Samsung Galaxy S4: “a second look. Samsung Galaxy S4 I9500 - Specifications Battery Life

Detailed testing of screen, performance, battery life

At one time, even when the dates for the start of sales of the Samsung Galaxy S4 were not finally determined, we used our chance to spend a very short time with this novelty expected by many, in order to then reduce all the received data into a kind of mini-review, as they say, "first glance" . In it, we used only those results that we could get in the short time allotted to us to get acquainted with the apparatus. Of course, they were not complete - we physically could not carry out those tests and tests that require a lot of time and which must be carried out in laboratory conditions.

But today, when the day and hour of the start of sales of the Samsung Galaxy S4 is already predetermined, we decided to return to this issue. Before such a serious purchase, you need to weigh the pros and cons, and we, in turn, have the opportunity to provide users with the necessary additional information about the new device that was not included in the first part of our review.

Thus, this review will not contain a description of the appearance of the device and the convenience of working with controls - you can read about this in the first part of the description of our acquaintance with the Samsung Galaxy S4.

Here we will tell, first of all, about the data obtained by us after detailed testing of the screen of the new smartphone using measuring instruments in our laboratory. We will also provide you with the results of all our performance tests of the hardware stuffing of the smartphone, as well as the duration of its battery life. And finally, we will devote some more time to the Samsung Galaxy S4 camera and its modes of operation. Test photos obtained in the process of studying the novelty will be commented on by our specialist Anton Solovyov.

But first, let's give our traditional comparison table, which since the first acquaintance with the Samsung Galaxy S4 has managed to replenish and now already contains information about almost all the main top new products of the new season that we have tested. All the most popular flagship smartphones are summarized in a single table for easy selection, and those that are not included here (for example, LG Optimus G Pro) will replenish it very soon. Although, we must note with regret, according to the Russian office of LG, this particular device will not be officially supplied to our market.

* The most common SIM card formats are described in a separate article.

Key Features of Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-I9500)

• SoC Samsung Exynos 5 Octa, 8 cores, combined according to the ARM big.LITTLE principle: 4 high-performance ARM Cortex-A15 at 1.8 GHz and 4 energy-efficient ARM Cortex-A7 at 1.2 GHz
• GPU PowerVR SGX544MP3
• Operating system Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
• SuperAMOLED display with Pentile, 4.99″, 1920×1080
• Random access memory (RAM) 2 GB, inner memory 16-64 GB
• slot for microSD cards up to 64 GB
• Communication GSM GPRS/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
• Communication 3G UMTS HSPA+ 850, 900, 2100 MHz
• 4G (LTE Cat 3 100/50 Mbps) - Only available on GT-I9505 based on Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 SoC
• HSPA+ 42 Mbps
• Bluetooth 4.0, NFC
• Support MHL 2.0, OTG
• WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
• GPS/Glonass
• Cameras 13 MP and 2 MP (front)
• Accelerometer, photometer, digital compass, proximity sensors, gyroscope, barometer, thermometer, hygrometer and IR sensor
• Can be used with gloves
• Li-ion battery 2600 mAh
• Dimensions 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9 mm
• Weight 130 g

Screen

The Samsung Galaxy S4 has a very high quality touchscreen display, made using Super AMOLED technology. In numbers, the physical parameters of the screen of the novelty are as follows: diagonal - 126 mm (4.99 inches), resolution - Full HD 1080p (1920 × 1080 pixels), PPI pixel density is 441 dpi, although this figure looks doubtful with Pentile . Yes, the Pentile technology hasn't gone anywhere, although the screen of the Samsung Galaxy S4 is significantly different from its predecessors. The display has both manual and automatic brightness adjustment, which is based on the operation of the light sensor. There is also a proximity sensor that blocks the screen when you bring the smartphone to your ear. Multi-touch technology allows you to process up to ten touches simultaneously, and the new screen of the Samsung Galaxy S4 allows you to control yourself while wearing gloves.

A detailed examination of the display using measuring instruments was carried out by the editor of the "Monitors" and "Projectors and TV" sections Alexey Kudryavtsev. Here is his expert opinion on the screen of the Samsung Galaxy S4.

The screen is covered with a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface and, judging by the reflection of bright light sources in it, it has a very effective anti-glare filter. On the outer surface of the screen there is a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating, so fingerprints are removed much easier, and appear at a slower rate than in the case of ordinary glass.

With manual brightness control, its maximum value was about 230 cd/m², the minimum was 10 cd/m². Despite not the highest brightness value, even in bright daylight, the smartphone can be used, as it helps less, compared to a typical LCD screen, the reflection of OLED screens from dark areas. You also need to take into account the fact that in this case the smaller the white area on the screen, the lighter it is, that is, the actual maximum brightness of the white areas will almost always be higher than the specified value. The low brightness mode allows you to use your smartphone without any problems even in total darkness. Automatic brightness control works according to the light sensor (it is located to the left of the front speaker). You can make adjustments to the operation of this function by moving the adjustment slider from -5 to +5 units. Next, for three conditions, we present the screen brightness values ​​for three values ​​of this setting — for −5, 0, and +5. In complete darkness in automatic mode, the brightness is reduced to 15, 20 and 30 cd/m², respectively, in an artificially lit office, the brightness is set to 48, 94 and 113 cd/m², in a brightly lit environment (corresponding to daytime outdoor lighting, but without direct sunlight) - rises to 280 cd/m² for all three correction values. In principle, the result of this function is as expected. When the brightness is lowered, modulation appears at a frequency of 240 Hz. The figure below shows the brightness versus time for three brightness settings:

It can be seen that at maximum brightness there is virtually no modulation, at minimum brightness the modulation amplitude is low, therefore, in these extreme cases, backlight flicker cannot be seen. For half brightness, the modulation has a large amplitude, so at medium brightness values, flicker can be seen - hardly just by looking at the screen, but if you quickly wave, for example, a pencil in front of a white field on the screen, then flicker can be determined by a repeating pencil trace.

This smartphone uses a Super AMOLED matrix - an active matrix on organic light emitting diodes. A full color image is created using subpixels of three colors - red (R), green (G) and blue (B), but there are twice as many green subpixels, which can be referred to as RGBG. This is confirmed by a fragment of a microphoto:

In this square, 9 green subpixels, 4.5 blue and 4.5 red subpixels can be counted. For such matrices, Samsung introduced the name PenTile RGBG. However, the location and shape of the subpixels in this variant differ from the PenTile RGBG variants implemented in the screens of the Galaxy S3, ATIV S, Motorola XT925, etc.:

In the Galaxy S4 variant, green subpixels no longer form horizontal lines, as a result, horizontal and vertical worlds on the S4 screen are displayed in the same way, and not as in the case of, for example, Samsung ATIV S.

Note that the luminance is mainly determined by the green component, so the luminance sharpness actually corresponds to the density of the green subpixels. The fact that the color definition is lower (since the density of red and blue subpixels is lower) does not actually affect the quality of the image, since the color definition of human vision is also lower than the luminance definition. However, this does not mean that the image on such a screen looks exactly the same as on a screen with the same resolution, but with the same number of subpixels of different colors. Let's compare, for example, how the main page of our website is displayed on the Galaxy S4 screen and on the Oppo Find 5 LCD screen. Both screens are about the same size and resolution (if you count the green sub-pixels), but in the case of the Oppo Find 5, there are as many red and blue sub-pixels as there are green ones. Below are fragments of screen shots obtained when displaying the specified page in the same (original) scale.

The readability of small text on the screen of the Galaxy S4 is even better than on the screen of the Oppo Find 5. However, two things must be taken into account: firstly, this text is so small that its readability is already very low simply because of the physical dimensions (letter height "o" is equal to 7 pixels, or approximately 0.4 mm); secondly, the quality of small text output in Android (and in the browser in particular) is very low in itself, but this PenTile option slightly blurs the lines that fall on the rows of pixels, and slightly sharpens the lines that do not fall on the rows of pixels, due to making very small text on the Galaxy S4 screen look smoother. And two more photos taken at a higher magnification of the above fragments:

The screen of the Samsung Galaxy S4 has very good viewing angles: the white color noticeably changes its hue only when deviated at large angles, and the black color simply remains black at any angle - it is so black that the contrast parameter is simply inapplicable in this case. When viewed perpendicularly, the uniformity of the white field is very good. Switching the state of the matrix elements is actually performed instantly, so the response time can be equated to 0. The gamma curve constructed from 32 points did not reveal a significant blockage either in the highlights or in the shadows, and the exponent of the approximating power function is from 2.28 to 2.32 in depending on the selected profile, which is slightly higher than the standard value of 2.2 (in the captions, the number in brackets is an indicator of the approximating power function):

In the case of a profile Dynamic the gamma curve has a slightly S-shaped character; for the three remaining profiles, it practically does not deviate from the power dependence. The color correction profile is selected on a separate page in the screen settings section.

