March 14, the Day the iPhone Died

[Mike]

With incredible anticipation, I watched streaming live on cnet.com the unveiling of Samsung's latest installment to its Galaxy franchise. It didn't disappoint.

So, to Apple I sing "Bye, bye, miss American pie". What a fantastic device the new Samsung Galaxy S4 looks like.

Slightly smaller than the S3 with a bigger 5 inch screen, we have a new era in smart phones. Wireless charging, retinal detection that automatically pauses video playback when the user looks away and resumes playing when the user looks at it again. Tilting the phone to scroll through websites. A 13 megapixal backside camera and a 2 megapixal front end. A 2600 Ni battery for long lasting power, and yet it's slimmer than its predecessor. 440p high definition screen compared to the iPhone's 360p.

And this is all expected to be sold by all major carriers at the same price as the S3 - $200 with a 2 year contract. This is a no-brainer for me as my current contract comes to an end in April. I couldn't wait to see the specs for this phone officially announced, and I am all in!

Question: Are any iPhone users thinking about switching? I personally know quite a few.

 

[Nick]

I liked the look of the SIII, so I think I'll be impressed with the S4. They need to fix battery life. I think that's the main issue facing the smartphone market right now. I just came from iPhone 4 to the android, with an HTC One. Love it. If I could afford the Samsung SIII or 4, then I'd go for that, but I am very happy with the HTC. I'd choose either of them over Apple at the moment.

I think iOS 6 really killed the iPhone 5. I know a few loyal Apple customers that are thinking of going Android or Windows Phone.

 

[Mike]

The S4 has a 2600 Ni battery as opposed to the 2100 Ni that the S3 has. Plus, the S4 has a dual processor. One handles standard operations and consumes less power, and the other kicks in for more demanding tasks. The battery life is supposed to exceed any smart phone on the market. Another plus (compared to the iPhone) is that it is removable and replaceable when it ages and wanes in storage capacity.

I have an HTC Evo Shift now. I don't like HTC's computer interface for transferring files. It's very clumsy, IMO. The antenna in my HTC is horrible. Julie's Blackberry (AKA - dinosaur) gets a much better signal than our HTC's. The HTC One looks great, but I don't think I'm ready to take another run at their phones.

I am so jazzed about this new S4! The only thing that will prevent me from getting it when Sprint makes it available next month is if they price it out of my range or if some negative news comes out about it between now and then.

 

[Nick]

I just read the following article on the S4 just now at it looks amazing! In addition to what you've already mentioned, it has a resolution of 1920x1080. That's insane! I have a 23" widescreen monitor on my desk that only just matches that.

FYI, some of LG's smartphones have come with the scrolling as you tilt the phone for a few years ago, like the LG Optimus Black for starters. But Samsung are taking it to the next level. 8 core processor, and high-end camera features will certainly make this phone more of a standout, imo. But even with it's huge battery, I'm thinking it will only just last a day, if you're lucky. Probably less.

From http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/hands-on-samsung-galaxy-s4-20130315-2g539.html

Samsung has thrown so many new features into the Galaxy S4 that it's reached the point of absurdity. Does a smartphone really need an eight-core processor, or a screen that responds to Minority Report-style gestures, or a camera that lets you shoot picture-in-picture photos and videos? Absolutely not, but the fact that it has these capabilities is impressive in itself. It shows Samsung is capable of driving innovation rather than simply 'borrowing' features from other vendors' phones – something the company has been accused of with past phones.

The eight-core processor officially makes the Galaxy S4 the most powerful smartphone on the planet. Samsung hasn't been shy about making the most of that extra muscle, either, with a bunch of neat tricks for photography and video, touchless operation, and a new Group Play feature that lets you connect up to eight Galaxy S4s together for gaming and sharing music and files.

The half dozen or so new camera features are where the Galaxy S4 really flexes its biceps. The Eraser Mode detects when someone ruins your shot by walking past, and with a single tap you can remove them from the photo. It's impressive to see this feature work in practice, but it assumes users have had the foresight to switch it on in the first place (sadly, it doesn't kick into gear automatically), and this is probably one step too many for most people taking casual snapshots.

