Detailed testing of screen, performance, battery life
At one time, even when the dates for the start of sales of the Samsung Galaxy S4 were not finally determined, we used our chance to spend a very short time with this novelty expected by many, in order to then reduce all the data received into a kind of mini-review, as they say, "first glance" . In it, we used only those results that we could get in the short time allotted to us to get acquainted with the apparatus. Of course, they were not complete - we physically could not carry out those tests and tests that require a lot of time and which must be carried out in laboratory conditions.
But today, when the day and hour of the start of sales of the Samsung Galaxy S4 is already predetermined, we decided to return to this issue. Before such a serious purchase, you need to weigh the pros and cons, and we, in turn, have the opportunity to provide users with the necessary additional information about the new device that was not included in the first part of our review.
Thus, this review will not contain descriptions appearance devices and ease of use with controls - you can read about this in the first part of the description of our acquaintance with the Samsung Galaxy S4.
Here we will tell, first of all, about the data obtained by us after detailed testing of the screen of the new smartphone using measuring instruments in our laboratory. We will also provide you with the results of all our performance tests of the hardware stuffing of the smartphone, as well as the duration of its battery life. And finally, we will devote some more time to the Samsung Galaxy S4 camera and its modes of operation. Test photos obtained in the process of studying the novelty will be commented on by our specialist Anton Solovyov.
But first, let's give our traditional comparison table, which since the first acquaintance with the Samsung Galaxy S4 has managed to replenish and now already contains information about almost all the main top new products of the new season that we have tested. All the most popular flagship smartphones are summarized in a single table for easy selection, and those that are not included here (for example, LG Optimus G Pro) will replenish it very soon. Although, we must note with regret, according to the Russian office of LG, this particular device will not be officially supplied to our market.
Samsung Galaxy S4 | HTC One | Sony Xperia Z | Oppo Find 5 | Google Nexus 4 | LG Optimus G | |
Screen | 4.99″ SuperAMOLED | 4.7″ S-LCD3 (IPS) | 5″, IPS? | 5" IPS | 4.7" IPS Plus | 4.7" IPS Plus |
Permission | 1920×1080, 441ppi | 1920×1080, 469ppi | 1920×1080, 440ppi | 1920×1080, 440ppi | 1280×768, 317 ppi | 1280×768, 317 ppi |
SoC | Exynos 5410 @1.8GHz (8 cores) | Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 @1.7GHz (4 cores, ARMv7 Krait) | Qualcomm APQ8064 @1.5GHz (4 cores, ARMv7 Krait) | Qualcomm APQ8064 @1.5GHz (4 cores, ARMv7 Krait) | Qualcomm APQ8064 @1.5GHz (4 cores, ARMv7 Krait) | |
RAM | 2 GB | 2 GB | 2 GB | 2 GB | 2 GB | 2 GB |
Flash memory | 16/32/64 GB | 32/64 GB | 16 GB | 16/32 GB | 8/16 GB | 32 GB |
Memory card support | microSD | No | microSD | No | No | No |
Operating system | Google Android 4.2 | Google Android 4.1 | Google Android 4.1 | Google Android 4.1 | Google Android 4.2 | Google Android 4.1 |
SIM format* | Micro SIM | Micro SIM | Micro SIM | Micro SIM | Micro SIM | Micro SIM |
Battery | removable, 2600 mAh | non-removable, 2300 mAh | non-removable, 2330 mAh | non-removable, 2500 mAh | non-removable, 2100 mAh | non-removable, 2100 mAh |
cameras | rear (4 MP; video - 1080p), front (2 MP) | rear (13 MP; video - 1080p), front (2 MP) | rear (13 MP; video - 1080p), front (1.9 MP) | rear (8 MP; video - 1080p), front (1.3 MP) | rear (13 MP; video - 1080p), front (1.3 MP) | |
Dimensions | 137×70×7.9mm, 130g | 137×68×9.3mm, 143g | 139×71×7.9mm, 146g | 142×69×8.9mm, 165g | 134×69×9.1mm, 139g | 132×69×8.5mm, 145g |
* The most common SIM card formats are described in a separate article.
Key Features of Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-I9500)
- SoC Samsung Exynos 5 Octa, 8 cores, combined according to the ARM big.LITTLE principle: 4 high-performance ARM Cortex-A15 at 1.8 GHz and 4 energy-efficient ARM Cortex-A7 at 1.2 GHz
- GPU PowerVR SGX544MP3
- operating room android system 4.2.2 Jelly beans
- SuperAMOLED display with Pentile, 4.99″, 1920x1080
- Random access memory (RAM) 2 GB, inner memory 16-64 GB
- microSD card slot up to 64 GB
- Communication GSM GPRS/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
- Communication 3G UMTS HSPA+ 850, 900, 2100 MHz
- 4G (LTE Cat 3 100/50 Mbps) - Only available on GT-I9505 based on Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 SoC
- HSPA+ 42 Mbps
- Bluetooth 4.0, NFC
- Support MHL 2.0, OTG
- WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
- GPS/Glonass
- Cameras 13 MP and 2 MP (front)
- Accelerometer, photometer, digital compass, proximity sensors, gyroscope, barometer, thermometer, hygrometer and IR sensor
- Can be used with gloves
- Li-ion battery 2600 mAh
- Dimensions 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9 mm
- Weight 130 g
Screen
The Samsung Galaxy S4 has a very high quality touchscreen display, made using Super AMOLED technology. In numbers, the physical parameters of the screen of the novelty are as follows: diagonal - 126 mm (4.99 inches), resolution - Full HD 1080p (1920 × 1080 pixels), PPI pixel density is 441 dpi, although this figure looks doubtful with Pentile . Yes, the Pentile technology hasn't gone anywhere, although the screen of the Samsung Galaxy S4 is significantly different from its predecessors. The display has both manual and automatic brightness adjustment, which is based on the operation of the light sensor. There is also a proximity sensor that blocks the screen when you bring the smartphone to your ear. Multi-touch technology allows you to process up to ten touches simultaneously, and the new screen of the Samsung Galaxy S4 allows you to control yourself while wearing gloves.
A detailed examination of the display using measuring instruments was carried out by the editor of the "Monitors" and "Projectors and TV" sections Alexey Kudryavtsev. Here is his expert opinion Samsung screen Galaxy S4.
The screen is covered with a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface and, judging by the reflection of bright light sources in it, it has a very effective anti-glare filter. There is a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating on the outer surface of the screen, so fingerprints are removed much easier and appear at a slower rate than in the case of ordinary glass.
With manual brightness control, its maximum value was about 230 cd/m², the minimum was 10 cd/m². Despite not the highest brightness value, even in bright daylight, the smartphone can be used, as it helps out less reflection of OLED screens from dark areas compared to a typical LCD screen. You also need to take into account the fact that in this case the smaller the white area on the screen, the lighter it is, that is, the actual maximum brightness of the white areas will almost always be higher than the specified value. The low brightness mode allows you to use your smartphone without any problems even in total darkness. Automatic brightness control works according to the light sensor (it is located to the left of the front speaker). You can make adjustments to the operation of this function by moving the adjustment slider from -5 to +5 units. Next, for three conditions, we present the screen brightness values for three values of this setting — for −5, 0, and +5. In complete darkness in automatic mode, the brightness is reduced to 15, 20 and 30 cd/m², respectively, in an artificially lit office, the brightness is set to 48, 94 and 113 cd/m², in a brightly lit environment (corresponding to daytime outdoor lighting, but without direct sunlight) - rises to 280 cd/m² for all three correction values. In principle, the result of this function is as expected. When the brightness is lowered, modulation appears at a frequency of 240 Hz. The figure below shows the brightness versus time for three brightness settings:
It can be seen that at maximum brightness there is virtually no modulation, at minimum brightness the modulation amplitude is low, therefore, in these extreme cases, backlight flicker cannot be seen. For half brightness, the modulation has a large amplitude, so at medium brightness values, flicker can be seen - hardly just looking at the screen, but if you quickly wave, for example, a pencil in front of a white field on the screen, then flicker can be determined by a repeating pencil trace.