There are only four profiles, plus a special "Optimize display" mode, in which manual profile selection is blocked, and the phone, apparently, selects a profile by itself, analyzing the current image. Note that the brightness of image fragments dynamically changes in accordance with the nature of the displayed image - it decreases for light images as a whole and increases for dark ones. When choosing a profile Dynamic this effect is expressed a little more, and when you turn on the mode Auto config. screen brightness the dependence of brightness on the lightness of the image becomes even stronger. Therefore, the dependences of brightness on hue obtained by us (gamma curves) may not correspond to the gamma curves of a static image, since the measurements were carried out with sequential grayscale output on the entire screen.

Color gamut in case of profiles Dynamic and Standard very wide:

When choosing a profile Adobe RGB the coverage is slightly compressed in the blue and yellow areas (here the black line is the coverage of the Adobe RGB space, the white line is the measured coverage):

When choosing a profile Movie coverage is compressed even more, but still remains wider than sRGB:

Without correction, the spectra of the components are very well separated:

In the case of a profile Movie with the maximum correction, the color components already mix a little with each other:

Note that on screens with a wide color gamut, the colors of normal images optimized for sRGB devices appear unnaturally saturated. However, a visual assessment showed that when choosing a profile Movie saturation is noticeably reduced, and colors become close to natural. Without correction, in profiles Dynamic and Standard, the colors are unnatural: for example, the faces of white people have a pronounced carrot tint. The balance of shades on the gray scale is not ideal, but, in general, acceptable. The color temperature is above 6500 K, but in the gray scale area from white to dark gray, this parameter does not change much. The deviation from the blackbody spectrum (delta E), if it exceeds 10 units, is not much, which is considered a good indicator for a consumer device, while the delta E variation is not very large (dark areas of the gray scale can be ignored, since there is a balance of colors does not matter much, and the measurement error of color characteristics at low brightness is large):

Therefore, according to the visual assessment, there are no special claims to the transfer of shades of gray.

In general, in terms of consumer characteristics, the screen of this smartphone has every right to take first place in the competition with the screens of other top-end smartphones of the same class, at least at the time of writing this article.

Camera

Photo evaluation and quality conclusions were made by Anton Solovyov.

Samsung Galaxy S4 is equipped, like most modern smartphones, with two digital camera modules. The main rear camera module has a 13-megapixel resolution. The Samsung Galaxy S4 uses Sony's Exmor R sensor based on BSI back-illumination technology. The camera shoots at a maximum resolution of 13 megapixels, while the pictures are obtained in size 4128 × 3096 with an aspect ratio of 4:3. You can manually switch the camera to shooting mode with a wide aspect ratio of 16:9 - then the pictures will be taken at a size of 4128 × 2322 (10 MP). You can evaluate the quality with which the Samsung Galaxy S4 camera shoots by clicking on the thumbnails below.

Conclusion on the photographic capabilities of the Samsung Galaxy S4 camera. Of the advantages of the camera, one can note a very good sharpness in most shots. I would like to hope that rather large areas of blur at the edges are caused by not very good lens calibration, and not by the design features of the camera, because in general the lens is made decently and fulfills 10 megapixels of the matrix completely. Not so often on smartphones there is such a successful combination of matrix and optics. One can not but rejoice at the almost complete absence of chromatic aberrations and sharpening contours. In any case, they are hardly noticeable. The camera is good, but very conservative in choosing the exposure, and the color reproduction of the camera is also conservative. It seemed that due to aperture, the camera would lose depth of field, however, as can be seen from the macro shots, the depth of field is sufficient, which, however, is bad for feature photography, but very good for documentary photography. In general, we can conclude that Samsung is quite successful camera, more than suitable for everyday documentary shooting. Considering that this quality of the camera is in demand by most smartphone users, it can be noted that Samsung is moving in the right direction.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 camera can shoot video in Full HD resolution (1080p). Autofocus is fixed quickly enough, when shooting there are no slowdowns and sticking. Also in the settings there are shooting modes with effects of slow and fast motion. Below are test videos shot in various modes. The video is saved in MP4 (video is MPEG-4 AVC ( [email protected]), sound - AAC LC, 128 Kbps, 48 ​​kHz, 2 channels).

• Movie #1 (27.4 MB, 1920x1080)
• Movie #2 (11.4 MB, 800×450, slow motion)
• Movie #3 (15.4 MB, 1920×1080, fast motion)

There are a lot of camera control settings, everything in the menu is arranged almost the same as in previous top Samsung smartphones. It is possible to bind geotags to the image, add graphic effects, enable smile detection, panoramic shooting, and, of course, software enhancement using HDR (High Dynamic Range) technology can be used here. There is image stabilization, the ability to display the grid on the screen.

Performance

The hardware platform of the Samsung Galaxy S4 is based on a powerful SoC, which includes a quad-core processor with ARM Cortex-A15 cores running at 1.8 GHz and another quad-core processor with ARM Cortex-A7 cores running at low frequencies 1.2 GHz. Such a hybrid technology for combining productive and economical cores in one chip was created by ARM, this concept is called big.LITTLE, and its implementation is licensed to third-party processor manufacturers in the same way as the ARM cores themselves. A quite obvious use case is assumed: under a serious load, the system uses high-performance ARM Cortex-A15 cores at a high frequency, and when performing tasks that do not require significant computing power, the top cores fall asleep, and they are replaced by energy-efficient ARM Cortex-A7. Let's add that similar (in principle, not in implementation) hybrid technologies are also used in NVIDIA SoCs.

The Exynos 5410 Octa processor cores are supported in graphics processing by the PowerVR SGX 544MP3 graphics core. However, there is another modification of the smartphone, equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor operating at a frequency of 1.9 GHz, where Adreno 320 is used as a graphics coprocessor. In our case, the device was presented in an eight-core configuration - this is the so-called. "international version".

Now we already have the opportunity to compare the performance of the Samsung Galaxy S4 with all the other top flagship novelties of this season. Most of them, by the way, are built on the previous top Snapdragon S4 Pro platform. As expected, the Samsung Galaxy S4 was at the top of the list of devices we tested earlier, and only HTC One competed with it, demonstrating similar performance results. At the same time, smartphones such as the Google Nexus 4, LG Optimus G, HTC One X+ and Samsung Galaxy Note II are behind the leader in this race. Here are the results obtained by us using popular tests, which we have collected for convenience in tables, adding the results of other devices we have previously tested.

Below are the test results of the Samsung Galaxy S4 in new version GLBenchmark - 2.7.0, which added a new T-Rex HD scene of increased complexity. As we remember, even such a powerful system as the Oppo Find 5 produced only 13 fps in this test. The new Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 platform in the HTC One did a better job on this tough test, but just barely at 15 fps. The Samsung Galaxy S4, for some reason, couldn't play these scenes from the new test at all, so the final results weren't complete, which was a little disappointing.

Since the Samsung Galaxy S4 is one of the first smartphones to support 802.11ac, we separately tested the new 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard. Testing was carried out with the ASUS RT-AC66U router - one of two models with support for the 802.11ac standard, present on the local market. Recall that this new version of the standard operates only in the 5 GHz band and provides more than double the speed compared to 802.11n. In the case of smartphones, most often only one antenna is used, so connection speeds in this case can be a maximum of 150 Mbps for 802.11n and 433 Mbps for 802.11ac. Real performance is usually about half that. In addition, many mobile devices do not even support dual channel operation, resulting in a 72 Mbps limit for 802.11n.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 has a single antenna, resulting in a maximum connection speed of 433 Mbps. When operating in the 2.4 GHz band with one channel, this model shows a real performance of about 50 Mbps, which can be considered an excellent result. True, we note that the tests were carried out in a relatively empty air. Switching to 5 GHz in 802.11n mode allows you to more than double the speed of information exchange with a smartphone - we managed to get 133 Mbps for downloading data to a smartphone and 117 Mbps for sending data from a smartphone to a router. Of course, such high rates allow us to talk not only about comfortable viewing of high-definition video, but also about fast synchronization and downloading files to the device. At the same time, we failed to connect in the "802.11ac only" mode. The reason, most likely, is the use of a device sample for the test. In any case, if you plan to actively use this model, we highly recommend purchasing a modern dual-band router.

