News Samsung Galaxy S4 officially unveiled

Confirming many recent rumours, the Galaxy S4 is big and feature packed.
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2013/03/15/samsung-galaxy-s4-specs-official/1

 

It's done EXACTLY as I would have expected. A slight change in many respects to the SIII along with the much talked about improvements of the screen, CPU/GPU and a few other things, but nothing here is radical. The reason for this? There just was no need. They have zero competition from another manufacturer and the iPhone craze is truly on it's last legs.

Main thoughts? Why, oh why won't Microsoft let manufacturers release phones with this sort of hardware?

 

Just watched the live unveiling. There were a few things I liked, but ultimately no real big thing that made me want it. I'm more interested in the features getting into android, as I can't stand touchwiz. I can definitely, wait till next year.

 

While the S3 is great, it just feels cheap. The S4 sounds no better. I'll stick with my HOX for a wee while yet.

 

If i were to buy a phone right now, the HTC one would be getting my money.

simply because of the hardware, the S4 just looks dull and the fake plastic chrome surrounding it looks tacky, whereas the HTC one looks stunning.

that may sound vain but the the way i see it, both phones are high spec, they can both do the exact same thing, they both have their own gimmicks, smart scroll, ZOE, etc, but fundamentally they are both android phones with access to the same Apps.
So the HTC one wins purely because it is much nicer looking phone.

The S4 having a removable battery and expandable storage is a plus, but personally i own a 32GB phone and i haven't even used half of it, as for battery i have never had the need to remove it.
Of course this is personnel preference, and i'm sure these two features will matter to others.

 

Actually, looking at the specs it seems the S4 is slightly smaller (and lighter) than the S3.

 

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/samsung-galaxy-s4-vs-galaxy-s3-whats-changed-50010648/

its phisically bigger than the S3? on that video

 

That thing is massive its is it classed as a phablet ? I can't see myself holding this up to make a call you would feel like a muppet.

 

The big problem is that by the time any of these new phones are released - most of the new features have been known or speculated about ad infinitum.

The event last night/this morning - was embarrassing. Typically made for america - every scene was made for middle (with upper class aspirations) class white Joes. The skits were overtly sexist - yes of course Samsung and Americans - women only ever have their nails drying or wet hands or kids snot or..... It was fantastic to see a women simply unable to function as a 'garden hand' needed to remove his clothes....

I mean come on! If Lara Croft and update for the 2010s - cant we expect something a bit more realistic?

The sad fact is that America is hooked on the iPhone. Europe and the rest of world is quickly turning its back on the Apple 'we are the centre of the universe and you will comply with my authority'. But America is simply unable to stop buying that rubbish. Last nights event should have been professional. It should have shown actual people using the actual phone - not holding a device that was turned off or trying to suggest that the video shown on stage was taken 20s previously. It wasnt. Its a lie. Why should we buy tech from a company whos first act is to lie to its customers?


Grumpy old git

 

Whatever the heck for? just to add another "feature"?

The S3 is still 350pounds here, I'm somehow not tempted by new phones

 

It's funny, smartphones have reached a point where they're all so similar in function, that I no longer care for them. Literally none of those "upgrades" are tempting for me. Nowadays, probably the most important thing for me now is does the phone look and feel nice? I know it sounds a bit vain, but I can't help but like technology that looks good. An iPhone 5 may not have anywhere near the same functionality as some of the android phones, but personally I think it's beautiful.

 

The S5 with have a keyboard and a blueray drive at this rate xD

 

I can hold my phone at arms length and appear along side the people in the photo. Who wants to be put on like a stamp. When they showed it instantly reminded me of weirdos in films who cut put pictures of themselves and sticky tape them onto pictures of other people.

 

Nokia Lumia 920 looks like the clear winner still then, guess they'll wait for the S5 for some decent competition in build quality, specs and software.

 

Pity its not the winner in the publics eyes which is all that matters to samsung/apple.

Samsung sg4 specs are intresting,

No more Arm GPU was the first thing that stands out going to the powervr for there graphics either suggests the Arm gpu is not launch ready or its just not quick enough.

Whats more intresting is the CPU in it the first a15 chip put in a mobile phone.

The most intresting bit i got was that the 2 biggest sellers in the smartphone sector are now moving further and further away from the stock Arm chips into fully custom designed chips to meet there needs.

Should be intresting to see where this takes us in a few years time.

Also makes you wonder how long before Samsung decides its better off outside of googles eco system and makes there own, They have been aquiring services and stuff to do it for the last year or so now.

SG5 on there own operating system maybe would still sell in the millions as id bet 95% of there customers never replace the touchwiz thats on it to begin with.

Would be nice to see an actual 3rd OS that is competitive.

Ill get one from my work as we get free upgrades to latest hardware on release as part of our contract deal.

 

Hopefully if HTC can get its marketing sorted then the S4 and iPhone 5/5S will have some serious competition. The S4 looks so bad next to the One, and at least Sense looks nice compared to Touchwiz.

 

M$ probably do. Manufacturers probably don't want to. Tiny OS support.

 

Microsoft do and they all want to as well. The 920 which is 6 months old looks and reading reviews of the S4 the 920 will feel and handle better as well.

 

actually used a mates 820 - it was not a bad bit of kit once you got used to the os