Most powerful phone, which exists on this moment. That is why I bought it, and, of course, I understood before the purchase that games or programs that would require such power are not even being developed now, but still I decided to take a risk. I would immediately like to note the thinness of the phone, only 7.9 millimeters. It fits perfectly in the hand, even though it is simply huge. Surprisingly, you can operate it with one hand; it weighs only 130 grams. The plastic is excellent, very pleasant to the touch. The back cover is made of ribbed plastic, thanks to which the phone fits very well in the hand. The power of this phone is simply scary. The processor is Samsung's own design, or rather Samsung Exynos 5410 with eight cores and clock frequency 1600 MHz. GPU- PowerVR SGX544MP3. And also 2 GB random access memory. In general, as I already said, it is now difficult to find a use for such power, but you still need to know that your phone is more powerful than some laptops and
All tablets are very nice. There are no problems with games, everything just flies. At maximum settings, games such as GTA III are played, Dead Space, ZP, Most Wanted and all others. Of course, there are no problems with applications either. The phone, of course, is not only intended for games; it is convenient to watch movies on it. Easily plays videos in Full HD format. But the most important thing is surfing the net, the screen is large, everything is visible perfectly. Scrolling and scaling are smooth, everything loads very quickly, flash is not a problem at all.
The screen here is simply gigantic. Of course, there have already been phones with five-inch screens, but I don’t think they have the same characteristics. The screen is made using Super AMOLED technology. The screen resolution is 1080x1920 pixels, which is simply huge. In fact, we have 441 pixels per inch, which is quite a lot. The screen has high brightness and excellent color reproduction. The colors are very rich and deep. Viewing angles are almost maximum, and this applies to both vertical and horizontal angles. On such a large screen it is convenient to both watch movies and play games. The camera is as much as 13 megapixels. Although I understand perfectly well that megapixels are not the main thing in a camera, and that a matrix that can be put in a phone whose thickness is only 8 millimeters will never take better photos than even the simplest point-and-shoot cameras, but, nevertheless, the camera takes really high-quality photo. My personal favorite thing about the camera is how it renders colors, with greens and blacks being particularly good. The nature photos come out simply magnificent. Photos can be taken in a resolution of 4128x3096. There are a lot of settings and automatic modes. There is also a four-fold zoom. And a flash. In the end, I’m just incredibly happy with the phone, I’m glad I made such a purchase.

New flagship in an old shell

Let's agree right away: this material is not a full-fledged review to the extent that we are accustomed to presenting our readers with materials of this kind. However, calling it “ preliminary review” (“preview”), the hand did not rise either, because this term, thanks to some of our colleagues from other publications, has long and firmly entered into use as a “review” of something that the author himself has not yet held in his hands. That is, in pursuit of the laurels of pioneers, some journalists sculpt such creations, based on data gleaned from the materials of official online presentations and even the websites of our foreign colleagues, who have more than fast access to new products. Photos, of course, are also taken from “official sources”. We have never made this kind of material and do not intend to do so. That short review, which we present to your attention today, was able to come into being thanks to a sudden chance. We got the opportunity to explore new smartphone Samsung Galaxy S4 for a very short time, but managed to take with them a certain amount of material that could be interesting for publication. Thus, today we bring to your attention a kind of “mini-review” of the Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone, which includes only some of the main aspects of the described new product.

	Samsung Galaxy S4	Samsung Galaxy S3	Sony Xperia Z	LG Optimus G
Screen	4.99″, SuperAMOLED	4.8″, SuperAMOLED	5″, IPS	4.7″, IPS Plus
Permission	1920×1080, 441 ppi	1280×720, 306 ppi	1920×1080, 440 ppi	1280×768, 317 ppi
SoC	Exynos [email protected] GHz (8 cores, see below)	Exynos 4412 @1.4 GHz (4 cores, ARM Cortex-A9)		Qualcomm APQ8064 @1.5 GHz (4 cores, ARMv7 Krait)
RAM	2 GB	1 GB	2 GB	2 GB
Flash memory	16—64 GB	16 GB	16 GB	32 GB
Memory card support	microSD	microSD	microSD	No
operating system	Google Android 4.2	Google Android 4.1	Google Android 4.1	Google Android 4.1
SIM format*	Micro-SIM	Micro-SIM	Micro-SIM	Micro-SIM
Battery	removable, 2600 mAh	removable, 2100 mAh	non-removable, 2330 mAh	non-removable, 2100 mAh
Cameras		rear (8 MP; video - 1080p), front (1.9 MP)	rear (13 MP; video - 1080p), front (2 MP)	rear (13 MP; video - 1080p), front (1.3 MP)
Dimensions	137×70×7.9 mm, 130 g	137×71×8.6 mm, 133 g	139×71×7.9 mm, 146 g	132×69×8.5 mm, 145 g

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

Main characteristics 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 room Android system 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
• GSM communication GPRS/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
• Communication 3G UMTS HSPA+ 850, 900, 2100 MHz
• 4G (LTE Cat 3 100/50 Mbps) - only in the GT-I9505 version based on Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 SoC
• HSPA+ 42 Mbps
• Bluetooth 4.0, NFC
• Support MHL 2.0, OTG
• Wi-Fi 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
• Lithium-ion battery 2600 mAh
• Dimensions 136.6×69.8×7.9 mm
• Weight 130 g

Appearance and ease of use

Obviously, this section will be one of the main ones in our mini-review of the new Samsung smartphone. And not even for the reason that you thought :) Although, of course, we will also talk about the fact that the Koreans “surprised” the whole world by releasing their main, much-anticipated new product in the old design. And yet, today we will dwell in more detail on the appearance and convenience using Samsung Galaxy S4 also because, as mentioned above, we only write about what we “saw ourselves.” That is, we will not be able to tell you today about the battery life of a smartphone or about all the intricacies of numerous software improvements - due to the fact that we simply did not have time to research and measure all this. In a couple of weeks they will send us our own test copy, then we will look at other aspects in more detail, which, of course, we will talk about on the pages of our website. In the meantime, we will share with you what we saw with our own eyes and felt with our own hands.

