More Galaxy smartphones?

[Wasaa12]

Aren't there enough galaxy phones?, it seems like no for Samsung

 

The tech giant on Monday unveiled the Galaxy Core 2, Galaxy Star 2, Galaxy Ace 4 (called the Galaxy Trend 2 in the UK), and Galaxy Young 2, each with smaller displays and less powerful processors than the GS5. All four new devices run the latest version of Google's mobile operating system, Android 4.4 KitKat, like the GS5.

 

http://www.cnet.com/news/samsung-unveils-four-new-galaxy-smartphones/

[Kevinkt]

Low end galaxy phone that isn't three years old? about time.

[ijKs Snow]

Samsung's branding department

 

[GamerPatriot]

The only one I care about is the Note 4 that's coming up. 

[sirtoby]

[lufihengr]

Samsung, I love you but this has to stop. Too many phones.

 

 

[sirtoby]

EDIT: Dont mind me. I'm the result of a shitty internet connection

[Thorium19]

Can I get my t-shirt now please? I've been there, done that, but samsung seem to have every t-shirt but mine available.

[Probenja]

Well that is an area where it is different to Apple:

 

Samsung 185 devices since 2009.

http://www.phonearena.com/phones#/phones/manufacturer/Samsung/Class/Smart/OS/Android

 

Apple 10 devices since 2007.

http://www.phonearena.com/phones#/phones/manufacturer/Apple/Class/Smart

[Guest]

Well that is an area where it is different to Apple:

 

Samsung 185 devices since 2009.

http://www.phonearena.com/phones#/phones/manufacturer/Samsung/Class/Smart/OS/Android

 

Apple 10 devices since 2007.

http://www.phonearena.com/phones#/phones/manufacturer/Apple/Class/Smart

This is why I hate it when people moan about Apple releasing a new iPhone every 2 years, when Samsung does it every year!

[Wasaa12]

This is why I hate it when people moan about Apple releasing a new iPhone every 2 years, when Samsung does it every year!

The problem is that the iPhones are all the same and samsung releases many smartphones at different price points not like apple who releases very expensive ones only

[LAwLz]

This is why I hate it when people moan about Apple releasing a new iPhone every 2 years, when Samsung does it every year!

Ehhh... Apple releases a new phone every year, not every two years.

That's good though. 1 year in mobile is a very long time so frequent updates is a good thing.

[onionring]

Ehhh... Apple releases a new phone every year, not every two years.

That's good though. 1 year in mobile is a very long time so frequent updates is a good thing.

maybe it was 5 years ago, now nothing much is changing, I mean the s3-4-5 have almost identical specs, the only thing different is the moar pixel (that you can t see) treand and some software.

(any additional power(if any) is wasted on the screen)

[LAwLz]

maybe it was 5 years ago, now nothing much is changing, I mean the s3-4-5 have almost identical specs, the only thing different is the moar pixel (that you can t see) treand and some software.

(any additional power(if any) is wasted on the screen)

Ehh... There are huge difference between each one.

 

3GS to 4:

Far better display

Twice the RAM

Better WiFi (802.11n)

Much better camera

Secondary camera

Almost twice as powerful CPU

Pretty sure the GPU was much more powerful as well.

 

4 to 4S:

Better camera (finally 1080p recording)

MUCH much better CPU (more than twice as powerful)

much better GPU

Support for GLONASS

Also some software features they could have ported to the iPhone 4 but didn't because Apple are dicks.

 

4S to 5:

Better body (thank God for that because making the back out of glass was completely moronic)

LTE

Bigger screen (a much needed upgrade)

More RAM (1GB instead of 512MB)

Better WiFi (support for 5GHz band on 802.11n)

Better front facing camera

Much better CPU

Much better GPU (one more core compared to the 4S)

Lightning connector (which I think is bad but it's at least better than their previous crap).

 

5 to 5S:

Faster memory (moved to DDR3)

Better camera (bigger sensor, support for slomo etc)

An enormous upgrade to the CPU, and moved to 64bit.

