Ka-boom, skidoosh, ba-bang or whatever sound you make in anticipation of the launch of something as popular as the Galaxy S4. Right, I used the word ‘popular’ instead of awesome/hi-fi/innovative/futuristic for several reasons, most of which have something to do with ‘the truth’. But yes, despite my personal opinion The Galaxy S phones do have a habit of setting the benchmark for every major phone release. It’s like the cliche, love it or hate it you just can’t ignore it.
Vice president Samsung Mobile has confirmed in comments made at Mobile World Congress 2013 that the Galaxy S4 is indeed being unveiled at the Samsung Unpacked event in New York City. Samsung have sent out invitations for the event and the rest of us have the privilege of a live-stream. Mark March 15th 4.30AM (IST) on your calendars.
And I’m sorry but the teaser looks terrible. Idiot with Photoshop involved here.
Surprise Surprise!
As with the trend with CES, MWC and obviously Samsung the S4 will have a bigger screen. The latest craze is 5-inch 1080p displays but I expect Samsung to be bold enough and be original – a 4.99-inch Full-HD display then. Flexible screen rumoured but both of us know that’s not gonna happen. To keep the length and width in check we might see and edge-to-edge display.
At the heart the S4 might get either of two things – Exynos or Snapdragon
If it’s an Exynos then it’ll be the eight-core Exynos 5 Octa. This baby is based on the power-hungry Cortex-A15 unsuitable for smartphones so lets see how Samsung pulls it off.
They could also go the Qualcomm way with a quad-core Snapdragon 600 or 800 SoC. The latter features a 28nm HPM (high performance mobile) process but with a clock speed of 2.3GHz we’re really in tablet territory.
This cat is still in the bag.
13MP camera check, LTE check, NFC check, 64GB inbuilt storage maybe maybe-not, wireless charging check, 2GB RAM check. Cat totally out of the bag.
Expect the S4 to take up 140.1 x 71.8 x 7.7mm of air and weigh in an incredible 138gram (it’s a 5-inch phone remember). At 7.7mm the S4 would be incredibly sleek and a sight to behold. NO! It’s gonna be enclosed in Samsung’s trademark CHEAP PLASTIC. Honestly, I don’t see why the flagship of the world’s largest electronics company has to have a shoddy build quality with a toy-like body. Samsung need to explore richer materials.
The device will run on Jellybean 4.2 with the latest TouchWiz…………… *enters berserk mode*
ARGHHHHHH! TOUCHWIZ! ABOMINATION. I REPEAT. ABOMINATION. IT’S LIKE TAKING OUT THE BEST THING ABOUT ANDROID, THE OS ITSELF, AND TAKING A GINORMOUS DUMP ON IT!
Google should just ask Samsung to stop calling the OS as Android and start marketing it as TouchWiz. Forget how bad the name is but skinning is a disgrace and should be punishable by law. There is not a single person on this planet, or any other, who can say the words “gee, I really like TouchWiz”. Why the hell do Samsung do it in the first place! It takes people to develop and deploy skins and many man hours to do this every version of Android Google releases. I know what you’ll say, differentiation. But at the end of the day people spend all that $$$ on getting a good device so can’t Samsung simply leave the OS to the experts, Google. How hard is it to NOT do something?
No case can be made for skinning. Period.
At the end of the day I think it’ll just be another phone with a larger screen and better specs. I would love if Samsung went to the basics and worked on things like battery life, build quality and durability but that would be too much to ask. In a weird sense I think that it is quite improbable for Samsung to surprise me and yet I am pretty excited. The internet speculates that the device will go on sale in April itself.
The S4 will check the faster, larger boxes but we’ll have to see if it checks the better box. Oh and there’ll be a huge amount of S stuff revealed along with the phone; S Pen 2, S Charger, S Guide, S Packaging, S whatever-you-can-think-of.
