Samsung Galaxy S4: 2013

Software Further information: Android (operating system), TouchWiz, and S Voice

The Galaxy S4 ships with Android 4.2.2 and Samsung's TouchWiz Nature user experience. Eye tracking features have been extended on the S4; the new "Smart Scroll" feature can be used to scroll while looking at the screen by slightly tilting the phone, and "Smart Pause" allows the video player to pause videos if the user is not looking at the screen. "Air View" implements gestures and other functionality (such as previewing images or messages) by holding or swiping a hand or finger slightly above the screen. The "Group Play" feature allows ad hoc sharing of files between Galaxy phones, along with multiplayer games and music streaming between Galaxy S4 phones. The "Adapt Sound" and "Adapt Display" functions can automatically adjust settings for the screen and sound system for optimal quality.

The camera app implements numerous new features (some of which were first seen on the Galaxy Camera), including an updated interface, and new modes such as "Drama" (which composes a moving element from multiple shots into a single photo), "Eraser" (which takes multiple shots and allows the user to remove unnecessary elements from a picture), "Dual Shot" (which uses the front-facing camera for a picture-in-picture effect), "Sound and Shot" (which allows the user to record a voice clip alongside a photo), "Animated Photo", and "Story Album" among others. Other new pre-loaded apps include WatchOn (an electronic program guide that can utilize an infrared transmitter on the top of the phone as a TV remote), S Translator, the workout tracker S Health, S Voice Drive, S Travel, and an optical character recognition app. A new enterprise-oriented feature known as Samsung KNOX allows the phone to be separated into modes for personal use and business use, and gives the business mode high security. It supports the aptX codec which improves Bluetooth-headset connectivity.

The ChatON app has basic features which are auto friends registration, text chat, & multimedia deliver, and put new features which are My Page, voice/video chat, & translate. The main function of ChatON is divided into Multimedia, Group Chat, Trunk, and Animation Message. ChatON can send text, picture, video, & audio as multimedia. Users use the personal profile into My Page. They can create group chat rooms just by selecting more than 2 buddies. All the contents that have been shared in each chat is saved into each trunk. Animation Message turns some simple drawing and stamping into short moving videos.

Back of the Black Mist S4 Hardware and design

The screen features a 5-inch (130 mm) (sometimes stated as 4.99-inch) PenTile RGBG Full HD Super AMOLED screen with 441 pixels per inch; it is made of Gorilla Glass 3.

The S4 comes with either 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of internal storage, which can be supplemented with up to an additional 64GB with the microSD card slot.

The S4 GT-I9505 includes a multiband LTE transceiver and both models feature an infrared LED that can serve as a universal remote control.

Built into the 2600 mAh battery is near field communication (NFC) connectivity, which allows users to perform non-touch payments at shops that employ specially equipped NFC cash registers. The SC-04E model has a FeliCa secure element, unlike other models which contain an NFC-A secure element. The NFC-A secure element on the SC-04E is provided on the SIM card. The battery can be wirelessly charged using a Qi standard special charging pad (sold separately) that utilizes magnetic resonance to produce a magnetic field through which power can be transferred.

The Galaxy S4 supports the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) video format.

In addition to the touchscreen, the S4 has several physical user inputs including a home button located near the bottom of the screen, at the bottom of the S4 is the primary microphone and the microUSB port for both data connections and charging; it also supports USB host and MHL 2.0. There are volume keys on the left side and a power/lock key on the right. At the top there is a 0.14-inch (3.6 mm) headphone jack, the secondary microphone, and infrared blaster. The backside of the S4 has the 13 megapixel camera lens and LED flash, and at the bottom left edge has the loudspeaker.

Samsung's official accessory for the S4, the S-View Cover, utilizes a hall effect sensor in the phone which detects when the cover is closed and displays battery status, time, and other phone statuses in an area of the screen visible through a window on the cover.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Retail Box with the S View Cover.

The S4 comes in two variants that differ primarily in the internal hardware:

Quad-core variant

This S4 version for North America, most of Europe, parts of Asia, and other countries has Qualcomm's Snapdragon 600 SoC containing a quad-core 1.9 GHz Krait 300 CPU and an Adreno 320 GPU.

Octa-core variant Further information: Exynos and big.LITTLE

This S4 version has Samsung's Exynos 5 Octa (octa-core) system on a chip (SoC) chip containing the first ARM big.LITTLE heterogeneous architecture central processing unit (CPU). The eight core CPU comprises a 1.6 GHz quad-core Cortex-A15 cluster and 1.2 GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 cluster. The cluster of four faster "big" A15 cores is paired with the cluster of four slower, more power-efficient "LITTLE" A7 cores. At any given time, either the big cluster is active (for maximum performance) or the LITTLE cluster (for maximum power efficiency). The switching of the active cluster is performed on demand by the chip firmware, with the migration of the running software from outgoing to incoming cores taking 20 µs. The CPU emulates a single quad-core processor to the operating system and applications. The SoC also contains an IT tri-core PowerVR SGX 544 graphics processing unit (GPU). The GT-I9500 version of the S4 does not support LTE. The E300K/L/S versions support LTE, with the Cortex-A15 also clocked at 1.6 GHz.

