When Samsung first unveiled the Galaxy S4 - at an event that I'm sure many have successfully forgotten about - it put a lot of emphasis on camera capabilities and image quality.

Still would! You can record sound while taking photos with a 13MP camera, but are photos really that good?

To answer this question, we turned to the TechHive lab for help. With the help of their lab technicians, we compared the Galaxy S4's camera to competitors' cameras - and to see the difference in quality.

The results are pretty interesting and at least indicate that the Galaxy S4's camera has a lot more than a long list of different shooting modes.

Note: these 400 x 300 pixel comparison images are taken from full-size photographs at 100% zoom. Links to original images are below. The pictures of the HTC One were taken before the phone's camera was updated.

Daytime cityscape

Cityscapes are great for testing because they show how the camera handles a busy environment. Due to the huge number of events taking place in the photo, the camera often cannot process close lines and differences in distances.

The Galaxy S4, Galaxy S3 and iPhone 5 performed admirably in this test, albeit in the end the prize went to Lumia 920... The Lumia did a better job of capturing color in the frame and had virtually no digital noise around the bridge like other smartphones. The iPhone 5 and Galaxy S4 came in second, followed by the Galaxy S3. HTC One finished in the very rear.

Low light portrait (no flash)

Many smartphones (and even many digital cameras) struggle hard when it comes to taking photos in low light areas. In these situations, having a larger sensor rather than megapixels can be the difference between a sharp shot and a black photo.

Galaxy S3 - Failed this test completely, while Galaxy S4 captured an impressively clear image with very little noise and color distortion. The photo of the Lumia 920 also came out pretty sharp, although it had a very rough tint. HTC One's UltraPixel didn't help the camera much, and the image came out like a reanimated corpse, but the photo wasn't as grainy as the iPhone 5.

Low light portrait (with flash)

Shooting in low light conditions usually results in poor looking images, but what happens if you turn on the flash? Most smartphones in niche days are equipped with this capability, although the results are often less exciting: objects appear concave, sometimes convex, and often just look like Kermit the frog. Unfortunately, this test did not reveal any clear winners. The HTC One made our subject look like a piece of cardboard, and the photo taken by the Lumia 920 looks like another Instagram masterpiece. The iPhone 5, Galaxy S3, and Galaxy S4 fully illuminated the room from different angles, but Galaxy phones, especially Galaxy S4, we thought, did the best job at the job to identify the features of our subject's face.

Macro photography (full sun, bright colors)

This test was even more difficult to evaluate, no, not because the photos turned out bad, but because of the opposite problem - most of the photos looked like we could put them on a shelf in a frame.

Pretty much all high-end ones can take decent macro photos, but very few of them are capable of capturing images with the clarity and color you would get from a separate digital camera.

HTC One was our favorite in the last test, but the resulting photo this time looked blurry. The Lumia 920 did a good job with the fine details of the flower, however the leaves in the image came out bluer than green.

The petals in the image from the Galaxy S3 were too bright in our opinion, but the photos looked good. The photos taken by the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S4 were by far the most balanced, with the highest color fidelity and the most detail.

Portrait (full sun)

For this test, we asked our subject to pose for us outside to see how well the phone would reproduce skin tone when shooting in bright sunlight.

When it came to contrast, the iPhone 5 snatched the lead, beating both the Galaxy S3 and HTC One. The HTC One photo had a weird effect that made our subject look unnatural. The Lumia 920 and Galaxy S4 did an excellent job of handling skin tones, but the Galaxy S4 could have left less noise around our subject.

Outcome

As the above images showed, the camera on the Samsung Galaxy S4 has almost nothing to brag about: Although the phone may hold its own against the current generation of smartphones when it comes to taking photos in just about any setting.

Still, the iPhone and Lumia outperform it in some respects, but it's safe to say that the Galaxy S4 camera is a step up from last year's Galaxy S3 camera.

Combined with a huge number of shooting modes, the Galaxy S4 is a good choice for people looking for more functionality that phones from Nokia and Apple cannot offer.

Smartphone manufacturers do a lot to impress users with the quality of their photos. Whereas Nokia added a super camera to a smartphone, Samsung decided to do the opposite - add an Android smartphone to the camera. The result is Galaxy Zoom - not very convenient for making calls or surfing the Internet, but very interesting for those who constantly take pictures. Whether the capabilities of his camera are worth the compromises in terms of convenience, Vesti.Hi-tech figured out.

Recall that almost a year ago, Samsung already experimented with Android on a camera - they took a compact ultrazoom WB850F and crossed it with the flagship Galaxy S III. The result is a very powerful device with a record 21x optical zoom with stabilization. They called it honestly - Galaxy Camera and deprived of the ability to make calls. To make it clear - this is not a smartphone, this is a camera. In our review, we that the idea is great, but the implementation let us down. Has Samsung learned any lessons this time around? Could the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom be the only device in the hobby photographer's pocket, combining the functions of a phone, an Internet Communicator, a camera and an imaging device?

Specifications Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom

• Operating system: Android 4.2.2, TouchWiz interface
• Processor: Samsung Exynos 4210, two ARM Cortex-A9 cores @ 1.5 GHz
• Display: 4.3 ", 960x540, AMOLED
• Camera: main - 16 megapixels, optical zoom 10x, flash, 1080p video recording; front 1.9 megapixels
• Memory: drive 8 GB, 1.5 GB of RAM, slot for microSD (up to 64 GB)
• Communications: cellular communication 2G, 3G; Wi-Fi 802.11 a / b / g / n, Bluetooth 4.0, infrared, microUSB 2.0, NFC
• Battery: removable 2330 mAh
• Dimensions, weight: 125.5 x 63.5 x 15.4 mm (thickness indicated at thinnest point), 208 g

Appearance, ergonomics
With the Galaxy S4 Zoom, everything is different than with the Galaxy Camera - from the "front" part it is clearly a smartphone, and it is immediately clear which one is the Galaxy S 4 mini. The appearance is typical for all the latest "Samsung", the "family" features that have found perfect embodiment in the Galaxy S 4, the company is trying to transfer to all devices of the Galaxy line, not excluding even full-size tablets:

The device is enclosed in a fairly compact, at least in width and length (125.5 x 63.5 x 15.4 mm, and in the thickest place - almost 3 cm), a large body for a smartphone, but the weight permissible for a "photomiler" - 208 grams. The body uses two types of plastic - glossy white and "silver metal". Neither its appearance nor tactile sensations cause any special delight - everything is exactly the same as in the vast majority of other Galaxy devices of 2013.

