Showing posts with label Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Review. Show all posts
Sunday, November 16, 2014
Stickman Downhill Android Game Review
Physics-engine based bike game: get from start to finish as quickly as possible without crashing and get your time gauged with the three star system. You’ve probably seen it all before, so what more does this game offer?
Immediately you notice how slick the display is; the screen zooms out gradually as you go faster, giving you a fighting chance of reacting to a ramp, edge or pile of rocks before the otherwise inevitable explosion of bike parts. Of course, the system isn’t infallible, but you can be sure that the vast majority of levels will feel fair and can be done without any trial and error. To help the cause, the developers place Slow Down signs with varying degrees of urgency which you’ll do best to follow as accurately as possible lest you suffer an untimely demise.
Surprisingly, there is a good deal of variety through all the levels, and you need not be wary of simple A to B stages across a bumpy plain again and again and again. Some will test your patience as you race against the clock, requiring some careful timing and use of brakes while others will examine your reactions as you anticipate the terrain at breakneck speed.
With 70 reasonably long levels, gradually rising in difficulty, the game should keep you busy for a fair amount of time. As you may expect, completing levels gives you access to a range of bikes, which not only vary in looks and speeds but also provide some options for emphasis in robustness, handling, braking and weight to match your own style. The game does require you to Like on Facebook to unlock certain bikes, but even without those ones, there are plenty to choose between.
In contrast to what you may expect from a game called Stickman Downhill, there’s a satisfying range of well-designed and attractive settings which offer not just a change in background image, but also subtle differences in the styles of track.
Fortunately, while there are full-screen ads, they are infrequent and fairly unobtrusive, only appearing while the game is loading and without the risk of you touching them accidentally and triggering a web page to open.
Considering the enjoyment factor, replay value and technical strength, Stickman Downhill is among the best in its genre and is worth a try even if you’ve been frustrated by other games in a similar vein.
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Immediately you notice how slick the display is; the screen zooms out gradually as you go faster, giving you a fighting chance of reacting to a ramp, edge or pile of rocks before the otherwise inevitable explosion of bike parts. Of course, the system isn’t infallible, but you can be sure that the vast majority of levels will feel fair and can be done without any trial and error. To help the cause, the developers place Slow Down signs with varying degrees of urgency which you’ll do best to follow as accurately as possible lest you suffer an untimely demise.
Surprisingly, there is a good deal of variety through all the levels, and you need not be wary of simple A to B stages across a bumpy plain again and again and again. Some will test your patience as you race against the clock, requiring some careful timing and use of brakes while others will examine your reactions as you anticipate the terrain at breakneck speed.
With 70 reasonably long levels, gradually rising in difficulty, the game should keep you busy for a fair amount of time. As you may expect, completing levels gives you access to a range of bikes, which not only vary in looks and speeds but also provide some options for emphasis in robustness, handling, braking and weight to match your own style. The game does require you to Like on Facebook to unlock certain bikes, but even without those ones, there are plenty to choose between.
In contrast to what you may expect from a game called Stickman Downhill, there’s a satisfying range of well-designed and attractive settings which offer not just a change in background image, but also subtle differences in the styles of track.
Fortunately, while there are full-screen ads, they are infrequent and fairly unobtrusive, only appearing while the game is loading and without the risk of you touching them accidentally and triggering a web page to open.
Considering the enjoyment factor, replay value and technical strength, Stickman Downhill is among the best in its genre and is worth a try even if you’ve been frustrated by other games in a similar vein.
Friday, November 14, 2014
LG Optimus L3 2 review
LG might mostly be known for the popular Nexus 4 and other premium smartphones but that only accounts for one end of its range. The LG Optimus L3 2 takes a position right at the other end as a truly entry level handset.
With a price tag of roughly £90 SIM free, or available free on contract from around £7.50 a month the LG Optimus L3 II is going up against the likes of the ZTE Blade 3, HTC Desire C and the Huawei Ascend G330.
With a dinky 3.2-inch low resolution screen, a 1GHz single-core processor and just 512MB of RAM the LG Optimus L3 2 might not be up to much, but in this sort of price range that doesnt necessarily matter.
First impressions of the handset are in line with what youd expect from a cheap phone. The 102.6 x 61.1 x 11.9mm body is shorter and less wide than most phones, though it looks and feels quite chunky. At 107g its light too, but thats no surprise given the plastic body.
It feels disconcertingly light actually but aside from that its comfortable to hold, with curved edges making it fit nicely in your palm.
The front of the LG Optimus L3 II is a fairly plain affair, with the dinky 3.2 inch 240 x 320 IPS LCD screen in the centre, large black borders above and below it and narrower ones to the side.
The screen itself is far from impressive when you consider that the similarly priced Ascend G330 has a 4-inch 480 x 800 display and even the HTC Desire C has a slightly better 3.5 inch 320 x 480 screen.
The border above the screen houses an LG logo, the earpiece and a proximity sensor, while the one below the screen has the home button, along with soft touch buttons for back and menu.
The home button is fairly unique in that the edges contain LEDs which light up to alert you to calls, emails and texts. It glows a different colour for each to help you differentiate them and it looks good doing it too.
The back of the handset is even plainer, with just a 3.15MP camera lens near the top and another LG logo just below it. There arent any other features on the back of the LG Optimus L3 2, just the back cover which has a textured, almost brushed metal look to it, but its very obviously just plastic.
You can peel the back straight off by getting your fingernail under one of the grooves on the side. It comes off easily and can be clipped back into place just as easily, though this does raise concerns that it might come off on its own and its a rather flimsy piece of plastic.
Underneath the cover youll find a micro SD card slot at the top left. This is almost essential as the phone comes with just 4GB of internal memory and its great that you can get to it without taking the battery out, though you do still need to take the back cover off.
The 1540mAh battery takes up most of the visible internal space and under that theres a SIM card slot.
The top edge of the phone has a power button at one corner and a 3.5mm headphone port at the other.
The bottom of the phone houses a micro USB port used for charging the phone or connecting it to a computer. Theres also a tiny hole which houses the microphone.
The left edge of the LG Optimus L3 2 just has a volume rocker on it and the right edge has no features at all.
All in all the handset looks cheap and plain, but thanks to the dark colours and textured look of the back it comes off as reasonably classy.
Its small yet chunky and wont be winning any beauty awards, but for a sub-£100 handset its about what wed expect looks wise. The specs are more worrying though, particularly the screen which is distinctly small and low resolution.
To put that into perspective the comparably priced Huawei Ascend G330 manages 233 pixels per inch.
Of course thats all just numbers but the screen on the LG Optimus L3 II is undeniably very fuzzy, so much so that we almost start to go cross eyed if we look at it for long enough.
It seriously affects everything, from icons and images to text and its far from a pleasant viewing experience.
If you can get past the terrible screen resolution things start to look up, as actually using the touch screen isnt bad at all.
It scrolls fairly smoothly and almost always registers your taps, though there is sometimes a half second delay between tapping on an app and it opening and it will occasionally lag in other areas such as home screen transitions too.
When you turn the LG Optimus L3 2 on it will drop you on the lock screen, which displays the time and date on it but other than some background wallpaper theres not much else to it.
Swiping in any direction will bring up the home screen, which isnt too far removed from the stock version of Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean.
Thats not the latest version of Android but were only on 4.2.2 now so its not as outdated as it could have been.
You swipe left or right to move between home screens, of which there are only three, which is a pretty prohibitive amount and limits the amount of widgets youll be able to use.
Theres a static dock at the bottom of the home screens with room for three app shortcuts. These default to the dial pad, contacts and text messages but they can be changed if you want.
Theres also a shortcut to your apps drawer on the dock and this cant be removed.
At the top of the screen theres a notifications bar which you can swipe down to view or clear any notifications.
The notifications screen also lets you put your phone on silent or vibrate, turn 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on or off, adjust the brightness, toggle airplane mode and more.
It also has a shortcut to the main settings screen for any options that arent covered.
More interestingly youll also find Quick Memo here, which when tapped lets you use your finger to hand write a quick note.
You can then save it to the phone with a single tap or send it as an email or text message with a couple more taps.
The idea seems to be that its quicker than opening the main memo app and typing a note out on the keyboard, which it is slightly, though mostly only because theres a shortcut to it on the settings screen so its not the most useful of features in that sense.
However you can keep notes on the screen while doing other things - for example making a call, or web browsing - which does give it a slight advantage over the memo app.
Back on the home screen you can long press to change the wallpaper, or long press on an app to move it or put it in a folder.
Tapping the home button from any screen other than a home screen will bring you back to your home screens, while long pressing it will bring up a list of recently used apps, which you can switch between with a tap.
Long pressing the menu button launches Googles visual virtual assistant Google Now, which works as well here as it does on any other handset.
Tapping the menu button will bring up a list of sub menus, including the option to go to the main settings screen or to change various aspects of the home screen and lock screen.
You can change the theme, change the screen transition effect and setup security for the lock screen.
Including themes and transition options at all is more than most Android phones do out of the box and customisation fans are sure to appreciate it.
The app drawer looks much like it normally does on Android. All of your apps live here and you can scroll through them by swiping horizontally.
Apps are listed alphabetically and you can tap one to launch it or long press to add it to the home screen or delete it. You can also create and place widgets from here.
The settings screen is almost identical to the stock Android one.
Aside from the aforementioned customisation options and the ability to turn the Home button LED alerts on or off it just has standard things like Wi-Fi settings, accessibility options and toggles for Bluetooth and 3G.
If youve used any Android phone before just about everything about the LG Optimus L3 2 will be instantly familiar and easy to use.
Even if you havent its still quite intuitive, though does little to stand out. Its real downfall is the terrible screen resolution.
Although adding new contacts is very easy too, you just tap the + button at the top right of the phone book screen and fill out all the relevant fields.
The phone book is laid out as an alphabetical list, though you can also use the search box at the top of the screen to hunt out a specific contact.
If you have a phone number for a contact therell be a picture of a phone next to them, which you can tap on to call them - making it very quick and easy to actually make calls.
Tapping on someones picture brings a popup screen with options to text, call or email the person, while tapping on their name gives you their contact card, complete with email addresses, phone numbers and any other data you have on them.
Pressing an email address will launch your email app, tapping on a phone number will dial it and tapping on a website will open it in your browser.
You can also change individual ringtones and go to the text message screen from a contact card. Its all very fast and intuitive.
If you press the menu button from the main phone book screen youll find options to share contact details and to set up your speed dial for anyone you call a lot.
Across the top of the screen there are several other tabs, which from left to right go Dial, Call Logs, Favourites and Groups.
Dial is the dial pad, which supports smart dialling - so once you start typing a number it will bring up matches and you can also type out someones name on it instead of a number.
Call Logs is, well, a log of recent calls. It shows the person who called and the date and time of the call.
You can also call the person back from here- all of which is pretty much the same as call logs on any other phone.
Favourites gives you large thumbnails of anyone that youve added as a favourite and from there you just tap on their picture to go to their contact card or tap on the phone symbol to call them.
Finally Groups lets you add people to a specific group - be it friends, family or anything else you need a group for.
Inside each group it looks much like your favourites screen, just with thumbnails of the group members instead.
All in all its a fairly comprehensive and easy to use setup, making it fast and simple to get contacts into your phone book or call contacts that are already there.
Once on a call you have a few more options, including speaker phone, mute, hold, Bluetooth and dial pad.
You can also leave the call screen and navigate the rest of your phone without the call ending.
Wed say that call quality was reasonable rather than great. We didnt have any dropped calls but voices sometimes sounded a bit muffled or crackly and the speakerphone seemed quite quiet.
The LG Optimus L3 2 could certainly do with better call quality but its not terrible and the impressive and intuitive way that contacts are handled goes some way to making up for it.
You start on the main inbox screen, which lists the names of any people that youve sent messages to, along with a preview of the most recent message.
Tapping on someones picture gives you the option to call them, long pressing them enables you to delete the conversation and tapping on their name opens their message thread, where any messages sent and received between the two of you will appear in speech bubbles which you can scroll back through.
Theres also a box at the bottom of the screen for sending a new message. Just tap it to bring up the keyboard, type out a message and hit send.
If you want to add an attachment theres a button for that just above the send button.
Back on the main inbox screen if you want to message someone new theres a little icon at the top right which you can tap on to do that.
Then you just type out their name or select them from your address book and write the message.
If you hit the menu button from the inbox there are a few options, such as searching for a specific message or turning delivery reports on.
You can also change the theme of the text message app. There are only a few to choose from but its a nice touch, which along with the theme and transition options for your home screen adds a welcome extra layer of customisation to the handset.
Sure you can get replacement apps from Google Play which have even more options, but most Android handsets dont let you do much to mess with the look of things at all without a trip to Google Play.
Another nice touch is the fact that when you receive a text it will pop up on your screen over whatever else you might be doing.
This allows you to read it and reply to it without having to click through to the messaging app, which is great if youre in the middle of something.
That might raise privacy concerns for some people, but if youd rather your messages didnt pop up for the world to see it can be disabled.
Social networking and IM services arent integrated into the main text message app, but you can access peoples Facebook profiles and other connected accounts from their contact cards.
The other form of messaging on offer is email. As tends to be the case on Android handsets two separate apps handle this, a Gmail app and another just called Email.
The Gmail app brings your inbox up by default and from there you can tap an email to open it, long press it to delete it or tap the envelope button at the bottom of the screen to send an email.
