By - J
Well after weeks of speculation Samsung's officially Unveiled its next galaxy device the S4 at this years Samsung unpacked in New York City. I must say though this was a sub par release, but i'l go over the highlights of the show. Samsung's branded the S4 as a "Life Companion" and they've definitely taken a stab at showing us that today.
Design
Not much has changed in terms of design language used in the S4, it's much the same looking phone as the SIII. The phone is lighter as well as bigger a message we've heard before from Apple with the iPhone 5.
GS3 GS4
4.8” HD Super Amoled Display
306ppi
8MP Rear Camera
136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6 mm
133 grams
Features
Dual Camera: A feature that allows both cameras to take pictures and video simultaneously together as one image.
Air View: Not exactly sure how often you'd use this feature but it is a cool one. Air view allows the user to interact with the device without physically touching it.
Story Album: This isn't really a feature we haven't seen before. It's been on the iPad since the iPad 3 launched last March and it's also on the Blackberry. This feature allows the user to create albums with pictures and notes to be viewed easily.
HomeSync: Samsung is getting more serious into being a hardball player in the cloud interface. With HomeSync users can sync with there devices at home and have access to 1 Terabyte. Yes that's terabyte or storage for up to 8 users.
S-Voice Drive: I don't know if this is an attempt into the mapping system or if this uses Google services. Samsung wasn't exactly clear on how this actually worked. But if anything it brings the questions as to why Samsung is creating their own system for turn by turn nav.
S-Health: This was probably the feature no one was expecting. Samsung's packed a pedometer as well as a thermometer to build reports on how healthy you are. Looks like they are taking a stab at products in the healthy living category with this one, but it looks like it fits in with the new branding of "Life Companion".
Group Play: This again is not a feature i see myself using a lot but a novelty one none the less. Samsung's made it possible o share music without a data connection through wifi to up to 8 devices all synced together.
Conclusion
All in all not very much innovation as far as my judgement goes, more of a subtle upgrade to the S3 than anything else and definitely software based. But I'm sure it'll be a great seller with its "new" design it's got that S3 look with a Blackberry esk ribbon around it. The S4 will hit stores at the end of April and come in two colours "Black Mist" and "White Frost".
See the full video below. Let us know if you're looking forward to upgrading or making this your next smartphone device in the comments below.
Check out the folks over at The Verge, with their hands on experience with the device itself.