So, the design of the Samsung Galaxy S4. This is perhaps the most controversial moment in the entire harmonious story of the conquest of world markets by Korean smartphones. As many already know, the main complaint about the new Samsung flagship is precisely the dissatisfaction of many people with the fact that the new smartphone of the Korean company appeared to the world in a design almost similar to its predecessor. However, the similar design of the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S3 smartphones is not so bad. The main problem lies much deeper: Samsung products simply do not have design as such. All the smartphones and tablets released by this Korean company in recent years - and there are probably a dozen of them - are made as if they were deliberately trying to “depersonalize” them. These are simple, uncomplicated, streamlined on all sides, turned and smooth, like sea pebbles, plastic cases with an exorbitant amount of gloss, so unloved by users. Not a very flattering description, is it? At the same time, even the most important Samsung products, such as smartphones from the Galaxy and Note lines, are no different in this regard from the simplest and cheapest models of the Korean company. But the most surprising thing is that all these epithets are true for the Samsung Galaxy S3 - and it is one of the best-selling smartphones in the world! So why, despite the faceless design, do buyers vote with rubles, paying a lot of money for these nondescript plastic glossy smartphones from the Korean company? Psychologists and analysts will someday solve this riddle, but one thing is already clear: despite their faceless appearance, Samsung smartphones are able to provide the user with the most balanced combination of all aspects of interest to users. Glossy, easily soiled body? Nothing, but there is a slot for memory cards and a removable battery. Acid AMOLED screen? Well, okay, but the black color there is truly black. And so on and so forth.

Cunning Koreans understand this no worse than we do, so they don’t even hesitate to voice their tactics: “We won’t change anything radically, people like everything anyway, they’ll buy everything anyway,” that’s roughly how Samsung thinks. God be their judge, as they say, but still, with such production capacity as the Korean company, it would be possible to experiment with design, there would be no shortage of them.

As for directly Samsung design Galaxy S4, it has undergone only the most minimal, cosmetic changes. The corners are a little less rounded, the metal-look bezel is a little wider and flatter, the location of the flash eye is slightly different - that’s, in fact, all that can be said about the changes in the design. The dimensions generally remained practically the same.

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

The weight of the smartphone has also remained almost unchanged, but the manufacturing materials are new: instead of ordinary plastic, the now fashionable polycarbonate is used. Maybe, new building will be covered with scratches and lose its presentation slower than the old one, but it’s hard to believe it, looking at the same abundance of gloss as the Samsung Galaxy S3. The back covers of the devices are almost identical, except for the flash that has moved just below and the speaker grille that has appeared at the bottom.

As for the controls, there are no changes at all: all the keys and connectors remain in their places. By the way, we managed to connect a 32 GB flash drive via the Micro-USB connector using the adapter we brought with us, and it was perfectly mounted on the device. This means that the connector supports OTG operating mode, and on the new phone you can view any files from external flash drives.

However, this is not the most popular function among users now, and even with official support for microSD cards up to 64 GB, Galaxy S4 owners will clearly not feel a lack of memory. In addition, the volume of your own user data storage can be selected upon purchase from 16 to 64 GB, so the memory of the new product is in perfect order.

Pictured: Samsung Galaxy S4 on top, Galaxy S3 on bottom

I would also like to note the smaller side frames around the screen. Due to thinner frames, the creators were able to fit a larger screen into the same dimensions, which is commendable. Everyone likes large, legible text on the screen, but not everyone is ready to put up with huge spade-shaped sizes modern smartphones. The Samsung Galaxy S4 is quite good in this sense; it fits perfectly in the hand, although the slippery, easily soiled gloss, unfortunately, spoils the whole impression.

Pictured: Samsung Galaxy S4 on the left, Galaxy S3 on the right

I’m glad that the arrangement of the rear part remains the same: here the user is allowed to replace the battery, deliver the memory card, and change the SIM card without the use of special tools. These are precisely those important details for which users vote with their rubles for Korean phones.

The lid here, accordingly, is removable, plastic (sorry, polycarbonate), and it is held on by several latches. When latched, it sits dead in place, but it’s still better not to loosen it by frequently taking it off and putting it on. Everything is the same as in previous models.

Initially, two color options for the Samsung Galaxy S4 case will be released on the market: white and black (dark gray). Based on the experience of past years, we can safely assume that other, colorful solutions will follow later. By the way, about the variety of colors: users have long been attracted to Samsung’s branded cover books, of which the company has made a great variety as accessories for its top models Galaxy S3 and Note 2. All this variety is promised, naturally, for the new flagship, but this time the range of accompanying accessories expands even further. Since the new smartphone is equipped with special software that “monitors” the healthy lifestyle of its owner, as accessories it will be possible to find not only covers, but also various wristbands that measure the “patient’s” pressure, and even mini scales. The collected data is transmitted via Bluetooth directly to the smartphone, where it will be further processed. An interesting, although not unique, undertaking.

Screen

Koreans remain faithful to the path once chosen, and new flagship also installed a Super AMOLED screen. The notorious Pentile has not gone away either. However, with Full HD resolution of 1920×1080, it will not be so easy to discern its presence. However, Koreans do not always remain faithful to their favorite type of display. We are currently testing two new models: Samsung Xcover 2 and Windows Phone Samsung ATIV S are quite expensive smartphones priced from 15 to 21 thousand rubles. So, only ATIV S uses a Super AMOLED screen, and Samsung Xcover 2 uses a much more common LCD IPS screen, so, as we see, AMOLED is not at all the only constant companion of all phones of the Korean company.

In numbers, the physical parameters of the Samsung Galaxy S4 screen are as follows: diagonal - 126 mm (4.99 inches), resolution - Full HD 1080p (1920 × 1080 pixels), density pixels PPI is more than 441 dpi. As they say, they “showed off”: everyone has flagships with 5-inch screens, but here they claim 4.99. What is this for? It is clear that the average user does not need measurements with such accuracy, and if you start using a micrometer, you can find a lot of interesting things in the indicated hundredths (or even tenths) of an inch of screens various smartphones. But everyone rounds, but Samsung doesn’t! In order not to cross the psychological mark of 5 inches (for those who prefer more, there is Note)? Or to give the buyer the feeling that there is a higher density of dots here? So, in the presence of Pentile, the figure of 441 ppi already looks quite dubious... Our test laboratory will give us the final verdict on the screen when the test copy finally reaches our editorial office, for now we will describe only the main impressions. The screen is very good: the brightness is enough for the eyes, the viewing angles are wide, naturally there is no looseness at this resolution, all the smallest elements are clearly drawn. The display is responsive to touch, but the main feature here is the ability to operate the screen without taking off your gloves. Some other smartphones, Sony and Nokia for example, already have this opportunity, and this trend, given our endless Russian cold weather, cannot but rejoice.

