By: iPadfanzz staff on March 17, 2013
Taking a shot at ousting Apple as king of the smartphone, technology giant Samsung has launched its most anticipated and much awaited smartphone, the Galaxy S4, the latest iteration of its best-selling smartphone. Given its often fractious relationship with Apple, choosing to launch the Samsung Galaxy S4 in the Big Apple was a statement in and of itself. Instead of focusing on earlier followed points of strong hardware and soft price points, the company now looks to break into the late Steve Jobs’ domain – software, features and the ‘smartphone experience’.
Samsung is promoting the smartphone with a tagline "moving beyond touch". The company sys the S4 comes with a new ‘smart scroll and smart pause’ feature, which for instance, monitors the user’s eye movements and behaves accordingly. It means you can scroll through web pages or photographs with a simple wave of the hand. Similarly, you can scroll the web pages up or down accordingly. Also, it will pause a video if a user looks away.
The handset can also translate nine languages, from text to speech and vice versa or just translate text. JK Shin, Samsung's head of mobile, said: "Think about being able to communicate with your friends around the world without language barriers." He called the device "a life companion for a richer, simpler life".
"Samsung is trying to do one thing: knock Apple's status in the US. They want to show that they can excite the high-end smartphone adopters just as well as Apple," an analyst said.
The device will go on sale in the UK from April 26, and will be available through 327 mobile operators in 155 countries, including Orange, EE and Vodafone.
Samsung expects the S4’s sales to be around 10 million per month, largely driven by its new features, which were demonstrated in a theatrical launch event at the Radio City music hall and Times Square.
For Samsung the performance of S4 in the US smartphone market is crucial where it still trails behind Apple. Apple has about 35 per cent marketshare while Samsung has around 16-17 per cent. But Samsung's overall share was far higher and the market is changing.
Let’s take a look at how Samsung Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5 stack up against each other.
Screen Display: Samsung Galaxy S IV will come with a 5-inch full HD Super AMOLED display with 1080×1920 pixel resolution at 441ppi while Apple’s iPhone 5 features a smaller 4-inch screen with pixel resolution of 1136 x 640 at 326ppi.
Operating System: The S4 runs on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean Operating system while the iPhone 5 runs on iOS 6 platform.
Processor: The S4 has a 1.6GHz Exynos 5410 Octa-core processor with 2 GB of RAM. Whereas, iPhone 5 has quad-core A6 chip, this according to Apple will give double the CPU and graphics performance using just 1 GB of RAM.
Connectivity: Galaxy S4 supports Wi-Fi, NFC, Dual-video camera function, IR LED,GPS /GLONASS and Bluetooth v4.0. Whereas, iPhone 5 supports Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot and Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP.
Image Sensor: Samsung Galaxy S4 comes outfitted with a 13-megapixel camera with Auto-focus, Flash and shutter Lag with BIS sensor with a 2 megapixel front camera. It comes with Smart Scroll and Smart Pause features, which follow facial movements for scrolling through text or content or video, without even touching the screen. While Apple iPhone 5 lacks these features and comes with an 8-megapixel camera and packs synchronized HD video and image recording, touch focus, geo-tagging, face detection, panorama and HDR, besides a 1.2 megapixel front camera.
Storage: The S4 offers 2GB RAM. Both phones come in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB variants but iPhone does not offer the microSD card slot.
Battery: The Samsung handset comes with a 2600 mAh battery and pledges a long battery backup. On the other hand, iPhone 5 has a 1440 mAh battery that Apple alleges will give 225 hours of standby time.
Availability: Samsung is likely to start selling its latest smartphone in April. The price is officially not revealed yet. The official pricing of iPhone 5 for the 16 GB version is Rs 45,500, while the 32GB and 64GB variants are priced at Rs 52,500 and Rs 59,500, respectively.
Taking a shot at ousting Apple as king of the smartphone, technology giant Samsung has launched its most anticipated and much awaited smartphone, the Galaxy S4, the latest iteration of its best-selling smartphone. Given its often fractious relationship with Apple, choosing to launch the Samsung Galaxy S4 in the Big Apple was a statement in and of itself. Instead of focusing on earlier followed points of strong hardware and soft price points, the company now looks to break into the late Steve Jobs’ domain – software, features and the ‘smartphone experience’.
Samsung is promoting the smartphone with a tagline "moving beyond touch". The company sys the S4 comes with a new ‘smart scroll and smart pause’ feature, which for instance, monitors the user’s eye movements and behaves accordingly. It means you can scroll through web pages or photographs with a simple wave of the hand. Similarly, you can scroll the web pages up or down accordingly. Also, it will pause a video if a user looks away.
The handset can also translate nine languages, from text to speech and vice versa or just translate text. JK Shin, Samsung's head of mobile, said: "Think about being able to communicate with your friends around the world without language barriers." He called the device "a life companion for a richer, simpler life".
"Samsung is trying to do one thing: knock Apple's status in the US. They want to show that they can excite the high-end smartphone adopters just as well as Apple," an analyst said.
The device will go on sale in the UK from April 26, and will be available through 327 mobile operators in 155 countries, including Orange, EE and Vodafone.
Samsung expects the S4’s sales to be around 10 million per month, largely driven by its new features, which were demonstrated in a theatrical launch event at the Radio City music hall and Times Square.
For Samsung the performance of S4 in the US smartphone market is crucial where it still trails behind Apple. Apple has about 35 per cent marketshare while Samsung has around 16-17 per cent. But Samsung's overall share was far higher and the market is changing.
Let’s take a look at how Samsung Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5 stack up against each other.
Screen Display: Samsung Galaxy S IV will come with a 5-inch full HD Super AMOLED display with 1080×1920 pixel resolution at 441ppi while Apple’s iPhone 5 features a smaller 4-inch screen with pixel resolution of 1136 x 640 at 326ppi.
Operating System: The S4 runs on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean Operating system while the iPhone 5 runs on iOS 6 platform.
Processor: The S4 has a 1.6GHz Exynos 5410 Octa-core processor with 2 GB of RAM. Whereas, iPhone 5 has quad-core A6 chip, this according to Apple will give double the CPU and graphics performance using just 1 GB of RAM.
Connectivity: Galaxy S4 supports Wi-Fi, NFC, Dual-video camera function, IR LED,GPS /GLONASS and Bluetooth v4.0. Whereas, iPhone 5 supports Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot and Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP.
Image Sensor: Samsung Galaxy S4 comes outfitted with a 13-megapixel camera with Auto-focus, Flash and shutter Lag with BIS sensor with a 2 megapixel front camera. It comes with Smart Scroll and Smart Pause features, which follow facial movements for scrolling through text or content or video, without even touching the screen. While Apple iPhone 5 lacks these features and comes with an 8-megapixel camera and packs synchronized HD video and image recording, touch focus, geo-tagging, face detection, panorama and HDR, besides a 1.2 megapixel front camera.
Storage: The S4 offers 2GB RAM. Both phones come in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB variants but iPhone does not offer the microSD card slot.
Battery: The Samsung handset comes with a 2600 mAh battery and pledges a long battery backup. On the other hand, iPhone 5 has a 1440 mAh battery that Apple alleges will give 225 hours of standby time.
Availability: Samsung is likely to start selling its latest smartphone in April. The price is officially not revealed yet. The official pricing of iPhone 5 for the 16 GB version is Rs 45,500, while the 32GB and 64GB variants are priced at Rs 52,500 and Rs 59,500, respectively.
