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Samsung Galaxy S4 Review

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transcript:
It's probably one of the biggest smart phone releases of the year and it's certainly one of the most anticipated. Samsung is throwing everything it has got into its newest flagship release. So does it live up to all of the hype? Hey, Joshua Vergara from Android Authority. What's going on everybody? And yes, this is the Samsung Galaxy S4. The Samsung Galaxy S4 follows up the tremendously popular Galaxy S3 and helps to not only please those loyal to the line but also to entice anyone who has held out until now. The design of the S4 is largely derivative of its older counterpart especially in the white model. You have the white bezel shrunken down to accommodate the five-inch screen, flatter sides and a different layout for the rear camera and speaker. Otherwise the button layout is just about the same as it was on the S3. The back cover is still removable. You not only get access to the SD card slot and battery but you can even buy accessory covers like the Smart Cover or the Wireless Charging Cover for added functionality. But the phone continues Samsung's trend of plastic bodies and covers. It may be a material choice that is starting to get old but nonetheless, anyone who has used an S3 in the past will feel right at home here. Let me reiterate that. The Samsung Galaxy S4 feels pretty much like its predecessor. While the general aesthetic might be getting a little played out, remember that there is so much improvement everywhere else and yet it is actually smaller than the S3. With the same height, the S4 shreds a fraction of the S3's thickness and is even a little bit narrower. Most important here however is that the S4 is even lighter. Though it might only be three grams lighter, there is a balancing to the Galaxy S4 that makes it feel like a feather. You can definitely call that a victory in the design department as this is the best handling five-inch screen device out there. Shortly after receiving this unit, I was able to text, chat, browse and play with one hand comfortably. The flat sides make the phone easy to grip with your fingers and palm. Any hand gymnastics typically needed for a five-inch screen are at their least required when using this phone. Only rarely did I need to use my other hand to reach the very top left corner of the screen. Perhaps the most obvious improvement at first glance is the display. Samsung brought their super amulet tech up to a five-inch screen capable of 1080p resolution and 441 ppi. The result is one of the best displays on the smart phone, period. Not only is it easily viewable in almost any condition. It is also capable of some very steep viewing angles. The uber colorful touch res UI benefits from the screen's high saturation, making colors pop out and basically punch you in the face. Reading anything on the screen is easy too as text is incredibly sharp. Move under that screen and you will find that the Samsung Galaxy S4 is among the fastest phones around. It has the quad core, Snapdragon 600 processor that is only currently found on about a few other devices and is a big leap from the S4 pro. It is not the Exynos Octa core that we may have heard about but this process or package definitely included in North American models is still an incredible performer. I was zipping through all elements of the UI and multitasking with no problems. A few tests and two-two benchmark put the Samsung Galaxy S4 right around the very impressive 25,000 mark. [0:03:09] [Indiscernible] puts the tried and true Adreno 320 performance at very high ratings and the two gigabytes are available for all of their multitasking pleasure. Hardware is what the Samsung Galaxy S4 has in spades. The speaker is no front facing boom sound but it is quite loud and is far from [Indiscernible]. The S4 is then not only sporting expandable memory and a replaceable battery but a host of new sensors and utilities for a bunch of uses. First one we will list is an IR blaster capable of controlling a host of TVs, Set Top Boxes and players. GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are your standards while NFC with SV makes it return. But there are many sensors add in that complement the typical accelerometer and proximity sensor. You now have a barometer and a temperature gauge to check the general conditions around you, an RGB light sensor that helps adjust the color and white balance of the screen based on its detection of light, an infrared sensor for all hand and air gestures and a whole sensor for detecting closed Smart Converse [0:04:15] [Phonetic] and finally a compass. What is perhaps best about these additions is that software inclusions make them all useful in one way or another but we will get to that soon. The battery unit included with the S4 is of a higher capacity than most five-inch screen device offerings. 2600 milliamp hours are able to power this one for quite a while, making the end of the day a little less precarious for the common user. With a bit of a robust test using Wi-Fi and Netflix movies, the phone finally knocked out at right under the four-hour mark. Otherwise, straight browsing time and playing videos from memory certainly came in at impressive long times, usually around eight or so hours on Wi-Fi without disabling sync. It is definitely among the longest-lasting five-inch screen devices available and with the ability to replace the battery when it finally runs out of juice, you really shouldn't have any power issues on the Galaxy S4. Improvements on the camera start off pretty standard. Thirteen megapixels are what you get this time around while the front facing camera gets two. Additions are all in the application itself in which there are now a bunch of new ways to use those optics. Ones you may expect include Best Face which takes a burst shot and allows you to replace detected faces to find the right one you need for the shot. Animated Photo which just basically takes that burst shot and creates animated gifts from them, HDR and Panorama. You are also able to use both the front and rear facing cameras in order to create a dual shot picture or video. Now the big editions take further advantage of those burst shots via eraser mode and drama shot. Eraser