UPDATE: I sincerely hope for Samsung’s sake that the S4 is infinitely better than this piece of shit teaser/ad my eyeballs had to go through. I do not recommend that you watch it but wunder the article 56 subsection B paragraph 3 of the Bloggers Code I must post it. WARNING, WATCH AT YOUR OWN RISK.
“ARGHHHHHH! TOUCHWIZ! ABOMINATION. I REPEAT. ABOMINATION. IT’S LIKE TAKING OUT THE BEST THING ABOUT ANDROID, THE OS ITSELF, AND TAKING A GINORMOUS DUMP ON IT!”
Could be worse, could be iOS.
Good. You’ve done an excellent job finding out everything negative about a phone that trumps your iFruit device any time of the day. And all this when the GS4 is not released.
“This baby is based on the power-hungry Cortex-A15 unsuitable for smartphones so lets see how Samsung pulls it off.”
Cortex A15 is a CPU architecture. It will also be used in the next iPhone. Will it be “power hungry” then? No. Because you’re a fanatic and everything Apple makes is “innovation”.
“Forget how bad the name is but skinning is a disgrace and should be punishable by law. There is not a single person on this planet, or any other, who can say the words “gee, I really like TouchWiz”.
So you couldn’t find anything worse to talk about so TouchWiz is a bad name? There are people who like TouchWiz. It’s not better than AOSP. But it’s awesome. Especially features like Multiwindow. But if an iPhone had multi window, you’d be praising it like anything.
“And I’m sorry but the teaser looks terrible. Idiot with Photoshop involved here.”
Why is that guy being called incompetent? His skills at PS are good. Making a poster like this takes a lot more effort than you think.
“At the end of the day I think it’ll just be another phone with a larger screen and better specs. I would love if Samsung went to the basics and worked on things like battery life, build quality and durability but that would be too much to ask.”
Blah. Just some more iFanatism. iPhones are better because they’ve smaller display sizes. Battery life of iPhones sucks compared to my GNex. Even my friend’s Note II runs for 2-3 days on heavy usage thanks to the ~3000MaH battery. And all I see around are iPhones with scarched aluminum backs or broken glass panels. Durability? Fancy trying to find everything negative of a phone you’re jealous about and still failing miserably at it.
1/10 for the article. I’m giving you the 1 because you gave me a reason to laugh. No I’m not asking you to change your opinions. But next time you want to write a post about an Android product, ask a sensible person to do that for you.
Hmm… So firstly I never compared the SGS4 with an iPhone. I think you should visit an eye doctor or a psychiatrist. Or both.
Secondly TouchWiz is pathetic and you know it. And about multiwindow, if Android gets it in summer then I’ll go gaga over it too. I love Android as much as I love iOS. Hate TWiz though.
And that point about the A-15 processor wasn’t an criticism. You should really consider seeing someone.
Lastly there were subtle praises for Samsung and their efforts all over the post. But you were too busy understanding my imaginary comparisons to iDevices that you failed to notice them.
Also I NEVER WROTE ABOUT HOW GOOD THE IPHONE WAS AND HOW BAD THE SGS4 WILL BE. You’re reading things I haven’t written and then you give the post a rating based on that.
Oh and you might not want to check our Oscar liveblog. You might find a lot of instance of iPhone bias there as well!!!
Okay dude let me be polite here. I’ll talk to you as a friend
She is absolutely flawless with her comments.
Yes you didn’t mention “iPhone” or “Apple” in your post. But you did make indirect comparisons. When you write “it’ll just be another phone with a larger screen and better specs” you make an indirect comparison. Every phone except the iPhone has a large screen (and that’s a huge plus). Also, you have made previous posts like “unHate” which was a missile targeted at Apple haters (Android lovers). Frankly speaking, your writing does make you sound like an Apple fan and as a result, anybody coming to this blog will safely presume that you’re a fanboy.
Yes Touchwiz is bad but it doesn’t suck. Maybe you don’t hate Android. But you’re going mad at anything Samsung. TW has it’s flaws but it’s good. And to add to it, you said that TouchWiz is a bad name. This will be easily classified as blind hate.