Camera

The camera on the Samsung Galaxy S4 is quite good. It must be admitted that Samsung was able to use the experience accumulated in the production of cameras and gave the camera of the new mobile flagship all the best. This concerns, naturally, the algorithms for processing the resulting images, because the Exmor R camera module itself is manufactured by Sony. The BSI back-illuminated sensor used here has a resolution of 13 megapixels. There is also a second, front camera, which is used for video calls and self-portraits. Here it is brought to a resolution of 2 megapixels. The manufacturer describes the possibility of simultaneous shooting on both cameras, both photos and videos. Numerous additional software can not only bring all received materials to the final stage in the form of pictures or videos, but also compose entire stories from them, and with sound. It is possible to release the camera shutter using the volume key, so there is no separate dedicated hardware photo button here. Taking photos while recording video can, of course, also be done here, but this is no longer news for modern smartphones. We managed to take only a few test shots indoors, but even they can give some idea of ​​the characteristics of the new camera.

Performance

The Samsung Galaxy S4 hardware platform is based on a powerful SoC, which includes a 4-core processor with ARM Cortex-A15 cores running at 1.8 GHz, and another 4-core processor with ARM Cortex-A7 cores running at lower frequencies 1.2 GHz. This hybrid technology of combining high-performance 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 expected: under heavy load, the system uses high-performance ARM Cortex-A15 cores at high frequencies, 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 us add that similar (in principle, not in implementation) hybrid technologies are also used in the NVIDIA SoC.

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 quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 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".

The time allotted for getting to know each other did not allow us to fully test the smartphone using all possible means, but we still managed to “run” the two most popular benchmarks: Quadrant Standard and AnTuTu Benchmark v3.2.1. The result was as expected: the Samsung Galaxy S4 showed the highest results of all the top modern smartphones we had previously tested. Here are screenshots of the test results.

Battery life

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

For obvious reasons, we will not be able to present the results of testing the battery life of the new product yet - this will be done a little later. For now, we note in this section that, although Samsung for some reason does not advertise it too much, the device officially supports it, which further increases its chances in the eyes of advanced users who love innovation and experimentation.

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.

Bottom line

Samsung Galaxy S4 is definitely a high-end smartphone. This is the leader, the flagship of the line, although the flagship is not the only one. The Korean company traditionally has several flagships on the market at the same time: there are also Galaxy Note 2, for example. However, the justification of the number 4 in the name of the new product raises great doubts. Probably (and to a large extent thanks to the old, unchanged design), it would be more legitimate to call this model an “improved and updated” Galaxy S3, giving it the name “Samsung Galaxy S3” with an additional letter designation. (Well, you can borrow a lot of different interesting things from Apple besides the rounded corners of a rectangle!..) To do this would probably be more honest towards the buyer. As for the price, at the time of the start of sales it will be in the region of 30 thousand rubles, just like flagship smartphones other manufacturers. However, if we remember how quickly Samsung lowered the price of its previous new product, the Galaxy S3, it is quite possible that this time we will see similar dumping actions by the Korean company on the market. Follow the updates on our website.

In the second part of the article, we will continue to study the Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone and test the screen, performance, battery life, video playback and the operation of the MHL interface, as well as the camera.

Samsung has traditionally used various types of plastic in its flagship smartphones; this solution has both positive and negative sides. On the positive side, it is worth noting the light weight (130 grams) and thickness (7.9 mm) of the device. Negatives: The glossy plastic is completely impractical and quickly becomes covered in fingerprints and scratches.

The dimensions of the Samsung Galaxy S4 phone are typical for five-inch smartphones - it is wide and tall, so it is not very comfortable to hold in the hand, but the situation is partially improved by the weight and thickness, which are lower than many competitors, as well as the smoothed corners in the body. Compared to the (i9300), the dimensions of the S4 have not changed much, but the display diagonal has increased.

Screen - 4.4

Display diagonal is 5 inches, matrix type is Super AMOLED HD, screen resolution is 1920×1080 pixels, protective coating is Gorilla Glass 2, PPI value is 441. The advantages of the display are a large diagonal and high resolution, excellent brightness and contrast. The screen will appeal to lovers of bright colors. Cons: Super AMOLED technology, which makes the image too contrasty; not everyone will like it. From close range to Samsung screen Galaxy S4 you can see red halos around the letters, however, most users will not notice them (by the way, since the Galaxy S3 they have become less noticeable due to the high resolution). An indirect advantage of using Super AMOLED is the energy-intensive screen, which is why the Samsung Galaxy S4 lasts longer on a single charge than many competitors.

Camera

The smartphone has a 13 MP camera with LED flash. The maximum resolution for video recording is 1920×1080 pixels, recording speed is 30 frames per second, sound is recorded in stereo mode.??

Working with text - 5.0

The standard keyboard in the Samsung Galaxy S4 is comfortable, it has a function for entering text using strokes (Swype), as well as the ability to enter numbers without switching to additional symbols mode. Disadvantages - an inconvenient language switching system: you need to hold your finger on the space bar and swipe left or right. To enter most additional characters, including the comma, you need to call up an additional menu. Another disadvantage worth noting is the relatively small size of letters in the Russian layout, despite the large diagonal of the screen.

Internet - 3.0

The device's browser is great for browsing the Internet: it has a separate mode for reading pages without pictures. According to user reviews, this mode is convenient to use when reading large amounts of text on the Internet without being distracted by pictures. But there is no adjustment of text to the screen when scaling multiple times. The Galaxy S4 (as well as the entire line) uses a special power-saving mode in the browser, the color scheme changes slightly (for example, the white color goes into blue tones), but the battery life significantly increases when using the browser.

Interfaces

The smartphone supports most common wireless interfaces: dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and NFC. The device has the S Beam function, with which you can quickly transfer files, such as photos, music or videos, from one Galaxy S4 to another using Wi-Fi or NFC, placing them back to back.
LTE support is only present in the version of the smartphone with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset.

Multimedia - 4.6

Samsung Galaxy S4 plays almost any video without preliminary conversion - the device has support for rare audio formats and video containers. In the player you can select audio tracks, as well as subtitles embedded in the video file. The audio player plays most common as well as rare formats, including uncompressed audio in FLAC format. At the moment, the Galaxy line is one of the best in terms of the number of supported audio and video formats and video player settings.

Battery - 2.9

The smartphone has a removable lithium-ion battery with a capacity of 2600 mAh. We tested the battery in our two standard tests: the device is capable of playing HD video at maximum brightness for 7 hours, and listening to music discharges it in 45 hours. The battery life of the Samsung Galaxy S4 is superior to most smartphones, this applies not only to synthetic tests, but also to everyday use.

Productivity - 2.5

The device uses the Samsung Exynos Octa 5410 platform with an eight-core processor, PowerVR SGX544MP3 graphics subsystem and 2 GB of RAM. It’s worth telling a little more about this platform: it uses big.LITTLE technology, which controls the operation of the device’s cores. This chipset actually uses two different quad-core processors (one clocked at 1.2 GHz and the other at 1.8 GHz). The point is that during everyday use the less powerful processor is responsible for the work, while in games and other “heavy” operations its more productive “colleague” is switched on.

