In this post some of the best tips and tricks for Samsung Galaxy S4 are shared to make it easier for you to get the most out of your new smartphone. Enjoy!
Recording...
- Use the HDR in mixed lighting for some incredible snaps. One of the major highlights of Samsung Galaxy S4 is it 13-megapixel sensor. Add to it the HDR mode and it significantly improves the shot bringing out that extra detail in shadows.
- Under the menus of video cam, there are options of fast and slow mode - capturing fewer or more frames per second. Might come in handy if you are trying to record a racing car, or Bolt...
- Samsung Galaxy S4 lacks those face-distorting fun video effects available with a vanilla Jelly Bean phone, but it does have a range of funky filters. Use cartoon filter for some arty stuff or color pop modes to extract certain shades from your videos.
- When you take a photo, a shutter sound plays in the Galaxy S4. Though occasionally SGS4 needs a little bit longer to attain a solid focus so hold still for an extra half-second for good measure.
- Want to get to a certain point in the movie? If you hold your finger over the transport bar of a movie clip in the media player, using Air View you'll be given a preview of what's going on in the film at that point.
Check AMOLED colors:
Go to Settings > Display Settings to choose how vivid the colors should be. Natural and Movie are some recommended settings to get rid of those somewhat "popping" oversaturated color tones of Galaxy S4.
Set the brightness:
Standard settings in Galaxy S4 for brightness is auto. But if you want more, switch off the auto mode for real searing intensity - battery takes the toll though.
Third party video players:
Get the MX Player from Play Store to go around the inbuilt media player - which is excellent but apparently can't handle high quality 1080p MKVs.
Video Multi-tasking:
This is one of the best features of S3 and S4! Overlay a video playback screen on top of ANY part of the phone and watch videos while browsing the web - yep! Just press a button in the nav bar of the media player to get that little video pop up on the homescreen.
Tips for a mini home cinema!
Not under the audio but under the accessory submenu you would find a Surround Box option. Tick it to get that cinema surround sound mode.
For that "everlasting" battery life!
Okay! Everlasting might be too much but isn't that the most talked about issue with smartphones? So here are a few settings and tweaks to help you get the most life out of your Samsung Galaxy S4:
- Under the Settings go to Power Saving to make some compromises: throttles the CPU, changes the browser background from white to blue and the sort. But the Power Saving mode does work!
- As a rule of thumb "less features/app, more battery" switch off some features for those few more minutes esp the 3G mobile internet if you aren't using it. Go to My Settings app or from the pull-down notifications menu to turn it off.
- Under the Settings go to Display submenu to reduce the screen timeout time. Choose between 15 sec and 10 minutes of time the screen stays lit after a screen press. Helps the battery life a lot.
- Since Samsung Galaxy S4 has a removable battery - quite a wonder. Get a spare battery from eBay for well under £10. Don't go for some unreliable stuff though.
More Storage? Aye, Captain!
- If you want to go for more storage, it's better to buy one with more storage. But as far as memory cards are concerned, 7DayShop and Ebuyer are the top retailers.
- Clear the cache and temporary files of the apps if you are running low on memory. Go to Settings > Applications Manager and tap on an app to see how much memory it's leeching. There will be options to wipe cache or the app's data clean.
- As much as the owners of other smartphones may hate it, the Samsung Galaxy S4 get a free 50GB of cloud storage from one of the best cloud storage provider - the Dropbox. Normally we get only 2GB of free storage on DB.
Screenshots:
- To take a full screenshot just hold down the home and the power buttons at the same time. Wait for a white flash and a screenshot will be taken and whisked over to the Gallery app.
- Another quicker way to take screenshot is to swipe the palm of your hand from right to left. But for that check Palm swipe capture under the Settings > Motion.
Connect to the world:
- Under the Settings, there is a feature namely Data Usage counter. It monitors your data usage, showing it as a colorful graph helping you to never go over your allowance. Use it to cut off your mobile data connection when trying to save it for those critical last hours.
- You can sync with KIES wirelessly too: scroll to the bottom of the More Settings sub-menu and you will the Kies via Wi-Fi option.
- Introduced with Samsung Galaxy S3, S Beam uses a mixture of NFC and Wi-Fi Direct to let you transfer files between compatible Samsung phones. From Wireless and Networks menu, switch the S Beam on to get it rolling with just a tap.
- Wi-Fi Direct is tied into the S Beam transfer feature but can be used on its own too. This is actually a version of Wi-Fi that doesn't need an internet connection hooking up directly with another compatible device. It is sort of Bluetooth letting you to transfer files, but at a much greater speed.
- You can also share the screen of your Samsung Galaxy S4 with Group Cast. GC used to be just about sending a video file from your phone to, say, your Blu-ray player but now it lets you send your Galaxy S4's screen contents to another display.
and the cherry: S Voice:
Not all of the Galaxy S4 can be controlled with S-Voice, but most important ones are covered. Start the S-voice and after the initial setup just go to Settings and enable control apps.
- Camera: take your pictures without holding your camera! Put the phone on an stand, pose and shout SHOOT!
- Music Player answers to PLAY, PAUSE, NEXT, PREVIOUS, VOLUME UP, VOLUME DOWN and RESUME - might help while baking.
- Phone: respond to a phone call by just by saying ANSWER or REJECT!
- Alarm: stop or snooze alarms with the command STOP and SNOOZE - more reason for snoozing!
About the author: Rafia joined Wccftech in 2012 as a tech reporter. She is currently working on stories focusing on people and technologies that are turning Microsoft into a “company to watch” again. She is also responsible for collaborating with tech makers and e-commerce platforms to bring annoying but tempting deals to our readers.
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