Underwhelming Samsung Galaxy S 4

[chrismarle]

Hi guys.

First of all, I was pretty much insulted when they showed up the S4's plastic construction. While every other OEM is making nicely builded flagships, Samsung shows.... this.

It has a 1080p display. Fine, for now. It has the PenTile sub-pixel arrangement. Not fine at all. I still don't understand why they stopped the Super AMOLED Plus display at the Galaxy S II, it's a much better display than the regular Super AMOLED. It's like they stopped improving their displays and they only care to make it higher res. But a good display needs more than just higher res.

Then, hands-on videos were released and I watched a lot of them. I saw multiple lags (shouldn't happen on a 4xCortexA15+4xCortexA7 device). This is a freaking 8 cores device. 8 cores. IT LAGS. JUST... NO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtmQvZjobyM

This video also revealed the Sunspider benchmark result..... Less than 100ms better than the iPhone 5 (and equal to the iPad 4). I am waiting for other benchmarks results.

I noticed that for 95% of the show, they talked about gimmicky features instead of the real product. Honestly, who the hell will be using these features to make them really important?

Anyway, I was really let down by this device. By the way, before I forget, what a lame move to laugh at the iPhone 4S's design because it was like the iPhone 4. They just laugh at themselves.

 

[marc11]

Hi guys.

First of all, I was pretty much insulted when they showed up the S4's plastic construction. While every other OEM is making nicely builded flagships, Samsung shows.... this.

It has a 1080p display. Fine, for now. It has the PenTile sub-pixel arrangement. Not fine at all. I still don't understand why they stopped the Super AMOLED Plus display at the Galaxy S II, it's a much better display than the regular Super AMOLED. It's like they stopped improving their displays and they only care to make it higher res. But a good display needs more than just higher res.

Then, hands-on videos were released and I watched a lot of them. I saw multiple lags (shouldn't happen on a 4xCortexA15+4xCortexA7 device). This is a freaking 8 cores device. 8 cores. IT LAGS. JUST... NO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtmQvZjobyM

This video also revealed the Sunspider benchmark result..... Less than 100ms better than the iPhone 5 (and equal to the iPad 4). I am waiting for other benchmarks results.

I noticed that for 95% of the show, they talked about gimmicky features instead of the real product. Honestly, who the hell will be using these features to make them really important?

Anyway, I was really let down by this device. By the way, before I forget, what a lame move to laugh at the iPhone 4S's design because it was like the iPhone 4. They just laugh at themselves.

Ummm so don't buy one. What is the point of this thread? Really?

 

[chrismarle]

Ummm so don't buy one. What is the point of this thread? Really?

Giving my thoughts about it, like everyone else seems to be doing.

 

[Skika]

Its a Samsung what did you expect?

 

[chrismarle]

Its a Samsung what did you expect?

More?

 

[The Game 161]

It still blows what the iphone has out of the water..lets see what apple can bring with the 5S..I'm not expecting much.

S4 is a great device with some very clever features to me..and a bigger screen, better display, better camera, faster...don't see how it was underwhelming. What were you expected to be added to an already great device the S3?

 

[grkm3]

The gs4 is not like the pen tile screen in the gs3.it has a totally new color arangment and is using a new adaptive color saturation engine.

I will look for the site that posted a zoomed in picture but the gs4 screen is very close to a non pen tile and one report I read said the colors are way more nuetrol then the gs3.

Don't judge the screen without reading about it.

 

[b166er]

While I agree the presentation sucked, I don't know what you were expecting in terms of the phone itself. It has all the obvious bumps, plus some new features. I didn't think for a second that would drastically redesign the body, and I'm not sure why anyone did. I'm even less sure why that matters at all. One of the few things they did explain was that the body is indeed stronger, although we'll see about that in the real world.

To me the biggest flaw of the presentation (aside from everything) was what they didn't mention. Actual battery life? Price? Release date? Drop Test?

I think the phone looks great, it will likely be my first Samsung smart phone.

 

[onthecouchagain]

Just gon leave this here for y'all to ponder about.

Note the change in screen size, resolution, significantly larger battery size, thinness, the addition of an IR blaster, less weight, different dimensions, new colors, and etc.

Note also the whopping jump up in higher PPI despite a larger screen.

Y'all ponder 'bout that.

 

[grkm3]

Another thing Samsung did not state is that its a 5.0 screen but its in a smaller body,Samsung made the cell smaller,thinner,lighter and stronger with gorrila glass 3 then the gs3.

Everyone said ohhh its a 5 in and phones are getting so big but the actual phone is smaller then the gs3.Its also amazing how they fit a 2600 mah battery in there and got it lighter then the gs3 that only has a 2100 mah battery!

Edit that list is great but to be fair the gs3 also has s micro SD slot for up to 64 more gb

 

[blackhand1001]

The galaxy sII screen while rgb is much worse than the display in the galaxy nexus, s3, and definitely worse than the s4's screen. Trust me when I say unless you look under a microscope you will not be able to tell the s4 is pentile.

 

[Explicitic]

Samsung's AMOLED displays are fairly simple to describe, you either hate them or love them. I can deal with them. At 1080p, PenTile will be barely noticeable. If you prefer LCD, then purchase a phone with an LCD display.

Did you not actually take time and research what the Exynos 5 Octa is? It's technically eight cores, but really two quad-core CPUs in one. The A15s will ONLY be used when the performance is actually needed. For things like web browsing, video viewing, photo viewing, etc....it will always use the A7s. This is the big.LITTLE architecture developed by ARM and is designed to help improve battery life. In fact, I can pretty safely say that the S4 will have battery life close to the Note II because any normal consumer won't be doing anything that would require the A15s. If you STILL don't understand, please, take it from an XDA Recognized Developer.