Once in an email there are options along the bottom to reply to it, delete it, re-label it or go back to your inbox.
Emails arent resized to fit the screen, so there can be a lot of scrolling involved in reading them, particularly given how small the screen on the LG Optimus L3 2 is.
The text is also far from sharp, thanks to the low resolution, otherwise though its a perfectly functional experience.
The Email app is what youll be using for any email accounts that arent Gmail.
The layout is pretty similar, with the main difference being that the options to send and delete messages are at the top of the screen rather than the bottom. Both apps allow you to setup push notifications so your phone will alert you when you get new mail.
Whether for emails or text messages the on screen keyboard is surprisingly accurate given how small the screen is.
We were expecting to regularly hit the wrong button as its so cramped, but in reality mistakes were rarely made, though the cramped space still makes tapping out messages a little uncomfortable, particularly if youve got big hands.
Turning the keyboard to landscape gives you slightly more breathing room but not much.
It can correct typos and predict the next word youre typing - both of which it does a reasonable job of - however youll have to manually switch these options on in the settings menu as it defaults to them being off.
Another option that is available but needs enabling is voice input, which adds a little microphone button to your keyboard, allowing you to speak a message instead if youd prefer.
This works pretty well and managed to keep up with us even when we spoke quickly, though it always seemed to make a mistake eventually.
The Android one seems to be the focus though as it is given home screen real estate from the off, while Chrome is tucked away in the app drawer.
In truth theres not a vast amount of difference between the two, both have an address bar (which doubles as a search box) at the top of the screen and a button to the right of that for switching tabs.
The Android browser has a small menu at the bottom with options to go forward or backward a page, go to your home page, open a new tab or go to your bookmarks.
The Chrome browser doesnt have that bottom bar but both browsers keep most of their options in a popup menu which lets you save a page as a favourite, request a desktop site or toggle and tweak all sorts of settings from whether or not to save passwords to enabling JavaScript.
In both cases the bookmarking system is fairly similar and straightforward, as having tapped on the bookmarks option you simply get thumbnails of all your bookmarks and can tap one to open it.
Both browsers are well laid out and simple to use, though there are also other options available to download from Google Play if you dont get on with them.
Whichever browser you use the web experience on the LG Optimus L3 2 isnt particularly good.
Its not that its especially slow, it takes about four or five seconds to load mobile pages over Wi-Fi and around ten seconds to load desktop sites or about five seconds more in each case over 3G - which is no worse than wed expect from an entry level handset.
The real problem is the screen, as not only is it tiny enough to ensure that copious amounts of scrolling will be guaranteed but its also got such a low resolution that you have to zoom right in to comfortably read most text and even then its blurry.
Reading sites zoomed out is unpleasant and surely bad for your eyes while reading them zoomed in means that youll have to scroll around even more.
It loads sites fine so if you just want to occasionally check your email or Facebook the LG Optimus L3 II will do the job, but if you plan to regularly use the internet on your phone for more than a few minutes you should really look elsewhere.
Within the camera app there are a few different settings that are alterable. You can drop the quality down to 1MP - though doing so leads to pretty much unusable photos.
You can also change the white balance, ISO or scene mode (with choices such as night mode, sports mode and landscape), add a colour effect or a timer or change the shutter sound. Its a decent set of options really for such a basic camera.
The one other feature worth a mention is cheese shutter, which if enabled will cause the camera to take a picture whenever someone says cheese (or smile, whiskey, kimchi or LG). Its a bit gimmicky and in most cases isnt very useful.
The one potential exception to that is if the person operating the camera wants to be in the photo too, in which case you could roughly set up your shot then get into position and say the magic word. But given how poor the lens itself is we cant see many people bothering.
It doesnt have the same wide ranging set of options as the stills camera, instead limiting you to lowering the video quality to MMS size, adding a colour effect, turning the microphone off or changing the white balance, but thats still more options than it might have offered.
If you plan to use the phone for media then investing in a microSD card is essential, since the 4GB of built-in storage wont go far at all, but if you do then it might just be able to replace your MP3 player.
You can also create playlists and even delve into your phones folders to hunt for any missing music files.
The music player adds music controls to your notifications bar, enabling you to easily pause or skip tracks evens if you leave the player.
When in the phones music player you can choose to set a song as your ringtone or search for it on YouTube.
And if youre playing music through headphones there are a handful of extra audio options available to you, such as bass booster, vocal booster and headset enhancer. You wont be able to create a stellar audio experience, but it provides a solid enough one.
Played through the phones speakers things arent quite so impressive.
There are no audio options to play with, and while the music can reach a moderate volume it sometimes starts to distort, and it almost always sounds a bit tinny and distinctly flat.
Alongside the main music player the LG Optimus L3 2 also has a built-in FM radio, which is something that many phones seem to neglect these days.
You have to plug earphones in to use it but once you do you can auto-tune stations, favourite them and play them through the phones speakers if youd prefer. It cant record what you listen to, but its still a nice addition to the phone.
All in all there are a decent set of musical options, and if you stick to playing things through earphones or headphones then the audio quality isnt too bad either.
The main problem is the screen, which is so small and so low resolution that videos look really bad. We also found that it struggled with some HD files, refusing to play them smoothly.
Nevertheless, a basic video player has been included, with support for MP4, H.264, H.263 and WMV files.
Videos are shown as thumbnails, which you can sort into a list, grid or folder view and also choose whether to order them by title, date, size or type.
Once playing a video, all you can do is pause it, jump forwards or backwards, change the volume and fit it to the screen.
Theres not much to it and the phone is light and comfortable to hold for movie-length periods, but honestly we cant imagine most people choosing to use it as a video player.
The phone also comes with a YouTube app, which works well, enabling you to easily find and watch videos, and it also puts any channels that youre subscribed to front and centre.
However, as with the main player its just not a pleasant experience to watch anything on.
The simple fact is that theyre just not nice to look at on the 3.2-inch 240 x 320 display. Theyre too small, they look ugly and all the detail is lost.
If you really want to persevere, the handset does come with a basic gallery app, which sorts your photos into albums and enables you to view thumbnails that you can then tap to bring up a full-screen picture, but none of them look good on the screen.
There are also a few editing options that enable you to crop or rotate images, add effects or remove red eye. These work well enough, but its so hard to make out the details of pictures that its not the ideal place to do any editing.
Perhaps more usefully you can also choose to share photos via Bluetooth, email, text message or social network, which at least enables you to get them on to a better screen.
By way of comparison the HTC Desire C, for example, has just a 1230mAh battery. Combined with the low power and small screen of the handset youd hope that such a decent battery size would translate to good battery life, and for the most part it does.
The official specs listed by LG are that the phone will last for up to 630 hours on standby with 3G on and manage up to 11 hours and 30 minutes of talk time with a 3G connection.
Those are some very impressive specs, and to be honest were not sure we quite believe them.
In our own experience the battery dropped 12% after roughly an hour on the phone, which isnt bad, but it falls some way short of the listed specs.
With a moderate amount of mixed use - a bit of web browsing, some calls and texts, half an hour of listening to music and the same of watching video plus quite a lot of standby time (albeit with emails and social network notifications getting pushed to the phone) we got more than a day out of it, with it getting down to around 35% by the time we went to bed and still seeing us through until about noon the following day.
If you need to stretch the battery life longer than that there is also an included battery saver tool, which will turn off things such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when not in use, as well as dropping the screen brightness and reducing the screen timeout period.
Using our famous battery test of running a 90 minute video with Wi-Fi on, push notifications activated and the screen set to full brightness, the LG Optimus L3 2 had dropped from 100% to 77% battery by the end of the video.
Thats a little worse than wed hoped, but still comfortably above average, so while the battery wont be winning any awards nor should it be a cause for concern.
Theres also an accelerometer and a compass built into the handset, but no premium features such as NFC or DLNA support.
Most of these settings can be switched on or off from the notifications screen, which is great because it makes it very quick to use them.
For things that require a more in-depth setup (for example the first time you connect to a password-protected Wi-Fi network) a quick trip to the main settings screen will have all you need clearly laid out.
Getting content on and off the LG Optimus L3 2 can be done in one of three ways. The first is to remove the microSD card and connect that to a PC separately, thereby enabling you to just drag and drop files to it and then put it back in the phone.
The second and third way both require plugging the phone into a computer using a micro USB cable. Once connected you can download the LG PC Suite, which works a lot like iTunes, enabling you to easily move media content to and from the handset as well as being able to back up and restore content.
It works quite well, however if youd rather not have to use another piece of software you can also just open the folders on the phone and drag and drop things to it manually, like you would with a USB flash drive.
However you choose to move content to and from the LG Optimus L3 2 youll definitely want to invest in a microSD card, because the handset only comes with 4GB of built-in storage.
Its a superb app, with accurate maps, comprehensive business listings and options to view terrain, traffic details, public transport lines and more.
You can quickly and easily get directions from your location - or anywhere else - to an end point of your choosing, and it also locked on to our position very quickly on every occasion that we used it.
Unfortunately its not all good news, because the screen on the LG Optimus L3 2 poses a problem yet again.
The size and resolution (or lack thereof) means that the maps are fuzzy and you have to zoom in a long way to view road names. This all means that actually using it to navigate is a bit of a pain. Its not the maps fault, but its just not great.
As expected the handset also includes a sat nav built into the mapping software. Like Google Maps itself, this is a very good piece of software, and all the more so for being free.
It doesnt have all the bells and whistles of a premium stand-alone sat nav, but if you just want directions somewhere it will do an admirable job.
However, it took quite a while to find a GPS signal when used on the LG Optimus L3 II, which is surprising given how quickly the maps could lock onto our location.
The small screen size also poses the same problems here as it does for the main map, perhaps even more so, since you cant afford more than a quick glance at the screen when driving, and thats rarely long enough to make much out.
Theres expected stuff such as an alarm clock, which enables you to set up multiple alarms, repeat alarms, use a timer or a stop watch and view the time in other countries.
Theres also a calendar that syncs with your Google account, a calculator, a to-do list and a memo pad.
Thats all pretty standard, but the LG Optimus L3 2 also includes Polaris Viewer, which enables you to view documents - though as with everything thats heavily reliant on the screen, its not a great experience.
Then theres also a file manager, a voice recorder and LG Smart World (which is LGs own app store).
More interestingly theres Quick Memo and Safety Care.
We talked about the Quick Memo app in the Interface section of our review, but in case you skipped that its essentially a speedy note-taking system that you can activate from the notifications screen and then use with your finger to hand-write a short message or draw an image.
In practice were not sure its that useful, since the message really does have to be short when its hand-written on such a small screen.
The only real advantage of it is that it can be launched from the notifications screen, but its something that most handsets dont feature so its worth a mention.
The other feature - Safety Care - could genuinely come in handy. You can set it up to send a text message with your location and the fact that its an emergency to specific contacts whenever you call an emergency number.
You can also set it up to send a similar text when the phone hasnt been used for an extended period, which the app suggests might be useful for the elderly.
Finally you can ask it to send location information whenever a call is made or received from a specific contact, which could help a parent or guardian locate their child.
Along with the low price tag, its a feature that perhaps makes the LG Optimus L3 2 a decent phone to give to a child.
Beyond the included apps you can also get more from Google Play. If youre not already familiar with the service, rest assured that its easy to use and home to millions of different applications, many of which are free.
And of course as with other Android phones many apps can also be used as widgets on your home screens.
It does some things well, such as providing good battery life, but it also does some things very poorly, for example the screen resolution, and as a complete package its a hard sell.
Its also got a decent music player and some useful extra features, such as the ability to have text messages pop up on the screen, and a bunch of customisation options for your home screen.
Safety Care is a potentially very handy feature too, and along with the low price tag it makes the phone a good bet to get for a child or elderly family member.
If you mostly just want to use it as a phone and plan to spend minimal time actually looking at the screen then its fine, but presumably many users will want to make use of its smartphone features such as web browsing and apps, none of which is much fun when everything is so pixelated and difficult to see.
The build quality doesnt seem great either, since it has a rather flimsy back cover. Plus theres also not much built-in storage, the camera wont impress anyone and the phone can sometimes lag - even when just moving around home screens.
For the same sort of money you can get the much better Huawei Ascend G330, or the slightly better HTC Desire C. If you take out a contract you can even find the Nokia Lumia 520 for around the same monthly price - granted thats Windows Phone rather than Android, but its in a whole other league.
The LG Optimus L3 2 isnt an out and out bad phone, but neither is it really good enough to make a convincing argument for you to part with your hard-earned cash.
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With a price tag of roughly £90 SIM free, or available free on contract from around £7.50 a month the LG Optimus L3 II is going up against the likes of the ZTE Blade 3, HTC Desire C and the Huawei Ascend G330.
With a dinky 3.2-inch low resolution screen, a 1GHz single-core processor and just 512MB of RAM the LG Optimus L3 2 might not be up to much, but in this sort of price range that doesnt necessarily matter.
First impressions of the handset are in line with what youd expect from a cheap phone. The 102.6 x 61.1 x 11.9mm body is shorter and less wide than most phones, though it looks and feels quite chunky. At 107g its light too, but thats no surprise given the plastic body.
It feels disconcertingly light actually but aside from that its comfortable to hold, with curved edges making it fit nicely in your palm.
