The Samsung Galaxy S4: A Comprehensive Review

Our friends at Negri Electronics have kindly provided us with the Samsung Galaxy S4, also known as the GT-I 9500, and we're excited to take a closer look at this device. The phone comes packaged in a fake wood-looking box that's definitely eye-catching. Once we opened it up, we found all the usual accessories inside, including a manual, charging and sync cable, wall wart, battery, and pair of headphones with a built-in mic.

One of the most interesting features of the Galaxy S4 is its processor. The device comes in two variants, both of which are quad-core processors - one running at 1.6 GHz and the other at 1.2 GHz. This gives us a total of eight cores to play with, which is certainly an impressive feat. However, it's worth noting that there's no support for LTE on this device, but you do get HSPA+ connectivity. We also found a paper seal on the back of the box that mentions the processor specs in French, which is always a nice touch.

Now that we've opened up the box, let's take a look at the phone itself. The Galaxy S4 looks very similar to its carrier counterpart, which we reviewed earlier. It has a full 5-inch 1080p Super AMOLED display with a pixel density of 441 PPI, making it one of the sharpest screens on the market. We also found that the battery is removable and comes in at 2600 mAh - similar to the carrier version.

In terms of dimensions, the Galaxy S4 measures 5.38 inches by 2.75 inches by 0.31 inches, making it a thin and lightweight device that weighs just 4.59 ounces. The phone also has some new metal-esque accents on the sides that give it a premium feel in the hand. These accents are definitely a nice touch, but we can't help but think they're still made of plastic.

We decided to test both variants of the Galaxy S4, including our own Octa-core model, and ran them through the Quadrant benchmarking tool. The results were interesting - while neither device performed dramatically differently in terms of score, it's clear that one is faster than the other. Our Octa-core variant loaded up much quicker than its quad-core counterpart, but this might have been due to the fact that we didn't go through the Sprint splash screen.

The results of our Quadrant test are as follows: our Octa-core Galaxy S4 scored 12,858 points, while the quad-core version came in at 12,607 points. Again, while these scores aren't dramatically different, it's clear that one device is faster than the other. We'll continue to monitor both devices and provide full comparisons of their performance.

Finally, we found a reset option on both variants of the Galaxy S4, which allowed us to start fresh with each device. This was interesting, as our Octa-core model booted up much quicker than its quad-core counterpart - again, this might have been due to the fact that we didn't go through the Sprint splash screen.