Video playback and connection to an external display

To test the "omnivorous" when playing video (including support for various codecs, containers and special features, such as subtitles), we used the most common formats, which make up the bulk of the content available on the Web. Note that for mobile devices it is important to have support for hardware video decoding at the chip level, since it is most often impossible to process modern versions using processor cores alone. Also, do not expect everything from a mobile device to decode everything, since the leadership in flexibility belongs to the PC, and no one is going to challenge it.

Additionally, the MHL interface was tested. To test it, we used the LG IPS237L monitor, which supports direct MHL connection using a passive Micro-USB to HDMI adapter cable. Samsung, for some reasons known only to it, has implemented its own version of this interface in its devices supposedly supporting MHL. As a result, to connect an external device via MHL, you need to use special adapters or connect standard MHL adapters through simple passive adapters. Luckily, we found such an adapter.

As a result, we connected the LG IPS237L monitor and MHL adapter through this adapter. When using the LG IPS237L monitor, MHL output was performed at a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels at 30 fps. When the smartphone is in landscape orientation, the image on the monitor screen is displayed in landscape orientation, while the image on the monitor is inscribed within the screen boundaries and exactly matches the image on the smartphone screen. When the smartphone is in portrait orientation, the image on the monitor screen is also displayed in portrait orientation, while the image on the monitor is inscribed in the screen boundaries in height, and black fields are displayed on the right and left. In this case, the actual resolution on the monitor screen is, of course, lower than the resolution on the smartphone screen.

The sound is output via MHL (in this case, the sounds were heard through the headphones connected to the monitor, since there are no speakers in the monitor itself) and has a good quality. At the same time, at least multimedia sounds are not output through the loudspeaker of the smartphone itself, and the volume is controlled by the buttons on the smartphone case. The smartphone connected via MHL is charging.

Video output by means of a regular player deserves a special description. To begin with, using a set of test files with an arrow and a rectangle moving one division per frame (see Method for testing video playback and display devices. Version 1), we checked how the video is displayed on the screen of the smartphone itself. Screenshots with a shutter speed of 1 s helped to determine the nature of the output frames of video files with various parameters: resolution (1280 by 720 (720p) and 1920 by 1080 (1080p) pixels) and frame rate (24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 fps) varied. with). The results of this (block titled " Screen”) and subsequent tests are summarized in the table:

Note: If both the Uniformity and Gaps columns have green ratings, this means that when watching movies, most likely, either artifacts caused by uneven interleaving and frame skipping will not be visible at all, or their number and visibility will not affect viewing comfort. "Red" marks indicate possible problems associated with the playback of the corresponding files.

According to the criterion for displaying frames, the quality of playing video files on the screen of the smartphone itself is very high, since frames (or groups of frames) are displayed with a uniform alternation of intervals and there are no frame drops. However, in any case, uniform frame interleaving is a relatively unstable state, since some external and internal background processes lead to periodic failure of the correct interleaving of intervals between frames. When testing, an interesting feature was found: it seems that in the case of files with frame rates of 30 and below, the screen refresh rate is 40 Hz, and for files of 50 and 60 fps, the refresh rate increases to 60 Hz. As a result, for a file with 30 frames / s, we got this image:

And for a file with 60 frames / s - like this:

When playing video files with Full HD resolution (1920 by 1080 pixels) on a smartphone screen, the image of the video file itself is displayed one-on-one, exactly along the border of the screen in true Full HD resolution. Taking into account that the color resolution in the video file is two times lower than the brightness resolution, the features of the PenTile matrix do not actually affect the quality of the output of video files. The range of brightness displayed on the screen is slightly different from the original: in the shadows, a couple of shades of gray are indistinguishable from black, but in the highlights, all gradations of shades are displayed (for video in the range of 16-235).

With a monitor connected via MHL, when playing video with a standard player, the image is displayed only in landscape orientation, while only the picture of the video file is displayed on the monitor, and only information elements and virtual controls are displayed on the smartphone screen. When playing video files with Full HD resolution (1920 by 1080 pixels), the image of the video file itself is displayed on the monitor screen one-on-one, exactly along the border of the screen in true Full HD resolution. The brightness range displayed on the monitor corresponds to the standard range of 16-235, that is, all gradations of shades are displayed in the shadows and in the highlights. The results of the monitor output tests are shown in the table above in the "MHL (monitor)" section. The output quality is good, but, of course, in the case of 50 and 60 fps files, some frames are skipped, since the output is in 1080p at 30 fps.

Additionally, video output (with a standard player) via MHL using an MHL adapter was tested. When using this adapter, the monitor output was 720p at 60 fps, which determined the maximum actual image resolution. With the exception of resolution and frame rate, everything else - the nature of the interface output, recharging, sound output and gray scale - did not differ from a direct connection via MHL. The test results are shown in the table above in the "MHL (adapter)" block.

When using the adapter, the intervals between frames in the case of files with frame rates up to 30 fps inclusive can differ by a factor of three (from 1/60 to 3/60) and alternate unevenly, while 720p files with 50 and 60 fps are output fine.

In general, an MHL connection can be used for playing games, watching movies, browsing the web, and other activities that benefit from a much larger screen size. True, you will have to purchase an adapter specifically for Samsung or find the appropriate adapter.

Battery life

The capacity of the lithium-ion battery installed in the Samsung Galaxy S4 is 2600 mAh. The battery here, as mentioned earlier, is replaceable, which can save in case of a swollen battery, for example (and users have had such cases with Samsung batteries). Yes, and the second battery can be stocked up in case of a long trip, which is also convenient.

The smartphone showed very good performance in terms of battery life, leaving a little behind many top-end new items that we have tested recently. Only again, HTC One was able to match the results, and even beat the opponent in some ways. Here are the test results of the test subject in several modes of battery life.

Continuous reading in the FBReader program at the minimum comfortable brightness level (brightness was set at about 100 cd / m²) for 2 hours consumed 17% of the total battery charge, and for two hours of watching YouTube videos in high quality (HQ) through the home wifi network The device has used up 24% of the battery capacity. At maximum load in the continuous 3D game mode (100% brightness, 60 fps), which we usually test with GLBenchmark, the smartphone, as mentioned above, refused to pass the test and constantly dropped out of the program. Therefore, we were unable to obtain data on this test, unfortunately. A full charge of the Samsung Galaxy S4 takes 2 hours.

Prices

The average retail price of the device in rubles in Moscow at the time of reading the article can be found by moving the mouse to the price tag.

Contents of delivery:

• Telephone
• Battery
• Li-Ion battery 2600 mAh
• Charger with detachable USB cable
• Instruction
• Warranty

Positioning

Samsung has been successful with the Galaxy line, with the Galaxy S3 selling 20 million units in the first 5 months, and the total circulation of this device will exceed 60 million units. If we talk about the previous device, the Galaxy S2 was also a successful product, but in the first 5 months it was able to sell only 10 million units, which is not bad at all, but does not sound as beautiful as in Galaxy case S3.

In 2013, Samsung has two goals - the first and main goal is to overtake Apple in sales of a single product, that is, to make the Galaxy S4 beat the iPhone 5, and also keep sales at the time of the release of the iPhone 5s or any other Apple model. The company calculated that they could achieve sales of 40 million units in the first five months. The second task is to provide a flagship smartphone, a universal solution for different consumer groups, among which a significant part are the owners of previous devices in the Galaxy line - primarily the Galaxy S2.

If we start from the market, company shares and what happened in 2012-2013, then we can seriously consider two smartphones - Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy, these two lines made up the main competition, while all the rest acted as catching up and I couldn't even come close to these products. In the Android smartphone market, the gap between Galaxy and its closest competitors in sales is not at times, but by orders of magnitude, and this is noticeable to the naked eye. The gap between the iPhone and the latter in sales is significant, but not by orders of magnitude; in the third quarter of 2012, the Galaxy S3 even temporarily took first place in global sales. With the release of S4, the situation may change in favor of Samsung.

