Samsung launches Galaxy S IV on March 14th

Hilbert Hagedoorn

The Galaxy S IV model will heat up competition in the crucial U.S. mobile phone market, where Apple surpassed Samsung Electronics as the top mobile phone seller for the first time in the fourth quarte...

Samsung launches Galaxy S IV on March 14th

SLI-756 · 02-25-2013, 08:15 | posts: 3,109 | Location: Sunny Scotland

I plan to upgrade to this, i had my S2 more than 6 months now on a 18 month contract so perhaps in a couple months time or so. 2GB of RAM that's excellent.

Speed Weed · 02-25-2013, 08:42 | posts: 633 | Location: Somewhere in Scotland

But the SGS3 has a removable battery too!
That's why I was able to replace the original battery with a heavy-duty one, and fit a replacement back in order to allow for a larger battery.

Mr.Bigtime · 02-25-2013, 08:50 | posts: 16,697 | Location: Turkey

as i dont like Samsung Plastic body design, i still keep my eyes on S4. Hope to see a really nice design with quality body material please.

nick0323 · 02-25-2013, 09:27 | posts: 393 | Location: Old England

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.Bigtime

as i dont like Samsung Plastic body design, i still keep my eyes on S4. Hope to see a really nice design with quality body material please.

The new HTC One might be in your interest since the body is entirely made out of aluminium and is the first phone to be ever constructed in such a way.

What's the S4 made out of?

Mr.Bigtime · 02-25-2013, 10:05 | posts: 16,697 | Location: Turkey

Quote:

Originally Posted by nick0323

The new HTC One might be in your interest since the body is entirely made out of aluminium and is the first phone to be ever constructed in such a way.

What's the S4 made out of?

No idea. i think there is no information about it.

and yes iam also keeping an eye on HTC ONE. it is like a big iphone 5 design. wich is nice. but too big? dont know without holding it myself.

scatman839 · 02-25-2013, 13:54 | posts: 8,736 | Location: Dundee, Scotland

No exynos or amoled?

:/

Denial · 02-25-2013, 14:06 | posts: 6,348 | Location: Above Earth in a Big Rocket Ship

Quote:

Originally Posted by scatman839

No exynos or amoled?

:/

Exynos was too hot and honestly until they fix AMOLED's power problem with white I'd rather have LCD -- especially with the latest holo white craze that apps seem to be heading.

Chillin · 02-25-2013, 14:09 | posts: 5,875 | Location: Chilling

Quote:

Originally Posted by Denial

Exynos was too hot and honestly until they fix AMOLED's power problem with white I'd rather have LCD -- especially with the latest holo white craze that apps seem to be heading.

Depends, they could always go the Tegra 4i route and downclock the A15 cores to manage the thermal envelope.

That being said, I'm happy that my S4 Pro is not going to be obsolete this generation as much as I thought with everyone going the 600 route.

nicktrance · 02-25-2013, 14:26 | posts: 5 | Location: Malta

Seems like the HTC One vw S4 battle will be a much closer one this year, I'm just hoping Samsung doesn't pull and iPhone 4S and keep the design almost unchanged as some (probably fake) leaks suggest.

IPlayNaked · 02-25-2013, 15:15 | posts: 6,559

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chillin

Depends, they could always go the Tegra 4i route and downclock the A15 cores to manage the thermal envelope.

That being said, I'm happy that my S4 Pro is not going to be obsolete this generation as much as I thought with everyone going the 600 route.

Tegra 4i is not an A15. Tegra 4i is A9r4. The A15s in the Tegra 4 are too big for a smartphone, its a tablet processor.

Chillin · 02-25-2013, 15:17 | posts: 5,875 | Location: Chilling

Quote:

Originally Posted by IPlayNaked

Tegra 4i is not an A15. Tegra 4i is A9r4. The A15s in the Tegra 4 are too big for a smartphone, its a tablet processor.

Oops, you're right.

I was thinking of the comments of downclocking Exynos based on the Tegra 4's fifth downclocked A15 core.

Penal Stingray · 02-25-2013, 15:25 | posts: 961 | Location: JerZe

so is the snapdragon faster than the exynos octa core?

Chillin · 02-25-2013, 15:34 | posts: 5,875 | Location: Chilling

Quote:

Originally Posted by Penal Stingray

so is the snapdragon faster than the exynos octa core?

Around the same. The Krait core in the S4 is 3.3 DMIPS/MHz, the A15 is 3.5 DMIPS/MHz and I have no idea what the Krait 300 (Snapdragon 600) is going to be, but figure around the same or faster then an A15 in the off guess based on the improvements listed (20%-30% improvements).

The Adreno (Radeon respelled) 330 is going to be the interesting part for the Snapdragon 800, rumors are floating around of over a 50% increase in performance and 2x increase in compute performance.

Mannerheim · 02-25-2013, 15:39 | posts: 4,480 | Location: Finland / Helsinki

Quote:

Originally Posted by SLI-756

I plan to upgrade to this, i had my S2 more than 6 months now on a 18 month contract so perhaps in a couple months time or so. 2GB of RAM that's excellent.

I have had my S1 plus for a year and gonna keep this way next 3-4y.
Updating phone all the time is just "silly" stupid "silly"

Chillin · *Last edited by Chillin; 02-25-2013 at 15:42.*

Anyways, with all these Android phones, I just wish Google would force all their OEM partners and carriers to follow an update schedule so we can all be on the same page.

It's ridiculous that 83%+ (official statistic) of IOS phones are running the latest version; while on Android's side only 1.4% of devices are running 4.2 and only a mere 13.6% of devices are running 4.1., yet over 45.6% of Android devices are still running the outdated 2.3 Gingerbread.