For the average user, this means a slight increase in battery life and that’s all. You most likely won't even notice the switch between processors.

The characteristics and power of the Samsung Galaxy S4 will allow you to watch Full HD videos and play even the most powerful games. We tested the Galaxy S4 in Asphalt 8 and Real Racing 3: both games launched perfectly and ran smoothly even at maximum settings.

Separately, we note that there is a modification of the device based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset, which supports Russian LTE frequencies.

Memory - 4.0

The internal memory capacity of the device is 16GB or 64GB, depending on the modification. Samsung Galaxy S4 supports microSD memory cards up to 64GB. Thanks to the presence of a memory card slot, the user does not have to worry about the lack of memory in the device.

Peculiarities

The device runs under Samsung's proprietary shell - TouchWiz. In this shell, the manufacturer added its own browser, dialer, SMS client, music and video players, its own weather application and many other programs. The built-in video player supports most third-party video codecs and video formats, making it convenient to watch even unconverted video from your phone. The audio player allows you to listen to music not only by artist, but also by folder. S Memo app is a great note taking app with handwriting support. At the moment TouchWiz is one of the most convenient shells

Detailed testing of screen, performance, battery life

At one time, even when the timing of the start of sales of the Samsung Galaxy S4 was not finally determined, we used our chance to spend a very short time with this new product, expected by many, in order to then summarize all the data received into a kind of mini-review, as they say, “first look” . In it, we used only those results that we were able to obtain in the short time allotted to us to get acquainted with the device. They, of course, were not complete - we were physically unable to carry out those tests and tests that take 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 has already been predetermined, we decided to return to this issue. Before such a serious purchase, it is necessary to weigh all the pros and cons, and we, in turn, have the opportunity to provide users with the necessary additional information about the new device, which were not included in the first part of our review.

Therefore, this review will not contain a description appearance device and ease of use 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 talk, first of all, about the data we received after detailed testing screen of a new smartphone using measuring instruments in our laboratory. We will also provide you with the results of all our tests of the performance of the smartphone hardware, as well as the duration of its battery life. And finally, we will spend a little more time on the Samsung Galaxy S4 camera and its operating modes. Our specialist Anton Soloviev will comment on the test photographs obtained during the study of the new product.

But first, let’s present our traditional comparison table, which has been expanded since the first acquaintance with the Samsung Galaxy S4 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 compiled into a single table for easy selection, and those that are not included here (for example, LG Optimus G Pro) will be added to 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.

	Samsung Galaxy S4	HTC One	Sony Xperia Z	Oppo Find 5	Google Nexus 4	LG Optimus G
Screen	4.99″, SuperAMOLED	4.7″, S-LCD3 (IPS)	5″, IPS?	5″, IPS	4.7″, IPS Plus	4.7″, IPS Plus
Permission	1920×1080, 441 ppi	1920×1080, 469 ppi	1920×1080, 440 ppi	1920×1080, 440 ppi	1280×768, 317 ppi	1280×768, 317 ppi
SoC	Exynos 5410 @1.8 GHz (8 cores)	Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 @1.7 GHz (4 cores, ARMv7 Krait)		Qualcomm APQ8064 @1.5 GHz (4 cores, ARMv7 Krait)	Qualcomm APQ8064 @1.5 GHz (4 cores, ARMv7 Krait)	Qualcomm APQ8064 @1.5 GHz (4 cores, ARMv7 Krait)
RAM	2 GB	2 GB	2 GB	2 GB	2 GB	2 GB
Flash memory	16/32/64 GB	32/64 GB	16 GB	16/32 GB	8/16 GB	32 GB
Memory card support	microSD	No	microSD	No	No	No
operating system	Google Android 4.2	Google Android 4.1	Google Android 4.1	Google Android 4.1	Google Android 4.2	Google Android 4.1
SIM format*	Micro-SIM	Micro-SIM	Micro-SIM	Micro-SIM	Micro-SIM	Micro-SIM
Battery	removable, 2600 mAh	non-removable, 2300 mAh	non-removable, 2330 mAh	non-removable, 2500 mAh	non-removable, 2100 mAh	non-removable, 2100 mAh
Cameras		rear (4 MP; video - 1080p), front (2 MP)	rear (13 MP; video - 1080p), front (2 MP)	rear (13 MP; video - 1080p), front (1.9 MP)	rear (8 MP; video - 1080p), front (1.3 MP)	rear (13 MP; video - 1080p), front (1.3 MP)
Dimensions	137×70×7.9 mm, 130 g	137×68×9.3 mm, 143 g	139×71×7.9 mm, 146 g	142×69×8.9 mm, 165 g	134×69×9.1 mm, 139 g	132×69×8.5 mm, 145 g

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

Main characteristics 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, internal memory 16-64 GB
• MicroSD card slot 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 in the GT-I9505 version based on Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 SoC
• HSPA+ 42 Mbps
• Bluetooth 4.0, NFC
• Support MHL 2.0, OTG
• Wi-Fi 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 136.6×69.8×7.9 mm
• Weight 130 g

Screen

The Samsung Galaxy S4 has a very high-quality touch display made using Super AMOLED technology. In numbers, the physical parameters of the new product’s screen are as follows: diagonal - 126 mm (4.99 inches), resolution - Full HD 1080p (1920×1080 pixels), PPI pixel density is 441 ppi, although with Pentile this figure looks dubious . Yes, Pentile technology hasn't gone away, although the Samsung Galaxy S4's screen 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 simultaneously process up to ten touches, and new screen Samsung Galaxy S4 allows you to operate it 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 about 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, has a very effective anti-glare filter. There is a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating on the outer surface of the screen, so fingerprints are removed much easier and appear at a lower speed than with regular glass.

When manually controlling the brightness, its maximum value was about 230 cd/m², the minimum was 10 cd/m². Despite not the highest brightness value, even in bright daylight You can use a smartphone because OLED screens have less reflection from dark areas compared to a typical LCD screen. You also need to take into account the fact that in this case, the smaller the white area on the screen, the brighter it is, that is, the actual maximum brightness of the white areas will almost always be higher than the specified value. Low brightness mode allows you to use your smartphone even in complete darkness without any problems. Works automatic adjustment brightness by 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. Below, 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 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 outdoor daytime lighting, but without direct sunlight) - increases up to 280 cd/m² for all three correction values. In principle, the result of this function is as expected. When brightness decreases, modulation appears at a frequency of 240 Hz. The figure below shows 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, so in these extreme cases the flickering of the backlight cannot be seen. At half brightness, the modulation has a larger 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 the repeating mark of the pencil.

