Samsung Galaxy S 4 comes with extra features beyond the physical specifications that are the key selling points in that they go with the slogan “Life Companion” by making itself useful as a companion beyond it being just another gizmo that can do things. They are quite many features so I will try to give small details of each.
Dual Camera – This enables you to include your face in a photo where you are the one shooting in-order not to miss out on moments.
Camera features like Drama Shot, Cinema Photo ,Eraser Night, 360 Photo, Sound and Shot, Best Face, Beauty Face, HDR (High Dynamic Range), Panorama and Sports are available as presets for the user to change photo output mode just in a few taps. Some of them like Sound and shot allow you to capture the sound at the time of image capture, Eraser allows you to get rid of photo bombers while Cinema photo allows you to animate a section of the image.
Group Play– this comes in handy when you want to play music in several devices to create a surround system feel, you just add the devices in a group and share the music or other media.
S Translator– Samsung came up with this feature and integrated it with system files to enable one translate both voice and text as you go. Samsung ChatON, a chat application is one such feature that is able to utilize S Translator, you can chat with someone in a different language and the message that will be conveyed will be one that you understand. There is 10 languages so far that work with it.
Smart Scroll– this is a reader feature that works when reading, the device assists you scroll on when you reach the bottom of the page.
Smart Pause– when watching videos, the camera will detect when you are not looking, and play on when you look back.
Air Gesture – This one has several features that allow you to control the device by moving your hand over the screen, these motions get detected by the several sensors at the top of the screen next to the ear piece. Features include quick glance where you can see notifications on the locked screen without unlocking the phone, air jump allows you to scroll pages in screen-sized jumps, air browse comes in handy when you are browsing through images in the image gallery, or playing music and you can move your hand over the screen to move to the next one, air move can be used to move app short-cuts or S planner events to different pages and last but not least there is air call accept that allows you to answer or reject calls without touching the device by waving your hand over the phone, comes in handy when you are making chapati for someone, huh?
Air View – this was one feature that was the preserve of the Galaxy Note II with the stylus that Samsung lovingly calls the S pen, now a feature available on the Galaxy S 4 with use of the finger. It has sub-features like information preview that allows you preview extended text like email excerpts, progress preview is best exhibited on videos, you can hover over the video player to show progress, view what the video is like ahead, speed dial preview allows you preview contacts assigned to speed dial numbers when you hover over the dial pad within contacts, web page magnifier will make you magnify page contents by hovering the finger over the screen.
Watch on – This is an app that is pre-installed out of the box and it works together with the Infra-Red Blaster to control your TV. Setting up can be done for almost any TV but will require access to the internet to get settings for the specific TV as the app queries a database. Once set up, you can switch off your neighbour’s TV through the window or cause havoc in the bar.
Story Album – this one is an app that guides you to make an album out of the images in the photo gallery, you can record moments and then this can actually be printed into a n actual high resolution physical photo album and mailed to you.
S Voice Drive – you can activate commands via voice control for optimization when driving. Once connected with a car Bluetooth, the phone automatically turns into driving mode converting text to speech so you can easily and safely check messages with no need to look at the screen.
S Health is an app that allows you to keep track of your health informattion by a combination of in-built sensors that monitor your health, surroundings to better your life, also combines your excersise information with your food behaviour to track your progress and give you reports, this works with several S Health accessories.
Samsung Adapt Display -Samsung Adapt Display optimises Galaxy S 4 to provide the best viewing experience for each type of application.
Samsung Adapt Sound on the other hand optimises the Galaxy S 4 for the best level and type of sound personalized for a user.
Auto Adjust Sensitivity (Glove Friendly) – this one is not new, Nokia had this feature for the Lumia 900 but it’s great that it’s on the Galaxy S 4 for those days when it’s too cold to have your hands flying out to use the phone, somehow it’s not random so you wont be doing things with your phone in the pocket.
Samsung Link -is basically an upgrade to All-share play that allows you share screens over Wi-Fi to other devices like PCs or TVs and play media.
Screen Mirroring – this is what used to be All-share cast that allows you to view the screen of your phone on other devices.