For consumers, the Galaxy S4 is the most faceless device in terms of design, which repeats the appearance of the previous devices in the line, very much resembles them. If we talk about whether this is good or bad, I don’t presume to judge, but I can say that this approach works and sales speak for themselves. Look for a bright device in terms of design, the Galaxy S4 is unlikely to suit you. This model is aimed at a very wide range of consumers, as a result, it was made as inexpressive as possible. A bar, which each due to the screen, selected programs and accessories, will be able to turn into their own individual, unique phone. How effective this approach will be, we will see in a month, but for now we can say that there are all the prerequisites for success (suffice it to recall those discussions that are bubbling around the apparatus).

In my opinion, the age audience of this device is the maximum - from children to the elderly, and the number of functions aimed at adapting the phone to such different consumers is very large. This also applies to lifestyle - a very great potential has been laid in the phone, which is difficult to underestimate. A universal solution that looks very strong against the background of any device on the market. And the question is not that it has certain functions - it is a constructor in which everyone chooses the features he needs and disables those that are not needed. To give just one example, glove screen control was introduced by Nokia in the Lumia 920, but you didn't have the option to disable this setting for the screen - so whether you use this option or not, it consumes some battery power . In the Galaxy S4, you are offered an adaptive screen and the ability to turn it off - that is, if you do not plan to use the function or will use it only in winter, then you can safely turn it off and save energy, that is, slightly extend the operating time of your device. The whole ideology of the Galaxy S4 is based on this approach - a constructor of individual functions, in which you can flexibly customize everything for yourself. If in the Galaxy S3 this constructor was quite interesting and made it possible to achieve an increase in operating time of 10-25 percent, then here the difference reaches from 10 to 40 percent in operating time. The same phone can behave very differently, depending on the settings. It can be ultra-fast, or it can just be fast and long-lasting. It all depends on you and what you want to get out of the device - perhaps this is a completely different ideology than Apple, where you are given a hard-coded set of functions that, by default, are considered the best for everyone. If you're unlucky and think that a feature you don't need or doesn't work the way you want, there's usually nothing you can do about it. Within Android, there is a completely different approach, which is strengthened and brought almost to the absolute in the Galaxy S4 and subsequent products.

Design, dimensions, controls

There have been no dramatic changes in the design of the flagship, it is about the same look as the Galaxy S3, Note II and a dozen similar models from the company. It's a shame? Maybe. But they buy it in millions of copies, and why the design issue was decided this way, I told.

Many expected that with an increase in the screen diagonal to 4.99 inches, the dimensions of the device would increase compared to the Galaxy S3, but it became thinner and a little narrower (3 grams minus, 0.7 mm from the thickness - 136.6x69.8x7.9 mm, 130 grams). Considering that all other characteristics, including the battery, have improved, the company can be praised for this. And then scold her for trying to solve the problem of plastic, which is far-fetched, by inventing other incarnations. So at the presentation they said that the case is very reliable, as it is made of polycarbonate (this is just one of the types of plastic and nothing more). Starting with Nokia N9, polycarbonate is used in a number of Nokia models, but they have a completely different design - it is more massive. It's like comparing a plastic bag and something more massive, but made from the same plastic. It looks like the same thing, but the result is different.

The cover is not brittle, it can be bent a lot and it's great for taking appropriate photos. But in practice, there were no problems with covers in SGS3 and other models. That is, there is a solution to an imaginary problem and indulgence of the crowd, which is obviously a losing move. Either it is necessary to change the materials in order to give what a part of the audience supposedly wants, or not to focus on it at all.

They changed the quality of the coating, an attempt to wipe it showed that scratches appear, but due to the dots that make up the pattern, they are not visible. The lid is rubbed much more slowly and worse, however, it cannot be said that this has become a problem for the Galaxy S3. Most of the complaints about this came from those who have never used the device and brought this argument as an argument against the Galaxy S3.

The side edging, just like in the Galaxy S3, is made under metal, but it is plastic, which can be scratched if desired (in practice, it is almost impossible to get scratches on the edging, even if the device is dropped).

Initially, the model is available in two colors - white and dark gray. I had both devices, I like the traditional dark gray, but we can say that this is a matter of taste and nothing more. Later, there will be about 5-6 different color schemes for this model, as happened for the Galaxy S3. It can be expected that additional colors will begin to appear in September-October, before the New Year holidays, their number will be maximum. In January there will be variants for the La Fleur collection.

The build quality of the phone does not cause any complaints, back cover fits tightly to the body, it is easy to remove. A slightly different shape of the side edges creates a different impression, when you take the device in your hand, you feel its edges. Of course, this difference will become noticeable for those who are already accustomed to the Galaxy S3, but for example, when switching from S2, there is no such feeling at all.

On the front surface, above the screen on the left, there is an indicator that can blink blue when the device is in operation. It can be turned off completely, or it can be configured to work when recording a voice (voice recorder), for notifications. That is, you are free to choose how this indicator will work, which is convenient.

The central key is mechanical, on the sides of it are touch buttons (you can set the backlight time for them). On the left side there is a paired volume control key, it is medium in hardness, comfortable when talking. On the right side there is an on/off button.

If you look at the top end, you will see an IrDA window (for controlling household appliances), a 3.5mm jack and a hole for the second microphone (the first one is on the bottom end and there is also a microUSB connector).

Comparison of this model with other devices, you can see in the photos below.

Samsung Galaxy S4 and Apple iPhone 5

Samsung Galaxy S4 and Sony Xperia Z

Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC Butterfly

Samsung Galaxy S4 and Samsung Galaxy Note 2

Display

Now a few words about the screen. As you remember, the main complaint from a team of superhumans endowed with superpowers (X-ray vision, a hundredfold increase in the image on the retina) was the presence of PenTile (the formation of a pixel from a smaller number of subpixels). We, ordinary people who review devices, have even specially acquired microscopes and lenses to show the terrifying PenTile and prevent superheroes from making a fatal mistake when choosing a phone. The Galaxy S4 is even worse - mean engineers changed the structure of the subpixels (they are now equal in size) and created a picture density of 441 dpi. It seems to me that even superhumans will need to use super magnification to see a single pixel - it is impossible to see the structure of the screen if you are not from the planet Krypton. But I'm sure that many will scold PenTile and this device - out of good old habit. Stupidity, as a rule, is a long-lived phenomenon.

Screen diagonal 4.99 inches, type Super AMOLED HD with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels (441 dpi). One of the user misconceptions is the claim that Super AMOLED screens are too bright, colors are saturated and unnatural. In the screen settings, you can choose any display option, including those typical for screens from other manufacturers (dimmer, natural colors). It is interesting that screens from other manufacturers give out the maximum possible and it is impossible to make them brighter, more contrast, and colors more saturated. In Samsung, the flexibility of settings is maximum.

Compared to the Galaxy S3, there is an "Optimize Display" option. This is the most interesting setting, as the device analyzes the level of illumination around and, depending on the conditions, sets the contrast, brightness, plus adjusts the colors on the screen. It turns out that the white color looks white in almost all conditions. Another Adobe RGB setting, but it has almost no effect on the image display quality, the latter does not noticeably change compared to other settings (I could not notice this).

In the sun, the screen looks great, there are no problems, readability remains at the level of the Galaxy S3. Given that the weather in Moscow is not too sunny, I will take more screen shots in the sun in Asia and we will add them to the review.

Traditionally, Samsung has been ahead of other manufacturers in terms of screen quality, as it independently produces and develops them. We can say that the difference between the screen of the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S3 is not too huge - it is noticeable in the power consumption, which has decreased, in the advanced settings. But this screen remains the best, it has no direct competitors (in the comparison photos, this is not very noticeable due to the fact that the photos do not convey the feeling of the screen).

It is clear that those who want to criticize this device will be able to say that the maximum display settings are a huge minus, because by default the maximum brightness and color saturation are set. But for reasonable people, this is the very constructor in which they can choose what they like and customize the device for themselves.

