Samsung Galaxy S4 review: Great in 2013, less so now

The Samsung Galaxy S4 was a magnificent phone in its day. The trouble is that its day was in 2013: five years later, it’s not a phone you want in your pocket – and not just because it capped out at Android 5.0.1, making it a serious security risk now we’re used to phones rocking Android 8.0.

If you do buy yourself a Samsung Galaxy S4 in 2018, you’ll likely find it a frustrating experience, and have to endure a weak performance and frequent slowdowns. The good news is you don’t have to spend top dollar to get a decent upgrade as pretty much anything released in the last two years will be an improvement. Obviously, if you can stretch to the Samsung Galaxy S9 then you’re in for a great experience, but the S8 will do the job almost as well. If you’re on a tight budget, then look no further than the Motorola Moto G6.

Jon’s original review continues below

READ NEXT: The best smartphones of 2016 – These are our favourite smartphones 

Samsung Galaxy S4 review: In full

The Samsung Galaxy S4 is this year’s most anticipated smartphone, but after its glitzy New York launch in March, Samsung has made us wait for the handset. In the meantime, the HTC One has stolen Samsung’s spot at the top of our A-List, and now prospective buyers aren’t only wondering whether it’s better than its rival, but even whether it’s better than its predecessor.

It’s easy to see why many have been left trying to spot the difference between the Galaxy S3 and the new S4: the two phones share their curved shapes, chrome-effect borders and familiar home buttons. Differences are only noticeable up close. The screen is marginally taller, the bottom lip is smaller, and the sensors above the display have been subtly rearranged. There’s one extra black dot – an infrared sensor, which the S4 uses to power gesture-control features. The top of the phone still houses the notification light, which uses the full RGB colour gamut – an improvement over the HTC’s two-tone light.

The new phone is more compact and pocketable than its predecessor, despite a slightly larger screen: it’s 5mm slimmer and marginally lighter, but it feels sturdier, with barely any give in the rear panel.

We like the S4’s diamond-pattern rear casing, which is a big improvement on the plain S3, but the casing’s still entirely plastic, and lacks the reassuringly expensive feel of the HTC One’s aluminium shell. It just doesn’t feel like a device worthy of a £500 price tag. At least that plastic rear panel is removable, which gives access to the microSD slot and replaceable battery, winning the Samsung points for versatility.

The screen

The S4’s 5in, 1,920 x 1,080 Super AMOLED panel uses a PenTile grid, but there’s none of the blurred edges that can appear on this type of display – the 441ppi ensures the Samsung’s screen is as sharp as anything else on the market.

Black levels are perfect, distinctions between deep-black and light-white shades are handled with aplomb, and the S4’s colours are a tad richer than those on the HTC’s LCD screen. Viewing angles are excellent.

There’s a problem, though, and it’s brightness. The S4’s measured maximum brightness of 221cd/m[sup]2[/sup] can’t match the HTC’s 481cd/m[sup]2[/sup], and the deep black level doesn’t make up the shortfall – images, web pages and games lack vibrancy when the phones are compared side by side. The S4’s screen is still one of the best in the business, but it’s the runner-up here.

Performance

European S4 handsets don’t feature the 1.6GHz eight-core processor touted at launch; instead, we’re saddled with a 1.9GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600. That might disappoint speed freaks, but it’s the same processor as found in the HTC One and certainly no slouch.

You can buy PC Pro’s Ultimate Guide to the Samsung Galaxy S4 from Amazon for £7.99 with free delivery.

In the SunSpider JavaScript browser benchmark the S4 put in a stupendously quick performance, completing the test in 892ms, compared to the HTC’s 1,154ms result. The S4’s Quadrant and Geekbench results of 12,730 and 3,221 are the best we’ve ever seen, comfortably surpassing the HTC’s scores of 11,617 and 2,733. Only in the browser-based Peacekeeper HTML 5 test did the S4 falter – its result of 588 couldn’t match the HTC’s 673, although web browsing is commendably smooth.

These record-breaking scores translated to predictably excellent games performance. Real Racing 3 was playable – its tiny frame-rate judders are inconsequential and also appeared on the HTC – and Shadowgun, Dead Trigger and Reckless Racing 2 ran flawlessly.

In general use, however, the S4 often faltered: there’s a noticeable delay when the homescreen or app-switcher loads, and Samung’s TouchWiz UI often juddered when applications are being opened or closed, or when the phone was unlocked.

The Samsung’s 2,600mAh battery is a sliver bigger than the HTC One’s 2,300mAh power pack, but the S4 had 60% left on the gauge after our 24-hour rundown test – the same score as the HTC handset and no advance on its predecessor.

