A Review of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active
Let’s take a quick look and review the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active for AT&T. The new S4 Active adds durability with it’s polycarbonate armor casing, IP67 certified dust proofing and is waterproof up to 3 feet for up to 30 min.
Under the hood you’ll find the same snappy 1.9 Quad-core MDM9215 Snapdragon CPU from Qualcomm with 2GB of ram, a 2600mAh Lithium-ion battery, 16GB of onboard storage and a microSD slot expandable to 64GB.
The Armor
Marketed as the “Whatever-proof” smartphone, it boasts some 30 min of submerged time in up to 3ft of water. It’s also built with newer stronger polycarbonate plastic for that much more strength. The power button and volume rocker have been texturized and exaggerated for easier access. The two capacitive buttons are now phsycial as well and raised with the Home button which I am having trouble getting used to but it does indeed make the phone easier or able to be operated in many situations.
Waterproof and IP67 Dust Resistant Certified
As you can see above, the S4 Active comes with a sort of a rubber gasket attached.If you look closely at the exposed back of the phone you can see the corresponding recessed area that joins together when you snap the back cover on. There are about 20 little snap points and an additional 3 inside the circle to help snap down near the camera flash, simcard/memory card area. (In case you’re wondering, the S4 has 17 snap points on the back cover and no gasket) You’ll find no plug for the headphone port but there’s a cover for the micro USB charge port.
Is it tuff?
It’s certainly “TUFFER”. The armor plating does look nice top and bottom, with the shiny machined bolts at each corner, makes the unit feel more rugged. The back cover becomes shorter to help decrease the area that needs to remain dry. Protection from accidental drops it in the creek, pool or toilet, water guns and accidental beer spills. The S4 Active will get you past some bump and grind on the rear corners but it’s not bullet proof. The back of the phone is still a thin layer of plastic, the bezel is still plastic and the Gorilla Glass will and does scratch. I would not go using this as an underwater phone as the gasket no doubt will eventually over time, deteriorate after excessive heat and temperature changes. It’s nice to know that if you accidentally drop your phone into water or get doused with a drink or spill a beer, drop into toilet (eeek!), that you have that little extra to help protect your smartphone.
The Screen
The S4 Active and the original S4 both come with a Full HD display 1920×1080 resolution at 441 ppi and able to display 16 million colors. The S4 Active however utilizes a Full HD TFT screen, while the sleeker more slender S4 comes with a Full HD Super AMOLED screen.
The TFT (Thin Film Transistor) screen which is an LCD variant (Liquid Crystal Display) which to over simplify offers excellent viewing angles and color reproduction (Like an IPS panel screen, the best most accurate color reproduction available). The Super AMOLED screen (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) which in a nutshell gives you better color richness since it does not utilize a backlight for each pixel, uses less power, but tends to oversaturate.
Both the S4 Super AMOLED and the S4 Active’s TFT screens read similarly in the sunlight. Being that they are both coated with glass I did experience much the same glare on either device. The S4 Active’s TFT screen seems to be much brighter than the S4’s Super AMOLED. The S4’s screen colors appear dulled when placed side by side with the S3. Dimmer or darker so to speak when compared to the S4 Active. With that said, you’d have to really hold them side by side to notice the difference. The Galaxy S3’s screen was accused of oversaturation but it’s actually the screen I preferred most between the S3, S4 and S4 Active.
The Camera
The camera on the S4 Active uses an 8MP rear firing and a 2MP front firing camera vs the Galaxy S4 which comes with a 13MP/Rear and 2MP/Front. Personally I find the S4 Active’s camera to be a bit quicker as well as better in lower lighting situations (Your mileage may vary). Seems to be a trade off of speed or quality. Although the S4 active takes some fine photos, they tend to lean on the colder side vs the S4 a bit warmer in color tones in our experience.
Conclusion
The Samsung Galaxy S4 Active, exclusively for AT&T slightly heftier, thicker, taller and a hair wider than the more slender sleeker Galaxy S4, the lesser 8MP camera takes great pics and is quicker than it’s 13MP brother and comes with a Full HDTFT screen which is a bit brighter than the S4’s Full HD Super AMOLED. If you’re looking for a top of the line smartphone with a big fat 5 inch screen, and just that little extra for bumps and bruises, the Galaxy S4 Active is the way to go.
Available in Urban Grey and Dive Blue from AT&T Wireless