Comparison of displays (Roman Belykh)

Samsung Galaxy S IV and Samsung Galaxy S III

Brief parameters of the SGS III screen:

• Diagonal: 4.8 inches
• Resolution: 720x1280 pixels
• Matrix: SuperAMOLED
• PPI: 306

The brightness of the backlights of the matrices is approximately the same. Warm shades of color are more pleasant and natural on the Quartet screen, white color also looks good. Green is slightly better expressed on the "troika", but blue is less saturated. When the Galaxy S III's display is tilted, colors take on a slight greenish tint and slightly dim. On the Galaxy S IV at angles, the brightness drops only minimally.

As for PenTile. If you look closely, you can find it on the Galaxy S III. The Galaxy S IV also has PenTile, but in a different way. Due to the high resolution, it is impossible to see it with the naked eye, I think.

Samsung Galaxy S IV and Sony Xperia Z

Brief screen parameters Sony Xperia Z:

• Diagonal: 5 inches
• Resolution: 1080x1920 pixels
• Matrix: TFT-LCD
• PPI: 441

The brightness of the matrix backlight is slightly higher on the Sony. Warm colors on the Xperia Z look a bit oversaturated (yellow is closer to red). With blue, in most cases, it’s quite a disaster: instead of pure blue, the Xperia Z displays it closer to purple. With gray on Sony, too, not everything is in order - it turns yellow. The depth of "black" is not as rich as the Galaxy S IV. Whites are slightly better on the Sony. Viewing angles are a different story: the Sony screen fades sharply, and the contrast decreases.

Samsung Galaxy S IV and HTC Butterfly

Brief screen parameters of HTC Butterfly:

• Diagonal: 5 inches
• Resolution: 1080x1920 pixels
• Matrix: Super LCD3
• PPI: 441

Oddly enough, but in terms of quality Samsung screens and HTC are approximately the same: pure white, rich blue, natural gray (HTC is slightly lighter)! There are two differences. The first is the viewing angles: slightly tilting the HTC display reduces the brightness slightly. Secondly, the green color is slightly brighter on HTC.

Samsung Galaxy S IV and Apple iPhone 5

Brief screen parameters of Apple iPhone 5:

• Diagonal: 4 inches
• Resolution: 640x1136 dots
• Matrix: LED-backlit IPS LCD
• PPI: 326

Definitely, the brightness of the matrix backlight is higher on the iPhone 5, not by much, but the difference is noticeable to the eye. The color rendition on the phone from Apple is a little calmer, softer. The gray color is more natural on the Galaxy S IV, but the green color is better on the iPhone 5. Viewing angles are approximately the same.

Screen Comparison Conclusions

Frankly, I did not expect that almost all the presented smartphones would lose the Galaxy S IV in many ways. The only device that was closest to the SGS IV matrix was the HTC Butterfly. The Sony Xperia Z's screen was the worst. The Galaxy S III's display is not bad, but the matrix on the iPhone 5 is slightly brighter and the colors are much more natural.

Battery

The phone has a 2600 mAh Li-Ion battery (2100 mAh in the Galaxy S3). The increased battery capacity and reduced screen power consumption, in theory, should have brought a gain in operating time. But the processor has changed (Snapdragon 600 or Exynos 5410 Octa option - I have the last option), as well as many additional features that have a negative impact on power consumption.

First, it all depends on what features you use in your work (AirView, gesture control, glove control, and so on). I tested the device's battery life out of the box when I used it in typical mode, just like the Galaxy S3. It turned out that the increase in operating time was about 15 percent, which is not so bad, but it is quite described by the increased battery capacity.

Secondly, I tried to turn on the power saving mode and see how the power consumption changes from the standard - it increased by 20 percent. This was also true for the Galaxy S3 when using these settings. But by turning off most of the sensors that I do not need at the moment, I achieved a 40 percent increase in operating time! In total, it turned out that in terms of energy efficiency this device is again out of competition, only you need to approach this issue wisely. The question remains how much gesture control or AirView is needed, but here everyone decides for himself (considering the gain in working time, I turned them off - these chips are not important to me at all). And you can also turn off S Voice, which you may not need at all - this is voice control. I emphasize that everyone will be able to customize the device for themselves, it is in the full sense of the constructor, where you can choose the most optimal settings.

On the plus side, video playback in the Octa version has grown to 12.5 hours (depending on the codec), which is about 25 percent more than for the Galaxy S3 or for the second version of the Galaxy S4. The second point is related to the fact that web browsing has become the most gluttonous function, regardless of the device (using Chrome browser leads to sad consequences - the battery lands before our eyes, a standard browser consumes at least half as much energy with the same screen backlight level).

With my typical use, the Galaxy S3 lives up to 3-4 pm (Galaxy Note II until late). In the case of the Galaxy S4, I got almost the same battery life as the Galaxy Note II, which is surprising given the smaller battery size (and the screen size is also smaller).

Camera

The camera capabilities of this device are described in a separate material.

USB, Bluetooth, communication capabilities

Bluetooth. Bluetooth version 4.0 (LE). When transferring files to other devices that support this technology, Wi-Fi 802.11 n is used, and the theoretical transfer speed is about 24 Mbps. Checking the transfer of 1 GB of a file showed a maximum speed of about 12 Mbps within three meters between devices.

The model supports various profiles, in particular Headset, Handsfree, Serial Port, Dial Up Networking, File Transfer, Object Push, Basic Printing, SIM Access, A2DP. Working with headsets does not raise any questions, everything is ordinary.

USB connection. In Android 4, for some reason, they abandoned the USB Mass Storage mode, leaving only MTP (there is also a PTP mode).

USB version - 2, data transfer rate - about 25 Mb / s.

When connected to a PC, simultaneous operation of USB and Bluetooth is unacceptable, the device requires Bluetooth to be turned off regardless of the current state (whether there is a connection and transmission, or not), this is extremely inconvenient. When connected via USB, the device is charged.

The microUSB connector also supports the MHL standard, which means that using a special cable (available from electronics stores) you can connect your phone to a TV (to the HDMI output). In fact, the standard describes the ability to connect via microUSB to HDMI. This solution looks more preferable than a separate miniHDMI-connector on the case.

For GSM networks, EDGE class 12 is provided.

WiFi. 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac is supported, the wizard is similar to that for Bluetooth. You can remember the selected networks, automatically connect to them. It is possible to set up a connection to the router with one touch, for this you need to press a key on the router, and also activate a similar button in the device menu (WPA SecureEasySetup). Of the additional options, it is worth noting the setup wizard, it appears when the signal is weak or disappears. You can also set up WiFi to work on a schedule.

The 802.11n standard also supports HT40 mode of operation, allowing you to double the Wi-Fi throughput (requires support from another device).

WiFi Direct. A protocol that aims to replace Bluetooth or compete with its third version (it also uses Wi-Fi version n to transfer large files). On the menu WiFi settings select the Wi-Fi Direct section, the phone starts looking for devices around. Choose desired device, activate the connection on it, and voila. Now in the file manager you can view files on another device, as well as transfer them. Another option is to simply find the devices connected to your router and transfer the necessary files to them, this can be done from the gallery or other sections of the phone. The main thing is that the device supports Wi-Fi Direct.

NFC. The device has NFC technology, it can be used with various additional applications.

S Beam. A technology that allows you to transfer a file of several gigabytes to another phone in a few minutes. In fact, we see in S Beam a combination of two technologies - NFC and Wi-Fi Direct. The first technology is used to bring and authorize phones, but the second is already used to transfer the files themselves. The creatively redesigned way to use Wi-Fi Direct is much easier than using the connection on two devices, selecting files, and so on.

IR port. Required to use the phone as a remote control for various household appliances. Automatically configured for almost any model of equipment.

Memory, memory cards

The phone has 16 GB of internal memory (there is a version for 32 and 64 GB, the latter will appear later), initially about 8 GB is available to the user. Memory cards up to 64 GB are also supported.

The amount of RAM is 2 GB, after downloading about 940 MB is free. This is sufficient for all applications.

Hardware model options

The model is available in two versions, the first and most popular with which this device appears in most markets is the Snapdragon 600 (quad-core processor clock from Qualcomm up to 1.9 GHz, graphics coprocessor Adreno 320). At the same time, the Exynos 5410 Octa is built on the big.LITTLE ARM architecture and uses two quad-core processors (eight cores in total), one processor on the Cortex A7 architecture (frequency of each core up to 1.2 GHz), one processor on Cortex-A15 (frequency up to 1.8 GHz). ). The graphics coprocessor in this case is PowerVR SGX 544MP3 533 MHz.

