All about Samsung Galaxy S4

[lopri]

An extra ~8 mm^2 for 4 A7 cores that handle ~99.9% of a normal phone workload with far less power consumption is a no-brainer for a high end chip. Heck, IMO the A15 cores are only there to look pretty on bar charts.

Well, even though the demo was done on a tablet, Exynos 5 Octa doesn't look like a toy here -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVZsISJgfsE

 

[Silenus]

13MP camera

This is all I care about.

Me too. Or rather camera QUALITY. Which is why I have practically dismissed the S4 already. Unless they have put a significantly larger sensor than usual in the S4 and have other serious camera features (OIS ect) than I am not hopeful. I would MUCH rather have the HTC One camera. HTC definitely did the right thing in going back to fewer, larger pixels and focusing on quality.

Of course I will withhold final opinions until someone does an actual careful comparison of the HTC One with S4 and other new phones. This involves an examination of higher res shots in a variety of conditions, showing high and low ISO, dynamic range, effectiveness of OIS ect.

 

[krumme]

Me too. Or rather camera QUALITY. Which is why I have practically dismissed the S4 already. Unless they have put a significantly larger sensor than usual in the S4 and have other serious camera features (OIS ect) than I am not hopeful. I would MUCH rather have the HTC One camera. HTC definitely did the right thing in going back to fewer, larger pixels and focusing on quality.

Of course I will withhold final opinions until someone does an actual careful comparison of the HTC One with S4 and other new phones. This involves an examination of higher res shots in a variety of conditions, showing high and low ISO, dynamic range, effectiveness of OIS ect.

On this summers vacation we forgot our p&s, and had to do with the S2 and the S3.

There is more to Mpix numbers and pix size, the S3 is clearly the better camera.

The race for more Mpix is clearly stupid, and i hope HTC got it right, but the samples i have seen have been less than i expected 🙁 - but less pix. is the way to go. 4Mpix is perfectly fine.

Besides that; an phone is no match for a good p&s, - there is absolutely no comparison here anyway. The contrast and dynamic range of the phones is just worse than 6 years ago p&s of good quality, and they cant handle strong light sunshine in any way. Even though the BSI sensor is better in low light than the old p&s.

I will even prefer my old Ricoh Caplio G4 3 Mpix. to my Samsung S3. The difference is the new phones takes acceptable video, and far better than just 2 years old good p&s.

 

[lopri]

ARM PowerVR SGX 544???

That's confusing, too. I don't know the differences between PowerVR, Mali, Adreno, or GeForce LP (?). Heck, I don't even know who makes them except for the Geforce.

 

[zerogear]

Are you sure the Snapdragon is only for US? I heard they were having trouble with Exynos 5 SoC

 

[krumme]

Well, even though the demo was done on a tablet, Exynos 5 Octa doesn't look like a toy here -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVZsISJgfsE

Well go to aprox 10 min, and watch excactly why only 4* ARM7 is needed for 99.9% of the time. 2mm2 for the cpu part only, is doing the job. Scaring.

 

[lopri]

Why is it scary?

 

[krumme]

Why is it scary?

The need for more power is just not there anymore. Its about marketing. I dont think they can continue to sell it in the long run. The busines needs to go elsewhere. Silicon is not where the future profit is, its not a scarce ressource anymore. A place like Anandtech is build on cpu and mb test, and in a handfull of years is just gone for all but the extreme nerds. The most of us will find other interest - and most have already.

 

[Red Storm]

The need for more power is just not there anymore. Its about marketing. I dont think they can continue to sell it in the long run. The busines needs to go elsewhere. Silicon is not where the future profit is, its not a scarce ressource anymore. A place like Anandtech is build on cpu and mb test, and in a handfull of years is just gone for all but the extreme nerds. The most of us will find other interest - and most have already.

But we're now transitioning to mobile devices, so we've kinda "reset" the power numbers and are building back up, just in lighter and more mobile devices.

 

[Ravynmagi]

It's said that the next Samsung generation will be Galaxy GS4.

That looks like an error to me. Someone probably abbreviated Galaxy S4 to GS4, then someone else came along and added the Galaxy back in from to be Galaxy GS4.

 

[dguy6789]

Me too. Or rather camera QUALITY. Which is why I have practically dismissed the S4 already.

Why? The S3 had the best camera of any Android phone including the One X which was supposed to have all kinds of fancy custom camera hardware. I'd wager the S4 camera is at least in the same league as the new One's camera.

 

[WelshBloke]

Why? The S3 had the best camera of any Android phone including the One X which was supposed to have all kinds of fancy custom camera hardware. I'd wager the S4 camera is at least in the same league as the new One's camera.

I thought the one X and the sgs3 had similar camera hardware but different software.
The HTC one apparently has a different approach.

 

[Silenus]

Why? The S3 had the best camera of any Android phone including the One X which was supposed to have all kinds of fancy custom camera hardware. I'd wager the S4 camera is at least in the same league as the new One's camera.

Well we will have to wait and see. I'm willing to give it a shot. The problem is that if it's still the same old tiny sensor size and then the 13MP is pretty much just jamming more in to have a bigger number...which I'd really like to see manufacturers finally move past. The fact is...if the S4 does in fact have great image quality, it WON'T be because it's 13MP...it will be because of other less obvious hardware/software. That and however good it is....the fact is with current technology it could be even better if they chose to go with a lower MP/larger sensor/larger pixels.

