Galaxy S IV: style, practicality, trend

After reading the article of my colleague, I was upset. I was not upset that the Galaxy S IV was called a "remnant", but that I was misunderstood and quoted. Usually I try to write only objective facts, and do not allow myself to move on to emotions, to overly speak out in the direction of protecting a product, sing its praises and shout at it, that this or that device is “the coolest on the market”. I am for impartiality. And always called for his colleagues. But today I will allow myself to depart from my own convictions, I will speak out in the direction of protecting the new flagship of the South Korean company, and I will try to explain: why the Galaxy S IV is cool and why this device will be sold in multi-million copies.

I have to say: I am not a fan and even a fan of Samsung and their Galaxy line, I am also not a fan and fan of Apple products and in particular their iPhone smartphones. And in general, I will soon become the proud owner of the new Sony Xperia Z. But if at some point I was offered a choice between Samsung, its Galaxy S IV and Apple with its iPhone 5, then I would choose Samsung. Not because I love this company, no - there are already worthy competitors on the market for the South Korean flagship, and in the near future there will definitely be more, simply because Android is there. Because this platform is closer to me. It is more flexible in terms of settings and is not treading water, like Apple's iOS. But first things first.

Style

I noticed that in most cases, Galaxy S III, and now Galaxy S IV are being scolded and called “remnant” by fans, or simply by those people who have chosen to buy an iPhone. This is not surprising, because the two main competitors - Samsung and Apple - are fighting not only on judicial fronts, but also on market fronts. But what is interesting is that Apple dictates to people what the device should look like. And people are led, and they begin to repeat it almost like a prayer. But, probably, these same people forgot that once the iPhone itself was exactly the same "remnant", and it lasted until the moment when Apple introduced a completely new device called the iPhone 4, made in the case of aluminum and glass and with a completely new design. It's not even the matter of what material is used - we'll talk about it below - but the fact that the great Johnny Ive (who doesn't know, this is Apple's chief designer) doesn't really get the muse of inspiration as often as wanted to. As many as the first three generations of the iPhone looked exactly the same.

Moreover, three new generations - iPhone 4, 4S and iPhone 5 also look the same. Now, for sure, there are several people who will begin to prove with foaming at the mouth that all these devices are different. This is so, they are different. But they are not different in general appearance and style - they are different in details. Of course, I'm not a designer, but I'm not an idiot, not to understand that they are trying to sell me a device that looks like the same one, which just changed the color of some elements, transferred some connectors and changed the speaker grilles. The iPhone 5 in its form is the same brick (although it is now elongated, which makes it look quite funny), which was the iPhone 4, and then 4S. If we admit to ourselves, we will see that the complete change in the design of the iPhone happened only once - when the iPhone 4 model was introduced. Nevertheless, everyone still "pecked" and ran with joyful hoots to take their money to the shops for the boxes with cherished apple.

Below is a photo showing iPhone 4, 4S and 5. Without a ruler and compass, try to find at least three differences just by looking at the photo.

Now look at the picture of the Galaxy S, S II and S III. Here and without the line it will become clear that the overall appearance of the devices is completely different.

So why did the Galaxy S IV itself decide to make it the same as its predecessor? Someone in the comments made a very clever remark that the figure "4" for the Koreans is unhappy, so they did not come up with anything radically new and decided to just "go through" as quickly as possible. Maybe this is so. But it seems to me that for business, superstition is the very last thing. The company simply decided that it was enough to climb out of the skin and dance to the tune of its main competitor. Galaxy S III is selling well now. So why not just take it and improve it? So she did. On the one hand, this is a shame, but Apple itself imposed such behavior on it. As for Sony, HTC and BlackBerry, there is a completely different conversation. For Sony, it was just necessary to finally move away from the concept of Sony Ericsson and present really something new under one single brand. HTC and BlackBerry, being "at death", simply had to gather all their strength and adjusting to the market to release a completely new product. You may notice that the BlackBerry tried harder - in the end it released the first fully touchscreen smartphone - but in this case HTC with its One here looks more attractive. But this is again a matter of taste.

Practicality

Samsung advocates the use of plastic, not only in its flagships, but in general in all lines of their smartphones. Of course, this material looks less attractive (read: gives less premium.), Compared with the same aluminum. But I fully agree with Samsung. Just because aluminum looks attractive only before the first fall of the device on a hard floor (concrete, asphalt, tile, and so on). If among the readers there are those who dropped their "iPhones" on a hard surface, then they will understand me.

Samsung approaches this issue more practical. No one will argue that smartphones have ceased to be those devices that were used only by the elite: bankers, financiers, lawyers and other representatives of the “upper” social strata. Smartphones have become a part of everyday life of almost any Vasya, Petit, Kolya — ordinary students who “work at McDonalds” in order to make money on these smartphones. The niche of premium devices was taken (although they had previously occupied it) by companies like Virtu, Gresso, D & G ... But now they have differentiated from the common market even more.

Samsung, on the other hand, chooses plastic only because it is more flexible and absorbs physical damage better. Yes he is cheap. Cheaper than aluminum. But this is precisely the plus of its use. Plastic part is much cheaper to replace than aluminum. Galaxy case is not cast, and therefore allows you to replace almost any part of it. Dropped on the asphalt and cracked back cover? No problem, go to the store, behind the new back cover. By the way, about them. The fact is that thanks to our Chinese friends, you can buy a back cover for the Galaxy S III (and I am sure that soon for the S IV) for every taste and color: even plastic, metal, gold or platinum. Explain where this can be done, I will not. Just search the web.
How about the iPhone? Dropped on the asphalt, bent corner and scratched side? Well: either get used to it, or forward to the store for the new iPhone. Because the cost of replacing parts for this device is such that it is easier to pick up and buy a new one.