The need to use a Snapdragon 600 solution in the first launch wave is due to the fact that in this case the company immediately receives support for LTE. Octa's own processor does not have it until August 2013. Getting support for LTE, users at the same time lose performance (Octa wins and noticeably in synthetic tests), as well as work time (there is a difference of 10 percent or more). In general, we can say that Exynos turned out to be more productive (this is a blow to HTC One, which uses Snapdragon 600).

In Russia, initially 3G devices based on Octa (i9500) will be sold, later their version with LTE will appear (version for Europe on Snapdragon - i9505). Below in the benchmarks you can see the difference between these models.

Performance

This solution is one of the most productive in synthetic tests, among other Android smartphones of the latest generation. Below you can see the virtual parrots in various tests (Exynos 5410 Octa processor variant).

TouchWiz software features and new applications

Below I have described only the changes that distinguish this device from the previous model Galaxy S3 (the changes are not all, but the most striking and noticeable).

Keyboard and text input

Already in previous versions of TouchWiz, the quality of the keyboard was maximum - starting from SGS4, changes are only growing, without weighing down the overall concept. There is word prediction (the algorithm has changed), T9 continuous input mode (similar to Swype). If you do not use such an input, now it is possible to control the cursor on the screen - you do not need to move through the word - just move your finger in the keyboard area, it plays the role of a touch pad. It is very convenient and you get used to this feature in a matter of minutes. For handwriting, there are additional settings that allow you to fine-tune it for yourself and your writing style.

Phone settings

There are tabs in the settings menu that divide them into connections, device, accounts and others. For WiFi, features such as scheduling have been added (set the time frame in which WiFi automatically turns on) - this is convenient for saving phone charge, for example, you can set the work time for thirty minutes before you wake up at home.

Mirroring the screen of the device on another device was already in the update for the Galaxy Note II, now this feature is becoming standard for all phones from the company (except for budget devices).

Adapt Sound– setting the phone speaker to your preferences – the device will offer you different options for volume and equalizer settings and, depending on your answers, will set up the phone. A very simple and at the same time working in practice function that other manufacturers do not have (phones for Japan do not count).

Gesture Control - Air Gesture

You can scroll through the pictures in the gallery without touching the screen, move through the list and do similar simple things. There is no difference with touching the screen, and the old way of communicating with it is even more convenient. But perhaps it will be interesting for someone to think that it is possible in this phone. To my surprise, most of these features are introduced not for mature consumers, but for schoolchildren who like to show how their phone can work. It is important to understand here that children quickly master such methods of management and over time they can become standard, and we, with our views and habits, will become somewhat outdated. But for now, we can say that this is pampering, like the pat control, which has been in Samsung phones for a long time, but has not become widely applicable.

Messages and email

In SMS, it became possible to see icons of people in the list, which is not so important. I liked the function of sending SMS-messages according to the schedule - you leave on a business trip and write a lot of SMS on the plane, which are then sent to your parents at a specified time. Or you want to wish a person a happy birthday, but you are afraid to forget or fall asleep. In a word, the function is useful and will be popular in practice.

Customer Email heavily reworked. There are filters that you can customize yourself, there is a view in the form of a conversation and a number of other “little things”. Pretty functional solution.

Calendar

Albums

Samsung continues to change the presentation in albums, which first began with the Galaxy Note, and was driven by a larger screen size. Ideologically, there are no changes, except that now all pictures processed by one or another effect when shooting fall into a certain folder. The first picture in the folder is shown slightly larger if there are an odd number of pictures inside (tall orientation).

Of the newly appeared functions - the definition of text in any picture, the device tries to read store signs, the text that occurs in the photo and then recognize it. The recognition quality is very good, this was done using a separate utility included in the kit (its work is demonstrated on the video, I recommend watching it).

Samsung also decided that people might want to comment on the back of the picture. You can write whatever you want and then the text will be displayed on your phone. On a computer, this is just a comment to JPEG, which is stored by standard means of this format, which is a big plus. Samsung just presented it a little differently in the new version of TouchWiz.

Story Album. Another attempt to create an application that will keep a user's diary in a semi-automatic mode. You need to choose your photos, page design and you can get an exciting story about your trip, which in some countries you can even order as a separate printed book. Beautiful and, as practice shows, completely useless for most users.

S-Health or about a healthy lifestyle

I like how Samsung feels the trends in the market and immediately offers their solution. The S-Health app combines both features for athletes and for those who just take care of themselves. The phone has a temperature and humidity sensor, with the help of these data you can instantly see these parameters in the room (this is very important for a child's room). Realizing that the humidity does not reach the norm, it will be possible to turn on the humidifier. But I think that for most this story is from another life.

In everyday life, we use a pedometer, you can count how much you have walked and how many calories you have burned - there is a diary for every day. You can also add other activities - running, cycling, exercising in the gym. It is possible to keep track of what you have eaten. This program resembles a huge number of analogues on the market.

Of the differences, the presence of its own sensors - scales that can transmit weight data to the program, the presence of a bracelet to monitor the quality of sleep. Plus, support for all modern accessories (glucometer, blood pressure monitors) that have wireless capabilities and can transfer data to other devices. It turns out that S-Health is a kind of digital diary of your health, which you can use or not, but it is made with high quality and well, plus it is part of the standard software package. I hope that over time this program will become more complex and additional features will appear in it. But today it looks at the level of the best analogues.

Polaris Office 5 – full version for working with MS Office documents.

Music player

There are no major changes, other than a couple of additional features that will appeal to those who listen to podcasts. Firstly, the ability to change the playback speed of any audio file has been added. Secondly, you can set an automatic time to turn off music playback. Thirdly, there is the My Sound setting, in which the device analyzes how you like to listen to music (volume, equalizers, and so on). The Smart Volume feature brings all songs to a common denominator in terms of volume.

The musical square has not changed in any way (the ability to visually select songs with different rhythms and moods and add them to a temporary playlist).

The number of different codecs is maximum. Rejection of FM-radio seems to me a serious minus, this option favorably emphasized products from Samsung against the backdrop of Apple. There will be no more radio in the flagships, there is a gradual abandonment of its use.

Video playback

Of the chips that seem far-fetched to me, this is eye control - you take your eyes off the screen, and playback stops. It so happened that in flight I often watch films and sometimes get distracted, and this is normal. I don't want the movie to freeze. Moreover, many people have no desire to watch bloody scenes - they close their eyes or even look away. With Samsung's new feature, they'll be doomed to see what they don't want (of course, if they enable it, it's disabled by default, thank God).

The next flagship phone of the South Korean company has appeared - Galaxy S4. It gives a chance to establish itself even more firmly in the smartphone market, confirming its dominance among Android devices.

The new Samsung improves on almost every aspect of the previous model, pairing more powerful hardware with a suite of new software features. The gadget received a bunch of new sensors, aiming for an all-in-one tool.

Immediately, we note the main disadvantages that the device has in our opinion:

• design began to gradually become obsolete;
• externally, the smartphone looks worse than the aluminum One or the glass Xperia Z;
• no FM radio;
• video recording is slightly worse than in the Galaxy S3;
• The general camera interface makes framing quite difficult.

Now let's move on to more detailed review the main characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of the new smartphone.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 comes with the standard set of accessories you'd expect in the box. This is an A/C adapter to be used with the included microUSB cable, headphones that are incomparably better than those supplied with the Galaxy S3. This time all the accessories are painted white.

The new HS330 earphones are equipped with dual drivers for better reproduction of high and low frequencies.

The earcups have also been redesigned in shape, material and size, making them more comfortable. Also improved compared to the Galaxy S3, the control buttons on the headset.

Now let's go directly to the appearance. The dimensions of the Galaxy S4 are likely to be one of the highlights, as the smartphone is the same height as its predecessor, but is 0.8mm narrower, 0.7mm thinner, and 3 grams lighter. And all this despite the screen increased by 0.2 inches, a more capacious battery, which remained still removable. So, the dimensions of the phone are 136.6x69.8x7.9 mm, and the weight is 130 grams.

The screen of the gadget is covered with new Gorilla Glass 3. This glass has a new composition and provides increased scratch resistance. And in fact, early tests have shown that the Samsung Galaxy S4 is more difficult to scratch than the Galaxy S3.

