Software, UI, Apps and Browser

Software and User Interface

Though the Galaxy S 4 aesthetically looks just like every other Samsung smartphone released in the past 12 months, that familiar face masks that there'southward a seriously upgraded brain beneath it. Have the notification panel that previous versions of Touchwiz have used to provide shortcuts to common features. Those shortcuts can now be rearranged based on the importance and frequency that they are accessed.

Multi-window was introduced every bit a way to run two apps on a carve up screen of Milky way tablets, but the characteristic is more than mature and still useful on the 5-inch screen of the Galaxy S iv. The number of apps, including those developed by third parties, able to run in Multi-window has grown significantly, so users can check YouTube and Twitter simultaneously simply as easily every bit they were previously able to use Gmail and the browser.

The Android 4.two-powered Milky way S four has more features than users will ever care to acquire or apply. The sensor-based software seems counterintuitive at beginning, merely parts of information technology actually end upwards having applied value. Air Gesture is a way to navigate by non actually touching the screen; swipe to a higher place a sensor and the telephone will know to go to the adjacent image in the Gallery. Information technology's much easier and faster to swipe by touching the screen, so nothing'south really gained in that instance. That doesn't mean Air Gesture is useless; it's actually quite useful when swiping over an incoming call notification and automatically going into Speaker way. Air View besides has its express practicality, only information technology comes in handy when previewing emails or navigating in media apps.

The Milky way S 4 is full of such unnecessary simply perchance enhancing features. Group Play creates a shared network between devices in order to play the same vocal or even act equally a makeshift Surround Sound organisation, which sounds especially pointless when one considers that it currently works only with other Samsung Galaxy Due south iv devices. Smart rotation measures the angle of a user's sightline to know whether to evidence portrait or landscape, and Smart pause will know to pause video when someone turns abroad from the screen.

The trouble with the Smart features is that they are hit or miss. Some practice not work when in that location's light behind the subject or in a dark surface area, and others don't work when Multi window is active. The fascination and cool gene of these apps are diminished by their unreliability.

Apps

Samsung poured resources into improving its built-in apps with modest refinements that brand a noticeable difference. The biggest bear on is seen in the Email app, merely small UI or feature changes improve Calendar and S Memo. The Contacts app hasn't been treated to a visual upgrade, but it does accept new Speed Dial options.

The well-nigh interesting enhanced app isn't even developed by Samsung. Reading app Flipboard created a version of the app built specifically for Samsung products that supports Air View, so hovering over a section reveals a preview of the manufactures featured in that department. Samsung worked with Flipboard to enable the feature, so that naturally leads to wondering well-nigh what other apps might someday exist able to support Air View - I'm looking at you, YouTube and every other media player or gallery app - if Samsung releases an SDK (Samsung informed us that it plans to work with more developers to implement Air View merely declined to say if it will launch an SDK).

Samsung has included several new apps to accompany the Galaxy South 4. Media gets a large boost with Sentry On, a Telly-guide-like app that makes bear witness discovery and tracking easier with data from Peel and an IR component that can control a television. Anyone with a Samsung Smart Television set 2022 model gets the added bonus of beingness able to stream their boob tube directly to their smartphone over Wi-Fi.

WatchOn is hands one of the Milky way S iv's best features, but its limitation to certain TVs will probable exclude most users from ever putting the streaming function into practise. Other preloaded apps include Dropbox, Sentinel Security, Polaris Office 5, Scout (Telenav), Trip Advisor, and iv Sprint apps. The roster of bloatware will vary depending on carrier. There's also a Samsung keyboard with SwiftKey integration, but it's not very adept, and then spend the money and buy the bodily SwiftKey app instead. Swype is included as a secondary input option.

Browser

Chrome be damned, Samsung is sticking to its own implementation of the Internet app. The strategy is actually favorable because Internet has baked in support for Adobe Flash, something Chrome cannot exercise on Android Jelly Bean. Yes, much of the web is moving to HTML5, but the transition isn't happening nearly fast enough to pretend like having the choice to view Wink content isn't something to be praised.

The browser app also lets users set custom brightness levels, switch between Desktop and Mobile views, browse in private fashion, and switch between tabs. The combination of software enhancements and a quad-core processor lead to some impressive benchmark scores that show Internet is as responsive equally it is feature-rich. The only negative things I tin say are that it could use a Total-screen option and the Lumen toolbar at the bottom of the screen is incredibly abrasive. Thankfully, the latter can be removed from the Lumen settings menu.