Galaxy Note II White Galaxy S4

The introduction of the Galaxy S4 flagship by Samsung is one of the more polarizing releases recently from the Android smartphone-maker. On one hand, Samsung has fine tuned the Galaxy S3 and added some 160+ new features on the Galaxy S4, including welcomed additions such as a larger battery, refined styling, larger and higher resolution display, and a speedier processor that can keep up with the big flagships. On the other hand, despite all the new additions, some in the tech industry are mockingly referring to the Galaxy S4 as the Galaxy S3S, a name that beckons to Apple’s marketing–like the move from the iPhone 4 to the iPhone 4S–showing that not enough has changed between generations and that the Galaxy S4 is basically a Galaxy S3 with slightly more under the hood. In this review, we’re going to examine both sides of the equation and see if the Galaxy S4 would be as compelling an upgrade to existing Galaxy S3 owners as it is to those who are looking for an Apple alternative in the space.
 UMI CROSS Smartphone 6.44 FHD MTK6589T Android 4.2 OTG NFC HiFi 2GB 32GB White
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Design
CUBOT C11 Smartphone 5.0 Inch IPS Android 4.2 MTK6572 Dual Core GPS 4GB White
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To behold is to believe. While not much has changed superficially between the two generations of Galaxy S flagships, there is definitely a pleasing feeling when you hold the Galaxy S4. It’s trimmed down by just a hair and Samsung has put the Galaxy S3 on a diet so you do get a slightly thinner, slightly lighter, and slightly less curvaceous design moving up a generation, but the difference feels nice and the subtle redesign looks elegant and modern. Whereas the white Galaxy S3 unit had a smooth white coat and the Pebble Blue Galaxy S3 had a faux metallic finish, the Galaxy S4 makes due with a fine checkered motif that’s very subtle on both the black and white editions.

White Galaxy S4 left; Pebble Blue Galaxy S3 right

White Galaxy S4 left; Pebble Blue Galaxy S3 right

The fine checkered imprinting is reminiscent of the textured rear battery covers on older Galaxy S phones. Unfortunately, like the Galaxy S3, Samsung’s filled in the design with a smooth, high gloss finish, meaning that you won’t get the texture to aid in ergonomics and held reduce the phone from falling out of your hands. That said, the more flat and less curvy design does help in maintaining a solid grip.

The bellowed out sides of the Galaxy S3 has been replace with a flat metal-looking band that surrounds the phone’s sides, something that reminds us of the design of the Motorola Droid RAZR HD and even the iPhone 4′s steel band, minus Apple’s infamous Antennagate situation.

Metal-like band wraps around the phone and provides structural support.

Metal-like band wraps around the phone and provides structural support.
Star S6 Smartphone 5.0 Inch MTK6589 Quad Core Android 4.2 3G GPS 13.0MP Black
Samsung is continuing its trend with plastic designs with the Galaxy S4. I don’t have any qualms with this decision unlike others in the media who have been more critical of Samsung given that rivals such as Sony Mobile Communications and LG have moved to more premium glass materials while HTC is employing a premium zero-gap unibody aluminum construction. In the end, the use of plastics means that the phone will be better to handle drops than glass and won’t show scuff as easily as metal, and the thin removable plastic battery cover gives me access to a removable battery, an easily serviceable SIM card slot that doesn’t require any SIM ejector tool, and user-accessible expandable storage through a micro SD card where I can add up to a whopping 64 GB micro SDXC card.

Removing the rear polycarbonate plastic battery cover and you have access to the battery, micro SD memory card slot, and micro SIM card. On Sprint, the micro SIM is for global roaming on GSM networks and the SIM card isn't tied to the CDMA/EVDO/LTE service used domestically.
Cubot T9 MTK6589T Quad Core Smartphone 5.0 Inch FHD Android 4.2 13.0MP Camera 16GB White
Removing the rear polycarbonate plastic battery cover and you have access to the battery, micro SD memory card slot, and micro SIM card. On Sprint, the micro SIM is for global roaming on GSM networks and the SIM card isn’t tied to the CDMA/EVDO/LTE service used domestically.