This smartphone uses a Super AMOLED matrix - an active matrix on organic light emitting diodes. A full color image is created using subpixels of three colors - red (R), green (G) and blue (B), but there are twice as many green subpixels, which can be referred to as RGBG. This is confirmed by a fragment of a microphoto:
In this square, 9 green subpixels, 4.5 blue and 4.5 red subpixels can be counted. For such matrices, Samsung introduced the name PenTile RGBG. However, the location and shape of the subpixels in this variant differ from the PenTile RGBG variants implemented in the screens of the Galaxy S3, ATIV S, Motorola XT925, etc.:
In the Galaxy S4 variant, green subpixels no longer form horizontal lines, as a result, horizontal and vertical worlds on the S4 screen are displayed in the same way, and not as in the case of, for example, Samsung ATIV S.
Note that the luminance is mainly determined by the green component, so the luminance sharpness actually corresponds to the density of the green subpixels. The fact that the color definition is lower (since the density of red and blue subpixels is lower) does not actually affect the quality of the image, since the color definition of human vision is also lower than the luminance definition. However, this does not mean that the image on such a screen looks exactly the same as on a screen with the same resolution, but with the same number of subpixels of different colors. Let's compare, for example, how the main page of our website is displayed on the Galaxy S4 screen and on the Oppo Find 5 LCD screen. Both screens are about the same size and resolution (if you count the green sub-pixels), but in the case of the Oppo Find 5, there are as many red and blue sub-pixels as there are green ones. Below are fragments of screen shots obtained when displaying the specified page in the same (original) scale.
The readability of small text on the Galaxy S4 screen is even better than on the Oppo Find 5 screen. However, two things must be taken into account: firstly, this text is so small that its readability is already very low simply because of the physical dimensions (letter height "o" is equal to 7 pixels, or approximately 0.4 mm); secondly, the output quality of small text in Android (and in the browser in particular) is very low in itself, but this PenTile option slightly blurs the lines that fall on the rows of pixels, and slightly sharpens the lines that do not fall on the rows of pixels, due to making very small text on the Galaxy S4 screen look smoother. And two more photos taken at a higher magnification of the above fragments:
The screen of the Samsung Galaxy S4 has very good viewing angles: the white color noticeably changes its hue only when deviated at large angles, and the black color simply remains black at any angle - it is so black that the contrast parameter is simply inapplicable in this case. When viewed perpendicularly, the uniformity of the white field is very good. Switching the state of the matrix elements is actually performed instantly, so the response time can be equated to 0. The gamma curve constructed from 32 points did not reveal a significant blockage either in the highlights or in the shadows, and the exponent of the approximating power function is from 2.28 to 2.32 in depending on the selected profile, which is slightly higher than the standard value of 2.2 (in the captions, the number in brackets is an indicator of the approximating power function):
In the case of a profile Dynamic the gamma curve has a slightly S-shaped character; for the three remaining profiles, it practically does not deviate from the power dependence. The color correction profile is selected on a separate page in the screen settings section.
There are only four profiles, plus a special "Optimize display" mode, in which manual profile selection is blocked, and the phone, apparently, selects a profile by itself, analyzing the current image. Note that the brightness of image fragments dynamically changes in accordance with the nature of the displayed image - it decreases for light images as a whole and increases for dark ones. When choosing a profile Dynamic this effect is expressed a little more, and when you turn on the mode Auto config. screen brightness the dependence of brightness on the lightness of the image becomes even stronger. Therefore, the dependences of brightness on hue obtained by us (gamma curves) may not correspond to the gamma curves of a static image, since the measurements were carried out with sequential grayscale output on the entire screen.
Color gamut in case of profiles Dynamic and Standard very wide:
When choosing a profile Adobe RGB the coverage is slightly compressed in the blue and yellow areas (here the black line is the coverage of the Adobe RGB space, the white line is the measured coverage):
When choosing a profile Movie coverage is compressed even more, but still remains wider than sRGB:
Without correction, the spectra of the components are very well separated:
In the case of a profile Movie with the maximum correction, the color components already mix a little with each other:
Note that on screens with a wide color gamut, the colors of normal images optimized for sRGB devices appear unnaturally saturated. However, a visual assessment showed that when choosing a profile Movie saturation is noticeably reduced, and colors become close to natural. Without correction, in profiles Dynamic and Standard, the colors are unnatural: for example, the faces of white people have a pronounced carrot tint. The balance of shades on the gray scale is not ideal, but, in general, acceptable. The color temperature is above 6500 K, but in the gray scale area from white to dark gray, this parameter does not change much. The deviation from the blackbody spectrum (delta E), if it exceeds 10 units, is not much, which is considered a good indicator for a consumer device, while the delta E variation is not very large (dark areas of the gray scale can be ignored, since there is a balance of colors does not matter much, and the measurement error of color characteristics at low brightness is large):
Therefore, according to the visual assessment, there are no special claims to the transfer of shades of gray.
In general, in terms of consumer characteristics, the screen of this smartphone has every right to take first place in the competition with the screens of other top-end smartphones of the same class, at least at the time of writing this article.
Camera
Photo evaluation and quality conclusions were made by Anton Solovyov.
Samsung Galaxy S4 is equipped, like most modern smartphones, with two digital camera modules. The main rear camera module has a 13-megapixel resolution. The Samsung Galaxy S4 uses Sony's Exmor R sensor based on BSI back-illumination technology. The camera shoots at a maximum resolution of 13 megapixels, while the pictures are obtained in size 4128 × 3096 with an aspect ratio of 4:3. You can manually switch the camera to shooting mode with a wide aspect ratio of 16:9 - then the pictures will be taken at a size of 4128 × 2322 (10 MP). You can evaluate the quality with which the Samsung Galaxy S4 camera shoots by clicking on the thumbnails below.
Conclusion on the photographic capabilities of the Samsung Galaxy S4 camera. Of the advantages of the camera, one can note a very good sharpness in most shots. I would like to hope that rather large areas of blur at the edges are caused by not very good lens calibration, and not by the design features of the camera, because in general the lens is made decently and works out 10 megapixels of the matrix completely. Not so often on smartphones there is such a successful combination of matrix and optics. One can not but rejoice at the almost complete absence of chromatic aberrations and sharpening contours. In any case, they are hardly noticeable. The camera is good, but very conservative in choosing the exposure, and the color reproduction of the camera is also conservative. It seemed that due to aperture, the camera would lose depth of field, however, as can be seen from the macro shots, the depth of field is sufficient, which, however, is bad for art photography, but very good for documentary photography. In general, we can conclude that Samsung is quite successful camera, more than suitable for everyday documentary shooting. Considering that this quality of the camera is in demand by most smartphone users, it can be noted that Samsung is moving in the right direction.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 camera can shoot video in Full HD resolution (1080p). Autofocus is fixed quickly enough, when shooting there are no slowdowns and sticking. Also in the settings there are shooting modes with effects of slow and fast motion. Below are test videos shot in various modes. The video is saved in MP4 (video is MPEG-4 AVC ( [email protected]), sound - AAC LC, 128 Kbps, 48 kHz, 2 channels).
- Movie #1 (27.4 MB, 1920x1080)
- Movie #2 (11.4 MB, 800×450, slow motion)
- Movie #3 (15.4 MB, 1920×1080, fast motion)
There are a lot of camera control settings, everything in the menu is arranged almost the same as in previous top Samsung smartphones. It is possible to bind geotags to the image, add graphic effects, enable smile detection, panoramic shooting, and, of course, software enhancement using HDR (High Dynamic Range) technology can be used here. There is image stabilization, the ability to display the grid on the screen.
