As the latest flagship attracting worldwide attention, the Galaxy S4 is believed to have high hopes for it. The Galaxy S4 is divided into two SoC versions, the "4+4 core" version using Exynos 5410 and the quad core version using APQ8064AB. I believe you are also interested in Exynos 5410. What about the strength of the I9500, the main product?

This article tests the Hong Kong Galaxy S4 (GT-I9500). Other versions will be different.

Galaxy S4 (I9500) configuration:

Model: GT-I9500

CPU： Samsung Exynos 5410 "4+4 core" processor (four core A15 1.6GHz, four core A7 1.2GHz)

GPU： Imagination PowerVR SGX544MP3 533MHz

Operating system: Android 4.2.2

Screen: 4.99 inch 1920 * 1080 resolution Full HD Super AMOLED screen

SIM card type: microSIM

Storage space: 16GB (supporting tf card expansion)

RAM：2GB

Connection: Bluetooth ®, Wi Fi ® IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n, Micro USB, 3.5mm audio interface

Camera: 13 million pixel stack F/2.2 aperture, 2 million front

Battery: 2600mAh removable

Others: NFC, ultra sensitive touch screen, smart screen

Phone size: 136.6x69.8x7.9mm

Mobile phone weight: 130g

Although the hardware configuration was not emphasized at the launch of the Galaxy S4, there are still many highlights from the configuration of the I9500. Of course, the Exynos 5410 processor is the first to bear the brunt. As the first "4+4 core" processor in mobile history, this SoC has high hopes. The 4.99-inch 1080P level Full HD Super AMOLED is also the first Samsung top AMOLED screen to appear on the mobile phone. In addition, the 13 million pixel stack camera from Sony is also a big highlight. There are already L36h, L35h, Find 5 and Xiaomi 2S using Sony's stack camera in the market. What about the optimization of Galaxy S4?

Profile "unchanged"?

Since the shape design of I9500 and I9505 is almost the same, the shape of I9500 and I9505 is also applied here Picture appreciation Content.

This Galaxy S4 uses new environment-friendly materials, which is different from the previous black and white packaging ▼

Galaxy S4 accessories are the same as the old ones. Headphones, data cables and chargers, as well as related instructions. The materials and colors used in the manual are the same as those in the package ▼

The pin design of the charger is very special ▼

On the whole, the Galaxy S4 still has a strong Samsung style, and Galaxy S3 、 Galaxy Note II It comes down in one continuous line. Compared with the 4.8 inch screen of the previous generation, the screen of this generation has reached 5 inch full HD resolution, with a narrow border, bringing visual shock ▼

The biggest difference from previous products is that they use an ultra narrow frame, and a sensor is added to the left beside the earpiece. There are light sensors, distance sensors and infrared sensors ▼ near the Galaxy S4 earpiece

The buttons on the front of the fuselage still retain the usual physical home key design of the Samsung Galaxy series, and there are two touch keys beside it, namely the menu and the return key. If the button is not lit, it is invisible ▼

The design behind the logo is similar to that of Galaxy Note II, but when the fill light is placed below the camera, the camera becomes larger, but the logo is in the same form as Galaxy S3 ▼

Close up of back lines in two colors ▼

Camera close-up ▼

A circle of bright metal frames near the camera is very easy to scratch, and users should be particularly careful to protect ▼

The position of the speaker is the same as that of the Galaxy Note II, but it also has some protrusions. If the body is square, it can play a role in preventing and blocking, The sound will still be affected when the fuselage is placed horizontally ▼

The frame uses the "metal like wire drawing process" and is a flat surface. Although the material is engineering plastic, it still feels very metallic. On the left side of the fuselage is the volume key ▼

Close up of volume key ▼

The right side is the key, and there is a small slot ▼ for opening the rear cover

The top is a 3.5mm interface, a noise reducing microphone and an infrared transmitter that the flagship mobile phone likes to add recently. In addition, there is a sticker ▼ of "Qualcomm 4G" on the top of the I9505

The bottom is very conventional, which is microUSB and microphone ▼

Adhering to the tradition of Galaxy series, the back cover can be removed, and the battery can also be replaced. It supports tf card expansion capacity. The SIM card uses micro SIM. The biggest difference between I9500 and I9505 can be seen in the red box at the upper right corner ▼

