Best Samsung Galaxy S4 Review

The Galaxy S III cemented Samsung as the manufacturer that could finally challenge Apple's iPhone dominance. With the $199 Galaxy S4, Samsung pushes the envelope even further, providing a bigger screen, a fantastic camera, a speedier quad-core processor and AT&T's zippy 4G LTE coverage. The Galaxy S4 is vying to be the best, with a long list of innovative features, such as motion gestures, built-in health tracking and a built-in TV remote. But is this flagship phone right for you?

Design

Despite the premium feature set, Samsung continues its trend of plastic bodies with the Galaxy S4. The rounded design is strikingly similar to the Galaxy S III, but Samsung was able to make this new phone even lighter than the Galaxy S III (4.6 ounces versus 4.7 ounces) despite the larger screen.

At 5.31 x 2.69 x 0.25 inches, the Galaxy S4 is wider and thinner than the 4.7-inch HTC One (5.31 x 2.63 x 0.28 inches). Additionally, the HTC One's aluminum chassis adds extra weight, making it half an ounce heavier than the S4. The Galaxy S4 is dwarfed by the LG Optimus G Pro which, at 5.8 x 3 x 0.37 inches and 6.2 ounces, is a hulking beast of a smartphone.

Available in white or black, the S4's polycarbonate (plastic) shell feels dense, but looks somewhat cheap next to the metal chassis of the HTC One and the iPhone 5. Even the rim, which is chrome in color, is the same smooth plastic that houses the phone's entire exterior. Both the white and Mist Black models have a subtle dotted pattern on the back, despite the smooth finish.

Unlike the HTC One and iPhone 5, though, the Galaxy S4 has a removable back panel for easy battery replacement. There's also a microSD slot that supports up to 64GB of additional storage, a feature also available on the LG Optimus G Pro, but sorely lacking from Apple's and HTC's flagships.

Display

The Samsung Galaxy S4's 5-inch, 1080p Super AMOLED screen is absolutely beautiful, with bright colors and sharp images. We watched the full HD trailer for "Skyfall," and could easily make out the small details in the mountains and trees as Daniel Craig fell off a moving train. We watched the same scene on the LG Optimus Pro and the S4's viewing angles were much wider. The HTC One offered a brighter picture and comparable viewing angles.

The S4 screen's biggest drawback is the modest brightness level of 273 lux, which, while a big improvement over the Galaxy S III's 222 lux, is a bit lower than the 299 lux category average. The Optimus G Pro has a brighter 322 lux display and the HTC One blew them both away with 433 lux. The S4's screen was significantly harder to see outdoors with anything less than full brightness. We needed to disable auto-brightness and bump this setting to max in order to use the phone outside.

Audio

While it will never be mistaken for a personal stereo, the back-mounted speaker on the Galaxy S4 provided fairly loud audio. We played Macklemore's "Thrift Shop" and the higher saxophone notes sounded slightly tinny. Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" had a similar mechanical quality. We prefer the dual front-facing speakers on the HTC One, which offer richer sound.

Operating system and UI

The Galaxy S4 runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean augmented by Samsung's TouchWiz UI. Changes include a physical home button flanked by a capacitive menu and back button, whereas stock Android puts these buttons on screen. You access recent applications by holding down the home button and Google Now is launched by long-pressing the capacitive menu button on the S4.

There are 19 quick settings buttons in the notification drawer, enabling users to toggle everything from Wi-Fi connectivity to unique features such as Smart Scroll. These buttons can be rearranged by clicking on a tile button in the top right corner of the notification drawer.

Multitasking

The S4's large screen is perfect for Multi Window Mode, which is part of Samsung's TouchWiz interface. Long-pressing the back button opens a sidebar with a list of Multi Window-compatible apps, including Chrome, Email, Gmail, Google Maps, Facebook and Twitter. These apps can be placed onto half of the screen, allowing the application to run concurrently next to any other app. We found it useful to browse the Web and check our email at the same time.

Though we were able to view videos in Multi Window Mode, we preferred Samsung's pop-up play feature, which allowed us to play clips in a floating, draggable window that appeared on top of our desktop and other apps.

Keyboard

Samsung's virtual keyboard is one of the most accurate, comfortable and intelligent we've used. The QWERTY layout has plenty of space between the keys, which made it easy for us to avoid adjacent letter errors. The dedicated number row allowed us to enter numerals without switching modes. The keyboard also supports haptic feedback and trace typing (like Swype).

Based on the popular Swiftkey predictive keyboard, the Galaxy S4's keyboard learned from our typing patterns and, after a short time, did a great job of guessing the word we might want to use next. The phone also has a floating keyboard mode, which gives you a smaller version of the keyboard you can drag around the screen, and a handwriting mode that did a great job of turning our scribbles into ASCII text.

Specification

Thanks to LaptopMag. :*

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