sensor.
20. Low-light performance is disappointing.
21. Highest brightness level (display) isn't that great and colours are oversaturated.
22. Some ISPs charge for tethering.
23. The screen goes blue-ish when the phone is tilted, colours look oversaturated unless you change the colour settings.
24. Closing every battery draining gimmicks, cleaning RAM and cash and keeping brightness at 10-20%, still battery sucks.
25. No FM radio.
26. The S4 customer care online portal, in the interface to send a query directly, cannot select model number from the drop down menu. Hillariously enough, S4 isn't listed yet.
27. Updates solve problems and give life to new issues that never existed.
28. Third party, Non-OEM batteries are notorious for causing reception issues.
29. By default, the Home button is destined to bring the Svoice when tapped twice. You press Home button once to access home, but it is irresponsive and waits for the second press. You press it twice and as destined, it brings SVoice. Now convey your Grieve. (Can open S Voice and turn off the "Open via the home key" option anyway).
30. Air Gesture works only on phone web browser. It doesnt work on other web browsers.
31. Need to recharge it twice a day.
32. It sliped. It getting a big crack on the upper side is another story.
33. Notification light is hardly visible on the white version.
34. Does get hot at the front screen and back cover while talking on it, not very pleasent for ears.
35. Safari browser of iOS 7 beta 2, beats the native browser.
36. Try Facebook on an iphone and on S4, there is a difference.
37. Airview is not working properly.
38. Samsung is selling a 16GB version is misnews. They are selling only a 9GB (internal memory) version.
39. The screen is very dim compared to S3 and Note.
40. 3rd party launchers reportedly cause troubles.
41. Transferring pictures from computer to Kodak Easy Share program, it might not recognise S4. You have to transfer the pictures to a folder and then transfer them to the Kodak program.
42. The AccuWeather, the weather widget doesn't seem to update itself on preset intervals which was also an issue on S3. Seems legend continues.
43. Nova may clear your folder setup, be careful.
44. Playing 1080ps is not smooth in most formats like mkv, mov ect.
45. People having hard times connecting to Wi-fi. Wi-Fi connection is horrendous if you use a D-Link router. Troublesome routers identified as the D-Link DIR-655 and DIR-855.
46. The auto-brightness feature for the screen sucks, it realy needs work.
47. The volume control and annoying warning need work.
48. Bluetooth seems to have wierd issues with connecting to some devices.
49. You will have to turn off all Samsung gimmicks and maybe turn into to the Dev options to get rid of that horrid lag.
50. Dual display mode, out of 200 apps I have installed, only about 10 of them are capable of handling this feature.
51. TouchWiz, not precisely light.
52. 32GB version got only 23.23GB of free internal space. That means 8.77GB is Gone with the Wind!
53. It gets hot on heavy browsing. How many times a day you search for Hot Pics? From now on, it matters.
54. Making calls on an average of 10-20 minutes a day, have to charge the device daily.
55. You better order an SGP Ultra Oleophobic screen protector.
56. A lot of faulty units being reported in circulation. If you are planning to buy an S4, wish to be on the lucky side.
57. Worse, Samsung Customer Service is a pain, thousands of complains leveled against Samsung Service centers.
58. Replacing factory defective, faulty pieces can be onerous. They might keep on sending you from one W** section to another.
59. Samsung's Customer Care Service, should be improved with immediate effect. trying to chat online with a customer agent always brings a familiar "No Agents Available" message.
60. "I am really disappointed with Samsung service centre, dealing with a faulty S4 (overheating, screen purple tint at bottom screen). I regret buying this device. Wont ever buy samsung again," one user repents.
61. Compared to the S3 and EVO 4G, signal reception is pathetic.
62. Some argue that, S4 is a minor incremental upgrade compared to the S3.
63. You might love the picture quality but will miss the brisk Zoe and highlight features.
64. One thing you wish your S4 had that Atrix 4G has, is the "USB Mass Storage" option when hooking up to a computer.
65. Most argue that, "it brought nothing new to the table," but more gimmicks.
66. Samsungs notorious for memory card crashes.
67. The phone is about to receive a number of optional accessories, including a dedicated Samsung Wi-Fi scale and motion tracking wristband, but S Health app is somewhat limited itself.
68. Samsung has confirmed that the bootloader will be locked. A lot of devs have said they won't work with the S4 because of the proprietary kernals it uses.
69. The UI is too bloated and hurts the immaculate user experience. Worst, they are not optimised either. How many apps (bloatware) you disabled on your Note 2? Why Samsung is notorious for Bloatware?
70. Most probably S4 Touchwiz gimmicks will end up in the dust bin (same goes with the HTC One Sense). Both will have Nova running instead.