Performance
The hardware platform of the Samsung Galaxy S4 is based on a powerful SoC, which includes a quad-core processor with ARM Cortex-A15 cores running at 1.8 GHz, and another quad-core processor with ARM Cortex-A7 cores running at low frequencies 1.2 GHz. Such a hybrid technology for combining productive and economical cores in one chip was created by ARM, this concept is called big.LITTLE, and its implementation is licensed in the same way third party manufacturers processors themselves, as well as the ARM cores themselves. A quite obvious use case is assumed: under a serious load, the system uses high-performance ARM Cortex-A15 cores at a high frequency, and when performing tasks that do not require significant computing power, the top-end cores fall asleep, and they are replaced by energy-efficient ARM Cortex-A7. Let's add that similar (in principle, not in implementation) hybrid technologies are also used in NVIDIA SoCs.
The Exynos 5410 Octa processor cores are supported in graphics processing by the PowerVR SGX 544MP3 graphics core. However, there is another modification of the smartphone, equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor operating at a frequency of 1.9 GHz, where Adreno 320 is used as a graphics coprocessor. In our case, the device was presented in an eight-core configuration - this is the so-called. "international version".
Now we already have the opportunity to compare the performance of the Samsung Galaxy S4 with all the other top flagship novelties of this season. Most of them, by the way, are built on the previous top Snapdragon S4 Pro platform. As expected, the Samsung Galaxy S4 was at the top of the list of devices we tested earlier, and only HTC One competed with it, demonstrating similar performance results. At the same time, smartphones such as Google Nexus 4, LG Optimus G, HTC One X+ and Samsung Galaxy Note II remained in this race behind the leader. Here are the results obtained by us using popular tests, which we have collected for convenience in tables, adding the results of other devices we have previously tested.
Below are the results Samsung testing Galaxy S4 in the new version of GLBenchmark - 2.7.0, where a new T-Rex HD scene of increased complexity has been added. As we remember, even such a powerful system as the Oppo Find 5 produced only 13 fps in this test. The new Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 platform in the HTC One did a better job on this tough test, but just barely at 15 fps. The Samsung Galaxy S4, for some reason, couldn't play these scenes from the new test at all, so the final results weren't complete, which was a little disappointing.
Since the Samsung Galaxy S4 is one of the first smartphones to support 802.11ac, we separately tested the new 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard. Testing was carried out with the ASUS RT-AC66U router - one of two models with support for the 802.11ac standard, present on the local market. Recall that this a new version The standard operates only in the 5 GHz band and provides more than double the speed compared to 802.11n. In the case of smartphones, most often only one antenna is used, so connection speeds in this case can be a maximum of 150 Mbps for 802.11n and 433 Mbps for 802.11ac. Real performance is usually about half that. In addition, many mobile devices do not even support dual channel operation, resulting in a 72 Mbps limit for 802.11n.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 has a single antenna, resulting in a maximum connection speed of 433 Mbps. When operating in the 2.4 GHz band with one channel, this model shows a real performance of about 50 Mbps, which can be considered an excellent result. True, we note that the tests were carried out in a relatively empty air. Switching to 5 GHz in 802.11n mode allows you to more than double the speed of information exchange with a smartphone - we managed to get 133 Mbps for downloading data to a smartphone and 117 Mbps for sending data from a smartphone to a router. Of course, such high rates allow us to talk not only about comfortable viewing of high-definition video, but also about fast synchronization and downloading files to the device. At the same time, we failed to connect in the "802.11ac only" mode. The reason, most likely, is the use of a device sample for the test. In any case, if you plan to actively use this model, we highly recommend purchasing a modern dual-band router.
Video playback and connection to an external display
To test the "omnivorous" when playing video (including support for various codecs, containers and special features, such as subtitles), we used the most common formats, which make up the bulk of the content available on the Web. Note that for mobile devices it is important to have support for hardware video decoding at the chip level, since it is most often impossible to process modern versions using processor cores alone. Also, do not expect everything from a mobile device to decode everything, since the leadership in flexibility belongs to the PC, and no one is going to challenge it.
Format | container, video, sound | MX Video Player | Regular video player |
DVDRip | AVI, XviD 720×400 2200 Kbps, MP3+AC3 | plays normally | plays normally |
Web-DL SD | AVI, XviD 720×400 1400 Kbps, MP3+AC3 | plays normally | plays normally |
Web-DL HD | MKV, H.264 1280x720 3000Kbps, AC3 | plays normally | plays normally |
BDRip 720p | MKV, H.264 1280x720 4000Kbps, AC3 | plays normally | plays normally |
BDRip 1080p | MKV, H.264 1920x1080 8000Kbps, AC3 | plays normally | plays normally |
Additionally, the MHL interface was tested. To test it, we used the LG IPS237L monitor, which supports direct MHL connection using a passive Micro-USB to HDMI adapter cable. Samsung, for some reasons known only to it, has implemented its own version of this interface in its devices supposedly supporting MHL. As a result, to connect an external device via MHL, you need to use special adapters or connect standard MHL adapters through simple passive adapters. Luckily, we found such an adapter.
As a result, we connected the LG IPS237L monitor and MHL adapter through this adapter. When using the LG IPS237L monitor, MHL output was performed at a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels at 30 fps. When the smartphone is in landscape orientation, the image on the monitor screen is displayed in landscape orientation, while the image on the monitor fits into the screen boundaries and exactly matches the image on the smartphone screen. When the smartphone is in portrait orientation, the image on the monitor screen is also displayed in portrait orientation, while the image on the monitor is inscribed in the screen boundaries in height, and black fields are displayed on the right and left. In this case, the actual resolution on the monitor screen is, of course, lower than the resolution on the smartphone screen.
The sound is output via MHL (in this case, the sounds were heard through the headphones connected to the monitor, since there are no speakers in the monitor itself) and has a good quality. At the same time, at least multimedia sounds are not output through the loudspeaker of the smartphone itself, and the volume is controlled by the buttons on the smartphone case. The smartphone connected via MHL is charging.
Video output by means of a regular player deserves a special description. To begin with, using a set of test files with an arrow and a rectangle moving one division per frame (see Method for testing video playback and display devices. Version 1), we checked how the video is displayed on the screen of the smartphone itself. Screenshots with a shutter speed of 1 s helped to determine the nature of the output frames of video files with various parameters: resolution (1280 by 720 (720p) and 1920 by 1080 (1080p) pixels) and frame rate (24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 fps) varied. With). The results of this (block titled " Screen”) and subsequent tests are summarized in the table:
File | Uniformity | Passes |
Screen | ||
watch-1920x1080-60p.mp4 | Great | No |
watch-1920x1080-50p.mp4 | Good | No |
watch-1920x1080-30p.mp4 | Great | No |
watch-1920x1080-25p.mp4 | Great | No |
watch-1920x1080-24p.mp4 | Great | No |
watch-1280x720-60p.mp4 | Great | No |
watch-1280x720-50p.mp4 | Great | No |
watch-1280x720-30p.mp4 | Great | No |
watch-1280x720-25p.mp4 | Great | No |
watch-1280x720-24p.mp4 | Great | No |
MHL (monitor) | ||
watch-1920x1080-60p.mp4 | Great | a lot of |
watch-1920x1080-50p.mp4 | Great | a lot of |
watch-1920x1080-30p.mp4 | Great | No |
watch-1920x1080-25p.mp4 | Good | No |
watch-1920x1080-24p.mp4 | Good | No |
watch-1280x720-60p.mp4 | Great | a lot of |
watch-1280x720-50p.mp4 | Great | a lot of |
watch-1280x720-30p.mp4 | Great | No |
watch-1280x720-25p.mp4 | Great | No |
watch-1280x720-24p.mp4 | Good | No |
MHL (adapter) | ||
watch-1280x720-60p.mp4 | Great | No |
watch-1280x720-50p.mp4 | Good | No |
watch-1280x720-30p.mp4 | poorly | No |
watch-1280x720-25p.mp4 | poorly | No |
watch-1280x720-24p.mp4 | poorly | No |
Note: if both columns "Uniformity" and "Gap" are set to "green", this means that when watching movies, most likely, either artifacts caused by uneven interleaving and dropping frames will not be visible at all, or their number and visibility will not affect viewing comfort. "Red" marks indicate possible problems associated with the playback of the corresponding files.
