Introduction
Ah, the great outdoors - not enough reception to put the "phone" in smartphone, but plenty of dust and water keep it out. Good thing there are IP67-certified phones like the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active then, combining premium specs with enough durability to survive a hike or a dive.
We've become a little wary of the Galaxy S label, which Samsung flagships share with a number of almost unrelated devices, which simply piggyback on their reputation. That's not the case of the Galaxy S4 Active though, it's a proper flagship.
The 5" 1080p screen has been moved to TFT tech instead of Super AMOLED like on the regular S4, but LCD's are typically brighter, and plus LCDs are less likely to suffer water damage.
The camera situation is less clear though - Samsung downgraded it from 13MP to 8MP and while we've seen plenty of good 8MP cameras, 13MP is the current flagship standard. Everything else seems in order, however, here's the yay and nay list for the Galaxy S4 Active
Key features
IP67 certification - can spend up to 30 minutes in up to 1m of water
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE; quad-band 3G with HSPA; LTE
5" 16M-color 1080p TFT LCD capacitive touchscreen with Gorilla Glass 3
Android OS v4.2.2 Jelly Bean with TouchWiz UI
Quad-core 1.9 GHz Krait 300 CPU, Adreno 320 GPU; Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset
2GB of RAM
8 MP autofocus camera with LED flash,1080p video recording @ 30fps, continuous autofocus and stereo sound
2 MP front-facing camera, 1080p video recording
Dual shot and dual video recording, Drama shot, Shot and sound
Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct and DLNA
GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS
16GB of built-in storage
microSD card slot
microUSB port with USB host and MHL 2.0
Bluetooth v4.0
NFC
IR port for remote control functionality
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
Accelerometer and proximity sensor
Barometer
IR gesture sensor for Air gestures
Smart screen: Smart stay, Smart pause, Smart scroll
Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
Ample 2,600 mAh battery with great endurance
Smart volume and Adapt Sound features for the music player
Main disadvantages
Camera downgraded to 8MP
Screen is TFT, not Super AMOLED
Thicker and heavier than regular Galaxy S4, Sony Xperia Z
No FM radio
Shared camera interface makes framing tricky
No thermometer or hygroscope
