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.