The point about Cortex-A15 was targeted as a criticism. When you say “power hungry” and “not suitable for phones” you’re making a call of that being a bad move. And I don’t see any praises towards Samsung. Why don’t you quote a line from this post which talks something positive about them? There isn’t any.
She hasn’t criticized you for something that you’ve not written. She quotes you on every point she made. As I said earlier, you did make indirect comparisons.
Just a tip. If you want Bombay Nerds to be a good website (at least for the tech news section), avoid too much of hatred in your writings. Even your Twitter and Facebook accounts show a kind of bias towards Apple products. For example, the whole internet agrees that Samsung’s teaser is bad. Even me too. But you shouldn’t write this: “I sincerely hope for Samsung’s sake that the S4 is infinitely better than this piece of shit teaser/ad my eyeballs had to go through. I do not recommend that you watch it but wunder the article 56 subsection B paragraph 3 of the Bloggers Code I must post it. WARNING, WATCH AT YOUR OWN RISK.”
This is way too much hatred. Just say, “Samsung added a new teaser for the GS4 and you can watch it here. IMO it wasn’t that good”. Even if you want to show hate, be subtle. Opinions are good. But too much of them could be bad.
One thing you can do is get someone else for writing posts about non-Apple products. You’ll find plenty of good guys out there. The most successful websites do this. Apple fans will read your Apple posts and Android fans will read the Android posts. But if you show so much hatred, all you get is angry readers and also you scare away a lot of Android fans from your blog. When you’re a writer, your job is entertaining your readers instead of making them angry.
PS: I own 6 Apple products (iPhone 4S, iMac 2011, Macbook Air 2012, Apple TV, iPod Touch 4G, iPod Nano 5G and a Mac Pro). And I post similar stuff to tech websites who show too much of Apple hatred
Firstly, thanks for speaking like a normal person.
Let’s just clear some things out before we proceed to talking about the current issue at hand:
1. The Blog
Bombaynerds is NOT a publication or a news site. We don’t report on what has happened but on what we think about it. On this site every piece you read will be personal and opinionated. Facts can be boring, we concentrate on the opinions.
2. My Opinions
Lets just consider for the sake of the argument that I love Apple and hate everything else. What’s the big deal? It’s quite cool if the readers do not agree with it but it is my opinion. And as I am NOT a part of a neutral publication platform I am proud to have opinions about certain things and I don’t think that it is wrong to express these on a platform I myself have conceived.
“But next time you want to write a post about an Android product, ask a sensible person to do that for you.”
I feel wronged to have been told to NOT express my opinions (however they are) on an issue. Also the suggestion that only an Android fanboy should write about Android is appalling.
3. The Authors
I do not sign up writers based on their opinions. It is extremely insane to select people based on their choices and not on their writing prowess. If there’s a good writer, he’s in regardless of which side he’s on.
4. The Opinions
I love Android and I love iOS. In fact I love Google more than I love Apple but that’s an entirely different conversation. I know that many of the readers feel I’m an Apple fanboy and I have only myself to blame for this misunderstanding. Anyway there’s nothing I can do about that now.
Just wait for IO 2013 and you’ll see precisely how much I love Android.
Now, coming back to this post…
I don’t get how you guys didn’t understand that the A-15 point wasn’t a criticism by any means. Honestly, 1.5GHz quad-core is more than enough for a smartphone and it’s totally cool if Samsung doesn’t go beyond it. 2.3GHz is tablet territory so if I were an OEM I’d rather have a low-powered but efficient processor.
And again, if they do manage to squeeze it into a phone I have absolutely no problem. I hope we’re clear on this.
The teaser was bad, really bad. Is it too much if I make a joke on it? C’mon people! Where’s our sense of humour?