According to the criterion for displaying frames, the quality of playing video files on the screen of the smartphone itself is very high, since frames (or groups of frames) are displayed with a uniform alternation of intervals and there are no frame drops. However, in any case, uniform frame interleaving is a relatively unstable state, since some external and internal background processes lead to periodic failure of the correct interleaving of intervals between frames. When testing, an interesting feature was found: it seems that in the case of files with frame rates of 30 and below, the screen refresh rate is 40 Hz, and for files of 50 and 60 fps, the refresh rate increases to 60 Hz. As a result, for a file with 30 frames / s, we got this image:
And for a file with 60 frames / s - like this:
When playing video files with Full HD resolution (1920 by 1080 pixels) on a smartphone screen, the image of the video file itself is displayed one-on-one, exactly along the border of the screen in true Full HD resolution. Taking into account that the color resolution in the video file is two times lower than the brightness resolution, the features of the PenTile matrix do not actually affect the quality of the output of video files. The range of brightness displayed on the screen is slightly different from the original: in the shadows, a couple of shades of gray are indistinguishable from black, but in the highlights, all gradations of shades are displayed (for video in the range of 16-235).
With a monitor connected via MHL, when playing video with a standard player, the image is displayed only in landscape orientation, while only the image of the video file is displayed on the monitor, and only information elements and virtual controls are displayed on the smartphone screen. When playing video files with Full HD resolution (1920 by 1080 pixels), the image of the video file itself is displayed on the monitor screen one-on-one, exactly along the border of the screen in true Full HD resolution. The brightness range displayed on the monitor corresponds to the standard range of 16-235, that is, all gradations of shades are displayed in the shadows and in the highlights. The results of the monitor output tests are shown in the table above in the "MHL (monitor)" section. The output quality is good, but, of course, in the case of 50 and 60 fps files, some frames are skipped, since the output is in 1080p at 30 fps.
Additionally, video output (with a standard player) via MHL using an MHL adapter was tested. When using this adapter, the monitor output was 720p at 60 fps, which determined the maximum actual image resolution. With the exception of resolution and frame rate, everything else - the nature of the interface output, recharging, sound output and gray scale - did not differ from a direct connection via MHL. The test results are shown in the table above in the "MHL (adapter)" block.
When using the adapter, the intervals between frames in the case of files with frame rates up to 30 fps inclusive can differ by a factor of three (from 1/60 to 3/60) and alternate unevenly, while 720p files with 50 and 60 fps are output fine.
In general, an MHL connection can be used for playing games, watching movies, browsing the web, and other activities that benefit from a much larger screen size. True, you will have to purchase an adapter specifically for Samsung or find the appropriate adapter.
Battery Life
The capacity of the lithium-ion battery installed in the Samsung Galaxy S4 is 2600 mAh. The battery here, as mentioned earlier, is replaceable, which can save in case of a swollen battery, for example (and users have had such cases with Samsung batteries). Yes, and the second battery can be stocked up in case of a long trip, which is also convenient.
The smartphone showed very good performance in terms of battery life, leaving a little behind many top-end new items that we have tested recently. Only again, HTC One was able to match the results, and even beat the opponent in some ways. Here are the test results of the test subject in several modes of battery life.
Continuous reading in the FBReader program at the minimum comfortable brightness level (brightness was set to about 100 cd / m²) for 2 hours consumed 17% of the total battery charge, and for two hours of watching YouTube videos in high quality (HQ) via a home Wi-Fi network -Fi device has used up 24% of battery capacity. At maximum load in the continuous 3D game mode (100% brightness, 60 fps), which we usually test with GLBenchmark, the smartphone, as mentioned above, refused to pass the test and constantly dropped out of the program. Therefore, we were unable to obtain data on this test, unfortunately. Complete samsung charger Galaxy S4 is carried out in 2 hours.
Prices
The average retail price of the device in rubles in Moscow at the time of reading the article can be found by moving the mouse to the price tag.
I would never have thought that a smartphone with a five-inch screen could be convenient. However, Samsung breaks this stereotype. Not only does the 2013 flagship Galaxy S4 have chic features in every sense, but it is even smaller and lighter than its predecessor, the Galaxy S3. Well, the number of all kinds of "chips" in the new SGS4 just rolls over. We have collected all the interesting things about the new “Korean miracle” in our test review.
I can't classify myself with any clan of mobile brand fans. For me, Samsung, Nokia, Apple, HTC or Google are the names of companies behind which there are people and their work. Some do a good job, and some don't. Historically, I have always been very critical of Samsung. But what these guys have been doing lately cannot be overlooked. To be honest, at one time it did not impress me, like all previous devices of this line. I was constantly surprised by the huge sales of these devices. But the Galaxy S4 first hooked me.
If earlier it was possible to talk about any kind of borrowing from competitors, now Samsung is going its own way. The company has a platform and they are trying to make it unique, personalizing it as much as possible and endowing it with unique services, functions, and features. This, in the first place, is interesting for the Galaxy S4. Sellers in stores have something to surprise a potential buyer. This is a definite plus.
Along with this, the new gadget has become an evolution of the previous flagship. It has become more productive, faster and more convenient. The growth of the screen diagonal up to 5 inches did not affect the dimensions. On the contrary, the smartphone has become thinner, narrower and lighter. The main technical features of the SGS4 are a 5-inch screen, an eight-core processor, 2 GB of RAM, a high-capacity battery, 16 GB of built-in memory, and NFC support. All this is packaged in a plastic case with a glossy finish. But, let's look at these characteristics in more detail.
Dimensions. Contents of delivery
id="sub0">The undoubted plus of the new Galaxy S4 in terms of size is that the device has not become larger. Even vice versa. It has become thinner, narrower and lighter, and has grown in length by only 0.4 mm.
The device dimensions are 137x70x8 mm. The edges of the body are rounded. Weight - 130 grams. Due to its size, it can be a little difficult to operate with one hand, for example, to reach the notification bar with your thumb. But you can carry the device in the pockets of tight clothes without any problems. I did not notice any inconvenience here.
Delivery set includes:
- Phone Samsung i9500 Galaxy S4
- Battery 2600 mAh Li-Ion
- USB charger adapter
- PC synchronization cable
- Stereo headset with 3.5 mm miniJack connector
- Set of earplugs in different sizes
- Instruction
Design and appearance
id="sub1">The design of the "four" has changed slightly compared to. The case has all the same smoothed forms. There is a lot of gloss on the front, as well as on the back. However, the novelty looks stricter thanks to less rounded corners and a redesigned end bezel. The latter from now on does not look as vulgar as the plastic of its predecessor, curved and obviously painted “under the metal”. On the Galaxy S4, the silver bezel is very similar to the metal bezel, although it isn't.
Samsung has always been criticized for the lack of metal in the body of their flagships. The situation has not changed even now. It's also all plastic. True, this time it is not flimsy, and the material turned out to be more resistant to scratches. The assembly of the device is perfect. Thanks to this, I did not have the feeling that in front of me was some kind of rattle toy. Rather, on the contrary. Everything is very reliable, tightly fitted.
I would like to note the extremely thin frame of the smartphone screen. As you get used to the phone, it seems to “dissolve” and the user is left face to face with the most important thing - the screen.
Samsung Galaxy S4 is presented in two versions: dark gray, almost black and white.
The entire front of the device is occupied by a large touchscreen 5-inch display. Above it is the frame of the speaker. To the right and to the left of it are a camera for video calls (2 megapixels) and all kinds of sensors and sensors: a motion sensor, a light sensor, a G-sensor, an infrared port. On the left is an LED indicator that glows when charging, missed calls and SMS.
Below the screen is a menu button (in the center) and two touch keys for the context menu and back one level. Everything is standard here.
