Reviews
Richard Goodwin
09:31, 10 May 2013
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is the biggest launch of the year bar none, but was it worth the wait?
Typical Price:
£579.99
Latest Prices:
Samsung Galaxy S4 best UK deals, prices and tariffs
Pros:
Brilliant Full HD display, awesome camera and settings, powerful CPU, extensive features set, plenty of connectivity – NFC / MHL 2.0 / IR LED / LTE / Bluetooth 4, decent battery life, lightweight for size
Cons:
Plasticky build quality, TouchWiz can be laggy, almost too many features and some like Smart Scroll don't work all that well, no way near enough onboard memory (16GB gets you just over 8GB)
Verdict:
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is a truly outstanding smartphone, one that offers a best in class features set, awesome display, and reams of connectivity. There is a downside, however, with limited storage and a very plasticky overall build quality.
More Info:
Samsung Galaxy S4 best UK deals, prices and tariffs
On paper, the Samsung Galaxy S4 has it all: high specs, a great camera, a bigger display, and lots of connectivity. And that’s just the basics. Dig a little deeper and you’ll find a ton of additional bells and whistles that wouldn’t look out of place in an episode of The Jetsons.
The Galaxy S3 was the biggest selling Android handset of all time, and Samsung is looking to go one better with the Galaxy S4. Analysts predict sales upwards of 70 million before the close of the year, with as many as 10 million inside the first month of its release. No wonder the Korean tech giant is Wall Street’s new flavour of the month.
It might be the biggest launch but is it the best? If you want Android and are upgrading your handset soon you’re spoilt for choice in today’s market with devices like the Xperia Z, HTC One, Nexus 4, and the upcoming Note 3, which all offer their own take on Android.
Many of today’s top-end Android devices feature similar specs, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 600 CPU, 2GB of RAM and LTE connectivity, meaning high-end performance, generally speaking, is similar across the board.
Manufacturers know this and have concocted new means of differentiating their offerings: waterproofing, new UXs, and contactless gesture navigation to name but a few. Out of Android’s biggest manufacturers though no one has been busier than Samsung.
The Galaxy S4, backed by a huge marketing campaign, is jam-packed full of exotic software, bespoke applications, and new means of navigating around the handset. Again, on paper – and in TV spots – the Galaxy S4 looks utterly unstoppable.
Ahead of out test run, we had two core questions:
1) Is the Galaxy S4 the best Android phone money can buy?
2) Do all of its new features actually work in an everyday scenario, or are they just gimmicky talking points?
Lets find out.
Samsung Galaxy S4 review: Design
Samsung could have gone to town on the design of the Galaxy S4 but instead it took a more conservative approach, refining certain aspects but keeping things fairly familiar to what we saw on the Galaxy S3. It’s no iPhone 4S in this regard, but the overall changes are very subtle.
At 2.5mm, the bezel is now slimmer than ever leaving very little space between the display and the edge of the device. Speaking of edges, the Galaxy S4’s are now flatter giving the handset a blockier, more robust, appearance. The area above and below the display has also been reduced in order to make room for the Galaxy S4’s larger 5-inch display.
Best Samsung Galaxy S4 apps
The back panel is embellished with a mesh-like design and is still removable, giving you access to the SIM tray, microSD slot, and battery. The unlock/power button, the volume rocker, a headphone jack, and the microUSB port remain in the same positions they were last time around, creating an instant air of familiarity when handling the device.
The Galaxy S4 measures 136.6x69.8x7.9 mm and weighs 130g, making it 3g lighter than its predecessor, which is suitably impressive when you consider the S4 has a larger 5-inch display and also packs in a bigger battery.
Like the Galaxy S3 (and unlike the HTC One) the S4 is constructed entirely from plastics, but that should come as a surprise to no-one. Samsung’s been dragging its ass for years in this regard, and the Galaxy S4 is no exception despite our prayers for change.
Samsung Galaxy S4: where’s the 32GB and 64GB versions?
It’s not that we have a problem with plastics, or that we only like handsets crafted from aluminum and fiberglass. Done well, plastics can be just as good as any premium metallic finish on a handset – Nokia’s Lumia 720, Lumia 920, and the HTC One X immediately spring to mind here.
On the Galaxy S4, however, this just isn’t the case. And we’re sort of at a loss as to why this has happened again. HTC, despite appalling financial constraints, managed to turn out something spectacular with its One handset. It tried hard, pulled all its resources, and created something that oozed distinction.
