Score: 10/10 (Outstanding)
Pros Sleek and clean design, stunning 1080p HD display, incredibly fast Snapdragon 600 processor, excellent cameras with tons of software features, long-lasting battery, air/eye gestures work surprisingly well, latest version of Android. | Cons Laundry list of software features may be a turn off for some, not everyone will be a fan of the plastic design |
We are about halfway through 2013, and we've already seen some pretty incredible phones that have proven that they are a force to be reckoned with. Of those phones, the two most popular are easily the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC One. In this review, we will be talking about the former of those two smartphones, and about why it might very well be the best smartphone I have ever used. To find out why I think the Samsung Galaxy S4 is so freaking amazing, keep reading my full review.
Design/Build Quality
The HTC One made a huge statement in smartphone design with it's all aluminum body, that won over the hearts of phone users everywhere. Although I haven't reviewed the HTC One yet, I have played around with it at retail stores before, so I have an idea of why people love it so much. With that said, I really dug the design on the Galaxy S4. The Galaxy S4 is made out of plastic, which is certainly less premium feeling that the HTC One's aluminum, but I personally fell in love with it. Even though all of Samsung's products are made out of plastic, the S4 just felt extremely great in the hand. To give the handset a nice little shine, Samsung added a brushed metal frame along the entire body of the Galaxy S4, which adds a fresh look on top of the standard plastic.
The Galaxy S4 measures in at 5.38 x 2.75 x 0.31 in and weighs in at 4.59 oz, making it very slim, trim, and lightweight. All of the controls on the Galaxy S4 are pretty basic, with your power button on the right, volume rocker on the left, and a physical home button below the screen with two capacitive navigational button on either side of that. I know not everyone will love the Galaxy S4's design as much as I do, but I have always been a big fan of Samsung's product design. While their designs may not be revolutionary, they always prove to be clean and sexy nearly every single time. The Galaxy S4 is no exception to that.
The Galaxy S4 measures in at 5.38 x 2.75 x 0.31 in and weighs in at 4.59 oz, making it very slim, trim, and lightweight. All of the controls on the Galaxy S4 are pretty basic, with your power button on the right, volume rocker on the left, and a physical home button below the screen with two capacitive navigational button on either side of that. I know not everyone will love the Galaxy S4's design as much as I do, but I have always been a big fan of Samsung's product design. While their designs may not be revolutionary, they always prove to be clean and sexy nearly every single time. The Galaxy S4 is no exception to that.
Hardware
Just like the HTC Droid DNA which we most recently reviewed, the Samsung Galaxy S4 is packing in a 5-inch screen with a pixel resolution of 1920 x 1080p full HD and 440ppi (pixels-per-inch). Unlike the DNA though, the Galaxy S4 uses a Super AMOLED panel rather than a Super LCD 3. After uses both devices for a rather extensive period of time, I found that the Galaxy S4's screen looked just a little bit better. Colors seemed to be just a bit more saturated and pop out more on the S4. Comparisons aside, the screen on the Galaxy S4 is absolutely stunning. Even though I've used phones in the past with 1080p HD screens, they continue to impress the heck out of me. Texts is razor sharp, viewing angels are wide, outdoor visibility is great, and color look simply gorgeous. The Galaxy S4 also has Gorilla Glass 3, so it should be able to withstand any number of falls, bumps off of tables, scratches, and more.
The Galaxy S4 is also an incredible performer when it comes to gaming. This is thanks to its 1.9GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor and 2GB of RAM. No matter what you throw at the Galaxy S4, it will be able to stay one step ahead of you the entire time. Want to play a graphically intensive 3D game? No problem. Want to let that 3D game run in the background while you watch a YouTube video? Simple. The Galaxy S4 is true powerhouse, and is easily the fastest smartphone I have used to date. Qualcomm's Snapdragon 600 CPU was worth the wait, and offers processing speeds beyond anything I've ever seen on a smartphone. There's a reason why the Galaxy S4 got a score of 12,226 on our Quadrant Standard Benchmark test. That reason is that it's fast. Really freaking fast.
Already impressed with the Galaxy S4? Get ready to be even more impressed. The S4 features a 13MP rear-facing camera, as well as a 2MP front-facing camera, and both take gorgeous looking photos. As if gorgeous looking pictures weren't enough, Samsung has also include a slew of incredible software features. These features include your standard HDR and Panorama, but there a few other pretty sweet ones that Samsung included as well. One of these is Eraser, which allows you to erase unwanted objects or people from you images, so photo-bombing is no longer as issue. Another unique feature is Sound & Shot, which lets you add up to 9 seconds of recorded audio to your pictures to give them another layer of meaning. One of my favorite features though would have to be Animated Photo, which lets you make .GIFs straight from your S4. The Galaxy S4 also allows you to take pictures and record video with both the rear-facing and front-facing camera a the same time, which is great for recording you reaction to something, or including yourself in a group photo when you are the one taking the pictures. There are a ton more features for the Galaxy S4's camera, but these are just the ones that stuck out to me the most.
