Things You Need to Know About the Mighty Yet Flawed Galaxy S4

                     Samsung’s Galaxy S4 looks much pretty like a 
                        larger version of the S III that preceded it. 
                                           Image: Samsung

The S4′s 13-megapixel camera has a 

mixed bag of features.Image: Samsung

Samsung’s Galaxy S4 finally made its debut Thursday night, and not a single thing about the phone was surprising. Every feature and every spec was leaked prior to the S4′s unveiling. But that doesn’t make the S4 any less impressive.

Here are five things you need to know about the Galaxy S4, before you decide whether or not it will be your next phone.                                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                     The S4 Is Watching You

By tracking your eye movement, the S4 will pause a video when you look away from the screen with Smart Pause. Smart Scroll, on the other hand, scrolls up and down through a page when the phone is tilted. While the Smart Pause feature could lead to jittery video playback while you keep an eye on what’s going on around you, the Smart Scroll could be helpful when reading large blocks of text. Maybe.

Both seem gimmicky and it’s tough to determine when these functions will actually be used. Maybe when you break your thumb and you can’t flick up and down to read a site or when you have to look away from a video so you don’t get hit by a car but you just have to catch every nuance of the latest Beyonce video.

Evolution, Not Revolution

The S4 picks up right where last year’s Galaxy S III left off. As far as looks go, the S4 looks like a larger version of its predecessor. It’s thin, it’s light, and it’s made of plastic. The sloped edges and anti-iPhone styling are all in place. The S III had a 4.8-inch, 720p, Super HD AMOLED display covered in Corning’s scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass 2. The S4 has a 5-inch, 1080p Super HD AMOLED display covered in Gorilla Glass 3. The S III was 0.34-inches thick, the S4 is 0.31-inches thick. The S III weighed 4.7-ounces, the S4 weighs 4.6-ounces. While the S III had an 8-megapixel rear camera, and a 1.9-megapixel front camera, the S4 has a 13-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front camera. TouchWiz — Samsung’s alterations to Google’s Android operating system — looks to be largely the same between the S III and S4. The S4 is basically more, more, more of everything — specs and features.

This isn’t a bad thing. Like the S III, the S4 will be available across AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and U.S. Cellular — though we don’t have release dates or pricing info yet. And while, no, the S4 doesn’t live up to Samsung’s own hype, it’s important to remember that the S III didn’t either. Still, the S III was one of last year’s best smartphones and it was wildly popular. Samsung found a winning formula in the S III and it’s sticking to it with the S4.

S Voice Is Growing, Whether It Deserves to or Not

Siri, the voice assistant app found on the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 doesn’t always work as expected, but she’s entertaining. Google’s Voice Search feature works far, far better than Siri, but it’s a bit dry and purely a utility and not a digital best friend. S Voice, on the Galaxy S III, was a train wreck, often failing to recognize voice commands or deliver coherent responses. But that isn’t stopping Samsung from expanding its capabilities on the S4.

S Voice has a new function called S Voice Drive, which will allow S4 owners to operate their phone by voice commands — as long as their car has Bluetooth. S Voice Drive promises to read back text messages, transcribe and send text messages responses, offer turn-by-turn driving directions, rattle off the weather and place a phone call. This all sounds lovely in concept, but we’re weary that its execution will be as bad as S Voice on the S III. Hopefully Samsung proves us wrong, and delivers a solid voice assistant that actually works. Regardless, Samsung’s expansion of S Voice shows us that the company believes that voice-driven interfaces are here to stay, whether we like it or not, and whether they figure out how to make it work or not.

A Mixed Camera Bag

Samsung mixed stellar camera features with features that make you wonder if someone just grabbed all the ideas in a camera brainstorm meeting and sent them to the engineers.

Their efforts fall flat with the Dual Camera function that adds an image of the person taking the photo to a picture, but inside a floating box. The effect is odd and makes the final photo look kitschy. And not in a good way. Like those bad prom photos from the 80s where two photos were superimposed. Except the floating head is someone concentrating on taking a photo.

The Dual Video Call feature, on the other hand, solves the problem with Apple’s FaceTime only using one camera, so that the person shooting ends up doing that awkward straight arm thing so everyone can talk to grandma on video. By using both cameras and presenting a dual split-screen, you can use both cameras and the viewer can see everyone at once.

Samsung also added an eraser feature so you can remove photo bombers (boo) and anything else that you’d rather not be in your final image. But the most puzzling item was the ability to add audio to a photo. Wouldn’t it just be better to shoot a video instead of a photo and attaching sound?

Knox Stands Between You and Your Boss

Samsung’s answer to the BYOD while not sacrificing security is Knox. The feature separates phone calls, email, and apps. The Samsung S 4 is the first Samsung device to ship with the security feature. The enterprise feature lets your IT department securely manage the S 4 without creating a phone so mired in security, you won’t want to use it.

The feature is similar to BlackBerry’s Balance technology that separates the work and personal environment on BlackBerry phones down to the kernel. Knox uses a hardware baked in security solution. Good for you and your boss.