The front of the LG Optimus L3 II is a fairly plain affair, with the dinky 3.2 inch 240 x 320 IPS LCD screen in the centre, large black borders above and below it and narrower ones to the side.
The screen itself is far from impressive when you consider that the similarly priced Ascend G330 has a 4-inch 480 x 800 display and even the HTC Desire C has a slightly better 3.5 inch 320 x 480 screen.
The border above the screen houses an LG logo, the earpiece and a proximity sensor, while the one below the screen has the home button, along with soft touch buttons for back and menu.
The home button is fairly unique in that the edges contain LEDs which light up to alert you to calls, emails and texts. It glows a different colour for each to help you differentiate them and it looks good doing it too.
The back of the handset is even plainer, with just a 3.15MP camera lens near the top and another LG logo just below it. There arent any other features on the back of the LG Optimus L3 2, just the back cover which has a textured, almost brushed metal look to it, but its very obviously just plastic.
You can peel the back straight off by getting your fingernail under one of the grooves on the side. It comes off easily and can be clipped back into place just as easily, though this does raise concerns that it might come off on its own and its a rather flimsy piece of plastic.
Underneath the cover youll find a micro SD card slot at the top left. This is almost essential as the phone comes with just 4GB of internal memory and its great that you can get to it without taking the battery out, though you do still need to take the back cover off.
The 1540mAh battery takes up most of the visible internal space and under that theres a SIM card slot.
The top edge of the phone has a power button at one corner and a 3.5mm headphone port at the other.
The bottom of the phone houses a micro USB port used for charging the phone or connecting it to a computer. Theres also a tiny hole which houses the microphone.
The left edge of the LG Optimus L3 2 just has a volume rocker on it and the right edge has no features at all.
All in all the handset looks cheap and plain, but thanks to the dark colours and textured look of the back it comes off as reasonably classy.
Its small yet chunky and wont be winning any beauty awards, but for a sub-£100 handset its about what wed expect looks wise. The specs are more worrying though, particularly the screen which is distinctly small and low resolution.
Interface
The first thing that will likely strike you when you turn the LG Optimus L3 2 on is just how low resolution it is. The 3.2-inch 240 x 320 screen has just 125 pixels per inch.To put that into perspective the comparably priced Huawei Ascend G330 manages 233 pixels per inch.
Of course thats all just numbers but the screen on the LG Optimus L3 II is undeniably very fuzzy, so much so that we almost start to go cross eyed if we look at it for long enough.
It seriously affects everything, from icons and images to text and its far from a pleasant viewing experience.
If you can get past the terrible screen resolution things start to look up, as actually using the touch screen isnt bad at all.
It scrolls fairly smoothly and almost always registers your taps, though there is sometimes a half second delay between tapping on an app and it opening and it will occasionally lag in other areas such as home screen transitions too.
When you turn the LG Optimus L3 2 on it will drop you on the lock screen, which displays the time and date on it but other than some background wallpaper theres not much else to it.
Swiping in any direction will bring up the home screen, which isnt too far removed from the stock version of Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean.
Thats not the latest version of Android but were only on 4.2.2 now so its not as outdated as it could have been.
You swipe left or right to move between home screens, of which there are only three, which is a pretty prohibitive amount and limits the amount of widgets youll be able to use.
Theres a static dock at the bottom of the home screens with room for three app shortcuts. These default to the dial pad, contacts and text messages but they can be changed if you want.
Theres also a shortcut to your apps drawer on the dock and this cant be removed.
At the top of the screen theres a notifications bar which you can swipe down to view or clear any notifications.
The notifications screen also lets you put your phone on silent or vibrate, turn 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on or off, adjust the brightness, toggle airplane mode and more.
It also has a shortcut to the main settings screen for any options that arent covered.
More interestingly youll also find Quick Memo here, which when tapped lets you use your finger to hand write a quick note.
You can then save it to the phone with a single tap or send it as an email or text message with a couple more taps.
The idea seems to be that its quicker than opening the main memo app and typing a note out on the keyboard, which it is slightly, though mostly only because theres a shortcut to it on the settings screen so its not the most useful of features in that sense.
However you can keep notes on the screen while doing other things - for example making a call, or web browsing - which does give it a slight advantage over the memo app.
Back on the home screen you can long press to change the wallpaper, or long press on an app to move it or put it in a folder.
Tapping the home button from any screen other than a home screen will bring you back to your home screens, while long pressing it will bring up a list of recently used apps, which you can switch between with a tap.
Long pressing the menu button launches Googles visual virtual assistant Google Now, which works as well here as it does on any other handset.
Tapping the menu button will bring up a list of sub menus, including the option to go to the main settings screen or to change various aspects of the home screen and lock screen.
You can change the theme, change the screen transition effect and setup security for the lock screen.
Including themes and transition options at all is more than most Android phones do out of the box and customisation fans are sure to appreciate it.
The app drawer looks much like it normally does on Android. All of your apps live here and you can scroll through them by swiping horizontally.
Apps are listed alphabetically and you can tap one to launch it or long press to add it to the home screen or delete it. You can also create and place widgets from here.
The settings screen is almost identical to the stock Android one.
Aside from the aforementioned customisation options and the ability to turn the Home button LED alerts on or off it just has standard things like Wi-Fi settings, accessibility options and toggles for Bluetooth and 3G.
If youve used any Android phone before just about everything about the LG Optimus L3 2 will be instantly familiar and easy to use.
Even if you havent its still quite intuitive, though does little to stand out. Its real downfall is the terrible screen resolution.
Contacts and calling
Contacts
The LG Optimus L3 2 handles contacts pretty well. Your phone book is where youll find them and it pulls contacts - complete with pictures, direct from Google+ and Facebook, so you should find your phone book is pretty well populated from the off.Although adding new contacts is very easy too, you just tap the + button at the top right of the phone book screen and fill out all the relevant fields.
The phone book is laid out as an alphabetical list, though you can also use the search box at the top of the screen to hunt out a specific contact.
If you have a phone number for a contact therell be a picture of a phone next to them, which you can tap on to call them - making it very quick and easy to actually make calls.
Tapping on someones picture brings a popup screen with options to text, call or email the person, while tapping on their name gives you their contact card, complete with email addresses, phone numbers and any other data you have on them.
Pressing an email address will launch your email app, tapping on a phone number will dial it and tapping on a website will open it in your browser.
You can also change individual ringtones and go to the text message screen from a contact card. Its all very fast and intuitive.
If you press the menu button from the main phone book screen youll find options to share contact details and to set up your speed dial for anyone you call a lot.
Across the top of the screen there are several other tabs, which from left to right go Dial, Call Logs, Favourites and Groups.
Dial is the dial pad, which supports smart dialling - so once you start typing a number it will bring up matches and you can also type out someones name on it instead of a number.
Call Logs is, well, a log of recent calls. It shows the person who called and the date and time of the call.
You can also call the person back from here- all of which is pretty much the same as call logs on any other phone.
Favourites gives you large thumbnails of anyone that youve added as a favourite and from there you just tap on their picture to go to their contact card or tap on the phone symbol to call them.
Finally Groups lets you add people to a specific group - be it friends, family or anything else you need a group for.
Inside each group it looks much like your favourites screen, just with thumbnails of the group members instead.
All in all its a fairly comprehensive and easy to use setup, making it fast and simple to get contacts into your phone book or call contacts that are already there.
Calling
When someone calls you, their name and picture will appear on the screen (if theyre in your phone book) and you can simply swipe across either the Answer or Decline icon depending on whether or not you want to take the call.Once on a call you have a few more options, including speaker phone, mute, hold, Bluetooth and dial pad.
You can also leave the call screen and navigate the rest of your phone without the call ending.
Wed say that call quality was reasonable rather than great. We didnt have any dropped calls but voices sometimes sounded a bit muffled or crackly and the speakerphone seemed quite quiet.
The LG Optimus L3 2 could certainly do with better call quality but its not terrible and the impressive and intuitive way that contacts are handled goes some way to making up for it.
Messaging
Text messages on the LG Optimus L3 2 are handled by the Messaging app, which follows the same basic format as most smartphone messaging apps.You start on the main inbox screen, which lists the names of any people that youve sent messages to, along with a preview of the most recent message.
Tapping on someones picture gives you the option to call them, long pressing them enables you to delete the conversation and tapping on their name opens their message thread, where any messages sent and received between the two of you will appear in speech bubbles which you can scroll back through.
Theres also a box at the bottom of the screen for sending a new message. Just tap it to bring up the keyboard, type out a message and hit send.
If you want to add an attachment theres a button for that just above the send button.
Back on the main inbox screen if you want to message someone new theres a little icon at the top right which you can tap on to do that.
Then you just type out their name or select them from your address book and write the message.
If you hit the menu button from the inbox there are a few options, such as searching for a specific message or turning delivery reports on.
You can also change the theme of the text message app. There are only a few to choose from but its a nice touch, which along with the theme and transition options for your home screen adds a welcome extra layer of customisation to the handset.
Sure you can get replacement apps from Google Play which have even more options, but most Android handsets dont let you do much to mess with the look of things at all without a trip to Google Play.
Another nice touch is the fact that when you receive a text it will pop up on your screen over whatever else you might be doing.
This allows you to read it and reply to it without having to click through to the messaging app, which is great if youre in the middle of something.
That might raise privacy concerns for some people, but if youd rather your messages didnt pop up for the world to see it can be disabled.
Social networking and IM services arent integrated into the main text message app, but you can access peoples Facebook profiles and other connected accounts from their contact cards.
The other form of messaging on offer is email. As tends to be the case on Android handsets two separate apps handle this, a Gmail app and another just called Email.
The Gmail app brings your inbox up by default and from there you can tap an email to open it, long press it to delete it or tap the envelope button at the bottom of the screen to send an email.
Once in an email there are options along the bottom to reply to it, delete it, re-label it or go back to your inbox.
Emails arent resized to fit the screen, so there can be a lot of scrolling involved in reading them, particularly given how small the screen on the LG Optimus L3 2 is.
The text is also far from sharp, thanks to the low resolution, otherwise though its a perfectly functional experience.
The Email app is what youll be using for any email accounts that arent Gmail.
The layout is pretty similar, with the main difference being that the options to send and delete messages are at the top of the screen rather than the bottom. Both apps allow you to setup push notifications so your phone will alert you when you get new mail.
Whether for emails or text messages the on screen keyboard is surprisingly accurate given how small the screen is.
We were expecting to regularly hit the wrong button as its so cramped, but in reality mistakes were rarely made, though the cramped space still makes tapping out messages a little uncomfortable, particularly if youve got big hands.
Turning the keyboard to landscape gives you slightly more breathing room but not much.
It can correct typos and predict the next word youre typing - both of which it does a reasonable job of - however youll have to manually switch these options on in the settings menu as it defaults to them being off.
Another option that is available but needs enabling is voice input, which adds a little microphone button to your keyboard, allowing you to speak a message instead if youd prefer.
This works pretty well and managed to keep up with us even when we spoke quickly, though it always seemed to make a mistake eventually.
Internet
Like so many other Android handsets the LG Optimus L3 2 comes with two browsers pre-installed, specifically the standard Android one and Chrome.The Android one seems to be the focus though as it is given home screen real estate from the off, while Chrome is tucked away in the app drawer.
In truth theres not a vast amount of difference between the two, both have an address bar (which doubles as a search box) at the top of the screen and a button to the right of that for switching tabs.
The Android browser has a small menu at the bottom with options to go forward or backward a page, go to your home page, open a new tab or go to your bookmarks.
The Chrome browser doesnt have that bottom bar but both browsers keep most of their options in a popup menu which lets you save a page as a favourite, request a desktop site or toggle and tweak all sorts of settings from whether or not to save passwords to enabling JavaScript.
In both cases the bookmarking system is fairly similar and straightforward, as having tapped on the bookmarks option you simply get thumbnails of all your bookmarks and can tap one to open it.
Both browsers are well laid out and simple to use, though there are also other options available to download from Google Play if you dont get on with them.
Whichever browser you use the web experience on the LG Optimus L3 2 isnt particularly good.
Its not that its especially slow, it takes about four or five seconds to load mobile pages over Wi-Fi and around ten seconds to load desktop sites or about five seconds more in each case over 3G - which is no worse than wed expect from an entry level handset.
The real problem is the screen, as not only is it tiny enough to ensure that copious amounts of scrolling will be guaranteed but its also got such a low resolution that you have to zoom right in to comfortably read most text and even then its blurry.
Reading sites zoomed out is unpleasant and surely bad for your eyes while reading them zoomed in means that youll have to scroll around even more.
It loads sites fine so if you just want to occasionally check your email or Facebook the LG Optimus L3 II will do the job, but if you plan to regularly use the internet on your phone for more than a few minutes you should really look elsewhere.
Camera and video
Camera
The LG Optimus L3 2 has a paltry 3.15MP camera on the back and no front facing camera. Theres no flash either and you cant tap to focus, so its photo taking capabilities are somewhat limited. Its also worse than the 5MP snappers on the HTC Desire C and the Huawei Ascend G330.Within the camera app there are a few different settings that are alterable. You can drop the quality down to 1MP - though doing so leads to pretty much unusable photos.
You can also change the white balance, ISO or scene mode (with choices such as night mode, sports mode and landscape), add a colour effect or a timer or change the shutter sound. Its a decent set of options really for such a basic camera.