Hardware
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Display. When you’re looking at the Galaxy S4, the thing that strikes you instantly is the large display and super skinny side bezels. By going the route of Apple’s iPad mini and slimming the bezels, Samsung was able to cram more screen in the same footprint as the Galaxy S3–it’s a nice design feat and makes for an attractive device.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe screen itself is a gorgeous display. We said that about the 720p HD Super AMOLED display of the Galaxy S3, but moving to the 1080p Full HD Super AMOLED screen of the Galaxy S4, Samsung’s made some big improvements. Pixels disappear on this 441 ppi resolution display, while colors are still not quite as accurate to life as that on a Super LCD display, Samsung is using an adaptive display technology to automatically adjust the colors and saturation of the display based on what you’re doing on the phone to give you the best display settings based on your task.

And though the minimal bezels are nice, using the device with barely any bezels is an entirely different story. In my testing of the Galaxy S4, usability did suffer a bit when compared to the Galaxy S3. If you’re holding the phone in portrait orientation and are wrapping your fingers around, your fingers may touch the bezel and cause inadvertent taps on a hyper-sensitive screen. Unfortunately, Android doesn’t have the same algorithms that the iPad mini has to know if you’re just holding the phone on its thin side edges or if you’re actively trying to tap on the screen.

The screen sensitivity is also more pronounced than the Galaxy S3–Samsung’s added a number of features including the Lumia 920-borrowed screen where you can use the display with gloves on and still be able to touch and tap with pleasure. And secondly, if you’re holding the phone in landscape, you’ll end up hitting some of the side capacitive touch buttons which are placed very close to the bottom edge of the phone in portrait orientation. This is a time when I wished Samsung would follow Google’s Nexus lead and move the buttons onto the display, sacrificing a little bit of screen real estate for button placement.

You do get a nice addition with the display, however, as now you can hover over content in a number of apps to get more detailed information, similar to hovering your mouse over content on a PC. We’ll discuss this later in depth later in this review.

CPU, RAM, Network Options.  Powered by a quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor, all U.S. variants of the Galaxy S4 eschews Samsung’s highly coveted Exynos 5 Octa CPU in favor of Qualcomm’s internals, a decision that we heard was made due to shortages of the Exynos parts. Still the Snapdragon 600 was speedy and we noticed no slow downs in everyday tasks, video watching, streaming content with Adobe Flash in the browser, and playing some popular games.

The model that I tested is Sprint-specific, and it’s designed for CDMA, EVDO, and Sprint’s 4G LTE bands in the U.S. My Sprint model does have a micro SIM tray that’s accessible, unlike the Galaxy S3 from that carrier, signaling that this may be a world-phone from Sprint that supports GSM/3G UMTS networks while roaming abroad as well. Sprint has said that it won’t be tying its LTE service, unlike rival CDMA carrier Verizon, to a SIM card and that its SIM cards are purposed mainly for world roaming.

Users who choose the Sprint model will also benefit from the carrier’s unlimited data plan offerings. Given that you can do so much with the Galaxy S4 given the device’s sheer horsepower, an unlimited data plan will go a long way in allowing users to share, upload, download, stream, surf, and browse.

5.5-inch 720p HD display of the Galaxy Note II on left compared with 5-inch 1080p display of the Galaxy S4 on the right.