There’s 2GB of RAM, dual-band 802.11ac wireless, NFC and Bluetooth 4, and 4G is included, and the usual sensors are joined by a barometer and humidity monitor. One area may cause power users to balk, and that’s storage – the 16GB model has only 9GB of usable space. Samsung hasn’t yet confirmed when the 32GB and 64GB versions will make it to the UK.

Smart features

As expected, the Samsung Galaxy S4 runs the latest version of Android (Jelly Bean 4.2.2), with a heavy dose of Samsung tweaks, courtesy of TouchWiz. The most interesting are the new “touchless” features. The infrared sensor allows you to answer the phone, scroll through photos or skip music tracks by waving a hand in front of the screen.

We successfully swiped through a selection of pictures, but it isn’t the intuitive process you might expect; we had to ensure our hand passed directly in front of the sensor to make it work, and bringing our hand back to swipe to the next image often sent pictures back in the other direction.

The much-hyped Smart Scroll detects eyes and scrolls web pages if you look at the top or bottom of the screen. The feature intrigued the PC Pro office but it’s flawed. The delay before the S4 detects your eyes is irritating, the phone doesn’t always register upwards or downwards glances, and it lacks precision. We soon resorted to using our thumbs.

We’re also nonplussed about Air View, another touchless feature that takes advantage of the super-sensitive touchscreen to sense your finger when it hovers within 1cm of the screen’s surface. The idea is to provide a quick preview of emails and expanded image thumbnails; in practice, we found it awkward. You have to position your finger very close to the screen, previews don’t appear instantaneously, and email previews only work in Samsung’s own app – Gmail isn’t supported. The hyper-sensitive touchscreen does have one, more practical benefit: as with Nokia’s Windows Phone 8 handsets, it can be operated while wearing gloves.

The S4 extends the Smart Stay features we first saw on the SIII. Now, as well as keeping the display on while you’re looking at the screen, the S4 will pause video automatically when you look away. This worked, but again, feels gimmicky.

We also gave the new S Translator feature a whirl. Designed to help the linguistically challenged to communicate abroad, it can translate text between ten different languages, including English, German, French and Spanish. Its party trick is the ability to convert the spoken word into another language via the phone’s voice-recognition engine. It’s hit-and-miss, but sufficient for phrasebook-style snippets.

TouchWiz

Gimmicks aside, TouchWiz remains one of the best Android UIs around. The keyboard is excellent in both traditional and gesture-led guises, and it’s been fitted with a row of numbers – an improvement over HTC Sense. We like the notification panel: it benefits from Android 4.2’s expanded notifications, and the top row can be customised with up to 20 settings options.

The Gallery is versatile thanks to numerous viewing modes, and the photo editor has options for artistic effects and common tweaks. Icons can be hidden in the app drawer, and the phonebook supports customisable vibration patterns, and has a huge number of options for contacts list customisation. Multi-View, which debuted on the Note 2, returns here, and works well: a menu on the left-hand side links to applications that can be run in tandem, with different apps occupying the top and bottom halves of the screen.

Almost all of Samsung’s gimmicky touchless features can be turned off in the settings menu, which is more comprehensive than any other Android device. The issue of aesthetics is subjective, but we’re not convinced by TouchWiz’s busy looks and bold colours – we prefer HTC Sense’s pared back, more mature design.

Samsung Hub is a content store designed to compete with Google Play, but offers few benefits over the default Android store. Renting The Hobbit from Samsung’s store costs £4.49 – a pound more than on Google Play – and Argo was similarly pricey. Taken 2 costs £3.49 on both stores, but Oscar-winning movie Life of Pi wasn’t available on Samsung’s store. Books were similarly expensive, with novels from James Herbert, Gillian Flynn and David Mitchell between 50p and £1 pricier in the Samsung Hub.

Camera

One of the major attractions of the S3 was the quality of its camera, and the S4 moves this on a notch, with a 13-megapixel sensor and a host of new features.

There’s Dual Shot, which uses both rear- and front-facing cameras to shoot simultaneously and combine the two images in a montage. Sound & Shot records nine seconds of audio to accompany photos, while Drama Shot captures a series of images and superimposes them on top of each other, resulting in a collage action shot.

Eraser Shot takes five images, and can remove unwanted people from pictures, and there’s also Best Face and Beauty Face – the former attempts to pick the best faces from a group of shots before superimposing them onto one image, and the latter claims to enhance facial attributes during shooting.

We suspect these features will be little-used novelties: while Dual, Drama and Eraser Shot work well, we can’t see many practical applications for these effects. Beauty Face made no visible difference to our portraits.

Gimmicks aside, the camera impresses. Pictures exhibited plenty of detail and balanced colour reproduction without the slight oversaturation that marred the HTC’s images, and macro pictures – a strength of the S3 – remain superb. Panorama shots were taken without major stitching errors, and we found the S4’s autofocus faster and more consistent than the HTC. Video was detailed, and the handset’s electrical image stabilisation made footage smoother and sharper.

