galaxy s4 lcd screen replacement free sample

The difference between Samsung Galaxy S4 i9500 and i9505 LCD Screen digitizer assembly is the front frame / front housing.The LCD Display and Digitizer are compatible,but i9500 front frame can not fit i9505.

If you got the screen with the frame already installed,then you just need check the model of the screen,there is a number on the back of the frame.It shows "i9500" or "i9505.That is easy to recognize.Make sure the model of the screen is the same with your phone!

Here is the picture of the Samsung Galaxy S4 i9505 LCD Screen Replacement,can you see the number of "i9505"?You can also see the number on i9500 frame if you bought a i9500 screen.

RepairsUniverse.com sources high-quality repair and replacement parts for certain mobile products including, but not limited to, Apple, Samsung, LG, Motorola, Google, OnePlus and HTC ("Products"). The parts that RepairsUniverse.com sources are tested for functionality, quality and compatibility with the Products, but parts are not always original Products or parts. RepairsUniverse.com may sell many variations of quality grades of parts including, but not limited to: Generic, OEM, semi-OEM, refurbished, aftermarket, and others that are in new, like new, or used condition.

s4 screen provide the touch interface in smartphones, which are vital for them to function. Alibaba.com stocks a stunning range of high-tech s4 screen with vibrant color depictions. Truly crystal-clear displays of s4 screen are available covering various brands and models such as the Samsung Galaxy Edge 2, OnePlus 7T, Samsung Galaxy C5, and many more.

s4 screen are the most commonly used displays, as they produce great image quality while consuming low power. Rather than emitting light directly, they use back lights or reflectors to produce images, which allows for easy readability even under direct sunlight. s4 screen are energy-efficient, and are comparatively safer to dispose of, than CRTs. s4 screen are much more efficient when it comes to usage in battery-powered electronic equipment, due to their minimal power consumption.

Some other advantages of s4 screen over the CRT counterparts are - sharper images, little to no heat emission, unaffected by magnetic fields, narrow frame borders, and extreme compactness, which make them very thin and light. Some types of s4 screen are transmissive, reflective, and transflective displays. Transmissive displays provide better image quality in the presence of low or medium-light, while reflective displays work best in the presence of bright light. The third type of s4 screen, transflective, combine the best features of both the other types and provide a well-balanced display.

Whether as an individual purchaser, supplier or wholesaler, browse for an extensive spectrum of s4 screen at Alibaba.com if you don"t want to stretch a dollar yet find the best fit.

samsung s4 screen provide the touch interface in smartphones, which are vital for them to function. Alibaba.com stocks a stunning range of high-tech samsung s4 screen with vibrant color depictions. Truly crystal-clear displays of samsung s4 screen are available covering various brands and models such as the Samsung Galaxy Edge 2, OnePlus 7T, Samsung Galaxy C5, and many more.

samsung s4 screen are the most commonly used displays, as they produce great image quality while consuming low power. Rather than emitting light directly, they use back lights or reflectors to produce images, which allows for easy readability even under direct sunlight. samsung s4 screen are energy-efficient, and are comparatively safer to dispose of, than CRTs. samsung s4 screen are much more efficient when it comes to usage in battery-powered electronic equipment, due to their minimal power consumption.

Some other advantages of samsung s4 screen over the CRT counterparts are - sharper images, little to no heat emission, unaffected by magnetic fields, narrow frame borders, and extreme compactness, which make them very thin and light. Some types of samsung s4 screen are transmissive, reflective, and transflective displays. Transmissive displays provide better image quality in the presence of low or medium-light, while reflective displays work best in the presence of bright light. The third type of samsung s4 screen, transflective, combine the best features of both the other types and provide a well-balanced display.

Whether as an individual purchaser, supplier or wholesaler, browse for an extensive spectrum of samsung s4 screen at Alibaba.com if you don"t want to stretch a dollar yet find the best fit.

Your Samsung Galaxy S4 is broken or damaged and you are looking to get your Galaxy S4 repaired? Compare now and find the best price for the required service for your Samsung Galaxy S4 and go directly to the store.

Repairing your broken Samsung Galaxy S4 is in most cases cheaper than buying a new smartphone. You can expect costs of about USD 50 for repair services of your mobile device. Replacing the display is normally a bit pricier than that. However, in almost all cases it is cheaper to get your Samsung Galaxy S4 repaired than buying a new device.

