After several months of rumors and speculation as to what exactly Samsung has been cooking up with its Galaxy S4, today they finally pulled back the veil of secrecy. And the results are certainly an impressive display of what the company believes is its future in the smartphone business as the Galaxy S4 is equipped with a 5-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display, a 13MP rear-facing camera and will run on Android 4.2.2.
But that’s not all as not only has the company gone all out with its Galaxy S4, but a new suite of first-party software is also being introduced to further expand on an already impressive showing of hardware. Samsung understand that beyond impressive hardware, it is the user experience and user productivity that will ensure the continued success of its Galaxy S line of smartphones. (more…)
If success is judged by anticipation, the Samsung GALAXY S 4 is already a winner. Hotly discussed in the months leading up to today’s big reveal, expectations for the phone have varied wildly from a ground-shaking rethink to a buff and polish of the best-selling Galaxy S III. The end result, though, treads a line between the two: familiar and yet bursting with new functionality, and refined in ways that, while not perhaps the most headline-catching, nonetheless keep Samsung’s hardware at the top of its game. Read on for our hands-on first impressions.
From the outset, it’s clear that Samsung hasn’t strayed too far from the formula that made the Galaxy S III so successful. The new phone follows in the family style footsteps, though while the dimensions are similar to before – the same 136.6mm length, slightly wider at 69.8mm, and slightly thinner at 7.9mm – Samsung has managed to squeeze in a larger display. The new Super AMOLED HD screen measures in at 5-inches, versus the 4.7- of the older phone, and now runs at a crisp 1080p resolution for 441ppi pixel density.
Even just accommodating a screen of that size without a significant change in size is impressive, but the panel itself is a good one too. It’s still PenTile, which is likely to make some display purists groan, but it keeps the great contrast and rich colors we’re familiar with from AMOLED. We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that the similarly 1080p (though slightly smaller) HTC One’s LCD3 screen is a little more natural and pleasing to our eyes, though.
If HTC has focused its software efforts on BlinkFeed and Zoe, Samsung has cast its net wide, basically throwing everything at the wall in the expectation that at least something will stick for most users. The 13-megapixel main camera (paired with a 2-megapixel front camera) gets a new suite of features, such as the ability to take two photos or videos simultaneously from the front and rear cameras and combine them into one, Samsung Dual Shot, and being able to append up to nine seconds of audio to a still, to give it some context when you later review it. Samsung calls that Sound-in-Shot, though while it’s clever, we’re not quite as impressed as we were by HTC Zoe.
There’s also no shortage of signs that Samsung has its eye on what’s currently fashionable in mobile. So, there’s Cinema Photo, which basically creates a cinemagram-style animated photo without demanding a third-party app, and Drama Shot, which builds a single frame out of multiple burst-photography stills. You can easily share a group of images about, say, a recent holiday in a Story Album, complete with facts from Trip Advisor; that can later be printed courtesy of a tie-in with Blurb.
The Galaxy S III introduced eye-recognition for keeping its display active, and the GALAXY S 4 builds on that with Smart Pause and Smart Scroll. When you look away from the screen during video playback, the phone automatically pauses it until you look back; similarly, if you’re looking at the S 4 and reading a longer list, then simply tilting the phone scrolls through it. The GALAXY S 4 is pretty obsessed by where your fingers are, too: the Galaxy Note II, for instance, could track whether its S Pen nib was hovering over the screen but not touching, but now the S 4 can do the same only recognizing your fingertips.
That means you can peep inside folders and galleries, or at the content of unopened messages, simply by floating your fingertips over the top of them; Samsung has also brought in some third-party app support, with titles like Flipboard also supporting the Hover feature to preview new stories. It’s not the only way the GALAXY S 4 is watching you. Air Browse, Air Jump, and Air Call Accept all track hand movements, allowing you to wave and gesture your way through menus, answering calls – which we could see being particularly usefully when you’re driving – and controlling music playback.
When you can pretty much count on your phone selling in the millions, you can start to look at how different units interact, as Samsung has with the GALAXY S 4. There’s Group Play for audio, video, and gaming playback, creating ad-hoc local networks of multiple handsets all running the same content synchronized, for instance, with support for games like Asphalt 7 and Gun Bros 2 working with the feature. There’s also S Translator in the latest version of ChatON, the messaging app, and the email app, usefully switching between languages rather than forcing you to copy and paste into something like Google Translate.
Samsung has really gone to town on added-extras – in fact the number of times you might have to dig into Google Play for a third-party solution is shrinking all the time. There’s a business card scanner – which also usefully gets S Translator baked-in, to pick out and convert foreign addresses and job titles – and an IR blaster which, with the new Samsung WatchON app, turns the phone into a remote control complete with EPG and on-demand access.