The one other feature worth a mention is cheese shutter, which if enabled will cause the camera to take a picture whenever someone says cheese (or smile, whiskey, kimchi or LG). Its a bit gimmicky and in most cases isnt very useful.
The one potential exception to that is if the person operating the camera wants to be in the photo too, in which case you could roughly set up your shot then get into position and say the magic word. But given how poor the lens itself is we cant see many people bothering.
Video
The LG Optimus L3 II can only shoot VGA or lower video, but it at least manages to shoot it at 30fps.It doesnt have the same wide ranging set of options as the stills camera, instead limiting you to lowering the video quality to MMS size, adding a colour effect, turning the microphone off or changing the white balance, but thats still more options than it might have offered.
Media
Obviously for under £100 the LG Optimus L3 2 was never likely to challenge big hitters such as the HTC One as a media player, but nor is it a total disaster.If you plan to use the phone for media then investing in a microSD card is essential, since the 4GB of built-in storage wont go far at all, but if you do then it might just be able to replace your MP3 player.
Music
Music is one of the things that the LG Optimus L3 2 does best. The built-in music player is pretty standard, it supports MP3, WAV, WMA and eAAC+ files and has options to sort your library by artist, album, song or genre.You can also create playlists and even delve into your phones folders to hunt for any missing music files.
The music player adds music controls to your notifications bar, enabling you to easily pause or skip tracks evens if you leave the player.
When in the phones music player you can choose to set a song as your ringtone or search for it on YouTube.
And if youre playing music through headphones there are a handful of extra audio options available to you, such as bass booster, vocal booster and headset enhancer. You wont be able to create a stellar audio experience, but it provides a solid enough one.
Played through the phones speakers things arent quite so impressive.
There are no audio options to play with, and while the music can reach a moderate volume it sometimes starts to distort, and it almost always sounds a bit tinny and distinctly flat.
Alongside the main music player the LG Optimus L3 2 also has a built-in FM radio, which is something that many phones seem to neglect these days.
You have to plug earphones in to use it but once you do you can auto-tune stations, favourite them and play them through the phones speakers if youd prefer. It cant record what you listen to, but its still a nice addition to the phone.
All in all there are a decent set of musical options, and if you stick to playing things through earphones or headphones then the audio quality isnt too bad either.
Video
If youve read the rest of this LG Optimus L3 2 review you might have guessed that video wouldnt be up to much on the phone, and youd be right.The main problem is the screen, which is so small and so low resolution that videos look really bad. We also found that it struggled with some HD files, refusing to play them smoothly.
Nevertheless, a basic video player has been included, with support for MP4, H.264, H.263 and WMV files.
Videos are shown as thumbnails, which you can sort into a list, grid or folder view and also choose whether to order them by title, date, size or type.
Once playing a video, all you can do is pause it, jump forwards or backwards, change the volume and fit it to the screen.
Theres not much to it and the phone is light and comfortable to hold for movie-length periods, but honestly we cant imagine most people choosing to use it as a video player.
The phone also comes with a YouTube app, which works well, enabling you to easily find and watch videos, and it also puts any channels that youre subscribed to front and centre.
However, as with the main player its just not a pleasant experience to watch anything on.
Photos
Photos are another thing that arent handled brilliantly by the LG Optimus L3 2, and once again thats mostly down to the phones screen.The simple fact is that theyre just not nice to look at on the 3.2-inch 240 x 320 display. Theyre too small, they look ugly and all the detail is lost.
If you really want to persevere, the handset does come with a basic gallery app, which sorts your photos into albums and enables you to view thumbnails that you can then tap to bring up a full-screen picture, but none of them look good on the screen.
There are also a few editing options that enable you to crop or rotate images, add effects or remove red eye. These work well enough, but its so hard to make out the details of pictures that its not the ideal place to do any editing.
Perhaps more usefully you can also choose to share photos via Bluetooth, email, text message or social network, which at least enables you to get them on to a better screen.
Battery life and connectivity
Battery life
The LG Optimus L3 2 packs a removable 1540mAh battery, which is a pretty good size for such a cheap phone.By way of comparison the HTC Desire C, for example, has just a 1230mAh battery. Combined with the low power and small screen of the handset youd hope that such a decent battery size would translate to good battery life, and for the most part it does.
The official specs listed by LG are that the phone will last for up to 630 hours on standby with 3G on and manage up to 11 hours and 30 minutes of talk time with a 3G connection.
Those are some very impressive specs, and to be honest were not sure we quite believe them.
In our own experience the battery dropped 12% after roughly an hour on the phone, which isnt bad, but it falls some way short of the listed specs.
With a moderate amount of mixed use - a bit of web browsing, some calls and texts, half an hour of listening to music and the same of watching video plus quite a lot of standby time (albeit with emails and social network notifications getting pushed to the phone) we got more than a day out of it, with it getting down to around 35% by the time we went to bed and still seeing us through until about noon the following day.
If you need to stretch the battery life longer than that there is also an included battery saver tool, which will turn off things such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when not in use, as well as dropping the screen brightness and reducing the screen timeout period.
Using our famous battery test of running a 90 minute video with Wi-Fi on, push notifications activated and the screen set to full brightness, the LG Optimus L3 2 had dropped from 100% to 77% battery by the end of the video.
Thats a little worse than wed hoped, but still comfortably above average, so while the battery wont be winning any awards nor should it be a cause for concern.
Connectivity
The LG Optimus L3 II has the connectivity options you might expect but no real surprises. Theres Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with Wi-Fi hotspot support, HSDPA at 7.2Mbps, HSUPA at 5.76Mbps, Bluetooth 3.0 and GPS.Theres also an accelerometer and a compass built into the handset, but no premium features such as NFC or DLNA support.
Most of these settings can be switched on or off from the notifications screen, which is great because it makes it very quick to use them.
For things that require a more in-depth setup (for example the first time you connect to a password-protected Wi-Fi network) a quick trip to the main settings screen will have all you need clearly laid out.
Getting content on and off the LG Optimus L3 2 can be done in one of three ways. The first is to remove the microSD card and connect that to a PC separately, thereby enabling you to just drag and drop files to it and then put it back in the phone.
The second and third way both require plugging the phone into a computer using a micro USB cable. Once connected you can download the LG PC Suite, which works a lot like iTunes, enabling you to easily move media content to and from the handset as well as being able to back up and restore content.
It works quite well, however if youd rather not have to use another piece of software you can also just open the folders on the phone and drag and drop things to it manually, like you would with a USB flash drive.
However you choose to move content to and from the LG Optimus L3 2 youll definitely want to invest in a microSD card, because the handset only comes with 4GB of built-in storage.
Maps and apps
Maps
As with every Android phone, the LG Optimus L3 2 ships with Google Maps onboard.Its a superb app, with accurate maps, comprehensive business listings and options to view terrain, traffic details, public transport lines and more.
You can quickly and easily get directions from your location - or anywhere else - to an end point of your choosing, and it also locked on to our position very quickly on every occasion that we used it.
Unfortunately its not all good news, because the screen on the LG Optimus L3 2 poses a problem yet again.
The size and resolution (or lack thereof) means that the maps are fuzzy and you have to zoom in a long way to view road names. This all means that actually using it to navigate is a bit of a pain. Its not the maps fault, but its just not great.
As expected the handset also includes a sat nav built into the mapping software. Like Google Maps itself, this is a very good piece of software, and all the more so for being free.
It doesnt have all the bells and whistles of a premium stand-alone sat nav, but if you just want directions somewhere it will do an admirable job.
However, it took quite a while to find a GPS signal when used on the LG Optimus L3 II, which is surprising given how quickly the maps could lock onto our location.
The small screen size also poses the same problems here as it does for the main map, perhaps even more so, since you cant afford more than a quick glance at the screen when driving, and thats rarely long enough to make much out.
Apps
Being a low-end handset, you might expect LG to have skimped on the included apps, but actually there are a fair few.Theres expected stuff such as an alarm clock, which enables you to set up multiple alarms, repeat alarms, use a timer or a stop watch and view the time in other countries.
Theres also a calendar that syncs with your Google account, a calculator, a to-do list and a memo pad.
Thats all pretty standard, but the LG Optimus L3 2 also includes Polaris Viewer, which enables you to view documents - though as with everything thats heavily reliant on the screen, its not a great experience.
Then theres also a file manager, a voice recorder and LG Smart World (which is LGs own app store).
More interestingly theres Quick Memo and Safety Care.
We talked about the Quick Memo app in the Interface section of our review, but in case you skipped that its essentially a speedy note-taking system that you can activate from the notifications screen and then use with your finger to hand-write a short message or draw an image.
In practice were not sure its that useful, since the message really does have to be short when its hand-written on such a small screen.
The only real advantage of it is that it can be launched from the notifications screen, but its something that most handsets dont feature so its worth a mention.
The other feature - Safety Care - could genuinely come in handy. You can set it up to send a text message with your location and the fact that its an emergency to specific contacts whenever you call an emergency number.
You can also set it up to send a similar text when the phone hasnt been used for an extended period, which the app suggests might be useful for the elderly.
Finally you can ask it to send location information whenever a call is made or received from a specific contact, which could help a parent or guardian locate their child.
Along with the low price tag, its a feature that perhaps makes the LG Optimus L3 2 a decent phone to give to a child.
Beyond the included apps you can also get more from Google Play. If youre not already familiar with the service, rest assured that its easy to use and home to millions of different applications, many of which are free.
And of course as with other Android phones many apps can also be used as widgets on your home screens.
Verdict
The low-end Android phone market is getting increasingly crowded, which makes it ever harder to stand out, and unfortunately were not sure that the LG Optimus L3 2 does quite enough to.It does some things well, such as providing good battery life, but it also does some things very poorly, for example the screen resolution, and as a complete package its a hard sell.
We liked
Good battery life is a major boon for any smartphone, so its great to see that the LG Optimus L3 II manages it. Contact management is done well too, pulling information in from social networks and making it as quick as possible to actually call someone.Its also got a decent music player and some useful extra features, such as the ability to have text messages pop up on the screen, and a bunch of customisation options for your home screen.
Safety Care is a potentially very handy feature too, and along with the low price tag it makes the phone a good bet to get for a child or elderly family member.
We disliked
We really werent fans of the screen on the LG Optimus L3 2. Sure, its responsive, which is the first screen test that a low-end handset has to pass, but it failed at the second hurdle by being incredibly low resolution.If you mostly just want to use it as a phone and plan to spend minimal time actually looking at the screen then its fine, but presumably many users will want to make use of its smartphone features such as web browsing and apps, none of which is much fun when everything is so pixelated and difficult to see.
The build quality doesnt seem great either, since it has a rather flimsy back cover. Plus theres also not much built-in storage, the camera wont impress anyone and the phone can sometimes lag - even when just moving around home screens.
Verdict
The LG Optimus L3 2 is likely to really struggle to compete in the budget phone market. If you just want a feature phone you can get one for less, while if you want a smartphone you can get a substantially better one for not much more.For the same sort of money you can get the much better Huawei Ascend G330, or the slightly better HTC Desire C. If you take out a contract you can even find the Nokia Lumia 520 for around the same monthly price - granted thats Windows Phone rather than Android, but its in a whole other league.
The LG Optimus L3 2 isnt an out and out bad phone, but neither is it really good enough to make a convincing argument for you to part with your hard-earned cash.
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Samsung Galaxy S4 review
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is the most hotly anticipated smartphone ever from the Korean brand, and with a glut of top end features, its the most powerful and desirable device Samsung has created yet.
One of the most impressive things about the phone is the fact the size hasnt changed from its predecessor - the Galaxy S4 comes in at 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9mm (5.38 x 2.75 x 0.31 inches), meaning theres no extra heft to try to work with in your palm.
One of the most impressive things about the phone is the fact the size hasnt changed from its predecessor - the Galaxy S4 comes in at 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9mm (5.38 x 2.75 x 0.31 inches), meaning theres no extra heft to try to work with in your palm.
However, despite this fact, the screen on the S4 has been increased once more, to a whopping 5-inch display with Full HD resolution. This means the same amount of pixels youd have seen on a TV that cost well over £1,000 four years ago is now riding around in your pocket.
Samsung Galaxy S4 tips, tricks and hidden features explained
Lets not pretend that Samsung is a pioneer in this area though: like a great many features of the Galaxy S4, the phone borrows a lot from the other top smartphones of the moment. Both the Sony Xperia Z and the HTC One have screens that rock the same resolution, but neither of them have the jaw-dropping clout of the Super AMOLED HD screen on offer here.
On top of that, theres a much faster processor packed under the hood, ample storage space for media thanks to an expandable memory card slot, and the likes of 4G, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and pretty much any other connection you care to mention on board.
Samsung has tried to supplement this with a tranche of software upgrades too, meaning a more powerful camera, a better way to communicate with your friends and consume media, and interestingly a big push into health through dedicated apps too.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 costs the same as the HTC One, give or take a pound or two, on contract. This will still put it around £35 per month, which isnt too bad for such a high design.
But before we dissect all the possibilities the phone has to offer, lets look at the design. As we mentioned, its impressive in its form factor, thanks to the sub-8mm thickness, and at 130g it manages to still be light without shaving off so much heft that you feel like youve got a flimsy piece of plastic.
