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Like many people, I had my hands on the much anticipated Samsung Galaxy S4 during the Malaysian launch at the end of April, 2013. The arguably the most sophisticated Android phone to date looked sleek and felt responsive the few minutes I got to play with it, but you can’t really do a phone review without living with it for a while.

Samsung Galaxy S4 – Life Companion

Couple weeks ago, I had the chance to take home a Galaxy S4 for a week long review, and this is what I think about the gadget.

First, the few highlighted hardware specifications:

• 5″ Full HD Super AMOLED (1920 x 1080)
• 1.6 Ghz Octo-core
• 2 GB RAM
• Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
• 13 MP rear and 2 MP front cameras
• 2600 mAh battery
• infrared transmitter

In terms of look, the S4 doesn’t stray far from its predecessor. The dimensions of S4 are almost identical (with S4 being slightly thinner), and with the bigger 5″ screen compared to S3’s 4.8″, the bezel of S4 is much thinner. It is an evolution for the better in terms of look and feel.

Story Album, Walking Mate, Samsung Hub

There are several in-house applications and features that are bundled with Samsung Android devices, most of which aren’t available on other phones. I want to talk about a few of them here.

Story Album:

This application is pretty smart. After you capture pictures from certain place/time, the phone will automatically prompt for a creation of a story album. It’s a little bit like auto generated slideshow for your photos where you can add text descriptions and such, all done in minimal time. Pretty nifty.

from a motorcycle shop – back lit

S Health:

This is an application that tracks your calorie intake and output via Walking Mate, Exercise Mate, and Food Tracker. The program utilizes the phone’s G sensor as a pedometer, and will also differentiate steps you take going upstairs from those on flat surface. It’s pretty neat and a helpful for those who want to stay active. An armband is useful with this.

Essentially, S Health is a little bit like a cross between Endomondo and Jawbone Up.

Camera on the Galaxy S4 – colors & smoke

S Translator:

The built in translation service on S4 knows 9 different languages so far – Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and English. The speech-to-text-translate-text-to-speech cycle worked better than I anticipated, I believe you can really use this service as a simple translation tool while travelling, but don’t expect to have a philosophical discussion with your Korean friend in Spanish just yet.

typical 1 Malaysia breakfast with toast, half boiled eggs, coffee – food shot

WatchOn:

Noticed that infrared transmitter in the specification sheet? Instead of having just a basic remote control function for your living room entertainment systems and TVs, WatchOn is a full fledge application that’s designed to work with your Astro satellite or fiber TV service.

The app synchronizes with Astro’s program list and allow for notifications and remote control of your TV, Astro receiver/PVR, and even audio system all at the same time. You can also customize and show only the classification of TV programmes you’re interested in, such as Sports or Movies.

It is really very, very neat.

Galaxy S4’s Air View function is pretty neat

Air View and Air Gesture:

Air View and Air Gesture are functions on the phone that allows you certain controls by merely getting close to the phone and without really touching it. For example, hover your finger over the photo album will magnify the picture directly beneath, and doing the same on messages or emails will pop up a summary.

I find that the air view works great on email/messaging & contact list very well, but the feature isn’t taken advantage by every application yet, it should get better as more programs take advantage of this.

both camera at the same time – dual shot

Camera:

For me personally, camera is perhaps the most important feature on a mobile phone. I use it extensively for snapping photos (mostly food, obviously) and upload them to my instagram, facebook, and this blog.

The camera on Samsung Galaxy S4 did not disappoint. I usually leave it on full auto mode and let the software do the rest. Every photo except those that shows the S4 and screenshots are taken with the phone and I’m rather happy with the results, color reproduction is especially awesome.

The photos aren’t edited or altered in any way except for resizing. Operation is fast, and picture quality is better than compact cameras I’ve owned.

panoramic shots made easy

The panoramic shooting, burst mode, face detection, anti-shake, best photo, best face, and dual shot are among the extra features that comes with the camera application. There’s also an image editing program that’s shipped with the Galaxy S4 for quick in-phone editing as well.