Finger print scanner

Much better GPU

Slightly bigger battery

 

I'd say those are pretty decent upgrades each year.

The specs are nowhere near "almost identical". Each CPU leap is as big as if Intel would make the i7-5770K an octa core, or make it run at 8GHz at stock. Doubling (and sometimes more) performance in a year is not a small feat and I think they should get credit for that. Also, the extra performance is very noticeable. If they hadn't upgraded the RAM then you wouldn't want to use an iPhone 5S because it would be absolutely awful. Complete garbage with just 256MB of RAM.

The camera has gotten to the point where it's acceptable as your primary camera. This was not the case with the 3GS. The WiFi is decent (was awful before). Better GPS. Far better screen (and you can see the pixels assuming you got average vision).

LTE is fantastic. It's not just faster but saves battery as well.

 

I think you're downplaying the upgrades Apple makes every year, and I don't think you realize what a huge difference it amounts to over just a few years.

[Syntaxvgm]

Remember that scene in far cry 3 where Jason crawls out of a mass grave? Replace the bodies with phones. That's what I feel like.

[onionring]

Ehh... There are huge difference between each one.

I'd say those are pretty decent upgrades each year.

The specs are nowhere near "almost identical". Each CPU leap is as big as if Intel would make the i7-5770K an octa core, or make it run at 8GHz at stock. Doubling (and sometimes more) performance in a year is not a small feat and I think they should get credit for that. Also, the extra performance is very noticeable. If they hadn't upgraded the RAM then you wouldn't want to use an iPhone 5S because it would be absolutely awful. Complete garbage with just 256MB of RAM.

The camera has gotten to the point where it's acceptable as your primary camera. This was not the case with the 3GS. The WiFi is decent (was awful before). Better GPS. Far better screen (and you can see the pixels assuming you got average vision).

LTE is fantastic. It's not just faster but saves battery as well.

 

I think you're downplaying the upgrades Apple makes every year, and I don't think you realize what a huge difference it amounts to over just a few years.

 

I would like to point out I wrote S3, S4, S5 not 3S , etc

meaning two things:

1) I was talking about Samsung galaxy S3, S4, S5

2) You re overdefensive about Apple

 

http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/samsung-galaxy-s5-vs-galaxy-s4

 

The advance of 2X the performance each phone generation (when they both use the best that was available) are long gone, I m sorry but that s just the reality.

Just look at a S4 qualcom 600 vs a S5 qualcom 800, the first get a benchmark score(let s oversimplify things here) of 2300, the other 2900, that s 20% upgrade, not 100%

It will still be worth while to upgrade but not each year, no way, heck even a S3 is still fine today.

 

and btw what s the point of a faster cpu in a phone if it s already fast enough and doesn t lag, it s not like you re rendering videos on it.

(also a ''8 core'' mobile cpu doesn t mean it performs better, the 4 more cores are usually only there for low power use and that s almost exclusively used in note phones)

 

now to talk about apple since you want to..

Now you could argue that the iphone 5 to iphone 5S was a huge jump, well of course if the last gen's cpu/gpu/ram wasn t the fastest they could have used to begin with it s easier to make it look like huge gains were made...

(i don t deny that gains were made, i m just saying the iphone 5's cpu was slower that it should have been while the 5S's is one of the best cpu out there now making the performance gap huge not because they (Samsung) made a breakthru in cpu making but because they just chose to pay for a better cpu this time)

[Builder]

-snip-

You can't trust the benchmarks of any Android phone. They have software that detects when a benchmark is running and turns off power saving and other features to get higher scores on the benchmarks. For all we know they're doing worse than that.

 

Four cores in a phone CPU isn't necessary, Nvidia did it to scare everyone and then they decided that they needed to do it as well. The A7 has a dual core and still trounces nearly everything out there. More than 1GB of RAM is currently unnecessary as well, the OS controls the memory very well and multitasks or demultitasks apps as it sees fit.

 

Notice that the one feature that the 5S has that the Galaxy phones don't is 64-bit. That's a huge leap forward, and one that has not yet been replicated. I'm sure with the next  iteration that will be fixed so they can match all the specs.