On the screen side, the Galaxy S4 Zoom is a typical smartphone, with proximity / light sensors above the display, microphone, earpiece and even a front camera. From all other points of view, this is clearly a camera. The lens with a 10x zoom and a ring for zooming in / out of the picture folds into a small "pancake", there is an extension on the right for easy holding, flash and illumination, everything is as it should be for inexpensive photo compacts. Unlike a smartphone, the device is not very convenient to carry in a jeans pocket - the pocket is pulled back a lot, but in the pocket of a jacket or jacket it is another matter.

If you turn the Galaxy S4 Zoom horizontally, like a camera - and this is primarily a camera, no matter what Samsung marketers say - then on the upper edge on the right we will have a large and convenient shutter release button, and on the left there are traditionally "smartphone" narrow power buttons / lock and volume rocker.

Below is a tripod thread protected by a plastic "plug", an eyelet for a strap and a slot for a microSD card, on the right is a microUSB port and a cover that hides a battery and a sim card. Finally, on the left is the headphone jack and infrared port.

Screen, filling
If the Galaxy Camera had a large, 4,7-inch display with HD-resolution, then in the Galaxy S4 Zoom everything is more modest - Samsung decided to limit itself to a 4.3-inch AMOLED matrix with a small resolution of 960 by 540 pixels. In a year when FullHD screens in smartphones have become commonplace, this is not only unimpressive, but also frustrating. Unless the high contrast and brightness of the AMOLED matrix or the fact that it is protected by the most advanced shock-resistant glass from Cornig - Gorilla Glass 3 - will comfort you.

The Galaxy S4 Zoom resembles the Galaxy S4 mini not only externally, but internally as well. An Exynos 4212 system-on-a-chip with two ARM Cortex-A9 processor cores was chosen as the processor. The core frequency is 1.5 GHz, and the RAM is 1.5 gigabytes. Built-in memory - 8 gigabytes (about 5 available), which is quite a bit, given the large amount of Samsung system software. It's good that there is support for microSD cards with a capacity of up to 64 GB. The battery capacity has grown significantly compared to the Galaxy Camera - up to 2,330 mAh from 1,650, if you wish, you can buy a replaceable battery and not worry about the autonomy of the device at all.

The hardware of the device is enough for the comfortable operation of Android 4.2. Perhaps, in some advanced games, the Galaxy S4 Zoom will not demonstrate outstanding results, but this is not its "profile" either - it is inconvenient to keep it in the "play" position due to the specific shape of the case. The interface works without "brakes", despite the very "heavy" add-on from Samsung - TouchWiz. But the camera starts up slowly, and it is unlikely that the processor is "to blame" here, rather the software is not optimized enough. The sensor size is 1 / 2.3 ", the same as that of the Galaxy Camera and most of the less advanced" photographic cameras ".

Taking photos and videos
The main thing in such a device, of course, is taking photos. You can shoot using the on-screen buttons in the standard Camera application, or, much more conveniently, using the large two-stage shutter button. The zoom is adjusted again from the screen, or with the help of the ring that surrounds the lens.

The photography software used in the Galaxy S4 Zoom is largely unchanged from the Galaxy S4. By default, the camera shoots in automatic mode, you can select the size and aspect ratio of the frame. The maximum possible resolution is 16 megapixels at a 4: 3 aspect ratio and 14 megapixels at a 16: 9 aspect ratio. Video can be shot in FullHD at 30 frames, 720p at 60 or 30, or if you want to make it as light as possible, in VGA mode.

There are many shooting scenarios available in smart scene mode - Macro, Food, Night, Landscape, and more. - more than two dozen in total, including "smart" modes with the choice of one frame from several shot in a row and the ability to remove foreign objects or bystanders from the frame. Finally, Galaxy Zoom, like the flagship of the Samsung smartphone line, can simultaneously shoot with the main and rear cameras.

Now about the main thing, about the quality of photos. At the maximum resolution - 16 megapixels, if you shoot a 4: 3 frame - Galaxy Zoom is the record holder among smartphones. The 10x zoom isn't nearly as impressive as the 21x zoom in the Galaxy Camera, but it's essentially the only thing worth buying a device for. The zoom lens significantly expands the photo capabilities of the device, no other smartphone is capable of this yet.

But the quality of the images itself - in terms of color rendering, dynamics, clarity - is fundamentally no different from what the flagships of the Samsung smartphone line - Galaxy S4 or Galaxy Note 3 are capable of. there is no special win. At high sensitivity values ​​(ISO 800 and above), the Zoom picture is noisy, which indicates the use of a fairly budget matrix. But in the "photosmartphone" the flash is implemented very well, the photos illuminated by it do not have an unnatural shade.

Another important disadvantage of Zoom as a camera is that due to imperfect, to put it mildly, ergonomics and slow launch of the Camera application (about three seconds before you can take the first picture), you can catch good moments with the Galaxy S4 Zoom - for example, photographing children or animals - hard. It is inconvenient to use manual settings (exposure, aperture, white balance, exposure metering method and ISO are set) or switch scene modes in the application - Samsung software is also not ergonomic.

Using the zoom lens ring is also much more convenient than zooming in or out in the app. By turning the ring, you can also call the "camera" application, but there is no quick way to start taking photos right from standby mode, from a locked device. This is despite the fact that in various forms it is available on almost all modern phones equipped with a dedicated button for taking photos.