71. According to Samsung service centre, its better to let the Samsung Workshops do the firmware upgrading. Upgrading firmware by Wifi or any other online means, is not up to the mark, can cause troubles. Such practices might bring incomplete new upgrade packages of firmware to the phone due to connectivity problems.
72. According to Samsung, bloatware eaten internal memory can be freed up with software optimisation. But a recent update only made some of the Galaxy S4's tweaks optional, rather than installing the lot from the off.
73. Its being reported that sometimes call quality on Speaker is effected by a muffled nature to the recieving party. In the middle of conversations, the calling party hears people at the other end but the recieving party cannot hear the caller and calls have ended with no apparant reason.
74. Having a basic set of 'quad-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A7' for lighter works, which light works it refers to? How 'Heavy' it ought to be a task for the chipset to switch itself to the A15 cores? Can you answer that?
75. "I contacted Samsung Customer Care on 16th July 2013 and they said that, as a policy they could not replace my Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-I9500 as it has crossed 7 days period after purchase (ridiculously, Samsung includes Sundays too, even when the customer care centers are closed). Failing to solve the issue even after updating my software, now they have provided me with the option of replacing the motherboard of Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT- I9500). My charm of buying such an high-end phone has been completely lost and left me shattered fearing any more loss after motherboard replacement!" another seeks solace online.
Samsung Galaxy S4 Pros and Cons: The Quick Read on Pros
None of the following facts are included in or taken from other chapters and this is not a summary of other chapters either. Treat this a very seperate read.
1. A bigger screen.
2. A bit better sunlight legibility.
3. Grand contrast.
4. True blacks.
5. Power efficient.
6. More colour gamut.
7. 6500k, more accurate white (6590k in S4 vs 6900 in HTC one).
8. Number of updates within a short period of time, Samsung is listening to customers.
9. A recent update fixed bugs in Gallery, contacts and logs. UI is smoother now.
10. Samsung will make a metal version of the Galaxy S4.
11. Lovely earth tone color and transition affects.
12. Too many different calendars to keep track of? the Stock calendar app is just for you.
13. It can take great close ups and 4X digital zooms with great detail.
14. DDR3 RAM vs DDR2 in Note 2.
15. You can disable most of the bloat in settings. Samsung Push and Link are two to name.
16. If the back cover is felt flimsy, use an Sview cover. It is thick and has many major advantages (like it protects camera).
17. It used to heat up a lot. But after a series of updates, its very minimal now.
18. You rooted and ROM'ed, but had to wait for an update to kill bugs. You are no longer worried about the locked boot loader, aren't you?
19. A grand sound output on headphone. Using a good headphone, you will get heavy bass and clear sound. If you want bass in video player, you can use Equalizer app from Play Store.
20. Upgrading via kies has an advantage, it installs the whole new firmware instead of only the updated files. It cleans any bugs or corrupt files and hence, is like a clean install. One downside is that it installs the whole 1.5 GB firmware.
21. You can share internet connection with S4 using Wifi Tethering.
22. Samsung has had 3 updates at the moment of writing this and after all three updates, now phone's heating problem is solved. Its no longer getting hot while charging now.
23. The notification bar with lot of quick setting buttons, that can be customized, is a true nicety.
24. "Flipboard" for news, its built in and supports AirGesture.
25. A Swype loyalist? Try SwiftKey. It increases speed and accuracy of texting.
26. Battery drain, disable Google Chrome and all other unused bloatware. Battery will likely last longer.
27. In some countries, the user gets one time screen replacement warranty for one year and Smartview flip cover for free.
28. Compared to the Nexus, even combined with any ROM, its pretty darn fast.
29. HTC, the bad news is their updates suck, they are either late or non-existent.
30. Considering EVO 4G, the S4 is an incremental upgrade.
31. Lighter and thinner than Atrix 4G.
32. Motorola Razr, which comes with a 1GB of RAM, is downsized to 450-500 of free RAM after a reboot.
33. A wide range of brightness settings and the 'Power Saving' mode, increase battery life.
34. PPI is higher than iPhone 5 display.
35. The Super Amoled HD, sharp and colors look life like.
36. There is some over saturation in the screen, but can be adjusted from the settings menu.
37. 2GB RAM is a DDR3. HTC One and Z are DDR2 RAM phones. Always 800 MB+ memory is left on S4. After every fresh reboot, you get about 1.3-1.4GB free memory. Disabling S apps like Slink and Samsung Push etc, you can presumably increase the total free RAM.
38. You would use "WatchOn" more than you think you would. Regular remotes are not back lit but S4 is. You can use your S4 to change channels when its dark inside. Even it lets you Schedule Recordings or see what's on TV tonight.
39. A lot of backing up, restoring and syncing options. [refer 'Cloud' chapter]
40. Two sets of CPU cores. One for heavy works and the other for light works.
Bonus Read - Samsung Galaxy S4 Short Codes I9505
You can just open up your keypad and dial these secret codes.