What I REALLY want is to see someone take it even farther than HTC. IE: Nokia marrying some of the large sensor tech of the 808 with the lens and stabilization tech of the Lumia 920. Then put it in an android phone. 🙂

 

[s44]

The sensor is a bit bigger (1/3" vs 1/3.2") and has a better f-stop (2.2 vs 2.6) than the SGS3, as well as having more mp.

 

[lopri]

Completely new look (likely fake) leaked:

 

[dawheat]

Completely new look (likely fake) leaked:

The wasted space at the bottom bezel seems unlikely. Samsung would have either added physical buttons, maybe reduced the bezel itself, or added something like HTC did with a front speaker. Simply wasting the space doesn't seem like them.

 

[Red Storm]

That picture is old, saw it a long time ago.

 

[lothar]

Meh...Am I the only one not excited about this phone?

The only phones on my radar this year are the next Nexus, Motorola's X-phone, and then "maybe" the Galaxy S IV.
Yes, in that order.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Meh...Am I the only one not excited about this phone?

The only phones on my radar this year are the next Nexus, Motorola's X-phone, and then "maybe" the Galaxy S IV.
Yes, in that order.

I already bought one Motorola device and got screwed by them so the Xphone is irrelevant to me on the off chance that it even exists. The only way I would be interested in the next Nexus is the if it is cheap and has a amoled screen.

 

[Graze]

I already bought one Motorola device and got screwed by them so the Xphone is irrelevant to me on the off chance that it even exists. The only way I would be interested in the next Nexus is the if it is cheap and has a amoled screen.

The Nexus is already cheap with a superior screen.

 

[MrX8503]

Meh...Am I the only one not excited about this phone?

The only phones on my radar this year are the next Nexus, Motorola's X-phone, and then "maybe" the Galaxy S IV.
Yes, in that order.

Moto's X-Phone wont be coming out any time soon. It sounds like they just started developing it. The HTC One is pretty sweet, but it doesn't have a micro SD, which is a deal breaker to some.

 

[ponyo]

Meh...Am I the only one not excited about this phone?

The only phones on my radar this year are the next Nexus, Motorola's X-phone, and then "maybe" the Galaxy S IV.
Yes, in that order.

SIII was pretty big disappointment for me. I'm hoping S IV will impress me. But I'm spoiled by the Nexus price so I don't know if I can buy another phone for $650+. It would have to really blow me away for me to spend more than $300-350 on a phone now. So I might be stuck with Nexus phones from now on.

But it will be hard to give up AMOLED screen. That is by far the best feature of a Galaxy phone and the old Nexus.

 

[lothar]

SIII was pretty big disappointment for me. I'm hoping S IV will impress me. But I'm spoiled by the Nexus price so I don't know if I can buy another phone for $650+. It would have to really blow me away for me to spend more than $300-350 on a phone now. So I might be stuck with Nexus phones from now on.

But it will be hard to give up AMOLED screen. That is by far the best feature of a Galaxy phone and the old Nexus.

I'm spoiled more so by the "openness"(custom ROM scene, quick updates and not having to wait 6-12 months for manufacturer/carrier updates, etc...) of the Nexus than the price. But the price is certainly another positive for the Nexus. Even if it was a $500-600 AMOLED Nexus, I'd still probably get it over Galaxy "whatever" that is selling in the same equivalent price range.


I'm with you on AMOLED.

 

[lothar]

Moto's X-Phone wont be coming out any time soon. It sounds like they just started developing it. The HTC One is pretty sweet, but it doesn't have a micro SD, which is a deal breaker to some.

I know that and the same with the next Nexus. I'm willing to wait until November if I have to. I'm not in any rush, and besides waiting will give me time to evaluate the Galaxy S IV.

The HTC One seems a bit too much like an iPhone. If I wanted an iPhone, I'd buy the real thing and not some mock up.

I don't care so much about MicroSD.
If you give me 32GB onboard, I don't care about a MicroSD slot. Similarly, if you're only going to give me 16GB onboard, then you damn well better give me a MicroSD slot or sell the phone for $350.
32GB for me is the sweet spot. Once a phone offers that as their standard(and by standard I mean not requiring users to pay a $100 for the 32GB storage either), I don't care about SD storage.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Well we will have to wait and see. I'm willing to give it a shot. The problem is that if it's still the same old tiny sensor size and then the 13MP is pretty much just jamming more in to have a bigger number...which I'd really like to see manufacturers finally move past. The fact is...if the S4 does in fact have great image quality, it WON'T be because it's 13MP...it will be because of other less obvious hardware/software. That and however good it is....the fact is with current technology it could be even better if they chose to go with a lower MP/larger sensor/larger pixels.

What I REALLY want is to see someone take it even farther than HTC. IE: Nokia marrying some of the large sensor tech of the 808 with the lens and stabilization tech of the Lumia 920. Then put it in an android phone. 🙂

Be careful what you wish for the oh-so-wonderful HTC one camera and curiously enough they also happen to have supply problems at the same time.

The HTC One photos are sharper and pack more detail per pixel when we downscale the Optimus G Pro photos to the same resolution. But the low overall resolution is a problem - the text on the card is a lot easier to read in the 13MP G Pro photo than it is in the HTC One photo.

http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_one-review-902p6.php