The Samsung Galaxy S4 is one of the most popular mobile phones in recent history, breaking plenty of records and hitting over 40 million sales worldwide in 2013. Only recently eclipsed by the new flagship Galaxy S5 handset from Samsung, it wasn’t long ago that the Galaxy S4 was the top dog in the premium smartphone market with many of the UK mobile networks offering this handset alongside their flagship contracts.
So what is it that makes the Samsung Galaxy S4 so special? Here are the top ten best features on this sought after smartphone.
1. Multi-Control
Your Samsung Galaxy S4 has a lot of skills, and they’re not limited chatting with friends and browsing on the internet. The South Korean company took a major step forward with this device and upped the ante in the smartphone market when it comes to multi-functional capabilities.
Thanks to the handset’s built in infrared technology, you can use the Galaxy S4 as a universal remote for your television. The Galaxy S4 can take a look through the TV guide for you, change channels and control your set-top box all from the comfort of your mobile phone.
2. Adaptable Visuals
Thanks to the Galaxy S4’s bright and bold HD Super AMOLED display screen, you’ll get an amazing visual experience from this handset. What really sets the phone apart from the rest is how adaptable its’ screen technology is- the Adapt Display feature built in to the phone adjusts itself to suit your atmosphere and whatever you’re using the phone for, saving battery life when necessary and ensuring that you’ll always have the best possible visuals at any given time.
3. Near Field Communication
Although this has recently been added to many competing premium smartphones, the Samsung Galaxy S4 was one of the first to utilise NFC technology. NFC allows you to connect with other enabled devices with just a tap of the phone, sharing photos, videos and other content or making quick and easy mobile payments.
4. Eye Control
Samsung prides itself on creating “touchless” screens, so it’s no surprise that the Galaxy S4 can be controlled by more than just your fingertips. The phone’s Smart Screen can be controlled by your eye movements (although this doesn’t work for all apps) allowing you to scroll text, pause videos and keep the screen switched on when you’re using the phone without ever touching it.
If you’d rather use your hands then your eyes but still keep your phone touchless, the Galaxy S4 also offers Air Gesture control. This feature lets you control your phone by waving your hand above the screen, and it’s a particularly impressive bit of technology.
5. Enhance Your Memory
Want to store tons of content in your Galaxy S4? Luckily, you can, thanks to the phone’s expandable memory facility. The handset comes with a microSD slot that can give you up to 32GB of extra storage space, so you’ll never go without room for all of your data.
6. Hide From The World
Want to switch off for a little while? It can be hard to get some alone time when your phone is constantly buzzing, and you may not want to turn the phone off completely in case you miss an important call. The Samsung Galaxy S4 comes with Blocking Mode, which lets you select what you want to block for a specific period of time. You can block text messages, calls, notifications, and contact-specific blocks to filter out people you don’t feel like talking to and notifications you don’t want to receive for a little while.
7. Group Play
Samsung didn’t make a big thing of Group Play when it launched the Galaxy S4, but it can be one of the phone’s most useful software features. The new app lets you use a Wi-Fi connection to sync with other smartphones and share games, songs and photos with your friends through seamless connectivity.
8. High Quality Video
The Samsung Galaxy S4 offers some of the best video play visuals in the smartphone market, with full 1080p HD video available to really make the most of your camera. This lets you shoot your own videos in high definition, which you can then share with all of your friends through Group Play and NFC, or by uploading to your social networks.
9. Camera Capabilities
Samsung really improved their overall camera features with the Galaxy S4, bringing some really impressive new abilities to the camera app. The handset comes packing a 13-megapixel rear lens shooter and tons of updates to the camera software. Users can record sound clips over images, edit their images to erase blurry figures in the background and add filters to create interesting effects.
10. Use Your Voice
One of the most fun features of the Galaxy S4 is its voice recognition software, which lets you control the phone touch-free by using your voice. The app that puts this technology to the best use is S Translate, which lets you speak into the phone and have your sentence translated into a different language. S Voice Drive also lets you command with your voice to get directions in the car without putting your safety at risk by using the phone with your hands.
