S4: An Overall Performer

As the clock ticks, Samsung hope to tighten its grip on the high end smartphone market with the launch of Samsung Galaxy S4. Since, the other two strong competitors have already launched their flagship devices so S4 had to be better in every way in order to gain the attention of the consumers. And honestly speaking, Samsung Galaxy S4 looks far better than HTC One and Xperia Z on charts. The new Samsung flagship device has literally romped HTC One and Xperia Z in benchmarks. This is what most of the people look for before buying a new smartphone. Well, here is an in depth review of this beautiful device which will give you a better idea of the new Samsung flagship device.

Retail Box:

Samsung have focused on making its retail package more eco-friendly and they have successfully achieved their goal as it is 100% recyclable. The package contains standard accessories which include an AC adapter, data cable and handsfree. However, this time all accessories come in white color unlike SIII which also black set of accessories.

This time they have improved the quality of their earphones which comes with enhanced dual speakers. The new earphones offer top notch sound quality for both low and high frequency. They are in fact better in terms of sound quality as compared to the earphones offered by other companies like HTC and SONY. Samsung have also improved the quality of material and they have made these earphones more user friendly. Now, they can fit in your ears more comfortably.

Build Quality:

Samsung have worked a lot on improving the build quality of their new flagship. S4 is almost of same height as SIII but it is 0.8mm narrower and 3g lighter. It also a bit thinner as compared to its predecessor. However, they have once again disappointed their consumers by following the same design. There is no variation in terms of designs when compared with its predecessor and this is one of the biggest setback of this device. It feels like a plastic toy and fails to compete with premium quality HTC One and Xperia Z. However, it is still comfortable to handle provided that it comes with a 5” Super Amoled Screen.

1080p Screen:

S4 packs a high quality 5” 1080p screen with Gorilla Glass 3. The new generation Gorilla glass offers added protection to the screen and makes it scratch resistant. It has a 441ppi which makes it viewable under sunlight. The best thing about 5” 1080p screen is its image quality and perfect image viewing angels which device like Xperia Z and HTC One have failed to offer.

One of the major issue people had with AMOLED screen was its fake colors. This time Samsung have taken care of this issue and have improved the screen quality. This new 1080 screen offers best image quality. This is mainly because of the color saturation which makes low quality images look vibrant. However, if you are not a big fan of over-saturation then you can play with the settings tune down the saturation. And the credit goes to Samsung’s fine improvements on the software side.

Controls:

Unlike other smartphone companies, Samsung have stick with the hardware button. Though they are not as good as software button offered by other smartphones but they do not matter a lot looking at the other great features. There are three buttons for options, menu and back functions respectively. You can notice a lot of sensors which are a great addition to this smartphone.

Once again, Samsung have missed out on dedicated camera key. You can use volume rocker for taking picture but it is not very comfortable. Therefore, it is recommended to stick with the on screen camera button. At the top you will notice a 3.5mm audio jack and a USB port at the bottom for charging your device.

Samsung has followed its traditions and have included a replaceable battery and a card slot. This is the real deal breaker for most of the customers. The juice is provided Li-Ion 2600 mAh battery which performed quite well in the battery tests. Apart from the built in 16GB you can expand the storage up to 64GB using micro sd card.

Touchwiz:

S4 comes with 4.2.2 Jelly Bean which adds a lot of new and nifty features to the device. The default Android interface is layered with the Samsung’s Touchwiz. Touchwiz is considered as the weakest UI and considering this they have come up with some new features. They have made it more user friendly and have added new features like Quick Glance which was previously a part of NotEII. You will find home screen and widgets similar to its predecessor but overall the user interface has improved a lot.

Camera:

This is what appeals most of the people. Samsung Galaxy S4 packs a 13 MP back shooter and 2 MP front shooter. Both of them are capable of 1080 dual video recording at 30 frames per second. 13MP shooter also packs the latest HDR technology which is liked by camera enthusiasts.

Overall, the camera result of Galaxy S4 is far better than HTC One and Xperia Z. However, when it comes to low light images, HTC One is a clear winner.

Though the video quality of S4 is pretty good but it is not as good as its predecessor. However, it is expected that Samsung will improve it with some new software updates.

Conclusions:

In a nutshell, Samsung Galaxy S4 is a perfect buy if dedicated camera key and premium build quality does not bother you much. You will definitely get the feel of  a real high end smartphone and you will enjoy using every single bit of it.