The rest of the hardware basically backs up that software flourish with the power the Galaxy S4 needs to deliver on its promises. Different geographies will get different processors, depending on the combination of LTE and other factors, with Samsung choosing between the quadcore Snapdragon 1.9Ghz and its own eight-core 1.6Ghz Exynos 5. . No matter the chip, there’ll be 2GB of memory to accompany it, and the usual 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB of internal capacity. Samsung has also stuck with expandable memory and a removable battery, something neither the HTC One nor the iPhone 5 offer, features which remain popular among power-users and business customers.
Image and sound processing also get worked over, with Samsung Adapt Sound and Adapt Display. We’ve seen such DSP used to good effect by Sony and others, and the Galaxy S4 benefits too, though when it comes to sound it’s clear that nothing can replace big drivers. The HTC One’s custom speaker system and Beats Audio processing still has the edge, to our ears.
Samsung didn’t stint on accessories for the Galaxy S III – at a time when, while iPhone had a thriving ecosystem of third-party add-ons, Android devices still lacked anything so cohesive – and the company hasn’t slowed down with the Galaxy S4. There’s a new S View Cover, like a flip-cover only with a window cut through that allows a small part of the smartphone’s display to remain powered-up and show battery, signal status, music playlists, and incoming call details. That’s courtesy of AMOLED’s capability to only power a small subset of an overall display, and sip battery while it does so.
Then there are the new add-ons to go with S Health. Samsung did have some health & fitness tech for the previous Galaxy, but the S4 steps it up a notch, timely given the focus on wearables and monitoring right now. Software-only, S Health will work as a pedometer as well as tracking temperature and humidity, in addition to allowing users to log their food (with a huge database in the background of nutritional information). However, there’s also Samsung S Band, a Bluetooth-enabled tracker in the manner of a Jawbone UP, which logs data even if the GALAXY S 4 isn’t nearby, and then synchronizes with it once they’re back in range. Samsung also has a Bluetooth-enabled body scale and heart-rate monitor, which also feed their recordings into the phone.
Expectations for the GALAXY S 4 have been high, but Samsung has taken the evolutionary rather than revolutionary path for its new phone. Then again, it didn’t have to: sales of the Galaxy S III remain brisk, and the company has the marketing budget to hammer home its latest message. It also avoids frustrating existing owners too greatly: they’ll be getting software updates which add many of the new Samsung-exclusive additions, and haven’t been left too far behind with the hardware.
That said, should Galaxy S III users upgrade to the GALAXY S 4? If you insist on being on the very latest hardware, and you’re wedded to Samsung, then perhaps it’s a no-brainer. However, it’s not the vast step-up we saw from, say, the Galaxy S II to its successor. In fact, while the hardware is cutting-edge, it’s clear that Samsung’s efforts this time around have really been focused on software enhancements. Some won’t care about things like the IR blaster or Group Play, but will lap up the S Health system and Air Gestures, or vice-versa, but either way there’s a sense that there’s something for everybody.
On the one hand, that’s liberating – after all, why should everyone use the same device in the same way? – but on the other it can get overwhelming and confusing. The appeal of the HTC One is not only that it’s built so well (leagues ahead, we must say, than the in-hand-feel of the GALAXY S 4) but that it focuses on doing a couple of things particularly well, in ways that make a significant difference to the user over and above the standard Android OS.
We’ll confess to a certain sense of unease, then, about how the GALAXY S 4 will find its place in the smartphone market today. Samsung has done what it needed to – in the manner of Apple and the transition between the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S – to bring its flagship up to speed. Promotion and advertising will take care of the rest. If that overshadows phones like the HTC One, however, devices which really do take a more revolutionary approach, then we’d be mightily disappointed.
The Samsung GALAXY S 4 will sell by the bucket-load. Everybody knows that. But in a way we’re still more thankful for its predecessor and how that forced every other Android OEM to raise its game for 2013. That’s better for consumers, and more interesting for us. We’ll have to wait until we can review the Galaxy S4 before we can tell whether it’s actually the best Android device of the lot, however.
Last week, we highlighted a video that showed a way the Samsung Galaxy Note 2′s homescreen can be exploited in order launch programs and directly dial some contacts on your phone, even though the process takes some quick finger work. The process is done through the emergency contacts area of the lock screen, and is once again being used to give access to portions of a locked Galaxy Note 2.
The latest vulnerability highlighted in a video requires the phone to have its ticker active, which as a result displays news bites and other short news information upon waking the device. Tapping on a news piece will be met with the device’s lock screen, but if you tap on the emergency contacts button, you’ll then be able to see the launched browser. From there, the user can access the phone’s clipboard as well as websites that may hold personal information.
Considering how many exploits have surfaced revolving around the emergency contacts menu, we’re hoping Google is not only made aware of these workarounds, but is also in the process of patching them up.
We’re sure by now, you’ve seen Samsung’s business-focused commercials where they originally took aim at BlackBerry and Apple, but have since moved on to talk about how the Galaxy S3 can be used in a business environment. The commercials centered around a fictional game called “Unicorn Apocalypse,” which today turned into an actual product.
Unicorn Apocalypse is now available on the Google Play store for you Android users, especially you Galaxy S3 owners, to download. The game can easily be seen as a ripoff of Adult Swim’s Robot Unicorn Attack as you play as a unicorn in an endless runner-type game where you make your way through a number of obstacles to see how far you can travel.
Considering the game is completely free, you shouldn’t expect a worthwhile game here as it appears its littered with bugs and the animation doesn’t seem to be as smooth as Robot Unicorn Attack. If you’d like to get swept up by the Unicorn Apocalypse frenzy you’ve seen in Samsung’s recent commercials, then by all means, download it on the Google Play store.
The amount of attention Samsung has been receiving for its upcoming Galaxy S4 has been astounding as potential customers have been going crazy to hear the latest news regarding the upcoming smartphone. The Galaxy S4 might have finally shown its face and backside yesterday, and today, we’re seeing a video of what could possibly be the Galaxy S4.
YouTube user “istevencom” caught what looks to be the Samsung Galaxy S4, specifically the dual-sim variant that will be available for the Chinese market. Judging by the supposed Galaxy S4′s looks, it seems Samsung didn’t make any extreme changes to the device’s externals as the front and the back of the device seem to look similar to the Galaxy S3. (more…)
We’re not sure who exactly this Jeremy Maxwell character is Samsung decided to highlight in their teaser videos, but we have been quite envious of him for the past couple of days as he’s one of the first people to lay eyes on the Galaxy S4.
Last week, Jeremy took a trip to New York City to take a look at the Galaxy S4, which may or may not have blinded him considering the bright flash of light that came out of the box when it was opened. This week, Jeremy takes the Galaxy S4 to his home, where he deflects his neighbor’s questions of “What’s in the box?”
During the video, Jeremy makes a number of comments in regards to the Galaxy S4, saying “it’s pretty irresistible,” “it’s unreal,” and “beautiful.” Later on in the video, he hints the Galaxy S4 may be offered in a wide variety of colors as he says, “It’s my favorite color.” The Galaxy S3 was only available in white or pebble blue, which if the S4 does come in multiple colors, could become a device anyone could find in their favorite color.
Samsung’s newest smartphone is about to be announced later this month, most likely the Galaxy S IV, and rumors have obviously been flying off the walls as of late. We already saw some of what Samsung was cooking up at Mobile World Congress earlier this week, but it looks like the company will be pulling the “one last thing” trick come March 14.
The latest in a line of Galaxy S IV rumors is the list of possible models that Samsung will have available of the new device. Rumors suggest that there will be six variants of the Galaxy S IV, and it will come in both black and white color options. As for size capacities, you’ll be able to choose either 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB.
Of course, it’s expected that Samsung will include a microSD card slot with the Galaxy S IV, so opting for the 64GB variant may not be necessary, but if you’re looking for the most storage possible, a 64GB phone combined with a 32GB microSD card means a lot of movies, music, and photos that you can store on that bad boy.
As for specs of the Galaxy S IV, we’re looking at a 5-inch full 1080p display and possibly a 13MP rear camera. On the inside, we might see Qualcomm’s newest Snapdragon 600 processor clocked at 1.7GHz paired up with 2GB of RAM (with an Exynos 5 chip in the international version). Overall, it should be a powerhouse of a phone that will take on HTC’s latest HTC One and DROID DNA.
Over on the Japanese blog RBMen, a benchmark has surfaced that may be the Verizon Galaxy S IV smartphone from Samsung. In the benchmark, we see a handful of specs, including a 1.9GHz processor and the brand “Samsung.” Although not official, all the signs point at it being the next handset is the Korean company’s wildly popular line of smartphones, following on the heels of the mega-selling Galaxy S III.
The benchmark isn’t much to look at, but the specs are interesting nonetheless. The handset displayed is the Samsung SCH-I545, which features a 1.9GHz processor (possibly a quad-core Snapdragon) and Qualcomm Adreno 320 graphics. The display is listed as a full HD 1920 x 1080 panel, and the handset runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.
