Technicational

Two weeks with the Samsung Galaxy s4 (S4) on my desk and I  already have some major strong points and drawbacks for the device. The Galaxy S4 (I9500) is one of the most powerful and feature rich Smartphone that has been release this year, but with so much feature and power comes a whole new set of quarks and problems. So, without anymore waiting this is my view/review/summary/synopsis of the Samsung Galaxy S4.

Let's Talk Specification

This phone is a super computer with a super AMOLED screen... I wouldn't be surprised if Samsung managed to squeeze in a miniature toaster oven in this phone too. This is one well built phone when you take a look on the specification sheet. Just look at some of the hardware that's in the S4 below.

Sigh, there wasn't a toaster oven include on the specification sheet... Darn it, I was looking forward to that one.

Let's Talk Features

Camera

The Samsung Galaxy S4 is very detail when it comes to photos, but that isn't the outstanding feature of the camera. The various modes that you can set within the camera app is what pushes the envelope on technology. One such mode is  Eraser mode which can erase anyone or anything that wasn't mean to be in the photo, and yes... it does work.

Optical Reader

Optical Reader let's you point the camera at a word to  get the meaning and pronunciation of the word, which is all done without internet access.

S Translator

S Translator is a built-in application that translate English to a myriad of other languages or from other languages to English. Certainly would have been a great asset to me back in college doing introduction to Spanish.

User Interface (UI)

The leap in processing power from Quad Core (4 CPU's) to Octa-Core (8 CPU's) is reflected in a fast and responsive user interface that you'll realize as you pick up the device, but I am guessing that also contributes to the heat problem that I'll mention later in the article.

Smart Pause

Smart Pause is a lovely feature that pauses a video when you are not looking on the screen and resumes it the moment you start looking on the screen again. It works 70% of the time but the other 30% can be real annoying because it keeps doing the opposite of what it's made for. Luckily there is an option to turn it off.

Let's Talk Problems

Heat Dissipation

Great balls of fire... could have been a true to life song about me if I had continued walking around with the Galaxy S4 in my pants pocket. The phone tends to get hot at random moments when not in use. So save your future children and don't walk with it in your pants pocket guys... no joke. Hopefully this will be rectified in a firmware update. Wait... they did include a toaster oven... silly me. Pop Tatars here I come!

Games

I didn't know that this would be a problem for me, but it turned out to be. The S4 comes with a couple of games, but they aren't full games... no they are demos that you'll have to purchase the full version of. That's not so bad, but it gets worst... These games can't be uninstalled! You can't get these games off unless you go the good old rooting/hacking method. That's something that hurts me... I want full control of what stays and goes on my phone and I do believe that I'm not the only person in this world that believes this.

Final Thoughts

They are many more great features I neglected to mention but getting into those would result into an epically long article, but these great features uses up almost half of the storage space that is supposedly meant for the user. So a 16GB model will roughly have 9GB remaining for the consumer to use. Anyhow, the fact still remains that the Samsung Galaxy S4 is the best android phone out now and will hold that title for some time to come. The Samsung Galaxy S4 is truly a double edge sword.