The battery capacity is 2600mAh ▼

IPhone 5, Galaxy S3 α, Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note II size comparison ▼

Full HD Super AMOLED screen performance

Since the mobile phone screen entered the era of 720P, Samsung's Super AMOLED screen has been at a disadvantage in terms of color performance and fineness. The Galaxy S4 is Samsung's first 1080P mobile phone, with a 5-inch screen and a PPI of 441. Of course, due to the use of Pentile array, theoretically, there is still a gap in fineness compared with the same type of 5-inch 1080P IPS. How about the actual performance of the Galaxy S4 screen? Let's take a look at the live shot comparison, Nubia Z5 is selected as the representative of IPS, and Galaxy S4 selects the screen mode of "professional photos".

Solid contrast, red (Z5 on the top, Galaxy S4 on the bottom) ▼

green (Z5 on the top, Galaxy S4 on the bottom) ▼

White, it can be clearly seen that although it is improved compared with the previous Super AMOLED, the white is still impure (Z5 at the top, Galaxy S4 at the bottom) ▼

Black, which is the "traditional strength" of AMOLED screen, and the difference is also obvious (Z5 at the top, Galaxy S4 at the bottom) ▼

Colorful picture comparison (Z5 on the top, Galaxy S4 on the bottom) ▼

Original drawing ▼

In terms of color performance, it can be seen that the Galaxy S4 screen has made great progress compared with the previous Super AMOLED screen, and the color deviation problem has been greatly improved. The color performance has been completely comparable to the current high-end IPS screen. Of course, there are still problems with Super AMOLED's "old difficulty" - white purity.

In terms of fineness, here is a picture of the magnified effect of the screen. It can be seen that even if the text is magnified to this extent, the fineness is high enough. In actual use, I believe that the screen fineness of the Galaxy S4 can satisfy most people as long as the requirements are not very strict

The brightness of the Galaxy S4 is not very high, which directly makes it difficult to see the screen in strong light. The following is a comparison with the iPhone 5 (both at the highest brightness) ▼

What are the improvements to the new TouchWiz?

The Galaxy S4 still uses the TouchWiz UI that Samsung mobile phones can use, but this time the TouchWiz has made changes and improvements in many details. The first and most detailed thing is that the Galaxy S4 uses a system based on Android 4.2.2, which is also one of the few official mobile phones upgraded to 4.2.2 in addition to the Nexus series of "My Son". The following is the lock screen interface, which can be seen from the system in 4.1, Galaxy S4 can switch between multiple screens by sliding left and right when the screen is locked ▼

The system initiator is not different from the previous TouchWiz, but more about the beautification and enrichment of plug-in types ▼

The contents of the single finger drop-down bar are similar to those in the past, displaying shortcuts, brightness adjustments, and related notifications. Double finger pull-down is a new shortcut for Android 4.2, which is displayed in full screen, but it has a lot more types than native Android 4.2 ▼

Different from the engineering machine we evaluated last time, the interface of the official Galaxy S4 still keeps the main color of black, which is consistent with the Galaxy S3. The following figure shows the dial-up and SMS interfaces ▼

The setting interface is divided into four columns. Ordinary users may need to get used to this layout for some time. From the system information, we can see that the Android version is 4.2.2 and the kernel version is 3.4.5 ▼

The link bar is a familiar function, while in my device bar there are many Samsung specific options, such as "security assistant", "smart screen", etc ▼

The screen mode has now been added to five modes, and users can adjust different colors according to their usage habits ▼

Galaxy S4 played down the parameters of the mobile phone at the press conference, but made a big deal in many motion sensations and intelligent operations, that is, the contents of the smart screen and hover preview settings in the figure below, of which the most brilliant ones are intelligent scrolling and hover preview ▼

The hover preview function allows us to preview the contents of the album without touching the screen, and also enlarge the contents of the web page, However, if this function is used together with the high-sensitivity touch screen technology, it is easy to cause misoperation ▼

The contents in the account and more columns are also common ▼

Galaxy S4's concept of "unity of mind and mind" is also reflected in many built-in software, such as intelligent recognition, which can identify text, business cards and other information through the camera, and can translate and read English content ▼

