Hands on with the Galaxy S4 - Samsung's hover phone

Thursday morning, I got to have a quick play with Samsung Galaxy S4, and check out its air gestures and other touchless controls that some overseas reviewers have found problematic.

The S4 will be launched in NZ on Saturday April 27.

Samsung will be hoping it can build on the momentum of its S III, which emerged as the top selling smartphone running in Google's Android software, and the iPhone 5's main competition.

Telecom, Vodafone and 2degrees will carry the S4, but so far only Telecom has released pricing: $1149 off-contract, or $0 upfront on two-year $139/month plan that includes 2GB of data (it is also now selling the S III for $849, down from $999).

Disappointingly - and more so given Google has recently expanded its music service to the NZ market - Samsung says Telecom, Vodafone and 2degrees have chosen to bring in the 16GB model only (there are also 32GB and 64GB options). You can add more memory via micro SD card (the S 4 has the same cheap-feeling plastic backing as the, and it's easy to pop-off if you do want to add in or swap out a memory card)

It's a pity Samsung doesn't have online direct sales, a la Apple, to help gee things along. 

Anyhow, to the phone itself.

Personally, I prefer it's look and feel over the S III. The S 4's boxier design is easier to hold and, for my money, looks better than its predecessor.

The screen is slightly larger than the S III's, yet the S 4 is slightly thinner and lighter. Good design skills. No, I don't like the plastic pop-off backing. The iPhone 5's alumninium housing certainly looks smarter, and feels tougher. But in practices, both phone have proved durable, and everyone wraps a case around their smartphone, whatever the brand, it's no biggie. And on this note, Samsung's S4 accessories include a flip cover case with a window displaying the time, new messages and so fourth.

Samsung's wireless charging pad will also be sold here, and New Zealanders will also get the S 4 service that lets you order a hard copy book of uploaded photos. 

At immediate glance, the S4's screen looks brighter than the S III's.

And just by popping off the back you can see the battery is a quarter bigger than its predecessor, so hopefully that's going to yield better batter life (the more powerful processor and better display will suck some of that extra juice):

What of the air gestures?

On Wednesday night, I bumped into tech blogger who has acquired an S4 ahead of time. He had turned off the smart scroll feature as "too annoying." 

I got him to switch it back on and it worked fine. The key thing is that for the touch-less scrolling to work, you have to move your hand right out the phone's sensor range (7cm either side of the handset) - necessitating a theatrical swipe back-and-fourth.

There's no question it's faster to finger swipe in the normal fashion.

Samsung says air gestures are better for controlling the phone when in the car (there are also voice options), and for when your hands are wet and dirty.

The hover feature also comes into play here.

I found it worked fine, first time. I hovered by finger about two centimetres over a message headline and a preview of the body of the message popped up. It's pretty accurate, but you do have to pause to correctly position your finger, so again there's no question it would be faster to just stab the screen. Yet, I check out phone while in the kitchen or while eating lunch on a daily basis, so hover seems practical and useful.

I had more mixed results with smart pause, which freezes a video if the S4 senses you looking away from the screen, then resumes the action when you look back.

It took a couple of goes for me (and for a Samsung rep) to get this to work. It seems if you hold the phone on the wrong angle it won't (overseas, some people who wear glasses have reported problems, too). And there doesn't seem any indication of when the phone has managed to "lock" on your eyes so it can smart pause. 

I did get it to work several times, but I can't say I'm fussed either way. It's hard to think of a real-life application for this feature. Mostly I either watch very short videos on my phone, or when I look away I want the video to keep going while I listen to the audio for a few seconds. Maybe those who put 30-second ads before video clips will like it, since you'll have to have to literally eyeball a whole commercial before watching the clip proper.

The option to add nine seconds of audio to a still photo worked fine and it's easy to switch on or off. It's got applications: it can be cute, or you add a quick note to yourself about a photo.

And the S4's ability to take a photo of you (with its front camera) as you photograph a group of people (or in this case a group of pastries) also worked fine. It means the photographer doesn't have to get left out of the pic (and self-timers are always tricky when you're balancing a smartphone). If you want to layer on the cheese, you can put a loveheart around your mug.

ABOVE: Auckland man Ben Gracewood photographs himself taking a photo with the S4 with both its front and back cameras enabled.

The S-Translater feature also seemed to do what it said on the tin - at least in terms of translating typed text into speech. It's nifty, though on any phone you also have the option of creating a home page shortcut to Google's pretty reliable translate.google.com, which will also translate text, then synthesise it into speech. The S4 can also capture audio then translate it into text, a much trickier proposition. It'll be interesting to see how that allows me to understand a couple of Chinese speakers in our office, or not, once I get a review unit.