Zoom, of course, can shoot video as well, but its quality is not impressive - any smartphone worth the same money is capable of about the same. Yes, a smartphone will not be able to realize a 10x zoom of a picture right during shooting, but the hero of this review does not cope with such a task perfectly. When you turn the lens ring during video shooting, the picture begins to approach in jerks, the device often loses focus and starts looking for it again, turning on the backlight if necessary. Finally, the noise of the lens motor is perfectly audible in the video, even if you activate the function to reduce it in the settings. In short, it is far from ideal.

The gallery of pictures from the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom can be viewed by this link.

Another option is to use it "for business". For example, an employee of an insurance company can make high-quality images of damage right from the scene of an accident and immediately send them to the office. Or, for example, Galaxy Zoom can be used by an assistant director who selects locations for filming.

In any case, let me remind you once again: the main difference between Samsung's photo curiosity and other smartphones is its 10x zoom. If you do not need it, then any smart phone, iPhone 5c /, or, will be a more reasonable purchase. Recently, another completely new opportunity to take mobile photography to a new level appeared - "smartographs" from Sony, which are, in fact, a whole camera that fits into a high-quality lens, with a high-quality matrix and can work in conjunction with a smartphone in real time. Vesti.Hi-tech will soon tell about this new product in the review, we are already testing the device.

Purchase, conclusions
At the start of sales in the summer, Samsung set the price of the Galaxy S4 Zoom at the same level as the Galaxy S4 mini - 19,990 rubles. It was no longer too ambitious, and now the device (with an official guarantee) has dropped in Moscow to about 17,000 rubles. Zoom has no direct competitors, but, at the same time, it is rather difficult to recommend it as a photo smartphone - as a smartphone it is very inconvenient, while the quality of photos, if viewed even on a FullHD TV display, does not surpass the Gqalaxy S4 or the latest models iPhone. The only (and unique) advantage is the optical zoom. It is this, for sure, that will become a decisive factor in making a purchase decision. Those who are interested in having a strong optical zoom in a smartphone will surely appreciate the device at its true worth. The rest should look at other solutions for advanced mobile photography - fortunately, there are more and more of them lately.

Samsung has clearly done a tremendous amount of work on Zoom - after all, no one ever conceived Android as a camera operating system, so the Korean engineers must have done a lot of things from scratch. However, for the device to become truly attractive to consumers, the company still needs to do at least two things. The first is to improve the quality of images to the level of advanced compact cameras (read: put a large sensor in a photo smartphone, like the Sony RX 100). The second is to drastically reduce the time between the moment when the user reaches for the camera to take a picture and when this picture was taken. To do this, it is necessary not only to optimize the software, ensuring faster camera readiness, but also to provide a way to more or less instantly start shooting from a locked device. And the interface of the main photo application on Samsung devices is still hopelessly inferior to competitors both in design and, most importantly, in ease of use.

So, let's summarize.

Pros:

• The only optical zoom device on the market with which you can make calls
• It is convenient to take pictures and immediately process them in any application
• "Living" battery

Minuses:

• Poor ergonomics
• Slow start camera
• The quality of pictures and videos is usually no better than that of modern flagship smartphones.

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Until Apple introduced the iPhone 4S to the world, video equipment of a simple 4-ki was considered one of the best. And this was true, because the device of this version was equipped with a 5 MP camera. The excellent quality of the pictures taken by the camera of the four was also due to the large sensor with increased sensitivity to light, but despite all the advantages of the camera on the iPhone 4, the video equipment of the iPhone 4S is even more advanced. A detailed description of the 4S smartphone model is presented in the review below.

Apple has never really shared with the general public details about the optical design of the cameras of its gadgets. The pixel, or rather, its indicator, the main and front cameras and their resolution are almost the only meager data that characterized the cameras of new smartphone models.

However, it can be assumed that the iPhone four S used the achievements of OmniVision Technologies or Sony in the form of CMOS sensors. Then these third-party developments (possibly modified and improved) were incorporated into the optical module of the iPhone 4S camera.

Among the main technical characteristics of the Quad S camera are the following:

• the optical dimensions of the sensor are 1 / 3.2 inches (the same as that of a regular four);
• pixel matrix - 8 MP (one of the main indicators of concern to users who are often interested in which camera is how many megapixels the iPhone 4S has).
• the size of the photosensitive elements is 1.4 microns.

In addition, the indisputable advantages of the four S camera, in comparison with other, earlier models of gadgets from Apple, can be considered:

• new rear lighting technology;
• improving quantum efficiency;
• increased light sensitivity when shooting in the dark;
• increasing the capacity of the potential pit.

The optics itself was improved, which also had a great impact on improving the quality of images. Namely, the manufacturer added a fifth element to the set of lenses. The aperture has been expanded from f / 2.8 to f / 2.4. The video equipment is equipped with a hybrid infrared filter.

Of course, most of the above characteristics do not mean anything to the average user. But the photos taken by the iPhone 4S model speak for themselves. The pictures are just excellent, which is noted by the majority of smartphone users from Apple of this version.

IPhone 4 cameraS: revealing details

As it was said a little above, the video equipment of the Quad S is equipped with a CMOS sensor with back lighting. What does this mean? All the details are located in the back of the sensor, the front element is not involved. Thanks to this, the matrix catches light well. The manufacturer, when releasing this model of the iPhone, stated that the light sensitivity, in comparison with the camera of the previous model, was increased by more than 70%.

As for the swinging pixels, it is important to make a reservation that the quality of the images is important not their quantity, but the quality. Of course, the more there are, the larger the photo you can print. But this also means negative aspects, such as an increase in file sizes, increased frame noise, since electrons exceed the size of microscopic, tightly packed light elements. But here the manufacturer notes that the capacity of the potential well has been increased, and each pixel will catch a certain amount of light before filling. And then a complex physical process follows, the essence of which boils down to the fact that excess electrons are removed, and the image is obtained with the highest quality.

The flash has a small size, but its capabilities are enough for 2 meters. The minimum distance to the object is set at 6 cm.