This smartphone uses a Super AMOLED matrix - an active matrix based 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 microphotograph:

In this square you can count 9 green subpixels, 4.5 blue and 4.5 red subpixels. 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 Galaxy S3, ATIV S, Motorola XT925, etc. screens:

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

Note that luminance is primarily determined by the green component, so luminance clarity actually corresponds to the density of the green subpixels. The fact that color clarity is lower (because the density of red and blue subpixels is lower) does not actually affect image quality, since the color clarity of human vision is also lower than luminance clarity. 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 it is displayed home page our website on the screen of the Galaxy S4 and on the LCD screen of the Oppo Find 5. Both screens have approximately the same size and resolution (if you count by green subpixels), but in the case Oppo Find 5 red and blue subpixels are the same as green. Below are fragments of photographs of screens obtained when displaying the specified page in the same (original) scale.

The readability of small text on the Galaxy S4 screen is probably even better than on the Oppo Find 5 screen. However, two circumstances need to be taken into account: firstly, this text is so small that its readability is already very low simply because physical dimensions(the height of the letter “o” is 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 increases the clarity of the lines that do not fall on the rows of pixels, because making very small text on the Galaxy S4 screen look smoother. And two more photographs taken at higher magnification of the above fragments:

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

In case of profile Dynamic The gamma curve has a slightly S-shaped character; for the three remaining profiles it practically does not deviate from the power law 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 the profile itself by analyzing the current image. Note that the brightness of image fragments changes dynamically in accordance with the nature of the displayed image - it decreases for generally light images and increases for dark ones. When selecting a profile Dynamic this effect is slightly more pronounced, and when the mode is turned on Auto tuning screen brightness The dependence of brightness on the lightness of the image becomes even stronger. Therefore, the dependences of brightness on hue (gamma curves) that we obtained may not correspond to the gamma curves of a static image, since the measurements were carried out with sequential display of shades of gray on the entire screen.

Color gamut for profiles Dynamic And Standard very wide:

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

When selecting a profile Movie The coverage is tightened even more, but still remains wider than sRGB:

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

In case of profile Movie with maximum correction, the color components are already slightly mixed together:

Note that on wide-gamut screens, the colors of regular 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-skinned 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 area of ​​the gray scale from white to dark gray this parameter changes slightly. The deviation from the spectrum of an absolutely black body (delta E), if it exceeds 10 units, is not very much, which is considered a good indicator for a consumer device, while the variation in delta E is not very large (the dark areas of the gray scale can be ignored, since there is a color balance doesn't have of great importance, and the error in measuring color characteristics at low brightness is large):

Therefore, according to visual assessment, there are no special complaints about the transmission 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 smartphones of the same class, according to 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 in a maximum resolution of 13 megapixels, and the pictures are 4128x3096 in size with an aspect ratio of 4:3. You can manually switch the camera to shooting mode with a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9 - then the pictures will be taken in size 4128 × 2322 (10 megapixels). You can evaluate the quality with which the Samsung Galaxy S4 camera shoots by clicking on the thumbnails below.

Conclusion on photographic capabilities samsung cameras Galaxy S4. Among the advantages of the camera, we can note very good sharpness in most photographs. I would like to hope that the rather large areas of blur at the edges are caused by not very good lens calibration, and not design features cameras, because in general the lens is made decently and fully utilizes the 10 megapixels of the matrix. It’s not often that such a successful combination of matrix and optics is found on smartphones. One cannot but rejoice at the almost complete absence of chromatic aberrations and sharpening contours. In any case, they are hardly noticeable. The camera selects exposure well, but very conservatively, and the camera's color rendition is also conservative. It seemed that due to the aperture, the camera would lose depth of field, however, as can be seen from the macro photographs, the depth of field is sufficient, which is, admittedly, bad for artistic photography, but very good for documentary photography. Overall, we can conclude that Samsung is quite a successful camera, more than suitable for everyday documentary shooting. Considering that this is the camera quality that most smartphone users demand, we can note 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, there are no slowdowns or sticking when shooting. Also in the settings there are shooting modes with slow and fast motion effects. Below are test videos shot in various modes. Video is saved in MP4 (video - MPEG-4 AVC ( [email protected]), sound - AAC LC, 128 Kbps, 48 ​​kHz, 2 channels).

• Video No. 1 (27.4 MB, 1920×1080)
• Video #2 (11.4 MB, 800×450, slow motion)
• Movie #3 (15.4 MB, 1920×1080, fast motion)

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

Performance

The Samsung Galaxy S4 hardware platform is based on a powerful SoC, which includes a 4-core processor with ARM Cortex-A15 cores running at 1.8 GHz, and another 4-core processor with ARM Cortex-A7 cores running at lower frequencies 1.2 GHz. This hybrid technology of combining high-performance 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 expected: under heavy load, the system uses high-performance ARM Cortex-A15 cores at high frequencies, 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 us add that similar (in principle, not in implementation) hybrid technologies are also used in the NVIDIA SoC.

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 quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 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 Samsung performance Galaxy S4 with all the other top flagship new products this season. Most of them, by the way, are built on the previous top-end platform Snapdragon S4 Pro. Quite expectedly, the Samsung Galaxy S4 was on the first step in the ranking of devices we had previously tested, and only HTC One gave him worthy competition, demonstrating similar performance results. At the same time, smartphones such as Google Nexus 4, LG Optimus G, HTC One X+ and Samsung Galaxy Note II remained behind the leader in this race. Let us present the results we obtained using popular tests, which we have collected in tables for convenience, adding the results of other devices we have previously tested.

Below are the results of testing the Samsung Galaxy S4 in new version GLBenchmark - 2.7.0, where a new T-Rex HD scene of increased complexity has been added. 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 HTC One handled this difficult test better, but only slightly - 15 fps. For some reason, the Samsung Galaxy S4 was unable to play these scenes from the new test at all, so the final results were incomplete, which left us a little disappointed.

Since the Samsung Galaxy S4 is one of the first smartphones to support 802.11ac, we separately tested the new Wi-Fi standard 802.11ac. Testing was carried out with the ASUS RT-AC66U router - one of two models supporting the 802.11ac standard present on the local market. As a reminder, this new version of the standard only operates in the 5 GHz band and provides more than double the speed of 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. Actual performance is usually about half that. In addition, many mobile devices do not even support dual-channel operation, which results in a 72 Mbps limitation for 802.11n.

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

Play video and connect to an external screen

To test the omnivorous nature of video playback (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 Internet. 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 options using processor cores alone. Also, don't expect mobile device decoding everything, since the leadership in flexibility belongs to the PC, and no one is going to challenge it.

