News & Reviews:   Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE

Celcom has officially begun the roll-out of its 4G LTE network with a 1000 first-come first-serve deal for all their subscribers. As mentioned earlier, this deal is for 3-months service with the USB dongle. While this seems to be the only device and plan for Celcom 4G LTE for now, the company have stated that more plans and more devices are coming.

At their official roll-out the company listed the Samsung Galaxy S4 / S IV, Apple iPhone 5, Nokia Lumia 920 and Sony Xperia Z as smartphones that would support Celcom's 4G LTE network. They hope to roll out LTE support for the iPhone 5 this 18 May 2013 (which according to them is the actual commercial launch date for the service).

With the Samsung Galaxy S4 / S IV upon us this April, rumours surrounding this flagship smartphone are flying about like crazy. While the rumours about Malaysia receiving both the Exynos 5 Octa Samsung Galaxy S4 / S IV (non-LTE) version and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 powered Samsung Galaxy S4 / S IV (LTE) version seem to be true, other rumours include the fact the the Exynos 5 Octa Samsung Galaxy S4 / S IV (non-LTE) version may be priced at RM2199 while the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 powered Samsung Galaxy S4 / S IV (LTE) may be priced at RM2399 in Malaysia.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 / S IV is an impressive smartphone in either its Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 version and its Exynos 5 Octa version. However, recent benchmarks of the Samsung Exynos 5 Octa have revealed that it is a lot more powerful than the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 version. The question here is, why has Samsung made nearly 70% of its Samsung Galaxy S4 / S IV smartphones using the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600? Why haven't they used just the Samsung Exynos 5 Octa?

Previously we reported on the early benchmarks done using the Snapdragon 600-powered Samsung Galaxy S4 / S IV or I9505 which were done using Geekbench 2. Now, benchmarks using the Exynos-powered Samsung Galaxy S4 / S IV or I9500 have come up and blown practically every other device out of the water. The benchmark tests were done using AnTuTu and Quadrant. Check them out below:

AnTuTu (Higher is better)

While most reviews cover most of the feature tests and performance tests, testing battery life can take quite some time so it is only just now that we have the battery life tests fo the Samsung Galaxy S4. While the Samsung Galaxy S4 looks and feels about the same weight and size as the Samsung Galaxy S III, it has a bigger screen, more powerful processors and about 500 mAh more with its 2600 mAh battery. Bear in mind that these tests were done with the Snapdragon 600 quad core enabled Samsung Galaxy S4 and cover 3 tests which include talk time, web browsing and video playback.

While many know that the Samsung Galaxy S4 is coming, few know that it is coming in two flavours. Like what some of our readers at the Mobile Mega Mall Facebook page have noted, the I9500 is powered by the 8-core Exynos processor but doesn't have any LTE capabilities while the I9505 model will be powered by the 4-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor and have LTE capabilities.

Thankfully, Malaysia is one of the few countries that will be getting both models (which may lead to an I9500 vs I9505 comparison later on ;) ). The full list is below but not completely accurate (as in some countries might be missing).