Thoughts on the Samsung Galaxy S4.

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Post Published on March 14, 2013.
Last Updated on April 3, 2016 by davemackey.

I didn’t buy the original iPhone, I figured I’d wait for the technology to mature. I did buy the iPhone 3G, in fact my wife is still using it to this day (though I recently bought her an iPhone 5 which we will be transferring over to momentarily). I enjoyed my iPhone, it was a device ahead of its time, breaking barriers and making way for greater innovations to come…but then I replaced my iPhone with a Verizon Droid and since then I have never looked back.

Android Market on Samsung Galaxy S.
Android Market on Samsung Galaxy S. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

That said, in spite of having a number of nice Android phones (mainly b/c my employers paid for my cell service and I received discounted pricing through corporate pricing packages) it wasn’t until the Samsung Galaxy S3 that I finally felt satisfied. I love it – and as the months have passed by it hasn’t shown the same degradation in performance I noticed with previous Android phones.

Tonight’s big news in the technology world is the public presentation of the Samsung Galaxy S4…and boy does it look fine! I’ll share with you what I’m excited about regarding the phone and then provide a bibliography for further reading…

  • It will be available on Ting, an MVNO, meaning we can finally get high quality smartphones on low-cost MVNO’s!
  • It has a 1.9 GHz quad core processor.
  • The dual camera mode which will allow the photographer to still be in group photos.
  • Dual Video Call will be useful when attempting to demonstrate technology processes while also providing face time.
  • S Health which tracks calorie burn, heart rate, and pulse…and hopefully a lot more soon.
  • S View which protects the screen while also allowing one to receive important info.
  • Knox for separating work from personal phone usage in a single device.
  • S Health – Especially the S Band Bracelet (monitors steps, calories burned, and sleep quality), HRM (Heart Rate Monitor), and a body scale (e.g. weight scale plus some). The devices are reasonably priced from $69-$99/ea.
  • Mobeam – Which allows one to use barcodes on the phone with traditional barcode scanners at retailers, no need for NFC or QR codes.
  • GamePad – Somewhat like an Xbox controller which attaches to one’s smartphone and allows you to play games…this could significantly expand the types of games one can play on a phone.

I don’t particularly care about:

  • The bigger display.
  • The better resolution.
  • The 13-MP camera (8 MP is fine for me).
  • Air Gesture / Air Wave.
  • Eraser.
  • Group Play.
  • S Translate – How about a quality voice-to-text dictation method? Google Voice is still inept.
  • S Voice Car – This could be cool, but I need to get a mount for my car before this would really be useful.

Bibliography:

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