Format	Container, video, sound	MX Video Player	Standard video player
DVDRip	AVI, XviD 720×400 2200 Kbps, MP3+AC3	plays normally	plays normally
Web-DL SD	AVI, XviD 720×400 1400 Kbps, MP3+AC3	plays normally	plays normally
Web-DL HD	MKV, H.264 1280×720 3000 Kbps, AC3	plays normally	plays normally
BDRip 720p	MKV, H.264 1280×720 4000 Kbps, AC3	plays normally	plays normally
BDRip 1080p	MKV, H.264 1920×1080 8000 Kbps, AC3	plays normally	plays normally

Additionally, the MHL interface was tested. To test it, we used an LG IPS237L monitor that supports direct MHL connection using a passive adapter cable from Micro-USB to HDMI. Samsung, for some reason known only to it, has implemented its own version of this interface in its devices that supposedly support 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. By luck, we found such an adapter.

As a result, we connected the LG IPS237L monitor and the MHL adapter through this adapter. When using the LG IPS237L monitor, MHL output was carried out at a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels at a frequency of 30 frames/s. When the smartphone is landscape-oriented, the image is displayed on the monitor screen in landscape orientation, while the image on the monitor fits within the boundaries of the screen and exactly matches the image on the smartphone screen. When the smartphone is in portrait orientation, the image is displayed on the monitor screen in portrait orientation, while the image on the monitor is inscribed within the height of the screen, 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.

Sound is output via MHL (in this case, the sounds were heard through headphones connected to the monitor, since there are no speakers in the monitor itself) and is of 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 buttons on the smartphone body. The smartphone connected via MHL is charging.

Video output using the standard 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 Methodology 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 determine the nature of the output of frames of video files with various parameters: the resolution varied (1280 by 720 (720p) and 1920 by 1080 (1080p) pixels) and frame rate (24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 frames/ With). The results of this (block entitled " Screen") and subsequent tests are summarized in the table:

File	Uniformity	Passes
Screen
watch-1920x1080-60p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1920x1080-50p.mp4	Fine	No
watch-1920x1080-30p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1920x1080-25p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1920x1080-24p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1280x720-60p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1280x720-50p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1280x720-30p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1280x720-25p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1280x720-24p.mp4	Great	No
MHL (monitor)
watch-1920x1080-60p.mp4	Great	a lot of
watch-1920x1080-50p.mp4	Great	a lot of
watch-1920x1080-30p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1920x1080-25p.mp4	Fine	No
watch-1920x1080-24p.mp4	Fine	No
watch-1280x720-60p.mp4	Great	a lot of
watch-1280x720-50p.mp4	Great	a lot of
watch-1280x720-30p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1280x720-25p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1280x720-24p.mp4	Fine	No
MHL (adapter)
watch-1280x720-60p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1280x720-50p.mp4	Fine	No
watch-1280x720-30p.mp4	Badly	No
watch-1280x720-25p.mp4	Badly	No
watch-1280x720-24p.mp4	Badly	No

Note: If both the Uniformity and Dropout columns are rated green, this means that when watching movies, there will most likely be no or no amount of artifacts caused by frame spacing or dropouts visible. will not affect viewing comfort. "Red" marks indicate possible problems related to the playback of the corresponding files.

According to the frame output criterion, the quality of playback of video files on the screen of the smartphone itself is very high, since frames (or groups of frames) are output with uniform alternation of intervals and there are no skipping frames. However, in any case, uniform alternation of frames is a relatively unstable state, since some external and internal background processes lead to periodic failure of the correct alternation of intervals between frames. During testing it was discovered interesting feature: It appears that for files with frame rates of 30 and below, the screen refresh rate is 40 Hz, and for 50 and 60 fps files, the refresh rate increases to 60 Hz. As a result, for a file with 30 fps we got the following image:

And for a file with 60 fps - like this:

When playing video files with Full HD resolution (1920 by 1080 pixels) on the smartphone screen, the image of the video file itself is displayed one-to-one, exactly along the border of the screen in true Full HD resolution. Considering that the color resolution in a video file is two times lower than the brightness one, the features of the PenTile matrix actually do not affect the quality of the output of video files. The brightness range displayed on the screen slightly does not correspond to the original one: 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 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 image 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) on the monitor 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. The brightness range displayed on the monitor corresponds to the standard range of 16-235, that is, all shade gradations are displayed in shadows and highlights. The results of the monitor output tests are shown in the table above in the “MHL (monitor)” block. The output quality is good, but, of course, in the case of files with 50 and 60 fps, some frames are skipped, since the output is in 1080p mode at 30 fps.

Additionally, video output (with a standard player) via MHL using an MHL adapter was tested. When using this adapter, output to the monitor was carried out in 720p mode 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, charging, audio 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 an adapter, the intervals between frames in the case of files with frame rates up to 30 fps inclusive can vary by three times (from 1/60 to 3/60) and alternate unevenly, while 720p files are output at 50 and 60 fps Fine.

In general, an MHL connection can be used for gaming, watching movies, surfing the web, and other activities that benefit from multiplying the screen size. True, you will have to purchase an adapter specifically for Samsung or find an 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 you in the event of a swollen battery, for example (and users have had such cases with Samsung batteries). And you can stock up on a second battery in case of a long trip, which can also be convenient.

The smartphone demonstrated very good performance in terms of battery life, leaving a little behind many of the top new products that we have tested over the years. Lately. Only again, HTC One was able to match the results, and even outplay its opponent in some ways. Here are the results of testing the test subject in several battery modes.

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

Somehow, gradually and unnoticed by everyone, Samsung turned into the same iconic player in the smartphone market as Apple. Other companies are now looking at it, trying to match the announcements of the Korean giant not only to the characteristics, but also to the timing of the release of their top products to the market. And the Galaxy S4, in my opinion, will once again become a kind of steamroller that will simply sweep away its main competitors from the market - LG Optimus G, Sony Xperia Z and HTC One. Why do I think this? I will try to answer this question in this review.

