The Samsung Galaxy S 4 which was just revealed looks underwhelmingly the same as the older Galaxy S III. During the Unpacked event, the main highlight was on its smart features on camera, voice commands, hand gestures and eye tracking.
With the hardware specs put side by side with other models including the latest Full HD Androids, iPhone 5, Lumia 920 and Z10, we noticed that there have been some improvements on the S 4’s dimensions.
While the Galaxy S 4 boasts a bigger Full HD screen at 5″, the height remains exactly the same as the current Galaxy S III at 136.6mm while at the same time, they have narrowed the width at just 69.8mm. The battery on the S 4 has been upgraded as well to 2,600mAh which is 300mAh 500mAh more than the old one but yet it is slimmer at 7.9mm and lighter at 130g. This means that the S 4 should be easier to hold in the hands.
While display is an improvement, being the first Full HD smart phone from Samsung, it loses out in terms of pixel density to HTC One, due to its smaller 4.7″ screen. In reality, at over 400ppi, it is really hard to differentiate which display has higher pixel density. All matters now would be the display quality especially viewing angles, brightness and contrast.
One obvious advantage which the Galaxy S 4 has over the likes of HTC One and Xperia Z would be its removable 2,600mAh battery. If we put the dimensions side by side, the Galaxy S 4 is actually shorter than the 4.7″ HTC One and it is just as slim as the Xperia Z’s 7.9mm thickness. Even with its extra 300mAh battery capacity, the Galaxy S 4 is at least 13 grams lighter as well which is rather impressive. For those that prefer the thinnest, lightest and shortest, the iPhone 5 is no contest at all with its super slim 7.6mm thickness and weighs just 112 grams.
So far Samsung hasn’t reveal much details on the variants available and based on their official spec sheet, there will be 2 models available. One will be running on a Quad Core 1.9GHz processor while the other on a Octa Core 1.6GHz processor. We are likely to get the Octa Core version in Malaysia. In terms of 4G LTE connectivity, only the Quad Core version supports it at the moment.
Edit: As pointed out by reader min402, the Octa-Core set up in the Galaxy S 4 doesn’t mean all 8 cores are running simultaneously. Rather it has a dual set up of either Quad-Core A15 and Quad-Core A7 which switches depending on intensity of processing required.
In terms of OS version, the Galaxy S 4 runs the very latest Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. Availability wise, Samsung has shared that it will be launching with 327 operators in 155 countries by end of April.
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