Samsung Galaxy S4 Hands-On Preview

Last Thursday was the Canada wide Samsung Galaxy S4 launch party held in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. The three parties were held at exactly the same time coupled with live acts in each city and a holographic performance by Feist. Samsung courteously invited us to the launch event to check out the new flagship. While it wasn't enough time to get a good grasp of all the new features of the Samsung flagship, we still want to be able to give you guys a hands-on preview.

In our short time with the Galaxy S4, we first noticed how light and how thin the S4 felt in the hand. The footprint felt virtually the same as the S3, which was reassuring given the increase in screen size. We did get the expected "plastic" feel from holding the device. This was especially exasperated by that fact these were demo handsets being shown off to dozens of people.

The screen looks quite clear to our eyes and was an improvement over the Xperia ZL's 1080p screen which we reviewed. There were no noticeable signs of the usual PenTile faults.

As far as software features, we mostly were demoed the new camera features which all seem useful but question the longevity of the novelty. Pictures looked great on the Full HD display. Operations were quick on the device with no slowdown in swipe and gesture operations.

What didn't go exactly as planned was the gestures demo. Given that it was a dark, hot and loud venue we have to concede that it isn't the best of situations. As expected, the gestures didn't work when expected but we will of course keep final judgement when we get our hands on a review unit.

That raps up our quick preview of the Canadian Samsung Galaxy S4. We hope to have a review unit shortly to provide everyone with a full in depth review.

Check out our pics from the event and of the device.

Pictures