After several months, couple updates and a
few heating issues... The Samsung Galaxy S4 (S4) I9400 has undergo some
major changes since its public release in May of this year. This blog post is
to highlight these changes whether good or bad and see if there is any more
room for improvement for the S4.
Memory Usage
Memory usage was one of the sore points for
the S4 when I got it at launch. I remember my friend laughing at me with he's
Nexus 4 saying its not a memory hog like my phone... Ha Ha, who's laughing now
Kirk! To be honest, the memory usage was horrible at first. Just look at the
screen shot below.
The above image is a screen shot of my S4 and this was the memory usage for the device at start up. The results of numerous updates have brought down the memory usage from what you are seeing above to what you see below.
Yes, Samsung did some sort of magic and brought the memory usage at start-up down by half. This has significantly helped me in multitasking.
Performance
The speed and fluidity of the phone has increased as well. It’s immediately noticeable as you boot up the device after the last update. No more random glitch scrolling.
Battery Life
The downside is... battery life. I'm not getting the amount of hours I use to out of my phone. At least it’s not as bad as my friend's Nexus 4. :)... I use to get two days without Digicel 4G on and 12 hours with it on. These days I'm getting 1 and 1/4 without 4G and 10 hours or less with 4G on.
Display
The display has got a slight upgrade too. Texts seem to be sharper and icons are pronounced on the screen. Also, it seems like some color correction has been done in the last update and this is evident as soon as you enter the gallery app and see that pics are less color saturated and have more life like color representation. There is also a new reading mode option added to the drop down menu to help users that read a lot on their devices and lessen eye fatigue.
New Features
New features like Knox and the ability to pair with galaxy gear has been added. I still haven't gotten my hands on the galaxy gear or the Note 3 for a full spot on review, but I still remain hopeful.
Final Thoughts
In my opinion, the S4 has a lot of life still left in it and with more updates and fine tuning it can become a stable device that will be around for years to come. Look out for my next blog post that will be about the Wireless Bluetooth Beats By Dr. Dre headset.... I think its an original, not too sure. Until next time... Peace.
I have been told by someone yesterday that Samsung should have a retail store in Jamaica due to the popularity of their phones in our region. I was shocked to know that there are still some persons living and breathing in Jamaica that haven't seen the most well published Samsung Experience store. So this is for all those persons that missed the 1st 2nd and 3rd publications that promoted the store.
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On September 26, 2013 I had chance of being at the
launch of the new Samsung Experience Store in Tropical Plaza. The event was
well attended by the media and Samsung tech lovers alike. The store was stacked
to the ceiling with all the new Samsung devices to demo and purchase. They also
officially launched the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Gear which are the two new
flagship devices from Samsung. After seeing the range of devices available at
launch it would be a safe assumption that the Samsung Experience Store has all
gadgets a tech lover would want.
Ok…. Now I have seen it all with this device. Samsung took the covers off the Galaxy Round which is the world’s first smartphone with curved
display. The peculiarly designed handset will be available in Korea in October.
The biggest highlight of the Samsung Galaxy Round is its curved display which
is 5.7” inch Super Flexible AMOLED unit with Full HD resolution (1920 x 1080
pixels). In my opinion this isn’t new tech… In body remember the Nexus S that
was made for Google by Samsung? Anyway the rest of the Samsung Galaxy Round is
quite similar to the note 3 and most super powered smartphones releasing these
days. There is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 SoC with quad-core Krait CPU clocked
at 2.3GHz of course (Snapdragon 800 is the weapon of choice for everyone now),
3GB of RAM, 32GB of built-in memory, and microSD card slot. There’s a 13MP
camera on the back of the device, a 2MP front-facing unit, as well as full
connectivity suite on board.
The Samsung Galaxy Round boots Android 4.3 Jelly Bean with
the latest TouchWIz UI. Samsung has also added a couple of things/tricks/gimmicks
to utilize the curved screen on the device. They include Bounce UX for
controlling the device’s music player by tapping on its sides, and Gravity
Effect for interacting with the display by rolling it. Check out the video
demonstration below…
The Samsung Galaxy Round will be available in Luxury Brown
for now at approximately $1,000 US. Regrettably,
currently there are no plans for international availability (only available in South
Korea).
LG
has admitted that "bendable and unbreakable" smartphone displays are
already in production, and rumors about a device known as the G Flex
which features the new technology is flooding the tech scene currently.
I'm usually the first to be on the since for new technology
and gadgets, but the DL600 Android phone has eluded me for quite some time.
Anyhow we had to pull some strings to get this high demand device in office for
a review. So without further ado here is the full review of Digicel's
Smartphone DL600.
Let's fist start off by highlighting the strengths and
weaknesses of the DL600.
Strong Points
- Device comes with a 4 GB micro SD card already installed.
- The TFT LCD display on this device is vivid.
- Device is running Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) smoothly without struggling.
- The case and build quality of the DL600 is splendid compared to other low end Smart phones in its price range.
- The DL600 supports Digicel's 4G and provides remarkable download and upload speeds.
- This Device can also be used as a mobile internet Wi-Fi hotspot for other devices.
Weak Points
- The camera on this device takes pitiable photos.
- The DL600 only has 512MB of RAM which means not all of multitasking can be done.
- The three main menu buttons for Android (Back, Home and Recent Apps) are not back lit. So finding them in the dark is a challenge for new users.
Is This For You?
I
have money in my pocket but I just can't get no love Android... The money I'm talking about is
less than $10,000, and with that amount of money person usually thought a Smartphone
would be unattainable. But thanks to Digicel and their DL600 that dream is achievable.
So who is it for? I would certainly say everyone that wants more out of their
phone. This phone gives you all that the Android OS has to offer with just few
limitations due to the memory constraint. To put most readers minds at ease I
listed below a few well know apps that run without any problems on this device.
- What's App
- FaceBook (Built-In App)
- Twitter (Built-In App)
- Live Wallpapers (Built-In App)
- Video Wallpapers (Built-In App)
- Fruit Ninja
- Temple Run
- Dead Trigger
- Candy Crush Saga
To
be honest, I have yet to find an app that this little bundle of joy couldn't
run.
Final Thoughts
Given
the price (which is around 10,000 dollars) of the DL600, I can safely say that
it's a budget Smartphone that is better than all blackberries out there and I
say that with a smile knowing that BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) is going to be
released to Android and iOS any day now, and this little phone will be able to
run it as well. Although, if persons are looking for something more enticing on
a specification sheet then I would recommend the Samsung Galaxy S4 or S3, but
deeeep pockets are recommended if you are going that route. The product
mentioned in this article was provided courtesy of Digicel.