What these secret codes do?
With these codes you can have a plethora of options to test various hardware aspects of your phone. They open a hidden menu in it and you gain access to functionalities that cannot be found in default Galaxy S4 settings menu otherwise. They empower you to locate the hardware components which has problems and you can diagnose whether they are working properly or not. Those codes apply to such hardware components as Speaker, Sensor, LCD, Touch Screen, Color, Camera, Speaker, Vibration and all sensors including Accelerometer, Proximity and Magnetic sensor, Sub key etc.
Applicable Codes
- Fetches a screen titled LCD TEST to test Screen, Sensor, Vibration, Touch, Speaker, LED etc. It even gives out raw values for Light, Sensor, Barometer, etc in no time.
- To check software version of phone.
- To check software and hardware information.
- Battery status (ADC, RSSI reading)
- Service mode.
- brings Service Mode or Service Menu and Band info.
- Loobback Test.
- NandFlashHeaderRead.
Service Mode.
Factory Keystring.
- Service Mode.
- USB Settings.
- Camera Firmware Standard.
- Sys Dump.
- Quick Test Menu.
- Service Mode, service mode settings.
- RF Band Selection, band preference settings.
- MDM Randump Mode (defaults to OFF) REP.
RESET - Samsung Galaxy S4 Reset Codes - Factory format, Hard Reset or Reset codes (GT-I9500, GT-I9505)
1. It takes some time to reset. So better fully charge your battery before going down this path. Symbian resets also had such a pre requirement.
2. All user generated data including contacts, messages will be irrecoverably erased. Copy all your necessary data, Contacts and Messages to SIM, backup to your PC or keep an online backup before a full reset.
3. Take out SIM and SD card.
4. Dont factory reset with SD card encryption setting enabled. The device will not be able to read your encrypted files. Disable this setting before resetting the device.
The Processes
1. Force Reset.
Press and hold POWER button for 8-10 seconds. The device reboots on its own. If this does not melt the rigidities such as lags or stuck systems, you can do a factory reset.
2. Factory Format or Hard Reset
Enter *2767*3855#. It will do the Full factory reset. It does not ask you to confirm unless you have a problem.
3. Factory Data Reset
The code is *#7780#. It wont wait for your confirmation either.
4. Hard Reset
1. Press and hold "Volume Up" key and Home button.
2. Press Power until the phone vibrate.
3. When the Android logo appears, release all buttons.
4. Choose Wipe data Factory reset with Volume Down.
5. Press Power.
6. Select "Yes" delete all user data with VOLUME DOWN and then press Power
After format, press Power again to reboot phone. (select reboot system now)
5. Factory Data Reset
In Idle mode, open the application list and select Settings -> Back up and reset -> Factory data reset -> Reset device -> Delete all.
Better Taken Into Consideration
[] There is no code to access the adjustments of the sound. The I9505 still misses the function.
[] Engineering Mode? Doesn't matter even there is no code for it, root and have a terminal installed.
[] To get developer options to further screw it, go to Settings -> About and then on the build number, keep tapping (about 7 times). When you exit, it should open the developer options.
[] On the Verizon version of the Galaxy S4, these codes do not work because the hidden menus are disabled by default.
[] Even with these sophisticated codes, sometimes, you may find yourself stuck in service mode initial image.
[] The Service Mode Main Menu code *#197328640#, sometimes can be interpreted as an unexpected value.
Cloud Backup, Sync and Restoration
Syncing and Backing Up with Samsung "Sync/Auto Backup"
Go into the Samsung backup menu and click on Backup, a menu page with all the relevant settings appears with AutoBackup at the top of everything.
Auto Backup is turned on when the device is connected to Wi-Fi while the screen is off and the device is charging. Backup starts an hour after backup is turned on. The Auto backup is turned off for 24 hours after the last backup.
Samsung Auto Backup feature is frustrating
The question is, it doesnt work consistently or as advertised. Rarely does this work.
Syncing and Backing Up with Google Drive and Google Plus
Under Settings, there resides an option to Sync/Backup apps with Google. When a factory reset takes place, it redownloads apps back to device. All you have to do is, make sure they are setup to sync to your Google account.
You can keep your stuff in Google Drive. Google backs up the application list (apps installed), passwords, settings, Calendar and Contacts etc.
Google Plus is the service related to your Gallery. The service appears in the Google Sync list (if you are running the latest version of G+, otherwise you wont see it in your list). It backs up the entire Gallery, (all videos and photos) to G+ private photo album (its not accessible by the public unless you opt for that).
Does Google Drive automatically sync photos, videos from the phone?
Google Drive does not automatically sync photos, videos from the phone. Google+ app does it and uploads to Google Picasa. You can use Google+ and set to auto upload photos/videos to your web album.
