When the Samsung Galaxy S4 was introduced into the market, there were a lot of questions that were raised. Despite the inflated price tag, the company hadn’t decided to make use of better quality materials in order to manufacture the handset. The mobile features the same plastic coating that has been the standard since the Galaxy S III.
When I first held the phone in my hands, I was a bit surprised. For a phone that’s worth in excess of $600, I expected it to have a bit more class and personality, but if you were going to judge the phone on the basis of its appearance, its unlikely to get a very good score.
However, the phone comes with the Jelly Bean 4.1.2 interface out of the box, and the software part is where the phone really excels. The screen size has been increased to 5.5”, and a new Super AMOLED + display has been introduced, with vivid, sharp colors that the company is renowned for. Obviously, there are no qualms from the screen, and it directly rivals the iPhone 5 display, with sharper colors and deeper blacks. On the inside, the phone makes use of an Octa Core processor, as well as 2 GB of RAM. Samsung has been known to make use of its own Exynos chips to provide top notch processing power, and the latest Exynos chip provides top of the line performance. Obviously, we tried a number of different apps on the device, all of which ran smoothly. Benchmark results also proved that the device is the fastest Android smart phone currently available in the market.
However, it’s the introduction of a number of additional features that have really caught the eye. First of all, multitasking has been made as easy as it could be, and you can now also run two or more applications side by side in one go, a feature that was first introduced by the Galaxy Note 2. Secondly, the Air View feature automatically detects movement of your hand over the screen, and unlocks itself. Another great feature that has received a lot of praise is the Eye Tracking feature. With a 2 MP camera in the front, the Galaxy S4 automatically tracks your eyes as they scour the display, and when you aren’t looking, it shuts off the screen automatically. It’s like your own intelligent companion!
