All about Samsung Galaxy S4

[PingviN]

Phones aren't laptops though.

Every phone, Android, iOS, BB, or windows comes with a bunch of stuff pre installed.

If you don't like the stuff don't use it.

Yeah, but the level of bloat in Sammy phones/tablets is borderline ridiculous. It'd be much better if the apps were optional or if you'd at least be able to uninstall them.

 

[ChronoReverse]

I thought you disable apps now with ICS and up? Oh well, I just root so I can remove them or use a custom ROM.

As for the HONE vs the GS4, since they're so similar, Samsung giving me microSD and removeable battery automatically win.

 

[bearxor]

Thats because the Razr had a shitload of bezel space to begin with. In fact, thats why I sold mine recently. It had a huge bezel space on every side. No wonder they could put in a larger screen in the M and HD versions, it had plenty of space to work with from the begining

Dear god, the RAZR had horrible bezels. I'm guessing they needed the space to properly secure the screen on the sides, and the extra space allowed them to make the phone super thin. They gave up on trying to make it super thin with the RAZR HD though.

 

[Dari]

Not sure if it has been mentioned but the American GS4 is confirmed to have a Qualcomm 600 SoC. Why this 600 is 200MHz faster than the 600 in the HTC One is beyond me. I think they're playing favorites...

 

[jpeyton]

Not sure if it has been mentioned but the American GS4 is confirmed to have a Qualcomm 600 SoC. Why this 600 is 200MHz faster than the 600 in the HTC One is beyond me. I think they're playing favorites...

It's an incestuous relationship, considering that Qualcomm contracted Samsung to fab their SoCs (in addition to their contract with TSMC).

But it could also be because of better thermal management, larger battery capacity, or both.

 

[poofyhairguy]

As long as the US version gets DDR3 I am fine with that.

 

[scaramoosh]

Yeh Exynos 5 being 3G only with 4G probably not coming to the UK later this year is a killer for me...

Samsung dropped the ball massively.

 

[lopri]

Samsung is also in incestuous relationships with the carriers. It just hit me that this phone isn't just about Samung's success. This phone debuts on staggering numbers of carriers globally, and carriers have motives to sell new phones especially when there isn't a new iPhone on the horizon.

Carriers want to sell lucrative contracts and Samsung delivered - over-delivered, in fact. I could see Verizon having employee training program to show off customers S4's "Smart Pause" feature on video playback. ("Neck Training" might be an appropriate term) Just this feature alone will stoke average consumers' interest, whether they will use it or not.

 

[lopri]

Yeah, but the level of bloat in Sammy phones/tablets is borderline ridiculous. It'd be much better if the apps were optional or if you'd at least be able to uninstall them.

Definitely agree. Can you uninstall native Samsung apps from Galaxy products?

 

[s44]

Yeh Exynos 5 being 3G only

you have no idea what you're talking about

 

[Zeze]

Is there a dedicated site/report on mobile cameras? I'm sick and tired of crappy mobile camera quality, yet no one really carries a handheld cam anymore.

We're at an awkward transition where the phone cameras are still quite bad, but they're not horrendous enough to carry a separate compact camera.

From my personal impression, it seems iPhone optics are consistently better than any other competitors out there.

How is the S3's cam quality vs iPhone 5? How much do you think S4 will be an improvement?

 

[kaerflog]

Theres really only 1 thing on the GS4 that I like over the One and thats the bigger battery.
Its the exact same design and still plasticky all over.
With 32gb as the low end model, I don't see too many people needing removable SD cards.
I love the One premium materials and the stereo speakers.

 

[jpeyton]

Definitely agree. Can you uninstall native Samsung apps from Galaxy products?

Sorry, I don't agree. With 2GB of LPDDR3 and a 1.9GHz Snapdragon 600 quad (or Exynos 5), I predict that any performance advantage between stock Android and skinned Android will be all but unnoticeable.

Also, most of their "S" features can be deactivated in the settings.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

imma pradick right now dat detectin' all da hand and eye moshuns on gs4 gonna cill batarie life

 

[lopri]

Sorry, I don't agree. With 2GB of LPDDR3 and a 1.9GHz Snapdragon 600 quad (or Exynos 5), I predict that any performance advantage between stock Android and skinned Android will be all but unnoticeable.

Also, most of their "S" features can be deactivated in the settings.

I should have worded my question slightly differently. Can a user uninstall Samsung's proprietary apps? was my question.

I think it's something we can agree to disagree, if necessary. You know, like those pesky (IMO) 'install "Ask" toolbar' prompt that comes with Flash player installer. Some might consider it not intrusive, not affect browsing experience negatively, and even beneficial. And it can be deactivated in the browser. So, for the said users, it's no biggie.

But some of us may not appreciate the practice and want to keep their system clean with only necessary things.

I think there is a plenty of room for disagreement how Samsung apps can enhance user experiences. My query was whether it's under users' control. (not activate/deactivate, but install/uninstall)

 

[Skurge]

Sorry, I don't agree. With 2GB of LPDDR3 and a 1.9GHz Snapdragon 600 quad (or Exynos 5), I predict that any performance advantage between stock Android and skinned Android will be all but unnoticeable.

Also, most of their "S" features can be deactivated in the settings.

Touchwizz will likely perform better than stock android as it usually does.