The thing she wrote about the battery was totally uncalled for. I NEVER mentioned the iPhone. In fact while writing I was thinking about the Droid RAZR MAX HD. It has an amazing life and I would love if Samsung was serious about having a killer battery.
Again that doesn’t imply that the SGS3 has the worst battery. It does last an entire day of heavy usage but the DROID can manage 2-3.
Very good Nirja. I’m glad that you’ve understood this. As you’ve seen, both of us said the exact samething but I was more polite so he gave a nice reply. “You give a little love and it all comes back to you”
And to the site admins: I see that my dear friend Nirja has made a mess in your comments section. Please remove the extra unnecessary ones. I guess this is because of WordPress’ ugly comments system that doesn’t even allow deleting comments for the user. This is OT but I’m just saying this because I’m a bit into web technology. WP should really get rid of PHP. It’s horrible. It would be nice if you guys switch to something like Livefire or Disqus.
Yeah… Agreed.
I was considering to switch. Between Disqus and Livefyre what would you opt for? Personally I feel Disqus is better…
Done.
I agree with the fact that Apple’s iOS at this juncture isn’t the mobile best operating system out there. The OS is boring as fuck. Let us establish that, permanently. But TouchWiz on the other hand, acc to me, is a really shitty, annoying skin. Let us put it this way, if I had an option to go with the most BORING mobile OS out there (iOS) or TouchWiz. I would go for iOS. Don’t bother asking me why, but I would rather buy an HTC One with Sense (pun intended) rather than go for Samsung’s TouchWiz. Oh, and the SAMOLED display makes it worse. Color’s over saturated out the wazoo.
As for durability, Samsung GS3 really lacks it. Infact, I think both the iPhone 5 and the HTC OneX beat Samsung when it comes to durability. Battery life is another issue though.
If you wan’t proof, here is a video of an HTC One X being used to hammer a nail into a 3 inch block of wood!!
Thanks Joseph. To the writer: I’m sorry I was being to harsh. And as a friendly measure, I’m going to follow you on Twitter
1- Okay I got it
2 and 3- There’s no problem whatsoever in expressing your opinions. But if you want more readers, this is not a good move. There’s a lot of hatred in this post and some of it is unnecessary or irrelevant (for example the Photoshop one). This will just boo every Samsung fan out there. The reason why Joseph asked you to make an Android enthusiast to write such posts for you is because a writer with that background will be loved by Android fans (people who’re supposed to read this post). If you’ll express your opinion over here, you’ll get a lot of haters tailing your back.
4- Yes you don’t hate Android. But you seem to have a deep hatred for Samsung products. If you write posts full of hate, there’s no wonder why your readers will assume that you hate everything not Apple (it’s just a delusion among the techie netizens that anybody who writes negative about Android is an iFanatic).
Now about the A15 CPU thingy. When you talk about Android devices, nothing is enough. New features are added very frequently. It’s not an average phone OS. Android is a desktop OS with a phone UI. The Exynos 5 Octa has 4 A15 cores for power usage and 4 A7 cores for light usage (battery saving). And battery life depends on person to person.
Well have a nice day then
No offence but didn’t like the blog that much, you focused too much on negatives I didn’t read thoroughly still there were two major negatives —
1. Plastic Body
Well plastic body is much better than metal or glass body as it’s more durable, can come in more colors, can be made glossy or dull or rubbery or rough or whatever you like it to be, Plastic blocks the least number of radio signals. It’s very LIGHT and RUGGED. Can be produced in high numbers in very less time. Plastic is cheap so eventually the manufacturing cost is lesser.Before the smartphone era all the phones were made up of plastic nobody argued then. So thumbs up for plastic body
2. TouchWiz
Let me tell you as there are more than one manufacturer for Android in contrast to iOS they have to customize the layout of UI and Google has no problem with it. And TouchWiz is pretty intituitive. There are many features which were first TouchWiz’s but then introduced into Vanilla UI. As there are many custom UIs we will get better UI every time. Compition is good no. P.S. TouchWiz uses very less RAM.