5.5-inch 720p HD display of the Galaxy Note II on left compared with 5-inch 1080p display of the Galaxy S4 on the right.
Other Sensors and Radios. At the top, the phone’s earpiece speaker is now cluttered with a number of sensors. You have the ambient light sensor to auto-adjust the screen brightness, an IR sensor to detect motion gestures, a front-facing 1.9-megapixel camera that takes surprisingly good self-portraits even in reduced lighting conditions, and a proximity sensor to turn off the screen as you’re holding the phone up too your cheeks to use it as a phone for calls. The phone also has a temperature and humidity sensor, accelerometer and gyroscope, an S View cover sensor, digital compass, and barometer. It’s a lot to pack in and all these sensors will turn every Galaxy S4 toting user a mini weather station!

Camera and Speakers. On the rear of the phone, the simplified and more minimalist camera design isn’t without compromise either. Up top, the camera pod is simplified. It still protrudes out a bit, like the Galaxy S3. Gone is the futuristic metal speaker grill that flanks the right side of the camera as the speaker has been moved towards the bottom, a design decision that has been borrowed from the Galaxy Note II. The flash has been moved from the left side on the Galaxy S3 to the bottom on the Galaxy S4.

13-megapixel camera is placed too close to the top edge, making it difficult to hold the phone to take a landscape photo, especially given the slim bezels already on the front of the device.

13-megapixel camera is placed too close to the top edge, making it difficult to hold the phone to take a landscape photo, especially given the slim bezels already on the front of the device.

The problem with this camera placement is that the camera lens has been shifted a bit up to the top of the device. This is fine for capturing images in portrait mode, but when you’re gripping the camera in landscape mode, your fingers tend to obscure and block the camera lens.

Rear loudspeaker now has moved towards the bottom of the phone, a change from the Galaxy S3's layout.

Rear loudspeaker now has moved towards the bottom of the phone, a change from the Galaxy S3′s layout.

The camera itself uses a 13-megapixel Samsung sensor and can record videos in 1080p. Samsung has also added a number of new camera tricks, through clever software, that we’ll discuss later in this review.

Other Hardware. The sides of the phone are relatively clean and minimalist in appearance. Up top, you have a 3.5mm headphone jack on the left side and a small IR blaster port on the right side used to control your TV and home entertainment center. The right edge just houses the power button.

Up top, the 3.5 mm headphone jack and the IR blaster for controlling your TV and home entertainment center.

Up top, the 3.5 mm headphone jack and the IR blaster for controlling your TV and home entertainment center.

On the bottom, you have a single micro USB port. The USB port is an MHL port so you can connect an MHL dongle to get HDMI output to your TV. Additionally, pro and advanced users will be happy to know that the UBS port also supports USB on the go, or USB OTG, so you can get an appropriate adapter and connect USB peripherals, including a flash drive, to expand your Galaxy S4.

And on the left side, you have the volume rocker which looks a lot more refined than that on the Galaxy S3.

A more refined power button flank one side and a more refined volume rocker flank the opposite side edge of the phone. The metal buttons are a nice upgrade from the Galaxy S3's faux chrome finish.

A more refined power button flank one side and a more refined volume rocker flank the opposite side edge of the phone. The metal buttons are a nice upgrade from the Galaxy S3′s faux chrome finish.

Samsung should be commended for being able to cram more phone into the same space. It’s quite the design and engineering accomplishment.
Software

Where Samsung differentiates its flagship from others is through software. Much of the hardware found on the Galaxy S4 is a commodity and would likely appear on high-end phones released in 2014–quad-core processing, 13-megapixel cameras, and 1080p HD displays are all par for the high-end course this year.

The Galaxy S4 is powered by Google’s Android 4.2.2 operating system and is layered with the Samsung TouchWiz Nature UI experience. Users who are familiar with the Galaxy S3′s software will feel right at home as that was introduced on the Galaxy S3 software-wise was carried forward to the Galaxy S4. On top of that, Samsung added a few more sensors, a lot more gestures, and a smorgasboard of features. Likely, you won’t discover all the new features right away–I know I still haven’t even after nearly a week of use.

In this review, we’ve outlined some of the novel features we’ve discovered. A few we liked, some we thought were novel, and others we dismissed as gimmicky, but at the end of the day when you’re showing off your hot new phone to friends and family, you’ll have a lot more to talk about and demo.