detects the objects that move aside from your subject and background and erases anything not meant to be in the picture. Drama shot instead adds the moving subject on top of the stable background, creating a nice-looking, one picture burst subject. Both are nice to use as long as your device and the general background are stable. Picture quality in the S4 is really quite good. Just as the S3 was considered a great performer in the eight-megapixel space, the S4 is among the best in the 13-megapixel space. You get a great deal of detail and the color shot saturation is high enough to make any picture nice and vibrant. With great quality and a host of ways to take a picture, the Galaxy S4 is definitely at the top of the list of smart phone cameras. Finally we get to the software. TouchWiz is an Android UI that you either love or hate. Personally I've never been a big fan of its more bloated and yet uber colorful look though the great quality of the screen certainly helps make those colors really go nuts. But this time around with the Jelly Bean 4.2.2 powered version of Samsung's UI, I actually didn't immediately replace it with a different launcher. Well, that might happen eventually. I have found why it is more tolerable this time around. It's the size of the screen. High resolution displays often run the risk of making things uncomfortably small or weirdly spaced out. But the already enlarged and bloated TouchWiz elements translate perfectly to the 1080p display. What you will get is an easily accessible interface that even with the smallest font size, it's simple to navigate without having to squint or pinpoint. There are a number of new ways to get around in built-in applications. It might be a little daunting to look through all of these but a large power widget in the notification dropdown gives you a quick glimpse. There are motion features that return like direct calling which cause the contact currently displayed automatically when the phone is brought to your face or muting when turning your phone over on to its face. A sensitive screen allows you to get around even when wearing gloves as well as use your finger like an S Pen to get quick previews of gallery albums. I think the most practical application of this air view is previewing your last received text. Then there are all of the different air gestures that take advantage of the motion sensor. You can jump through a webpage, go to the next picture, change the music track. My favorite one is a quick info screen that pops up after you wave your hand. It's a brilliant way to quickly get the time, date and notifications of missed calls and text. Quick tip though, use some finesse. The sensor has to pick up the movement for the gesture to register so you don't have to do it so fast. Smart screen capability has utilized the front facing camera to detect if you're still looking. The screen will stay on as long as the phone is at an angle and eyes are still on the screen. Smart Pause will pause a video playing when you look away. I personally like the Smart Scroll. Let the phone detect your eyes after which you can slightly tilt your head to look at the bottom or top of the screen which will scroll a webpage accordingly. You just have to take that extra second or two to allow the phone to detect your eyes. New apps included are the S Translator which allows for voice and text translations among about a dozen different languages, Story Album which puts your pictures together in a nice flip book format and Group Play which allows you to connect to a bunch of other S4 devices to share pictures, documents, presentations and music. While I don't have other units to demonstrate this right now, I can say it is a really cool feature especially when you have five total devices put together and make every single one play one of the five channels of music. Finally there's S Health, perhaps the biggest endeavor. If you have ever used multiple diet or exercise tracking applications, Samsung has tried to consolidate them all into S Health. You can track food from a database or from information you add in yourself, track physical activity, log weight and even use the thermometer and barometer to check humidity and temperature of your surroundings. The driver scope in the S4 can also be set on for tracking your steps. If your phone is in your pocket, why not put it to some work still? All of these features will be further augmented with a number of accessories you can buy like a heart rate monitor, a wrist pedometer and a weight scale. It's actually a nice suite of diet applications that can help anyone who gets into the habit of tracking to get into shape. To end, we have the price. The Samsung Galaxy S4 should be coming out on pretty much all major carriers, most of whom have already posted pre-orders. In America, it will be around 200 with a two-year contract while the un-carrier T-Mobile plan will ask for 150 upfront with $20 device payments each month for two years. With the Galaxy S4 later to come out on just about any carrier, you will be able to get your hands on one, no problem. Unlocked prices will likely get around the $700 US mark. So there you have it. I will say this. Samsung put a lot of work into making sure their S4 offers the most to its users. All of the sensors give many ways of performing tasks we've gotten used to doing with just our fingertips. Other features like Group Play and the camera additions are neat tricks that are fun to use once you find the time to use them. S Health will help anyone proactive enough to use it. That's about the gist of the life companion Samsung Galaxy S4. It may not be particularly revolutionary but it does get close to perfecting what is already in place while giving new alternative ways of how to do them. You're given choices on how to tackle pretty much any typical task and if you don't want to use those particular features, well, you really don't have to. But just like Samsung, the company itself, it's all there for you. One day you just might end up trying it out serendipitously or even out of sheer boredom and then before you know it, you've fallen in love. For all the Samsung Galaxy S4 coverage, stay tuned to Android Authority YouTube channel and keep up with AndroidAuthority.com because we're your source for all things Android.