In the optics of the iPhone 4S camera, the lenses are made of plastic. This material has many disadvantages - fragility, poor heat resistance, etc. But, nevertheless, most manufacturers of mobile equipment with cameras use plastic. The reasons for this are the cheapness of the material and the possibility of creating complex spherical surfaces on its basis. Manufacturers have to make such surfaces spherical, which is simply impossible on the basis of glass.

The presence of the fifth element in a set of plastic lenses probably makes the process of light transmission more difficult, but, on the other hand, the presence of additional optical surfaces leads to increased sharpness and reduced distortion. Apple, when launching a product called the iPorn 4S, promised to enhance the sharpness of images by 30%.

A detailed analysis of the technical characteristics of the camera of the iPhone four S model allows us to highlight additional advantages, namely:

• the presence of a central computing crystal;
• video graphics processor;
• improved white balance;
• embedded mechanism that recognizes faces;
• autofocus and autoexposure.

Considering all the above advantages of the smartphone camera from the Apple version 4S, the photos taken by it come out clean and beautiful. Moreover, the pictures are taken very quickly. Active users of the gadget of this model note that the camera of this device can be used as the main one without purchasing a camera. Of course, she is far from professional. But as a good digital camera it is quite good.

The quality of photos taken with the iPhone 4 cameraS

To a simple user, the review of the technical parameters of the camera of the iPhone four S probably seemed boring. It is more important to note that the pictures taken by her come out of excellent quality - practically without noise and excessive color saturation. If the photos taken by the usual four were oversaturated with color, and this was even presented as an advantage of the gadget's camera - almost the main feature, now the images began to resemble real views that were filmed.

It is important to note that pictures are taken by the camera of this smartphone model very quickly. After the first frame, the second can be done in less than a second. However, if you compare this parameter with professional technology, of course, the cameras of all iPhones will be far behind. Professional digital cameras are known to have optical zoom and take multiple frames in one second. The smartphone camera has only digital zoom.

Overall, the photos taken by the S-4 are superior in quality to those taken by its predecessor. Photos come out with more contrast, not blurry, but natural.

It should also be noted that in the four S the latest version of the operating system was installed, which made it possible to implement the function for editing photographs. To change / improve the photo or adjust it to the desired parameters, the user must go to the "Photos" section, select the pictures and click on the edit button.

What editing functions are available to the user? These are 4 main parameters:

• rotation of the picture;
• automatic improvement;
• pruning;
• elimination of the effect of "red eyes".

Nothing special - just like in the primitive camera of any mobile phone. However, even this modest set of functions can be extremely useful if the user wishes to improve the captured footage.

Detailed testing of the screen, performance, battery life

At one time, even when the start of sales of the Samsung Galaxy S4 was not finally determined, we used our chance to spend a very short time with this expected by many new product, in order to then bring all the data obtained into a kind of mini-review, as they say, "first glance" ... In it, we used only those results that we could get in the short time allotted to us for getting to know the device. They, of course, were not complete - we physically could not carry out those trials and tests that are time-consuming and which must be carried out in laboratory conditions.

But today, when the day and hour of the start of sales of the Samsung Galaxy S4 is already predetermined, we decided to return to this question. Before such a serious purchase, it is necessary to weigh the pros and cons, and we, in turn, have the opportunity to provide users with the necessary additional information about the new device, which was not included in the first part of our review.

Thus, this review will not contain a description of the appearance of the device and the convenience of working with the controls - you can read about this in the first part of the description of our introduction to the Samsung Galaxy S4.

Here we will tell, first of all, about the data we obtained after detailed testing of the screen of a new smartphone using measuring instruments in our laboratory. We will also present to your attention the results of all the performance tests we have conducted on the hardware filling of the smartphone, as well as the duration of its battery life. Finally, we will spend a little more time on the Samsung Galaxy S4 camera and its modes of operation. Test photos obtained in the process of studying the novelty will be commented on by our specialist Anton Soloviev.

But first, let's give our traditional comparison table, which has been replenished since the first acquaintance with the Samsung Galaxy S4 and now contains information about almost all the main top-end novelties of the new season, tested by us. All the most popular flagship smartphones are summarized in a single table for easy selection, and those that are not included here (for example, LG Optimus G Pro) will be added to it very soon. Although, with regret, we must note, according to the Russian office of LG, this particular device will not be officially supplied to our market.

	Samsung Galaxy S4	Htc one	Sony Xperia Z	Oppo Find 5	Google Nexus 4	LG Optimus G
Screen	4.99 ″, SuperAMOLED	4.7 ″, S-LCD3 (IPS)	5 ″, IPS?	5 ″, IPS	4.7 ″, IPS Plus	4.7 ″, IPS Plus
Permission	1920 × 1080, 441 ppi	1920 × 1080, 469 ppi	1920 × 1080, 440 ppi	1920 × 1080, 440 ppi	1280 × 768, 317 ppi	1280 × 768, 317 ppi
SoC	Exynos 5410 @ 1.8 GHz (8 cores)	Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 @ 1.7 GHz (4 cores, ARMv7 Krait)		Qualcomm APQ8064 @ 1.5 GHz (4 cores, ARMv7 Krait)	Qualcomm APQ8064 @ 1.5 GHz (4 cores, ARMv7 Krait)	Qualcomm APQ8064 @ 1.5 GHz (4 cores, ARMv7 Krait)
RAM	2 GB	2 GB	2 GB	2 GB	2 GB	2 GB
Flash memory	16/32/64 GB	32/64 GB	16 GB	16/32 GB	8/16 GB	32 GB
Memory card support	microSD	No	microSD	No	No	No
Operating system	Google Android 4.2	Google Android 4.1	Google Android 4.1	Google Android 4.1	Google Android 4.2	Google Android 4.1
SIM format *	Micro-SIM	Micro-SIM	Micro-SIM	Micro-SIM	Micro-SIM	Micro-SIM
Battery	removable, 2600 mAh	non-removable, 2300 mAh	non-removable, 2330 mAh	non-removable, 2500 mAh	non-removable, 2100 mAh	non-removable, 2100 mAh
Cameras		rear (4 Mp; video - 1080p), front (2 Mp)	rear (13 Mp; video - 1080p), front (2 Mp)	rear (13 Mp; video - 1080p), front (1.9 Mp)	rear (8 Mp; video - 1080p), front (1.3 Mp)	rear (13 Mp; video - 1080p), front (1.3 Mp)
Dimensions (edit)	137 x 70 x 7.9 mm, 130 g	137 x 68 x 9.3 mm, 143 grams	139 x 71 x 7.9mm, 146g	142 x 69 x 8.9 mm, 165 g	134 x 69 x 9.1mm, 139g	132 x 69 x 8.5 mm, 145 g

* The most common SIM card formats are described in a separate article.

