We’ve spent quite a lot of time with the Galaxy S4, this isn’t a first blush review by any stretch of the imagination. Quite a lot of time and effort has gone into using the S4 in lots of different situations and really taking a good look at what Samsung are bringing us.

So first off spec wise, this is by far the most powerful smartphone ever created. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor is backed up with great GPU, a 1080p 5in display, 2 gig of system ram… it flies. Let’s face it, this is the fastest smartphone ever created.

But it’s let down in a few areas which we’ll come on to later in the review. Now, first off, the style of the Samsung Galaxy S4 is striking, but maybe not the most progressive of designs we’ve ever seen.
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Certainly when placed against something like an HTC ONE this does look a little bit out of date, let’s say, a little bit too close to the Galaxy S3 and the Note 2 with only really minor updates to the general look and feel of the hardware.

However, one massive change that Samsung have made is the in-the-hand feel. Now, the Galaxy S4 feels great in the hand.

With the Note 2 and the S3 at times you could feel your finger starting to strain a little bit because of the kind of curved back wasn’t quite as curved as it could be.

Now, though, the feel certainly in my hands is very very good. The weighting as well has been distributed much better so at no point do you quite feel the device is tipping.

Galaxy S4 Build Quality

The continued use of polycarbonates in the Galaxy S4 does make you feel that the device is little bit cheap.

The S4 does feel shiny and plasticky and a little bit nasty which is a shame because the weight is brilliant, the hand feel is perfect, it’s comfortable to use but it just feels a little bit plasticky and cheap which is such a shame.

We can argue all day long which is better – aluminium or polycarbonate but again this is one of those personal choice moments.

If you’re someone who wants aluminium, you feel that gives you more durability then the S4 is not going to be for you. If you’re someone who’s willing to trade off the polycarbonate for the replaceable battery and more spec for your money then the S4 may very well be a good choice.

And these are really the choices we have to make, It’s aluminium and less spec for our money, no removable battery or polycarbonate plastics, removable battery and a higher clock and higher spec overall. So, we have our trade off. My personal feeling is I like removable batteries and that probably answers the question.

Software on the Galaxy S4

So, on the software side of things. Samsung have thrown everything and the kitchen sink into the Galaxy S4.

You’ve got everything from an optical character recognition system which can also do translations so you can point it at an object which has text on it and it will translate that text in real time for you either into English or into other languages.

S Voice which I still wish Samsung would dump! It’s not a patch on Google Now, S Translator, S Planner and S Memo round out the software offerings from Samsung.

S Translator being one of the new items which allows for near real-time translation between two languages so if you’re travelling into a foreign country or something or you meet somebody from a foreign country and you’re having trouble having that conversation you can use S Translator to assist you. For the most part it works well. It does require you to speak fairly slowly and quite deliberately but it gets there in the end.

S Health though, is by far the shining example on the S4 and it makes you wonder why all of Samsung’s apps can’t be of this quality. With the S Health app it tracks your day-to-day life. It monitors how many calories you’ve burned how much weight you’ve gained and helps you stay fit and healthy. And as you can see the app is beautifully designed.

In comparison to some of the other Samsung apps it’s like they’ve got somebody else to build this for them.

The S Health app it’s phenomenal, maybe not the reason to buy the S4 in its own right but if you’re a fitness fanatic or if you’re someone who’s looking to get fit, the S Health app might be a tipping point compared to other handsets on the market.
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S Memo and S Planner are unchanged from the previous editions, they’ve been given a few tweaks here and there but the basic functionality is still the same.

If you use them on the S3 or on the Note 2 effectively these are Samsung’s versions of a note taking app and a calendar app. I’m afraid to say Google does it better.

Samsung Link is the new name for the Allcast and Share application I believe. This allows you to link up multiple different devices including PCs and other phones and share information wirelessly between them. They work quite well in practice.

We were able to pull graphics and video footage from a local PC over wifi and display them on the S4 with very little time delay and it all felt very fluid and easy to use. However it was quite a chore setting up the Samsung software on the PC. It took several attempts, a few reboots and a bit of magic.

It was strange, we couldn’t work out exactly why it wasn’t working it just seemed to be a bit glitchy.

Watch On is a very interesting and useful app it will allow you to pick what types of shows you enjoy watching. It will then make suggestions to you about what shows you might like to watch and if you want to watch the show you simply tap the show’s name and the infrared port on the Galaxy S4 will automatically change the channel for you.
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Likewise, you can set up all of your audio video equipment in the WatchOn app and by doing so you can then control your television your audio video equipment Blu-ray player, all from your smartphone.

For me, that is a bit of a killer feature and it kinds of puts the S4 heads and shoulders above any of the other smartphones out there. It’s a very nice implementation, I would have preferred an application built solely by Samsung because this one is a bit ugly in places.

Samsung have also seen fit to put their own app store on there which is not as good as the Play Store but it has a reasonable attempt.

The standard Google apps are all included as well, so you’ll find Gmail, Google Chrome, Google Maps, Play music ,Play movies, Play books all of the usual things you would expect on any Android device is here.

Samsung have also seen fit to include their video app and a few other little bits and pieces. What Samsung have done really is improve the sensors in the Galaxy S4.

There’s a lot more sensors, including things like barometers, temperature gauges, tilt control, gyroscopes it’s all available on the S4 and also things like Smart Scroll, Smart Stay Air Gestures and Air View.

One cool feature of Air Gestures is to be able to pick up an icon and then instead of having to try and move the icon to the edges of the screen you can simply wave your hand over one of the sensors and then drop the icon where you’d like.

Multi window allows you to have two applications on screen at the same time which is cool we like that idea but it would be nice if it could be two different applications at the same time just picked from your app tray.

So overall we really like the Samsung Galaxy S4.

While we’ve had quite a lot of teething troubles with it, the overheating issue, the headphone jack issue and the general manufacturing, and as we’ve got used to the S4 and we’ve found a few workarounds to some of the problems, we found it to be a very competent device, one of the better smartphones on the market.
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We will be taking a look at the HTC ONE and we’ll also be comparing it to the S3 and the Note 2 but overall I think if you’re in the market for a new phone now, the S4 is the one to go for.

If you already have an S3 or a Note 2 I would say there’s not quite enough here to justify it. Not unless you need the bigger 1080p screen or the faster processor.

If you don’t need either of those two things really what Samsung have offered here is not enough to justify selling your S3 or Note 2 or trading in and buying an S4.

It’s a great device it’s got a lot of rough edges. And the extra stuff that we’re getting here is mostly software.
There is not really enough to justify dumping a device like the S3 or Note 2 that’s barely a year old.

Those are great devices, so is the S4 and for me, this device sits in between the S3 and the Note 2 and it’s kind of like the S3 now becomes the mid range model the Galaxy S4 becomes the high end smartphone and the Note 2 is still the king. I would also suggest checking out some Galaxy S4 cases as well to help protect your investment.[youtube url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC6CtJ8BkfU"]