Samsung Unveils the Galaxy S4

adeelarshad82 writes "It's been leaked, teased, accused of being a copy of its predecessor, and celebrated as the likely champion of the mobile ecosystem for 2013. Samsung has finally unveiled the next in their line of globally available smartphones, the Galaxy S4. The phone carries a 5-inch Super AMOLED display with 1080p resolution at 441ppi, weighs only 130 grams and is no more than 7.9mm thick. On the inside, the Exynos based Octo-Core processor clocked at 1.6 GHz and the Snapdragon based Quad-Core 1.9GHz processor power this machine. Galaxy S4 is also packing 2GB of RAM and a 2600mAh battery, and its microSD slot is accessible though the removable rear panel. The S4 will include several new features, such as Air Gesture, Smart Pause, and Smart Scroll. Samsung's vice president of portfolio planning said many of the software improvements in the Samsung Galaxy S4 could make their way into existing Samsung Galaxy S3 phones."

Comments

Eh, that's it?

[Spy Handler]

incremental improvements and an overall nice phone, sure, but the ad I saw said it was gonna be the biggest revolution since the color TV.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[sd4f]

Maybe they should have said biggest revolution since 3D TV.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[The Grim Reefer]

I have an S3 now and I'm planning on keeping it until it dies. Unless I can get a phone that has two days constant usage on a single battery charge, or uninterpretable signal. I don't see the point in spending $600 every year on a new phone for incremental changes. I probably would still be using my HTC HD2 if it hadn't died on me.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[sayfawa]

I'm surprised by how many people expected it to be so much better than the S3. When does a phone ever completely change in less than a year?

More importantly, who buys a phone in less than a year after their last? This isn't for people with an S3, it's for everyone else. Like me. I can't think of any line of phones where I would want to have each iteration. But I'll get this, and then I'll happily skip the S5, whatever it happens to be. The S3 isn't outdated now, and the S4 won't be outdated for a couple of years when the S6 comes along.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[viperidaenz]

What's the point in a wireless device with an uninterpretable signal?

Re:Eh, that's it?

[viperidaenz]

I suppose if you can't make any calls, you can't drop any.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[AlphaWolf_HK]

I have apple's latest version of iOS (on my ipad,) and it already feels dated.

- Application icons get thrown about haphazardly upon install requiring manual sorting, even for an app you don't even use very much (whereas android stores them alphabetically so they are easy to find - even if you rarely use the app.)
- Changing any common setting requires switching apps followed by menu navigation, whereas on android it's just a swipe and tap without any navigation necessary (e.g. turning wifi on/off, muting, orientation lock.)
- Can't set application launch defaults, such as setting a default email client other than the stock one. (good lord...WHY? every other OS has done this since the 80's...)
- Although apple finally made notifications stop interrupting what you're doing by borrowing the notification bar system from android, the notifications it provides aren't ever good enough to tell you what you need to know without opening them.
- I'm not a heavy widget user, but I like having a brief display of my agenda visible on my smartphone desktop, as well as an RSS ticker on my tablet desktop. Apple offers no such capability without running an app. Every other OS, including (shudder) windows phone has managed to do this, but not apple.

The whole point of a smartphone is having access to information you need quickly, and iOS hasn't offered many improvements in that department in years. The ones that it has added (e.g. passive notifications) it ripped from android, and it didn't really do a good job of it.

It's kind of hard to give the "innovative" title to a company who hasn't really done anything other than incremental hardware updates. While android is also stuck in increment land at the moment, at least it increments both hardware AND software. Also android doesn't call each generation "the best iphone yet" or "the new ipad".

Re:Eh, that's it?

[tsotha]

That doesn't mean Apple users buy a new phone every year, just that apple releases one every year. Most people skip a generation unless there's something major they really want (like LTE).

Re:Eh, that's it?

[The Grim Reefer]

Damn mistyping and spell check. Oh well. Next time I'll look for a phone with an ineffable signal.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[mrbester]

A custom ROM would have helped.

Sent using my SGS i9000 running CyanogenMod 10.1 M2

Yeah I'll probably upgrade...

Re:Eh, that's it?

[shatfield]

441ppi is AWESOME, by the way! The "retina" display is only 326ppi! Your eyes will not be able to see individual pixels on that screen... it'll look as good or even better than print.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[fredprado]

Full HD screen, a 1.9GHz processor, and a 13 Megapixel camera. What exactly more did you expect from this phone? That it would cook for you and make your bed? All improvements are incremental improvements in this market, because the functions the device must perform do not change that much. That said, GS3 specs were already higher than those of the iPhone 5, now with GS4 Samsung leaves Apple far behind.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[AK Marc]

(whereas android stores them alphabetically so they are easy to find - even if you rarely use the app.)

Android will let you sort them by install date, frequency of use, alphabetical, or user order (Apple's only choice). There may be others, but those are the only ones I remember from having moved things around.

The whole point of a smartphone is having access to information you need quickly, and iOS hasn't offered many improvements in that department in years.