It's this fragmentation that makes being on Android a horrible headache. Google really needs to enforce an update regime similar to Apple and Microsoft.

Just look at this mess:

Mannerheim · *Last edited by Mannerheim; 02-25-2013 at 15:44.*

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chillin

Anyways, with all these Android phones, I just wish Google would force all their OEM partners and carriers to follow an update schedule so we can all be on the same page.

It's ridiculous that 83%+ (official statistic) of IOS phones are running the latest version; while on Android's side only 1.4% of devices are running 4.2 and only a mere 13.6% of devices are running 4.1., yet over 45.6% of Android devices are still running the outdated 2.3 Gingerbread.

It's this fragmentation that makes being on Android a horrible headache. Google really needs to enforce an update regime similar to Apple and Microsoft.

Updating OS has been made damn hard.. Unless buying a phone once a year.
I woud love to update my "****ty" 2.something to 4.something. But im an idiot and i cant. =)

Chillin · 02-25-2013, 15:46 | posts: 5,875 | Location: Chilling

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mannerheim

Updating OS has been made damn hard.. Unless buying a phone once 1 year.
I woud love to update my "****ty" 2.something to 4.something. But im an idiot and i cant. =)

But it shouldn't be.

Apple and Microsoft both manage to accomplish this; hell, even Google's own "Nexus" devices manage to do this.

It's the only reason I bought a Nexus 4; if I had to put up with the update and "sense" and other layers nonsense from carriers, I would just go with Apple and be done with it. I shouldn't have to root my device and void my warranty just to be updated with the latest security and bug patches.

What's also bad is that Google doesn't give a baseline for each generation for devs to target as minimum ground, Microsoft and Apple both do this. I remember reading an interview with a small developer, he said that he has received bug reports from 2,300 unique devices, how the hell are you supposed to deal with something like that?

Google is going to need to address this sooner or later, I personally hope it's sooner with Key Lime Pie (Android 5.0) this May.

Chillin · 02-25-2013, 15:54 | posts: 5,875 | Location: Chilling

And just for comparisons sake, just look at iOS fragmentation compared to Android fragmentation:

iOS:

Android:

NeoElNino · 02-25-2013, 17:21 | posts: 926 | Location: Canada

I am fine with my brand new BlackBerry Z10

awesome OS

freeZ · 02-25-2013, 17:38 | posts: 658

Quote:

Originally Posted by nick0323

The new HTC One might be in your interest since the body is entirely made out of aluminium and is the first phone to be ever constructed in such a way.

What's the S4 made out of?

That's what I'm going to hold out for. My S2 broke on me about a month ago and I've been using a BlackBerry Bold for what feels like centuries now (it's like going 18 steps back)... I'm not very happy with Samsung's build quality (owned 3 Samsung LCDs, 2 of their phones, and a laptop)... Safe to say I'm all plasticked out... Looking forward to holding something that doesn't feel like it was made for a toddler again and actually has some weight/quality to it.

I just hope they use a better glass than the One X. My brother's shattered in his pocket somehow

freeZ · 02-25-2013, 17:46 | posts: 658

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chillin

And just for comparisons sake, just look at iOS fragmentation compared to Android fragmentation:

iOS:

Android:

Most of that could be attributed to people simply not having the knowledge to update or actually caring to... whereas with Android, most are STUCK on their current OSs without even getting one major revision. At least Apple phones are guaranteed to be updated for two years...

I'm not an Apple fan by any means (well other than being able to update and having phones built with some quality since 90% of Android phones are plastic pieces of $hit build quality wise), but it'd be nice if Google stepped in and did something about their fragmentation problem (forcing manufacturers to bring their "skins" to the Android store for one).

Loophole35 · 02-25-2013, 17:56 | posts: 1,623 | Location: FLA,USA

I want a little more info on the display. If its ful RGB and possibly ips I may jump ship to the S4 when my upgrade is available.

IPlayNaked · 02-25-2013, 18:16 | posts: 6,559

Comparing Microsoft and Apple to Google as far as fragmentation goes is pretty pointless. Both of the former control (or at least have a very, very large say in) the hardware and software on their phones/products.

Android is open source. There are upsides and downsides to this. One of the downs is that manufacturers who modify Android have to maintain updates on their own. The UP is that it allows manufacturers to run Android, but differentiate themselves from other manufacturers.

nick0323 · 02-25-2013, 18:38 | posts: 393 | Location: Old England

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.Bigtime

No idea. i think there is no information about it.

and yes iam also keeping an eye on HTC ONE. it is like a big iphone 5 design. wich is nice. but too big? dont know without holding it myself.

It is a little too big IMO. I have the HTC Titan where the outer body shell is made out of aluminium, it's a nice touch but too big at 4.7 as much as I loved it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by albion

That's what I'm going to hold out for. My S2 broke on me about a month ago and I've been using a BlackBerry Bold for what feels like centuries now (it's like going 18 steps back)... I'm not very happy with Samsung's build quality (owned 3 Samsung LCDs, 2 of their phones, and a laptop)... Safe to say I'm all plasticked out... Looking forward to holding something that doesn't feel like it was made for a toddler again and actually has some weight/quality to it.

I just hope they use a better glass than the One X. My brother's shattered in his pocket somehow

I quite like the glass on my HTC 8X, it curves nicely around the edges. I find the screen to be the perfect size compared to 3.7, 4.0 and 4.7inch screens and the colour quality of the LCD is seriously good. The body shell is polycarbonate, have you tried holding one of those types of body shells?