Samsung's Galaxy S IV: The Next Coming of the ... well almost - Shelly Palmer

With all the pomp and circumstance usually afforded an iDevice Samsung finally unveiled the muchanticipated Galaxy S IV The expectations were set so high many assumed that the GS4 might rival the next coming of the Lord As smartphones go this is a tall order amp8211 even for SamsungSamsung says the phone will help us with our life tasks and that quotit will make our lives richer simpler and fullerquot However in keeping with a recent trend in nonApple product announcements Samsung did not announce a price or release date outside of saying it would retail for the same price as a quotSamsung premium smartphonequot and would release in Q2 starting by the end of April It will be available at ATampampT Verizon TMobile Sprint Cricket and US CellularBurning Question 1 Is the Samsung Galaxy S IV better than an iPhone 5Simple Answer Yes By every way you can measure technical specificationsBurning Question 2 Should I buy one the moment it comes outNonSimple Answer I39m going to but you may have several good reasons to wait I am also going to get the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and go all Android for a while I39m kind of done with iOS But that39s just meBurning Question 3 Is the Samsung Galaxy S IV going to be better than the next iteration of the iPhone like the iPhone 5S or whatever Apple calls the next oneCorrect Answer No one knows but it would be pretty tough for Apple to match the specifications of the Galaxy S IV inside a package the size of the iPhone 5 amp8211 we39ll have an answer in June or August depending upon which rumors you believeNow that I39m done with the burning questions let39s have a look at the hardwareHardwareThe hardware is all really nice but there39s no feature that39s unheard of in another smartphone It has a killer 5inch 1080p Super AMOLED display with 441 pixels per inch The American version of the phone runs a 19 GHz quadcore Snapdragon processor while the Asian and European versions get the Exynos 5 Octa eightcore processor which has been anticipated for a long long timeThe S IV ships with 2 GB of RAM It also ships with 16 32 or 64 GB of memory with the capability to add in up to a 64 GB microSD cardThe camera hardware is not new or unique but it is stateoftheart It has a 13 megapixel camera that shoots 1080p on the back with a 2 megapixel frontfacing cameraApple thinks we39re too dumb to be able to remove a phone39s battery Samsung knows us better The S IV39s battery is removable and gets a boost to 2600 mAh capacityOn balance the GS 4 is hardware comparable to the HTC One the Sony Xperia Z and the LG Optimus G Pro From a hardware perspective it is not the second coming of the Lord it39s the fourth coming of a fullfeatured quadcore smartphone That said this is a lot of serious horsepower in a handheld device and I39m excited about itSoftwareSamsung has outdone themselves with its amazing implementation of Android 422 Jelly Bean and some other truly great software Sadly the production model phone does not feature eye tracking as was rumored but it has some other tricks that are noteworthyAirView is pretty awesome You can hover your finger over the phone39s display and interact with the phone Apps like your calendar email and Flipboard work in special ways when you hoverAirBrowse is even better You can wave your hand over the phone to look through photo galleries songs or browser tabs and wave up or down to scroll on a page You can also answer your phone by waving over it which automatically puts the call in speakerphone mode That39s smartSimilar to hand gestures and similar to what people thought we might get in eye tracking is something called Smart Pause If you look away from the screen while watching a video it39ll pause That39s a cool featureText Reader is going to be a huge hit for businesspeople It39ll let you scan something like a business card and automatically import data like phone numbers email addresses and the like It also works with QR codes This is going to be incredibly handy at trade shows like CES where business cards are the only thing more common than iPhone casesCamera FeaturesWe know the 13 megapixel rear camera and 2 megapixel front cameras aren39t anything to write home to Mom about But Samsung has added in a few cool camera features that set it apart from most if not all other smartphonesEraser is probably the coolest feature Did someone photobomb your picture either intentionally or accidentally Eraser takes multiple images in burst mode and detects any movement in the frame You39re then able to erase any unwanted parts from the picture and the phone will restore the gap from the content from other pictures NeatJournalists and people who need to hire lots of employees may like the Dual Camera feature The phone can record video from both cameras at the same time and combine them in up to eight different ways Need to record both sides of an interview You got it You may never use this feature or you might use it all the time Your mileage may varySamsung AppsSamsung also included a handful of proprietary apps that set the Galaxy S IV apart from other toptier phonesSHealth is Samsung39s return to the evergrowing tech sector of health tracking SHealth works with an integrated pedometer optional heart rate monitor or pedometer band Your data is then synced to Samsung for storage and analysis Think Fitbit on your phoneSTranslator is an integrated translation app in other apps helping to translate communications to one of 10 languages at launch You can type a sentence in and the phone will read it aloud in any of those 10 languages It supports texttospeech and speechtotextFinal ThoughtsSince everyone who isn39t Apple is using Android it39s going to be hard for any manufacturer to create a true stand out device The phone and tablet business feels a lot like the PC business did in the Wintel era amp8211 lots of undifferentiated hardware running the same software But Samsung has the right idea amp8211 separate the features of the hardware which everyone can OEM and concentrate on the benefits of the software which can in some cases be proprietary That39s the story of the GS4 and it39s a pretty good oneYou39re up Apple Samsung delivered big time What do you gotShelly Palmer is Fox 5 New York39s Onair Tech Expert WNYWTV and the host of Fox Television39s monthly show Shelly Palmer Digital Living He also hosts United Stations Radio Network39s Shelly Palmer Digital Living Daily a daily syndicated radio report that features insightful commentary and a unique insiders take on the biggest stories in technology media and entertainment He is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group LLC an industryleading advisory and business development firm and a member of the Executive Committee of the National Academy of Television Arts ampamp Sciences the organization that bestows the coveted Emmyamp174 Awards Palmer is the author of Television Disrupted The Transition from Network to Networked TV 2nd Edition York House Press 2008 the seminal book about the technological economic and sociological forces that are changing everything Overcoming The Digital Divide How to use Social Media and Digital Tools to Reinvent Yourself and Your Career York House Press 2011 and Digital Wisdom Thought Leadership for a Connected World York House Press 2013 For more information visit shellypalmercomRead all Shelly39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Shelly Palmer ReportCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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