For a quick look the S4 seems like an intriguing handset, with good incremental hardware and interface upgrades over its predecessor and air gestures and so fourth that are more useful and less try-hard that I'd feared.

More soon after I manage to grab an S4 for an extended look.

Galaxy S4 tech specs (Galaxy S III/iPhone 5)

Display size: 5-inch (4.8-inch/4-inch)
Display resolution: 1080p full-HD, 441 pixel density (720p, 306ppi/326ppi)
Weight: 130g (133g/112g)
Depth: 7.9mm (8.6mm/7.6mm)
Rear camera: 13 megapixel (8mP/8mP)
Mobile broadband: 4G/LTE, dual carrier 3G
Onboard storage options: 16GB, 32GB, 64GB (same/same)
Processor: 1.9GHz quadcore or 1.6GHz quadcore*
Memory: 2GB of RAM (1GB/1GB)
Colours: black, white; more colours will follow at an unspecified date

* Will vary by market. NZ is getting the 1.9GHz version.

New interface/software features
An S Translator feature was demo'd today that can translate nine languages - spoken or written - in real time. If it works as advertised, this could be a very useful feature while travelling, turning your phone into a personal translator. The supported languages Chinese, English (US and British), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Brazilian Portuguese.

Also new: S Voice Drive, a voice-controlled interface designed for use while you’re driving, with a simplified screen display and larger type. 

The existing S Voice feature has been upgraded. It can now read text messages.

A PC-based feature called Smart Switch lets you back up your old phone and restore it to the Galaxy S 4. The switching software works with any phone - a clear bid to attract iPhone users worried about copying contacts across.

A Dual Camera mode means you can use the (2 megapixel) front-facing camera for video chat and turn on the rear camera so the person you're talking to can also see what's behind the phone (which could be a third participant iin your conversation). You can also combine photos taken by the front and rear cameras. An Eraser mode takes a series of quick pictures, enabling the S 4 to remove the a cause of movement, such a person who tries to photo bomb your shot.

Air Gestures were confirmed. You can now use a range of finger swipes without touching the screen - a boon for those with wet or sticky fingers. [UPDATE: Some US media got a quick look at the S4 after the launch event. The Wall Street Journal's Walter Mossberg said overall "the Galaxy S 4 should provide the strongest competition yet to the iPhone." But he wasn't completely sold on Air Gestures. "At first I couldn't get it to work. A Samsung rep gave me a quick tutorial, which helped, but it wasn't as responsive as I had hoped," he wrote. Read a round up of early reaction here.]

A related feature, Air View, lets you see a pop-up preview the contents of an email, photo or video by hovering your finger over it.

Another rumoured feature, Smart Pause, was also confirmed. If the S4 senses you've looked away from a video, it will freeze the clip until you look back.

So was Smart Scroll, which allows you to scroll the S4's web browser or emails up and down without touching the screen. It recognises your face looking at the screen and movement of your wrist and then scrolls the pages up or down accordingly, Samsung says.

On a more meat-and-potatoes level there's S Optical Reader, which Samsung says can recongnise text, a business card or QR code information, and providing useful functions such as translation, call, text message and search.

Mention of Google's Android was almost wholely absent. Ditto mention of Google's Play. The S 4 spruces up the basic Android home screen (4.2.2, aka Jelly Bean) with a transparent overlay. 

Media sharing options also get a boost - at least as long as you're with others in the S 4 clan. Music can be shared among eight S 4 owners, no wi-fi required. Games and photos can also be shared.

Business buyers also get Knox, Samsung's new software that can be used to encrypt data and remotely control a phone's security settings - think a BlackBerry-level of control, but without the need for BlackBerry servers.

Other sharing features include the ability to display photos on your S 4 in 1080p on your TV, and watch television content on your S 4 courtesy of Samsung's WatchOn software (I'm still waiting for confirmation if it'll be compatible with Sky and Freeview. UPDATE: Samsung is not sure at this point if this feature will be available in NZ).

The S 4 makes it easier to upload photos to Facebook (one suspects Android maker Google would prefer its Plus service to be emphasised) and, more uniquely, you'll be able to order hardcover books of your photos (pricing of $US10 to $US30 was quoted at the event; Samsung is not sure yet if this service will be available in NZ).

The short story: the S 4 is the phone you can control with a glance of your eyes or a hover of your finger. In demo at least, it looked pretty nifty. Now we wait for the handset to be available for hands on review.

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ckeall@nbr.co.nz