News & Reviews:   Samsung Galaxy S4

Samsung has recently announced an improved version of their Exynos 5 Octa chipset. While the Samsung Galaxy S4 I9500 already has the earlier version of the Exynos 5 Octa chipset it's performance has been overshadowed by the Snapdragon 800 from Qualcomm. Rumours indicate that the enhanced version of the Exynos 5 Octa chipset may be called Exynos Evolved  with the teaser from Samsung indicating that it will be "a more powerful, enhanced Exynos 5 Octa". 

Ever wondered which smartphone would last the longest or have the longest battery life? Well, it isn't just you as some testers from UK have put the Samsung Galaxy S4, Sony Xperia Z, HTC One, Apple iPhone 5, Google Nexus 4, BlackBerry Z10 and Nokia Lumia 920 through a number of battery tests for call time, internet usage and charging time. The results may shock you but do check out the results:

Joining the fray with their LTE capable version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 or the I9505, Celcom is now offering the smartphone from a subsidized price of RM1888. The deal requires you to sign up for a Celcom First Plan and Mobile Internet plan with a choice of 12 to 18 months. Check the table below for all the details:

Samsung's next big smartphone, the Galaxy Note 3 is rumoured to finally make a launch appearance on 4 September 2013 at a Samsung Unpacked event. This event will be held just before the IFA 2013 event. These rumours probably started because the first Samsung Galaxy Note was introduced at IFA 2011 while the Samsung Galaxy Note II got revealed at a similar Samsung Unpacked event in September 2012 (again right before IFA 2012). Tech specs for the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 now include:

• 2.3GHz Quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor
• 3GB of RAM
• 13MP rear camera (OIS)
• 5.7-inch Super AMOLED (1080p) / Flexible 5.99-inch AMOLED screen
• Supports LTE-A
• 8mm thick | 183g

After just two weeks or so of offering top smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One on Zero Contract at subsidized prices, DiGi are slashing the prices for these two top smartphones by about RM100 or so. While the Samsung Galaxy S4 was initially offered at RM1883 DiGi is now offering it from as low as RM1773 while the HTC One is dropping from RM1953 to as low as RM1843 on Zero Contract. Contracted plans for 24-months have also received a price cut which you can see in the table below:

We've already seen how powerful the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset and processor is from benchmarks done with the Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE-A but it won't be very useful if it doesn't have good energy efficiency. Testing this out, it was recently put through some synthetic battery tests for 3D rendering, Video Playback and Browsing. According to the testers, the other Samsung Galaxy S4 version in the bunch is the Exynos 5 Octa powered I9500. From the benchmark results it shows that the Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE-A gets more or less the same performance with the Samsung Galaxy S4 I9500 in Browsing and Video Playback but beats the Samsung Galaxy S4 I9500 in 3D rendering (probably due to the better Adreno 330 GPU the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset has).

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Edition and HTC One Google Edition recently went on sale on the US Google Play Store. Both run Android 4.2.2, however, both of them also seem to be carrying new versions of the camera app, some different boot animation and wallpapers. The camera app in particlar enables these features:

• Arc shaped menu
• Ability to use Volume Rocker as dedicated camera button

The new Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE-A packs in Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 800 chipset which among others includes a 2.3Ghz Quad-core processor and Adreno 330 Graphics. There are two other earlier versions with the Samsung Galaxy S4 I9500 powered by Samsung's Exynos 5 Octa and the Samsung Galaxy S4 I9505 powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 600 chipset. While we'd love to see the battery performance, we have seen the overall performance benchmarks in both AnTuTu and Quadrant.

Samsung has officially launched the Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE-A for the South Korean market. This is mainly because SK Telecom have also launched the world's first LTE-A network featuring speeds of up to 150Mbps for mobile devices. This is more than double that of existing LTE networks. Asides from having LTE-A built-in, the Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE-A also has the latest and greatest 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset and processor (which also means it comes with the faster Adreno 330 GPU).

Despite only just being released, near confirmed rumours about a Samsung Galaxy S4 version (that may be known as the Samsung Galaxy S4 Plus) that is not only powered by a much faster Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor but also supports LTE Advanced or LTE-A have made Samsung Galaxy S4 buyers in Korea quite angry. While there are still no LTE-A networks available just yet in Korea, SK Telecom of Korea is supposedly planning to roll it out in Q2 of 2013 with a deadline due in September. As mentioned earlier LTE-A provides speeds of up to 1Gbps.