That was the point if Siri. Whether it worked or not is not something I can speak to, but that's what it was there for.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[AK Marc]

Exorbitant cost? I paid more for my Samsung Galaxy S3 than my wife's iPhone.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[Swampash]

oh yeah, apple's real innovative. After all, they release almost the same outdated hardware in a slightly different shape, increment the major version, then have droves of their L Ron Hubbard cult rejects rush out to buy it at exorbitant cost.

If you're worrying about affording it, you are not part of Apple's target market.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[R3d M3rcury]

I agree though that the notion that every year needs to deliver NEW! NEW! NEW! is ridiculous.

If you think about it, that's not really true. At least here in the US.

Most people don't think about switching phones before their contract is up. The people who do are either (a) raving fanbois, (b) exceedingly disgruntled with their phone, (c) have lost their existing phone due to some mishap, or (d) getting some kind of deal. But I would bet that a large majority of customers don't change their phones until their contract is up.

Now when you figure that it's a two year contract, figure that in any given year, half the people are coming out of their contract. You certainly want to sell them a phone that is the latest and greatest. That means that every year, there are people coming off a contract who are interested in NEW! NEW! NEW! and you want to have a device to sell them.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[viperidaenz]

like LTE or new shiny.

or iPhone -> iPhone 3G = 3G
-> 3GS = faster hsdpa and video recording
-> 4 = retina display, 'face time'
-> 4S = 4G, Siri
-> 5 = LTE

Re:Eh, that's it?

[alcmena]

To be fair, it's more like buying a new car and just replacing the software on the touchscreen computer. A custom ROM is just software whereas everything else you listed is hardware. The hardware for the S3 is fantastic. I'd love to get a S4, but I think I'll wait until Cyanogen, or someone else, manages to clear out all of Samsung's "awesome software". I know I may not be their target audience, but I would really prefer to have the option to get a vanilla Android install one of their devices. The Galaxy S3 has better hardware than the Galaxy Nexus, but the Galaxy Nexus runs just so much better than a stock S3.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[Anonymous Coward]

441ppi is AWESOME, by the way! The "retina" display is only 326ppi! Your eyes will not be able to see individual pixels on that screen... it'll look as good or even better than print.

Your eyes can't see the individual pixels at 326ppi either so all that extra ppi is just taking up processing power and battery and is worthless.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[MangoCats]

When phones do cook and make your bed, you'll definitely want that too...

All I want is a decent smartphone with a battery life comparable to my "dumbphones" that I have been carrying for the last 7 years - I can charge on Sunday and go until Thursday with heavy (3 hours a day talktime) usage without needing a charge - they will go over a week with light talktime - and these "dumbphones" have video recorders, voice recognition, bluetooth, etc.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[PopeRatzo]

Next time I'll look for a phone with an ineffable signal.

There was a girl I liked back in college who I took out a few times, but it turned out she was ineffable.

After that, I tried to stick to only the effable ones.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[dudpixel]

IIRC they said your eyes couldn't see the individual pixels at arm's length or something like that.

My understanding was that your eyes could see the individual pixels if the retina display was held closer.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

Most people don't think about switching phones before their contract is up. The people who do are either (a) raving fanbois, (b) exceedingly disgruntled with their phone, (c) have lost their existing phone due to some mishap, or (d) getting some kind of deal. But I would bet that a large majority of customers don't change their phones until their contract is up.

Yeah but those people tend to be journalists and tech bloggers who are beating on the drum that anything older than six months is boring.

The problem that causes is that when the mainstream press digs into mobile, they turn to these guys who are complete morons.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[Sussurros]

Curiously in the 80s and 90s the type of girls known as Jersey Girls in the US were called Effies in Australia after a TV character called Efimea but known to all and sundry as Effie.

The different meanings of the words F-able and effable and their antonyms unF-able and ineffable often form an unholy symmetry when applied to particular women.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[shutdown -p now]

The really nice part here is that it's also AMOLED.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a 441ppi _PENTILE_ display.

A proper display LCD has 3 subpixels per pixel, which means a 326ppi display actually has 978 dots per inch.

A 441ppi pentile display has 2 subpixels per pixel, which is 882 dots per inch.

So strictly speaking, the Galaxy S IV still has less pixels per inch than the last 3 revisions of the iPhone. In fact, I think even the Galaxy S II might have had a better display than this new one.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[Zontar The Mindless]

Thank you for "explaining" the too-too-subtle wordplay to us, Captain Obvious!

Re:Eh, that's it?

[AmiMoJo]

Somehow I doubt it will shut the pentile haters up, but for the rest of us AMOLED screens provide much deeper blacks and more vibrant colours. My GS3 and plasma TV have really spoiled me when it comes to black levels, to the point where most LCDs look grey now.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[Zontar The Mindless]

This is ridiculous. How is the smartphone who most people (at least in US) own is a fashion accessory?