Key Features Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-I9500)

• SoC Samsung Exynos 5 Octa, 8 cores, united on the principle of ARM big.LITTLE: 4 high-performance ARM Cortex-A15 at 1.8 GHz and 4 energy-efficient ARM Cortex-A7 at 1.2 GHz
• GPU PowerVR SGX544MP3
• Operating system Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
• SuperAMOLED display with Pentile, 4.99 ″, 1920 × 1080
• Random access memory (RAM) 2 GB, internal memory 16-64 GB
• MicroSD card slot up to 64GB
• Communication GSM GPRS / EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
• Communication 3G UMTS HSPA + 850, 900, 2100 MHz
• 4G (LTE Cat 3 100/50 Mbps) - only in GT-I9505 version based on Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 SoC
• HSPA + 42 Mbps
• Bluetooth 4.0, NFC
• MHL 2.0, OTG support
• Wi-Fi 802.11a / b / g / n / ac
• GPS / Glonass
• Cameras 13 Mp and 2 Mp (front)
• Accelerometer, photometer, digital compass, proximity sensors, gyroscope, barometer, thermometer, hygrometer and IR sensor
• Suitable for use with gloves
• Li-ion battery 2600 mAh
• Dimensions 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9mm
• Weight 130 g

Screen

The Samsung Galaxy S4 has a very high-quality Super AMOLED touchscreen display. In numbers, the physical parameters of the screen of the new item are as follows: diagonal - 126 mm (4.99 inches), resolution - Full HD 1080p (1920 × 1080 pixels), PPI pixel density is 441 dots per inch, although with Pentile this figure looks doubtful ... Yes, Pentile technology hasn't disappeared anywhere, although the Samsung Galaxy S4's screen is significantly different from its predecessors. The display has both manual and automatic brightness control, which is based on the operation of the light sensor. There is also a proximity sensor that locks the screen when you bring the smartphone to your ear. Multi-touch technology allows you to simultaneously process up to ten touches, and the new Samsung Galaxy S4 screen allows you to control yourself with gloves.

Alexey Kudryavtsev, editor of the “Monitors” and “Projectors and TV” sections, carried out a detailed examination of the display using measuring devices. Here is his expert opinion on the Samsung Galaxy S4 screen.

The screen is covered with a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface and, judging by the reflection of bright light sources in it, has a very effective anti-glare filter. On the outer surface of the screen there is a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating, so fingerprints are removed much easier, and appear at a slower speed than in the case of ordinary glass.

With manual brightness control, its maximum value was about 230 cd / m², minimum - 10 cd / m². Despite the not very high brightness value, even in bright daylight, the smartphone can be used, since it helps out less, in comparison with a typical LCD screen, the reflection of OLED screens from dark areas. You also need to take into account the fact that in this case the smaller the white area on the screen, the lighter it is, that is, the actual maximum brightness of the white areas will almost always be higher than the specified value. The low brightness mode allows you to use your smartphone without any problems even in complete darkness. Automatic brightness control works according to the light sensor (it is located to the left of the front speaker). You can make adjustments to how this function works by moving the setting slider from -5 to +5 units. Further, for three conditions, we give the screen brightness values ​​for three values ​​of this setting - for −5, 0 and +5. In complete darkness in automatic mode, the brightness decreases to 15, 20 and 30 cd / m2, respectively, in an office illuminated with artificial light, the brightness is set to 48, 94 and 113 cd / m2, in a brightly lit environment (corresponds to lighting during the day outdoors, but without direct sunlight) - increases to 280 cd / m² for all three correction values. In principle, the result of this function is as expected. When the brightness is lowered, modulation appears with a frequency of 240 Hz. The figure below shows the brightness versus time for three brightness settings:

It can be seen that at the maximum brightness there is virtually no modulation, at the minimum brightness the modulation amplitude is low, so in these extreme cases it is impossible to see the backlight flickering. For half brightness, the modulation has a large amplitude, so at medium brightness values ​​the flicker can be seen - hardly just looking at the screen, but if you quickly wave, for example, a pencil in front of a white field on the screen, then the flicker can be identified by the repeating trace of the pencil.

This smartphone uses a Super AMOLED matrix - an active matrix based on organic light-emitting diodes. A full color image is created with subpixels of three colors - red (R), green (G) and blue (B), but there are twice as many green subpixels, which can be referred to as RGBG. This is confirmed by a fragment of a micrograph:

There are 9 green subpixels, 4.5 blue subpixels and 4.5 red subpixels in this square. For such matrices, Samsung has introduced the name PenTile RGBG. However, the arrangement and shape of the subpixels in this variant differ from the PenTile RGBG variants implemented in the Galaxy S3, ATIV S, Motorola XT925, etc. screens:

In the Galaxy S4 variant, the green subpixels no longer form horizontal lines, as a result, horizontal and vertical worlds on the S4 screen are displayed in the same way, and not in the same way as in the case of, for example, Samsung ATIV S.

Note that luminance is mainly determined by the green component, so the luminance definition actually matches the density of the green subpixels. The fact that the color clarity is lower (since the density of red and blue subpixels is lower) does not actually affect the image quality, since the color definition of human vision is also lower than the brightness definition. However, this does not mean that the image on such a screen looks exactly the same as on a screen with the same resolution, but with the same number of subpixels of different colors. Let's compare, for example, how our website's home page is displayed on the Galaxy S4 screen and on the LCD screen of the Oppo Find 5. Both screens are roughly the same size and resolution (counting in terms of green subpixels), but in the case of the Oppo Find 5, there are as many red and blue subpixels as there are green ones. Below are fragments of photographs of screens obtained when the specified page was displayed in the same (original) scale.

