Samsung Galaxy S4 Active Review

Introduction:

Water-resistant Android smartphones are anything but new. The Motorola DEFY – released back in 2010 – was one of the first notable members of the species, followed by handsets like the Sony Ericsson Xperia Active and the Samsung Galaxy Xcover, to name a few. These, however, were mid-range handsets at the time of their release, and it took a while before someone managed to deliver a water-resistant Android smartphone that was actually good on a hardware level.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Active is one such smartphone. Being IP67 certified, it doesn't mind getting a little wet every once in a while. In fact, it should be able to survive a dive into water down to a meter for up to 30 minutes. The handset is dust-tight as well. At the same time, it has the hardware specs needed to rank among today's best Android smartphones: 1080p screen, Snapdragon 600 silicon, 2GB of RAM, 2600mAh battery, with Android 4.2 running the parade.

All in all, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active is a remarkable Android smartphone – packed with features that we rarely get to see incorporated into a single device. Read on in case we've sparked your interest already!

Design:

Samsung is known for rehashing the same design over and over with each newly launched smartphone. The Samsung Galaxy S4 Active, however, doesn't look like your typical Galaxy handset. It has an elegant, yet adventurous appearance, and that's something we surely like.

We are reviewing the grey version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active, with a body made of glossy plastic. The material is suitable for a smartphone meant to be tougher than the rest as it is more durable than glass or metal. Thankfully, the handset doesn't slip easily out of the user's hand, although its orange variant provides even better grip with its textured matte surface. Samsung has a blue Galaxy S4 Active version as well, in case grey or orange aren't among your favorite colors.


Compared to one of its rivals – the Sony Xperia Z – the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active is noticeably thicker, but still well within the acceptable range. It is also very close to Sony's flagship in terms of size and weight. Single-handed use of the Galaxy S4 Active may be a challenge, depending on the size of the user's hands, although we were mostly comfortable with its proportions.


Taking off the back cover of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active reveals what gives it its water-resistant properties. There is a rubber band around the sides, preventing water from penetrating into the housing and damaging the phone's internals. However, we must note that while the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active is protected against dust and water damage, it can't be regarded as shock-proof. There are no rubber elements on its sides to absorb the energy of shock and vibrations, not to mention that the 5-inch screen on its front is still vulnerable to cracks or scratching. Simply, one must avoid dropping it on hard surfaces.

There is an excellent set of physical buttons present on the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active. They are all textured and respond with an audible click when pressed. Since they are all raised well, one can operate them comfortably even while wearing mittens.


Display:

Just like the Galaxy S4, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active comes with a 5-inch touchscreen. The resolution is also identical – 1080 by 1920 pixels, resulting in an outstanding pixel density of over 440 ppi. However, a TFT LCD screen has been used instead of a Super AMOLED panel – a solution that has both its positive and negative sides.

On one hand, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active is easier to use outdoors as its screen is slightly brighter than the S4's Super AMOLED display. Under the right angle, we had no troubles reading email, browsing through our contacts, using the camera interface, and even checking out a web page or two on a bright, sunny day. Also, the level of detail is nothing short of excellent due to the screen's high pixel count. Color reproduction is accurate and neutral, which is how it is supposed to be, although one can boost the saturation up a notch from the display settings menu. But on the other hand, The S4 Active's screen can't quite achieve the deep blacks seen on Super AMOLED panels.

Being a smartphone made for adventurous folks, it comes as no surprise that the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active can be operated even while wearing gloves. That is made possible by its super sensitive touchscreen. Oddly, using the phone with wet fingers is a no-go, which is shocking given the fact that Samsung is advertising the Galaxy S4 Active as capable of taking photos underwater.

Yet overall, we are more than content with the screen outfitted on the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active. It is big, bright, beautiful, and perfectly suitable for every task.



Interface:

Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean comes running out of the box on the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active – the latest Android version available as of this writing. As is always the case with Samsung smartphones, the interface has been customized heavily with a layer of TouchWiz Nature UX, bringing along plenty of extra functionality and visual flare.

Notification bar toggle buttons, lock screen shortcuts and widgets – all of these are present on the Galaxy S4 Active, along with a handful of Samsung's exclusive features. These include Smart Stay, which does not turn off the screen as long as the user is still looking at it, and Multi Window support, allowing one to use two apps side by side. Contact-less gesture controls are also enabled, meaning that one can flip through a photo album, change songs, or answer calls by waving their hand above the screen. The volume up button can be set to activate the LED light on the phone's back for the times when a proper flashlight isn't around.


On the software side, Samsung has loaded goodies like S Translator, which can interpret foreign languages, the S Travel guide to plan your next holiday with, S Health for tracking your workout progress, Group Play for instant content sharing between Samsung devices, and more. Since an IR blaster is available on the smartphone, it can be used to remotely control your TV or home theater system.

Since the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active comes with a pretty large display, the on-screen keyboard is pretty comfortable to type on, especially when used with two thumbs. There's even enough space to add an extra row for all the digits instead of placing them in a separate screen. Typos were rare once we got used to the keyboard's layout, and the auto-complete feature often comes in handy.