1. A smartphone is a "which" or a "that", but not a "who". (At least you didn't use "whom" as a nominative, thank random factors for small favours.)

2. Most people in the US wear shoes, which are highly functional and indeed in many circumstances necessary items, yet they too are often regarded as fashion accessories. Life is fraught with such mysteries!

Re:Eh, that's it?

[Zontar The Mindless]

Note to mods:

"My baseless claim contradicts your baseless claim" != "informative".

Re:Eh, that's it?

[fredprado]

That is not a problem exclusive to smartphones. It is probably the most important problems mankind has at the moment. Finding an efficient way to store electric energy. While nobody finds out a revolutionary way to do that battery technology evolution can barely keep (if even that) with the increasing requirements of electronic devices.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[ephraimX]

That's... not how it works. The "penta" part refers to a prototype arrangement that isn't actually in use in any phones (see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PenTile).

These phones are using the RGBG pattern, which has the greens 1-to-1 with the pixel map, which means each pixel is either a green-with-red or a green-with-blue. So the parent here did do the math correctly.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[rossz]

incremental improvements and an overall nice phone, sure, but the ad I saw said it was gonna be the biggest revolution since the color TV.

It's aimed at iPhone 4s owners whose loyalty is swaying.

It's aimed at iPhone 4 owners where are easily impressed by a cell phone that can make phone calls.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[thegarbz]

Plastic body? How about the far better screen, processor, ram, feature set (NFC, Bluetooth 4), external SD card, better sound quality.

Shit give me a plastic body with those features any day.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[Sussurros]

Well there is a certain subtlety to it beyond the obvious. Take the women from any dynasty, The House of Windsor for example, from Queen Victoria to Princess Alexandra to Princess Elizabeth to her daughter Queen Elizabeth to Princess Diana to Duchess Camilla to Princess Catherine. Or perhaps Senior White House women. Any group of women who are newsworthy for other reasons create interesting patterns as the kaleidoscope changes with each change of generation.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[Fallingcow]

and real time 3D maps

Whoa, am I the only one who has this 100% of the time, whether I'm using my phone or not?

Re:Eh, that's it?

[ArsonSmith]

Get Verizon, they charge me a lot for wireless.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[tlhIngan]

That said, GS3 specs were already higher than those of the iPhone 5, now with GS4 Samsung leaves Apple far behind.

EVERY Android phone has had better specs than the contemporary iPhone of the day. This goes all the way back to the original iPhone. The HTC G1 had more memory and a faster processor than the iPhone or iPhone 3G.

This has always been true.The iPhone has never had specs that held one lick to the flagship Android phones. Hell, the iPhone 5 was the first to have 1GB of memory. Or even a 1GHz processo (the iPhone 4/4S had 800MHz processors).

All I want is a decent smartphone with a battery life comparable to my "dumbphones" that I have been carrying for the last 7 years - I can charge on Sunday and go until Thursday with heavy (3 hours a day talktime) usage without needing a charge - they will go over a week with light talktime - and these "dumbphones" have video recorders, voice recognition, bluetooth, etc.

I've never understood the need to have a phone last weeks on a single charge. Have people evolved beyond the need for sleep? After all, it seems like it's the perfect time to charge your phone. Heck, I always charged my dumbphones every night anyways - I never even bothered trying to run it for weeks.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[hairyfish]

I don't see the point in spending $600 every year on a new phone for incremental changes.

That's nice, but did you ever think that not everyone has an S3 currently? Nor are S3 owners the only target market? I have an S2 and I'll be off contract next month so I'll be getting one, same goes for others I've spoken to with other older smartphones. By releasing even an incremental upgrade it keeps Samsung in front. Apple fanboys will have to wait a long 6 months (an eternity in the smartphone market)before they have something that competes, even then I doubt the next iPhone will due to their locked-in design. And if it does Samsung will have something else out a few months after it to steal its thunder.
In summary, a quick release cycle is much better than a slow one, as market share is demonstrating.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[julesh]

At 441ppi, you should be able to resolve individual pixels at a distance of about 20cm. For the retina display the distance is about 27cm. For me, the natural distance I hold my phone from my eyes is about 40cm, so I doubt this will make much difference at all.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh yeah, it's amazing - slightly larger display, slightly better battery life, slightly lighter, slightly thinner, and a new generation of internal chip.

No other competitor has EVER delivered ANYTHING like this, it's UNPRECEDENTED in the mobile phone industry - Apple, RIM, Nokia, HTC - nobody has ever released an improved next-gen version of their flagship handset!!

How the fuck do you get insightful mods based on THIS twaddle?

Re:Eh, that's it?

[FireFury03]

I would have skipped the 3GS and the 4S.

I would've skipped the original iPhone - it was a major step backwards in functionality from most smart phones, and I can't think why anyone would want a smartphone _without_ 3G...

Re:Eh, that's it?

[FireFury03]

I've never understood the need to have a phone last weeks on a single charge. Have people evolved beyond the need for sleep? After all, it seems like it's the perfect time to charge your phone. Heck, I always charged my dumbphones every night anyways - I never even bothered trying to run it for weeks.

