Cosmetic Changes: Galaxy S4 is just an updated version of the SIII

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Last year,Samsung launched the Galaxy SIII,which became the company’s most successful smartphone with sales of over 100 million units. Riding on the device’s popularity,the company unveiled the Galaxy S4 last month. At Rs 41,500,the S4 is competitively priced in the premium smartphone segment.

At first glance,it was impossible to distinguish between the SIII and its successor. The S4 is slightly thicker and has a metal-like finish on the sides. The phone is made of plastic,but feels good to hold and,at 130 grams,is quite light for a 5-inch phone.

POWER OF EIGHT

The S4 has two quad-core processors working in tandem for optimal battery life. When you open heavy apps or games,the faster 1.6 GHz processor takes all the load. If you use lighter apps,the 1.2 GHz processor will be put to work. This dual usage worked well because there were no lags or freezes while using the device.

TOUCH ME NOT

If you are among those who can’t use touchscreen devices thanks to sweaty hands,the Galaxy S4 has features like Air Gesture and Air View to make things easier. You can now answer calls and read texts and email without touching the phone. Just wave your hand across the screen to answer a call or hover a finger above the screen to view a one-line preview of email. Air View allows you to call speed dial contacts without touching the dialpad simply by hovering your finger over the speed dial number. Air Gesture is particularly impressive while browsing websites. You can switch tabs,select text and scroll pages effortlessly.

That said,the Air View and Air Gesture features work only on the phone’s pre-installed apps and functions,such as email,gallery and browser. It does not even work with Gmail or Chrome and Samsung needs to make sure that these useful features work with all apps.

PHOTO-FRIENDLY

The S4’s 13-megapixel rear camera has zero shutter lag and captures details well. Low-light photographs,taken in Night Portrait mode,were bright but a bit grainy. The two-megapixel front camera worked well on Skype.

The S4 has a few features to boost the camera’s utility. Drama Shot allows users to shoot several frames and merge them into one picture. Other features,such as Dual Shot (lets both the cameras function simultaneously) and Sound and Shot (lets you record sound and embed it on pictures) failed to impress.

The WatchON app uses its infra-red blaster to convert the S4 into a universal remote control. It worked well as a TV remote but lack of compatibility with Indian set-top boxes is a hindrance. India doesn’t even feature in the app’s list of supported regions.

PERFORMANCE

The S4 performed well when it comes to phone calls. Call quality even on the loudspeaker was clear. At times,the device didn’t sync with a Bluetooth headset but when it did,the call quality was good. The S4 lasted over a day on moderate usage — games,pictures,video and browsing — thanks to its 2,600 mAh battery. The audio output is pretty good on the earphones that come with the phone and the speaker.

The S4 has 16GB internal memory but approximately 9GB is available to users. Apps can only be installed on the internal memory,which means despite adding a microSD card,you might run out of space if you install too many of them.

Overall,the S4 is just an upgraded S III which,when it was first launched,was ahead of the curve. That,unfortunately,can’t be said of its successor.