The world witnessed the unveiling of one of the most anticipated handsets of the year this week; Samsung’s Galaxy S IV. The phone was launched at the Radio City Music Hall in New York. The flagship phone has seen a significant number of changes, both in the software as well as the hardware front. Let’s take a twirl through the tech blogosphere for the latest on what other mobile experts and analysts are saying about the S IV:
Roger Chen from CNET predicted an unstoppable hit for the Galaxy S IV. In his view, having spent over $401 million on advertisements in the US (with most of them on television), Samsung would have overwhelming response even if it had released a mediocre phone. The craze that surrounded the iPhone has now caught the Galaxy S series as well. He further added that most of these consumers would gravitate towards the name alone, essentially highlighting the value of a developed brand.
Brent Rose from Gizmodo wasn’t as enthusiastic with the unveiling of Samsung’s flagship phone. He simply commented, “Everything new is old again”. The Asian pair of Min-Jeong Lee and Yun-Hee Kim from the Wall Street Journal was of the opinion that “Samsung seems to have adopted a strategy which involves the use of better software to lift the Galaxy S IV to new heights.” A plethora of ‘touchless’ signals to control everything from scrolling up and down a page to answering a call supports the aforementioned statement. Florence Ion from Ars Technica highlighted the processing capability of the all new 8-core processor in the Galaxy S IV. He also explained the working of new custom apps/features i.e. ‘Smart Scroll’ and ‘Smart Pause’, both of which use the front facing camera interpret the user’s actions and execute accordingly.
Brian X Chen and Nick Wingfield from the New York Times found the dual camera feature a notable one. This feature allows the user to click simultaneous pictures on both the front facing and the rear camera in order to generate both sides on a single photograph. Group Play; a feature that allows multiple Galaxy phones to play together was another feature that was noteworthy. With the response for the S IV positive in terms of critical review, the product is expected to perform extremely well in markets across the world courtesy of the established brand name.