Model variants Model GT-I9500 SHV-E300K/L/S GT-I9505 SGH-I337 SGH-M919 SCH-I545 SPH-L720 SCH-R970 GT-I9508 SCH-I959 GT-I9502 SGH-N045 (SC-04E) Countries International South Korea International United States China Japan Carriers International KT, LG U+, SK Telecom International (LTE) AT&T T-Mobile US Verizon Sprint U.S. Cellular China Mobile China Telecom China Unicom NTT docomo 2G 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz GSM / GPRS / EDGE 900, 1800, 1900 MHz GSM / GPRS / EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz GSM / GPRS / EDGE CDMA 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz GSM / GPRS / EDGE CDMA 900, 1800, 1900 MHz GSM / GPRS / EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz GSM / GPRS / EDGE 3G 850, 900 MHz, PCS, IMT UMTS / HSPA+ PCS, 2100 MHz UMTS / HSPA+ 850, 900 MHz, PCS, 2100 MHz UMTS / HSPA+ 850 MHz, PCS, 2100 MHz UMTS / HSPA+ 850 MHz, AWS, PCS, 2100 MHz UMTS / HSPA+ 800, 1900 MHz EVDO Rev. A 850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz UMTS / HSPA+ 800, AWS, 1900 MHz EVDO Rev. A 1880, 2010 MHz TD-SCDMA 900, 2100 MHz UMTS / HSPA+ 800, 1900 MHz EVDO Rev. A 850, 900 MHz, PCS, IMT UMTS / HSPA+ 800, 2100 MHz UMTS / HSPA+ 4G LTE No K: GSM, DCS L: CLR, IMT S: CLR, DCS 800, 850, GSM, 1800 MHz, IMT, IMT-E 700 MHz (Band 17), AWS, IMT, IMT-E 700 MHz (Band 17), CLR, AWS, PCS, IMT, IMT-E 750 MHz (Band 13), AWS Extended PCS 700 MHz (Band 12), CLR, AWS, PCS No 800 MHz, PDC, IMT Max network speed DC-HSPA+: 42 Mbit/s LTE: 100 Mbit/s DC-HSPA+: 42 Mbit/s LTE: 100 Mbit/s Broadcast receiver T-DMB 1seg ISDB-Tmm Dimensions 136.6×69.8×7.9 mm (5.38×2.75×0.31 in) Weight 130 g (4.6 oz) 133 g (4.7 oz) 130 g (4.6 oz) 132 g (4.7 oz) 134 g (4.7 oz) Operating system Android 4.2.2 with TouchWiz "Nature UX 2.0" graphical user interface SoC Samsung Exynos 5 Octa Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 APQ8064T Samsung Exynos 5 Octa Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 APQ8064T CPU 1.6 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A15 & 1.2 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 1.9 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Krait 300 1.6 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A15 & 1.2 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 1.9 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Krait 300 GPU IT SGX544MP3 Qualcomm Adreno 320 IT SGX544MP3 Qualcomm Adreno 320 RAM 2 GB Storage 16/32/64 GB 32 GB SAR US Head: 0.85 W/Kg Body: 1.55 W/Kg Head: 0.77 W/Kg Body: 1.17 W/Kg Head: 0.84 W/Kg Body: 1.18 W/Kg Head: 1.03 W/Kg Body: 1.31 W/Kg Head: 0.75 W/Kg Body: 1.43 W/Kg Head: 0.98 W/Kg Body: 1.58 W/Kg Head: 0.96 W/Kg Body: 1.23 W/Kg Google edition

At the Google I/O 2013 keynote, Samsung and Google revealed that an edition of the U.S. Galaxy S4 would be released on June 26, 2013 through Google Play, featuring stock Android 4.2.2 with Google-provided updates in place of TouchWiz and carrier-provided updates; it has an unlockable bootloader (similar to Nexus devices) and supports LTE on AT&T and T-Mobile's networks.

Critical reception

The Galaxy S4 received mostly positive reviews. GigaOM's Tofel says he would recommend the S4 "without hesitation" and says that it's "Samsung's defining phone". ReadWrite's Rowinski described the phone as a "solid smartphone," but criticised Samsung's use of "bloatware, pre-loaded apps and features that you will likely never use," but called the S4 "a first-rate smartphone." Time's McCraken says the S4 is a smartphone with everything, it has the biggest screen and the most built-in features. He wishes the S4 marks the end of Samsung's plan to just add too many new features with its flagship smartphones.

Technology journalist Walt Mossberg described the S4 as "a good phone, just not a great one". Mossberg wrote "while I admire some of its features, overall, it isn’t a game-changer." Mossberg criticized the software as "especially weak" and "often gimmicky, duplicative of standard Android apps, or, in some cases, only intermittently functional." He stated "I urge readers looking for a new Android smartphone to carefully consider the more polished-looking, and quite capable, HTC One, rather than defaulting to the latest Samsung."

Consumer Reports named the Galaxy S4 as the top smartphone due to its screen quality, multitasking support, and built-in IR blaster.

Despite only using about 1 GB more than the S III, critics noted that about half of the internal storage on the S4's 16 GB model was taken up by its system software; leaving only 8 to 9.15 GB for the storage of downloaded apps—which cannot be moved to the SD card—and other data. Samsung initially stated that the space was required for the S4's new features, but following a report regarding the issue on the BBC series Watchdog, Samsung stated that it would review the possibility of optimising the S4's operating system to use less disk space in a future update. Storage optimizations were brought in a update first released in June 2013, which frees 80 MB of internal storage, and restores the ability to move apps to the device's SD card.

Commercial reception

It reached 10 million pre-orders from retailers in the first two weeks after its announcement. In the United States, this prompted Samsung to announce that due to larger than expected demand, the roll out of devices on U.S. Carriers Sprint and T-Mobile will be slower than expected.

The S4 sold 4 million in 7 days, 2 million in 15 days, and sold 10 million to retailers in 27 days; this is the fastest selling smartphone in Samsung's history and the fastest selling Android device in history. The Samsung Galaxy S III sold 4 million units in 21 days, the Samsung Galaxy S II took 55 days, and the Samsung Galaxy S took 85 days.

Samsung Galaxy S4

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Features

Reception

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