Which is all well and good if you have a power socket near by. Some of us go camping, etc. where there is no such luxury. Luckilly, my smartphone _can_ last over a week on one charge, but I have to remember to turn off all the background battery suckers.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[HuguesT]

Personally I don't like Apple's tactics or philosophy very much, but you would have to be fairly dishonest to say that the original iPhone was a step backwards. Sure it didn't have 3G, but it had the only reasonably usable browser of any smartphone at the time. Also 3G wasn't as widely available as it is now, so it was a reasonable compromise at the time. It changed the smartphone industry in a meaningful way.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[Bogtha]

EVERY Android phone has had better specs than the contemporary iPhone of the day. This goes all the way back to the original iPhone. The HTC G1 had more memory and a faster processor than the iPhone or iPhone 3G.

The G1 was released almost 18 months after the original iPhone - it wasn't a contemporary of the original iPhone, it was one generation later. And it may have had better specs than the iPhone 3G, but it was much slower - at the time, I had a G1 as my primary phone and my full-time job was developing for the iPhone, so I used both heavily every day. If the G1 had better specs, it certainly didn't show.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[kevingolding2001]

Actually, I think that's a preview of some future version of Windows.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[tehcyder]

What about S2 owners? What's your advice for them?

Throw away your ludicrously old-fashioned phone immediately and buy the new shiny phone before you lose all your friends, your wife runs off with the milkman (who has an S4 already) and your kids sue you for mental anguish caused by being unfashionable.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[nblender]

Not everyone is like you.

I have an iphone4. Had an iphone 1st gen that I bought used from a friend before that. My next phone will probably be an Android phone. But I've tried various and sundry Androids from work. The thing that has consistently killed it for me is battery life. With my current usage, I get about 6 days on my iphone. I go to my cabin on weekends and stick the phone in a cradle where it charges and acts as a hotspot. On Sunday afternoon I go back home. I don't charge my phone during the week. When I get to the cabin on Saturday morning, I'm at about 20% battery.

Out of all the Androids I've tried from work, with my existing SIM, and with my usual usage pattern, I'm hard pressed to get 2 days of battery. (Motorola Atrix2, GS2, GS3).

My iphone 2G still works fine and still has reasonable battery life. Probably because I didn't charge it every night when I was using it. Lithium batteries are limited by charge cycles. If you charge every night instead of once a week, you are drastically reducing the overall life span of the battery.. Which is good because iphone batteries are not easy to replace or impossible to replace (I've never had to bother).

There are small usability things that annoy me about Android but there are similar annoyances with my iphone. I can learn to cope. But I don't want to have to put my phone in a charger every night and I can't be bothered to check the screen all the time to see whether it needs charging.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[Pieroxy]

440 ppi is much finer than the eye can resolve. How it is subdivided says nothing about useful resolving power. Only morons would argue what is better based on subelements that, taken alone, mean nothing

Nitpicking much he? Dpi is as meaningful as how you define "d". In printing world for example, d means one dot of one color, either full on or off. Hence to have a decent quality you need to go up in the 3000 dpi or so. In a RGB screen, 300 dpi means a much more detailed picture because a d means a pixel that can take 16 million different colors, from black to white, including most of the visible spectrum.

So yes, the definition of d is of a great relevance when comparing two densities. If you do'nt use the same unit, your comparison is all but meaningless.

I guess only morons will assert blindly that 400 dpi is greater than 300 dpi when d in both units isn't the same thing.

Re:Eh, that's it?

[pruss]

I see no compelling need to move from my S2 running 2.3.6, and in fact I see some reason not to: the lack of a dedicated search button on the S4 (and S3). I like the idea of a consistent interface so that in every well-designed app where searching is relevant, I can search by pressing in exactly the same place. Plus, I like the fact that I can launch my favorite apps by holding down the search button for a second (though that does take an extra app). This is fairly minor, but from my point of view so are most of the improvements.

Plus I'd have to figure out how to legally root a new device. It took me months to figure out how to legally root my S2. (The standard ways of rooting of the S2 involved installing a custom ROM, but custom ROMs would contain copyrighted Samsung-copyrighted components, and hence downloading them is at least grayish.)

Re:Eh, that's it?

[fbobraga]

I can't understand why I should want a 5-inch phone like the S4.

Me too - it's almost a tablet that make calls...

Screen size

[sd4f]

While 1080p is impressive for a 5" screen, i think it's over the top. Can't see the additional detail so why give up battery life to drive more pixels. Also is the sub pixel layout pentile?

Re:Screen size

[R3d M3rcury]

What I don't understand is the IR port.

Don't like what's on TV in the bar? Change it!

Re:Screen size

[viperidaenz]

Apple stopped buying Samsung LCD's and moved to the second-rate LG ones. They have to put the best LCD's in the world somewhere.