The readability of small text on the Galaxy S4 screen is even better than on the Oppo Find 5. However, two circumstances must be taken into account: firstly, this text is so small that its readability is already very low simply due to its physical size (letter height "O" equals 7 pixels, or about 0.4 mm); secondly, the quality of the output of small text in Android (and in the browser in particular) is very low in itself, but this PenTile option slightly blurs the lines that fall on the rows of pixels, and slightly increases the clarity of the lines that do not fall into the rows of pixels, because for which very small text on the Galaxy S4 screen looks smoother. And two more photos taken at higher magnification of the above fragments:

The Samsung Galaxy S4 screen has very good viewing angles: white color changes noticeably only when you deviate to large angles, and black simply remains black at any angle - it is so black that the contrast parameter is simply not applicable in this case. When viewed from a perpendicular view, the uniformity of the white field is very good. The switching of the state of the matrix elements is actually performed instantly, so the response time can be equated to 0. The gamma curve plotted at 32 points did not reveal a significant blockage either in highlights or shadows, and the exponent of the approximating power function is from 2.28 to 2.32 in depending on the selected profile, which is slightly higher than the standard value of 2.2 (in the captions, the number in brackets is the exponent of the approximating power function):

In case of a profile Dynamic The gamma curve has a slightly S-shaped character; for the three remaining profiles, it practically does not deviate from the power-law dependence. The color correction profile is selected on a separate page in the screen settings section.

There are only four profiles, plus a special "Optimize display" mode, in which manual selection of a profile is blocked, and the phone, apparently, selects a profile by itself, analyzing the current image. Note that the brightness of the image fragments dynamically changes in accordance with the nature of the displayed image - it decreases for light images in general and increases for dark ones. When choosing a profile Dynamic this effect is a little more pronounced, and when the mode is turned on Auto tuning. screen brightness the dependence of brightness on the lightness of the image becomes even stronger. Therefore, the dependences of brightness on the hue (gamma curves) obtained by us may not correspond to the gamma curves of a static image, since the measurements were carried out with sequential display of shades of gray on the entire screen.

Color gamut in case of profiles Dynamic and Standard very wide:

When choosing a profile Adobe RGB the coverage is slightly compressed in the blue and yellow areas (here the black line is the coverage of the Adobe RGB space, the white line is the measured coverage):

When choosing a profile Movie coverage is compressed even more, but still wider than sRGB:

Without correction, the spectra of the components are very well separated:

In case of a profile Movie with maximum correction, the color components are already slightly mixed with each other:

Note that on screens with a wide gamut, the colors of conventional images optimized for sRGB devices appear unnaturally saturated. However, a visual assessment showed that when choosing a profile Movie saturation is noticeably reduced and colors are brought closer to natural. Without correction, in profiles Dynamic and Standard, the colors are unnatural: for example, the faces of white-skinned people have a pronounced carrot tint. The grayscale balance is imperfect, but generally acceptable. The color temperature is above 6500 K, but this parameter changes insignificantly in the area of ​​the gray scale from white to dark gray. The deviation from the spectrum of an absolutely black body (delta E), if it exceeds 10 units, is not at all much, which is considered a good indicator for a consumer device, while the variation in delta E is not very large (dark areas of the gray scale can be ignored, since there is a balance of colors does not really matter, and the error in measuring color characteristics at low brightness is large):

Therefore, according to visual assessment, there are no special complaints about the transfer of shades of gray.

In general, in terms of consumer characteristics, the screen of this smartphone has every right to take first place in the competition with the screens of other top-end smartphones of a similar class, at least at the time of this writing.

Camera

The assessment of the photographs and conclusions on the quality were made by Anton Solovyov.

The Samsung Galaxy S4, like most modern smartphones, is equipped with two digital camera modules. The main rear camera module has a 13-megapixel resolution. The Samsung Galaxy S4 uses Sony's Exmor R sensor based on BSI back-illumination technology. The camera shoots at a maximum resolution of 13 megapixels, while the images are 4128 × 3096 with an aspect ratio of 4: 3. You can manually switch the camera to shooting mode with a wide aspect ratio of 16: 9 - then the pictures will be obtained with a size of 4128 × 2322 (10 megapixels). You can check the quality of the Samsung Galaxy S4 camera by clicking on the thumbnails below.

Conclusion on the photographic capabilities of the Samsung Galaxy S4 camera... Among the advantages of the camera, one can note very good sharpness in most of the shots. I would like to hope that the rather large areas of blur at the edges are caused by not very good calibration of the lens, and not by the design features of the camera, because in general the lens is made with dignity and fulfills 10 megapixels of the matrix completely. Such a successful combination of a matrix and optics is not so often found on smartphones. The almost complete absence of chromatic aberrations and sharpening contours is good news. In any case, they are hardly noticeable. The camera is good, but very conservative in choosing the exposure, and the color rendition of the camera is also conservative. It seemed that due to the aperture ratio, the camera would lose depth of field, however, as can be seen from macro shots, the depth of field is sufficient, which, however, is bad for artistic photography, but very good for documentary photography. In general, we can conclude that Samsung is quite a success with a camera more than suitable for everyday documentary shooting. Considering that this is the quality of the camera that is demanded by the majority of smartphone users, it can be noted that Samsung is moving in the right direction.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 camera can shoot video in Full HD-resolution (1080p). Autofocus is fixed quickly enough, there are no slowdowns and sticking during shooting. Also in the settings there are shooting modes with slow and fast motion effects. Below are test videos shot in various modes. The video is saved in MP4 (video - MPEG-4 AVC ( [email protected]), sound - AAC LC, 128 kbps, 48 ​​kHz, 2 channels).