Believe it or not, most regular consumers who aren't into tech much, will use those "gimmicky" features. Personally, I would never use them either but again, what you consider "gimmicky" could be a very important part of another person's life.

Also, might I add that the iPhone 4S was an EXACT clone of the iPhone 4, with the exception of the antenna design? Just saying....at least the S4's designed changed a little bit....

It seems something like the HTC One would be a better fit for you, based on what you said in your OP. I thought the S4 was fairly underwhelming as well, but, hey, don't judge a phone until you've tried it.

 

[F123D]

You were insulted?

By polycarbonate?

1080p screen is just fine for now?

They stopped improving the display by introducing a new diamond matrix screen.

They increased the screen size without increasing the size of the phone.

They added a larger battery while making the phone lighter.

Don't like a certain feature, turn it off.

Don't like the phone. Don't buy it.

You may be disappointed but insulted?

 

[hyteckit]

Also, might I add that the iPhone 4S was an EXACT clone of the iPhone 4, with the exception of the antenna design? Just saying....at least the S4's designed changed a little bit....

That's why it's the 'S' version of the iPhone 4. Just as the iPhone 3 and 3GS share the same look, the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S shares the same look.

Honestly, the Galaxy S4 is more like a Galaxy S3 Pro that has higher specs.

 

[F123D]

That's why it's the 'S' version of the iPhone 4. Just as the iPhone 3 and 3GS share the same look, the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S shares the same look.

So calling the phone an S3s isn't as accurate as saying this upgrade was more a 4S to a 5.

 

[nick_elt]

i cant believe by how many people think aluminium is better than polycarbonate for a phone?

----------

While I agree the presentation sucked, I don't know what you were expecting in terms of the phone itself. It has all the obvious bumps, plus some new features. I didn't think for a second that would drastically redesign the body, and I'm not sure why anyone did. I'm even less sure why that matters at all. One of the few things they did explain was that the body is indeed stronger, although we'll see about that in the real world.

To me the biggest flaw of the presentation (aside from everything) was what they didn't mention. Actual battery life? Price? Release date? Drop Test?

I think the phone looks great, it will likely be my first Samsung smart phone.

ha that would be awesome if they did a drop test v an iPhone during the presentation

 

[MRU]

i cant believe by how many people think aluminium is better than polycarbonate for a phone?

Because design aesthetics are subjective.

Given the two i'd choose the better designed regardless of material. The polycarbonate shell of the HTC One X was more appealing to me than the GS3 simply down to design.

Likewise the HTC One impresses me as it shares a design ethos with my Apple hardware, MacBook Pro, MBA, MacPro, iPad etc.

The SGS4 is better than the GS3 design wise. Subtle changes to me make it more aesthetically pleasing than its predecessor, but I still think the HTC One is much better designed aesthetically.


It's all subjective. Either way any phone I buy always ends up with a screen protector and a case on.

 

[Krimsonmyst]

The gs4 is not like the pen tile screen in the gs3.it has a totally new color arangment and is using a new adaptive color saturation engine.

I will look for the site that posted a zoomed in picture but the gs4 screen is very close to a non pen tile and one report I read said the colors are way more nuetrol then the gs3.

Don't judge the screen without reading about it.

I believe this is what you're referring to.

 

[tech4all]

First of all, I was pretty much insulted when they showed up the S4's plastic construction. While every other OEM is making nicely builded flagships, Samsung shows.... this.

A person being insulted because a cell phone is made of plastic...First World Problems!

Seriously dude, it's a phone. There's more things in this world besides phones. Like family, friends, and life. If you're insulted by a cell phones material quality, then you really need to reevaluate your priorities in life. I seriously mean that. Not trying to insult you or anyone else, but I think sometimes we look too far into this stuff. I know it's a tech site here, but there's more to life.

That's all I'm saying.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

How can you spot an iPhone killer?

When it gets just as much hate?

 

[daveathall]

How can you spot an iPhone killer?

When it gets just as much hate?

You might have something there. The front page (News discussions) of MacRumors has a thread with well over a 1000 posts about a Samsung phone, no other thread on that page comes close to the post count. If it was such a crap phone surely it would not be worth a comment.

 

[TheMTtakeover]

just gon leave this here for y'all to ponder about.

Note the change in screen size, resolution, significantly larger battery size, thinness, the addition of an ir blaster, less weight, different dimensions, new colors, and etc.

Note also the whopping jump up in higher ppi despite a larger screen.

Y'all ponder 'bout that.

image

year of the ir blaster!

 

[Oohara]

You might have something there. The front page (News discussions) of MacRumors has a thread with well over a 1000 posts about a Samsung phone, no other thread on that page comes close to the post count. If it was such a crap phone surely it would not be worth a comment.

Hehe this is quite true.

 

[matttye]

It's an eight core device but only four cores run at once.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the A7 will probably not be as fast as the processor in the S3, so every day tasks will be slightly slower. That might explain any lag? Or it could just be pre-production models.

 

[MRU]

It's an eight core device but only four cores run at once.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the A7 will probably not be as fast as the processor in the S3, so every day tasks will be slightly slower. That might explain any lag? Or it could just be pre-production models.

Its probably a combination of both. If Samsung haven't enhanced or optimised TouchWiz outside of just adding more S'Apps then the little.big processor might not be the best fit for the OS and software.

We won't know until review units show up, but given this will be out in 6 weeks and is therefore clearly in mass production now - I'd be surprised if there is a dramatic difference between now and release.


It would be interesting if we could get a side by side comparison of the Snapdragon and the Exynos versions and we might be able to see if that contributes to the difference - and if it is in both - clearly Touchwiz is to blame.