IR port? It would be nice if I could get an app for my phone that controls my TV. Like a universal remote I don't have to look under the couch for all the time. My ancient Pocket PC can do that. Why can't current devices?

Re:Screen size

[Anonymous Coward]

Can't see the additional detail so why give up battery life to drive more pixels.

You're making an assumption which may not be valid. First of all, the primary driver of screen battery life is brightness, not resolution. Second, if you're not doing something graphics intensive on your phone, the battery will get you through the day anyway. So your concern is mostly applicable when doing things like playing games and watching movies. Now, if you're watching a 1080p movie on a smaller resolution screen, the phone's graphics processor has to downconvert the image. So the question becomes, which is more of a drain on battery life - downconverting a 1080p movie to a 960px screen, or playing a 1080p movie on a full HD screen? This I don't know the answer to, but I suspect that it's a close call.

smafti

Re:Screen size

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple uses Sharp's LCDs. Which are generally considered better than Samsung's. Not just my opinion; Samsung agrees. A couple months ago, they bought a 3% stake in Sharp.

Re:Screen size

[sd4f]

I suppose you could see a difference, i like amoled screens because the blacks are incredibly good, and colours are quite vibrant, but i googled about it being pentile and there doesn't appear to be solid confirmation, but some sites are saying it's a pentile screen, which in effect means 2 sub pixels per pixel.

If you compare subpixel density, the SGS4 is 882 subpixels per inch, my lumia 920 is 1280x768 with a pixel density of 332, comprising three sub pixels and 4.5 inches, therefore the subpixel density is 996 per inch, therefore if it was pentile it would be 498 ppi. Both of them are really small, and not really a big difference, but i think it's a bit misleading to directly compare pentile screens with proper sub pixel layouts.

My old SGS1, that was obviously inferior with its pentile arrangement. It couldn't draw straight lines, and on a solid colour screen, one edge was green. Pictures were very nice to look at though, but web browsers and text, were not very good at all.

Re:Screen size

[Misagon]

The S IV's screen isn't LCD, it is AMOLED.

Re:Screen size

[Entropius]

How are they awful? I have one in my Galaxy Nexus and it looks fine.

Re:Screen size

[Solandri]

If you compare subpixel density, the SGS4 is 882 subpixels per inch, my lumia 920 is 1280x768 with a pixel density of 332, comprising three sub pixels and 4.5 inches, therefore the subpixel density is 996 per inch, therefore if it was pentile it would be 498 ppi.

No, because your eyes suck at seeing blue. Your eyes have very poor resolution in blue, moderately better resolution in red, and sharpest resolution in green. The whole point of a pentile display is not to waste subpixels on blue and red that your eyes can't even see. So you put in more green subpixels than red or green.

Put another way, even though the Lumina has 996 subpixels per inch, 67% of them are much higher resolution than your eyes can resolve, while 33% (green) are lower resolution than your eyes can resolve. So you're actually wasting a lot of subpixels. With a pentile RGBG display, the ratio of subpixels better matches your eye's resolving ability. 50% of the pixels are devoted to green, 25% for red, 25% for blue. So pentile can produce a sharper looking picture than RGB while using fewer subpixels. Pentile only looks bad if you unrealistically put your eye right up to the screen or take a magnified photo.

And before anyone starts rebutting that they can see the difference, no you can't. This trick is not new nor did it start with Android pentile displays. It's been used in NTSC TV broadcasts, color film formulation, and JPEG and MPEG compression. All of those store and display red and blue at a lower resolution than green. That you never noticed this before is proof that it works. It's just new to computer displays because until recently we didn't have spare computing power to waste on converting RGB data for a single pixel into a RGBG subpixel array millions of times in real time.

Re:Screen size

[dfghjk]

"...maybe they just upscale things, but it would look awful."

No reason to believe a 1080p 5" display with upscaled 720p data would "look awful" compared to a 720p 5" display driven directly. It may not be better but it's unlikely to look worse. Hard to imagine it would be noticeable at 440 ppi.

Re:Screen size

[Solandri]

Here's another link with a more detailed handling of what the link I included shows. Including the same pic with red pixels enlarged.

Re:Screen size

[AmiMoJo]

That's hardly "agreeing". They just took the opportunity to buy a stake in a Japanese manufacturer and rival when they were short on cash. Sharp actually suggested the deal.

As for who is better, Samsung concentrates on AMOLED for quality and LCD for price in the small screen market. For larger screens they make retina displays for Apple, which are considered to be better than the LG ones.

Smartphone?

[mcgrew]

With a five inch screen it's a small tablet! I wouldn't mind having one, but I'd still need a phone, my pocket isn't that big.

Re:Smartphone?

[amiga3D]

Actually I find 5 inches to be about perfect. It'll fit my pocket okay and I can actually hold it. The nice thing is I can actually see the screen without a magnifying glass. Anything under 4 inches is to me unusable. Of course some people like tiny phones and it's nice for them as most of the phones out there are small. Don't bitch about those of us with larger hands having something we can hold.

