Samsung Galaxy S4 Introduction

If you think Samsung's new Galaxy S4 will define a new era of smartphones, it's time to lower your expectations. The brand new Galaxy S4 runs the latest Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, improves hardware dramatically and comes with a lot of new features. Compared with the extremely successful Galaxy S3 that came before, it's not a giant a leap, but it raises the bar again for Samsung's competitors. And by super-sizing the screen and packing in so much specialized software, the GS4 sets itself even farther apart from the iPhone.

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The Galaxy S4 handset steadily draws from the same design as the S3, but ups the ante a bit -- the screen is larger (5 inches), the resolution better (1080p), the battery capacity higher (2,600mAh), the processor faster (1.9GHz quad-core or 1.6GHz octa-core), and the rear-facing camera filled with more megapixels (13, to be exact). But, once you've gone through the features checklist, you'll realize the software extras that Samsung continues to lean keeps its phones one step ahead.

The problem for the Galaxy S4 is, very few of the enhancements stood out as a must-have, cannot-possibly-live-without feature. The TV control app that works with the IR blaster is perhaps one exception (the HTC One has this, too), as are a handy translation tool and eye-tracking and gesture capabilities that allow you to pause a video when you stop paying attention and let you hover your finger over an item to preview what it is. Many other software additions are semi-interesting ideas that some power users may enjoy once they've figured them out, but which will hardly convince a prospective buyer to pick the GS4 over, for instance, the HTC One, Nokia Lumia 920, or iPhone 5.