Thats probably the biggest compliment we can pay the Samsung Galaxy S4 - where its predecessor felt a little bit cheap in the hand, the S4 manages to bring a much more solid build and better construction to boot.
So while the "faux metal" band makes a comeback on this model, it looks a lot more premium. And theres very little flex in the chassis when you hold it tightly, which was another problem with the Galaxy S3 at times.
That doesnt mean that the phone is completely remodelled from the S3 - its very similar in appearance, so much so that a number of people asking to see it during our review thought we were palming them off with our old S3. The polycarbonate chassis remains, but that brings with it the faithful battery cover, which conceals a removable battery and microSD slot.
Were not so fussed about the battery being able to drop out of the phone - so few people carry around a spare battery, and nowadays portable charging blocks are becoming so cheap and light that they make much more sense too.
Wed almost prefer something like the Sony Xperia Z, which has a refined and packaged chassis but doesnt need a removable battery: it makes use of a slot instead for the memory card. This integrated nature would make for a slightly more premium feel to the phone.
However, its a small gripe with the S4, as while the cover feels flimsy, its better than it was on the S2 and the S3, and they both sold like hot cakes.
In the hand, the Samsung Galaxy S4 feels much better than any other Samsung phone weve held (apart from the gargantuan smartphones the brand used to make - the i8910 Omnia HD might have been built like a brick, but it felt wonderful to hold). The screens spread towards the sides of the phone means a much narrower bezel, and the effect is certainly impressive.
It might look very similar to the S3, but when you take the Samsung Galaxy S4 up close, you really start to appreciate the nuances.
Wed say it feels a lot more like the LG Optimus G range now - when we first picked it up, we were struck with how similar it felt in terms of sturdiness and the polycarbonate construction to the LG Optimus G Pro.
Thats no criticism, as the device was well built too, but it has a similar rounded feel. This is intriguing given the history of the two companies, and shows more of a leaning towards the plastic shell from the Asian brands in general.
Buttonry has barely changed from before - the power button has been shifted slightly on the right-hand side, and is now much easier to hit. Samsung has clearly taken some lessons from the Galaxy Note 2, which has a really well positioned power/lock button.
The volume key is less easy to hit, and could be lower down in our eyes, but the travel on both of these buttons is satisfying, and youll always know when youve hit them.
The plastic used on the home key has been upgraded too, with a more solid feel under the thumb when you press down to get back to the main home screen. The two buttons flanking it give you access to menus or take you back from whence you came, and while both are easily hidden, they light up nicely with an even glow when called into action.
There are loads of sensors on the front of the phone above the screen, including cameras to track your eyes, a 2MP camera for HD video calling and a proximity sensor for knowing where the phone is in relation to your ear. On the white review unit we had, their presence looks rather ugly either side of the generous earpiece, but on the darker models this is less of an issue.
The other notable addition to the design of the Galaxy S4 is the infra red blaster on the top of the phone. This enables you to control your TV, satellite box, DVD player, amp and even air conditioner. Again, this isnt a new feature, but it works well in practice, and despite being small is powerful enough indeed.
Other than that, theres not a lot more to say about the design of the phone, as its just a little underwhelming. We know its unfair to lambast a brand for not overhauling the design every year, but in the One X and the One, HTC has proven that it is possible to offer up a new design each time around and still keep things attractive.
Looking so similar to the Galaxy S3, you cant help but feel Samsung has gone a little too Apple and created something more in keeping with the Samsung Galaxy S3S - a minor update to a great phone to keep those coming out of contract happy that they have a premium phone to upgrade to.
We do implore you to get the phone in your hand before making a judgement though - while its not got the best design on the market when it comes to materials, its a big step forward compared to the Galaxy S3 and allows for a grippy and easy-to-hold phone, with a whopping screen inside.
To just dismiss it for being plastic would be doing the S4 a disservice as it has so much more going for it than that, but its worth remembering that to a lot of people, the way a phone looks is as important as how much RAM its got on board and how fast the CPU is - if not more so.
Screen
The Samsung Galaxy S4 has an all-new screen, and well state it now: the Samsung Galaxy S4 has the best display you can find on a smartphone.
Its the same Super AMOLED technology used in other Galaxy smartphones, but this time its been cranked up to Full HD resolution, which is 1920 x 1080 pixels, if youre asking.
This uses the same PenTile matrix thats drawn so much criticism for Samsung over the years, as some state that Samsung is using too many of one colour of pixel, or sub-pixel (the colours within each pixel) is too basic – all of this has meant that older Galaxy smartphones have had something of a blue or green tint, or been a little low-resolution when viewed (admittedly really) close up.
Well, and youll forgive us for saying the same thing that we did last year with the Galaxy S3, close up now theres no way you can see any jagged edges or elements within the icons. Its simply superb, and makes everything from web pages to video look brilliant.
And theres no worry about the tints of old, nor the criticisms levied at Samsung for making over-saturated screens, as often people have claimed that the colours look too strong on these devices thanks to the OLED technology used.
It is a feature of the technology, and not just because of the high contrast ratios on offer, but with the Galaxy S4 Samsung has added in a mode to make the colours look more natural, should the user so with to have it that way.
This method does drop the brightness somewhat, and thats already lower than you might find on the HTC One but that extra brightness isnt needed thanks to the contrast ratio we mentioned earlier. One of the strengths of OLED technology is that when a pixel is displaying a black image, its completely off, and therefore draws less power and looks darker. Compared to LCD screens, which have a backlight to light the colours in front, this means that the blacks will never be as black as found on an OLED.
So, as we said, theres nothing to want for with the Super AMOLED Full HD screen found on the Samsung Galaxy S4. It might not be as high resolution as the HTC One, simply because its larger with the same amount of pixels, but viewed up close youll struggle to find a flaw with it.
You can change the brightness from the notification bar by sliding your finger up and down the screen - but if you want to make things easier you can just tag the Auto button and have the Galaxy S4 working away at deciding the optimum brightness for you.
Whats new here is the ability to customise the auto level - so if you like things a little lighter or darker, then you can choose such a thing. Its a good way to manage your battery even easier.
Another feature, which is both good and bad, is the improved capacitive technology used in the screen. This is designed to ape a feature brought by Nokia on the Lumia 920, which enables you to wear gloves and still use the phone - which will be a key feature to those in colder climes, or like to wear gloves for sport or similar.
However, while this works well for gloves, it does over-power the screen somewhat, in that when youre holding your finger over the screen looking to scroll up and down when youre read a certain paragraph, it will sometimes register a press when youve no intention of doing so. Its irritating to say the least, and something that we hope Samsung irons out with future software updates.
Aside from that, theres not a thing that we can criticise the Samsung Galaxy S4 screen for in any way, as its as close to perfect as you can get on a smartphone - making it a great device for so many more functions as a result.
Interface
The interface on the Samsung Galaxy S4 isnt an officially new release of TouchWiz, the Korean brands name for its Android overlay, but it does bring a whole host of new features to the Galaxy range, working best on the S4.
Its built on top of Android Jelly Bean 4.2, which means there are several significant upgrades from the previous version, found on most of the other top-end Galaxy devices and, crucially, ahead of the likes of the HTC One and the Sony Xperia Z.
One gets the feeling Samsung has delayed Android 4.2 for the Galaxy S3 simply so it can offer differentiation with the new model – things like split menus mean you feel like youre greeted with a different phone, despite both the S3 and S4 doing roughly the same thing.
So, for instance, in the drag down notification bar, youre now greeted with two icons in the top right-hand corner; one takes you to the internal settings from anywhere in the phone, and the other gives you quick shortcuts to turn elements within the S4 off and on.
This is an idea Google pushed with the new iteration of Android, and works well. However, its a little redundant here, as the phone already has these in a long line in the notification bar. You can also edit these quick toggles too, so it means that youll rarely push the other button to get the full list.
Android 4.2 promises further smoothness upgrades too, and while this works on the likes of the Nexus 4, were not sure what its really added with the Samsung Galaxy S4.
Considering that this phone is running the quad-core Qualcomm 600 chip, clocked at 1.9GHz and combined with 2GB of RAM, we would have expected this phone to run faster than anything wed ever seen before.
While that is true for the most part, its only a touch more than weve seen on the Galaxy S3. Apps will open and close faster, but elements like the time taken to open the multi-taking menu (triggered by holding down the home key from anywhere in the phone) still take a beat to activate.
It makes us hanker for the octa-core processor that other parts of the world are getting - the reason being that 4G cant apparently be added to that chip very easily, so we have to make do with a quad core option. Its not as simple as saying that other version is twice as fast, as its essentially two quad core chips doing different tasks when needed, but theres no doubt that the other version is faster.
In case youre wondering, there are two versions of the Samsung Galaxy S4: one with the Exynos 5 octa-core, and this one (model number GT-1905) that has the Qualcomm Snapdragon quad core. This version is clocked at 1.9GHz, which means it runs faster in general - however, the octa core has two sets of four cores, with one for day to day stuff and the other for heavy lifting, such as photo processing and such.
While were miffed we dont have the option of this other version (its smashed the benchmarks in many tests) there are questions about whether the battery will hold up as well as the device flicks between the two quad core processors inside - it could improve efficiency or deplete it, depending on the implementation, so perhaps bigger isnt always better.
So, for instance, in the drag down notification bar, youre now greeted with two icons in the top right-hand corner; one takes you to the internal settings from anywhere in the phone, and the other gives you quick shortcuts to turn elements within the S4 off and on.
This is an idea Google pushed with the new iteration of Android, and works well. However, its a little redundant here, as the phone already has these in a long line in the notification bar. You can also edit these quick toggles too, so it means that youll rarely push the other button to get the full list.
Android 4.2 promises further smoothness upgrades too, and while this works on the likes of the Nexus 4, were not sure what its really added with the Samsung Galaxy S4.
Considering that this phone is running the quad-core Qualcomm 600 chip, clocked at 1.9GHz and combined with 2GB of RAM, we would have expected this phone to run faster than anything wed ever seen before.
While that is true for the most part, its only a touch more than weve seen on the Galaxy S3. Apps will open and close faster, but elements like the time taken to open the multi-taking menu (triggered by holding down the home key from anywhere in the phone) still take a beat to activate.
It makes us hanker for the octa-core processor that other parts of the world are getting - the reason being that 4G cant apparently be added to that chip very easily, so we have to make do with a quad core option. Its not as simple as saying that other version is twice as fast, as its essentially two quad core chips doing different tasks when needed, but theres no doubt that the other version is faster.
In case youre wondering, there are two versions of the Samsung Galaxy S4: one with the Exynos 5 octa-core, and this one (model number GT-1905) that has the Qualcomm Snapdragon quad core. This version is clocked at 1.9GHz, which means it runs faster in general - however, the octa core has two sets of four cores, with one for day to day stuff and the other for heavy lifting, such as photo processing and such.
While were miffed we dont have the option of this other version (its smashed the benchmarks in many tests) there are questions about whether the battery will hold up as well as the device flicks between the two quad core processors inside - it could improve efficiency or deplete it, depending on the implementation, so perhaps bigger isnt always better.
We would say the blocky nature of the UI really isnt attractive. It basically adds a load of features into a previously simple experience, which may or may not please some people. Thankfully, all this is switched off by default - and you can even have your own message saying hello every time you open the phone.
Its clear that Samsung has toed the Google line in using Android 4.2 on the Samsung Galaxy S4, as this lock screen functionality is straight from the search giants design board (with a few Samsung design ideals placed on top).
Its also present in the menu system, which, rather than one long list of all your options, is divided into four screens: Connectivity, My Device, Accounts, and More. Its a neat way of packaging things all up, but it can be hard to hit the categories on the top given the size of the screen.
The interface on the Samsung Galaxy S4, to the uninitiated or the Galaxy S2 user looking for their next upgrade, is great. It has loads of innovative ideas and works blazingly fast. We can see why some people find TouchWiz a little cartoony and convoluted at times, but in our eyes this is a great combination of power and simplicity in a smartphone.
Calling and contacts
Contacts are very similar to before on the Samsung Galaxy S4, but this is no bad thing. Laid out in an easy to read format and manageable ways of connecting the right people together, this is a perfectly passable way of looking for the people that matter to you.
The main thing that we like is the ability to smart dial. This means that when you open the number pad you can enter the name as you would have done on predictive text all those years ago - so 3-2-3 would be the command to bring up Dad, for instance.
Contacts are very similar to before on the Samsung Galaxy S4, but this is no bad thing. Laid out in an easy to read format and manageable ways of connecting the right people together, this is a perfectly passable way of looking for the people that matter to you.
The main thing that we like is the ability to smart dial. This means that when you open the number pad you can enter the name as you would have done on predictive text all those years ago - so 3-2-3 would be the command to bring up Dad, for instance.
You can link contacts together easily by going into the name and hitting joined contacts, then selecting other profiles from social networks to bring everything into one place. Samsung still hasnt mastered the art of suggesting these links in one big batch, so expect a lengthy time spend doing so when you turn the phone on.
One big change were not sure were in love with: every contact that doesnt have a picture drawn in (from the likes of Facebook or Google+) will have a stock smiling male cartoon face - its meant to be cutesy, but it can come across a little creepy when it flashes up onscreen from an unknown number.
Another oddity with the Samsung Galaxy S4 is the ability to use high res pictures to populate contact images - other handsets enable you to define that any social network, Facebook in particular, will always display HD pictures when you connect a person in your phone book to the social network profile.
