The Samsung Galaxy S4 received so much attention when it was unveiled mostly because of its Jedi-like gesture-control features.  The question now is, is the device living up to the hype?

It’s all an illusion

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First off, Samsung dropped the use of Roman numerals, so instead of finding ‘SIV’ at the back, there’s an ‘S4’ printed on the back cover.

The S4 looks a lot like the SIII.  Some say it’s a bad thing, but others see this as another opportunity for Samsung to capitalize on the success of the SIII.

“At first the “inspired by nature” motif made sense with the rounded appearance on SGS3, with SGS4 it’s obvious this is a refresh which capitalizes on everything that made the SGS3 popular,”  Brian Klug of AnandTech wrote in his review.  “This is the iPhone school of thinking — you have an industrial design now that is borderline a trademark, it’s selling well, and if you have something that’s popular, why change it?”

Then there’s the plastic-y issue.   Though the S4 case looks like it’s made of metal, it’s not.  Everything about the design seems to be an illusion.  Everything is plastic, even the silver band surrounding the sides.  And the backside may look like it’s textured, but it’s smooth.  So if you have sweaty or oily hands, there’s a huge chance that this device will slip right out of your grip.  It doesn’t look as sophisticated as expected, and we all know that the reason Samsung keeps using plastic is not to keep the weight down, but to lower production cost.

“Everyone I showed the GS4 to frowned and wrinkled their nose as if it smelled bad, before rubbing their fingers on the back of the phone and then handing it back to me — that’s the opposite of the standard reaction to HTC’s One, which everyone wants to ogle and hold. That’s going to be a huge problem for Samsung,” said  David Pierce from The Verge who has been testing a white Galaxy S4.

Jedi trickster

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As for the features, Walt Mossberg of AllThingsD stated that the features of the Galaxy S4 are great, but the Jedi-like features don’t always work.

“I had almost zero success with a suite of features that claim to take certain actions by detecting whether you’re watching the screen. For instance, Smart scroll will scroll the screen based on the angle of your head and Smart pause will stop playing a video when you look away. I only got these to work about 10 percent of the time. Samsung blamed lighting conditions, even though I used it in many settings,” Mossberg stated.

He also added that the S4 “isn’t a game-changer,” and “despite some improvements, it still is especially weak in the software Samsung adds to basic Android. I found Samsung’s software often gimmicky, duplicative of standard Android apps, or, in some cases, only intermittently functional.”

Those are just some of the early reactions of people who had the opportunity to test the device before the Galaxy S4’s official release in the US. T-Mobile is set to release the S4 today with a $149 downpayment and a $20 monthly installment fee for 24 months while Sprint  subscribers can get a hold of the device on April 27 and pricing starts at $249.99 with a 2-year contract for current subscribers, while news subscribers will get to enjoy the device at a lower price of $149.99.

If you’re wondering how the Galaxy S4 compares to other devices, check out Samsung Galaxy S4 vs. iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy SIV vs. Top 2013 Smartphones.