But you can use Cloudvault for that. When a video is recorded, a picture is taken or a screen shot is captured, it will automatically upload the file to a specified folder in Google Drive. Foldersync does the same. It can sync files between phone and various "cloud" locations, like the Google Drive, DropBox, Box, Skydrive, etc.
As a precaution, disable auto sync of G+. Only sync when you need to. You can use 'Upload Now' button for that. Otherwise, Google Plus will eat your data chunk "Without Prior Notice."
"I learned the hard way. Got S4, did all the upgrades, 12 hours later, my 3GB monthly data plan was finished. Upon investigating, I found out, 40 videos and few hundred photos has been uploaded through Auto-Backup Sync," one experienced with G+.
"I tried this, clicked 'share' and left my smartphone to complete, the upload continued, using up my whole month's mobile data allocation in 30 minutes," another shares his G+ experience.
"Naturally, I killed that off for good, right after spending an hour, deleting all the albums created on G+," another repents.
Cons of Google Drive
1. The application list is a list of apps that installed and no app data is stored.
Syncing and Backing Up with Kies
You can backup and sync with Samsung's Kies desktop software. It lets the user to sync (smartphone or tablet) to a PC or MAC.
Regarding Samsung Galaxy S4, Kies back up contacts, call log, SMS/MMS messages, media files, S apps like S Planner and S Memo etc.
How to Backup and Restore with Kies
1. Connect Galaxy S4 to computer via a USB cable.
2. Click on the Back up/Restore tab.
3. Select the items you want to back up.
4. Click 'Back up' button.
5. When the process is over, click 'Complete' to finish the process.
Don't discharge or turn off the phone until the process is done.
How to Restore with Kies
1. In the Back up/Restore tab, click the Restore.
2. Select the data you want to restore.
3. Click Next.
4. When the restoration is done, click 'Complete' (the device will reboot).
Cons of Kies
1. Mind that, Kies is unpredictably unreliable. You cannot solely count on it.
2. It will be easier to do that on an unrooted phone compared to a rooted one.
3. Kies latest Version, Backup gets stuck in the midle of somewhere. Sometimes it happens when the backing up comes to music. Sometimes, when it crosses pictures. Occasionally when it reaches videos and ridiculously enough, sometimes there is no any distinctive pattern. Then it goes to a halt and the percentage indicator becomes stand still. As a result, you get a lot of empty folders in the Kies backup folder. The most harrowing part is, there is no backup file created in the kies backup folder at the end of another frustrating day.
Syncing and Backing Up with Dropbox
You can link to DropBox going to settings -> accounts -> add account then link DropBox, they send a confirmation email with a link to activate it when you are done.
It automatically uploads all your pics and vids.
How do I know whether my Samsung Galaxy S4 is eligible for the free 50 GB space promotion for two years or not?
According to DropBox, following criteria should be met,
1. Phone should be a brand new phone with Dropbox already installed (Dropbox app must be pre-loaded on your device).
2. Your carrier must be participating in the promotion.
3. Some carriers have opted out of the promotion on phones otherwise eligible.
Among those not currently participating are the following carriers: United States: AT&T Japan: NTT DoCoMo Korea: SK Telecom
Verizon customers: Some Samsung devices on Verizon may be eligible for 50 GB of bonus space for one or two years.
4. If you bought the phone unlocked and sim free you might get the offer.
5. If your device does not have the Dropbox app pre-loaded, then it is not eligible.
Note That
1. The first Dropbox account that signs in to the app on the device will get 50 GB of free space
2. Each account is only able to claim this promotion once.
3. You will have to pay for it after two years promotional period.
4. Google drive, has larger free space and cheaper upgrades, but it cannot beat DropBox's 50 gig free offer.
Syncing and Backing Up with iCloud
You can also use iCloud on S4. Use smooth Sync for Cloud calendar and smooth Sync for Cloud Contacts.
You will badly miss such an implemantathon like icloud on Android. The user gets an exact replica of the previous device on his current device with icloud without even having to plug it into a computer. All it required is just a Wifi connection.
Doing a back up is as simple as just plugging the phone into itunes on an i device. Everything is stored in the cloud. You can buy a new device, hook it into iTunes and have it the exact same way how your last one was. Though not doable from an iPhone 4 to iPhone 5, the process is pretty darn impressive and there is no automated non-root requiring option like what iOS has in the iCloud service for this. That is something you will miss on an Android.
Other Alternatives
app will back up all of your apps and app data.
2. If you are rooted you can also use
backup. Nothing can beat Helium and Titanium when it comes to backups.
backup does a good job for unrooted phones where backup options are limited.
, allows you to backup daily to the SD card, but does not have the option to schedule auto backups to the cloud, it allows manual cloud backups.
SMS Backup & Restore
For Text messages you can use
SMS Backup & Restore
which does a grand job handling text messages.
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