The design has changed little when compared with its predecessor. The phone uses the same Hyperglazed finish, which, in our opinion, is a minus for the gadget, since holding a smartphone in your hands, you feel not a flagship device, but a plastic toy. In this, it loses to HTC One and Sony Xperia Z.

This, however, does not mean that the Galaxy S4 looks worse than its predecessor. The new texture gives it a more serious and stylish look, and the back panel now looks different depending on the viewing angle.

Thin bezels left more space for a shiny screen, but more on that later. The thin body has a higher level of vibration. Also note that now the black color will be available from the very beginning of sales.

Note that the new product is easier to handle than the Samsung Galaxy S3. It is also more comfortable to hold than the HTC One.

The Samsung smartphone has many sensors scattered throughout the body, but the main controls and their layout have remained largely unchanged.

Under the display, you'll find the same three buttons as on the Galaxy S3 - touch-sensitive Menu and Back buttons, and a mechanical Home button.

There's additional functionality: long-pressing the Menu button handles Google Now, while the Home button brings up the task switcher, and there are other possibilities, which are described in more detail in the instructions.

Above the display is a speaker, a bunch of sensors, and a 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera. There is an LED indicator, a traditional ambient light sensor, and a gesture IR sensor that allows you to control some applications such as a web browser and a music player.

The left side of the Samsung Galaxy S4 has a paired volume rocker, while the power/lock button is on the right. Unfortunately, although the camera has received a major upgrade, the control button is still missing. You can use the volume key to take a photo, but it cannot completely replace the two-stage (point and release) button.

At the top, you can see a 3.5mm headphone jack and an IR sensor that allows you to use your smartphone as a remote control for household appliances. There is a pre-installed application that will allow you to control some devices.

The microUSB port on the bottom is used for data transfer and charging. It not only supports USB-host, but also MHL 2.0, which provides the ability to output 3D Full HD video to TV without external power supply. Previously, it was necessary to connect, but then they got rid of it.

Also at the bottom is the main microphone.

On the back of the Samsung Galaxy S4 is a 13-megapixel Full HD camera. Like the Galaxy S3, the LED flash is nearby, but the speaker grille has been moved to the lower left edge of the device.

Performance and software

The Samsung Galaxy S4 that we have in our hands is equipped with a Snapdragon 600 chipset. Of course, we know that there will be a modification with an 8-core Exynos 5 Octa, but for now we will test the available version of the smartphone.

A gadget with 4 cores Krait clocked at 1.9 GHz, with 2 GB of RAM and Adreno 320 should show excellent performance, in our opinion. Built-in memory - from 16 to 64 GB, depending on the version, there is a slot for cards. The operating system is Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean.

The device of the South Korean company bypassed HTC One and Optimus G Pro in single-threaded (Benchmark Pi) and multi-threaded (LinPack) performance tests. Both of these phones use the same chipset but only clocked at 1.7GHz.

Geekbench 2 is a cross-platform benchmark that lets you compare the Galaxy S4 to the 5, which performed twice as bad. HTC One and LG Optimus G Pro are also behind the tested device, although we should note that they use more old version OS Android 4.1.2. Recall that the new flagship Samsung operating system - Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean.

Now let's move on to compound tests. In AnTuTu, our gadget was again at the top, and in Quadrant, the difference between it and Optimus G Pro is very small. Although HTC One lagged behind here significantly.

Now let's test the graphics. In GLBenchmark 2.5 in 1080p off-screen mode, our smartphone confidently won. The Galaxy S4 also topped the Epic Citadel test, although the 60fps limit played a role here. Without that, there might have been a big difference with the HTC One. However, this benchmark uses the Unreal Engine, which is sometimes found in high-end 3D games for mobile phones and shows real performance.

Finally, JavaScript and HTML 5 performance testing. In these benchmarks, the smartphone performed well, but lagged behind the Galaxy Note II. We used the Android Browser for the test, not Google Chrome, which is also pre-installed.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 with the Snapdragon 600 chipset showed excellent performance even in places like heavy animated galleries and video players.

There is support for Wi-Fi, GPS / A-GPS / GLONASS, 3G and LTE (optional), Bluetooth 4.0.

Screen

One of the most important upgrades that the Samsung Galaxy S4 brought was a new 5-inch Super Screen with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels. The gadget has a PenTile matrix with a pixel density of 441 ppi.

The design of the PenTile has also been changed so that there are now twice as many green subpixels as blue and red ones, and their arrangement has also changed. However, this is naturally not noticeable without a microscope.

Image quality is top notch. The smartphone has an impressive contrast ratio and near-perfect viewing angles. Rich colors turn even the most dull image into a surprisingly vivid image and are beyond the reach of any LCD display. If you're not a fan of oversaturated AMOLED displays, Samsung gives you the option to change the saturation to a more natural level.

The brightness levels of the Samsung Galaxy S4 are roughly on par with the rest of the company's AMOLED matrices, meaning it's not very high. However, due to the low reflectivity, this does not affect the image in sunlight. Keep in mind that turning on the auto settings on screen option limits the maximum brightness to a value of 300 nits, so if that matters to you, it's best to keep it.

Of course, it turned out to be brighter than the AMOLED display in the Galaxy S4, but the difference is not so dramatic. The South Korean smartphone showed good image quality in sunlight, although it is surprising that it did not overtake the Galaxy S3 in this indicator, despite the higher brightness. Perhaps the new Gorilla glass brought additional reflections and thus offset the benefits.

Camera

The Samsung Galaxy S4 has a 13-megapixel camera capable of taking pictures at 4128x3096 pixels. There is also a 2-megapixel front camera that can take photos and record videos at the same time as the main one.

It is possible to include various effects. They can be previewed so you can see how a particular scene will look when the effect is applied.

Let's take a look at the different modes. There are standard ones like Rich Tone(), Panorama, Night and Sports. Panoramic shots are quite impressive, they can be 360 ​​degrees or more, and can be more than 60 MP (note that if you hold the phone vertically, the panoramic image will have almost twice the resolution). Here is an example of a panorama.

The gadget has many shooting modes, which are described in the instructions. All of them are good and useful, but we need to answer the question, does the Galaxy S4 camera shoot well? The answer is yes, yes, very good. The South Korean company has done a great job of maintaining good image quality while increasing the resolution.

In the photo you can distinguish a lot of small details, and there is little noise. Colors are accurate, maybe slightly oversaturated, and the white balance is somewhere between neutral and cold (typical for cameras). Samsung phones). The smartphone retains the details of the image in the darkened area, however, sometimes at the expense of detail in the light. To fix this, you can use the HDR mode.

Samsung Galaxy S4 records video in format MP4 bitrate 17 Mbps on average. Stereo audio is saved at 128 bitrate Kbps and a sampling rate of 48 kHz.

It does not provide users with so many shooting modes, but there are some effects here. For example, you can do slow movements, double shooting. Slow motion video can go up to 8x slowdown, but the resolution drops to 800x450 pixels and the frame rate to 15 per second. The usual parameters for video are a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels and a frame rate of 30 frames per second.

Touch focus is available before and during video recording, you can switch back to continuous autofocus if you want. You can take 9.6 MP (16:9) photos while recording.

In the video taken by the phone, you can see a lot of small details and little noise. Colors and white balance are similar to photographs, generally accurate but slightly oversaturated and with a cold white balance shift. One thing that can be categorized as cons is the narrower pitch. It is smaller than the Galaxy S III and HTC One. The difference is quite noticeable, the Galaxy S4 captures much less in the frame than the competition.

The video quality itself is not much better than the Galaxy S III. You can check this yourself by comparing the records. An example captured on the Galaxy S4 is shown below.

When we turned on digital video stabilization, the video became more detailed and the contrast improved. Below is an example where stabilization is enabled.

Battery

If you remove the cover that covers the battery compartment, you can see a microSIM slot, an updated removable 2600 mAh battery and a microSD card slot. The slot is hot swappable.

As it turned out during our battery testing, the extra 500 mAh is easily eaten up by the high screen resolution and more power-hungry chipsets. As a result, there is no significant superiority over its predecessor. Endurance during video playback and web browsing has been improved only slightly, but standby has been a huge step forward. This, of course, is understandable: after all, the chipset does not process any applications, and the screen is turned off.