• Movie # 1 (27.4 MB, 1920 × 1080)
• Movie # 2 (11.4 MB, 800 × 450, slow motion)
• Movie # 3 (15.4 MB, 1920 × 1080, fast motion)

There are a lot of settings for controlling the camera, everything in the menu is arranged in almost the same way as in previous top-end Samsung smartphones. There is a possibility of geotagging to a picture, adding graphic effects, enabling smile detection, panoramic shooting, and, of course, software enhancement using HDR (High Dynamic Range) technology can be used here. There is image stabilization, the ability to display the grid on the screen.

Performance

The Samsung Galaxy S4 hardware platform is built around a powerful SoC, which includes a 4-core processor with ARM Cortex-A15 cores running at 1.8 GHz and another 4-core processor with ARM Cortex-A7 cores running at reduced frequencies of 1.2 GHz. This hybrid technology for combining productive and economical cores in one crystal was created by ARM, this concept is called big.LITTLE, and its implementation is licensed to third-party processors in the same way as the ARM cores themselves. A quite obvious use case is assumed: under a serious load, the system uses high-performance ARM Cortex-A15 cores at a high frequency, and when performing tasks that do not require significant computing power, the top cores fall asleep, and they are replaced by energy-efficient ARM Cortex-A7. Let's add that similar (in principle, but not in implementation) hybrid technologies are used in NVIDIA SoCs.

Graphics support for the Exynos 5410 Octa processor cores is provided by the PowerVR SGX 544MP3 graphics core. However, there is another modification of the smartphone equipped with a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor operating at 1.9 GHz, where Adreno 320 is used as a graphics coprocessor. In our case, the device was presented in an eight-core configuration - this is the so-called. "International version".

Now we already have the opportunity to compare the performance of the Samsung Galaxy S4 with all the other top flagship novelties of this season. Most of them, by the way, are built on the previous top-end Snapdragon S4 Pro platform. As expected, the Samsung Galaxy S4 was in the first place in the ranking of the devices we tested earlier, and only the HTC One competed with it, demonstrating similar performance results. At the same time, smartphones such as the Google Nexus 4, LG Optimus G, HTC One X + and Samsung Galaxy Note II fell behind the leader in this race. Here are the results we obtained using popular tests, which we have collected in tables for convenience, adding the results of other devices we have previously tested.

Below are the test results of the Samsung Galaxy S4 in the new GLBenchmark - 2.7.0, where a new T-Rex HD scene of increased complexity has been added. As we remember, even such a powerful system as that of the Oppo Find 5, produced only 13 fps in this test. The new Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 platform in the HTC One handles this difficult test better, but just barely at 15 fps. For some reason, the Samsung Galaxy S4 was unable to play these scenes from the new test at all, so the final results were incomplete, which was a bit disappointing to us.

Since the Samsung Galaxy S4 is one of the first smartphones to support 802.11ac, we separately tested the new 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard. The tests were carried out with ASUS RT-AC66U router - one of two models with 802.11ac support available on the local market. Recall that this new version of the standard operates only in the 5 GHz band and provides more than double the speed of 802.11n. In the case of smartphones, most often only one antenna is used, so the connection speeds in this case can be a maximum of 150 Mbps for 802.11n and 433 Mbps for 802.11ac. Real performance is usually about half that. In addition, many mobile devices do not even support dual-channel operation, resulting in a 72 Mbps limitation for 802.11n.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 has a single antenna, which translates into a maximum connection speed of 433 Mbps. When operating in the 2.4 GHz band with one channel, this model shows a real performance of about 50 Mbps, which can be considered an excellent result. However, we note that the tests were carried out in a relatively empty air. Switching to 5 GHz in 802.11n mode allows us to more than double the speed of exchanging information with a smartphone - we managed to get 133 Mbps for downloading data to a smartphone and 117 Mbps for sending data from a smartphone to a router. Of course, such high rates allow us to speak not only about comfortable viewing of high-definition video, but also about fast synchronization and downloading files to the device. At the same time, we failed to connect in the "802.11ac only" mode. This is most likely due to the use of a sample device for the test. In any case, if you plan to actively use this model, we highly recommend purchasing a modern dual-band router.

Video playback and external screen connection

To test the "omnivorous" video playback (including support for various codecs, containers and special features, such as subtitles), we used the most common formats that make up the bulk of the content available on the Web. Note that it is important for mobile devices to have support for hardware video decoding at the chip level, since it is often impossible to process modern versions using processor cores alone. Also, do not expect a mobile device to decode everything, since the leadership in flexibility belongs to the PC, and no one is going to challenge it.

Format	Container, video, sound	MX Video Player	Native video player
DVDRip	AVI, XviD 720 × 400 2200 Kbps, MP3 + AC3	reproduced normally	reproduced normally
Web-DL SD	AVI, XviD 720 × 400 1400 Kbps, MP3 + AC3	reproduced normally	reproduced normally
Web-DL HD	MKV, H.264 1280 × 720 3000Kbps, AC3	reproduced normally	reproduced normally
BDRip 720p	MKV, H.264 1280 × 720 4000 Kbps, AC3	reproduced normally	reproduced normally
BDRip 1080p	MKV, H.264 1920 × 1080 8000Kbps, AC3	reproduced normally	reproduced normally

Additionally, the MHL interface was tested. To test it, we used an LG IPS237L monitor that supports direct MHL connection using a passive Micro-USB to HDMI adapter cable. For some reason only known to it, Samsung has implemented its own version of this interface in its devices supposedly supporting MHL. As a result, to connect an external device via MHL, you need to use special adapters or connect standard MHL adapters through simple passive adapters. By a lucky coincidence, we found such an adapter.

As a result, we connected the LG IPS237L monitor and the MHL adapter via this adapter. When using the LG IPS237L monitor, the MHL output was carried out at a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels at 30 fps. When the smartphone is in landscape orientation, the image is displayed on the monitor screen in landscape orientation, while the image on the monitor is inscribed in the boundaries of the screen and exactly matches the image on the smartphone screen. In the portrait orientation of the smartphone, the display of the image on the monitor screen is also carried out in the portrait orientation, while the image on the monitor is inscribed in the height of the screen, and black fields are displayed on the right and left. In this case, the actual resolution on the monitor screen is, of course, lower than the resolution on the smartphone screen.