Surely the world’s biggest handset manufacturer ahead of the launch of the world’s biggest smartphone could have done something similar. Or, failing that, just improved the overall quality of the plastics employed on the handset?
In the end it comes down to this: if you liked the Galaxy S3 and are fond of Samsung’s overall design philosophy then you’ll love the Galaxy S4. For everybody else – and I’d wager we’re the minority here – you’ll be grossly disappointed with the overall look and feel of the Galaxy S4.
Samsung Galaxy S4 review: Display
The display is a 5-inch Super AMOLED panel with 1920x1080 pixel resolution and a pixel density of 441 pixels-per-inch (ppi). It’s reinforced with Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3 and is the first Full HD Super AMOLED panel we’ve tested.
Colours are vivid, jumping right off the display, and contrast is astounding, as you’d expect from an AMOLED setup. It’s worth nothing that AMOLED displays use a pentile arrangement of subpixels, meaning there’s two colours per pixel, rather than the usual three, and this results in a lower overall resolution compared to similar LCD setups like that present on the HTC One.
Sat next the HTC One the difference, however, is negligible – both offer superb visual experiences. The HTC One’s LCD panel does seem brighter although we prefer how colours look on the Galaxy S4’s AMOLED. In this respect, and at this level of quality, it is very much a case of swings and roundabouts.
Overall, the Galaxy S4’s display is about as close to perfect as you can get. It’s Full HD, contrast is brilliant, and detail is superb. Video, text, images, web pages, games and applications all look utterly astounding. The Galaxy S4's screen does not disappoint.
We also found the size of the display perfect, too. 5-inches sounds large, but because Samsung implemented the increase without affecting the overall size of the handset the extra 0.2-inches feels natural. You might not even notice it.
Samsung Galaxy S4 review:Hardware
The UK version of the Galaxy S4 runs Qualcomm’s quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor clocked at 1.9GHz alongside 2GB or RAM. Android Jelly Bean (version 4.2.2) is the operating system of choice and, as you’d expect, everything ticks along very nicely.
You get 16GB of internal storage and support for an additional 64GB via the phone's microSD slot. Samsung confirmed 32GB and 64GB variants at launch but we’ve yet to see anything other than the 16GB version here in the UK.
And that’s rather worrying because once Android and TouchWiz have taken their share of the internal storage you’re not left with much, around 8.8GB, or 55 percent of the listed storage. Comparatively, the 16GB iPhone 5 and 32GB Nokia Lumia 920 ship with almost 90 percent of their respective listed storage.
You do have the microSD card-support, of course, but that’s not really the point. The Galaxy S4 is listed as a 16GB handset. It costs £579. And you get just over 8GB of storage. For us that’s a real kick in the nuts, and it’s definitely something worth considering before purchasing this handset.
Samsung Galaxy S4 review: Benchmark Results & Performance
The Galaxy S4 outperformed the vast majority of other Android phones. However, it’s interesting to note that the HTC One, which clocks in at 1.7GHz on the same chip, actually scored higher in some tests – notably Quadrant.
Still, generally speaking it is without a doubt one of the fastest phones around and should deliver like-for-like performance with the HTC One and other Snapdragon 600 rivals, which are sitting pretty at the top of the high-performance pile at present.
The Galaxy S4 is a 4G capable phone and testing the modem chip in SpeedTest showed a fast ping of 47 milliseconds, a download speed of 18.73 megabits per second and an upload speed of 17.56 megabits per second. This is very good by home broadband standards, showing 4G has the capability to deliver a wireless mobile internet experience on a par with hard-wired solutions.
As well as general performance the Galaxy S4 is looking like a good prospect for gaming, not least because of the huge, crystal clear display, but also as 3DMark, a gaming benchmark suite, cited the Galaxy S4 as ‘one of the most powerful devices around’. You can expect to get very fast, fluid gaming from Samsung’s latest flagship.
Samsung Galaxy S4 review: TouchWiz
Android overlays are something of an opinion divider. Some users love them, applauding the added functionality and quirks they introduce, while others prefer the cleaner, vanilla-flavoured setup of Android you get aboard the Nexus 7 and Nexus 4.
TouchWiz brings much to the table and is designed not only to help differentiate Samsung products from Sony and HTC ones, but also to highlight the Galaxy S4’s value-added capabilities.
Samsung Galaxy S4 official features video
Things like S-Health, Group Play, Music, S Planner, S Translator, Samsung Hub, and S Voice, as well as all the Air features, are all included out the box and when used appropriately are suitably impressive.