The gadget can autonomously work 13 hours 53 minutes when talking using 3G networks, 8 hours 42 minutes when surfing the Internet and 10 hours 16 minutes when playing high-definition video.

Testing has shown that a smartphone can last an average of 63 hours if used for an hour a day for web browsing, video and telephony.

Price

The cost of Samsung Galaxy S4 in the Russian market will depend on the modification:

- 16 GB / 3G - 29990 rubles;

- 64 GB / 3G - 36990 rubles;

- 16 GB / LTE - 29990 rubles;

- 64 GB / LTE - 36990 rubles.

Information about the make, model, and alternative names of a particular device, if any.

Design

Information about the dimensions and weight of the device, presented in different units of measurement. Used materials, suggested colors, certificates.

SIM card

The SIM card is used in mobile devices to store data that certifies the authenticity of mobile service subscribers.

Mobile networks

A mobile network is a radio system that allows multiple mobile devices to communicate with each other.

Mobile technologies and data rates

Communication between devices in mobile networks is carried out through technologies that provide different data rates.

Operating system

The operating system is the system software that manages and coordinates the operation of the hardware components in the device.

SoC (System on a Chip)

System on a chip (SoC) includes all the most important hardware components of a mobile device in one chip.

Built-in memory

Each mobile device has a built-in (non-removable) memory with a fixed amount.

Memory cards

Memory cards are used in mobile devices to increase the storage capacity for storing data.

Screen

The screen of a mobile device is characterized by its technology, resolution, pixel density, diagonal length, color depth, etc.

Sensors

Different sensors perform different quantitative measurements and convert physical indicators into signals that are recognized by the mobile device.

rear camera

The main camera of a mobile device is usually located on its rear panel and can be combined with one or more additional cameras.

Front-camera

Smartphones have one or more front cameras of various designs - a pop-up camera, a PTZ camera, a cutout or hole in the display, a camera under the display.

Audio

Information about the type of speakers and audio technologies supported by the device.

Radio

The radio of the mobile device is a built-in FM receiver.

Location determination

Information about navigation and location technologies supported by the device.

WiFi

Wi-Fi is a technology that provides wireless communication for short distance data transmission between different devices.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a standard for secure wireless data transfer between different types of devices over short distances.

USB

USB (Universal Serial Bus) is an industry standard that allows different electronic devices to communicate.

HDMI

HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) is a digital audio/video interface that replaces older analog audio/video standards.

Headphone jack

This is an audio connector, which is also called an audio jack. The most widely used standard in mobile devices is the 3.5mm headphone jack.

Connecting devices

Information about other important connection technologies supported by the device.

Browser

A web browser is a software application for accessing and viewing information on the Internet.

Video file formats/codecs

Mobile devices support various video file formats and codecs, which store and encode/decode digital video data, respectively.

Battery

Mobile device batteries differ from each other in their capacity and technology. They provide the electrical charge they need to function.

Specific Absorption Rate (SAR)

SAR levels refer to the amount of electromagnetic radiation absorbed by the human body while using a mobile device.

Yandex Market

Samsung is a very bad organization after laying the jamb of the manufacturer on the client. I have always disliked Samsung - and on you: I was not mistaken ...

Show more

Pros: I'm happy with my smartphone, except...

Cons: Glass shattered without mechanical damage!!! Change only at the expense of the client!!! I think it's a scam! The camera hangs, but this is already software, so there is hope that they will fix it. Or I'll put my native android.

Yandex Market

Don't buy this phone

Show more

Pros: Worked fine for half a year. Good camera, powerful processor

Disadvantages: It started when I play it rebooted or turned off when I go to the opera, it constantly throws it on the main screen. A weak battery lasts for 4 hours if you play or watch a video. crammed with all sorts of applications that I have never used. I regretted that I bought this phone, it did not justify itself.

Michael a year ago

Yandex Market

The worst model from the Samsung series

Show more

Pluses: If only the camera, it's a weak plus.

Disadvantages: Autonomy of work, often hung up.

Alexander B. a year ago

Yandex Market

⠀⠀I use my smartphone as an alarm clock, communicator and notepad; for web surfing, photos. The specified model provides me with all this for 4 years. At the time of purchase, I was especially pleased with the intuitive interface, screen, general nimbleness and camera. We can also note the overall reliability of the device - resistance to mechanical damage, the absence of critical failures. IMHO, the model is still relevant, since most users do not need the bells and whistles of the current flagship models with wild price tags. Of the shortcomings, first of all, I would like to note the increased heat dissipation. Korean engineers, fighting with apple ones, shoved an eight-core processor into this model, which they could not "curb". As a result, the Fourth Galaxy sometimes turns into a heater, which is accompanied by various freezes. This happens if you run a bunch of useful applications and forgot to close them through the manager. Power consumption is another weak point of the device: out of the box there is a 2600 mAh battery, which is extremely small. After two years of use, the factory battery swelled and the phone turned into a biconvex pie, exposing the protruding screen matrix. The following year, a couple of "Gerffins" batteries suffered the same fate. By trial and error, an explanatory battery "Walker" was selected. For 4 years, the phone has survived several falls, incl. on asphalt, reset to factory settings, three batteries and peeled around the edges. Due to the small capacity of the model (16 GB) and planned aging, we had to leave a minimum of applications such as translator, vk, chrome, booking, YouTube and instant messengers. All this goodness the model still pulls, although it groans. ⠀⠀Verdict - 4/5. Taking into account the overall reliability, service life and available capabilities. On Avito, as a rule, there are many profitable offers for this model. If you are looking for a budget phone, IMHO, it is better to take a used flagship from a reputable company than to point your finger at the sky, buying a little-known craft. All the best!

Show more

Advantages: - good, contrasting screen; - good (and still - not the worst) main camera 13 MP (+ 5 MP - in the front); - Android OS with a bunch of well-known goodies; - removable battery; - in the cold season, you can adjust the sensitivity of the sensor so as not to remove the mittens; - management of all kinds of gestures (if anyone cares. If it doesn't matter, you can turn it off); - resistance to mechanical influences; - general reliability; - ages well: OS works relatively stable for 2-3 years. As lags and glitches become more frequent; accumulation of errors, you can reset everything to factory settings and continue to use it for some time.

Disadvantages: - increased heat dissipation when working under load; - a lot of unnecessary pre-installed applications that are not so easy to remove; - insufficient battery capacity; - supports only one SIM card; - the body peels off over time.

Denis L. a year ago

Yandex Market

Highly good smartphone, reliable. Works more than 3 years and no comments. A very nice screen, even against the background of 2016 models. There is only one drawback and it is significant - this is the low battery capacity. With normal use as a dialer - 1.5 days, with active use - 3-12 hours. *** Has worked for 6 years. During this time, the native battery died (a little more than 4 years of daily charging), the power button died (replacement for Yudu 500 rubles), I continue to use it.

Show more

Pros: Great screen, decent camera for 2013, features, design. Fast charging (1.5 hours)

Cons: Small battery capacity, 16 GB of internal memory - very little

Guest 2 years ago

Yandex Market

I bought it on Android 5.2 Lollipop, it was terribly warm, the battery ran out quickly, most of the functions with sensors did not work and were missing. still warmed up. In general, an excellent camera, a good bright screen, a powerful processor, it is very convenient that it shows temperature and humidity, I also liked flipping through gestures. But the phone can be said for those who know how to root and flash, it is not suitable for games

Show more

Advantages: Excellent camera, screen, very convenient and compact, fits perfectly into your pocket, powerful eight-core processor. But most importantly, a bunch of sensors, like gesture control, hygrometer, thermometer, eye control, etc. characteristics are not written. Perfectly catches the connection

Disadvantages: Heats up, probably due to its compactness, thinness and powerful iron, it turns out that it is difficult for him to cool

Yuri Mirny 2 years ago

Yandex Market

The glass of the device is easily broken by concussions. Replacing glass is associated with its heating with a stove and gluing (labor-intensive). The bumper is plastic and peels off

Show more

Pros: OLED display. A high resolution. Perfectly broadcasts video to the box. A large number of inexpensive parts are on sale.

Cons: Short battery life. Weak glass protection. The cable of the charging connector failed. The photo from the camera is unclear

111 D. 2 years ago