Specifications Samsung Galaxy S4

Samsung Galaxy S4
operating system	Google Android 4.2.2
Display	5 inches, Super AMOLED FullHD, 1920x1080 pixels, 16 million colors, touch (capacitive matrix)
CPU	Exynos 5 Octa, four ARM Cortex-A15 cores (1.6 GHz) + four ARM Cortex-A7 cores (1.2 GHz); integrated video accelerator PowerVR SGX544MP3
RAM	2 GB
Flash memory	16, 32 or 64 GB + microSDXC card slot (up to 64 GB)
Camera	13 MP, autofocus, 1080p video recording, LED backlight; front camera for video calls (2.1 MP)
Wireless technologies	Wi-Fi a/ac/b/g/n (2.4/5 GHz), Bluetooth 4.0, GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900, HSPA+ 850/900/1900/2100, NFC, IR (transmitter only )
Interfaces	micro-USB with support for MHL 2.0 and USB-host, 3.5 mm headphone output
GPS	Yes
Additionally	temperature, humidity and atmospheric pressure sensors
Dimensions and weight	137x70x8 mm, 130 grams

Video review of Samsung Galaxy S4

Appearance and design

Samsung Galaxy S4 looks very similar to Galaxy S III. Apparently, Samsung decided to follow the path of Apple and not touch once again what is already selling well. However, it's worth noting that the SGS4 overall feels more comfortable in the hand than the SGS III due to the fact that its edges aren't as chamfered. By the way, due to this, the manufacturer managed to reduce the width of the smartphone, although not by much. The result is the best phone on the market in terms of screen to bezel area ratio. Just for fun, I put the Galaxy S4 next to the Galaxy Grand Duos and for a long time could not believe that these two devices have screens of the same diagonal - the Grand Duos is so massive.

It is worth noting that thin frame is very well perceived psychologically: as you get used to the phone, it (the phone) seems to “dissolve” and the user is left alone with the most important thing - the screen.

Among the minor differences, we note the changed texture of the side edging (now it looks more like real metal, although it is still made of painted plastic), as well as an unobtrusive pattern on the front and rear panels, which is best seen when viewed from an angle. This pattern reminds me of a cross between the very first Samsung Galaxy S and the LG Nexus 4.

The location of controls and other elements on the smartphone body has not changed compared to the Galaxy S III. As usual, below the screen is the hardware Home button(which can be used to unlock the phone), on the sides of it there are touch keys for the context menu and return. On the left side of the device there is a double volume button, on the right there is a power/unlock button (by the way, these buttons are made of metal). At the bottom end, as usual, there is a micro-USB connector and the main conversation microphone. On the top there is a headphone output, another microphone (auxiliary) and an infrared transmitter, with which the SGS4 can control household appliances: TVs, Blu-ray players and other air conditioners.

Under back cover there is a battery with a built-in NFC antenna, slots for micro-SIM and micro-SD cards, as well as contacts for connecting an optional cover with support for wireless induction charging. The cover itself is made of very thin (but durable) plastic and fits snugly to the phone body.

Screen

One of the most attractive Samsung features Galaxy S4 has a Super AMOLED screen with a diagonal of 5 inches and a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels (pixel density 441 ppi).

If desired, you can see PenTile on the Galaxy S4 screen... if you arm yourself with a magnifying glass

Despite the arrangement of subpixels according to the PenTile scheme, the screen produces an extremely smooth picture with typical AMOLED features in the form rich colors, high contrast and a shift in color balance to the cold side. It is worth noting that in the Galaxy S4 you can select the AdobeRGB profile for the screen, which largely brings the image into order. So, if in the “Standard” mode the color temperature for the white field is 7800K, then in the AdobeRGB mode it is 6900K, which is much closer to the standard value of 6500K. Unfortunately, in all modes, color temperature is highly dependent on brightness - in other words, light and dark areas of the image on the Galaxy S4 screen will have different shades.

Color gamut Galaxy screen S4 goes beyond the sRGB color space and is roughly equivalent to AdobeRGB.

The main disadvantage of the Galaxy S4 screen is its very low brightness. With the brightness set to 100% in the menu, the actual brightness of the white field was only 282 cd/m2, which is significantly lower than all other phones we had at hand (see table). On the other hand, due to the fact that black pixels on AMOLED screens are completely turned off, contrast (which is defined as the ratio of the brightness of the white and black fields) tends to infinity. Due to the infinitely high contrast, all AMOLED screens look very advantageous when viewing videos and photos.

Below you can evaluate the maximum screen brightness in the Galaxy S4 compared to Sony Xperia T and Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos:

Oddly enough, outdoors the difference in brightness is much less noticeable. By the standards of AMOLED screens, the Galaxy S4 shows excellent results:

How can you explain such a low screen brightness? I have one theory about this. The fact is that each next generation of AMOLED screens in Samsung phones has a lower brightness compared to the previous one, that is, the screen in the Galaxy S III is less bright than in the Galaxy S II, and the Galaxy S II is less bright compared to first Galaxy S. I believe that as pixel densities increase and the size of individual organic LEDs decreases, Samsung is forced to lower the maximum brightness to avoid premature screen degradation. In any case, I will try to get a commercial copy of the Galaxy S4 and take repeated measurements to exclude the possibility of abnormal behavior of a particular sample.

The capacitive touch matrix in the Galaxy S4 can automatically change its sensitivity and should theoretically adapt to gloves or, say, wet hands. In practice, the smartphone works poorly with gloves (worse than the Nokia Lumia 820), but with wet hands it works great. Traditionally for flagship Samsung smartphones, 10-finger multi-touch is supported.

Sound

Headphone output volume was one of my main complaints with the Galaxy S III. No power reserve from last year Samsung flagship there was no, moreover, when using the Etymotic hf5 armature headphones, the maximum volume was not enough for comfortable listening classical music(which typically has a wider dynamic range than other genres of music). Fortunately, the Galaxy S4 solves this problem: using the same headphones and listening to the same recordings, I never had to turn the volume up to maximum. Additionally, while the Galaxy S III was a bass-heavy phone that made it sound dull, the Galaxy S4 boasts a smoother tonal balance. In general, a complete improvement, no matter how you look at it.

But the speaker of the Galaxy S4 remained exactly the same as the Galaxy S3. Due to its unfortunate location, when carrying the phone in a jeans pocket, the sound is greatly muffled, so that in a noisy environment you may even miss a call. Unless, of course, you use the vibration alert.

Software and functionality

Galaxy S4 is running the latest version at the moment Android Jelly Bean (4.2.2), on top of which the proprietary TouchWiz shell is installed. It is worth noting that the new version of TouchWiz looks somewhat nicer than the old one, while the basic techniques for working with it have not changed - that is, users who change old phone Samsung on the new one, will not feel lost. For example, there is the ability to work with two applications at once, familiar to other Galaxy devices, by placing them on the screen at the same time.

The new shell takes full advantage of Android capabilities 4.2 - such as widgets on the lock screen and the ability to swipe down with two fingers to display all the switches in the notification area (by default, only the top line is displayed; the order of the switches is configured in the menu).

Personally, I would like to especially note music player, which understands almost all formats (including FLAC, Monkey's Audio, OGG Vorbis and AAC) and has very advanced navigation and configuration capabilities. Perhaps its only major drawback is the lack of support for playing music without noticeable “joints” between songs (i.e. e. gapless) If this is not critical for you, you can easily do without installing third-party players.

