A lot is being written regarding the upcoming release of Samsung’s flagship smartphone the Samsung Galaxy S4.    In fact, the anticipation surrounding the release of this next generation model of the incredibly popular Galaxy series of smartphones certainly echoes the days of yore when the Apple faithful anticipated a next gen product.    Don’t look now Apple faithful, but with the release of the S4, Samsung is once again releasing a market defining product that other smartphone makers are going to have to work hard to catch up to.  In short, the Samsung Galaxy S4 boldly goes where no smartphone has gone before.

Simply put, the Galaxy S4 gives consumers more of a good thing. It’s a sort of Swiss army knife of smartphone dreams packed into a beautiful frame.

Building on the framework of the Galaxy S3 the S4 is larger, thinner and lighter.   The screen size is 5 inches up from the 4.7 inches of the S3 series.   While the S3 makes internet surfing on the phone a comfortable experience the extra real estate on the S4 makes a good thing better without it being too large to fit comfortably in the hand or slip into a pocket.

While we’re on the topic of the screen – It rocks.  It’s a 1080p full high def screen that allows you to watch your favorite high def content on your phone.   Isn’t that cool? So if you’ve got a high def TV and computer, you can now finally have your content streaming across all of your screens with the same high level of clarity and definition.

You won’t have to worry if your device will have the necessary innards to stream comfortably since the US release of the S4 features a whopping  quad-core 1.9Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor with 2 GB of ram.   In essence the S4 is a small tablet that makes phone calls and fits into the pocket.  It packs enough punch to easily run all of the latest games and apps without a hitch.

For people who like to take pictures the camera on the Galaxy S4 packs a 13 megapixel punch on the rear camera and 2 MP on the front camera making those late night chats just a bit brighter and sharper.  Samsung has rethought and redesigned the camera software from its earlier models making it easier to use with more presets and fun, funky abilities.  One new feature called “Dual Camera,” lets you use the   front and rear cameras at the same time.

A more practical software upgrade is the best face option.  When taking a picture of a face the camera will rapidly snap five pictures in a row and lets you pick the best of the bunch.

It certainly is an indication of the times when the one of the last items to be addressed in a review of a phone is the call quality but with new smartphones it does seem like making phone calls is a sort of afterthought.   The call quality on the Samsung Galaxy S4 is clean, crisp and clear.  What else is there to say?  It’s a phone call, not rocket science.   The interface for making calls is clean and simple.  It does the job without making you work to hard to find what you’re looking for.

What’s more important to most smartphone users is the all important battery life issue.   Well Samsung seems to have known this and has extended the battery life so it lasts a lot longer than the S3.   In fact, if you an average user you should be able to get about eight hours of usage before needing a charge or course if you’re a heavy user playing games and streaming video’s it’s best to keep your charger with you when leaving home.

All in all this new phone is a game changer, it’s a much improved and refined advance of the market leading Galaxy S3 making it truly, the best Android smartphone ever.