The bottom line is that for our students Vasya, Petit, Kolya, of course, it will be easier to replace (and it is quite inexpensive) the broken part. That is why the flagships of the Galaxy line are chosen by many millions of people. And you thought that all these millions of people belong to the "high society"?

In addition, Samsung is not fixated on one color. The company understands that all people are different, and all have their own tastes and preferences in color. Do you want red? You are welcome. Violet? No problems. And yes, still pink do not forget to see, he will definitely like your girlfriend. The iPhone looks like an old movie, black and white. The lack of diversity personally drives me into melancholy. Buy colorful bumpers and covers? What for? What will it change? - "I want myself a red device." “Sorry, just black and white.” What do you want? I pass.

Trend

Supporters of Android (and maybe iOS) will certainly agree with me that now the rules of the market are not dictated by Apple, but by the market itself. At the moment there is a boom of smartphones with large screens and big-eyed cameras. Proof of? Easy. Apple itself has succumbed to the trend and increase the screen of its smartphone to 4 inches. Yes, at the moment it is the smallest flagship on the market, but once the company beat its fists in the chest and said that the 3.5-inch format for a mobile device is almost a canonical ideal and it will never change it. And what do we see now? Apple had to sacrifice its principles and increase the screen of the device. Otherwise, it would simply begin to lose the market. It turns out that all the religious talk on the topic of size was a simple pshik? Apple could not keep the trend, because the market, as you know, is constantly evolving, it only needs to give the right push. What Apple did in 2007.

Go to the hardware and software. Speaking about the "constant shortage of battery" and "patented slowing down of the Android interface," my colleague Ilya Khel is a little sly. First, simply because the constant shortage of battery is inherent in absolutely everyone without exception to modern smartphones, including the iPhone. It all depends on how active you are using the device. And secondly, because Android on Samsung SGS III "lags" not as often as it is mentioned by those who ultimately decided to switch "because of the constant lags" on iOS. In this case, I often get the idea that people just need to somehow justify buying an expensive smartphone for 30 thousand rubles (talking about the iPhone).

Speaking about the hardware of devices based on Android, I also always adhere to the same position. Impossibility of optimization. In this case, I compare this problem from the perspective of "console vs PC". As you know, consoles have been developed over the years, and their optimization also requires not less time. But in the end it turns out that the consoles are created on one gland, which does not change during the years 5-7. Of course, it is much easier for a game developer to optimize his code for only one hardware, and not to try to optimize it for a huge number of processors, video cards, types of RAM, hard drives, and so on. It is just physically impossible. That is why the developers of hardware for PC are trying to be friends with the creators of the games, so that as a result they will see inscriptions like “Better graphics with NVIDIA” or “AMD Ready” in splash screens. But in any case, there are lags on the PC. Not because game developers (and not just games) faked (although this is also not a rare case), but simply because NVIDIA and AMD (as an example) sells licenses to manufacture their hardware to other vendors - MSI, Gigabyte, ASRock XFX and etc. Those in turn can already change the “original disc” and collect in general what they themselves want. And this is another additional point in the question of the complexity of optimization.

The same can be seen with Android. He is one, and manufacturers of smartphones ready to use it in their devices are numerous. So it turns out that you can often find on the Android-smartphones a little “jerking” of the interface. But this question can be solved simply - to buy smartphones under the brand Nexus. Only they get the most delicious things first, and only they get the interface much less often. Just because these smartphones are created (or rather ordered by their creation) by Google, which sharpens software under the hardware itself.

In addition to marketing goals, companies (“we have more cores and generally we have the smartest smartphones”) literally have to increase the “meat” in their devices every time. After all, the Android platform is constantly evolving, for its use requires more memory, more processor frequency, and the like. Same thing with the PC market.

There are only two ways out of this situation. Either each manufacturer of smartphones and tablets will begin to create their own operating systems, which it will “sharpen” for iron, as Apple does, or wait several years while Google optimizes its OS for a single device. And now count how many devices the companies have been making and imagine how many years it will ultimately be needed to optimize all (within at least one lineup).

Since both of these options are not feasible, the producers themselves have to at least somehow get out of the situation, increasing the very "meat". Therefore, the 8-cores here will not seem like ridiculous indulgence. No one knows what we will come to in the future.

As for the software, here Samsung is following the ideology of the Android operating system itself - it provides freedom of choice. Apple, in turn, if we talk about iOS, made the choice for you yourself. Personally, the first approach is closer to me than the second. But, of course, there are quite a few people who like the second approach.

Again, I personally can’t call the S Translator and S Health functions completely useless. The first makes it easier to communicate with foreigners, and the second - to monitor their health. The problem with S Translator, of course, is - a small number of supported languages. But this problem will solve a simple update in the future. After all, Siri (which in my opinion is much more useless for our market than the two functions above) also first recognized only a few languages. As for S Health, I don’t see any problems at all. This is just a useful addition to an already functional smartphone.

Without a doubt, Android, in addition to very useful programs, has a bunch of unnecessary garbage among applications. But it is important that he is. Is this not free choice? When you are not led by the hands and show what you can do and what not, and when you yourself decide what you need and what you do not need?

Because of the free choice of the Galaxy S IV in everything, it will become one of the best-selling and popular smartphones in 2013.

The article is based on materials https://hi-news.ru/phone/galaxy-s-iv-stil-praktichnost-trend.html.