It’s finally here. Samsung has revealed the new Galaxy S4, bringing a brand new contender to the smartphone market. Could the fourth generation Android superphone become the jewel in the Android crown?
As we had expected, the phone touts the very latest hardware and a ton of intriguing software features and tricks. Unfortunately this time around Samsung didn’t manage to keep the phone’s identity such a good secret, as when we saw it for the first time we instantly recalled the leaked phone spotted on Chinese forums earlier this week.
There’s lots to digest, so we decided to bring you all the information you could possibly need in one place.
Screen
The display is a 5-inch Super AMOLED display with a Full HD resolution, which is 1920 x 1080. It’s got a super sharp pixel density 441 ppi, which puts the S4’s display in the same rank as the HTC One and Sony Xperia Z. The display can also detect your finger hovering around 1cm above it, allowing you to scroll through lists and peek into photo albums – just like you can with the Note II, but with a stylus. What’s more, the screen is ultra sensitive and can be operated with gloves on!
Camera
The S4 has dual cameras, consisting of a 13 megapixel camera on the back and a 2 megapixel camera up front. Both will shoot Full HD video, but Samsung’s real selling points here lie in the software. For example, the Sound & Shot feature allows you to capture a short audio clip before or after you hit the shutter, adding a little something to each photo. Dual capture allows you to snap a shot with both the rear and front camera at the same time, or dual videos. Eraser lets you rewind photos and effectively remove people or objects to make it perfect, whilst a feature called Drama Shot will shoot an insane 100 pictures in 4 seconds, allowing you to pick the best with ease.
Connectivity
The S4 will ship with 4G LTE connectivity on pretty much every network in the world, leading us to believe it will work with the future 4G networks here in the UK. It also packs in the latest and fastest Wi-Fi connectivity, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and Micro USB with MHL 2.0 for ouputting to a TV. The phone also has an Infrared LED that will allow it to act as a remote for TVs and such, just like HTC’s new One smartphone does. The phone will be available on a staggering 327 networks in 155 countries when it launches.
Dimensions
Despite a bigger screen and bigger tech inside, the S4 is the thinnest Galaxy yet. It’s just 7.9mm thick, measuring 136mm long and 69.8mm wide. Considering the size of the screen, the phone isn’t that much bigger than the S3. It weighs 130g too, which is pretty darn light as far as smartphones go.
Design and colour
The S4 will launch in two colours that Samsung calls Black Mist and White Frost – black and white, if you didn’t guess. The design is crafted from a tough polycarbonate plastic that has a slick glossy front and dimpled back cover, which is removable to give access to the battery. Around the whole handset runs a stylish chrome bezel, which we like.
Touchless operation
As we had heard, the S4 uses a Floating Touch-type technology. By hovering your finger around 1cm above the display you’ll be able to answer calls – with a swipe of your hand over the display – browse web pages, move apps around and loads more. It all sounds very exciting, and as Samsung pointed out, probably a great feature for the ladies who can’t touch the phone whilst they have wet nails.
Memory
You’ll be able to get the phone in 16, 32 and 64GB versions, all of which include a micro SD slot that can accomodate a further 64GB of storage space. The now standard 2GB of RAM is packed in to complement the speedy new Exynos processor, giving a slick and fast experience.
Smart features
Samsung continues its focus on Smart features by expanding what we can do with that 2MP front facing camera. Smart Pause means that the phone will automatically pause the video you’re watching when the camera sees you’ve looked away. Smart Scroll will allow you to scroll down a webpage or email just by moving your eyes down the screen, as you would naturally. Finally, Smart Rotate will automatically flip the picture horizontally or vertically, depending on which way the camera detects you’re looking at it.
Translation
Samsung has implemented a bunch of translation features which we think are awesome. S Translator allows you to speak something to your phone and have it read out phrases translated into a language of your choosing. It can then detect somebody speaking to you in said foreign language and translate it back into text on the phone’s screen for you. The same functionality builds translations into emails, texts and ChatOn messages you receive. Finally, and perhaps the best use, is the option to use the camera to detect writing and have it automatically translated to one of ten languages of your choosing on the screen. We’ve seen this functionality in some third party apps before but this looks much slicker and easier to use.
Will it be easy to switch from my old phone?
Samsung tells us that its new Smart Switch software will make transferring all your data from one phone to the S4 a doddle. Apparently you install the software, plug in your old smartphone and back up everything that you want to carry over to your new phone. Then once that’s done you plug in the S4 and copy everything over in one go – sounds easy, but if Kies is anything to go buy it will require patience.
When can I get it?
Samsung promises to launch the phone in 155 countries by the end of April. We’re still waiting for network confirmations and specific dates, as well as prices, but we expect these to be revealed over the coming days and weeks.