Finally after much leaks and rumors Samsung Galaxy S IV is
here. Samsung unveiled the
Galaxy S IV at an event in New York. The smartphone boosts
an
eight-core 1.6 GHz processor, with
2GB RAM. The company says that the phone
will be rolled out in 155 countries starting April 2013.
Samsung declared that the international version of Galaxy S
IV will be powered by Exynos 5 Octa chipset. This chipset has four Cortex-A15
cores clocking up to 1.6GHz and four Cortex-A7 cores clocking up to 1.2GHz. The
graphics are handled by the PowerVR SGX 544MP3 chip. There will also be a
second version that will only hit certain markets. This version will be powered
by the newly launched Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset with its quad-core Krait
300 chipset and the Adreno 320 graphics. Both versions will have 2GB of RAM,
and will get the LTE feature in certain markets. It will also feature wireless
charging in some markets.
The Galaxy S IV houses a
4.99” 1920x1080 pixel Super AMOLED
display, with a pixel density of
441 ppi. Galaxy S IV will be available in
three storage options –
16GB, 32GB and 64GB. Galaxy S IV also has an
IR Blaster
to control your entertainment devices at home using
Samsung’s WatchON service.
The Galaxy S IV, at
7.9mm thick, is actually
thinner than Galaxy S III, despite a
bigger display. The disappointment to some users is that the
Galaxy S VI
carries forward some plastic build.
Samsung confirmed that Galaxy S IV will be available in two
versions – White Frost and Black Mist. More colours will be available soon. The
S IV will have Android 4.2.2 and a spruced up Touchwiz UI. The rest of the
specs include a 13MP rear camera, a 2MP front camera, NFC, 4G in certain
markets and a 2,600mAh battery.
Let’s take a look at which of the Galaxy S4’s features are
promising, and which ones aren’t:
S Translator:
Ever since the concept of the Babel Fish was introduced by
Douglas Adams, we’ve been waiting for such a tool that can translate everything
on the fly. With the S Translator, Samsung may have actually achieved that. The
S Translator offers speech-to-text and text-to-speech translations in 10
languages including French, English and Chinese and Samsung hopes to increase
that number soon.
Smart Pause:
For the uninitiated,
Smart Pause tracks your eyes using the
front camera on the Galaxy S4 and
pauses a running video when you look away
from the screen.
S Voice Drive:
Samsung has extended the functionality of its S Voice tool
on the Galaxy S4. With S Voice Drive,
the icons and commands to be used within
the GPS navigation app become simpler so that it’s safer to use while driving. Icons on the screen are larger and you can also use your voice to command the
navigation app. We think it’s a good feature especially for people who rely a
lot on GPS navigation in their vehicles.
S Health:
Samsung has tried to make mobile
fitness apps redundant by packing in a hell of a lot of functionality into the
S Health suite. With
S Health, you can track things like
distance walked/run,
calorie intake and even sleeping patterns. We have a feeling that even the
laziest among us may be tempted to try out some of these features on the Galaxy
S4, just to see how well they work.
Eraser (Camera Feature):
A very useful feature that
Samsung has added to the Galaxy S4 camera’s repertoire is the Eraser feature.
This feature lets you analyse a photo you’ve taken and cleanly remove objects
that you don’t want in the image. This means that you can cleanly erase
unwanted objects, photo-bombers from your photos without much effort.
Air Gesture:
This is another feature that is
getting a big marketing push from Samsung. We just don’t understand the
use-case scenario for
Air Gesture which
lets you navigate the phone without
touching the display. The only time when the feature could be useful is if your fingers are
dirty and you still want to use the phone. However, like Smart Scroll, the
feature is quite buggy and has inconsistent performance.
Dual Shot:
Dual Shot is one of the silliest
features on offer from the Galaxy S4. It lets you take pictures with both the
front and primary cameras on the phone at the same time. Samsung says this is
good because it lets you add yourself to photos that you’re taking but the
execution is awkward. First, you are added to the photo within a frame that
makes it clear that you weren’t in the shot. Secondly, when was the last time
you were conscious about what you looked like when you were taking a photo?
While the pricing is considered,
pre-order prices for the Samsung Galaxy S4 have been leaked by a couple of
European sites showing that the phone will cost
around 650 Euros (Rs. 45,500
approx.). GSM Arena spotted the Galaxy S4 go live on an
Italian retailer’s site
for
699 Euros following which
Amazon Germany also listed the phone for
650
Euros.
Full Specs Here: Samsung Galaxy S IV
Just after releasing X1000, XOLO
is back again with B700, a smart budget smartphone for just Rs. 8,900. The XOLO
B700 houses a 1GHz dual-core processor, with a PowerVR SGX531 GPU, the same GPU
that powers the XOLO X1000 and Micromax A110. The B700 has 512MB of RAM and a
massive battery power of 3450 mAh. The phone is claimed to provide 20 hours of
continuous talk time on 3G 86 hours of continuous music playback. The phone has a
4.3-inch IPS display with a resolution of 960x50 pixels and 256 ppi.
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