5 Features Samsung Has to Introduce in the Galaxy S IV to Wake up the Mobile World

Hillel Fuld  By on 20 Feb 13

A little background. I like to get to the office in the morning and knock out a blog post as early as possible. Except lately, this has been a lot more difficult than it has been for the past few years. Why? Because from where I am sitting, the tech world in general, and the mobile world specifically is at a standstill.

I mean, think about it. The most exciting news of the past few months has been an iPad with more storage and some new LG phones. OK, I am exaggerating but not by much. All in all, Apple, Samsung, Microsoft (despite the Surface Pro launch), and all other major mobile players have been putting me to sleep lately.

Which is why I tweeted this only to get some great suggestions, but the tweet that caught my attention was this one and so here I am.

The one rumor that might change the boring state of mobile tech is of course the upcoming announcement of the flagship Android device by Samsung, the Galaxy S IV. The phone is expected to be announced on March 14th . I, for one, am excited and here’s why.

Samsung Galaxy SIV logo

If you have been reading my posts, you know I am on the search for a new phone. I use the iPhone 5 now out of lack of a better option. It just does not excite me like it used to.   You know what excited me? My Note 2. Until it was stolen.

Other phones that populate my night table include the HTC 8X and Lumia 920 running Windows Phone. Both great phones, both with a bad notification system and few apps. I also have the Note 1, which I rooted and is now running Android 4.2.1, but the form factor is just too awkward. The Note 2 was narrower despite its larger screen so it fit better in my hand. And so, iPhone 5 it is.

Except, the S IV can change that very easily if it has the following five features:

1: Bring the Touchwhiz Down a Notch: So you know how those Nexus devices sell like hotcakes? People like Android, the way it was intended to be. If Samsung can just offer their own features without totally destroying the pure Android experience, that would be a win win.

2: Battery Life Please: We are in 2013, right? And you are telling me you cannot make a battery that easily makes it through the day, maybe two without the phone being astronomically big? Get on that, Samsung. Give me the Note 2 battery life in a form factor my mom could use.

3: An Improved Notification System: I realize you can tweak the notifications on Android with different launchers and stuff but if history has taught us anything, it is that most users do not bother changing defaults. What that means is that out of the box, iOS has a MUCH better notification system than Android. (Here come the fanboys…) A new email comes in? Tell me who sent it so I can decide what to do. My phone is locked? Let me know if I missed anything so I know whether to unlock it. And those are just two examples of many. C’mon Samsung, you can do it.

4: True Multitasking, It’s About Time! So unlike the previous three, I know Samsung can implement this because they did it beautifully in the Note 2. Except, in the Note 2, only a few apps could benefit from the multitasking bar. No reason to not open that up to all apps. Multitasking on mobile needs to evolve on all platforms and start to close the gap between what we can do on a desktop environment and what we can do on a mobile phone. There are phones with quad core processors so there is no reason we shouldn’t use them

5: Water and Phones CAN Get Along! OK, this is agreeably a little out there, but if Sony can do it, Samsung surely can. Now, I am not saying Samsung’s execution of a waterproof mobile phone has to be as amazingly awesome as this but a more durable phone that can withstand a little dropping in the toilet action is most welcome.

Well there you have it, folks. Other things I would love to see is less plastic on the phone, a camera that can finally really compete with the iPhone’s (why do I troll these Android fanboys so much?), and while we’re dreaming, how about a keyboard that gets projected out of the phone?

Samsung, I sure hope you are planning on knocking this one out of the park, because I, for one, am waiting with my mitt to catch that ball and show it to all my friends.

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  • Alexander Ramos

    I think you are missing something…
    The most Android phones sold are Samsung with TouchWiz, I really doubt any Nexus phones get the numbers in the Galaxy family.
    If you like Pure Android, why don’t you go for a Nexus 4?, why take out TouchWiz to those users that like it?
    Puris Android users are bringing the same Apple policy to Android…

  • marko

    6. Forget the plastics.

  • Flavius

    Yes , forget the plastic :x

  • Noah Erickson

    The notification system on my Galaxy Nexus tells me who emails, texts, etc. are from, and with expandable notifications I can see more than one at a time, and reply to them (or dismiss them) without opening the related app. Am I so used to Jelly Bean that I’ve forgotten what things were like before? Do notifications in TouchWiz/NatureUX not work that way?

  • surethom

    Wireless charging as standard, BIGGER camera sensor & a phone that is less wide than the S 3, the S3 is just too wide.

  • steven brown

    Ya I get all those notifications in my notification tray using my note 2

  • steven brown

    Exactly. And if you like Samsung, but not touchwiz, you can easily download a different launcher. Best of both worlds

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/67X4L6ZCTI43KUCQJ6OYTUVJ2E Toe-B

    Just get the Xperia Z already, Dragontrail Glass on both sides, looks great, and its waterproof. No need for some $75 aftermarket space suit to make your phone even bigger because you may spill your coffe on it! If you dont like Touchwhiz, get a Nexus 4, hell buy two for the same price as the older S3. My mom would probably prefer a smartphone the size of the Note2 just so she could see whats going on.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/67X4L6ZCTI43KUCQJ6OYTUVJ2E Toe-B

    Samsung sells more phones because they are on all carriers, and because lots of people dont realize that their $700 Samsung phone for only $200 is actually $200+$25 to $45 a month for the next two years.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/67X4L6ZCTI43KUCQJ6OYTUVJ2E Toe-B

    You must have missed his point that most users dont even mess with the defaults. Hell, isnt that the reason iPhone sells so many phones, none of their users want to change anything. Give the consumer pure Android, you can download touchwhiz if you want. Ill download what I want. Most people will browse the web, email friends, tweet stuff and download Angry Birds. Downloading different launchers isnt what they want.

  • bibleverse1

    I am with you battery life.

  • abdulhadi

    forget 1&5
    samsung will add new features

    most of them will be software and few will be hardware like new camera !!
    as they do with the note 2 and s3
    I hope samsung will make us happy with the s4

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