19 replies to this topic

[PaulOBrien]

Finally bringing to an end the speculation and leaks, Samsung have announced the Galaxy S 4 tonight at an event in New York.

It turns out that the leaks were largely right - on the hardware and design side, the S 4 is very, VERY much an evolution of it's predecessor. The screen has grown to a 5" 1080 resolution panel (still AMOLED and usable with gloves), the CPU is either an octa-core Exynos or a Snapdragon 600 depending on territory and 2GB RAM is onboard. While the device retains it's plastic back, it is framed by an metallic edge for a perceptible bump in build quality. Talking of bumps, a bump on the back houses the 13 Megapixel camera.

Software wise there's 4.2.2 right off the bat and a huge number of new features, including:

• Adapt display and adapt sound
  
• Air view / Air gesture (using an IR sensor)
  
• Group play
  
• Knox business / personal segregation software
  
• Optical reader (business card scanner)
  
• S health (think fitness tracking, built into your phone with accessories such as a wristband)
  
• S translate
  
• Smart pause / smart scroll
  
• Watchon (remote app, see below!)

Intriguingly, the S4 includes an IR remote like the HTC One. One unique feature is a temperature / humidity sensor... weather station anyone?

Power comes from a 2600mah removable battery, which nestles behind the removable back with the, yes, you guessed it, microSD slot!

Pricing is yet to be announced, the device will be available in white or black at the end of April - rest assure we'll be putting one through it's paces as soon as we can.

Click here to view the item

[Zarch1972]

I'm not feeling the love for it.... not sure why.  Size perhaps?

[abcdefg100]

Not too many upgrades from S3

[ZTR]

Zarch1972, on 15 March 2013 - 07:22 AM, said:

I'm not feeling the love for it.... not sure why.  Size perhaps?

Or due the fact that they have used the same kind of (cheap) plastic again

[andybarker]

As an S2 user, the S4 looks more appealing than the S3 due to the further minor upgrades to the phone. Not a million miles away from the S2, but nice new features.

No idea when I might buy one though.

[The Soup Thief]

Evolution...
An S3 S?
Better battery, better screen, wireless charging, baked in SwiftKey. Plus they haven't announced the killer feature yet - the unlocked price! We all know it's gonna be £130 to nobble the opposition ....

[andybarker]

I genuinely don't understand the use of different CPUs in different regions.  Is it support for different bands, or some patent issue?

[PaulOBrien]

To do with LTE I think?

P

[Sere83]

More samsung bloatware, another bland hardware design with the usual bland materials used, and of course bland touchwiz, comical/ridiculous presentation.

Decent Improvement over the S3 mind, Apple will use the A6X with SGX554 or even better GPU in the Iphone 5/6 and again obliterate the SGX544 used in this. Samsung still has the tech and still needs serious hardware and software design guidance, HTC still the best android hardware maker. Business as usual then...

[rovex]

Im really not seeing how this is a minor upgrade over the S3. It looks similar sure, but its basically double the device in every way, yet thinner and lighter. What some call bloatware, others call features. If you want bland and featureless buy a Nexus 4.

While it might be only evolution rather than revolution (significant evolution to my mind), at least its not a bad revolution, like the One. The more i see of it the worse it gets. Thick, heavy, sense 5 is horrible, genuinely pointless features like Blinkfeed, stereo speakers that will mean teens playing music in the street on the damn thing, annoying everyone. Blaghh.

[PaulOBrien]

Haha! Thick and heavy? Not really! Sense 5 is a real improvement, BlinkFeed isn't for everyone but is easily disabled and the speakers are amazing!

P

[ZTR]

PaulOBrien, on 15 March 2013 - 12:36 PM, said:

To do with LTE I think?

P

Both versions will have LTE

[Sere83]

rovex, on 15 March 2013 - 01:26 PM, said:

Im really not seeing how this is a minor upgrade over the S3. It looks similar sure, but its basically double the device in every way, yet thinner and lighter. What some call bloatware, others call features. If you want bland and featureless buy a Nexus 4.

While it might be only evolution rather than revolution (significant evolution to my mind), at least its not a bad revolution, like the One. The more i see of it the worse it gets. Thick, heavy, sense 5 is horrible, genuinely pointless features like Blinkfeed, stereo speakers that will mean teens playing music in the street on the damn thing, annoying everyone. Blaghh.

Haha how is the N4 bland and featureless? Stock android is visually in a different league to the graphic design disaster that is touch wiz, and at least the n4 doesn't come with 15 relatively useless samsung apps, most of which u can find better alternatives to in the play store anyway. Your on drugs if you think the One is thick, its not particularly heavy either. And your saying stereo speakers are a bad thing because kids might use them on a bus? lol. I agree with you that sense still looks like crap though.

[PaulOBrien]

Did you check out my Sense 5 item?

P

[Sere83]

PaulOBrien, on 15 March 2013 - 04:56 PM, said:

Did you check out my Sense 5 item?

P

Yeah commented, still looks like crap imo. Have u seen MIUI V5 Paul?

http://en.miui.com/t...d-2251-1-1.html

Big step up from the abominations that are touch wiz and sense

[PaulOBrien]

Each to his own, I think Sense 5 looks good. I think MIUI v5 is ugly!

P

[razzmataz1478]

ZTR, on 15 March 2013 - 03:22 PM, said:

Both versions will have LTE

It must be dependant on the band?

Edited by razzmataz1478, 16 March 2013 - 09:57 AM.

[ZTR]

So it turns out that like always LTE version will be the Snapdragon version and the global one the Exynos Octa version...

[ZTR]

List of which countries getting which version.

Some are getting both :|

m.gsmarena.com/heres_a_list_of_which_country_gets_which_samsung_galaxy_s4_model-news-5739.php

[Jaisan888]

SerkanMarasli, on 22 March 2013 - 11:26 PM, said:

Spamming dickhead.