After months of waiting and rumours, the Samsung Galaxy S4 has been officially unveiled at Samsung Unpacked at New York.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 launches on April 26th and will be available from the majority of UK networks. But how do the specifications stack up agains rival smartphones? Let’s take a closer look at how it compares on paper to flagships from rival operatings systems: the Apple iPhone 5, BlackBerry Z10, HTC One and Nokia Lumia 920.
|
Samsung Galaxy S4 |
Apple iPhone 5 | BlackBerry Z10 | HTC One |
Nokia Lumia 920 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Operating System |
Android 4.2 TouchWiz |
iOS 6.1 | BB10 |
Android 4.1 HTC Sense 5 |
Windows Phone 8 |
| Screen |
5-inch HD SuperAMOLED 441ppi
|
4-inch Retina 1136×640 326ppi |
4.2-inch LCD 1280×768 356ppi
|
4.7-inch SLCD 3 1920×1080 pixels 468ppi |
4.5-inch PureMotion HD+ 1280×768 332ppi |
| Processor |
1.6GHz Octa-Core |
Apple A6 dual-core |
dual-core 1.5GHz |
Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core 1.7Ghz |
Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core 1.5Ghz |
| RAM | 2GB | 1GB | 2GB | 2GB | 1GB |
| Storage | 16, 32, 64GB, microSD | 16, 32, 64GB | 16GB, microSD | 32, 64GB | 32GB |
| Camera |
13-MP LED flash 1080p video 2-MP front |
8-MP LED flash 1080p video 1.2-MP front |
8-MP LED flash 1080p video 2-MP front
|
UltraPixel Smart flash 1080p video autofocus 2.1-MP front |
8.7-MP PureView Dual LED flash 1080p video 1.3-MP front
|
| Connectivity |
4G A-GPS, IR LED Dual-band WiFi MHL Bluetooth 4.0, NFC |
4G (1800Mhz), AirPlay Dual-band WiFi A-GPS Bluetooth 4.0 |
4G NFC Dual-band WiFi HDMI Mini A-GPS Bluetooth 4.0 |
4G NFC DLNA MHL A-GPS Bluetooth 4.0 HTC Connect |
4G NFC A-GPS Bluetooth 2.0, Wireless charging |
| Battery |
2600mAh (removable) |
1440mAh | 1800mAh (removable) | 2300mAh | 2000mAh |
|
Dimensions Weight |
136.6×69.8x 7.9mm/130g |
123.8×58.6x 7.6mm/112g |
130×65.6x 9mm/136g |
137.4×68.2x 9.3mm/143g |
130.3×70.8x 10.7mm/185g |
| Colours |
Black White |
Black&Slate White&Silver |
Black White |
Black Silver |
Magenta, Cyan, White, Black |
The Galaxy S4 is a big phone, yet slightly smaller than the HTC One and considerably lighter than the Nokia Lumia 920, which thanks to its polycarbonate body is the heaviest flagship phone.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 has the fastest processor – with a whopping eight cores – although how essential they all are, remains to be seen. Fir the majority of people a dual-core phone is more than enough for day to day tasks and it will be interesting to see the difference between it and quad-core chips like the HTC One in day-to-day performance.
From our Samsung Galaxy S4 hands-on we were impressed by the screen, which with a full HD resolution of 1920×1080 is matched only by the HTC One. With a ppi (pixels per inch) rating of 441 it’s exceptonally sharp too, and the use of AMOLED technology should mean some of the boldest colours.
With such a big screen and powerful processor, the Galaxy S4 needs a good battery. At 2600mAh, it’s the biggest here and it will be interesting to see how it performs. A distinct advantage over other flagship phones (with the exception of the BlackBerry Z10) it that it is replaceable.
Connectivity options are good, matching the majority of flagship smartphones, with the exception of the iPhone, which doesn’t offer NFC or HDMI and only supports 4G on EE (and later Three’s network).
The camera on the Galaxy S3 was average, the S4 offers a boosted megapixel rating of 13-megapixels but pixels aren’t anything – as HTC is determined to prove with its UltraPixel sensor on the HTC One and it will be interesting to see how the two compare. When it comes to camera features, Samsung is the most generous manufacturer, equipping its smartphones with a generous selection of exposure effects and filters, and new additions Dual Camera and Drama Shot are certainly interesting.
Looking at the stats it’s clear the Samsung Galaxy S4 has the biggest, most powerful hardware on the market. In reality we want to see how it perform – particularly the camera and battery. We’ll bring you a detailed comparison when we get our hands on the phone next month.
Leave a Reply