auto_transcript:
is probably one of the biggest smartphone releases up the year and it's certainly one of the most anticipated Samsung restoring everything is going to its newest flagship release so does it live up to all the hype a judgment of a mentor thought it was going on everybody and yes this is the Samsung Galaxy as for the Samsung Galaxy s4 follows up the tremendously popular galaxy s3 and hopes to now only please those loyal to the line but also to entice anyone who was held up until now the design of the s4 is largely derivative of its older counterparts especially in the white model you have the white bezel shrunken down to accommodate the 5-inch screen flatter sides and a different layout for the rear camera and speaker otherwise the button layout is just about the same as it was on the s3 the back cover is still removable you not only get access to the SD card slot and battery but you can even buy excess recovers like the smart cover or the wireless charging cover for added functionality but the phone continues Samsung strand of plastic bodies and covers it may be a material choice that is starting to get old but nonetheless anyone who has used as3 in the past will feel right at home here let me reiterate that the Samsung Galaxy s4 feels pretty much like its predecessor while the generous that it might be getting a little played out remember that there is so much improvement everywhere else and yet it is actually smaller than the s3 with the same height that as for sheds a fraction of the s3's thickness and is even a little bit narrower most important here however is that the s4 is even lighter though it might only be three grams lighter there is a balancing to the galaxy s4 that makes it feel like a feather you can definitely call that a victory in the design department as this is the best handling five-inch screen device out there shortly after receiving this unit I was able to text chat browse and play with one hand comfortably the flat side to make the phone easy to grip with two fingers and palm annie hamp gymnastics typically needed for a 5-inch screen or at the least required when using this phone only rarely did I need to use my other hand to reach the very top left corner of the screen perhaps the most obvious improvement at first glance is the display Samsung brought their super amela take up to a 5-inch screen capable of 1080 P resolution and 441 PPI the result is one of the best displays on a smartphone period now only is it easily view will in almost any condition it is also capable of some very steep viewing angles the over colorful TouchWiz UI benefits from the screens high saturation making colors pop out and basically punch you in the face reading anything on the screen is easy to as text is incredibly sharp move under that screen and you'll find that the Galaxy s4 is among the fastest phones around it has the quad core Snapdragon 600 processor that is on the currently found on about a few other devices and as a big leap from the s4 pro it is not the Exynos Oct a core that we may have heard about but this processor package definitely included in North American models is still an incredible performer I was have been through all elements of the UI and multitasking with no problems a few tests in antutu benchmark put the galaxy s4 right around the very impressive 25,000 mark Epic Citadel puts the tried-and-true Adreno 320 performance at very high ratings and the two gigabytes are available for oliver multitasking pleasure hardware is what the Samsung Galaxy s4 has in spades the speakers no fun facing boom sound byte it is quite loud and as far from 10 E I the s4 is there now only sporting expandable memory and a replaceable battery but a host of new sensors and utilities for a bunch abuses first one listed as a IR blaster capable of controlling a host of TV's septa boxes and players GPS WiFi and Bluetooth or your standards while NFC with SB makes its return but there are many sensors at in that complement the typical accelerometer and proximity im sensor you now have a barometer and a temperature gauge to check on the general conditions around you an RGB light sensor that helps adjust the collar and white balance on the screen based on his detection of light an infrared sensor for all hands in air gestures and all sensor for detecting closed smart converse and finally a compass what is perhaps best about these additions is that software inclusions make them all useful in one way or another but we'll get to that soon the battery unit included with the s4 is a far higher capacity than most five-inch screen device offerings 2600 Milan towers are able to power this on for quite a while making the end of the day a little less precarious for the common user with a bit of a robust test using wifi and Netflix movies the phone finally knocked out at right under the four hour mark otherwise straight browsing time in playing videos from memory certainly came in at impressively long times usually around eight or so hours on wifi without disabling sink it is definitely among the longest lasting five-inch screen devices available and with the ability to replace the battery wanna finally runs out of juice you really shouldn't have any power issues on the Galaxy s4 improvements on the camera start of pretty standard 13 megapixels are what you get this time around while the front facing camera gets to additions are all in the application itself in which there are now a bunch of new ways to use those optics ones you may expect include best face which text Bershad and allows you to replace detected faces to find the right one you need for the shot animated photo which just basically take Sabir Shah and creates animated gifts from them squeak picture 6 shocks HDR and Panorama you are also able to use both the front and rear facing cameras in order to create a doll shot picture or video now the big additions take further advantage for those buchholz be a racer mode and drama shot research detects the object to move aside from your subject and background and erases anything not meant to be in the picture