Our Verdict
As a part of its aggressive 4 G plans , T - Mobile launched a 4 gramme rendering of the popular Samsung Galaxy S phones . But regrettably , the Galaxy S 4 G ( $ 200 with a two - year contract from T - Mobile ; price as of March 1 ) does not have the eyeglasses of the hot next - gen Galaxy S II phones we picture at Mobile World Congress . That say , there are some little improvement between the Galaxy S 4 G and the Samsung Vibrant , also on T - Mobile .
Design
The Galaxy S 4 G retains the lightweight , yet plasticky finger in hand that a few of the other Galaxy phones have had . It looks a bit different from the other all - pitch-black Galaxy earphone as it has a silver barrage cover with a metallic - alike sheen . In terms of button , you get the standard Menu , Home , Back and hunting trace samara . The hardware power button on the correct spine is slimly more pronounced than the one on the Vibrant . Measuring 4.82 - by-2.54 - by-0.39 inches and weighing 4.16 ounces it is reasonably much the exact same size as the Vibrant .
Like the other Galaxy S phones out right on now , the 4 thou has a 4 - inch Super AMOLED display . Super AMOLED engineering science , which Samsung introduce at Mobile World Congress last twelvemonth on theSamsung Wave , pose hint sensors on the display itself , as opposed to creating a separate layer ( whichSamsung ’s old AMOLED displayshad ) . This reserve for a thinner phone as well as promising coloring and more kinky details . It is inauspicious , however , that the Galaxy S 4 G does not sport the brand new Super AMOLED Plus showing engineering science , which debut on theSamsung Infuse 4Gat this year ’s CES . Super AMOLED Plus technology , the next generation ofSuper AMOLED , make rich colouring and high-pitched visibility indoors and out . It has 50 pct more subpixels for better clarity and readability alfresco , according to Samsung .
Software
Like other Galaxy telephone set , the Galaxy runs Samsung ’s TouchWiz 3.0 user interface over Android . luckily , the Galaxy S 4 GiB ship with Android 2.2 . I would have preferred a Gingerbread ( 2.3 ) phone , though . If the Samsung Nexus S can have it , why ca n’t the Galaxy S 4 G ?
Like HTC and its Sense offering , Samsung has its own societal metier collector . Social Hub combines stream from your Facebook , MySpace , and Twitter accounts into a exclusive view . It is a utilitarian feature if you require a simple way to keep track of your networks . One random feature is Mini Diary , which lets you make blog entries with photos , weather info , textual matter subject matter , and more . When I first tried Mini Diary on the European Galaxy S , I could n’t figure out how to get my entries off the equipment . Samsung take after up with me after my original limited review , gratefully , and affirm that you could indeed post entries ( though only those with exposure ) to various social connection or send them to friend via text . After you make an entry , you press the Menu key in the bottom - provide corner , and it gives you MMS and Publish options . If you prefer Publish , you could send your item to Facebook or MySpace .
Overall , TouchWiz is a fun and attractive take on Android , but it is n’t for everyone because it is so overdone that the result does n’t even look or experience like an Android speech sound . Also , we establish that the peel sometimes step in with the Galaxy S 4 G ’s rapidity .
Multimedia
The TouchWiz medicine player is tactile sensation - favorable and easy to navigate . It showcases album artistic production nicely , too , with an iTunes Cover Flow - style user user interface . Sound was blank over my own earbuds , and decent via the external verbaliser .
One of the most challenging features of the Galaxy S earpiece is the Samsung Media Hub , which will accompany all of the Galaxy S model . Media Hub is Samsung ’s answer to iTunes , a depot for buy medicine and picture . It by all odds is n’t as rich in content as iTunes , but you ’ll be able to incur most major movies and most popular music .
The Galaxy 4 G is also loaded with the full length movie Inception ( which looked smashing on the display and played smoothly ) , T - Mobile video chat , doubleTwist with AirSync , Slacker and Kindle for Android .
Camera
In my hands - on tests , the 5 - megapixel camera performed pretty well both indoors and out - until I took it out at night . Oddly , like the very first Galaxy S headphone we played with , the Samsung Galaxy S 4 G has no flashgun . For a speech sound with so much whiz - bang , it is deplorable that a television camera flash was leave out of the final design .
My photos shot indoors look a bit on the dark side , but overall pretty crisp and clear . pic postulate outdoors on a sunny day depend a lot better : semblance bet vivid , yet instinctive and details were shrill .
The HD camcorder can shoot up to 720p telecasting , which looked middling good in the test telecasting I shot alfresco . The Galaxy S 4 G also ships with a front - facing VGA television camera for video chatting .
Performance
The Galaxy S 4 G is powered by a 1 gigacycle per second Cortex A8 Hummingbird processor , like the other Galaxy headphone . Oddly , it has less progress - in memory than the Vibrant with 512 MB of RAM as oppose to 1024 megabyte . The Galaxy S 4 G handled video swimmingly as well as the multiple apps I threw at it . I did notice a chip of lag though during scrolling and flicking through menus . This might be an issue with TouchWiz bogging down Android ; we ’ve noticed this on other Samsung TouchWiz phones before .
According to T - Mobile , the Galaxy S 4 G is adequate to of delivering theoretic peak download speeds of up to 21 Mbps over its HSPA+ “ 4 G ” web . Theoreticalis the keyword here . In San Francisco , our speed did n’t even get close , but they were tight - depending on where we were . Using the FCC - sanction Ookla app , we get an norm of 2.6 Mbps for download speeds and 0.36 Mpbs for upload speed in the South Park neighborhood of San Francisco . In another neighborhood , where the 4 G signaling is stronger , we got an average of 6.5 down and 1.7 up .
In a real cosmos scenario , pages loaded reasonably quickly - when I could get a signal . I had to examine the full PCWorld.com hypertext markup language site multiple times because the Galaxy S 4 G kept switch over between bound and 4G. When I finally get it to fully load over 4 G , I got about 18 second on average . ThrasherMagazine.com have an average of 17 second and a roving version of CNN.com took 4 secondment .
Call quality over the web was really good . I did n’t experience any dropped calls ( a problem that the Vibrant seems to fight with ) and voices sounded crystal clear . Callers on the other closing of line were also pleased with the audio caliber and could try me perfectly .
Conclusion
CES 2011 delivered a slew of 4 constant of gravitation telephone set with dual - core processors from HTC , Motorola , LG and even Samsung itself . And at this year ’s Mobile World Congress , we saw theSamsung Galaxy S II , which skylark a double - essence Hummingbird processor and Samsung ’s new Super AMOLED Plus covert technology . The Galaxy S 4 G is a not bad phone , but other than its 4G - ness , it feels like last twelvemonth ’s crack phones . That is n’t a spoilt thing at all , but for those of us who want the belated , superlative and fast phones , the Galaxy S 4 G might not contract it .
[ Ginny Mies is an associate editor for PCWorld . ]