It might sound like a minor thing, but when high-res pictures flash up during a phone call, it makes the phone feel a lot more premium, which is rarely the case with the Samsung Galaxy S4, which will only do so if youve linked Google+ or tagged them in your own photo.
Calling
Calling on the Samsung Galaxy S4 carries on from its predecessor - namely in being excellent. Its got a slightly narrow earpiece range, which means that you have to be careful where you position it in relation to your ear, but thats a really minor quibble as the overall effect is impressive and works well thanks to some clever volume management.The S4 has noise reduction built in, and many people commented how clear the the sound was over the airwaves. The S4 supports HD voice as well, which is carried over the 3G/4G networks (depending on your provider) so youll always get the best clarity on offer.
In short, this phone worked well no matter where we were. Dropped calls should be a thing of the past on all handsets, but thats not always the case; however, with high end handsets theres no reason to think it should happen, and the power of the S4 to keep hold of signal is impressive.
In fact, the signal strength was regularly impressive, making very few trips down to the dreaded no bar icon that means you might have a connection but, hey, you might not. Nobody enjoys that smartphone lottery, right?
There are a number of extra bells and whistles to play with here too which offer varying success. You can set something called Adapt Sound which asks you to pop in a pair of headphones and listen to a range of sounds at different frequencies, thus tailoring the output to your ears.
You can also choose to have Clear Sound or Soft Sound during the calls, but when we tried these modes all we got was a slight variation in volume. There are other tricks that are more useful in call, like being able to turn noise reduction on and off and being able to boost the volume when needed.
Otherwise, its the same great calling experience weve come to expect from the Samsung Galaxy range, even down to the three options that come up when you end a call (Message, Call or Video Call) so you can get in touch with the person if youve forgotten pertinent information. Although video call never works, lets be honest. Even Apple is starting to wonder...
In short, the Samsung Galaxy S4 is one of the best phones for actually, you know, phoning, out there. Its size isnt horrendous next to the ear and people can hear you - and vice versa. Job done.
Messaging
The messaging experience on Samsung smartphones has never been the strongest, and thankfully its getting better and better with each iteration. Wed go as far as saying that its actually GOOD on the Samsung Galaxy S4, and thats coming from a place of wanting to throw the Galaxy S3 out a window once or twice when the email client doesnt connect properly.
Lets start with one of the most important points: the keyboard. The previous Samsung versions have been woeful, with bouncy word prediction, inaccurate typing and cramped conditions.
Thankfully with the S4 Samsung appears to have realised this and made a larger option, and thanks to the larger screen youve even got a row of numbers on the top so you dont constantly have to keep pressing Shift to get them up each time. We did a lot, though. Just to let you know.
Theres also a Swype-a-like option on board, and while the jury is still out on whether this is more efficient that tapping away, we found it to be more accurate thanks to the larger amount of space afforded by the 5-inch screen.
We still instantly downloaded another option (SwiftKey might be underpinning a lot of what this keyboard is about, but the native option is still preferable in our eyes, as it takes less customisation at the start.)
Text messaging is still a key part of the Samsung Galaxy S4, and has been slightly upgraded; where there was just a conversation view with bubbles before, you now get little contact pictures next to each person, which adds a touch of personality to an SMS conversation. Yes, again its not a new experience, but it works well on the phone.
Youve also got a larger capacity for text messaging than before - where you could only write a missive that was 480 characters or less before converting to a (costly) MMS in previous versions, now you can have over 5 messages worth before such a function kicks in.
This means a much cleaner UI that makes it much easier to quickly glance and see who sent each message, a slide-across bar that takes you to your inboxes (should you have multiple accounts on the phone) and even the chance to have priority senders and a combined inbox.
So far, so very similar to the recent iOS update (which was similar to the HTC option before it, it should be noted).
But the key thing is here that the client, which was built to be powerful but ended up flawed, now works as it should.
We can easily set out of office messages, set priority accounts that we need to panic about (although the process there is a little convoluted and wont let you search an Exchange server to get the addresses you need - nobody should have their CEOs email saved as a contact, but if they email you then you would listen).
ChatON
There are other options for messaging of course: for instance, ChatON is present once more (Samsungs attempt to bring a WhatsApp/BBM/iMessage rival) and brings functionality like being able to send walkie-talkie voice messages to one another as well as pictures and messages, but there are so few people using it regularly that it wont be long before you hide it from the menu screen unless you happen to have a lot of chatty Samsung friends.This is something of a shame actually, as its a decent platform. You can add a profile pic, send files and the like over a data connection without having to faff with email, and the range of customisation options and UI both work very well for the most part.
Once again, Samsung has shown that it has seen a problem in its older phones and corrected it accordingly - it might not be market leading but there wasnt a point where we felt that communication was harder with the Galaxy S4, and thats all were looking for in this scenario.
Internet
Internet on the Samsung Galaxy S4 is covered by two applications: the inbuilt browser and Google Chrome. This might lead to some confusion as, for the most part, the two applications do precisely the same thing.
However, the default browser (Samsungs own) still comes with a few tricks of its own, and has been upgraded since the Galaxy S3. Its not any quicker, which is odd given the uprated processor, but thats likely because the Galaxy S3 was already running at the top end of the speed the connection would let it.
In speed tests with the HTC One it managed to match it in most cases - interestingly, the HTC would load pages the fastest, but navigating through pages on a site would see the Samsung Galaxy S4 come out a shade quicker. We had hoped for slightly faster, but it wasnt a slouch by any stretch.
Zooming in and out of text is a little bit tricky at times though, as it would sometimes zoom in incorrectly and not enable the full text to stretch across the screen. A couple of taps in and out on another part of the text saw this sorted, but it still pales in comparison to the auto-reflow on offer from the HTC One.
To be honest, that may be the hundredth time weve written that statement - ever since the HTC Hero weve been impressed with this functionality, so weve no idea why Samsung wont implement it when others will. Theres an option to have the text fit the zoom level youre after in the menu settings, and its so useful that weve no idea why its not enabled by default.
However, once youve got past the niggly elements, the Samsung Galaxy S4 is a phone thats right up there with the best when it comes to internet browsing. We found that a little tweak in the Accessibilty menu (found in Settings within the browser) enabled us to make text a little larger than normal, which led to a really easy to use page no matter what we looked at or at which zoom level.
As you can imagine, everything is razor sharp here, with the HD screen offering levels of detail we could barely comprehend at times. Those upgrading to the S4 will be blown away by the difference between this and a WVGA screen, so get ready to be able to browse the internet in a way youd want.
The bookmarking system is a little odd though: where before you could have bookmarks brought across from your Gmail account, this functionality has been stripped out here. Those that dont want to use Google Chrome will be annoyed as it means theyll have to re-find all their favourite pages rather than having them drawn in from the cloud now.
The UI of the internet browser has changed somewhat, with those changes being positive and... less so in some cases. For instance, if you tap on a link thats next to another when zoomed out, a small magnifying box will appear and you can more easily select the link youre after - wicked.
Also, the tabbed view (where you can see all the web pages youve got open) has been changed to work vertically now (taking more cues from Google Chrome) so its easier to swish through all the pages youve got open.
The look of the default browser is a bit low-key now though, and feels like it could do with a bit of a visual overhaul. Were all for simplicity here, as content should always be king in the browser, but the overall feel is very blocky and doesnt have the clout of other versions visually.
That said, all the pertinent functionality (namely moving forward and back through sites, bookmarks and tabs) is all present and correct and we werent cursing the inventors of the browser for hiding the things we use loads (were looking at you, Microsoft with Windows Phone 8).
Flash is still absent, but now HTC has offered it as an optional plug in when you need it, were missing it more than ever. There was a point last year, when Adobe ceased the updates to the mobile Flash browser, that we thought it would become irrelevant on mobiles, but it seems that this isnt the case still.
The BBC website still throws loads of You dont have the correct version of Flash errors at us when browsing through, and while you can still sideload it, were still rather missing it on mobiles (in general, not just the Samsung Galaxy S4).
Google Chrome, which we touched on earlier, is another good browser on the phone, but one that offers very similar functionality to the main browser, which leads to the confusion we mentioned. However its got those cloud bookmarks, the ability to sync with a desktop browser (so you can see which tabs youve got open across both devices and is therefore a little bit more well endowed when it comes to internet browsing.
We found it to be a little faster when chugging through the internet as well, meaning were surprisingly leaning towards recommending you go Chrome when firing up your Samsung Galaxy S4 - something that seems to have Googles intent all along written all over it.
Media
We always enjoy talking about the media functionality of the Samsung Galaxy range as its so good - and were happy to do the same here. Its a media marvel in every sense of the phrase, from music to video to even the FM radio, and if youre after a spot of entertainment on the go, then theres very little better out there, with the iPhone 5 the only possible rival.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 has done away with the FM Radio for some reason though – its a shame as the Samsung app was one of the best out there for listening to some tunes over the airwaves. Sure, there are dozens of excellent internet radio apps, but for free music that you could record when needed, we loved that ability on the Galaxy S3 and Note 2.
Its also worth noting that Samsung has upgraded the rear speaker as well, which is now a little more rich in the bass tones and makes watching videos or YouTube clips without earphones that little bit better. Its nowhere near as good as BoomSound from HTC, but its definitely a big step forward.
Music
Sonically, the Samsung Galaxy S4 is a great device for music consumption. You can lob in as many tracks as you like through the microSD slot, the interface is fluid and easy to navigate, and comes with so much control that if youve got quality headphones and high bit-rate tracks, it should be impossible not to get an excellent experience out of the phone.One of the real winners here is the music player itself - theres just so much to do.
Were talking about the main player here - there are other options in the shape of Googles Play Music, and of course you can check things out using the Music portion of the Samsung Hub (the South Korean brands version of iTunes, helpfully now packaged all up in one place) but the main way to transport tunes to your ears is through the main Music app.
Its easy to get to the tracks you want here too, as when you open it up youre presented with either a big long list of all the albums or songs you own - although if you have missing album artwork the phone wont be able to find it for you.
That said, there are so many apps on the Google Play Store that you shouldnt have an issue with it - wed recommend you look at something like Player Pro to help you out with this.
Once youve selected the track, you can continue building the playlist or press the album artwork icon at the bottom of the screen where a little music player has started. From here theres all manner of things you can do: from searching through a song using a visual representation of the volume to setting the sound to mimic your ears perfectly, its all here if you open up the menu.
The latter functionality is really nice - AdaptSound (which weve covered in the Contacts and Calling section of this review) takes you through a wizard that asks you to listen to a variety of frequencies and determines which ones you can hear. It will then boost the sound to make sure it fits into the range you can actually hear, which will diminish as you get older.
Music View, which is the name for the functionality where you can search through a song visually, is a nice touch but really doesnt work - you see peaks and troughs on the screen, but it doesnt correspond at all to what youre hearing.
Another feature (hidden away, annoyingly - youll need to swipe to the left on the top row of icons in the main view, and theres no obvious indication that you can do this) will lead to Music Square.
This analyses your music library and gives it a rating based on Joy, Passion, Excitement and Calmness. Quite why these are the main types of track in Samsungs eyes, we dont know. You can then trace a line through the different emotions to get a playlist based on the emotions you really want. While the result is a bit hit and miss, we did find that when we wanted a more chilled out track listing it worked well.
Music also supports voice control here as well, which in theory would be really useful. The ability to Play, Pause, Skip and Volume Up/Down is a really nice thing to have - except it doesnt really work.
Volume up and down get easily interchanged and go up very slowly, and if the phone is in sleep mode (which it will be most of the time) then the commands dont work.
We loved it when we forced the screen to stay on and could just command the phone to change tracks by asking, and without having to press any buttons, but that kills the battery; when it doesnt pick up your voice properly its a frustrating experience.
We would say it was more of a niche feature, but if youve got voice control turned on in the settings, the music player will constantly tell you that you can change things using the voice, with no way to permanently disable the notification.
Video
Video on the Samsung Galaxy range, like music is excellent. However, unlike music, it is head and shoulders above the rest of the competition, in no small part thanks to that Full HD Super AMOLED screen.When we review phones, we usually always gravitate towards downloading our favourite apps to improve the experience - SwiftKey, PlayerPro and MX Player (for music) are the first three on our list. However, with the Samsung Galaxy S4, we had no need for a new video player app as everything we wanted was serviced by the inbuilt experience.
The interface is clean, with a white background enabling the thumbnails of the videos you want to watch really bringing the content to the fore. Then youve got the neat functionality of videos auto-playing as thumbnails, which is possible thanks to the power of the processor. Its not critical functionality, but its really fun to watch.
Youve also got a side link to the videos youve downloaded from Samsungs Video Hub, which makes it a complete and integrated video experience within one app. Many wont use this option that often, but it really works if youve got a couple of titles in the cloud that you want to bring down and means you dont have to mess around in the main Video Hub.
The phone can detect chapters within the video file, which makes it really easy to navigate through your content when you need to - this is an oft-overlooked piece of functionality that were glad to see pervades through the Samsung Galaxy S4 from previous smartphone iterations.
But enough about what you can do and more about the experience itself - and its glorious. The colour reproduction, the clarity of the screen - its all there in spades and makes us just want to gorge ourselves on movies for hours, rather than having to wait until we can find a tablet or a PC to do it with.