drama shot instead abs the moving subject on top of the stable background creating a nice looking one picture burst subject both are nice to use as long as your device and the general background are stable picture called in the s4 is really quite good just as the s3 was considered a great performer in the 8 megapixel space ps4 is among the best in the 13 megapixel space you get a great deal of detail and the collar shut saturation is high enough to make any picture nice and vibrant with great quality in a host a voice to take a picture the galaxy s4 is definitely at the top of the list love smartphone cameras and finally we get to the software TouchWiz is an Android UI that you either love or hate personally I've never been a big fan of its more bloated and yet Cooper colorful look though the great quality of the screen certainly helps make those colors really go nuts but this time around with the jelly bean 4.2 point to power version of Samsung's UI I actually didn't immediately replace it with a different launcher while that might happen eventually I have found why it is more tolerable this time around it's the size of the screen high resolution displays often run the risk of making things uncomfortably small or weirdly spaced out but the already in large and bloated touch with them elements translate perfectly to the 1080 P display what you get isn't easily accessible interface that even with the smallest font size is simple to navigate without having to squint to pinpoint there are a number of new ways to get around in built-in applications it might be a little daunting to look through all of these but a large power widget in the notification dropdown gives you a quick glimpse there are motion features that return like to read calling which caused a contact currently displayed automatically when the phone is brought to your face or muting when turning your phone over onto its face a sensitive screen allows you to get around even when wearing gloves as well as usual finger like an S Pen to get quick previews gallery albums adding the most practical application of this interview is previewing your last received a text and then they're all love the different pair gestures that take advantage of the motion sensor you can jump through a web page go to the next picture change the music track my favorite one is a quick info screen that pops up after you wave your hands it's a brilliant way to quickly get the time date and notifications of miss calls and texts quick tip toe you something s the sensor has to pick up the movement for the gesture to register so you don't have to do so fast smart screen capability is utilized a front facing camera to detect if you're still looking the screen will stay on as long as the phone is at an angle and eyes are still on the screen and smart pause while POS a video playing when you look away I personally like the smart school let the phone detector eyes after which you can slightly tilt your head to look at the bottom or top of the screen which will scroll a webpage accordingly you just have to take that extra second or two to allow the phone to detector ice new app sync looted or the as translator which allows for voice and text translations among about a dozen different languages story album which put your pictures together in an ice floe book format in group play which allows you to connect to a bunch of other as for devices to share pictures documents presentations and music well I don't have other units to demonstrate this right now i can say it is a really cool feature especially when you have 520 devices put together and make every single one play one of the five channels at music and finally there's s health perhaps the biggest and ever if you've ever used multiple diet or exercise tracking applications Samsung has tried to consolidate them all into as health you can track food from a database or from information you add in yourself track physical activity log wat and even use the thermometer and barometer to check humidity and temperature of your surroundings the dress code in the as for can also be set on for tracking your steps if one is in your pocket wanna put it to some work still all these features will be further augmented with the number of accessories you can buy like a heart rate monitor arrest predominant and a weight scale it's actually a nice we have died applications that can help anyone who gets into the habit have tracking to get into shape to end we have the price the Samsung Galaxy s4 should be coming on pretty much all major carriers most of whom have already posted pre-orders in america it will be around $200 with a two-year contract while the un carrier T Mobile plan will ask for 150 upfront with twenty dollar device payments each month for two years with the galaxy s4 slated to come out on just about any carrier you'll be able to get your hands on one no problem unlike prices will likely get around the seven hundred dollar US mark and so there you have it I will say this: Samsung put a lot of work into making sure their s4 offers the most to its users all the sensors get many ways of performing tasks we can use to doing well just our fingertips other features like group play in the camera additions are neat tricks that are fun to use once you find the time to use them and as health will help anyone for active enough to use it and that's about the gist love the life companion Samsung Galaxy s4 it may not be particularly revolutionary but it does get close to perfecting what is already in place while giving a new alternative ways how to do that given choices on how to tackle pretty much any typical task and if you don't want to use this particular features well you really don't have to but just like Samsung the company itself it's all there for you and one day you just might end up trying it out serendipitously or even out of sheer boredom and then before you know it you fall in love for all the Samsung Galaxy S for coverage due to into and read it already YouTube channel and keep up with and retorted a calm because we are your source for all things Android