The Best Phone?

With millions sold already, is the Galaxy S4 really ‘the next big thing’?

The striking 5 inch Full HD Super-AMOLED screen of the S4 is, without doubt the best smartphone screen I have ever seen. At 441 pixels-per-inch the screen is incredibly detailed. The colours are saturated and vibrant and the viewing angles are excellent. In direct sunlight at full brightness the screen is still viewable. The screen has a certain sharpness and quality about it that I really like.

On the top of the device there’s the IR blaster for controlling your TV and home entertainment system. The volume buttons reside on the left side of the phone while on the right side sits the power button. In terms of connectivity the S4 supports WiFi, NFC, Bluetooth and 3/4G.

For software, the Galaxy S4 runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean with Samsung’s own TouchWiz interface on top. Samsung’s added an array of software features including the air gesture to answer a call and swipe through photos on the gallery and air view to preview content without actually touching the screen. There is, of course, Smart Scroll which tracks your head to scroll down a web page. I used this with mixed results but in the end I turned it off to save battery. With Android 4.2 comes the ability to have widgets on the home screen. The music widget is a great example – when you are listening to music the S4 shows you a list of your songs as well as standard music controls. If you are new to Android the Galaxy S4 offers “Easy Mode” to get you used to the phone with large icons and simplified settings.

The battery life on the S4 was a top performer – I’m a heavy user and it got me through about 18 hours. With lighter use it lasted me approximately 2 days. I like that the battery is removable so it can be swapped and upgraded in the future.

The build quality of the phone is a minor improvement on the Galaxy S III – it doesn’t have the premium feel metal exterior that we’ve seen on the iPhone 5 or HTC One rather opting for a plastic build. The addition of the metal-esque band around the phone contributes to a more ridged feel overall while the reflective criss-cross pattern on the back of the device is a nice touch. The phone is comfortable to hold for long periods of time and while on phone calls.

Sound quality on calls is good. There were no reported problems from the person on the other end of the line and we could hear that person with clarity. The speaker phone is also decent and can get quite loud if you need it to.

One of the features that Samsung’s really been pushing with the launch of the S4 is Group Play. Group Play brings the ability to network with other S4 devices and listen to songs together for a surround sound style experience, share photos, play games together and share documents. It worked relatively well and the pairing process is quick and easy.

The camera is a major strong point on the S4. The photos were clear and vibrant and with 13 megapixels to play with you could make some respectable sized prints with them as well. Borrowing features and design from the Galaxy Camera, the actual camera app on the S4 is excellent to use. It makes accessing the different features quick and easy. The panorama mode has been improved and is now easier to use and the addition of a photo-bomber removal mode will be great for holiday snaps in front of famous landmarks for example. There are heaps more features to experiment with but if you just want to take photos the default camera mode works well too. The Full HD video mode is really good. The frames are detailed and motion is smooth. The audio it pulled in was rather good for a phone.

Overall, the Galaxy S4 offers a feature packed software experience, solid hardware, a great camera and excellent performance across the board. While on the pricey side of the market, the Samsung Galaxy S4 is a clear choice if you are looking for a new phone on the high-end of the market.