It was an unpleasant surprise lack of FM radio. Personally, I don’t listen to the radio (there are no stations in Ukraine that suit my musical tastes), but this feature is still in demand by many.

The video player in the Galaxy S4 is combined with a branded movie store. I didn’t test the magazine part (don’t blame me), but I really liked the player itself. Out of the box it perfectly “eats” all formats and understands subtitles (both external and built-in). In addition, the player allows you to literally, with one click of a button, display video over the network on TVs that support the AllShare Play function (this is Samsung’s proprietary name for the open Miracast standard). As in the Galaxy S III, the player allows you to display a small “window” on top of the desktop.

The built-in gallery, traditionally for Samsung, is not much different from the standard Android gallery.

Other interesting things I remember were alarm clocks with the Location Alarm function (triggered only in a certain place), a good timer/stopwatch, and sports functions (which can work with both built-in phone and external sensors).

Contacts, dialer, SMS - everything is standard for Samsung. By the way, you will laugh, but in Galaxy S4 again There is no Russian T9 when dialing a number.

A good application "Dictaphone" with big amount settings:

Dual mode calculator:

In the new version of TouchWiz, Samsung has “combed” the settings in a very interesting way, logically sorting them into different tabs. Of the unique settings, characteristic only for Samsung phones in general and the Galaxy S4 in particular, you can note the font settings (both typeface and size); working with external accessories, including docks and HDMI cables; operating modes LED indicator; screen color settings. I would also like to highlight the control of gestures and movements. For example, you can move your hand over a “sleeping” phone, which will wake up and display its status. In the same way, with hand movements you can scroll through images in the gallery, pages in the browser, etc. In my opinion, all this is more likely to interfere with life than to help - random movements in front of the phone lead to various unpredictable actions. In addition, these functions consume battery power: with gesture control turned on, the phone was discharged from 100 to 83% in 8 hours in standby mode, and with gesture control turned off - from 100 to 95%. The same applies to eye scrolling. By the way, if you wear glasses, this function will not work for you personally.

Like the Galaxy Note II, the SGS4 has a "blocking mode" that allows you to mute all notifications except events from whitelisted contacts. In terms of implementation, this function is very close to the “Do Not Disturb” mode in iOS.

Camera

The camera quality in the Samsung Galaxy S4 was perhaps the biggest intrigue for me personally. The fact is that in all other Android smartphones with a 13-megapixel camera (LG Optimus G, Sony Xperia T/TX/V/Z/ZL), the photo quality leaves much to be desired and is inferior to the best 8-megapixel camera phones.

The technical characteristics of the camera in the Galaxy S4 are as follows: matrix diagonal 1/3", lens focal length 4 mm (28 mm EGF), aperture f/2.2. I don’t know who exactly is the manufacturer of the camera module: for these specifications Both the Sony IU135F3-Z (better known in the world as Exmor RS) and Samsung's own S5K3L2 are included. It is likely that the Galaxy S4, like previous smartphones in the Galaxy S line, will be equipped with different camera modules in different batches.

The camera interface in the Galaxy S4 has been significantly redesigned compared to the Galaxy S III. Now the user can immediately take photos or record videos without switching modes. Continuous shooting supported ( maximum length series - 20 frames). If desired, the volume up button can be assigned to the shutter key, video recording key, or digital zoom. By the way, the volume up button on the headset begins to perform the same function, which allows you to use the headset as an electronic shutter release cable. In general, only the most necessary things are displayed on the main screen of the camera; everything else is hidden in the settings menu. The phone supports a lot of different shooting modes (including regular and spherical panoramas) and can take pictures with the main and front cameras simultaneously. At the same time, the frame with front camera“pasted” into the main photo.

Separate gallery on Torba.com.

The Galaxy S4 also shoots video quite well. The maximum video resolution is 1920x1080 pixels with a refresh rate of 30 fps. Audio is recorded in AAC format with a sampling rate of 48 kHz and a bit rate of 128 kbps.

Performance and autonomy

Samsung Galaxy S4 is equipped with an 8-core Exynos 5 Octa processor. Or rather, not 8-core, but twice 4-core, since all eight cores never work at the same time. Four fast ARM Cortex-A15 cores work when you need them high performance, and four economical ARM Cortex-A7 cores - when you don’t need to do anything supernatural, but it would be nice to save battery power. The smartphone uses fast PowerVR SGX544 graphics in a 3-core configuration (similar graphics, only in a 4-core configuration, are used in Apple iPad 4). Due to 2 GB of RAM, the Galaxy S4 does not have the problem of forced reloading of applications and web pages, which was so annoying Galaxy owners S3.

As you can see in the screenshots, today the Galaxy S4 is the fastest smartphone in the world (I wonder, though, for how long). In terms of pure performance, it is about 40% faster than the Galaxy S III.

The smartphone is powered by a battery with a capacity of 2600 mAh (9.88 Wh). Autonomy is at a level somewhere between the Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II, that is, it is very good by the standards of modern Android smartphones. At least the device managed to work on battery power for almost 20 hours, including 4 hours and 20 minutes of screen time at maximum brightness, 40 minutes of watching videos and about half an hour of playing Temple Run 2.

Bottom line

Summarize this review in just one short phrase: Samsung Galaxy S4 is great smartphone. It is equipped with a very decent screen, an excellent camera, powerful hardware, a capacious battery and a loud headphone output. What more could you want? Oh yes, design... However, this is a matter of taste. Personally, I like SGS4 precisely because of its neutrality; it does not distract the user’s attention from the most important thing - the content displayed on the screen.

Does the Galaxy S4 have any downsides beyond its looks and body materials? Of course there is. Its screen is seriously lacking in brightness, and the gesture and movement controls, which clearly have a lot of effort and resources invested in it, are completely inapplicable in real life. In addition, it is completely unclear who was bothered by the FM receiver. Can these shortcomings be tolerated? In my opinion, it is possible, since the advantages outweigh them by a wide margin.

So ultimately, the Galaxy S4 earns our highest editorial award, Editors' Choice.

6 reasons to buy Samsung Galaxy S4:

• record (at the time of writing this review) performance;
• AMOLED screen with FullHD resolution produces a smooth, contrasting and rich picture;
• high-quality 13-megapixel camera with a user-friendly interface;
• convenient video player with support for all common containers and codecs out of the box;
• good autonomy;
• the presence of temperature, humidity and atmospheric pressure sensors.

2 reasons not to buy Samsung Galaxy S4:

• low maximum screen brightness;
• lack of FM receiver.