Samsung finally revealed the Galaxy S4 at Times Square, and despite the phone being all but released by leaks and inside sources, it was still an exciting evening and the event seemed to go on for a while.
Unlike the PS4 announcement, Samsung left nothing hidden, with the South Korean electronics giant showing the phone, the hardware features and a ton of new software for the user.
Design & Display
In many ways Samsung kept the Galaxy S4 looking like its predecessor, and for good reason, the S3 is a great phone. They have pushed the size of the phone up, to 5-inches. Plastic still coats the smartphone and while many will find this a bad step for Samsung, it means it can be easily manufactured and more durable.
The display is incredible, a 1080p PenTile AMOLED screen gives very vibrant colors and text reproduction is exceptional. It is really a tied race between the HTC and Samsung for the best Android display experience.
Performance
The Galaxy S4 comes with a 1.6GHz Exynos octo-core processor, the most cores we have ever seen on a smartphone. This comes backed with 2GB of RAM and 16, 32 or 64GB of internal storage.
If you need any more storage, the Galaxy S4 comes with a microSD for a further 64GB of storage. The smartphone has NFC, 4G and all the other connectivity bands that top-tier phones come with.
OS & Software
Android 4.2.2, the latest version of the mobile operating system, comes on the Galaxy S4. Of course, this is under the hood, and Samsung’s TouchWiz user interface is what you get.
TouchWiz has not been altered and still functions the way the Galaxy S3 version does, with nature in the center. While we still are not big supporters of TouchWiz, Samsung has worked well on making it usable.
The Galaxy S4 features many gimmicky and new software features, including eye-reading technology, air scrolling, an IR blaster, S health, Group Play and a ton of other new software and altered software, most of them beginning with S.
Camera
The Galaxy S4 has a 13MP rear camera and 2MP front camera. The rear camera takes photo really well and as usual, Samsung has added more ways to take photos than ever before.
A new feature is DualShot, which takes photos with the front and rear camera at the same time, another new feature is DramaShot, which allows you to take a bundle of photos and collaborate a large image. Samsung also added a cinemagram type feature that allows you to take a small video, still it, and then animate the parts you want.