The two-finger dropdown menu, new to the Galaxy S4, gives you instant access to all of the device’s sensors, connections, and modes. In here you can activate Smart Scroll, Airplane Mode, Bluetooth, and Screen Mirroring.
Samsung has bundled all of its Music, Film, TV Shows, and Book services inside the redesigned Samsung Hub, which looks a lot smarter with its image-heavy UX and crisp choice of font. It’s a million miles from the Hubs of old looking more like a Windows Phone app than something you’d find on Android. Impressive stuff.
TouchWiz is a heavy overlay, however, and you do pay a price for all these added goodies. Lag does occur and we consistently experienced glitches while scrolling around the UX. With a quad-core Snapdragon 600 CPU and 2GB of RAM, this really shouldn’t be happening.
And now for something completely different: Samsung’s contactless gesture features. Here we’ll score each with a usefulness rating out of five:
Samsung Galaxy S4 review: Air Gesture
Air Gesture lets you scroll through Gallery images and between tabs in the Browser simply by waving your hand in front of the Galaxy S4’s display. The feature works okay in practice but can only be used in core Samsung applications and not things like Google’s Chrome browser or any third party Gallery applications.
We get the idea with Air Gesture but found the actual process of using it rather clumsy inside the Gallery application – it’s easier just to flick through with a finger. In the Browser, however, it’s a lot more useful particularly when reading longer articles that aren’t paginated. Just gesture up and down and the article rolls by seamlessly.
Usefulness: 4/5 – it works, can be quite useful for answering calls and when using the device while cooking. It’s also great for scrolling longer un-paginated webpages.
Samsung Galaxy S4 review: Smart Scroll
Imagine if someone told you back in 2010 that by 2013 you’d be able to scroll a web page, on a phone, just by looking up and down? You’d probably have laughed your ass off, but that’s just what Smart Scroll is. And it’s here now.
In theory it’s a great idea and you have to give Samsung credit for figuring out how to do it in the first place. Smart Scroll is about as futuristic a feature as anyone could wish for.
In practice, however, Smart Scroll isn’t all that practical. It does work pretty well, but you do feel strange doing it and there is often a delay between your eye’s movements and the object on the display actually moving, which does detract quite a bit from its overall usability.
You will impress parents, friends, and buddies down the pub with it no end, but it’s not perfect and is definitely not something we could see ourselves using all the time. Once again, traditional forms of navigation – using your finger – prevail. Samsung gets an A+ for effort though.
Usefulness: 2/5 – great idea and an awesome display of Samsung’s technical prowess, but sadly it’s just not that useful in practice.
Samsung Galaxy S4 review: Air View
One of the more useful Air features, Air View is similar to what we saw on the Note 2 only here you don’t need a stylus – just a finger. And, again, you don’t have to touch the Galaxy S4’s display.
If you’re unfamiliar with how Air View works, what it does is simple: hover your finger of something, say an email, and a preview of the message will appear in a small breakout box.
It’s great for quickly checking the contents of an email but does have a habit of occasionally not working, leaving you dangling your finger just above the Galaxy S4’s display like a right numpty.
Usefulness: 4/5 – Air View is a great addition to the Galaxy S4 and would have got full marks had it not failed to recognise our hovering finger on numerous occasions.
Samsung Galaxy S4 review: Smart Stay
If you’re looking at the display, the Galaxy S4 knows, and won’t lower the brightness. If you’re watching a video and look away, Smart Stay knows, and will pause the video while your gaze is averted.
Both features performed well during testing and actually turned out to be quite useful in everyday scenarios. It’s only once they’re turned off that you actually miss them. And that’s the sign of a good feature.
Usefulness: 5/5 – great feature that’s particularly useful when reading longer articles or eBooks. It knows you’re using the device so keeps the display at full brightness. It also works great with video.
Samsung Galaxy S4 review: Connectivity
The Galaxy S4 ships with every conceivable type of connectivity you could wish for: NFC, Bluetooth 4, MHL, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/ac/b/g/n, HT80, and even an infrared blaster are supported out the box.
You also get Screen Mirroring – the ability to share the Galaxy S4’s display with a supported HDTV sets – removing the need for an HDMI-port. Plus there's Samsung’s excellent WatchOn which, combined with the IR Blaster, turns your Galaxy S4 into an interactive TV guide and remote control.
Everything is catered for here and it really does open up a whole plethora of options for connecting and sharing your Galaxy S4’s content with peripheral devices like speakers, computers, and HDTVs.
Samsung Galaxy S4 review: Imaging
If you’ve used Samsung’s Galaxy Camera, the company’s Android-powered compact, then the setup inside the Galaxy S4 will seem very familiar. If you haven’t, well, you’re in for something of a treat.