 

More powerful CPUs allow more complex applications, which is better for everyone. I don't know why you think the iPhone 5 could have been any faster, it's still very fast and at the time it was near the fastest if not the fastest phone CPU.

[Silent_Xaxal]

I don't think you'd need more than 3 low-end smartphones at any given time unless they really did offer compelling differences.

[Kyuubixchidori]

I hate it when people complain about new phones/to many

 

like oh no not more innovation, not more choices. why do I get choices with what I spend my money on? why should i get something that works for me when i can just conform to everyone else. 

[onionring]

You can't trust the benchmarks of any Android phone. They have software that detects when a benchmark is running and turns off power saving and other features to get higher scores on the benchmarks. For all we know they're doing worse than that.

 

Four cores in a phone CPU isn't necessary, Nvidia did it to scare everyone and then they decided that they needed to do it as well. The A7 has a dual core and still trounces nearly everything out there. More than 1GB of RAM is currently unnecessary as well, the OS controls the memory very well and multitasks or demultitasks apps as it sees fit.

 

Notice that the one feature that the 5S has that the Galaxy phones don't is 64-bit. That's a huge leap forward, and one that has not yet been replicated. I'm sure with the next  iteration that will be fixed so they can match all the specs.

 

More powerful CPUs allow more complex applications, which is better for everyone. I don't know why you think the iPhone 5 could have been any faster, it's still very fast and at the time it was near the fastest if not the fastest phone CPU.

 

If you would have read my post, you would have realised that s exactly what i meant, there is no need to upgrade every year since the performance improvements are now minuscule,

it isn t like Lawlz said and phones doubling performance each gen.

 

Btw, if you re comparing 2 phones from the same brand, it s safe to assume that they re cheating about equally so comparing them relatively is totally fine. (but absolutely with other phones isnt)

 

My nexus 4 idles at 800mb ram used, so yes more than 1gb has its advantages (but 2gb ram phones existed for years now so idk why you wouldn t want it)

 

The iphone 5 A6 wasnt the fastest Cpu available at the time it s all i said.

Apple chose it for battery concerns , they could have went with something faster (but there was no point).

This was only said to reinforce the there s no point to upgrade every year since phone performance doesn t improve much any more since the iphone 5 with the a6 totally works fine.

[LAwLz]

I would like to point out I wrote S3, S4, S5 not 3S , etc

meaning two things:

1) I was talking about Samsung galaxy S3, S4, S5

2) You re overdefensive about Apple

 

http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/samsung-galaxy-s5-vs-galaxy-s4

 

The advance of 2X the performance each phone generation (when they both use the best that was available) are long gone, I m sorry but that s just the reality.

Just look at a S4 qualcom 600 vs a S5 qualcom 800, the first get a benchmark score(let s oversimplify things here) of 2300, the other 2900, that s 20% upgrade, not 100%

It will still be worth while to upgrade but not each year, no way, heck even a S3 is still fine today.

 

and btw what s the point of a faster cpu in a phone if it s already fast enough and doesn t lag, it s not like you re rendering videos on it.

(also a ''8 core'' mobile cpu doesn t mean it performs better, the 4 more cores are usually only there for low power use and that s almost exclusively used in note phones)

 

now to talk about apple since you want to..

Now you could argue that the iphone 5 to iphone 5S was a huge jump, well of course if the last gen's cpu/gpu/ram wasn t the fastest they could have used to begin with it s easier to make it look like huge gains were made...

(i don t deny that gains were made, i m just saying the iphone 5's cpu was slower that it should have been while the 5S's is one of the best cpu out there now making the performance gap huge not because they (Samsung) made a breakthru in cpu making but because they just chose to pay for a better cpu this time)

Oh sorry, I thought you meant the iPhone.

There are huge differences for the Galaxy S line as well. Oh and trust me, I hate Apple with a passion. I am not out to defend them.