The arrangement of controls and other elements on the smartphone body has not changed compared to the Galaxy S3.
On the right side there is a button to turn on, turn off and lock the phone. On the left you can see the volume rocker. There is no camera button here, the camera application for shooting can only be launched from the menu or lock mode.
At the bottom end is a standard microUSB-connector - for charging and connecting to a computer. At the top is a 3.5mm headphone jack.
On the back you can see the lens of a 13 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash. At the bottom is a speaker for external calls and audio playback. I would rate the sound as good. Even at the average level, you can hear the call well, even if the phone is in clothes. But in terms of sound quality, the Galaxy S4 loses to sound.
The lithium-ion battery is located under a thin plastic battery cover. There is also a mount for a microSIM card and a memory card. In addition, there is a built-in memory of 16 GB.
The build quality of the Galaxy S4 is excellent. During the test, I did not find any external defects. Impressions are extremely positive. The smartphone is assembled at the company's factory in Vietnam.
Screen. Graphic features
id="sub2">The screen in modern smartphones is the clothes by which any device is greeted. In the case of the Galaxy S4, the display is good in all respects. Firstly, it is a 5-inch diagonal, and secondly, the resolution is 1080 × 1920 pixels (441 ppi). Crystal clear images, traditionally large viewing angles and even a narrow frame - all this has a positive effect on the perception of the device as a whole.
The Koreans cheated with the settings, and now the white color does not give off blue so much, which is typical of the same Galaxy S3, there is quite a bit missing from the best examples of IPS matrices. At the same time, it remains possible to choose a less acidic color profile option in the settings, which will bring the image quality even closer to IPS. In addition, the perfect black color remains.
The only drawback of the display is that it is very large and it is inconvenient to operate it with one hand. You cannot, for example, reach the top edge, corners, etc. with your thumb.
In the manufacture of the screen used a new protective glass Gorilla Glass 3 class. This glass is 20% thinner than its predecessor, but retains all of its characteristics: it is 3 times stronger than conventional display materials and protects the screen from scratches and chips.
The phone supports recording video in mpeg4 format for maximum resolution, and in the settings you can specify whether the video will be recorded with sound or without it. All settings are comparable to those for photos, but the video resolutions are different, plus effects are supported. The camera can shoot videos with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, there are also 1280x720, 720x480 pixels (30 frames), or a resolution of 640x480 pixels (30 frames). Two additional resolutions - 320x240 and 176x144 pixels.
Recorded video is good. It looks great on the phone screen, and looks good on the computer.
Photos and videos can be viewed from the Media menu. Photos and videos are displayed as thumbnails, the list opens very quickly, there are no delays even with a large number of pictures or images. In the gallery, you can scroll through photos using gestures. All this was thanks to the built-in accelerometer.
Memory and speed
id="sub9">A version of the smartphone with 16 GB of memory is currently available in stores.
The performance of the Galaxy S4 is high, it is several times faster than its predecessors. This can be seen from the very beginning of using the device. The interface flies, and applications are launched in a couple of seconds.
Samsung Galaxy S4 is equipped with Exynos 5 Octa: four ARM Cortex-A15 cores (1.6 GHz) + four ARM Cortex-A7 cores (1.2 GHz). There is an integrated video accelerator PowerVR SGX544MP3. In addition, the device has 2 GB of RAM. There is enough RAM so that no application feels left out.
It is very easy for an ordinary user to assess the performance of a smartphone: any content runs on the device without “brakes”, whether it is a 1080p video or a modern game like Max Payne.
Communication options
id="sub10">In addition to the standard connection to a computer via microUSB, the Galaxy S4 supports Bluetooth 4.0. Bluetooth allows you to wirelessly connect peripherals such as A2DP/AVRCP stereo headsets.
When connected to a USB port, there are several connection options: Media, Charge only, Mass storage, Samsung Keis. In the Drive mode, the device is perfectly picked up without additional drivers, you can copy the necessary data.
But the Samsung GALAXY S4 has done a lot to improve the user experience, so as soon as you turn on the device for the first time, you will be greeted by the proprietary TouchWiz 5.0 interface. There are a lot of differences from the usual Android 4.2.2. Firstly, these are their icons, longtime users Samsung smartphones they are well acquainted. Secondly, the notification menu is designed differently, a huge plus of TouchWiz 5.0 is that here you can disable or enable a variety of functions without going to the settings, let's try to list them:
- WiFi
- Bluetooth
- Vibration off
- Screen rotation
- Mobile data (disable data)
- Lock mode
- Power saving mode
- Screen Mirroring (image transfer to another device)
- "Two active windows" mode
- Wi-Fi access (work as a hotspot)
- S-Beam
- guidance
- Gesture control
- driving mode
- Intelligent waiting
- Intelligent scrolling
- Synchronization
- Offline mode
Let me remind you that all these options can be turned on or off directly in the notification menu, this is very convenient. Moreover, in the settings you can choose which buttons will be displayed first.
Continuing the conversation about TouchWiz 5.0, the keyboard is also different: here is word prediction, and T9 continuous input mode. It is worth mentioning the last function especially, you do not need to type each letter separately, just press your finger to the screen and translate it from one letter to another. For example, it helps to create messages several times faster. Moreover, when typing, you will see words above a number of numbers, you can always select the one you need, and this also affects the typing speed. In addition, in the settings of the Samsung keyboard, you can enable the "Cursor control" function. Let us explain with an example what will happen in this case. Let's say you're typing messages and you need to jump to the first line. You need to press your finger on the keyboard and use it like a touchpad on a laptop: a sharp upward movement will take you to another field, another one will move the cursor to the contact selection field. Handwriting will appeal to those who are used to writing notes; in the settings, you can change the type and time of recognition, the thickness and color of the pen.
The settings are also optimized, which is an essential part of the TouchWiz 5.0 interface. You can see bookmarks here so that the user can quickly navigate and select the desired item. The "Connections" tab contains the settings for Wi-Fi (there is a schedule, it's convenient), Bluetooth, NFC, S-Beam (high-speed data transfer between mobile devices), DLNA, Screen Mirroring (smartphone screen sharing), data usage , network selection, Wi-Fi synchronization. Recall that the proprietary program Kies is used for synchronization, we will talk about its capabilities separately.
In the tab "My device" - the main settings, this is a screen lock, where you can select the type of unlock. There is a simple movement, and face recognition, and face and voice, and a pattern, and a PIN code, and a password. There are hints about which type of blocking is the most reliable. Lock screen widgets, shortcuts, auto unlock zone, inclusion on the lock screen (you can “wake up” the device with your voice) are immediately configured. Display settings - wallpaper, notification bar, multiple windows, screen mode, brightness, auto rotate, timeout, screen saver. Curiously, you can customize the font type and size. In the same menu, you can also set the backlighting of the keys, turn on the display of the percentage charge, auto-adjust the brightness and sensitivity, this is the main thing. In the "My device" tab, you can also configure the operation of the indicator light, select a melody and sound alerts, vibration type, activate the security assistant - in an emergency, the device is able to take pictures with the front and main cameras and send pictures to selected contacts along with a pre-composed message. To activate, you need to simultaneously press the volume buttons. One of the most interesting items in the My Device tab is Motion and Gestures, and this is where the fantasy begins. Relatively speaking, communication with Samsung GALAXY S4 for the user reaches a new level. Using gestures, you can call up basic information on a locked device by simply swiping your palm over the display, scroll through the pages with your eyes - the front camera monitors the position of the pupils; when you reach the end of the page in the browser, it will automatically scroll. It is even possible to accept a call by swiping your palm over the display, while in the settings you can choose to activate the speakerphone. And the Samsung GALAXY S4 can dial automatically if you look at the messages from the subscriber and then bring the smartphone to your ear. We highly recommend that you carefully explore all these new features of working with the Samsung GALAXY S4 in order to speed up and simplify the most common activities. We recommend watching our video about the special features of the Samsung GALAXY S4.