S real-time translation is also a key point of publicity at the Galaxy S4 press conference. It allows us to translate and read aloud in many languages. Here the author also made a spoof of this function, and the translation effect seems not good ▼

Group Play is also a new function. On two mobile phones with this function, you can share pictures, files and other operations through WiFi links, and also support online games. The author thinks that this function is not practical, because it requires two Samsung mobile phones with this function, and the number of games supported is not large, and the built-in games will undoubtedly increase the size of the system firmware and occupy the space of the ROM ▼

S health is a function that can count calories consumed and consumed every day, and the author thinks it is not practical ▼

We know that the Galaxy S4 has added the function of infrared transmitter. The TV remote control function that can be used is hidden in the WatchON. Opening it can adapt to our TV, home theater, etc., but compared with LG Optimus G Pro, the Galaxy S4 lacks the function of controlling some air-conditioners ▼

What is the strength of the four core A15?

As the first mobile phone to use the Samsung Exynos 5 OCTA series SoC, the I9500 (we will add the performance test of the Qualcomm quad core I9505 later) uses the "4+4 core" Exynos 5410, including the quad core 1.6GHz Cortex-A15 and the quad core 1.2GHz Cortex-A7. The GPU uses the PowerVR SGX544MP3. Most users are concerned about whether the A7 core of the I9500 will slow down the response of the whole machine in general applications, and whether the A15 will have serious frequency reduction and power consumption problems.

Through the rabbit evaluation, let's take a look at the hardware information of the I9500 ▼

From here, we can see that the available RAM is only 757M, which is another outstanding problem of the I9500 (some netizens even joke that this is "memory destruction technology"). The RAM consumption is relatively serious. Although it will not affect the use under normal circumstances, it seems that the memory usage of the I9500 still needs to be improved.

The system checks available RAM (monitor after boot) and ROM ▼

It can be seen from the above figure that the available ROM is much less than other phones with nominal 16G capacity, which is mainly related to the integration of a large number of built-in applications in Samsung's official system. Especially for ROM, Nominal 16G mobile phone, actual capacity is only 8.82G For users who like watching videos and playing games, this capacity is too small. Of course, we can expand the capacity through tf card and OTG function, However, if the data package of a large game needs to be loaded into the tf card, it still needs the mounting function of a third-party ROM 。

Theoretical test

Theoretical test, The mobile phones for comparison are Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 Optimus G Pro and Xiaomi 2S. Tests involving resolution will focus on comparison with the same 1080P Optimus G Pro.

Angu rabbit evaluation V3.3

Although this test does not represent absolute performance, it can also be used as a reference. The overall performance of the Galaxy S4 is at the highest level of Android devices, exceeding 29000 points, which is also the highest score device that the author has tested. Compared with the engineering machine, the official version of I9500 is mainly improved in RAM performance and 3D drawing performance. ▼

Anthare 3D

Compared with the overall score of Anthare's evaluation, the segmented 3D test is very accurate in measuring the GPU performance. Under its own 1080P resolution, The number of frames of Galaxy S4 reaches 34.6 , which is much higher than 27.6 frames of the engineering machine（ Reference model Optimus G Pro: 22.6 frames ）▼

Vellamo

Galaxy S4, a web testing software launched by Qualcomm, also performs well in this software, especially in the metal part of hardware performance testing, which rarely exceeds 1000 points, which is similar to the Nexus 10 with Cortex-A15 kernel tested by the author before（ Reference model Optimus G Pro: 2481 HTML5: METAL: 759 ）▼

GLBenchmark 2.7

The new 2.7 version of the old GPU test software puts forward new requirements for GPU performance, and the 2.7 version also includes 2.5 tests. The Offscreen test of the absolute performance of the GPU tested here focuses on the Shader performance of the GPU, so the Adreno 320 device of Qualcomm will score high in this test. （ Reference model Xiaomi 2S: 2.7 version 13 frames, 2.5 version 33 frames ）▼

BaseMark X

This software uses the Unity 4.0 engine and introduces a large number of particle effects, advanced lighting effects and post-processing, which will put a lot of pressure on the GPU of the mobile phone. This test also focuses on the Shader performance of the GPU. Qualcomm Adreno 320's performance is still strong, but the SGX544MP3's strong performance is still higher on Offscreen than that of Adreno 320's device（ Reference model Optimus G Pro: Onscreen 7.292 Offscreen 6.251 Xiaomi 2S: Offscreen 7.255 ）▼