With all of these awesome features, lets not forget that the Galaxy S4 can also make and receive phone calls! Thankfully, the S4 provides excellent call quality, with both ends of a phone conversation sounding crystal clear. The model of the S4 that we reviewed was running on Verizon Wireless, so we had access to Verizon's blazing fast 4G LTE coverage, which proved to be as speedy as ever on the Galaxy S4.
The get you through your extensive days of use with the phone, the Galaxy S4 packs in a 2,600 mAh battery. Even though we've seen bigger on the Samsung Galaxy Note II and LG Optimus G Pro, the Galaxy S4 still proved to offer incredible battery life. In my time with the device, I was able to get about 11 to 12 hours of extensive use out of the S4. I couldn't ever exactly make it through two entire days of use with the phone, but I frequently ended one day with over 50% battery life still remaining. Because of it's plastic design, the S4's battery is also removable, so you have the option to pop in a spare one or add an even larger one if you see fit. The Galaxy S4 also packs in 16GB of internal storage, but gives you the option to expand it up to an additional 64GB via a microSD card.
Software
The Samsung Galaxy S4 ships with the very latest and greatest version of Android, 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. 4.2 Jelly Bean brings along welcome goodies, such as even more intuitive notifications, lock-screen widgets, and more. Layered on top of Android 4.2 is the latest version of Samsung's TouchWiz user interface, and it is looking better than ever. Animations are slicker, widgets look cleaner, and everything looks stunning. I used to prefer the look and feel of Vanilla Android, but after having used the Samsung Galaxy S4, I think that I would now rather use a device running with Samsung's TouchWiz, rather than stock Android. While TouchWiz looks great, there a load of features that it adds to the Android experience as well.
One of the features is Starter Mode. Starter Mode makes the Galaxy S4 easier to use for first-time smartphone users, with large icons, big text, and an extremely simple UI. Although we've seen similar features on handsets such as the Galaxy Note II, LG Lucid 2, and more, I found the Starter Mode on the S4 to be the easiest and cleanest to use.
Some of the software features that I had the most fun with, were all of the hand gesture and eye tracking features. An example of one of these features is Smart Stay. If you look away from a video that you are watching on your Galaxy S4, the video will pause itself until you look back at the screen. Another feature, Smart Scroll, allows you to scroll through Web pages by simply tilting your head up or down. While these features sound gimmicky on paper, I found that they worked surprisingly well in my time with the phone. A lot of people will probably forget that these features even exist of their S4, but I know that I certainly enjoyed being able to tell say to my friends and family "Hey! Look at what my phone can do!". In all my time of reviewing smartphones, tablets, etc., I've rarely been able to say that about a product, let alone a smartphone. I know it sounds stupid, but these features kind of make the S4 feel like a magical device.
Probably the most useful feature on the Galaxy S4 is Multi Window. Multi Window allows you to run two applications simultaneously on the screen at the exact same time. This means that you can be watching a YouTube video in the upper half of the S4's screen, while you are checking Facebook in the lower half. Multitasking has also been a staple of the Android operating system, but Multi Windows is easily the best multitasking experience you will currently find on any smartphone or tablet.
Final Verdict
As you can probably tell by now, I absolute love the Samsung Galaxy S4. From the clean design, stunning 1080p HD screen, mind-blowing processing speeds, gorgeous camera, loads of software features, and more, it's pretty much impossible to not fall in love with this piece of tech. When I review products here on MobileCupOfJoe, I usually get the devices for about a 2 week period, and then I have to send it back so the company can send it to another journalist. While sending back cool smartphones and tablets is never that enjoyable of a thing to do, I don't think I am going to miss a phone as much as I will with the Galaxy S4. It sounds crazy, but you really do form a bond with this phone. The Galaxy S4 is an amazing phone. If you are looking for a new smartphone, and money or your service provider is not an option, get the Samsung Galaxy S4. I can honestly say that I know you will fall in love with it, just as I did. I rarely say this about phones that I review, but I would be more than happy with being locked into a 2 year contract with the Galaxy S4.
DISCLAIMER: Joseph Maring used the Samsung Galaxy S4 for 6 days before beginning to write his review of the device. Verizon Wireless sent us the Galaxy S4 to review, but in no way affected out final score of the handset.
Author: Joseph Maring
DISCLAIMER: Joseph Maring used the Samsung Galaxy S4 for 6 days before beginning to write his review of the device. Verizon Wireless sent us the Galaxy S4 to review, but in no way affected out final score of the handset.
Author: Joseph Maring
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