Re:Smartphone?

[macshit]

...5" screen is too big and bloated...

If that is your problem at least with Samsung you have the mini models.

The problem is that the mini models aren't just smaller screens, they're lower-spec generally. I suspect that most people that don't like the current bloat-o-phone/phablet trend actually want a nice fast processor, high-resolution display, lots of memory, a good camera, etc, they just don't want the ridiculously oversized phones. I know I certainly don't.

It isn't just Samsung, this sort of simple-minded "bigger = better, smaller = old phone for kids" mindset seems very common amongst all the smartphone manufacturers. [Samsung perhaps deserves a bit more of the blame, though, as they're an industry leader, so other makers probably tend to follow what they're doing to some extent.]

Re:Smartphone?

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually I find 5 inches to be about perfect. It'll fit my pocket okay and I can actually hold it.

That's what she said.

Re:Smartphone?

[niftydude]

With a five inch screen it's a small tablet! I wouldn't mind having one, but I'd still need a phone, my pocket isn't that big.

In terms of size - the S4 is actually smaller and lighter than the S3 - even though the S3 only has a 4.8" screen.

S3: 136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6 mm, 133 g
S4: 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9 mm, 130 g

The screen runs closer to the edges, and the buttons at the bottom are slimmer. All in all, some pretty neat engineering.

Re:Smartphone?

[mlts]

Part of the reason why there is a move to bigger phones is engineering issues. The faster CPUs require more surface area to dissipate heat. So, the product designers might as well offer a larger screen size.

Re:Smartphone?

[ArsonSmith]

I love my galaxy note. See I have a giant head so when I'm talking on the phone with my note it really helps make my head look smaller.

Tim Cook spread his fud

[viperidaenz]

Didn't he say yesterday the new S4 would come out with a 1+year old version of Android? Looks like 4.2.2 is only 1 month old.

Re:Tim Cook spread his fud

[viperidaenz]

Oops, my bad. It was Apple Marketing Chief Phil Schiller who said that

Re:Tim Cook spread his fud

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you serious? A chief of marketing named Schiller?

Re:Tim Cook spread his fud

[NJRoadfan]

Knowing Samsung, they'll release a x.1 Android ROM upgrade for it a year after it comes out and then EOL the device. It happens way too often with these phones.

Re:Tim Cook spread his fud

[AmiMoJo]

They are still actively supporting the GS2 and 3. The GS3 has had multiple updates, and more are in the pipeline. Samsung are very good with updates, in a par with Apple for their high end phones.

Keep spouting the FUD though, someone is bound to listen.

It's time to stop calling these things "phones"

[treadmarks]

What does a "phone" need 8 cores for? Is it supposed to multitask many phone calls at once?

Re:It's time to stop calling these things "phones"

[KingSkippus]

People used to ask why desktops would need multiple processors. Most software now takes advantage of multithreading capability, and trying to use a single core process is downright painful.

It may not need to multitask many phone calls at once, but it most certainly may need to multitask a whole bunch of apps at once, especially on a phone that can do things like instantly translate written or spoken text, record and composite two video sources at once and audio in real time, receive notifications such as texts, keep track of calendars, locations, temperatures (?), heart rates (!), etc. while you go about whatever it is you're doing, running a pretty sophisticated operating system with a pretty sophisticated user interface, and oh yeah, take and process telephone calls. And don't forget that it might have to do some of these tasks twice, given that the phone can be configured to be running an entirely separate virtual OS for your work stuff.

Never ask why any electronics device would need more resources, whether it's CPU cores, memory, storage capacity, network bandwidth, or anything else. It's a sure recipe for looking back in five years and say, "Wow, I sure was dumb back then. I never dreamed that devices today would be able to [insert amazing capability due directly to advancement in hardware specifications]!"

Re:It's time to stop calling these things "phones"

[Electricity Likes Me]

Given that my plan for my next smartphone (which will probably be an S4) has been to install a full version of Linux on it to replace using a laptop when travelling, I'm pretty happy about the 8 core processor. It's too bad it doesn't have another 2gb of RAM.

Samsung Galaxy S IV teardown

[Anonymous Coward]

If you can't wait for a more detailed one, here is a teardown.
http://micgadget.com/34139/chinese-tech-site-disassembles-the-samsung-galaxy-s-iv-before-it-gets-official-release/

Where's the Mini?

[MatthiasF]

I'm tired of huge phones. Why can't they give us a freakin' 3-3.2 inch phone for those of us that don't enjoy carrying around a small television?

Re:Where's the Mini?

[rsmith-mac]

The problem with the S3 Mini is that it had almost nothing to do with the S3. It was a redressed version of one of Samsung's midrange smartphones. Even the Galaxy S2 was more powerful/capable in most situations, never mind the S3.