3DMark

The mobile version of PC's old brand video card test software supports cross platform comparison, including iOS, Android and Windows RT devices, but only Android version is available for the time being. 3DMark's test includes the test of Ice Strom based on OpenGL ES 2.0. Here is the default test (the equipment will be tested at 720P). The score is 10533, which is relatively high. However, there is still a gap with the highest level Xiaomi 2S, The main gap lies in the second scene and physical special effect test On（ Reference model: Xiaomi 2S 12275 points ）▼

Pi calculation We used to use it for PC CPU testing in the past, but now Android phones also have corresponding applications for calculating Pi. The following is a test for calculating 10 million bits, which takes 33.9 seconds. This app can also view the average ranking of users. It can be seen that Xiaomi 2S, which uses Qualcomm Snapdragon 600, is also among the best（ Reference model: Xiaomi 2S: 35 seconds Optimus G Pro: 34 seconds, the lower the better ）▼

How about the practical application ability?

We also use some daily applications to test the computing power of Exynos 5410, which focuses on large-scale games.

Sunspider web page Javascript

This is a highly referenced test to measure CPU single thread performance. The lower the test score, the better. The browser used is Chrome Beta, and the score is also the highest in the mobile phone. However, compared with the I9500 engineering machine, the performance is poor（ Reference model: Xiaomi 2S 947.9ms, the lower the better ）▼

Video soft solution

Video software decoding is also an important test item to measure the general performance of CPU. This test item tests the multithreading performance of CPU, which is different from video hard solution. It is a method to test the general computing power of CPU, and multi-core processors will be used. Here is a 1080P 60fps ref=16 MP4 video, which is tested using BSPlayer version 1.9, Average 35 frames （ Reference model: Xiaomi 2S 30 frames ）▼

Game Test

The game test is mainly to measure the GPU graphics processing capacity of mobile phones. Of course, the gap between CPU and memory performance will also have a certain impact. The games used here are some large-scale 3D games. The average frame number is compared with the frame number detection software FPS Meter. The following is the game test.

Modern Warfare 4

The latest version 1.0.5 of modern war 4 is used here, Average Frames 35 , which is the highest level among 1080P devices. Of course, it's a pity that the picture quality still does not reach the highest special effect, Characters lack dynamic shadows ▼

Characters lack dynamic shadows ▼

Real Racing 3

The picture quality of this game is excellent, and the requirements for GPU are also very high, The average number of frames is 34 At the same time, it also runs under high special effects and performs well ▼

Iron Man 3

This is a new parkour game launched by Gameloft. Although it is nicknamed by netizens as "the combination of temple escape+fruit ninja", Iron Man is at a relatively high level in its image quality performance and hardware configuration requirements. The I9500 is not very good in this game, The average number of frames is only 22 ▼

Users seem to have many different views on the daily fluency of the I9500. Here is a special demonstration video to show the fluency of the I9500 ▼

Decoding capability

As a 1080P mobile phone, we also attach great importance to the hardware decoding ability of the I9500. The author used a variety of formats of video to test the I9500's video ability. The following is a list of videos:

720P group

MP4 Jay Chou's Double Cut Staff, 1280 × 720, H.264 High Profile L5.1， Bit rate 17M

WMV Microsoft WMVHD official video, 1280 × 720, VC-1, MP@HL

AVI The Circle of Realm trailer, 1280 × 720, Xvid

RMVB Dark God Theater, 1280 × 720, RV40

FLV AOM OP, 1280 × 720, H.263

FLV Lord of the Rings, 1280x720, HEVC, 1000kbps

1080P group

MP4 Clannad OP ，1920×1080，H.264 High Profile L5. ref16

MKV Conan Theater Edition 15 trailer, 1920 × 1080, H.264 Main Profile L4.0， Audio coding AC-3

WMV Microsoft WMVHD official video, 1440 × 1080, VC-1, MP@HL

MKV Fate stay night [Realta Nua]，1920x1080p，Hi10P，23.976fps

FLV Lord of the Rings, 1920x1080, HEVC, 1200kbps

The test results are as follows (BSPlayer is used here to test for the convenience of viewing frames) ▼

It can be seen that the I9500's decoding ability can be described as strong. Except for Hi10p and HEVC videos, other videos can be played smoothly.