Drama Shot is another nifty feature that shoots 100 consecutive photos in four seconds, automatically combining them into a single composite photo that freezes the action into multiple frames – an impressive feat that used to require you had an expensive camera and advanced Photoshop skills. The Galaxy S4 is pretty quick to spit out results, too, taking only a few seconds to generate each different camera effect.

The touchless operation, which lets you do things such as answer calls, scroll through pages and navigate between open browser tabs using hand gestures (not unlike the ones in Minority Report), is a little hit-and-miss. Since it uses the front-facing two-megapixel camera to capture gestures, it's dependent on good lighting; in the fluoro-lit meeting room we used for testing, it had trouble distinguishing between the gestures for scrolling up and down and moving between browser tabs.

Smart Pause is more reliable, and it's likely to be one of the features that gets the most usage, as you don't need to do anything extra to take advantage of it. It uses the front-facing camera to detect your eyes while you're watching a video, and as soon as you look away, it automatically pauses it. And vice versa; when you look back at the screen, it starts playing the video again.

As far as specs go, the Galaxy S4 is up there with the best of them. It has a 5-inch 1920x1080-pixel HD Super AMOLED display, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, 4G LTE and built-in Near Field Communication (NFC). It also runs the latest Android 4.2.2 operating system, Jelly Bean, customised with an updated version of Samsung's TouchWiz interface. Even though the screen's a bit bigger, Samsung has managed to shrink the S4 down so that it's just a smidgeon smaller and lighter than the S3. The two generations of Galaxy phones look very similar at first glance, but there's a marked difference when holding the S4 in your hand – it feels like a grown-up, classier version of the S3 thanks to the flatter edges and slight texture on the polycarbonate casing.

We're a little concerned about how the S4 will fare for battery life – something we weren't able to test during our short time with it. Between the eight-core processor, 5-inch full HD display and various gestures and features that use the front-facing camera, we can't imagine that it will be a strong point for this phone, even with its relatively large 2600 mAh replaceable battery.
Is the average punter likely to use even a fraction of these new features? Probably not, but brushing the gimmicks aside, the S4 is nevertheless a solid upgrade based on the pin-sharp screen, powerful performance and updated camera. Provided the battery life doesn't stink, we'd say Samsung has yet another sure-fire winner on its hands. An Australian launch is expected toward the end of April on the Telstra, Optus, Vodafone and Virgin Mobile networks. Pricing has not yet been announced.

 

[Nick]

The S4 has a 2600 Ni battery as opposed to the 2100 Ni that the S3 has. Plus, the S4 has a dual processor. One handles standard operations and consumes less power, and the other kicks in for more demanding tasks. The battery life is supposed to exceed any smart phone on the market. Another plus (compared to the iPhone) is that it is removable and replaceable when it ages and wanes in storage capacity.

I have an HTC Evo Shift now. I don't like HTC's computer interface for transferring files. It's very clumsy, IMO. The antenna in my HTC is horrible. Julie's Blackberry (AKA - dinosaur) gets a much better signal than our HTC's. The HTC One looks great, but I don't think I'm ready to take another run at their phones.

I am so jazzed about this new S4! The only thing that will prevent me from getting it when Sprint makes it available next month is if they price it out of my range or if some negative news comes out about it between now and then.

Yep, I'm double posting you. :D

I like the way HTC does it, but then again I haven't tried any Samsung phones for myself yet. I think unless you're going for the SIII or S4, the HTC One is the best choice, imo. Considering I'm on a budget, I'm not likely to see an S4 in my hand for quite a while, but I'm looking forward to when I do. They simply look amazing!

For transferring files, I hate using programs outside of windows explorer to do it. I like to know exactly where it's going, which is why I don't like the iPhones and having to sync up with iTunes all the time. So I can't really comment on HTC software, but now that you mention it, I'll try it and let you know.

 

[faeriecat]

The HTC Droid DNA also has wireless charging, it is one of the ones I'm considering. I am also looking at the SIII. My contract is up and my aging 3G HTC Incredible is, well, aging. LOL I might have to look at the SIV, anyone know when they come out?

 

[Nick]

The HTC Droid DNA also has wireless charging, it is one of the ones I'm considering. I am also looking at the SIII. My contract is up and my aging 3G HTC Incredible is, well, aging. LOL I might have to look at the SIV, anyone know when they come out?

Australian launch is late April. My guess is that the US will get it first.

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