Contract vs. Vendor

[phoebe]

The real question with Samsung's new phone is how the sales will perform. Samsung obviously think they're hot but that is ignoring the fact that the majority of purchasers of the S3 were iPhone 4 owners who finished their contract and the iPhone 5 was delayed. Now we are in a situation that the S3 purchasers are still in contract and not open to free choice and might not want another Samsung device.

Re:Contract vs. Vendor

[thegarbz]

On the flip side there'll be droves of Galaxy S2 users who contracts are about to expire.

Battery

[Anonymous Coward]

You're going to love that you can pop in a brand-new battery. The more the phone does, the more it will use up the power, the more recharge cycles, and the faster your battery wears out (note that battery running times become unacceptable long before the battery is actually gone).

First 8 core phone

[Anonymous Coward]

The two biggy here are the 8 core Exynos, the 2 core one was the fastest processor in a phone, now it scales to 8 cores. And the insane resolution needed to put full 1080p in a 5 inch phone.

Oh and the gestures thing.

Here's the sad part, where Apple? It use to be, Apple would come out with a curveball and win the game, now they're just twiddling with screen aspect ratios. It's all a bit sad.

Re:First 8 core phone

[dfghjk]

"It" doesn't scale to 8 cores. It's a 4 core processor where each "core" has both a low power and high performance core that it selects between. Only 4 cores are operational at any given time.

Of course, that doesn't matter to the tech-savvy membership of /. 8 is greater than 4, that's what counts.

Re:First 8 core phone

[Anonymous Coward]

Seen the profits Apple is making from phones? Apple won the game a long time ago.

You do realize that you're boasting about how hard Apple fleeced you, don't you?

WTF

[7-Vodka]

All I care about is whether you have complete control over the hardware you buy.

Is it like the galaxy nexus, I can do anything I want with it, or is it like most other phones: Locked and useless?

Re:WTF

[thesupraman]

IMHO you badly need to add 'lack of SD memory slot' to that list..
badly. Its unforgivable not to include one, makes developing for/backup of/etc the phone SO much easier/better.
Its not about the amount of storage, its about the removability.

Damn pleased S4 kept it.

Re:WTF

[AmiMoJo]

Galaxy phones are always well supported by Cyanogen, and Samsung doesn't do much to lock them down. The GS3 was supported about a month after release so don't expect to wait long to build your own kernel/rom for the GS4.

Re:WTF

[thegarbz]

While Samsung doesn't lock down the bootloader they do a few underhanded things to ensure warranty claims can identify phones which have had their firmwares played with. Flashing custom firmware on a Samsung Galaxy phone causes a yellow triangle to appear during boot. This is a feature in the bootloader firmware. Fortunately the XDA guys have figured out ways around it, but the phone is definitely not open in the same way a Nexus is open.

Re:WTF

[GuB-42]

I don't know about the newer Nexus phones but for the Nexus One, the official way to unlock the bootloader and flash new ROM cause a padlock icon to appear the same way as Samsung's yellow triangle.

Excellent

[corychristison]

My contract is up on August 4th. Assuming the S4 comes out before then, perhaps the cost on the S3 will come down and I'll be able to afford it sans contract renewal. Doubly because I want to switch providers.

5 months old...

[mtb_ogre]

Jelly Bean was released in November, making it 4 months old, 5 months by the time the SIV is generally available. Jelly Bean will be obsoleted by Key Lime Pie at Google's I/O developer conference in May so you get a whole month to enjoy being on the current version of Android, that might be some kind of record. After which you get to wait another 4-5 months for Samsung to get the OS up and approved by US carriers.

Where is Wireless Charging?

[bjwest]

Why in the hell is induction charging not a standard feature for phones yet? Battery life would be less of an issue if we could just set the phone down on a charge pad and not worry about having to plug the thing in all the time. I'd be more than happy to have several charge pads around the house and at the office.

Hell, toothbrushes have had this technology for years.

Re:Where is Wireless Charging?

[the eric conspiracy]

Hell I have seen vibrators with inductive charging.

The phone feature that I care most about

[Dracos]

A slider form factor with a physical five row QWERTY keyboard. Almost nothing else is a dealbreaker to me.

I've had a Samsung Epic 4G (Galaxy S1) for almost two years. It's one real flaw is that it only has 362MB of ram. However, Sprint doesn't have 4G of any kind in my area but still insist that I pay them $10/month for the vaporous privilege of having a 4G handset (which is always connected to my house's WiFi anyway).

Re:The phone feature that I care most about

[KiloByte]

After tweaking the keymappings, I use my N900 for coding. Sometimes including perl :p It's actually more comfortable than a laptop, and hugely easier to carry. Obviously, for real coding there's the desktop, but I can sit for several hours of productive work anywhere.

Too bad, N900 is so weak a machine it can't even run niceties like a decent browser (ok, unless you're REALLY patient), but a text terminal, a chroot with postgres, a compiler, etc, is fine for many tasks.

And I make 1-2 phone calls a month, and receive perhaps 10. e-mail works well.