Frequency reduction problem

Because of the high power consumption of the A15 core itself, in many cases where high load is required, The Exynos 5410 of the I9500 will not run on high frequencies for a long time. It will reduce the core temperature and power consumption of the CPU through frequency reduction, which is also the practice of many high-end CPUs today (Of course, there are also those that do not reduce the frequency like Xiaomi 2/2S). When testing the I9500 engineering machine, it was found that it would be reduced to 600MHz after running for a period of time. Of course, the range of frequency reduction is unacceptable. Now the author also checks the frequency reduction problem of the official version of the I9500 through some tests.

The first test is the software decoding. When testing the I9500 engineering machine, the frequency of the same video is reduced to 600MHz, and the official version of the machine can finally stabilize at a higher frequency, Basically between 1.2GHz and 1.4GHz The number of decoded frames is also high, and the frequency reduction problem is not serious（ Pay attention to the CPU frequency of the floating window ） ▼

In the game test, the real racing car 3 is selected. Through the 15 minute game test, the frequency change is observed. It is a dynamic frequency conversion from 600MHz to 1200MHz. In the game, the GPU performance is mainly seen. Therefore, such CPU frequency change will not have a great impact on the game experience（ Pay attention to the CPU frequency of the floating window ） ▼

The author also joined in the "refrigerator test" which has been tried and tested for many times. The score of Anthare exceeded 30000, and it was also ranked 14th in the world at that time. In terms of scores, The integral and floating point operation scores of the CPU have greatly improved compared with the normal operation scores, so it can be judged that there must be CPU frequency reduction under the normal operation scores, and this problem can be alleviated to a certain extent when the temperature is extremely low ▼

photograph

First, let's take a look at the shooting interface of the Galaxy S4 ▼

Multiple shooting modes ▼

Photo menu ▼

In addition, the Galaxy S4 also includes the function of front and rear cameras ▼

Galaxy S4 has finally abandoned Samsung's "Ten Thousand Years F2.6" and upgraded the camera's hardware to the highest level today. With the use of Sony's 13 million pixel stack sensor and Samsung's always good optimization, the photo taking effect is still expected. Here we also choose iPhone 5 as the standard for comparison. Let's take a look at the sample.

I9500 (click to view the original picture) ▼

IPhone 5 (click to view the original picture) ▼

Detail comparison ▼

In terms of white balance, IP5 still performs well, but GS4 has the advantage of high pixels to better grasp the details of chrysanthemum.

Galaxy S4 (click to view the original image) ▼

IPhone 5 (click to view the original picture) ▼

Detail comparison ▼

In this scenario, the gap between the two is not large, and they are basically at the same level.

I9500 (click to view the original picture) ▼

IPhone 5 (click to view the original picture) ▼

Detail comparison ▼

GS4 has more noise than IP5, and the overall picture is white.

I9500 (click to view the original picture) ▼

I9500 night view mode (click to view the original picture) ▼

IPhone 5 (click to view the original picture) ▼

Detail comparison ▼

The I9500 still has a lot of noise in normal mode, and the picture is dark. After the night view mode is turned on, it is like "opening and hanging". The overall brightness of the picture is very high, with some smearing, but the overall performance is better.

tone quality

In the past, Samsung's flagship products were only above the middle level in terms of sound quality, which was hard to impress. This time, the I9500's performance was surprising. Let's first take a look at the RMAA theoretical test and compare the model vivo X1St.

Frequency response curve: generally, equipment with good quality will fluctuate slightly at high frequency and attenuate slightly more, while at low frequency and medium frequency, it should be close to a straight line. From the frequency response curve, both I9500 and X1St perform well. I9500 even outperforms X1St at high frequencies, which is also surprising（ The white line in the figure is I9500, and the green line is X1St. Click to view the large picture ） ▼

The noise level represents the extra signal added in the output signal of the mobile phone, which is directly related to the circuit design, anti-interference ability, and isolation of the front and rear stages of the system. The lower the position is, the smaller the amplitude is, the better the performance will be. It can be seen that the overall performance of X1St is better than that of I9500 （ The white line in the figure is I9500, and the green line is X1St. Click to view the large picture ） ▼

Auditory sense

Comparison equipment: X1St Headset: UE10 Track: Pop music format: FLAC where I9500 turns off all EQs and X1St turns on Hi Fi mode.

