Samsung Galaxy S4
Samsung Galaxy S4 review: Still worth buying in 2017?
You can still buy a Samsung Galaxy S4, but the smartphone world has moved on and you can do much better these days
The Samsung Galaxy S4 was a great smartphone in its day, but although you can still buy one – for around £170 to £200 – that doesn’t mean you should. Our advice would be to opt either for a top-quality budget handset like the Motorola Moto G4, as this currently costs less than a new S4 and is much faster overall. The Moto G4 also has excellent battery life and the latest version of Android, which the S4 is currently lacking. As a result, you’ll be missing out on lots of new Android features by opting for the S4.
If you want to spend a little bit more and get something even faster than I’d recommend the OnePlus 3, which costs £329 but has all the speed and general longevity as this year’s major flagships. Both are considerably more capable phones than the elderly Samsung Galaxy S4. If these options don’t float your boat, take a look at our pick of the best smartphones on the market in 2017.
Samsung’s flagship S-series smartphones roll off the hype-production line on a yearly basis with unerring accuracy. They go on to sell in huge numbers, but the relatively small gap between releases means that one quickly blurs into another for most people. The Samsung Galaxy S4 was the 2013 model and even a couple of years on it looks pretty smart and is still very capable, but should you buy it today?
Samsung Galaxy S4 review: Design and build quality
The Galaxy S4 isn’t really a phone to show off with; not that it doesn’t look rather pretty, but more because it’s almost unrecognisable from both its predecessor and successor unless you look up close. The S4 appears to have the usual white plastic finish, but look closer and you’ll see a fine diamond pattern beneath the gloss surface.
It’s a nice touch, and one subtle enough to avoid accusations of unnecessary bling. It manages to avoid attracting fingerprints too, so you won’t need to incessantly polish it to keep it looking clean. The silver trim around the edges might look like metal, but it’s actually plastic as well.
^ We rather like the subtle new pattern, but it’s far more pronounced on the Black version
Given its big 4.99in display, the S4 is surprisingly svelte. It measures just 136.6×69.8×7.9mm and weighs only 130g. 2014’s phones have slightly larger screens, packed into slightly larger bodies, but the S4 still looks like a modern smartphone.
This is largely thanks to its very thin screen bezels, both down the edges and at the other end. This puts the screen just 2.5mm away from the edge of the device and it’s becoming hard to imagine this distance getting any smaller without seriously compromising the survivability of the handset when dropped. The sides have been squared off, compared to the S3, which makes it easier to grip though it looks a little chunkier for it.
The areas above and below the screen are now far smaller, which has significantly reduced the amount of space for the physical home button and touch sensitive menu and back commands. This could have made them awkward, but the button needs an appreciably lighter press and we had no trouble hitting the touch-sensitive controls.
^ The screen fills the handset like we’ve never seen before
Despite having a removable rear cover, which has advantages we’ll discuss later, the S4 doesn’t suffer overly for this practicality. The rear panel fits snug against the body with no flex or shift. When in place, the handset feels like a single piece of tech. It looks somewhat flimsy when removed, but we’ve taken it off many times without cracking or breaking it.
The Galaxy S4 is among the best-looking plastic phones we’ve ever seen, something you could still claim today. It’s a decent evolution from the S3, ironing out plenty of the minor flaws that its predecessor had. These include a USB port that didn’t look very well cut out and a rear case that had quite a loose fit; with the S4, it feels that much more finished and as though more attention has been paid to the detail.
Having said that it’s a very conservative design. Purely from a look and feel perspective we prefer the aluminium HTC One. The curved back and sharp corners make it look far more striking than the rather amorphous blob of the S4; plus HTC has squeezed in a pair of front mounted speakers onto the One, as we’ll discuss later. However, as a piece of practical engineering, the S4 is simply superior, because it fits a noticeably larger display into a similarly sized handset. You simply can’t get more screen than this in your pocket for the size or weight – everything else heads into phablet territory.
The S4 is better designed from an ergonomic point of view too. The power button at the top of the HTC One is beautifully designed, doubles as an IR blaster and responds reliably when you press it – once you’ve got the hang of where it is. The problem is its position; having pressed it with your forefinger, you can’t then reach the buttons below the screen with your thumb. The S4’s right-hand-side power button has a far more traditional and boring look, but at least you can use the handset one handed without having to shift your grip constantly.
Hardware | |
---|---|
Main display size | 5.0in |
Native resolution | 1,920×1,080 |
CCD effective megapixels | 13-megapixel |
GPS | yes |
Internal memory | 16384MB |
Memory card support | microSD |
Memory card included | 0MB |
Operating frequencies | GSM 850/900/1800/1900, 3G 850/900/1900/2100, LTE 800/850/900/1800/2100/2600 |
Wireless data | GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA, LTE |
Size | 137x70x7.9mm |
Weight | 130g |
Features | |
Operating system | Android 4.2.2 |
Microsoft Office compatibility | N/A |
FM Radio | no |
Accessories | USB Charger, headphones |
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