1 Month old.

[mjwx]

Jelly Bean was released in November, making it 4 months old, 5 months by the time the SIV is generally available. Jelly Bean will be obsoleted by Key Lime Pie at Google's I/O developer conference in May so you get a whole month to enjoy being on the current version of Android, that might be some kind of record.

That was 4.2, released in November, 4.2.2 was released on 11 February 2013. So just over 1 month old.

After which you get to wait another 4-5 months for Samsung to get the OS up and approved by US carriers.

If you dont live in the US (or do live in the US and buy directly from Samsung) this isn't a problem.

It's not an Android issue, it's an issue with your incompetent telco's.

Also, you've got the option of community ROMs.

That's OK

[arielCo]

I've an S3 too, and we can't even accuse Samsung of wanting you to upgrade on every launch; you just buy whatever is fresh at the time you need it, so it'll last you as long as possible. I expect the S6 to be out by the time our S3's are severely obsolete.

Re:That's OK

[tehcyder]

Might wipe the S1 and give it to my kid for her birthday. I feel a bit guilty at giving her a hand-me-down, but it still looks and works good as new.

dude, you can't buy your daughter a birthday present? "daddy, daddy, I really want your old crap for my birthday!"

He didn't say he was only going to give her his old phone for her birthday. No doubt she'll get a Ferrari, stable of ponies and a black Amex card too.

Re:tap to turn WiFi On/Off?

[GigaplexNZ]

Not on Android. There was no way to turn on WiFi with a single click until Android 4.2.2, and even in Android 4.2.2 is it a press and hold, not a tap.

I'm running 2.3.7 and I just hit the WiFi button on one of the widgets.

This is like the Ghz race

[OhANameWhatName]

Who needs a 14MP Camera with a ditzy little lense .. what's the point? 1080p display with more pixels than the naked eye can actually see .. seriously? Who cares. Picture in picture display for front and rear cameras, NFC and optical recognition gestures? Why in the hell would I want to watch myself while recording a video, touch my phone to someone else's phone to transfer data between them or swipe in another way other than on the glass panel? It's a laundry list of features, all pretty much useless.

If the OS is terrible to use, the battery burns out in 2 hours and the phone is loaded with endless crapware that can't be removed, well .. who would want one?

Re:So where's Apple Curveball?

[SuperKendall]

You didn't point to any curveball and that's what's sad.

That's because that part was never true.

There never was a curve ball. Just a really good product people liked to use.

And that's what Apple is still doing, as evidenced by sales.

Re:Found 'em

[sacrilicious]

Well, the last two quarters they were outselling all other smartphones on every U.S. carrier that carried them.

Even if this were true, what an incredibly misleading statement. Android has 75% of the smartphone market outright, and rising FAST. I have no idea if Apple somehow outsells every other *individual* model of cellphone (or however else your statement might be twisted to be "true"), but the raw numbers most definitely support the rhetorical asking/observation "where's Apple in all this".

And all those cores are of little use without software to use them. iOS still has a huge quality and power lead in apps.

I'd ask for substantiation, but this quote is too subjective to warrant it.

garage band

[Chirs]

After looking for some time I have yet to find an equivalent to garage band on Android.

Re:garage band

[LordLimecat]

I think android users might remark they have yet to find an equivalent to Firefox, or emulators, or adblockers on IOS.

Re:Found 'em

[stenvar]

And all those cores are of little use without software to use them. iOS still has a huge quality and power lead in apps.

Funny, the reason I gave up on iOS was the limited app selection: no keyboards, no launchers, restricted VPN, no widgets, no third party tethering, no file system apps, limited ssh and web servers, limited third party music and video stores, etc.

Some people are really underestimating this device

[dell623]

The sales will depend more on marketing as usual, but..

1) That display is awesome, AMOLEDs are getting better and we're finally beyond retina density for AMOLED displays (the S3 had a pentile display which lowers the effective dpi a bit)

2) The 5" screen is not what decides the dimensions. This is actually narrower than the S3. It's a milimeter wider than my Nexus 4, which I could live with. When I bought the Nexus 4 I was wary of a 4.7" screen but it's surprisingly usable and I don't have large hands. I wouldn't want to go back to a smaller display for anything. Narrower bezels are a long needed advance, and Apple hasn't caught up yet - the Motorola Razr M for example squeezes a 4.3" screen in an iPhone 5 sized device.

3) It is slimmer and fits a far higher capacity battery than the S3. The effect on power consumption from the screen and new processor/GPU isn't known yet, but I bet this will do better than the HTC One.

4) Forget the lame launch, there are some genuinely cool features in there.

5) Not launching a 4.3 inch S4 Mini with top of the line specs is a huge and stupid omission from Samsung.

Re:tap to turn WiFi On/Off?

[Joce640k]

On mine you pull down the notification list and tap the WiFi icon.

OK, it's "swipe-tap", not just "tap" but it's not exactly a chore. I'm not sure I want a floating WiFi icon that's always on screen (which is the only way it could always be a single tap).

(PS: This is Android 2.2...)