Should you buy a Samsung Galaxy S4 in 2018?

Samsung launched the Galaxy S4 back in April 2013. The smartphone is now nearly 5-years and has got multiple successors since its launch. If you already have a Samsung Galaxy S4, can you still use it for another year or if you are planning to buy one in 2018, will it be worth it?

Specifications

Samsung Galaxy S4 is powered by the Exynos 5410 chipset which is an octa-core processor. The smartphone features a 5-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080x1920 pixels. The handset packs in 2GB of RAM coupled with 16GB of onboard storage which is further expandable using a microSD card. The smartphone runs on Android 5.0.1 Lollipop and comes with a 2,600mAh battery under the hood.

On the optics front, the Samsung Galaxy S4 sports a 13-megapixel camera at the back with f/2.2 aperture and a LED flash. Up front, there is a 2-megapixel selfie shooter with f/2.4 aperture.

Design

Samsung Galaxy S4, being a 5-year old device, shares a very outdated design. The smartphone comes with a plastic body makes it look cheap as per today's standards. However, the Galaxy S4 had a removable back as well as a removable battery. The back opens up to reveal the micro-SIM slot, the micro-SD card slot and the battery. The Galaxy S4 also features NFC and Wireless Charging. However, you will need to replace the back panel in order to enable the wireless charging.

Up front, the Samsung Galaxy S4 has a 5-inch FullHD display. The phone has huge bezels on the top and bottom making it look dated. The Galaxy S4 has a physical home button sitting between capacitive Menu and Back keys.

Software

Samsung Galaxy S4 was launched with Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean and the last update it got was the Android 5.0.1 Lollipop. Back in the days of Galaxy S4, Samsung had a very bad reputation in terms of software. The company used a heavy skin called TouchWiz and supplied the phones with a lot of bloatware which made the smartphones slowdown even after a few months of usage.

Using an Android phone gives you a lot of customisations options. So, you can change the launcher once and make some tweaks which can make your Galaxy S4 faster. To make it, even more, faster, you always have an option of installing custom ROMs. A list of custom ROMs are available on XDADevelopers.

During my usage, I was not so satisfied with the performance I got from the stock ROM. So, I downloaded and flashed a custom ROM in order to get a boost in the performance.

Camera

Samsung Galaxy S4 features a 13-megapixel camera at the back. The Galaxy S4 surely had one of the best cameras in its time. However, with the advancing technologies and introduction of dual-camera setups, this phone's camera is now leaps and bounds away from even some of the mid-range phones of 2018.

However, if you are looking for a decent camera on a really tight budget, you can find a used Galaxy S4 for less than Rs. 3,000 in India. The cameras on the S4 is still far better than the phones selling for around Rs. 7,000.

Verdict

Samsung Galaxy S4 has started to show its age with the much-outdated software as well as hardware. Even the design of the Galaxy S4 has become too old. Moreover, the Indian variant of the Samsung Galaxy S4, the i9500 only supports 3G which means you will sacrifice on Internet speeds.

So, we highly recommend you to go for skip the Galaxy S4 and look out for other smartphones. If you are looking for an old flagship, the Galaxy S5 might make more sense or even the iPhone 5 or 5s will work. In case you already have a Galaxy S4, you should consider changing your smartphone.