From the actual listening sense, the voice of the I9500 is indeed of a high standard in mobile phones. The style is neutral, and the tuning is a popular type to please the ear. High frequency performance is good, which is consistent with the performance on the frequency response curve. The voice is thin, the analytical power is excellent, and the sense of encirclement is inferior to X1St. Low frequency is a soft rib. Low frequency diving and strength are insufficient, which is especially obvious compared with X1St. In terms of the overall control of sound, although the I9500 itself has a good quality, there is still much room for improvement in tuning.

In terms of external display, due to the type and placement of the speakers themselves (horizontal placement will affect the sound), there is nothing surprising about the I9500 speakers. Of course, it is enough to listen to incoming calls and alarm clocks. It is impractical to make it bring shock effects when playing movies and music.

temperature

After the 15 minute game test of real car 3, The maximum surface temperature of the fuselage reaches 50 ℃ (The room temperature is 24 degrees Celsius). This temperature is too high for the game's maximum CPU frequency of 1.2GHz. It seems that Exynos 5410 is indeed a "small stove" ▼

signal

There is no problem with the call. The call quality is high and the voice is clear. The Hong Kong version of the I9500 is used in the evaluation, so it supports the Unicom H+(HSPAP) network, but it is found in actual use The mobile phone switches frequently between H+and H (HSPA), and will be in the H network for a long time. It is not very stable in the high-speed network , hope to solve this problem in the next baseband upgrade ▼

In the indoor environment, the network speed test results in SpeedTest are not ideal（ The network speed test has a lot to do with the network environment and location at that time, for reference only ）▼

Endurance

As for the power consumption of the quad core A15, I believe many netizens will also be interested in it. Here we also do some tests, In daily medium intensity use (including microblog, webpage and game), after 9 hours of use, 18% of the power is left , performance is in line ▼

In continuous high-intensity games, After 36 minutes of modern war 4 test, the power loss is 17%, The quad core A15 neither has the "electric tiger" we imagined, nor has it surprised us. Of course, let's not forget that, This is the endurance performance under CPU frequency reduction ▼

summary

As the new flagship of Samsung, the Galaxy S4 continues the style of many previous products in appearance design, so many netizens still use "plastic machine", "sanitary napkin" and other words to describe the shape of the Galaxy S4. However, we can't deny that the Galaxy S4 still has a great improvement in the body. On the premise of maintaining a narrow frame and a thin body, it still maintains the design of replaceable batteries, and the battery capacity also reaches 2600mAh, which is rare in the current flagship with the same positioning. The frame of the Galaxy S4 is also different from the previous products. It is made of a metal like plane and has a better feel than the Galaxy S3.

On TouchWiz, the overall pattern of the Galaxy S4 has not changed much. More is the addition of some somatosensory motion functions, but also many built-in multi-function applications. Of course, these functions are not very practical, for example, the combination of ultra sensitive touch screen and suspension operation will also cause some misoperation.

In terms of photography, the Galaxy S4 finally increased its aperture to F2.2 (the previous Samsung flagship has always been F2.6), and replaced the sensor with Sony's 13 million stack. Of course, this camera is a new product, and there is still much room for optimization. In the night view mode, it is not superior to Galaxy S3, Galaxy Note II and other products.

In terms of performance, with the new "4+4 core" Exynos 5410 processor, the I9500 performs well in 1080P mobile phones, especially in games. The SGX544MP3 provides strong support for graphics processing. However, due to the problems of CPU frequency reduction and game optimization, the performance of this GPU has not reached a satisfactory state. Also due to the quad core A15, the Exynos 5410 generates a lot of heat and consumes a lot of power under high load, which is also limited by its own SoC architecture and process. To completely solve this problem, I'm afraid that the next generation of more advanced process will emerge.

The comparison between I9505, another version of the Galaxy S4 (based on Qualcomm APQ8064AB 1.9GHz), and I9500 will be detailed in the subsequent evaluation.

Learn more about new cool devices, stay tuned