Overall, the Samsung Galaxy S4 is a solid device that offers many of the features and improvements that made the Galaxy S3 such a popular choice. The addition of an Octa-core processor certainly makes it stand out from its quad-core counterpart, but more testing will be needed to see just how much of a difference this really makes. Regardless, we're excited to continue monitoring both devices and providing our readers with the latest news and reviews on the Galaxy S4.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's up everyone jon rettinger from technobuffalo here and today we've got a very special guest this is the octa-core version the samsung galaxy s4 we've had the carrier version in for a little while but we didn't get to do an unboxing because it didn't come in a box so this is the samsung galaxy s4 it's the gt i 9500 in case you are keeping track at home a lot of good stuff here inside of this sort of fake wood looking box let's go ahead and open it up so first let me thank our friends at negri electronics broken us up with this guy they've got all the samsung galaxy s4 variants whether or not you want unlocked quad core carrier versions whatever it is they've got you covered for the galaxy s4 and really every unlocked device so link down below to go check them out alright so let's take a look around the box it looks like wood kind of feels like wood but it's just paper but around here on the back is kind of interesting it's all looks to be in french when mentions processor there are two quad quad-core processors here at different clock speeds so one is a 1.6 gigahertz quad core one is a 1.2 gigahertz quad core so combine those together you get all eight cores uh kind of interesting uh no support though for lt on this guy but you do have hspa plus so go ahead and cut the little paper seal here and open it up here is the samsung galaxy s4 looking very similar to the sprint version we took a look at earlier push it off the side for just a quick moment see what else we're going to have in the box uh we've got a handbook in the box you've got your charging and sync cable got your wall wart which is a little bit on the larger side we've got the battery which is the same size as the carrier version it's 2600 milliamp hours then we've got a pair of headphones um with mic built into them let's go ahead and peel off the plastic that's always some of the most satisfying whooshing noise that we get brand new phone uh so the battery is fully removable pull off the back there we go more stickers it's that same uh plastic back that we saw on the carrier galaxy s4 and very similar to the galaxy s3 so i'll go ahead and pop in the battery we'll go to settings show you that it is indeed running android 4.2 um this is a new setup here it's got connections my device account and more android 4.2.2 on there so i give samsung credit for getting that guy shipping uh so from dimension standpoint same as the carrier version 5.38 inches by 2.75 by a very thin 0.31 and weighs 4.59 ounces the big story here though is the screen it's a full five inch 1080p display with a 441 ppi and it's a super amoled plus 13 megapixel camera on the back two on the front and again that's the same from the carrier version there are some sort of metal-esque accents here on the s4 that weren't on the s3 they make it feel very good to have now they're still plastic uh but it definitely makes the phone uh feel a little bit better in the hand all right so we've got the octa-core awesomeness in my right hand we've got the carrier quad-core version on my left i'm curious what the quadrant squares are going to be on each i haven't tested the full quadrant score yet on either of these so i've got no idea uh what it's going to be but let's have some fun and see what the scores come back and i know quadrants not the most clinical accurate way to test uh performance but it's what i use in all of my benchmarks at least it gives a pretty interesting score uh so let these guys run and just see what happens and again you can see difference between both phones really not much on the carrier version you've got some galaxy s4 branding down below you don't have any sort of branding here on the octa-core version kind of interesting uh we did a reset on each and i will say that the octa-core version booted up much quicker than the quad core version but again this didn't have to go through the sprint splash screen see what we got again octa-core quad core again this might have just used one of the quad core chips uh we got a score of 12 858 we've got a score of 12 607 so not as big a difference as i thought with both these guys so just bear that in mind again we'll do full comparisons of each of these and put them head to head against some of the big phones out now uh the iphone 5. see how everything holds up for now i am jon rettinger from technobuffalo please give this video a thumbs up we most definitely appreciate it check us out at technobuffalo.com for all the galaxy s4 news and i'll see you guys in the next video youwhat's up everyone jon rettinger from technobuffalo here and today we've got a very special guest this is the octa-core version the samsung galaxy s4 we've had the carrier version in for a little while but we didn't get to do an unboxing because it didn't come in a box so this is the samsung galaxy s4 it's the gt i 9500 in case you are keeping track at home a lot of good stuff here inside of this sort of fake wood looking box let's go ahead and open it up so first let me thank our friends at negri electronics broken us up with this guy they've got all the samsung galaxy s4 variants whether or not you want unlocked quad core carrier versions whatever it is they've got you covered for the galaxy s4 and really every unlocked device so link down below to go check them out alright so let's take a look around the box it looks like wood kind of feels like wood but it's just paper but around here on the back is kind of interesting it's all looks to be in french when mentions processor there are two quad quad-core processors here at different clock speeds so one is a 1.6 gigahertz quad core one is a 1.2 gigahertz quad core so combine those together you get all eight cores uh kind of interesting uh no support though for lt on this guy but you do have hspa plus so go ahead and cut the little paper seal here and open it up here is the samsung galaxy s4 looking very similar to the sprint version we took a look at earlier push it off the side for just a quick moment see what else we're going to have in the box uh we've got a handbook in the box you've got your charging and sync cable got your wall wart which is a little bit on the larger side we've got the battery which is the same size as the carrier version it's 2600 milliamp hours then we've got a pair of headphones um with mic built into them let's go ahead and peel off the plastic that's always some of the most satisfying whooshing noise that we get brand new phone uh so the battery is fully removable pull off the back there we go more stickers it's that same uh plastic back that we saw on the carrier galaxy s4 and very similar to the galaxy s3 so i'll go ahead and pop in the battery we'll go to settings show you that it is indeed running android 4.2 um this is a new setup here it's got connections my device account and more android 4.2.2 on there so i give samsung credit for getting that guy shipping uh so from dimension standpoint same as the carrier version 5.38 inches by 2.75 by a very thin 0.31 and weighs 4.59 ounces the big story here though is the screen it's a full five inch 1080p display with a 441 ppi and it's a super amoled plus 13 megapixel camera on the back two on the front and again that's the same from the carrier version there are some sort of metal-esque accents here on the s4 that weren't on the s3 they make it feel very good to have now they're still plastic uh but it definitely makes the phone uh feel a little bit better in the hand all right so we've got the octa-core awesomeness in my right hand we've got the carrier quad-core version on my left i'm curious what the quadrant squares are going to be on each i haven't tested the full quadrant score yet on either of these so i've got no idea uh what it's going to be but let's have some fun and see what the scores come back and i know quadrants not the most clinical accurate way to test uh performance but it's what i use in all of my benchmarks at least it gives a pretty interesting score uh so let these guys run and just see what happens and again you can see difference between both phones really not much on the carrier version you've got some galaxy s4 branding down below you don't have any sort of branding here on the octa-core version kind of interesting uh we did a reset on each and i will say that the octa-core version booted up much quicker than the quad core version but again this didn't have to go through the sprint splash screen see what we got again octa-core quad core again this might have just used one of the quad core chips uh we got a score of 12 858 we've got a score of 12 607 so not as big a difference as i thought with both these guys so just bear that in mind again we'll do full comparisons of each of these and put them head to head against some of the big phones out now uh the iphone 5. see how everything holds up for now i am jon rettinger from technobuffalo please give this video a thumbs up we most definitely appreciate it check us out at technobuffalo.com for all the galaxy s4 news and i'll see you guys in the next video you\n"