Five years ago, when video watching on the smartphone started to trickle into the mainstream, we used to consider that a phone that enabled you to watch a music video without having to squint too hard was a pretty decent device. Were now at the other end of the scale with the Samsung Galaxy S4, with there being no better phone to watch an episode of Supernatural, a host of music videos from your favourite band and the latest downloaded blockbuster on.
The only slight issue we had with the Samsung Galaxy S4 when using the handset for video was with the Smart Pause functionality, which is designed to make it so you dont miss your video when someone comes to ask you a question or you need to look up to make sure you havent missed your stop.
When detecting that your eyes are on the screen, the S4 will keep the action playing. When they stray from the action its designed to pause, and for the most part it works. However, theres a slight seconds delay to confirm your eye movements, which does negate the effect somewhat.
But more annoyingly, if youre holding the phone too far away from your face then the action wont kick in either. And with the higher resolution screen you can hold the S4 in a more comfortable way thats further away from the face, which ruins the effect somewhat.
In terms of clarity, the only rival weve seen so far is the Sony Xperia Z, which does have some lovely scenes thanks to the upscaling performed by the Bravia 2 engine within. However, while that does have the edge when it comes to making fuzzy standard-def footage look good, the screen pales (literally) in comparison to the Full HD Super AMOLED offering were seeing on the Galaxy S4.
Streaming video
We tested the Samsung Galaxy S4 using EEs 4G service, and we were more than pleasantly surprised with the result. Having constantly used Netflix on the Three network for a while, weve always been impressed with the quality of stream thats been offered when using HSPDA+.However, its a whole new world with 4G – and one that instantly makes us recommend that you think about how youre going to get the service on your phone. Its blisteringly quick and brings a whole new dimension to the way youll use your Samsung Galaxy S4, as suddenly you can get a whole world of content on the go.
You can even download movies on the go in an extraordinarily fast time, but therein lies the rub: EE has some pretty tight data limits unless youre willing to fork out a fair whack each month.
Theyre not that low if youre just doing the same general 3G business you always have, but we were so impressed with the speed of things like the internet and, in particular, movie streaming, that wed recommend waiting until all the networks come out their pricing to see whats going to be the fastest and cheapest available.
Storage
Storage on the Samsung Galaxy S4 is limited if you opt for the 16GB version of the phone, as over 6GB of it is taken up by pre-installed apps and the OS itself. That might not sound like a problem when you consider that you can whack in up to 64GB of microSD storage thanks to the expansion slot, but this is the zone where apps download.And with the prevalence of the HD app now coming along (for instance, Need For Speed: Most Wanted takes up nearly 2GB of space on the internal memory) you can see how quickly that could get filled up. You start with only 9.15GB of the 16GB of space youve paid for from the outset, which is over 2GB less than offered by the same capacity Galaxy S3.
Samsung has updated the phone since launch to help this issue, as where previously some cloud services like Dropbox would sync all the photos it has to the phone automatically (easily taking over 1GB for any existing user) this has now been disabled, making it a user option.
There are also things you can do to mitigate this, but you have to know where to look. For instance, videos you buy from the Samsung Video Hub can run to well over 1GB, but if you head into Settings from within that app you can tell the phone to put the film on your SD card instead to make it a little less of a strain on the internal memory.
This isnt a problem that only Samsung has to deal with, but the fact that the internal storage is so limited thanks to the pre-installed elements means this becomes even more of an issue than we saw on the iPad, which at least had over 2GB more to start with.
The memory card slot really does help though by giving you a safe haven for your media - our advice is to get your hands on the 32GB version of this phone unless you want to be really careful with your use.
However, with the update we found things to be a lot better - we downloaded 20 games of varying sizes to the phone, way more than most will use regularly, and still had 3GB of space remaining. So while that 2GB drop is unwanted, its not unmanageable in any way and far less of an issue now.
Its also worth mentioning that youve got two years of Dropbox storage on the phone too – and not just a paltry amount, but 50GB to lump all manner of home movies and photos up into the cloud.
With clever connection to your gallery, this is a feature that is swept under the carpet marketing-wise, but really is rather useful.
Camera
The Samsung Galaxy S4 camera is a big upgrade over other sensors it has put into phones, and with a 13MP sensor you can see why. It is capable of taking some stunning photos and comes with a decent auto mode, which enables you to get really great shots no matter what the framing.
This means you can be taking a picture of a landscape one minute, then trying to get an extreme close up of a daffodil the next, and the Samsung Galaxy S4 camera will handle both with aplomb. There are also a number of clever modes available on the handset that take their UI cues from the Samsung Galaxy Camera, meaning that a quick tap of the Mode button below the on screen shutter will give you a scrollable wheel of options to choose from.
These options include Drama Shot, Eraser mode and Beauty Shot, as well as cueing up the likes of HDR mode to improve the quality and light levels of your snaps. For the most part they have a good role to play in your photography, and were glad Samsung hasnt over-burdened the user with too many modes.
There are some issues with this method however, and were not sure how youd solve them: Eraser mode enables you to take five pictures and if someone walks into the shot the phone will recognise the intruder and ask if you want to remove it.
This is a brilliant idea in theory, but the fact you have to enable it as a setting before taking the shot means that unless you leave the camera in this mode all the time, youll only get the full benefit when you know youre likely to get people walking behind.
The other problem we have is the settings side of the user interface. We applaud Samsung for going with simplicity first - and by that we mean that users arent presented with a settings menu as long as their arm when trying to take a quick picture of a cat or child doing something funny.
However, as youll see in a moment, the Samsung Galaxy S4 camera does struggle in some conditions, and as such the only way to mitigate these problems is to do things like increase the exposure or enable night mode. If you want to do this then youll have to acquaint yourself with the settings menu in the top left-hand corner of the camera app, which has a number of icons to toggle on and off.
That said, what is on offer does really work. Night mode is a good way of increasing the brightness of your photos when things are getting a little dark - although youll have to make sure that youre able to hold the camera steady if you dont want blur. Weve tried a number of smartphones with this mode though, and the Samsung Galaxy S4 was one of the better ones, plus being able to enable it automatically is brilliant.
Other tricks, like being able to take a Drama Shot, are pretty close to the innovation spawned from other manufacturers. In this case, the functionality is almost identical to that seen on the Nokia Lumia 920, although were glad to see it again as it does enable you to make some pretty funny GIFs.
The other new ideas, such as being able to take a picture using the front and back camera simultaneosly, are niche at best. Samsung made a big deal about this new function at the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S4, but in reality we cant ever see a scenario where you want your face to be in the picture too. We do like that you can have loads of frames for your face though, so there are scenarios to use it - its just not a USP of the phone.
But enough about what it can do; how good is the Samsung Galaxy S4 camera in day to day use? In honesty,brilliant in many ways. We mentioned that its possible to take some stunning shots, but then wed expect it from a 13MP camera with Samsungs burgeoning photography heritage.
When stacked against the HTC One, the S4 is a superior device in one way, but less useful in another. For one, the focal length is much poorer, meaning you have to stand further away from the subject to get the same shot you would on the One.
In theory this sounds great, but as you can see from our comparison shots, the HTC is much better at pulling out the object of the photograph. Then again, the Samsung Galaxy S4 has a more balance composition, meaning the chance to get a brilliant photo is stronger. It doesnt over expose for the sake of it, so while photos might look better on the Ones phone screen, the jaw dropping effect of the S4 is higher.
In low light, the HTC One with its UltraPixel technology is streets ahead of the S4, unless you place the latter into Night Mode after which its more even. However, the One manages low light shots almost instantly, while the S4 needs a lot of processing.
In short, as youll see below, the Samsung Galaxy S4 is a good phone to take a load of pictures on - one of the best if youre taking your time to get it right.
If youre looking for a more even picture with the ability to zoom in on certain parts of the shot, its a decent option, but for point and shoot ability we would recommend the HTC One (or even giving the Sony Xperia Z a run out).
Maps
On any Android phone the mapping experience is superb these days, and the Samsung Galaxy S4 is no exception thanks to the awesome power of Google Maps. Weve been evangelising this service for years, but when youre getting a powerful sat-nav in your phone, then you can see why were such fans.
On top of that, its one that keeps getting upgraded, and combined with the Samsung Galaxy S4s large, high-res and expansive screen we had no issues at all using it as our navigation device in car.
Were not going to go into the full detail of what Google Maps can do, but there are some highlights worth mentioning. For instance you can cache certain parts of the globe to the phone, so if youre wondering if youll be forced to use loads of data when abroad and lost, you can safeguard your bank balance.
Theres 3D mapping of the big cities, so when in the traditional map view you can see skyscraper models popping up on your screen. This is both cool and makes it very easy to navigate by sight if you cant see a road name anywhere nearby.
And then you have the StreetView option, which lets you see what the roads look like from a pedestrians point of view. Or indoor maps for major attractions, making it easier to navigate big buildings. Its an excellent app and one you should spend a lot of time getting to know.
The Google Maps experience has also been upgraded for Full HD phones, with the UI looking so pin sharp (thanks to vector graphics) that youll be able to see things youre looking for instantly on the Samsung Galaxy S4.
The screen is bright and clear, and like its predecessor, the GPS and GLONASS combination gives one of the most accurate location experiences weve ever seen. In case youre wondering, GLONASS is the Russian equivalent of the GPS system, with loads of satellites up there beaming down signals.
If you want to sell a smartphone in Russia then you have to offer this compatibility, so it means that any phone that has GPS and GLONASS ability has so many more satellites to choose from - ergo, a much more accurate location experience.
We even found it to be accurate when a metre or so away from the window when inside the house - and we love the fact you can get a lock in under a second, even in built up areas.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is one of the best navigation devices on the market, so if youve never experienced the thrill of using your phone to get to B from A, then this will blow your mind.
Apps
There are a number of apps available on the Samsung Galaxy S4, and for the most part were glad to see that pre-installed bloatware is at a lower level than usual. The usual suspects are there: Calculator, S Memo, S Planner and the gang, and these are all really great tools that we urge you to try out.
They do perhaps err on the side of complexity, which is a theme prevalent throughout the Samsung Galaxy S4 when diving into the apps themselves. This will attract a lot of people that consider themselves to be more of a power user, but put off others looking for an alternative to the simplicity of the iPhone.
For instance the S Planner app is visually very busy, but comes with rich functionality. You can set a location with a new meeting appointment, or pinch to zoom through the time view, be it day, week, month or year.
But we like that Samsung favours power over simplicity, and it does a really great job of making that power usable.
There are a number of other new apps on the Samsung Galaxy S4, so take a look below to see how they stack up:
Optical Reader
This application apes the likes of Google Goggles by enabling you to translate words on the screen in front of you (using augmented reality), nab details from business cards and get information from QR codes when asked. Its a simple interface that really only asks to be pointed at the object youre looking at, and works well.In reality we can only see it being any good for getting business card details or understanding what the odd words means in a foreign language. The business card element is hit and miss, so if youre trying to get everything from the name of the person to their job title to their phone number handily stored in the phone, the accuracy is generally around 70%.
Thats still 70% less effort than manually putting all the info in yourself, so we consider that to be a real time saver.
S Translate
Building on the ability to take one word and put it in another language, the S Translate app is a powerful tool that will let you speak or type words into the phone and have them translated into another language - or vice versa.Its a simple system to actually use - we found very little that went wrong with it. More intriguingly, the app could even understand what were were saying more often than not when trying to speak in a foreign tongue.
Weve tried this on a number of apps, and this is the first time its worked so well, so big thumbs up to Samsung for that.
The only issue we can see is that it relies on a connection to the internet to work properly - if youre out and about in a land where you dont understand the language chances are you wont have data, thus rendering the app moot.
Its only a slight quibble though, and as such shouldnt put you off buying the Samsung Galaxy S4 if youre someone looking for a really handy travel companion.
Story Album
In response to HTCs Zoe functionality, and BlackBerry bringing the same sort of functionality on the BB10 software, Samsung has added in the ability to make photo albums of your memories and even enabling you to send the pics across to a real life printers to have a glossy book made.But in practice its a really low-power app that seems to be just ticking boxes rather than bringing innovation. We were initially impressed as the phone could work out when we had been taking photos of an event and then asked us to create an album based on the snaps.
When we went to do such a thing though, we were really disappointed. Despite tagging our friends in pictures, the wrong faces were in focus, the themes poor and the speed of rendering for a device that has such a strong core is saddening.
Story album could be so much better if Samsung put some effort here, but it feels really cobbled together - and pales massively when compared to the memory-making HTC One Zoe functionality.
Gaming
Gaming on the Samsung Galaxy S4 is handled by the Adreno 320 GPU, which obviously can not only handle a much larger number of pixels, but can also work its magic when it comes to giving smooth, real to life gaming on the go.We tried the phone on a number of games, from Super Hexagon to Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, and as expected the Samsung Galaxy S4 handled them all with aplomb, with not even a hint of judder or slow down when in heavy use.
More impressively was the lack of battery juice-down when using the handset, as it managed to only consume a few percent of the power even when getting a little warmer in the hand.
Android doesnt have a lot of stand out games at the moment, but in our tests of the largest (Grand Theft Auto, Need for Speed, NOVA 3 plus myriad benchmarking apps) we found there was nothing the Galaxy S4 couldnt handle. Good-o.