The "Accounts" tab contains your accounts, for example, these are Google, Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud data, in this menu you can add or delete an account. Finally, the "Options" tab contains the "Location", security settings, program manager, information about the battery, memory, setting the date and time, viewing information about the device. It is in the last paragraph that the “Software Update” is located, if one is available, a message will appear in the notification menu. As a reminder, you only need a Wi-Fi connection and a little time until the update takes place.
We will talk about some of the features of TouchWiz in other materials, but here we need to add a couple more points - novice users sometimes do not notice them. We recommend that you select the "Calls" item in the "My Device" tab and adjust the sound of the speaker, we especially recommend using the Adapt Sound function. You will need headphones, a little time, but then the sound will really match your preferences. In the same paragraph, you can activate the "Noise Elimination" function, we recommend doing this, your interlocutors will surely note that the quality of speech transmission has improved. And more about the “Calls” item, be sure to check the “Ring louder in the bag” box, this thing works both in your pocket and in your bag.
Control
A little about the basic capabilities of device management, it will be especially useful for beginners. To switch between running applications, you need to press and hold the Home button, you can scroll through the list, if you hold your finger on the application, a menu will appear - you can remove the program from the list or view information. In the same menu, there are three items below: switching to the menu of running applications, clearing RAM, information about downloaded programs and system memory capacity. Nearby are the buttons for launching Google Now and deleting all programs from the list. If you press and hold the "Back" button, you activate the multi-window mode, we talked about it in the first material of the project.
If you press the menu button, a list of additional options appears, this is adding an application to the desktop, creating a folder, setting wallpaper, changing the page, searching and going to settings. To change the location of desktops or their number, you need to select "Change page" in the menu, you can select any and drag it to the trash or add selected widgets, shortcuts to this segment.
And do not forget, the most important control element in the Samsung GALAXY S4 is the display, and you can work with the display not only with unprotected hands, but also with gloves on - go to settings, the "My device" tab, display, sensitivity auto-adjustment, in the cold season We recommend turning it on for more convenience.
Lock screen
When you press the power button, the Samsung GALAXY S4's screen will light up and you will see the welcome message "Satellite in your world". The device really is your reliable friend, able to guess a variety of desires and help in a variety of cases - but now it’s worth saying a few words about the possibilities of this very blocking mode. In the settings, you can add favorite applications to the screen, change your personal message - for example, instead of "Satellite in your world" write something else. You do not need to unlock the display to find out the information of interest. By swiping your finger at the top (the zone can also be configured), you can go to the menu of favorite programs and launch the one you need right from here, check your mail and immediately access the program, check notifications. Here you can add the Samsung WatchON client (remote control for home appliances), Yahoo news, Google + records, music player widget. To delete an item, press and hold your finger in the center of the screen, then slide the panel to the top of the trash.
As you understand, Samsung has done a truly titanic job so that the user of the Samsung GALAXY S4 can communicate with a smartphone on some special, sometimes intuitive level. Many are amazed at how this amazing device simplifies life, helps in business, how every detail, every menu item is thought out here. Believe me, all this is just the beginning of our story about the Samsung GALAXY S4.
Get the most out of Lollipop.
Ever since the Galaxy S4 received the Lollipop update, the old beast has become very good. We love the S4 so much, so it's no surprise that we've updated the Galaxy S4 tips and tricks collection for this update. The Galaxy S4 is still a great smartphone, but read on to find out how much better you can make it.
Battery Tips
Save battery with smart Wi-Fi
If you've set Wi-Fi to turn off whenever you turn off your screen, you might think you're saving battery. And it's not. Most of us check our smartphone (start the screen) on average about 150 times a day, so keeping the Wi-Fi connection active is actually better than turning it off and then searching every time the screen turns off. Go to Settings - Wi-Fi, press the menu key, then "Advanced" and set "Work Wi-Fi in hibernation" to "Always".
Wi-Fi connection support is actually better for smartphone battery life.
Increase your battery life
The Galaxy S4 doesn't have Android Lollipop's Battery Saver mode, but it does have Samsung's power saving mode. Go to Settings - My Device - Power Saving Mode and toggle the switch to turn it on. The mode works by disabling certain features to save battery life. You can choose which features it will restrict in the settings.
Power saving mode can help extend the battery life of your Galaxy S4.
Turn off pointless tricks
Samsung has long been known - at least until recently - for packing flagship phones with some not-so-useful features. Some of these features are enabled by default and are constantly draining battery power, along with CPU power, even if you never use them. If you are one of those users, why not disable them? Go to "Settings" - "Motions and gestures", where you can turn off unnecessary features. The same goes for Smart Screen and Air View.
If you are not using it, disable it.
Display Tips
Always use the best display
One of the best things about Samsung screens is that they adapt to different conditions, so you get the best picture whether you're reading, watching photos or watching videos. Just go to "Settings" - "My Device" - "Display" - "Screen Mode" and select "Adapt display" or take a look at other options.
Optimize your Galaxy S4 display.
Activate Smart Stay
Smart Stay uses your smartphone's front-facing camera to detect whether you're looking at the screen or not, a feature that helps make sure the display stays on while you're looking at it. This is a great solution if you set a short display timeout but also do a lot of reading on your smartphone.
To activate Smart Stay, go to "Settings" - "My device" - "Smart" - "Smart Stay".
Smart Stay means your phone stays on as long as you read or look at the screen.
Software Tips
Turn off S Voice for quick navigation
S Voice can be launched by double-clicking the S4 Home button. However, this solution actually slows down the response of the home button. TouchWiz pauses after the first press, waiting for the second, after which it directs you to the home screen. Navigate to S-Voice, press the menu key, select "Settings" and uncheck "Open with Home button" to get to the home screen faster and speed up general navigation.
Disabling S-Voice will speed up phone navigation thanks to the freedom of the Home button.
Protect your lock screen
Lollipop comes with lock screen notifications, meaning you don't have to fully unlock your phone to read a text or message Email. However, you may experience some discomfort when the content of your notifications fills the screen and is available to others. If this is true for you, open "Settings" - "My device" - "Sounds and notifications". You can choose which apps show content on the lock screen and notifications, and choose which apps keep content hidden.
Choose content for your lock screen using app and content settings.
Turn off annoying Samsung sounds
You might not have thought about this before, but why not turn off some of Samsung's most annoying sounds? Even if you like them, we can assure you that everyone on the bus, at work and in the supermarket hates them. So, do the world a favor: go to Settings - My Device - Sounds & Notifications - Other Sounds and uncheck the boxes next to the sounds you can live without.
Do the world a favor and turn off those annoying Samsung sounds.
Lock screen customization
Don't settle for a boring old lock screen, add a camera and dialer shortcut, choose your clock and private messages, highlight your lock screen with wallpapers. Go to Settings - My Device - Lock Screen and check the box for the camera, and then customize the lock screen widgets.
Customize your lock screen so you can access what you need faster.
Recharge your camera
Install the Samsung Smart Camera app and connect your smartphone to the camera using NFC to quickly transfer photos, use your phone as a remote viewfinder, and more. Best of all, your camera automatically connects to your phone when it's turned on.
Pairing your phone with a camera is very helpful.
Customizing Quick Settings
Why settle for standard quick settings when you can browse the most appropriate switches with a little tweaking? You can even group them exactly the way you like. Swipe down on the screen, tap on the little grid on the top right, now select the little pencil to edit, now change the quick settings.
Add your favorite shortcuts to the quick settings menu.
Boost your security!
Why would you want to unlock your phone with a PIN or pattern when you're at home where (hopefully) you can trust everyone? To do this, there is a wonderful Smart Lock feature from Lollipop. You can save your time by disabling the lock of your smartphone in certain places, identifying the latter by a trusted person, network or voice, a trusted accessory, be it a smart watch or something else.
Smart Lock - One of the coolest features of Android Lollipop.