Over the week long testing period, I came to really liking the Galaxy S4. Props to Samsung for always pushing the envelop and came up with this brilliant gadget. Now why didn’t I get to keep it?

And finally it’s here, arguably the most anticipated mobile phone launch of the year – Samsung Galaxy S4 is now officially available in Malaysia at all major telcos. I was there at the launch last Saturday to catch a glimpse of the gadget at Celcom Blue Cube, Sunway Pyramid and the Samsung store at Lowyat Plaza.

great fanfare at Samsung Galaxy S4 launch, Sunway Pyramid

The launch was a huge fanfare, there were clowns, jokers, jesters, people in stilts, drummers, dancers, magicians, singers, and there were balloons, ice creams, music, and everything that you could imagine. I’ve never seen Sunway Pyramid so alive especially at 9:30 in the morning on a Saturday.

There were a huge line of people queuing up to be the first Galaxy S4 customers. Celcom’s plan for the new phone was as low as RM 1,338 and  there’s a “Spin the wheel” game to reduce another RM 200 to RM 750. What a deal.

I sneaked into Blue Cube to get my hands on the S4 before everyone else

Having worn a blue shirt and holding a camera has its upsides, we were allowed to get into the shop to play with Galaxy S4 before everyone else has the chance.

At the first impression, I thought the phone was bigger, but holding it up confirmed that while the 5″ Full-HD display is indeed larger, the overall phone dimension remains to be about the same as it’s older sibling, the Samsung Galaxy S3. Pixel density is much higher and I must say that the Super AMOLED display is indeed gorgeous.

color me fancy, multicolor S4 backs? with Lydia, Nana, and Ashley

I expected that with the Exynos 5 Octa (Quad-core 1.6 GHz Cortex-A15 & quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7), the phone should be very fast, and it certainly did not disappoint on that front. Swipe, pinch, zoom, and operating pretty much any application I tried without any visible lag.

While processing power is great, it also comes with a bigger 2600 mAh battery to keep the juice flowing as well.

the much anticipated Samsung Galaxy S4, now available at major telcos in Malaysia

I hoped to try the S Translator but it was perhaps a bit too noisy at the event, and with the phone yet to set up with 3G etc, so we didn’t get to try that. The Air View/Air Gesture seems to work well, though I should have brought my riding gloves with to fully test its effectiveness.

Redmummy & Moudini the Magician, Nazwan of beautifulnara

One of the fun features that comes with Galaxy S4 is the ability to use both the front and rear cameras at the same time. I thought that’s a gimmick at first, but after testing it I find myself really liking the way it is implemented.

Basically when you take picture of a place/scene, you can simultaneously snap a photo of yourself encased at a corner like a “stamp”. I think it gives the photo a sort of post-card feel and is great for documenting your travel. Less of those awkward “selfies” if you ask me.

Hope to get my hands on the phone for a more extensive review soon. In the mean time, Samsung Galaxy S4 is available now at RM 2,199. Do check out  www.samsung.com/my for more.

Like many Malaysians, traveling is one of my hobbies. I spent some time in the States, and so far have also traveled to Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Myanmar, Indonesia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Japan, and Australia.

with Dr. Foo & Dr. Melissa at Manila for Operation Smile

When traveling, I particularly love to explore local foods catered to the locals. This usually means stalls by the side of the road or restaurants that doesn’t have an English language menu.

Thus over the years, I’ve mastered some sort of hand signals that usually involves pointing to some type of ingredients or dishes that other clients are eating, follow by the signaling #1, and then point at myself. While this usually works quite well, I’m  unable to customize the dish or ask any further questions, not to mention not knowing how much the meal will cost me.

Enter S Translator that comes with the new Samsung Galaxy S4. The device translates up to 8 languages WITHOUT requiring an internet connection, and it can do it by voice too!

This is like babel fish in your pocket (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy anyone?) and will certainly be the most useful feature ever when I travel. Stuff of science fictions, available now!