Easy Mode. This one is perhaps my favorite feature for the phone. Samsung had introduced Easy Mode originally on the Galaxy Note II as a set of pre-loaded widgets to get feature phone owners accustomed to a smartphone without scaring them off. Essentially, even if you’re not comfortable with a smartphone, Samsung has given you training wheels so you can grow with the phone and not outgrow the phone. Easy Mode has been refined on the Galaxy S4 to become its own skinned experience rather than just widgets.

Gone is the Sprint ID-esque pre-configured widgets from before from the Note II’s implementation. Now, Easy Mode is even more baked in and well integrated throughout the entire experience. When you launch your phone into Easy Mode, it’s like turning on a feature phone and you won’t even feel like Android is there.

Easy Mode also takes over some apps and core settings to make things more friendly. When you launch the system settings, you’ll get a more simplified UI and the camera app is stripped of some of the Samsung introduced features to make it less daunting.

If you’ve got an older relative or a tech-challenged friend who wants an easy to read phone with a large screen due to vision problems, the Galaxy S4 can serve that purpose as Easy Mode increases the font size and icon size. You can tell your older friends to toss away their Jitterbug and try Easy Mode.

The Calendar app is one app that was customized for Easy Mode. Here, in Easy Mode, it's simplified to remove clutter and focus on the basics. You won't see appointment previews, but it makes things less intimidating.

The Calendar app is one app that was customized for Easy Mode. Here, in Easy Mode, it’s simplified to remove clutter and focus on the basics. You won’t see appointment previews, but it makes things less intimidating.

Lockscreen Widgets. Outside of Easy Mode, once you return to normal mode, the Galaxy S4 will give you more controls of your lock screen than the Galaxy S3.

At its core, you still have the standard lock screen that displays the date and time, along with the Life Companion branding. However, you can add a number of widget pages to quickly launch apps.

Swiping between the standard date/time lock screen page with missed call notification to the quick app launcher lock screen widget.

Swiping between the standard date/time lock screen page with missed call notification to the quick app launcher lock screen widget.

One page will be an app shortcut page, allowing you to launch even more apps than the standard tray at the bottom of the device.

I customized another tray to show recent messaging, which pulls in messaging from various sources like emails, SMS, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and other feeds. This unified messaging hub reminds me a lot of BlackBerry Hub, and I wish that Samsung would let me access it from anywhere in Android and not just as a lockscreen widget. It’s a nice touch to see all your new messages in one location.

Recent un-read messages and alerts on the Communication Notifications lock screen widget

Recent un-read messages and alerts on the Communication Notifications lock screen widget

And lastly, I have set up another page with remote controls to quickly operate the TV remote function of the Galaxy S4.

While this may not seem all too useful–it only takes a quick swipe and then a dive into the apps drawer to launch your favorite apps–for corporate users who secure their phones with a complex alphanumeric password, it will make accessing simple tasks easier. Now, rather than entering my full 12-digit password comprised of numbers and letters, I can quickly glance on the lock screen to see quick message previews and change my TV channels without having to unlock my phone. And given Samsung’s enterprise focus with the KNOX security features, this will be great for users who use one phone for work and personal life.

Touchless Gestures. Touchscreens are so 2007 when the iPhone debuted. Samsung is slowly introducing new ways for users to interact with their phones. On the Galaxy Note II, Samsung allowed users to hover over the display–and not tap it–with the S-Pen to allow users to gain more information. Now, the same hover, or Air View, feature has been ported and on the Galaxy S4, users don’t need the S-Pen. On an email, message, Flipboard, or the Samsung Hub (for movies, books, TV shows purchases), users can just point at the screen and not touch it to see more information pop-up. On an email, you get a nice message preview. It’s like hovering your mouse cursor over something on the desktop and getting a pop-up.