Continuing a bit of a trend, the Galaxy S4’s camera app is packed full of modes, settings, and tricks. All in there are 11 modes: Drama (captures movement), Animated Photo (enables certain objects to move - a GIF maker, essentially), Rich Tone HDR, Eraser, Panorama, Sports, Night, Auto, Beauty Face, Best Face, and Sound & Shot.
The possibilities of what you can do with the Galaxy S4’s camera are as exhaustive as its feature set. You can take pictures and attach sound, shoot images and add moving elements, capture a time-lapse collage, use HDR and shoot panoramic shots to name but a few.
In short, the Galaxy S4 has one of the most comprehensive imaging suites we’ve seen to date on any Android handset. You can literally spend hours tinkering with all of its features and modes.
Images captured using the 13-megapixel backside-illuminated sensor are superb and a huge bump up from what we saw on last year’s Galaxy S3. Colours are crisp and highly detailed, even when zoomed in for closer inspection as you can see below:
Samsung Galaxy S4: Video Sample
On the front you have a 2-megapixel setup that’s perfectly suited for taking selfies and video calling. The Galaxy S3 featured a 1.9-megapixel setup, so what you get here is only a marginal update. Still, it’s a welcome addition to an already astounding imaging setup.
Samsung Galaxy S4 review: Performance and Battery
Benchmarks are one thing but real-world performance is where it really counts and while the Galaxy S4 benchmarks like nothing else, there are, as we noted in the UX section, noticeable performance gripes here and there.
Samsung chief says Galaxy S4 processor type doesn't matter
We did experience the occasional stutter when flicking between homescreens and there was a hint of lag when scrolling through longer menu lists.
TouchWiz is undoubtedly the guilty party here, so for anyone looking to get optimum performance out of the Galaxy S4, rooting it and installing a custom ROM could well be the way forward. Doing so will void your handset’s warranty, however, and you will lose a lot of the S4’s core USPs – Air View, Air Gesture, and the like.
With its 2600mAh battery you get plenty of usage from the handset before it kicks the bucket. From a single charge with heavy usage – lots of browsing, calls, push email on, downloading large data files, and streaming movies – you’re looking at a full day providing you have auto-brightness activated.
With moderate, casual, usage you’re looking at a day and half at an absolute push. Compared to the Xperia Z and Nexus 4, the Galaxy S4 is a heavy hitter in the battery stakes and that’s an important win for Samsung. Even more so when you consider the Galaxy S4’s 5-inch 1080p display and the oodles of bloatware – sorry, software – it ships with.
Samsung Galaxy S4 review: Conclusion
This has to be one of the biggest, most feature-rich, handsets ever released. The Galaxy S4 has everything in buckets plus a whole load more. It’s powerful, takes great shots and videos, has a gorgeous display and features some previously unseen UX technology that really adds to overall user experience.
The Galaxy S4, however, is not perfect. It’s feature rich and plenty powerful, but we’re just not bowled over by its plasticky design and bulky, performance-zapping TouchWiz UX. Alone, these two factors aren’t deal breakers but they’re definitely worth considering before you make the jump.
So, is the Samsung Galaxy S4 the best Android phone on the planet? That’s a tough one. But it sort of all depends what you want from a handset. If you just want an awesome phone that’ll do pretty much anything you want, then the Galaxy S4 is a wise decision. No other handset has a features set quite as extensive.
Having said that if you simply cannot abide the Galaxy S4’s plasticky nature, or you want something a tad more premium looking as your companion for the next year or two, then perhaps the HTC One is the better option for you?
For everybody else, we’re talking 95 percent of people here, the Galaxy S4 is just about as good as it gets.
Specifications
Length
136.6mm
Width
7.9mm
Thickness
69.8mm
Weight
130g
Screen Size
5-inch Full HD Super AMOLED
UK Launch
April 2013
Phone Style
Slab
Typical Price
£579.99 SIM-free
Video Resolution
1080p
Camera Resolution
13-megapixel
Connectivity
NFC / MHL 2.0 / IR LED / GPS / GLONASS / Bluetooth 4.0 /
Built-in Memory
16GB + 64GB via SD-slot
High-speed Data
HSPA+, 4G LTE
Video Calling
Yes - 2-megapixel front facing camera
Samsung
Mobile Phones
Android
Samsung Galaxy S4
Touchwiz
HTC One
Samsung Galaxy Note 3
Samsung Galaxy S3