Smart Stay, Smart Scroll, Air View, Air Gestures
Smart Stay
Smart Stay isnt a new feature for the Samsung Galaxy S4, but its a better implementation than we saw on the Galaxy S3 last year. Back then the result was a little patchy, and also contributed to some dodgy auto-brightness levels.In case you dont know, Smart Stay is another of Samsungs eye-tracking technologies, one that can tell when youre looking at the screen and wont dim or put it into sleep mode as a result.
Of course, you could just tap the screen with your finger - but come on, this isnt 2011.
Smart Scroll
For all the brilliance of Smart Stay, the worlds eyes are on Smart Scroll (sorry). This technology was designed to also monitor your eyes, but when it notes youre looking at the phone the Samsung Galaxy S4 will enable you to tilt the handset back and forth to move the text or email youre trying to read up and down the screen.Well, this is what Samsung said at the Samsung Galaxy S4 launch, but it turns out that theres another, more cool, trick at work here: you can hold the phone steady and tilt your head up and down to achieve the same thing.
You have to make a pretty strong movement with your head to make this function work, but when it does its pretty cool indeed and one of the down the pub moments that will make people sit up and take notice.
However, and this is a big one: because the feature isnt perfect, we cant say its a useful way to navigate around the screen. Its cool that you can choose to either make the screen scroll using your head or tilting the screen, and then you can select the speed of the scrolling too.
You can also decide whether to have the annoying eye icon pop up on the screen to alert you that the Smart Scroll function is working. So while it doesnt really work every time and sometimes messes up, its cool to have - although we still have the issue of using your finger being a more useful way of scrolling around a screen.
With something like Smart Scroll it has to be flawless to be considered a useful part of life, and would have mitigated the issues we found with the actual need for it. But as its slightly buggy and dependent on a number of factors (such as lighting conditions) we just found that after a few days it got turned off - and we fear thats the way it would stay for most for the next two years.
Air View
One of the new features of the Samsung Galaxy S4 is Air View - well, its not new per se as weve seen it on the Galaxy Note 2 already. But where that device needed the S Pen to work, the S4 only needs a finger, which you hover over certain items to see inside without opening.Samsung has imbued a number of applications with this functionality, but in truth only a few really need it. For instance, being able to see which speed dials are assigned to which number is really useful, as otherwise youd just have to press and find out.
Less useful are things like video scrolling, where you can flick through the video using the timeline bar without having to disturb the main action. While this is a useful feature, theres not a lot of point to having to hover the finger over the screen to achieve it when you can just slide your finger on the screen, which is a much easier way of doing things.
Whats nice is that in the Setting menu you can choose what Air View is used for, so that means you can turn it on for emails and messages, but off for video previews and magnifying the web.
The only problem is that youll have to get used to holding your finger further from the screen, as the screen is a sensitive little monkey. Youll be scrolling through an email and suddenly youll see items flashing up all over the place, meaning youll want to turn off the function. Wed say its worth putting in the effort to get better with it, but wed rather Samsung got even more granular here to let us turn off Air View in email, where its easier to trigger and less useful, but keep it in calendar, where its a blooming godsend.
That said, its still probably one of the best innovations used on the Samsung Galaxy S4, and were glad its been added in.
Air gestures
Where Air View was useful, here we come to one of the things we thought was the least practical things on the phone in our hands on preview: Air gestures. Its designed to let you simply wipe your hand over the front of the phone without touching it and means you can skip tracks, move between photos and answer calls without touching the phone.Well say that the latter functionality is good, but only when youre in a hands free situation, such as the car. There you dont want to be having to root around for the Call accept function when youre supposed to have two hands on the wheel, where a simple wipe to answer is really cool.
Weve got nothing against the option of doing things this way, and its not a lot more accurate with the new software update. This means that theres no more (well, nearly) missed gestures, and it wont activate when we dont want it to, which is another real bugbear we found at the start.
Other uses, such as moving between tabs in the internet browser and moving app icons around, are cool and could be useful in very niche situations... but its still not really better than just touching the screen and doing it without worry.
There are some more instances where its really, really useful – you can wipe over the screen and flick through PDF pages, scroll through web pages a large jump at a time or flip between tabs.
Its a clever system, but like we said, its not useful enough – its cool to do, but takes a little more effort than it should to be a natural flowing part of your phone use.
Like so many new features on the Samsung Galaxy S4, a little annoyance means youll turn them off, and its unlikely youll ever turn them on again, which makes us feel bad for all those engineers that were asked to come up with all this innovation.
WatchON and S Health
WatchON
WatchON is Samsungs attempt to make the Samsung Galaxy S4 into the remote that controls your whole home, and given the power of the infrared (IR) blaster on the top of the phone, it makes a decent fist of it for the most part.The application comes with a number of other elements too, but lets focus on the remote part first, as its still a novelty to those that havent got a modern tablet or tried the likes of the HTC One or LG Optimus G Pro.
You can set rooms up, enabling you to take the phone with you and still have it as a remote. When first setting the device up, you can tell WatchON how you get your channels (through the TV, set top box or cable) and it can then set up the controller to work in the correct way by asking a few channel-based questions.
There are also fewer buttons on the Samsung Galaxy S4 interface, which was irritating when even swiping down to the lower level, which is supposed to give more complex functions, didnt yield the options we needed. Its a good app, just not the best out there.
One thing we did miss on the HTC One, and enjoyed on the Optimus G Pro, was the ability to have the remote control pervade in the notifications menu or on the lock screen, and its great that the Samsung Galaxy S4 could do both of these things easily.
Its a good remote control, if a little unwieldy, and its a real upgrade to have the option on there.
The other element of the WatchON app is the ability to have programmes chosen for you, with a simple tap on the thumbnail keying in the right sequence to open the channel on your set top box and have it working simply. We noted that although the genres were all over the place (not looking for content coming up, just suggesting basketball when asking for sports etc) when you keyed in your favourite channels and shows the WatchON app was good at suggesting the right content.
Its a step forward from the HTC One option, and we liked the open and easy to use interface from the Samsung Galaxy S4. Also, unlike the One, theres a lot more to choose from when it comes to On Demand video, with the Video Hub getting its own zone within the app rather than feeling tacked on with the HTC offering.
Were cant see a time when youd use it as such, as the really annoying thing about the Samsung Galaxy S4 is you cant stream bought movies wirelessly - only to a TV with a wired connection and screen mirroring enabled.
Come on Samsung, dont make a big deal about such a function then not let us watch things we bought from you.
S Health
Samsung made a big deal about S Health with the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S4, and its clear to see the intent: it wanted to get a slice of the lucrative fitness market, and wanted to leverage the technology contained within the smartphone already.Its a novel idea to have it so entrenched within the phone itself, but it does have some good ideas on how to use your phone to improve ones fitness. For instance, once youve entered all your weight, height and exercise details, the phone can tell you an idea weight to aim for, and how many calories per day you should ingest to achieve it.
On top of that, you get a guide to exercise levels each day, in a way that mimics the likes of Nikes FuelBand, which uses points to tell you how to get more active.
Samsung is clearly aware of this, as its even got an S Band accessory to achieve the same thing if you dont have the phone with you - although we can see a scenario that when you use the phone and S Band together youll be getting twice the exercise for the same activity, which renders the whole process a little moot.
Youll be set a steps per day goal, and these are divided into Running, Walking and Up/Down (whatever that last one is). While on the days we did take the Samsung Galaxy S4 running it did have a larger uptick in the percentage of running steps, it was far from accurate.
Even on sedentary days, the S4 was congratulating on running for a portion of it. Seems a bit unfair to all those people that were out sweating and pounding the streets, but we took the kudos.
Perhaps were being a little hard on this app, as it works well - just too simplistically. You can track your weight here nicely (and even more effectively if you purchase Samsungs Bluetooth scales) enter the food youve eaten to keep an eye on calories, and if youre organised enough, track all your exercise in one place.
But theres so much more to be done; what if you had running app capabilities within S Health, so it can monitor your runs in a similar way to Nike+, Adidas MiCoach or Endomondo? Samsung is missing a trick here - plus it needs to make the pedometer more accurate.
Group Play and Samsung Hub
Another big sell from Samsung, is Group Play - and again we cant really see the point for certain elements. Yes, we know this is getting to be a theme with the phone, but bear with us here.
One of the most popular functions Samsung was keen to talk about was the music sharing - the idea being that if youve got more than one Samsung Galaxy S4 kicking around (presumably not by yourself) you can set up a Group Play group by making a Wi-Fi hotspot and stream the music to all phones at once.
The clever idea is that multiple phones can connect, and each can have their own speaker setting in a surround sound setup. The downside is that youll never have that many Samsung Galaxy S4s in one place, and even if you did, a single small speaker at the back is hardly going to be enough to wipe out your home speaker system.
Its not got a universal appeal, as even though youre paying a high dollarpound price for the latest blockbuster, you cant watch move that content onto your larger screen without a HomeSync device.
Connecting to a TV or streaming using AllShare wont let you play video youve purchased from the Samsung Hub, which feels like a massive trick missed here, although Samsung tells us its due to a licensing issue.
HTC Watch can do it, and the prices are often cheaper. What gives, Samsung?
Its not really a great place to get all your content thanks to the really high price, and it would be excellent to see a wider remit by including third party apps to supplement the lack of functionality in places.
For instance, and were sure theres a licensing reason for this, how great would it be to see Netflix in the Video Hub to enable instant streaming, rather than having to pay £10 or so just to get a video in SD that you can only really watch on the phone?
Battery life and connectivity
Battery life
Ah, the old battery life test. One of the worlds most difficult things to rate, thanks to the sheer range of things you can do with the phone to keep it from throwing out all its juice in a heartbeat.If you cant be bothered to read why, just understand that Samsung Galaxy S4 = good battery life.
Whatever you use your phone for, in our eyes it should be able to handle what the handsets main USPs are.
But the good news is that the Samsung Galaxy S4 is able to handle all the things you can throw at it and still keep the 2600mAh battery chugging along at the end of the day. We found that in general use it was very well received, as nothing we found could hurt it.
Our usual test is performed on the commute to work, the time where were at our most phone-use-y. For this test, like all other phones, we streamed the audio over Bluetooth headphones (Rockaway Novero, if youre asking).
A 10 minute cycle ride with music playing dropped things by 1%. Streaming video over 4G for 10 minutes with full brightness on the screen pulled down another 3%. Then it was more music for 30 minutes, which ate another 2%, and then downloading a 86MB game file over 4G, which munched 3%.
A little more music playing, combined with general email checking and testing out the air gestures, air view and smart scroll saw a battery drain of just over 10% for the hour we were trundling to work. Thats really impressive, as we reckon high drain capability of 10% per hour will lead to more than enough juice come the end of the day.
We never found ourselves in that situation, which is great. You can always pop in another battery, thanks to this being removable, but in truth, it wasnt needed.
We will say that those that like gaming, movie watching and internet browsing will struggle to make the battery last on this phone, as the screen is the biggest drain. That sounds obvious, but were actually happy that the Samsung Galaxy S4 isnt one of those devices that will see your battery juicing down from an overly-enthusiastic background syncing process.
Connectivity
Connectivity on the Samsung Galaxy S4 is well catered for, thanks to simply packing every kind of sensor under the sun in there. For instance, youve got low power Bluetooth (Bluetooth 4.0) which means you can connect to a wide range of sensors - like trainers - and have them send back up data without taking up loads of power and sucking the battery dry.As you can imagine, S Beam and NFC are both present and correct on the Samsung Galaxy S4, with both working well in tandem to nab stuff off other phones which youve tapped the back of.
It uses a Wi-Fi Direct connection to make it easier to send items from A to B, and does do very speedily indeed. It might look odd, but we still believe massively in the power of NFC thanks to the plethora of speaker docks and headphones that now use it for easier Bluetooth pairing.
GPS and GLONASS are on board, as we mentioned above in the Maps section of the review, and combined offer a startlingly quick location time when firing up the mapping services. Seriously quick – we urge you to try it.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 supports all manner of Wi-Fi connections, and can hang on to the signal even when weak thanks to dual-channel bonding to preserve the data transfer.
We cant say that we noticed much of an upgrade over other models, but then again thats not bad thing as most of the top end smartphones will now manage to offer decent Wi-Fi connections given theyre so crucial to the running of the phone.
When downloading large files we did notice some dropouts and speed losses, but that was more to do with the server connection it seemed. A 700MB video file from Samsungs Video Hub took a lot less time to download than a 590MB file from Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit.
4G
We were testing the Samsung Galaxy S4 on the EE network, and if youre new to the 4G game then we urge you to make sure youre going to get the superfast service on your new S4, should you have got this far and decided to rush out and buy it.From app downloads to streaming video, it was just so fast. Web pages load in a heartbeat, updates occur almost instantly and everything you could hope for is serviced by upping the speeds to 4G levels.
If youve got fibre optic broadband then the effect is similar – were loving the fact you can download things on the go at lightning speeds. The S4 is well set up too – we moved between two tube stops (overground, obviously) and managed to nab a massive 87MB of data in just a few minutes.
The data levels need to be watched though. Its very easy to get over excited with 4G on the Galaxy S4 as so much of it is enhanced by the faster speeds – from video to music to game downloads, we found ourselves wanting to do everything superfast, and as such were heading between 500MB and 1GB of data per day.
So make sure youve got enough data to manage – if you want the full force of 4G, youll probably be wanting at least 8GB of data, if not more.
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