Do not disturb mode
Another great feature of Lollipop is Priority Notifications, also known as Do Not Disturb Mode. It allows you to set the time at which the phone will not ring and distract you, except for the most important notifications or alarms. You can whitelist family or boss calls, set days of the week and times, and choose between calls, messages, and calendar reminders. Go to Settings - My device - Sounds and notifications - Interruptions.
Enjoy peace and quiet with Priority Notifications.
Use shortcuts for calling or contacts
Why use menu buttons when one gesture is enough? In the contact list, you can simply swipe someone's name left or right to make an instant call or message. Now you can stay connected longer and save your time.
Call or text your friends faster with gestures.
Always take the best photo
Let's face it, not all of us are Pulitzer Prize winning photographers. So when the moment comes, why not take a burst of photos and then leave the choice to the S4? Just open the camera app, choose "Mode" and "Best photo". Hold down the shutter to take as many shots as possible and let your phone automatically select the best one.
"Best Photo" knows which shot is better than others.
Enjoy Quiet Mode
The Galaxy S4 is one of the few devices that offers true silent mode, even on Lollipop. You can go to "Settings" - "My Device" - "Sounds and Notifications" - "Interruptions" - "Sound Mode" - Mute" or you can use the switch in quick settings to turn off the sound.
The Galaxy S4 is one of the few Lollipop devices that has retained this mode.
Custom Sound Profile
If you have very perceptive ears, or just need to have complete control over what sound comes out of the device you use to communicate with people, why not get your own custom sound profile? Open "Settings" - "My device" - "Sounds and notifications" - "Adapt sound". Insert a pair of headphones, click "Start" and follow the instructions.
Creating a custom sound profile will make things better.
Tricks
Make your keyboard smarter
If you're using a basic Samsung keyboard, make sure predictive text and automatic typing are turned on. You'll be surprised how much time these features save. Go to the keyboard and long press on the button to the left of the space bar. Select the "Settings" tab and make sure "Predictive Text" is enabled and the settings are set to "Continuous Typing". You can also replace the keyboard with SwiftKey or another app.
If you are not using text prediction, you are living in the year 2000.
Try a floating keyboard
Depending on what you're doing, sometimes a smaller floating keyboard might be more appropriate. It's a neat little feature that doesn't block your keyboard at the bottom of the screen. Go to the keyboard, long-press the button to the left of the spacebar, and tap the tile with two overlapping squares. Your keyboard will shrink a little and you can move it around.
A floating keyboard can be really useful.
Make Chrome easier and better!
Chrome on Lollipop is a bit annoying. By default, your Chrome tabs reside individually in the latest list of apps (can be accessed by long pressing the Home button). If you prefer the old way - all your tabs are contained within Chrome itself, go to Chrome, tap on the three dots in the top right corner, select "Settings" and disable the "Merge" and "Apps" tabs.
Use Chrome the old way and don't merge tabs and apps.
Make it easy with Easy Mode
If you're a bit discouraged by all the Samsung widgets and other TouchWiz elements, try Easy Mode. This mode will clarify the situation. You'll see only the most important things, get larger icons and simplified controls and navigation. Go to "Settings" - "My Device" - "Easy Mode" to get to the switch.
The Easy Mode is great for beginners, the elderly, and the visually impaired.
Hands-free mode
If you don't want to miss any incoming messages or notifications and your hands are busy, why not use Hands-Free mode on the Galaxy S4? Incoming calls, messages and notifications will be read to you so you always know what's going on. Open "Settings" - "My device" - "Handsfree mode" and turn on the option. You can also select additional options.
Samsung offers hands-free options for the laziest users.
Use your phone to control your TV
Download the Peel Smart Remote app and use it as a TV guide to tune in to your favorite channels, control your TV and set-top box, and more. You can even put the app on your lock screen to make sure you can always control your TV from your couch.
Use your Galaxy S4 as a remote control.
Use your voice for hands-free control
Did you know that your S4 has a variety of voice control options? You can use your voice to turn off the alarm, take a photo, play music or answer a call, you can even reject it with your voice. Just go to "Settings" - "My device" - "Voice control" and use the switches opposite the commands you want to use. You can also use S-Voice to set reminders and check the weather.
Use your voice and protect your fingers from unnecessary work.
Multi-window and recent apps
S4 can open recently open applications, but did you know that the smartphone also offers a Multi-Windows feature that allows you to have two windows open at the same time? This feature is well hidden, but very handy! We have dedicated a whole article on how to use Samsung Multi-Window, search the site.
Multi-Windows: Difficult to understand, but very convenient.
Common problems
No sound…
Some users are experiencing a software bug that takes away the voice of the Galaxy S4. When there is no sound, it is due to a faulty application that accesses the sound driver and blocks it. Rebooting the phone usually fixes the problem.
Wi-Fi connection issues
When you are at home, you may notice that sometimes your smartphone has problems connecting to the wireless network. This usually happens when the Wi-Fi signal is weak, but can occur at other times as well.
Problems with online access? Try turning off mobile data.
You may find yourself plagued by messages informing you that your internet connection is down due to slow speeds. And while this solution may seem counter-intuitive, try disabling mobile data - it usually helps. Swipe down from the top of the screen and toggle the Mobile Data option to Off.
The hidden menu provides access to Wi-Fi power saving options.
Another option is to turn off Wi-Fi power saving mode. Launch the keypad to dial the number, enter the code * # 0011 # to enter the service mode. Press the menu key and select the Wi-Fi option. In the Wi-Fi Power Saving Mode section, click on the On button so that it changes to Off. Press the back button to return to the main screen.
Video playback not working
Many users find it difficult to play video sent via WhatsApp on Galaxy S4. When you receive a WhatsApp error message that "video cannot be played", it can be fixed. Go to "My Settings" and find the app manager, then reset your app to default. If this does not solve the problem, download the VLC media player.
Additional Tips
Access to hidden Galaxy settings S4
There's a great app called Note 2 Hidden Settings that also works with other Galaxy devices, including the S4. It won't work with some models, but it's worth installing and giving it a try because there are tons of cool stuff in this app.
Hiddenn Settings doesn't work on all Galaxy S4s, but it's worth checking compatibility with yours.
Fix bugs in safe mode
If your Galaxy S4 is acting weird, you can restart it in safe mode until you fix the problem. To do this, simply turn your S4 off and on again. Once you see on the Samsung screen, press and hold the volume down key and you will see that many applications have been disabled on boot. To exit safe mode, simply turn your phone off and on again.
Safe mode allows you to work while most applications are disabled.
Use the best launcher interface
If TouchWiz seems a little slow to you, why not replace it with something faster? Like Google Now Launcher, Nova Launcher or Action Launcher? Try these systems - they are free and you can always go back if you want.
Mix it all up with the new custom launcher.
own Charger qi
If you want the wireless charging that the Galaxy S6 offers without having to shell out a fortune to actually buy the S6, why not pick up a wireless charging kit? All you have to do is align the smartphone on the charging pad and also replace the back of the smartphone.
Buy a wireless charging kit for S4 online.
Access to hidden developer options
To access the Galaxy S4's hidden developer settings, go to your device's settings, click "Advanced" and navigate to the software information. In the About section, tap the build number seven times to access. You will now be able to change the animation speed, limit background processes, or use USB debugging among other cool things.
Root smartphone
To access the advanced features of your S4, you can root the device. This should be done at your own risk as accessing the root directory will most likely void your warranty. You can find a full explanation of what root is, how to do it, and why you should or shouldn't do it in a separate guide.
Rooting Samsung smartphones is a fairly simple procedure.
Get Android 6.0 Marshmallow with CyanogenMod
The Galaxy S4 is selling very well, and many people still have these smartphones. Thus, there are many who want to receive further updates. software for his old flagship. You can get special android update 6.0 Marshmallow.
Have you tried any of these Galaxy S4 tips and tricks? Do you have others? Share them in the comments.
If you are a happy owner of Samsung Galaxy S4, then surely you have a desire to get maximum pleasure from your smartphone and maximum performance. Well, you have a great chance for it. No wonder we tried to collect 10 basic tips that will help both Android oldfags and beginners. You probably use most of the tips yourself, but what if you missed something?
