what constitutes to a good phone? we believe it is the ‘good feel’ when you first picked it up and that’s what the Samsung GALAXY S4 when i first held in my hand. it could be partly due to my gorilla-size hand. anyway, it does feel good and it kinds of make me forgot about its uncanny similarity with its immediate predecessor, the S3. actually, that is not entirely true. for anyone who have used the S3, the difference is in fact quite apparent. the design kind of straddles between S2 and the S3. so, as far as aesthetic is concerned, i think it is way better than the S3 and the only thing that feels the same is its lightweight-ness. it feels more sophisticated in every sense. i managed to spent some quality time, albeit being a rather short one (hence its a quick look not an in depth review), with this new flagship handset from Sammy and to be honest, the functions, though nice, are little too overwhelming. way too overwhelming, actually.
and the air view? frankly, i had some hard time hovering my finger over the display. half of the time i ended touching the screen. for that, i thought of it as novelty more than anything else. maybe the air gesture may have some practical use but i am quite happy with touch interface as it is. i shan’t bog you don’t with the details of it’s usability, it is after all still Sammy’s Touchwhiz that Samsung users are familiar by now. so what’s our verdict? get it if appreciate a good design with glorious display but don’t mind the plasticky treatment. personally, i highly doubt every user of the new S4 will actually consistently use all the novel functions that came with the updated Touchwhiz and oh, one thing about the fluidity, it is not as awesome as i thought it would be. maybe the quad-core version that i fiddled with is not up to the game? perhaps. in case you are looking out for a non-contract option, you can actually get it for £579.99, or about US$900.