Processor and memory:

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Active is a powerful device. It comes with a 1.9GHz, quad-core Snapdragon 600 SoC and 2GB of RAM, so performance is not an issue no matter what you throw at the handset. Anything runs flawlessly, from 3D games and heavy web pages, to any CPU- or GPU-intensive application you can think of. Yet for some reason, the benchmark results aren't as good as those from, let's say, the Samsung Galaxy S4, which is powered by more or less the same hardware. Nevertheless, the Active's real-life performance is great, and that's what truly matters.

	Quadrant Standard	AnTuTu	GLBenchmark 2.5 (Egypt HD)	Vellamo (HTML5 / Metal)
Samsung Galaxy S4 Active	11854	16896	3538 / 31 fps	1406 / 692
Samsung Galaxy S4	12078	24701	4437 / 39 fps	1702/704
Sony Xperia Z	8221	20835	3382	2198/626
LG Optimus G	7669	9565

We can't complain about the storage space present on the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active – about 11GB are available out of the 16GB on board. It is far from plenty, of course, but it should be good enough, at least at first. Users who need additional space, be it for carrying music, photos, or videos, can get it by installing a microSD card.

Web browser and connectivity:

Browsing the web using the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active is a joy since it is equipped with a large, high-res display. The web browser is fast and functional, with support for multiple windows, embedded YouTube videos, along other gimmicks like smart scroll for panning by tilting the phone and air gestures for navigating without having to touch the screen.


Connectivity-wise, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active has you covered. It comes with Bluetooth 4.0, GPS with GLONASS support, NFC, HSPA+ at 42Mbps, and LTE. The FM radio, however, has been omitted.

Camera:

Unsurprisingly, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active camera interface comes loaded with all the features found on the Galaxy S4 – features like Drama, Animated Photo, HDR, and Eraser. These allow one to take awesome photos with minimum effort, or just take out unwanted objects out of the frame using the latter. On top of that all, Samsung has thrown in the so-called Aqua Mode, which is meant for taking clearer photos and videos underwater. Sounds awesome, doesn't it?


With the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active and its 8MP main camera, one can take good-looking photos in a wide range of circumstances, although some scenes could prove a little tricky to capture well. Colors are snapped accurately, without being too dull or too saturated, but details in darker scenes are noticeably fuzzier than we wish they were. The dynamics range also leaves room for improvement. Shooting indoors is not a problem as long as there's decent source of light nearby, but in dim light, colors are inaccurate and digital noise is very noticeable.


Naturally, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active can shoot 1080p video. It is smooth and detailed when taken in broad daylight, but low-light videos can be noisy and out of focus for brief moments.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Active Sample Video:



Samsung Galaxy S4 Active Indoor Sample Video:



Multimedia:

Samsung's music player comes pre-loaded on the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active and it gets the job done well. It sorts music by album, artist, or song name and can browse audio files folder by folder. An equalizer with tons of presets is also present, but even better results can be achieved using the Adapt Sound feature, which adjusts audio playback according to the user's hearing.


With all that processing power at hand, it comes as no surprise that the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active handles 1080p video flawlessly. And yes, it looks great on the smartphone's large 1080p screen. The video player can work with subtitle files and supports Pop up Play, allowing video to be played back in a window. A neat trick is that the power key gets disabled while video is playing, preventing accidental presses.



Call quality:

Whoa! The earpiece on the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active surely has to be one of the loudest we've tested recently. Even with its volume turned down, it delivers clear and natural voice tones. Sadly, the microphone isn't as good. On the other side of the line, our voice is loud, but sounds noticeably artificial.

Battery life:

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Active comes with a 2600mAh battery that can be swapped with a fresh one when exhausted. The manufacturer has not yet provided official ratings as to how long the handset lasts on a single charge, but given the battery's capacity, the S4 Active should last through at least a day of moderate usage.

Conclusion:

No matter how we look at it, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active is a pretty awesome smartphone. It is one of the very few devices that are tough enough to resist some serious dust and water damage, yet good-looking and extremely capable at the same time. To top it all off, Samsung has sprinkled a ton of goodies, packed as part of the TouchWiz UI. Even on a hardware level, the smartphone does not lag far behind the Galaxy S4 flagship, so it is quite worthy of bearing an “S4” in its title. Simply put, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active is an impressive high-end phone that shouldn't be underestimated.

Perhaps the 8-megapixel main camera is the only thing we aren't entirely happy with. Sure, it gets the job done in most cases, but it just isn't quite as good as the snappers that are outfitted on today's top-of-the-line Android smartphones. It would have also been nice if the screen was usable when wet. The Sony Xperia Z, for example, has that feature, so we know that it wasn't impossible to implement.

An alternative to the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active – with such impressive characteristics and top-of-the-line hardware specs – is pretty hard to find. As of this review, the Sony Xperia Z is the only capable competitor to Samsung's tough handset as it is also water-resistant and with high-end hardware specifications. Those who don't really need a water-tight phone may go check out the Galaxy S4, The LG Optimus G Pro, or the HTC One, all of which are well-made smartphones that are powerful enough to handle any task.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Active Video Review: