The S 4 promotes the screen mirroring as an easy-access setting in the notifications tray, but unless you have all Samsung devices (such as TVs and Blu-ray players), it's essentially a useless capability. Likewise, the panoply of wireless technologies carried over from the Galaxy S III to the Galaxy S 4 - Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA screen mirroring, and NFC (near-field communication) - have very little utility as few apps and devices support them.
The eye-tracking feature that is supposed to pause videos when you look away did not work in either video app that comes with the Galaxy S 4 I tried it with several people. Even if I could, holding my finger over an area a few millimeters from the screen would be more work than simply tapping the screen directly. I could not get this feature - taken from the Galaxy Note II's pen-hovering feature - to work even in the very few apps that support it. It's supposed to let you hover a finger over an email message to open it or over an area in the Internet browser to magnify it. Shooting simultaneously with the front and rear cameras in the Galaxy S 4Īir View is another hardware feature that rarely works. For example, pausing playback would be a good use for Air Gestures. Air Gestures could be useful if its gestures were universal and if it did more than scroll. To be honest, scrolling above the screen really is no easier than scrolling on the screen. I also couldn't get the S 4 to respond to the hand-waving Air Gesture that's supposed to open the Quick Glance status screen for alerts and messages.Īir Gestures works at the app level, not the OS level, which means it's rarely available.
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For example, you can scroll a Web page by moving your hand up or down above the screen in the stock Android Internet browser, though you can't do so in the Chrome browser, in Email, in Calendar, or pretty much any other app. For example, the Galaxy S 4 includes an infrared sensor on the front face that can detect gestures taking place above the screen, a feature Samsung calls Air Gestures. Touchless gestures, eye tracking, and other gimmicks that don't really workOther new features are cooler in theory than in practice.
Plus, the editing tools available are quite sophisticated, turning the Camera app into powerful photo-manipulation software. What you'll really notice as a user is the ability to use both the front and rear cameras simultaneously, a cool trick for documentary-style photo essays and videos called dual-shot mode. Keep in mind that the quality of the lens and light sensors matter more than the number of pixels captured. The image quality is comparable to that of the iPhone 5's 8-megapixel camera. And the rear camera is now rated at 13 megapixels, which means more pixels per image and larger file sizes. Yes, the processor is a bit faster, as are other processing components. The Galaxy S 4 has boosted other hardware aspects compared to the S III - as you would expect to happen a year later. For me, the S 4 is as large as I would want a smartphone to be. The straighter sides (more similar to the iPhone, ironically) make it easier and more comfortable to hold than the S III's rounded and tapered edges.Īlthough the body is essentially the same size as the S III, the S 4's screen is larger within that expanse, providing even more display area but without the bulkiness. The hardware capabilities you'll enjoyWhat I liked most immediately about the Galaxy S 4 is its refined hardware.
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However, I don't recommend breaking your current contract to buy it at full price. It's easy to recommend the S 4 to any Android user who wants a large screen, but not a mini-notebook like the Google Nexus 7 or even the Samsung Galaxy Note II. There are nice enhancements to the S 4, as well as less-than-fully-baked additions. The Galaxy S 4 is a better device than the S III, but it too is no game-changer. For Apple, the iPhone 4 was the game-changer, just as the Galaxy S III was for Samsung. After all, Apple's last two models, the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5, haven't changed the world, even if each version had nice additions and changes. So you have to wonder what Samsung could do to meaningfully push the envelope in the Galaxy S 4 now available at some carriers (Sprint and AT&T) and soon to be offered at others (Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile). Samsung's Galaxy S III is a very sweet Android smartphone, arguably the best of its generation. The Samsung Galaxy S 4 (at left) packs a larger screen than the same-sized S III (at right).
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