Smart features
As expected, the Samsung Galaxy S4 runs the
latest version of Android (Jelly Bean 4.2.2), with a heavy dose of Samsung
tweaks, courtesy of its TouchWiz UI. The most interesting of these are the new
“touchless” features. This is where the new infrared sensor on the front comes
into play, allowing you to answer the phone by waving your hand in front of the
screen, to scroll through photos in the gallery or skip music tracks without
touching the screen.
We weren’t able to test the phone part, but
we successfully managed to swipe through a selection of pictures - although
this isn’t quite the intuitive process you might expect; we had to ensure our
hand passed directly in front of the sensor to make it work.
We’re also indifferent about Air View,
another touchless interface feature that takes advantage of the super-sensitive
touchscreen to sense your finger when it’s hovering above it. The idea is to
provide a quick preview of messages and expanded image thumbnails; in practice,
we found it uncomfortable to use. You have to get your finger very close to the
screen, and the previews don’t appear instantaneously. If that all sounds a bit
too gimmicky, the hyper-sensitive touchscreen does have one further, more
practical application: as with Nokia’s Windows Phone 8 handsets, it can be
operated while wearing gloves.
You
have to get your finger very close to the screen, and the previews don’t appear
instantaneously
The Samsung Galaxy S4 delivers an extension
of the Smart Stay features we first saw on the S III. Now, as well as keeping
the display on while you’re looking at the screen, the S4 will also pause video
automatically when you look away. This worked when we tried it - but again, it
feels gimmicky.
We also gave the new S Translator feature a
whirl. Designed to help the linguistically challenged to communicate abroad, it
can translate text between ten different languages, including English, German,
French and Spanish. Its party trick is the ability to convert the spoken word
into another language via the phone’s voice-recognition engine. We found this
was hit and miss, though, working only once in five attempts, and providing
only the most literal of translations.
The
Samsung Galaxy S4 delivers an extension of the Smart Stay features we first saw
on the S III.
Camera
One of the major attractions of the S III
was the quality of its camera, and the S4 moves this on a notch, with a
13-megapixel sensor and a host of interesting new features.
There’s Dual Shot, which uses both rear and
front-facing cameras to shoot simultaneously and combine the two images in a
montage. Sound & Shot allows nine seconds of audio to be recorded to
accompany photos, while Drama Shot captures a series of images and superimposes
them on top of each other, resulting in a collage action shot.
There’s
Dual Shot, which uses both rear and front-facing cameras to shoot
simultaneously and combine the two images in a montage.
We suspect these features will be
little-used novelties, but the quality of the camera output initially looks
good. We took several snaps at the event, and studied them in detail the
following day. Even under low light, our photos exhibited impressive detail and
balanced color reproduction.
Initial verdict
We came away impressed from our first
encounter with the S4, and that’s principally down to the discreet improvements
to the phone’s design. It isn’t that the Samsung Galaxy S4 is a thing of
beauty; it’s nowhere near as compelling as the silky aluminum chassis of the
HTC One, and it feels cheaper than an iPhone 5. But by upping both the screen
and battery size, and shrinking the chassis, Samsung has achieved something
extraordinary. Now, we wait to see how it performs in next month’s Labs.
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Samsung
Galaxy S4 specs
·
Processor and key specs: Version one has an
Exynos octa-core 1.6GHz processor while version two includes a Qualcomm
quad-core 1.9GHz processor. Both have 2GB of RAM, 16, 32 or 64GB storage and
a beastly 2600mAh battery.
·
Other features: The S4 runs Android 4.2.2
Jelly Bean. It can take advantage of 4G too. The actual device weighs 130g
which isn’t hefty and will not weigh down a pocket.
·
Design and build: A sleek device that is just
7.9mm thick. At 137mm tall and 70mm wide, it is bigger than an iPhone. It is
made of plastic which can feel rather cheap.
·
Screen: For all the talk of the iPhone 5, its
four-inch 326 pixel screen doesn’t compare with the 1,920 x 1080 five-inch,
441 ppi screen of the S4 which perhaps is better suited to a phablet.
·
Software features: But the S4 improve. While
software features capable of running en S3 will be made available, we like
the pause-when-you-look- away from the screen feature and the touchless interfacing
that can be done
·
Camera: A Whooping 13-MP offering make all the
difference. Yes, it doesn’t always matter how many pixels there are but this
Camera is a Vast improvement on S3
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