The MHL sound is output (in this case, the sounds were heard through the headphones connected to the monitor, since there are no speakers in the monitor itself) and is of good quality. At the same time, at least multimedia sounds are not output through the loudspeaker of the smartphone itself, and the volume is controlled by buttons on the smartphone body. The smartphone connected via MHL is being charged.

The video output by means of a standard player deserves a special description. To begin with, using a set of test files with an arrow and a rectangle moving one division per frame (see Methodology for testing video playback and display devices. Version 1), we checked how the video is displayed on the screen of the smartphone itself. Screenshots with a shutter speed of 1 s helped to determine the nature of the frame output of video files with different parameters: the resolution varied (1280 by 720 (720p) and 1920 by 1080 (1080p) pixels) and the frame rate (24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 fps). with). The results of this (block entitled as “ Screen") And subsequent tests are summarized in the table:

File	Uniformity	Skips
Screen
watch-1920x1080-60p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1920x1080-50p.mp4	OK	No
watch-1920x1080-30p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1920x1080-25p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1920x1080-24p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1280x720-60p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1280x720-50p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1280x720-30p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1280x720-25p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1280x720-24p.mp4	Great	No
MHL (monitor)
watch-1920x1080-60p.mp4	Great	many
watch-1920x1080-50p.mp4	Great	many
watch-1920x1080-30p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1920x1080-25p.mp4	OK	No
watch-1920x1080-24p.mp4	OK	No
watch-1280x720-60p.mp4	Great	many
watch-1280x720-50p.mp4	Great	many
watch-1280x720-30p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1280x720-25p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1280x720-24p.mp4	OK	No
MHL (adapter)
watch-1280x720-60p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1280x720-50p.mp4	OK	No
watch-1280x720-30p.mp4	poorly	No
watch-1280x720-25p.mp4	poorly	No
watch-1280x720-24p.mp4	poorly	No

Note: if both the "Uniformity" and "Gaps" columns have "green" ratings, this means that when watching movies, most likely, either artifacts caused by uneven alternation and skipping of frames will not be visible at all, or their number and visibility will not affect the viewing comfort. "Red" marks indicate possible problems related to the playback of the corresponding files.

According to the criterion for outputting frames, the quality of video playback on the screen of the smartphone itself is very high, since frames (or groups of frames) are displayed with a uniform alternation of intervals and there are no frame drops. However, in any case, the uniform interleaving of frames is a relatively unstable state, since some external and internal background processes lead to periodic failure of the correct interleaving of intervals between frames. During testing, an interesting feature was discovered: it seems that in the case of files with frame rates of 30 and lower, the refresh rate of the screen is 40 Hz, and for files of 50 and 60 fps, the refresh rate increases to 60 Hz. As a result, for a file with 30 fps, we got the following image:

And for a file with 60 fps - this is:

When playing video files with a resolution of Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) on a smartphone screen, the image of the video file itself is displayed one-to-one, exactly on the edge of the screen in true Full HD resolution. Considering that the color resolution in the video file is two times lower than the brightness resolution, the features of the PenTile matrix do not actually affect the quality of video output. The brightness range displayed on the screen is slightly different from the original one: in the shadows a pair of gray shades is indistinguishable from black, but in the highlights all gradations of shades are displayed (for video in the range of 16-235).

With a monitor connected via MHL, during video playback with a standard player, the image is displayed only in landscape orientation, while only the video file is displayed on the monitor, and only information elements and virtual controls are displayed on the smartphone screen. When playing video files with a resolution of Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) on the monitor screen, the image of the video file itself is displayed one-to-one, exactly along the edge of the screen in true Full HD resolution. The brightness range displayed on the monitor corresponds to the standard range of 16-235, that is, all gradations of shades are displayed in the shadows and highlights. The results of the tests on the monitor are shown in the table above in the "MHL (monitor)" block. The output quality is good, but, of course, in the case of files with 50 and 60 fps, some frames are skipped, since the output is carried out in 1080p mode at 30 fps.

Additionally, we tested video output (with a standard player) over MHL using an MHL adapter. With this adapter, the monitor was output at 720p @ 60 fps, which determined the maximum actual image resolution. Except for the resolution and frame rate, everything else - the nature of the interface output, recharging, audio and gray scale output - did not differ from the direct connection via MHL. The test results are shown in the table above in the "MHL (adapter)" block.

When using the adapter, frame intervals for files with frame rates up to and including 30 fps can differ by three times (from 1/60 to 3/60) and alternate unevenly, while 720p files are output at 50 and 60 fps. fine.

In general, an MHL connection can be used for gaming, watching movies, displaying web pages, and other activities that benefit from the exponential increase in screen size. True, you will have to purchase an adapter specifically for Samsung or find an appropriate adapter.

Battery life

The capacity of the lithium-ion battery in the Samsung Galaxy S4 is 2600 mAh. The battery here, as mentioned earlier, is replaceable, which can save in the event of a swollen battery, for example (and users have had such cases with Samsung batteries). And the second battery can be stocked up in case of a long trip, which is also convenient.

The smartphone has shown very good indicators in terms of battery life, leaving behind many of the top new items that we have tested recently. Once again, HTC One was able to match the results, and even outplay the opponent in some ways. Here are the results of testing the subject in several modes of battery life.

Continuous reading in the FBReader program at the minimum comfortable brightness level (the brightness was set to about 100 cd / m2) for 2 hours consumed 17% of the full battery charge, and for two hours of watching YouTube videos in high quality (HQ) via the home Wi-Fi network -Fi the device has used up 24% of the battery capacity. Under maximum load in continuous 3D game mode (100% brightness, 60 fps), which we usually test with GLBenchmark, the smartphone, as mentioned above, refused to be tested and constantly dropped out of the program. Therefore, unfortunately, we were unable to obtain data on this test. The Samsung Galaxy S4 can be fully charged in 2 hours.

Prices

The average retail price of the device in rubles in Moscow at the time of reading the article can be found by bringing the mouse to the price tag.