It hasn’t been that long since the Samsung Galaxy S4 has reached the stands, but a bunch of brave folks have already put its Gorilla Glass 3 display to strenuous work.
To give you a quick recap, Gorilla Glass 3 is made from an enhanced glass composition that utilizes the new Native Damage Resistance technology to provide “enhanced scratch resistance, reduced scratch visibility, and better retained strength once a scratch occurs.”
If you have any doubts about the Gorilla Glass 3′s ability to shield your display from common things in your pocket, the video below can sway you to think otherwise.
If you check out the video on YouTube, you’ll see some commenters claims that the owner is not hitting the screen hard enough to dent it. We’re not saying that the Gorilla Glass 3 can take anything you throw its way, but it’s relieving to know that it can take some beating if and when the situation calls for it.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is still far from the hands of many, but you can always pretend like you have it anyway – through these files that are made available for download – from wallpapers to ringtones, it’s got you covered.
While not everything in the download is beneficial to all smartphone users, it’s mostly for the developers who would port the apps to other devices – such as S-Voice or other features. I know a lot of people who would put a signature wallpaper on their device just to emulate the feel, so why not give it a try? (Wallpapers are probably available now elsewhere).
The download goes around for 1.5GB. You need to work your way around the files to unleash its full potential though – deodexing, flashing, installing and all that. We might be getting our hands on the Samsung Galaxy S4 soon for our review, so stay tuned as we’re sure it’s something worth waiting for.
Meanwhile, as people are still buzzing about the Samsung Galaxy S4, the smaller and tuned down version of the flagship phone is already being prepped up and here we are with the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini, leaking for all our eyes to see.
So, what is it? As the name implies, it looks like a minimized SGS4 with minimized specs. Leaked specs indicate that we are looking at a device with a 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display, a 1.6GHz dual-core CPU and Samsung’s TouchWiz Nature UX on Android 4.2.2.
You can see through the pictures that it really does look like its bigger brother, from sides to edges. No word on the camera and the other internals yet, as well as the release and announcement dates – so we have to keep our eyes open for that part. Locally, the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini is still fresh from release, and we’re already preparing a review to come in the following weeks, so stay tuned.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 has just been announced, and while a part of the internet was impressed, most were ranting about the company’s use of polycarbonate materials. We’d like to share the different perspectives on how we should look at Samsung’s use of plastic on their high-end phones.
Most phones nowadays are either made out of plastic, metal (aluminum) or glass. Where does polycarbonate in this? Well, polycarbonate is a type of plastic. For example, the Nokia Lumia 800 uses plastic, the HTC One X is also made of plastic while the iPhone 5 is made out of aluminum and glass. The list goes on. But, why are people complaining about Samsung’s use of plastic? And why do we feel like Samsung won’t listen?
The feel and the looks of the device are pretty subjective – but most people are labeling glossy plastics as cheap. Is there any truth to this? The Lumia phones mostly had matte finish designs, along with phones like the HTC One X. HTC’s design went as far as going aluminum this time with the HTC One, and that definitely has no gloss to it.
When Apple abandoned the design of the iPhone 3G (glossy polycarbonate) to the iPhone 4 (glass & metal), it did them a great thing. The Galaxy S3 is made out of polycarbonate, but just like now – upon announcement – I’ve seen comments, posts and all the geeks in the internet complaining about the glossy “hyperglaze” finish. The predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S2, featured less plastic in its body and the Galaxy S3 was often compared to it for not having lived up to its design standards.
So why didn’t Samsung stick with the design schemes they used on phones like the Galaxy S2 and the Galaxy Nexus? Well, we’re not entirely sure, but the reason could be something close to the Apple-Samsung lawsuit.
Another point to consider is, glossy Lumia phones exist too, although they only came in recently. This proves glossy phones can be beautiful too, depending on the execution.
Let’s not forget Samsung doesn’t do plastic on all their phones; Wave, Omnia and other lines utilized different materials. So if it’s not all about the material and it’s not all about the glossy cheap feel, then what angers mobile fans from Samsung’s use of plastic on their Galaxy phones? Why can’t Samsung just change it then?
Probably, the answer lies in brand recognition. Samsung has heavily invested in the design language they are using now for the Galaxy and it’s trying to be iconic. The design is trying to stand out, be it in a bad way or a good way, among other competitors – and from that perspective, it’s a good thing.
HTC, Nokia and Apple have all established a unique design language through time while companies like LG are still quite inconsistent. Samsung will most likely continue on this design pattern for years to come with only a little improvements along the way. The matter of whether you like the design or not is slowly turning irrelevant; what matters for Samsung is that you recognize it, and all that is Samsung brand marketing – something they might have taken from Apple’s book of tricks.
Regardless of if the tech community likes the design & construction or not, it won’t stop the Galaxy from making sales, as the Galaxy S3, while being made out of glossy polycarbonate, still sold by the millions (43 million to be more precise).
We had an early preview of the Samsung Galaxy S4 ahead of the public launch this evening but was under NDA so we couldn’t publish it ahead of the announcement. Here’s what we got from the 30-minute or so hands-on of the Galaxy S4.
It’s pretty clear the leaks were accurate about the design of the S4. The look somewhat reminds us of the Galaxy S1 or something in between the Galaxy S3 and the Note 2. The physical size of the device is almost similar to the Galaxy S3. However, because they were able to trim down the bezel on all sides, the display size of the screen was increased to 4.99 inches.
The body is a bit glossy and has some patterns below the finish. Despite being thinner (7.9mm), the device feels more solid and has a bit of heft.
We took some sample videos from the 13MP camera and got these. Not that this was under low-light conditions.
The number of sensors has increased to even include even temperature and humidity sensor. The IR blaster is already present in the Galaxy Note 10.1 and the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus and is now included in the Galaxy S4.
Here’s a quick video demo we got earlier:
The Samsung PM told us it will support up to 6 LTE bands so there’s high probability it will support both Smart and Globe when it is released in the Philippines.
Samsung heavily focused on customizing and adding more features into the Galaxy S4 like gesture functions and the native camera app.
The camera can do dual-shot front and rear camera (overlay photo in the shot) as well as dual-video recording (split-screen video recording), 3-way video calls and dual-camera video calls.
The Sound & Shot functions shoots a photo and add 9 a second audio. the Drama Shot combines multiple photos into one image while retaining the moving subject. The Cinema Photo is like a GIF maker which animates background from multiple photo while keeping the subject static; and the Razor Shot which removse moving subjects in photos (anti-photo bombing).
The Galaxy S4 comes with S-Translator which can auto translate text to voice and vice-versa (Chinese, English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese etc.)
The NFC can pair up to 8 devices to share and stream music on all of them to form a band. It can also be used for group playing (Asphalt 7, GunBros 2) via direct WiFi connection.
Air View is a “Hover with Finger” to preview email, calendar and FlipBoard (this was copied from the hover on the Note 2 but this time using the fingers instead of the stylus).
Air Gesture: Air Browse, Air Jump, Air Call Accept (wave of the hand). While Smart Pause is basically eye tracking by pausing video when you look away and resuming when you look back. Smart Scroll works when you tilt the device to scroll content on a page.
There’s also a Samsung Optical Reader to digitize calling cards and Save to Contacts (witj S-Translator enabled).
Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S3. The Galaxy S4 is less curvy.
There are also a number of accessories for the handset S Band, Body Scale, Heart Rate Monitor – syncs to S4 via Bluetooth. S View Cover – small viewing window that gives specialized view – time, battery, SMS, playlist, caller ID, accept or reject calls.
