Since there are cheaper phones out there than the S4 (sold for 100 USD or 3500 ETB) people who use phones only for the measly task of calling and texting might assume that paying that much money for a task that a simple cell phone can be a foolish practice. However, for those that are capable of using their phones to the fullest the S4’s age and lower price mark might make it seem like an old relic that has no place in 2017. But that couldn’t be further from the truth as this phone, though modest in price, is packed with lots of interesting and up to date features that can make it a contender in the market. The Samsung galaxy S4 was released in April 2013, as the replacement for the S3, with 4 (since one of the modes is not available in Ethiopia and the GT-I9505 and 515 are essentially the same we will only talk about the GT-I9500, GT-I9505). These modes are pretty much the same and only vary in network support and CPU. Now usually companies do make sacrifices on some aspects of a phone if they can up their game on another part of it but with the S4 a very unappealing choice was presented to customers as the choice of having an Octa-core (more on this later) CPU is shadowed by the lack of 4G LTE support (GT-I9500) and the choice of a better network (4G) is countered by a quad core CPU (GT-I9505 and GT-I9515). If this was any other country this decision would have been made even harder but the weak 4G network layout of Ethiopia makes this decision a little easier. Samsung-Galaxy-S4-Colours-3





CPU OCTA-CORE CPU (GT-I9500) (Exynos 5410 Octa) Funny thing about this processor is that despite having eight cores it is not an actual octa-core CPU as this exynos product is a combination of 2 quad-core processors of which one is an A15 processor with core clock of 1.6 Ghz and an A7 chip of clock 1.2 Ghz. What is even funnier is that both these chips don’t come online at the same time literally making this phone a quad core chip. However, this is a minor issue as other brands have released software patches to fix this problem and a fix for the s4 is also out there. QUAD-CORE CPU(GT-I9505) (Qualcomm Snapdragon 600) This chip though having only four cores is faster than the Exynos 5410 octa if the exynos chip hasn’t received its software patch yet; so, this makes the GT-I95505-15 the ideal phone for users that are interested more in network speed and aren’t willing to get into technical stuff as patching their phones. Display The Samsung galaxy s4 has a Super AMOLED display with a resolution 1920xs1080 pixels so, if u ever want to watch an FHD movie and there is no light (like once every week) you what to do. It is always important to know that the pixels of a screen don’t tell the full story as there are other variables as the angles from which the screen is visible and the color saturation and this is where the S4 exhales having a super AMOLED screen capable of producing vivid pictures that are simply impossible to view on an IPS screen. This major difference comes as the pixels are capable of turning themselves completely off when displaying black pictures making other colors light up and the combination of the touchscreen with the display thus having to use one less cover for the screen. But this innovative design comes at a risk as any damage to the touchscreen would inevitably mean that you would have to replace the entire display too – which costs a lot – or you would have to buy a new phone. Best thing about the display is that the phone is a 5 inches making the phone pixel concentration as large as 440 PPI (pixels per inch) making all images crystal clear. GPU PowerVR SGX544MP3 (GT-I9500) Qualcomm Adreno 320 (GT-I9505-15) Stats show that the Adreno 320 is slightly better than the 544MP3 again only if the software patch to the octa is not applied. But apart from that the difference in these chips will not a present a major advantage for playing games so this should not be factored in the selections process (if the decision is between the two models only). But stats also show that these GPUs lack in performance when compared to their rivals (Adreno 330 and the MALI GPUs) in other products like the S5, G3 and other flagship phones of 2015 and above. Ram This phone supports 2GB LPDDR3 ram which is more than enough for day to day usage. Storage This part is where the S4 fails to compete with newer phones as it has 16 GB ROM. A current day phone would on average have around 32GB ROM but the S4 is only equipped with half that – there are S4s out there with 32GB/64GB ROM but they are very rare in the Ethiopian market. However, there is room for upgrades as the S4 supports Micro SD cards and is capable of increasing storage space by another 64 Giga Bytes. Battery The S4 has a 2600 mAh battery which looks good on paper but on a thorough look of the phone’s systems especially the CPU it was evident that the phone needed a bigger battery. This is one key area where it is difficult to praise the S4. One thing to do is to buy covers that have batteries inside them or to travel with a power bank.


My advice to you. First things first – know your budget. As I said before, it is imperative that you know what your limits are cause say if you have 5000 ETB then the S4 would not be a good choice for you but if you were looking for a phone with a budget less than 3500 then the S4 would not only be available for that much but it would also provide you with reliable performance and a slick design to go with it making all your investments worth it. Know what you are looking for in a phone. Knowing this would help you in choosing between the GT-I9500 and GT-I9500/15

• If you are interested in faster network speed, then the latter would be a better choice for you.
• If you are interested in a faster phone but aren’t interested in patching or modding your phone to achieve it, then the GT-I9505/15 is better.
• If you are interested in faster phone and capable of getting into technical stuff regarding phones, then the GT-I9500 is better for you.
• If you ever get a chance to buy from a foreign country, then the GT-I9506 (Not available in Ethiopia) would be a better choice for you as it is better than every other model – the GT-I9500/05/15.

This is Yared with ICT, signing off.