Samsung Galaxy S4 : "Life Companion"

Have you guys seen the Samsung Galaxy S4 reveal event last night? Better late than never! You can relive the moments here. Being a Die hard Samsung fan, I was awake till 2 am to watch the live event. So now lets get to the device.

Hardware

Size and Design: The device measures 136.1 x 69.8mm, is 7.9mm thick and weighs 130g. For comparison Galaxy S3 measured 136.6 x 70.6, is 8.6mm thick and weighs 133g . It is impressive Samsung managed to fit the 5" screen in a package smaller and lighter than the S3. As for the design Samsung has again used the same glossy plastic used in the S3. However, The plastic is now injected with a subtle cross-hatching instead of Hyperglaze used in S3 (See Image Above)

Internal Specifications: Specs is where the Samsung Galaxy S4 really shines. The phone is equipped with 2 GB of RAM coupled with an 1.6 Ghz Octa Core Processor (Exynos 5 Octa 5410) . It comes in three storage options 16 GB \ 32 GB \ 64 GB. There is also a higher capacity 2600 mAh battery (compared to 2100 mAh of Galaxy S3)

Display: The display on S4 is a 5" Super AMOLED Screen with a FullHD resolution of 1920 x 1080 with High Pixel Density of 441 ppi (pixels per inch)

Camera: Samsung has upgraded the camera to a 13 Megapixel unit with AF (Auto Focus) , LED Flash and Zero Shutter Lag which records video in 1080p@30fps (Frames per Second). There's also a faster lens on the menu, with an f/2.2 aperture. There is also an 2 MP Front facing camera which also doeS video in 1080p@30fps. There a many Software related goodies which we'll talk about later in this post.

Other: Samsung has incorporated an IR LED for using the S4 as a remote control for your TV, DVR's, etc and you also get the basics in a smartphone these days like an Ambient Light Sensor, Proximity Sensor , 3.5mm Headphone Jack, GPS/GLONASS  and a Micro-USB Charging and syncing port. The device also packs radios for HSPA+ (850/900/1900/2100MHz) and LTE (six different bands in total)

Now let's get to Software.

Software

The Galaxy S4 ships with Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. With all the feature in Jelly Bean, You get all the goodies that TouchWiz brings.

Drama Shot: It takes a burst of 9 photos and combines them in a single image and Cinema photo, which is identical to the Cinemagraph functionality in the Nokia Lumia lineup. It lets you create animated gifs where only a part of the image is moving, while the background is static.

Dual Video Recording: The Samsung Galaxy S4 lets you capture video with both its back and front cams simultaneously, and combines them into a single clip.

Smart Scroll/Pause: The first one of those automatically pauses the video you are watching when you move your eyes away from the screen, to resume when you look back. Smart scroll on the other hand, detects eye-movement and scrolls a web page as your gaze moves down towards the bottom of the screen.

Sound & Shot: Option which records up to nine seconds of audio to accompany a still image.

Eraser: Removes unwanted photo bombers and background blur before saving to gallery.

Air Gestures: Those use the Galaxy S4 new IR gestures sensor and work in the web browser, music player and even in the dialer. The Air gestures allow you to command your phone by simply waiving in front of it. This way you can scroll longer web pages (vertical waves) or change active tabs (horizontal waves).

Air View: The Galaxy S4 has also borrowed a page from the Galaxy Note II book and features hover touch. Since there's no stylus here, it's made to work with fingers, giving you a small blue dot on the screen whenever you hold your finger a centimeter or two away from it. This makes it easier to avoid wrong presses when handling small items in the web browser and also enables some nice features like previewing the content of a folder in the gallery without opening it.

S Translator: lets you instantly translate your email or text messages, using text or voice translation. The feature can do language translation from both speech-to-text and text-to-speech.

S Health: An app that will track your steps, stairs climbed, and the ambient temperature and humidity, plus track your food intake and estimate calories consumed/burned. You can even track sleep with an optional accessory.

Group Play: This feature turns a group of phones into a stereo system, each phone broadcasting a different stereo band.

Other: There is also dual camera chat functionality in ChatOn.

Availability: End of April. Will be available in Black Mist and Frost White.

I had high expectations from the device but I am a tad bit disappointed. However, Until S5 is revealed, S4 will be on the top of my wishlist.