It has happened, and how! Yes, the Samsung Galaxy S4 launched today in full glory, with a feature packed spec sheet. Sporting all the flagship hardware features you can imagine, plus a ton of Samsung specific features added to improve the experience, it is rather easy to miss out on the most important ones. We can understand that because we felt exactly the same, too much to swallow at once. So we are going to try to explain and lay out the most important Galaxy S4 features that matter, explained with whatever information we know as of now. Read on past the break.
First, lets talk about the most important feature on any smartphone, the display.
Display and Screen – A 5 inch full HD 1920×1080 Super AMOLED panel with a pixel density of 441 pixels per inch.
We have confirmed that it is not of the RGB, but of a different subpixel format. Since this is a AMOLED panel, expect great contrast and a mighty good brightness. The screen is made of Corning Gorilla Glass 3, which means it is the latest version of course. Additionally, the screen is super sensitive and can adjust the sensitivity according to the conditions. Yes, you can use them with your gloves on.
Size and dimensions – At 7.9mm, the Galaxy S4 is a healthy 1mm thinner than the S3, and weighs 3 gms lesser at 130g.
The size is very slightly larger than the S3 and with a 5 inch screen that is a great feat. With a ridiculously small bezel on the sides, Samsung has accomplished better ergonomics in a very similar form factor.
Cameras – 13 Megapixel rear camera, 2 Megapixel front camera. Both are back illuminated sensors and can record full HD 1080p video.
The rear camera is probably a Sony-built 13 megapixel BSI sensor, and if we go by the leaked Chinese specs, it sports a f2.2 lens. Interesting hardware aside, the camera software on the Galaxy S4 is straight from the Galaxy camera including the nice faux dials for manual controls. Additionally, you have software features like Dual Camera, which can capture from both the cameras at once. Similarly it applies for video calling too, it can simultaneously send both the camera feeds.
Internals – It comes in two variants. One with a 1.9 GHz Quad core processor and another with a Octa core 1.6 GHz processor.
Samsung seems to have two variants of Application processors, as usual. The Quad core variant, if we are right, is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600, while the Octa Core variant is most definitely the Exynos Octa 5410, with four A15 cores and four A7 cores. The A7 cores are for less demanding tasks. The GPU inside the phone, according to the leaks is the PowerVR SGX544MP3, a tri-core GPU.
Cellular – 2G, 3.5G and 4G LTE Hexaband
Samsung claims that the Galaxy S4 supports most LTE bands with its Hexaband chipset, enabling global LTE roaming. But the TDD/FDD dual mode variant, which is required for the Indian market that is enabled by the TD-LTE infrastructure. Also, we are guessing the dual mode LTE variant will be the Galaxy S4 with Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chip.
These are the main hardware features you would want to know about the Galaxy S4. The other features that interested us were Qi wireless charging support and the IR LED blaster for controlling your TV and beaming 1D barcodes using Mobeam technology. Oh, and did we mention Samsung has added a Temperature and Humidity sensor to the Galaxy S4? Yes, you read that right, your 100$ watch just got owned. Another interesting feature you would want to know is the battery capacity, it is a 2600 mAH battery, we assume it can last longer than the S3.
And now, it’s time for us to lay out the most important software features on the Galaxy S4 for you. This is going to be hard because it is really subjective to the user. Before we forget, the S4 runs Android 4.2.2 with the TouchWiz customisation layer on the top. You can find out what’s new in Android 4.2(stock) here and we will let you know when we find out what’s new in Touchwiz with 4.2.2. Anyways, the software features listed below are our preferred stand out features from the Galaxy S4.
Group Play – Without requiring even a network, 5 or 6 Galaxy S4’s can share the same music and play it in sync. This creates ambient sound output and sounds like a great idea for parties. This uses WiFi direct we presume, and hence independent from networks. This applies to documents, pictures, videos and even games!
S Translator – This translator app has both speech to text as well as text to speech built in, with support for a lot of languages. If you find Google Translator lacking, then this might be a good addition to your travel apps folder.
Air View – This feature made famous by the Galaxy Note II, has small highlights or previews when you hover the S-pen over enabled apps like the Gallery, the video player, the web browser, each with specific functions. Now you can do the same on the Galaxy S4, just by using your fingers. You can find a video demo of Air View on the Galaxy Note 2 here.
S Voice Drive – Read and respond to messages all through voice commands with text to speech and speech to text functionality while driving.
No other Android phone has it, but this has been a standard feature on Windows Phone since the Mango update. Just so you know. And yes, that concludes our list of software features we were impressed with. Even though we find the others gimmicky, the “Smart pause” and “Smart Scroll” features are worth a mention. Smart pause pauses video playback when you look away and with smart Scroll you can scroll stuff on the screen by just moving you hands in front of the screen.
And bonus, accessories of the S4 that matter –
Qi Wireless Charging pad – Self explanatory
S Health accessories – With a bevy of sensors in the Galaxy S4, Samsung decided to take a jab at the smart health accessory market with S Health. So, they have a wrist band, and a wide range of health related accessories that play nice with Samsung’s own S health related software. Fitbits of this world be damned!
Wireless Gamepad – Yes, there is a bluetooth gamepad available for the Galaxy S4, as found by Engadget. It looks awful, but hey, Project Shield beware!
So, that’s about it. We hope to have laid it down nice enough for you folks. Do share, if you like it, and do let us know in the comments section if you find any discrepancy or if we missed anything, cheers!