 

[scaramoosh]

you have no idea what you're talking about

? It's the fact.

Snapdragon for 4G
Exynos for 3G international model

 

[bearxor]

Is there a dedicated site/report on mobile cameras? I'm sick and tired of crappy mobile camera quality, yet no one really carries a handheld cam anymore.

We're at an awkward transition where the phone cameras are still quite bad, but they're not horrendous enough to carry a separate compact camera.

From my personal impression, it seems iPhone optics are consistently better than any other competitors out there.

How is the S3's cam quality vs iPhone 5? How much do you think S4 will be an improvement?

You can try:
http://connect.dpreview.com/post/6074233481/hands-on-with-the-samsung-galaxy-s4
http://connect.dpreview.com/post/9831991152/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-camera-review
http://connect.dpreview.com/post/1343713337/apple-iphone-5-review

 

[WelshBloke]

? It's the fact.

Snapdragon for 4G
Exynos for 3G international model

SGS4 is being advertised as having LTE in the UK and I'm assuming we have the international version.

 

[krumme]

You can try:
http://connect.dpreview.com/post/6074233481/hands-on-with-the-samsung-galaxy-s4
http://connect.dpreview.com/post/9831991152/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-camera-review
http://connect.dpreview.com/post/1343713337/apple-iphone-5-review

I think dxomark is a good meassure for objective quality and cuts trough the marketing talk, and as the reviews shows ip5 and s3 is more or less the same. No wonder, for many markets its the same sensor.

There is no reason to think s4 or ip6 is going to change the very bad pictures the phones take. Even my 6 year old 3mpix p&s kills the s3, except for video witch is quite good. Talking optics on phones and all kind of marketing talk, must not take away our own experience and the pictures we can see.

Take the fx. the new HTC one, even with a 2.0 lens that looks good on paper, the corners are so unsharp compared to a cheap p&s its unbelieweble, and at the same time so big its nearly half the area. It nearly looks broken. Take the sensors dynamic range, and although its far better than the ordinary s3/ip5, its still so bad i kills most picture if there is strong contrast, fx. with lots of sunshine - as it happes to be outside.

What helps these new phones is the software, and the speed. The new HDR modes is really important for taking pictures. I really apreciate my phone for Work, but everytime i forget my Sony rx100 (and it could be a far cheaper p&s), i dont even want to take pictures with my phone. I simply can stand looking at the pictures. And i dont expect my s4 to change that for a moment. And Apple can continue their optics marketing, it doesnt change the fact the phone just take bad pictures.

We all want the phones to do the p&s job, but if we have quality requirements, it will take more than 5 years, before we will get close.

 

[Oyeve]

If a laptop came with as much gimmicky crapware as the S4 people would hate it.

Apparently you dont buy laptops. Every new system I buy for my dept. whether a desktop or laptop comes with a shit load of preinstalled sw that takes at least an hour to uninstall or deactivate.

 

[Dari]

The more things change the more they stay the same. Look at all the blue in this picture. After reading the comments, I see that there are more and more people that feel the same about the blue-tint on these awful OLED screens from Samesong. How anyone can tolerate this terrible screen is beyond me...

http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/16/hp-and-samsung-offer-setup-free-printing-on-the-galaxy-s-4/

 

[krumme]

The more things change the more they stay the same. Look at all the blue in this picture. After reading the comments, I see that there are more and more people that feel the same about the blue-tint on these awful OLED screens from Samesong. How anyone can tolerate this terrible screen is beyond me...

http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/16/hp-and-samsung-offer-setup-free-printing-on-the-galaxy-s-4/

Nonsense. The times of s1 and s2 is over a long time ago. On a s3 go select neutral instead of dynamic or standard, that is the standard, and you are nearly there - its a striking difference on the startscreen - and you can just select it yourself. On the new S4 we have the option of selecting professional photo - RGB adobe. That kinds of end the discussion. (edit: se earlier link http://connect.dpreview.com/post/6074233481/hands-on-with-the-samsung-galaxy-s4)

Secondly, there is much more to colors that hitting the right spectrum. The dynamic contrast within each color is vital - as it is on good cameras. And thats why Oled probably wins down the road - for all high-end phones.

 

[krumme]

As for optics on the phones.

Anand have the best writer on earth here, Brian. From:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6777/understanding-camera-optics-smartphone-camera-trends/3


"The current generation of modern pixels is around 1.1 microns square, basically any 13 MP smartphone is shipping 1.1 microns, like the Optimus G, and interestingly enough others are using 1.1 microns at 8 MP to drive thinner modules, like the thinner Optimus G option or Nexus 4. The previous generation of 8 MP sensors were using 1.4 micron pixels, and before that at 5 MP we were talking 1.65 or 1.75 micron pixels. Those are pretty tiny pixels, and if you stop and think about a wave of very red light at around 700nm, we’re talking about 1.5 waves with 1.1 micron pixels, around 2 waves at 1.4 microns, and so forth. There’s really not much smaller you can go, it doesn’t make sense to go smaller than one wave."

What i can read from this is, we are nearly at the end of the road for the mpix madness. After the next generation giving us perhaps 20 mpix, they can only improve quality. Marketing will hate it , but there is hope in 2 years !

 

[bearxor]

iPhone vs P&S for anyone interested:
http://www.takebetterphotos.com.au/iphone5-camera-review.html