Noise wasn’t an issue in daylight shots, but it was more prominent in nighttime snaps. The S4’s night-mode pictures also captured less light than the HTC, and zoomed-in pictures lost detail.

Verdict

There isn’t much between the S4 and its big rival at the checkout: the Samsung is free on deals that start at £31 a month, while the HTC can be had on similar contracts. You’ll have to pay more on 4G – £41 a month and an £80 upfront cost for 1GB of data. SIM-free, the Galaxy costs £580, with the HTC coming in at £530.

Samsung has worked hard to justify such a huge outlay, and has delivered record-breaking benchmark performance, an excellent camera and an improved exterior. We like many of TouchWiz’s more sensible features, and the microSD slot and removable battery appeal.

In several key areas, however, Samsung hasn’t quite hit the mark. The screen isn’t as impressive as the HTC’s panel, performance isn’t flawless as benchmarks, and most of the Galaxy’s touchless features are destined for deactivation.

And then there’s the “wow” factor we expect from flagship devices. The Galaxy’s exterior is better than ever, but its plastic shell can’t hold a candle to the HTC’s stunning, sturdy aluminium frame.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 is one of the world’s best smartphones – but, unlike its predecessor, it isn’t the best. It’s a close-run thing, but the HTC One stays on top of the A-List, and Samsung’s contender debuts in second place.

UPDATE: May 09, 2013

Since we published this review the Galaxy S4 has received an over-the-air update. The phone still runs Android version 4.2.2, but Samsung has said the update improves the phone’s performance and includes bug fixes.

We’ve re-run our benchmarks using the new software, but the news isn’t good. The S4’s SunSpider score has drifted out from 892ms to 1,148ms, and in Peacekeeper the original 588 score is also a touch worse at 580. The S4’s original Quadrant score of 12,730 has dropped to 12,362 with the new update installed. Only in Geekbench did the Samsung improve its performance, raising its original score of 3,221 marginally to 3,232.

That still leaves the S4 as the world’s most powerful phone, at least in synthetic benchmarks, and it doesn’t struggle with games – but it’s hardly what we expect from an update that promises performance improvements.

The update doesn’t change our opinion of the S4 in real-world use, either. The pausing and stuttering we experienced first time around were still present, and point to inefficiency within the TouchWiz UI rather than any hardware issues. The update hasn’t made a difference to our first conclusion: the S4 is good, but the HTC One remains our A-List choice.

Thanks to Tesco for providing our review sample.

UPDATE: November 07, 2013

After a month of everyday use, technical editor Darien Graham-Smith shares his long-term impressions of the Galaxy S4.

It takes only a few days to acclimatise to the S4’s size, and to the plasticky feel of the polycarbonate casing. Any unwanted TouchWiz features are quickly disabled, and the occasional stutter in performance that we saw during our original tests seems to have died away over time, perhaps thanks to a handful of over-the-air software updates. Very quickly, the S4 has come to feel like a comfortable daily companion.

One frustration that remains is battery life. If you’re constantly browsing the web and chatting online, you definitely won’t get through a full day. On the plus side, you can easily pop in a spare battery – we’ve already ordered a high-capacity replacement, which we look forward to testing – which isn’t an option for the iPhone, HTC One or Nexus 5.

The Galaxy S4 also offers a microSD card slot, unlike its flagship rivals. For anyone with a large collection of music and videos – or wanting to get stuck into mobile photography – it’s just what the doctor ordered.

The S4 still isn’t cheap. Even five months after launch, a SIM-free handset currently costs around £80 more than a Nexus 5. And performance is already starting to look a little dated: the SunSpider score of 892ms we saw in our original review has now fallen to 1,005ms, while in the taxing GfxBench 3D benchmark the S4 achieved 14fps, which is unexceptional compared with the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Apple iPhone 5s.

For all that, though, it’s a phone that brings distinctive advantages, and not a hint of buyer’s remorse. If you’re in the market for a flexible, expandable phone, the Galaxy S4 is an option we’re happy to keep recommending.

Details
Cheapest price on contract	Free
Contract monthly charge	£31.00
Contract period	24 months
Contract provider	www.mobilephonesdirect.co.uk
Physical
Dimensions	70 x 7.9 x 136mm (WDH)
Weight	130g
Touchscreen	yes
Primary keyboard	On-screen
Core Specifications
RAM capacity	2.00GB
Camera megapixel rating	13.0mp
Front-facing camera?	yes
Video capture?	yes
Display
Screen size	5.0in
Resolution	1080 x 1920
Landscape mode?	yes
Other wireless standards
Bluetooth support	yes
Integrated GPS	yes
Software
OS family	Android