Camera, Battery Life, Conclusion

Communication & Data

Gauging the forcefulness of the Milky way S iv's communication features is tricky because the phone is available on five dissimilar carriers, but I was merely able to examination Dart'south version.

Equally I've stated in previous reviews, Sprint's network is not very good in my area, so wearisome download speeds are an unfortunate reality until the Now Network manages to evangelize 4G LTE to the New York City metro area.

Network performance and data speeds will vary past area. Likewise, phone call quality volition also vary by network and region, just I had no complaints on any call. Both ends of the chat were static free and the speaker fashion was at an acceptable volume. Don't go in expecting distinguishably clear sound, only yous won't have any issues hearing or being heard in a conversation.

Photographic camera

The Galaxy Photographic camera is a unique point-and-shoot camera with great appeal, but smartphones are Samsung'due south driving force at the moment, and then it's only natural that the visitor transfers the many software tweaks and shooting modes information technology introduced last year to the Galaxy S four.

The Galaxy South four has a thirteen-megapixel camera and a 2-megapixel front end camera with the most sophisticated software I have ever used on a smartphone photographic camera app. The level of customization and alterations possible are at times frustrating, merely they are more often than not liberating. Thirteen shooting modes make it possible to capture whatever kind of moment in a multifariousness of ways, so in that location's rarely a situation that the phone cannot capture.

Dual Photographic camera is a new shooting mode that records video or takes a photo using both the rear and front cameras, then superimposes the user's face onto the video or photo. I institute this feature to be incredibly gimmicky and of piffling value considering that lining upwardly the front camera with your face sometimes leads to bad-mannered positioning or distracts from the primary purpose of capturing something with the rear camera. The ane time that I plant Dual cam to be remotely useful is when I made faces at my infant niece in order to make her smile. It was interesting to be able to capture the comical confront it took to make her laugh, but the effort didn't seem worth information technology.

Equally if the plethora of shooting modes were not plenty, there'south also a great deal of command for specific settings, and users will probably need to get familiar with them to accept ameliorate pictures. While the Galaxy S iv's car mode tends to do a good chore of recognizing the right settings to utilize, the default exposure setting is very high, which leads to some images appearing also vivid. Bright and sunny days can sometimes lead to overexposure in the sky and an imbalance of photos taken outdoors or about windows. The aforementioned trouble affected the Milky way Due south Three and Galaxy Notation Two, and it doesn't announced Samsung figured out the best way to fix that. Exposure, ISO, and white rest tin be adjusted in the settings menu in order to get things just right.

The camera user interface is imperfect simply good. The same is true of the results the photographic camera produces. When the exposure and white balance are correctly set, the S four is capable of taking great photos. Colors are true-to-life depictions when the settings are controlled properly, and most photos taken were of good quality. A couple of indoor photos looked a little soft, but outdoor photos and images taken in good light looked great. The software lacks the simplicity of an iPhone 5, which provides more than consequent results and takes out the guesswork out of near photos, simply its flexibility leads to pleasing photos and videos on both the front and rear photographic camera.

Battery

The Galaxy S 4 has a 2,600-mAH battery more than capable to survive the onslaught of a standard workday with moderate usage. A more demanding schedule can be tougher to handle as the telephone buckled after 9 hours of heavy usage. For almost nine hours, I crisscrossed Manhattan, had motorcar-sync enabled, set effulgence to lx to 100 percent depending on my needs, and ofttimes used the S four.

Battery life on the Galaxy Southward four was satisfactory but straining when pushed to it limits. Network strength and brightness settings, among other things, may bear upon performance, simply the Milky way S four has reliable battery life.

Decision

The sheer momentum that Samsung has built over the past four years guarantees that tens of millions of people will buy the Galaxy S 4. A few million more will be sold to those captivated by the showoff software features. The only thing that remains to be seen is if you will be amidst the enchanted or the disinterested.

Early detractors, present company included, said that the Galaxy S four is very similar to the Galaxy Southward III. I at present believe that the phones are like except that the South iv is better in every single way. Samsung took every attribute of a successful device and gently tweaked them to make it amend. No i should view that as a bad thing unless he or she has always had major gripes with the Galaxy S series.

The Galaxy S four is an advocacy of an already good formula that still has room for some improvement and maturation. Months from at present, when its sharing features are accessible on older devices or there are enough S 4 users in the wild to brand them useful, the Galaxy S 4 will be one of the most social-friendly smartphones ever released. As of now, it'south yet an intriguing upgrade that builds on an engaging, albeit familiar, foundation.

Pros: Polished hardware and software. Improves upon winning formula. Powerful quad-cadre processor. User-replaceable battery. Peachy camera. Expandable storage.

Cons: Plastic blueprint is non for everyone, particularly on a flagship telephone. HTC One delivers tough competition.