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Samsung Announces New Flagship Galaxy S 4 Competitor to Apple's iPhone

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macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,506
30,783



Samsung tonight announced its flagship iPhone competitor, the Galaxy S 4, at an event at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The new smartphone is set to launch in April on all four major U.S. carriers.

The new phone gets a slight screen size increase to 5" from 4.8", with a 1080p display at 441 pixels per inch (compared to iPhone 5's 326 ppi) that Samsung is calling "Full HD Super AMOLED." The phone also houses 2 GB RAM, a 2600 mAh battery, a micro SD card slot for expanded storage (in addition to the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB variations) and a rear 13-megapixel camera. There is also a front-facing camera that can record 720p video.

galaxys4.jpg
Image via The VergeSamsung has also added a host of software features, including a navigation app called S Voice Drive that works similar to how Siri and Apple Maps do. Other new software features include a translation app, much like Google Translate, "Air Gestures", and new camera modes. The "Air Gestures" allow a user to flick through photos or preview photos without actually touching the phone.

New camera modes include Cinema Mode, which creates still images with moving backgrounds, Drama Burst, which creates animated GIFs, and Sound and Shot mode, which marries audio to a still photo.

Gizmodo was one of several outlets that received hands-on time with the Galaxy S 4 before Samsung's event, and noted the prevailing sentiment that the device feels like more of the same as an evolution of the Galaxy S III rather than a major leap forward.
There has been a ton of hype and build-up to this device, and ultimately, it left us feeling cold. The S IV feels uninspired. There are small spec bumps from the previous generation and there's a ton of software which will largely sit unused. There's just no wow-factor here.
Click to expand...
Samsung did not announce a price for the Galaxy S 4.

Update: Samsung announced at its media event that the Galaxy S 4 will ship with Android 4.2.2, the latest version of the operating system software. Apple's Phil Schiller had slammed Android and Samsung in a Reuters interview earlier this week, in part by suggesting that the Galaxy S 4 would ship with an outdated version of Android.
Schiller said the fragmentation, or the number of versions of the Android operating system out in the marketplace, is a problem.

"And that extends to the news we are hearing this week that the Samsung Galaxy S 4 is being rumored to ship with an OS that is nearly a year old," he said. "Customers will have to wait to get an update."
Click to expand...

Article Link: Samsung Announces New Flagship Galaxy S 4 Competitor to Apple's iPhone
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/03/14/samsung-announces-new-flagship-galaxy-s-4-competitor-to-apples-iphone/
H

hayesk

macrumors 65816
May 20, 2003
1,459
101
Screen is specs for specs' sale.
Other interesting features are available on iOS already through third party apps and accessories.

Home server looks interesting thought. Apple should have a home cloud server.
 
nepalisherpa

nepalisherpa

macrumors 68020
Aug 15, 2011
2,258
1,330
USA
Build-quality wise, I am not interested at all. If I were to switch platform right now, I would go with an HTC One.
 
Oohara

Oohara

macrumors 68040
Jun 28, 2012
3,050
2,423
Sexy. The visual design changes are small, but make a significant difference nonetheless. I wouldn't touch the S3, but this one I would buy. If I wasn't already drooling for the Note 3...
 
V

viperGTS

macrumors 68000
Nov 15, 2010
1,560
941
Apple is going to have to really innovate with the next iPhone to compete with these impressive Android devices.
 
D

damir00

macrumors 6502a
Oct 30, 2011
744
7
There's nowhere really left to go with phones.

The revolution is over.

We're at the "supply chain management" stage of the game until they are superseded by an entirely different form factor.
 
D

Doc750

macrumors 6502a
Aug 11, 2010
803
4
Apple post Steve is Apple pre-Steve-come-back ....

It's all downhill from here on out baby (at least in terms of phones, macs are still awesome).
 
Foxer

Foxer

macrumors 65816
Feb 22, 2003
1,274
30
Washington, DC
viperGTS said:
Apple is going to have to really innovate with the next iPhone to compete with these impressive Android devices.
Click to expand...

Did you take a class on writing blurbs for book jackets?

Maybe I'm ignorant, but I don't know what great features we're waiting for on phones. But then, I'm an old coot who didn't understand why I needed a camera on my phone.
 
C

cole01

macrumors 6502
Dec 29, 2008
304
0
I was kind of enjoying not having any news about the GS4 on the homepage while it lasted...sigh. I understand this is a top iPhone competitor but front page news....eh.

P.S. I watched some of the live stream and it was just....odd. Not a fan of the presentation or device at all.
 
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firestarter

firestarter

macrumors 603
Dec 31, 2002
5,506
227
Green and pleasant land
There has been a ton of hype and build-up to this device, and ultimately, it left us feeling cold... There are small spec bumps from the previous generation and there's a ton of software which will largely sit unused. There's just no wow-factor here.
Click to expand...

Sounds like the iPhone 5 launch :confused:
 
J

jpmcnown

macrumors member
Aug 4, 2011
35
0
This should have been called the Samsung Galaxy S3s

Being an avid Samsung fan, this certainly was less than what I expected. I was seriously put off by the complete absence of mentioning a processor, until I realized WHY; because this was an international audience watching. The international version appears to include an 8 core 1.6GHz processor, while here in the US we get a 1.9GHz quadcore. Seriously WTF!?
 
M

Mackan

macrumors 65816
Sep 16, 2007
1,421
91
Now waiting for the incremental iPhone 5S in 6 months, still featuring a dual core CPU when the rest of the world has movied on to quad core.
 
N

Navdakilla

macrumors 65816
Feb 3, 2011
1,100
13
Canada
Seems like a pretty cool device.. Although battery life with all those features will be horrible.

My s3 that I have (before getting the 5) was brutal with battery when I had all the stuff turned on. S-beam nfc etc. 5 hours is all I got
 
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