 

Sure, the Android handsets don't get double performance anymore, I thought you were talking about the iPhone. There is a significant bump from Snapdragon 600 to Snapdragon 801 though. Not just CPU wise but also GPU wise. It's not 2x (like we got when we moved from S1 to S2, and then S2 to S3) but it's still big differences. Actually, on the GPU side we saw about a doubling in performance going from Adreno 320 to 330.

 

I agree that it's not worth upgrading every year, but I think companies should still release a new device every year. Thinking "well I won't upgrade every year so therefore they shouldn't release it" is very egotistic. A lot of people are probably 1 year ahead/behind your 2 year period, so if you bought the S4 they bought the S3 and will buy the S5, and then you buy the S6 and they buy the S7 etc. That's why I am OK with one year release cycles. That and also because I like the idea of companies releasing new technology instead of keeping it to themselves for 1 year longer than they need.

 

What's the point of faster CPUs? How about higher performance? "already fast enough" is a completely moronic argument. We heard people say the same thing about 1GHz CPUs on desktops 14 years ago. Would you want a single core 1GHz CPU for 500 dollars? No, and that's why we need to continuously push technology forward. Also, it isn't fast enough for me. Not only do I very often run into situations where I have to wait for things to be processed (the drop down profile menu here on LTT is one example, takes several seconds for it to be displayed on phones, things like effects in the Google camera is another example) but some things are flat out unusable on my mobile devices because they are so crappy in terms of CPU performance. 1080p Hi10p video becomes a slide show. Dropping 10 frames per second and desynced audio (and completely messed up styled subs) is not exactly a fun movie experience.

 

Congratulations! You know what big.LITTLE is. Good for you.

 

 

 

So let's look at the Galaxy S 3, 4 and 5 and what they brought to the table.

 

Galaxy S 2 to Galaxy S 3:

Bigger and much better screen.

Better camera

More than twice the CPU performance

Big performance increase on the GPU side

GLONASS support

Bigger battery and longer battery life

A bunch of gimmicks

 

Galaxy S 3 to Galaxy S 4:

Bigger and better screen, again.

Better camera

Much higher CPU performance.

Huge performance increase on the GPU.

LTE

Twice the RAM

Much better WiFi

NFC

IR port

Much better camera (both back and front, and bot for video and still images)

A bunch of gimmicks (some of which are actually pretty good, like being able to use it while wearing gloves)

Bigger and longer battery life.

Wireless charging (via replacement back)

 

Galaxy S 4 to Galaxy S 5:

Dust and water proof (something that me, as a pool owner, would actually like to have very much)

Much better display yet again (this time not in terms of resolution but brightness and color accuracy)

Better USB connector

Much better camera (again, both still images and recording)

Decent CPU performance increase

Huge GPU performance increase

Beidou support (not really that important for us in the US and Europe but it's nice for Asia and might be nice for us in the future)

Bigger battery and much much longer battery life.

Gimmicks (finger print scanner, heart rate monitors etc)

 

 

I don't think progress has slowed down that much on the mobile market to be honest. It's still going really strong.

[LAwLz]

You can't trust the benchmarks of any Android phone. They have software that detects when a benchmark is running and turns off power saving and other features to get higher scores on the benchmarks. For all we know they're doing worse than that.

 

Four cores in a phone CPU isn't necessary, Nvidia did it to scare everyone and then they decided that they needed to do it as well. The A7 has a dual core and still trounces nearly everything out there. More than 1GB of RAM is currently unnecessary as well, the OS controls the memory very well and multitasks or demultitasks apps as it sees fit.

 

Notice that the one feature that the 5S has that the Galaxy phones don't is 64-bit. That's a huge leap forward, and one that has not yet been replicated. I'm sure with the next  iteration that will be fixed so they can match all the specs.

 

More powerful CPUs allow more complex applications, which is better for everyone. I don't know why you think the iPhone 5 could have been any faster, it's still very fast and at the time it was near the fastest if not the fastest phone CPU.

You can't trust benchmarks on Android but it's not because of cheating (only HTC and LG does it anymore, Motorola and Samsung don't) but because all the benchmarks are useless crap.