1. Speed up TouchWiz
There are two types of people: those who don't want to sacrifice functionality for speed, and those who will go the extra mile for even a small increase in performance. Luckily, we have tips for both types of users.
If you do not often use S Voice, then this is probably the first tip for you. You have definitely noticed that there is a slight delay in the response of the smartphone when you press the "Home" button and the home screen does not appear as quickly as you would like. By default, the Galaxy S4 works with the S Voice option, which launches when you double-click the Home button. If you don't need the option, you can open Voice and disable the "Open with Home button" option. Now the home screen will appear instantly after clicking on "Home".
The following advice applies to those who like to dig into the system settings. If you don't mind losing some of the visual effects to increase speed, then you can change some options in the "developer menu". Firstly, if you have not yet opened this item in the general settings, you can unlock the "Developer options" by going to Settings -> Advanced -> About device. Scroll down until you see the build number and click on this item 7 times.
Now go back once to the back button and enter the Developer options menu. Go to the section called "Drawing" and disable the following items: "Window animation scale," "Transition animation scale" and "Animator duration scale." Now the smartphone will work without unnecessary animation effects, but TouchWiz should now work a little faster and be instantly responsive.
2. Increase battery life
The Samsung Galaxy S4 will have a 2600 mAh battery, which is enough to get the smartphone through the work day, but it's nice to know that the battery life will allow you to last longer without connecting to a charger.
First of all, you can switch your smartphone to economy mode. That is, you need to open Settings / My device and you can now turn the processor into power saving mode, the screen into battery saver mode and even turn off haptic feedback (CPU power saving, Screen power saving and Haptic feedback). For maximum results, we recommend using all 3 points.
If this is not enough, then there are several other options that, once disabled, will allow the smartphone to work longer. The most energy-consuming is data transmission in the mobile network. But it all depends on how you use your smartphone. You can choose any of the following options to disable if you are not using it: BlueTooth, S Beam, NFC, and options such as Air Gesture or Smart Scroll. All this is very easy to enable / disable in the quick settings.
Notification panel customization
All quick settings are available to you as soon as you swipe down on the notification panel. This is the easiest option to enable or disable various features. The only problem is that you won't use all the options at the same time. Luckily, this is easy to change and set some options first.
First, open the notification panel. In the very top right corner, click on the icon that looks like several squares with two arrows. Now click on the pencil icon that appears on the right.
Now all you have to do is drag the icons whose functions you use first to the first 5 positions. You can also scroll through the notification panel and view other settings, but it's much more convenient if you have the most necessary settings at your fingertips.
4. Take better photos
All of us very often see the touted features of the Galaxy S4 camera on the net: Drama Shot, Eraser and others. This, of course, is interesting, but you will play with these features once or twice, and therefore you will not need them all the time. Instead, let's delve into the settings and do everything necessary to make the Galaxy S4 take better photos.
First, open the camera app and click on the settings button. Of course, you will want to resize the photo. By default, the Galaxy S4 takes photos at a 16:9 aspect ratio and at 9.6 megapixels. This aspect ratio is great for shooting video, but not for photos. For best quality, set the photo size to 13 megapixels and use the more common 4:3 setting.
You can also change the Burst Shot option, face detection, ISO, Anti-Shake and auto set to night options. Of all of them, we will focus on ISO. At a lower ISO setting, your photos may become darker, but will be clearer and sharper. As you can imagine, ISO allows you to get better photos in low light, but at the cost of adding visual noise to your photos.
Large screen connection
Sometimes you want the screen to be bigger. Of course, the Galaxy S4's screen is huge, but while watching a video, I would like it to be bigger. There are several ways to connect your Galaxy S4 to a big screen.
if you have samsung tv and you're lucky enough to get AllShare Cast, this is the easiest way to display everything you do on your smartphone screen on your TV screen. Just go to Settings / Connections, scroll down the window and find the item "Screen Mirroring". Now you just need to wait and find available devices to connect.
However, with another connection option, you can avoid the delay in the transmission of the picture and the absence of lags. And this is using MHL. You will need an 11-pin MHL adapter for this, because the standard 5-pin adapter simply won't work with the Galaxy S4. Samsung has been selling an official MHL adapter for the Galaxy S4 for a while now. Just plug it in and run HDMI out and you can see everything on the screen, right down to running games from your smartphone.
Control connections and communication
The Samsung Galaxy S4 has two different options for access control - we mean the distinction between incoming calls and setting parameters for who and when can contact you.
First, Blocking Mode is a great option for those who want to get a good night's sleep. To find this item, go to Settings / My device and scroll down a bit. In this mode, you can turn off incoming calls, notifications, alarms, and even the indicator light. Either enable this option manually, or you can set it to be enabled on a specific schedule.
If you want to configure your smartphone to work only on a specific phone number, then the best way is to reject a call (Call rejection). To find this item, go to Settings / My device and open the Call menu. The most common way to configure is to create a "blacklist". Just enter the number, check the box next to it and that's it. You can even set it to automatically send a message to the user explaining why the call was rejected.
Lock screen customization
By default, the Galaxy S4's lock screen isn't anything fancy or functional. However, if you can't put up with it and want to say "stop it!", then there are a couple of ways to improve it.
To get started, open Settings / My device and select "Lock Screen" (Lock Screen). First, you need to check the "Multiple widgets" item, that is, whether the ability to use multiple widgets on the lock screen is enabled. You can also select application shortcuts that you need to quickly launch directly from the lockscreen. By the way, there is also a submenu with a choice between several options for displaying the lock screen.
Now the fun part, lock your smartphone and check your lock screen now. With a swipe across the top of the screen, you can open the camera widget (on the right) or add your own widgets (on the left). Everything from Gmail notifications to Google Now is available to you.
Make more funny videos
If you want to capture everything that is unusual around you, then the Galaxy S4 camera is right for this. You can even get a little creative with this and there are several ways to enhance and spice up your creation.
First, open the camera app and click on the camera settings icon at the top of the screen. Now select the icon that looks like a small video camera to open the video settings. You'll see options ranging from "Normal" to "MMS Limit", but there are also options like "Slow Motion" and "Fast Motion." And they are designed exactly for what you think.
If you have one of these options checked, you will notice a pop-up icon to the right of the camera icon. This will allow you to shoot in fast or slow mode. Slow Motion allows you to shoot at 1/2, 1/4 and 1/8 of normal time, while Fast Motion can shoot at 2x, 4x or 8x.
It is worth noting that both options have a negative impact on the quality of the video being shot. However, it's fun.
Use Audio Adaptation
Many talk about the adaptive capabilities of the Galaxy S4's display, but few discuss the ability to adapt the sound. First of all, I remembered the sound settings on the TV - movie mode, music mode, etc. But I was wrong.
Sound adaptation is an option that checks your sound and your headphones and then adjusts audio playback to focus only on the frequencies you can actually hear. To find this item in the menu, open Settings / My device / Sound. Scroll down and find Adapt Sound.
Plug in your headphones and start the test. It basically does this by playing a series of sounds of different tones to test what frequencies you can hear and to see if there is a difference in hearing ability for each ear. The entire test will take about a minute. Once the test is completed, you can check the result and be surprised by it.
Personally, I found the sound to be crisper and clearer with the sound adaptation option turned on.
Use Auto Brightness
If you use the auto-brightness setting anyway, then this tip will not be meaningful to you. But I usually disable this option as soon as it gets into my hands new smartphone. I prefer to manually control the brightness level of the display, as there is a good enough reason for this.
The Galaxy S4 screen has one of the highest brightness margins to date, but you won't be able to set the maximum brightness manually because it's probably limited on purpose to prevent burn-in or other damage to the display. With automatic brightness adjustment, there is no such problem. The next time you squint and try to see what's happening on the screen on a sunny day, don't forget to check the automatic screen brightness setting in the quick settings area.