While rumor originally had it that Samsung’s soon-to-be-launched flagship would be announced this month, new rumors surfaced in January tipping the device unveiling for March 22, with the launch following shortly after in April. If the rumor is to be believed, Samsung will unveil the device at a press event in the US.
The specs in the benchmark match the specs we’ve seen in various rumors that have been circulating since late last year. Early last month, a render of what is said to be the Galaxy S IV surfaced showing a lack of on-screen buttons. You can check out more information on the Galaxy S IV in the timeline below, and stay tuned as we find out more information on the handset leading up to its unveiling later this year.
Today a collection of screenshots have been revealed of what appears very much to be a Samsung “smartwatch” with the name GALAXY ALtius attached to it. The images shown here come from a Korean messageboard where the main topic of conversation is how well the watch will fit in with the rest of the market rather than if the mysterious device exists. Given the recent fervor created by the idea of an Apple iWatch, could the Samsung smartwatch, indeed, be far behind?
This series of screen-grabs includes the name GALAXY Altius, one that we’ve heard in a set of rumors very recently attached to what was thought to be the Galaxy S IV – another device rumored to be revealed soon. This device has SKT and SKTelecom on several shots, this indicating that it will be carried with a data plan on that particular South Korean mobile service. Though the software here does appear to have an Android-type look to it, it could just as easily be a basic Java-based interface not unlike what we’re seeing with today’s reveal of the REX series from Samsung.
In the upper right-hand corner of a couple of the shots, you’ll see the “Samsung-GA7″ code name – this indicative of the LCD display. You’ll find that the software version is AltiusOS beta2, this either meaning that the software was built specifically for this device, or that it’s a version of Android (or some Samsung-specific OS) fitted for this device. You’ll also find that 1.5% of the full 235MB of internal storage space is being used up – this makes the case for a rather symbiotic device rather than a stand-along model.
The final screenshot shows a series of tiles that each have their own purpose – the first is a music player, the second a clock, another a connection to your email with a little “2″ in the corner to show how many messages you’ve got left to read. The fact that the last two tiles are off to the right of the display while a bar at the bottom shows a bit of a “slider” situation shows that this device will quite likely have a touchscreen display.
Each shot here is 500 x 500 pixels, this possibly indicating that the display is working with 500 x 500 pixel resolution – we don’t know for certain because the original delivery here isn’t verified as straight from the device. That said, such a resolution is quite possible given the current standards for smart devices – especially Samsung-made Galaxy devices.
It’s also worth noting that the name Samsung Galaxy Altius was sent to SamMobile on the 22nd of January as a Samsung flagship device. Though they’ve separately confirmed the Samsung Galaxy S IV to be working with the name GT-I9500, the connection to the name Altius could just as easily be assigned to the Samsung smartwatch Altius. It’s also possible – however unlikely – that both the Galaxy S IV and the Samsung smartwatch are working with the name Altius as a sort of “family name” for this next generation of smart device releases.
Have a peek at the timeline below covering the full gamut of recent Samsung next-generation tips and suggestions and stay tuned for more action on SlashGear in the Samsung tag portal as well! Click any of the images in the gallery below for larger more close-up versions of the images you see above.
Yesterday we reported that the Samsung Galaxy IV, successor to the wildly popular Galaxy S III, is rumored for a March 15 unveiling, a few days earlier than the previously rumored March 22 date. Now it looks like some images taken with the Galaxy S IV’s camera have found their way online, and while they’re not the most exciting or sharp images we’ve ever seen, they’re certainly worth noting, especially in light of the rumored unveiling next month.
Back on January 27, a user agent profile showed a full HD AT&T smartphone that was believed to be the Galaxy S IV handset. The smartphone spotted in the UAProf was named Samsung SGH-l337, and had, among other things, a 4.99-inch 1920 x 1080 440 PPI display. A handset by the same name, along with a couple others that are unknown, have been taking some random (and blurry) images and posting them online.
The EXIF data from the images indicate that both an US-bound version destined for AT&T and international versions, including one for Korea, were used to take the leaked images. The images, sadly, don’t point to the high-resolution 13-megapixel that has been rumored on the Galaxy S IV, with all the images being smaller in resolution. Whether that is due to a smaller sensor than believed or someone playing with the image settings is unknown.
Of course, there is a lot of speculation at this point, and nothing has been confirmed on any sort of official level. Still, all the information is pointing towards these being taken with Samsung’s next flagship smartphone, and they are following in line with the timeline we’re hearing about when the Galaxy S IV will be announced.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