 

Four cores are good if you ask me. I often see all 4 cores being active, and I very often run into situations where I think "Oh God please give me more performance".

The A7 doesn't trounce "nearly everything out there". I have told you this before and I will say it again, the A7 is a fantastic dual core, but it's still not that powerful if you look at raw performance. All the benchmarks that shows the A7 beating Android devices are flawed in one way or another (like for example they use a different program to benchmark with, and then just go "well Android got # in program X and the iPhone got # in program Z so therefore the iPhone is more powerful!". It's like testing the 8350 vs 4770K by running L4D2 on Ubuntu on the 8350 and L4D2 on Windows 8 on the 4770K. Nobody would take those benchmarks seriously if they were meant to be a test of the 8350 vs the 4770K.

 

More than 1GB of RAM is necessary. When iOS 7 was just released people were reporting constant crashes because they ran out of memory. Even Anand reported on it. iOS also has a very, very aggressive cache expunging scheme. cleaning the cache very frequently is not a good way to make up for a shortage of RAM. You can clearly see this by opening a few big tabs on an iOS device. Just keep one tab unfocused for a little while and chances are you will have to reload it from scratch (which will eat up battery, time and your data plan). This is what iOS does so that it won't run out of RAM. They would be able to keep things in the cache for longer if they increased the RAM, and that would give you far better performance, save time and give a far better user experience for some people (like me who often opens a lot of galleries on my favorite website, Sad Panda).

Oh, and that's without talking about the benefits of dedicated more RAM as VRAM.

 

I do hope the Galaxy S 6 will have a 64bit CPU, preferably the Snapdragon 810. That thing is a beast.

The move to 64bit ARM processors is a huge leap forward as well.

[onionring]

-snip

 

well my whole point is that the improvements slowed down a lot, like you said s1 - s2 double performance, and now not so much

there are improvements between gens but it s way slower than before, 1 year in mobile isn't as much of a long time as it used to be.

I didn t say they shouldn t release the phones.

 

btw here s the cpu arguments in other terms:

A i7 2600k isn t that outdated yet compared to a 3770k or 4770k, yes it slower,  but it is still ok, we couldn t say that 10 years ago,

The same thing is happening on mobile, again for the argument that 1 year in mobile isn t as long as it used to be.

I m not saying there s no improvements, only there s less than it used to be.

[Wasaa12]

well my whole point is that the improvements slowed down a lot, like you said s1 - s2 double performance, and now not so much

there are improvements between gens but it s way slower than before, 1 year in mobile isn't as much of a long time as it used to be.

I didn t say they shouldn t release the phones.

 

btw here s the cpu arguments in another term:

A i7 2600k isn t that outdated yet compared to a 3770k or 4770k, yes it slower,  but is it bearable, we re talking about similar performance boost between cpus now again for the argument that 1 year in mobile isn t as long as it used to be.

The thing is that the room for improvement is getting smaller until a new technology is invented

[Mew]

If you would have read my post, you would have realised that s exactly what i meant, there is no need to upgrade every year since the performance improvements are now minuscule,

it isn t like Lawlz said and phones doubling performance each gen.

 

Btw, if you re comparing 2 phones from the same brand, it s safe to assume that they re cheating about equally so comparing them relatively is totally fine. (but absolutely with other phones isnt)

 

My nexus 4 idles at 800mb ram used, so yes more than 1gb has its advantages (but 2gb ram phones existed for years now so idk why you wouldn t want it)

 

The iphone 5 A6 wasnt the fastest Cpu available at the time it s all i said.

Apple chose it for battery concerns , they could have went with something faster (but there was no point).

This was only said to reinforce the there s no point to upgrade every year since phone performance doesn t improve much any more since the iphone 5 with the a6 totally works fine.

 

I'm pretty sure every iPhone when they were released were the fastest smartphones for at least 6 months, sans the 5s which is still one of the fastest smartphones. The 5 was faster than its competition at the time: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6330/the-iphone-5-review/10