The following diagram (infographic) shows the distribution of the most common repairs / damages of the Samsung Galaxy S4. The statistics are based on the repair requests (multiple requests possible).

The LCD display repair or replacement of your Samsung Galaxy S4 can be required for a variety of reasons. E.g. the display of your Samsung Galaxy S4 does not respond to your touch anymore after it got dropped, the screen stays black, has broken pixels or the display glass is scratched, cracked or completely broken. Most of the time the screen can not be fixed anymore and the screen of your Galaxy S4 has to be replaced. The problem is that components like touch sensor, screen and backlight are glued together and come as one unit.

Replacing or repairing the touchscreen of your Samsung Galaxy S4 becomes necessary if the touch functionality doesn""t work properly anymore for example due to damaged display glass (cracked, scratched). Symptoms can be that the touchscreen doesn""t react to touch at all, only delayed or just when applying a lot of pressure. In most cases a damaged Galaxy S4 touchscreen can not be repaired and needs to be replaced.

The LCD display repair or replacement of your Samsung Galaxy S4 is necessary, if the glass and display are still in tact (no cracks or broken screen), but the screen has other issues. E.g. the screen stays white, grey or black, has broken pixels (spots, stripes or similar) or the background light does not work anymore. In most cases the display can not be fixed and the LCD display of the Galaxy S4 needs to be replaced.

Diagnostics/assessment of the damages is recommend when your Samsung Galaxy S4 stopped working (e.g. does not turn on anymore) and you are not able to determine the problem. Once a technician was able to analyze the issue and has estimated a price for the repair of your Galaxy S4, you are able to decide what repairs will be performed.

If you have dropped your Samsung Galaxy S4 into water, you should act fast. Consequences of a water damage don""t always appear right away. Immediately drying the device thoroughly, turning off the phone and if possible removing the battery can help increasing the chance of a successful repair. A professional assessment of possible damages of your Galaxy S4 are recommended in any case. This way serious water damage can be avoided or affected parts replaced. A technician can perform diagnostics, find all affected parts and recommend fixes. Then you can decide for yourself what repairs are actually performed.

If your Samsung Galaxy S4 does not charge properly anymore or you experience problems connecting to your PC or MAC a repair or replacement of the phone connector port could be necessary. Often it can also be a problem with the charger/charger cable or a broken USB cable. In any case a professional smartphone repair shop can help finding the problem and replace or repair the broken parts.

The battery of your Samsung Galaxy S4 does not hold charge or doesn’t charge anymore at all? In this case you should consider getting the smartphone battery replaced.

If thespeaker of your Samsung Galaxy S4 is too silent, you can hear cracks, the tone is cutting out or there is no sound at all, despite the correct settings, it is recommended to get a repair or replacement of your speaker or earpiece.

If the front or back camera of your Samsung Galaxy S4 only takes blurry photos or the camera only shows a black screen, a camera repair is able to fix the problem.

If you are not able to hear the caller anymore or only with bad quality, cracks or cutting out, it often points to a a broken or damaged earpiece of your Galaxy S4. Those problems can normally be fixed by replacing or repairing the earpiece of your Samsung Galaxy S4.

Unfortunately we are not offering a comparison of repair shops that would be able to fix this particular issue with your Galaxy S4 at the moment. We are working hard to keep adding additional repair services to our comparison. You might still want to check in with our partners whether they offer the required repair for your Samsung Galaxy S4.

The design language of the Galaxy S4 stays close to that of the S3 because why mess with a good thing? The S4 is just as comfortable to hold, light, and good-looking as the previous generation. The corners aren’t as softly rounded as before and the chrome band that encircles the device is wider and flatter, making the overall design look like the result of an illicit affair between the iPhone 5 and S3. However, the flat edges don’t cut down on the S4’s holdability because the back of the phone still comfortably curves up. The Power and Volume buttons stick out just enough to find without looking, though we wish Samsung didn’t insist on putting them on opposite sides of the phone; it’s so easy to press one when trying to press the other. Plus, with one of the flip covers on (which Samsung sells), the volume buttons are hidden, though not inaccessible.

The Galaxy S4’s polycarbonate plastic body has been derided for being “cheap” when compared to metal-body phones. While it’s true that plastic doesn’t feel as premium, there are advantages to using this material instead of going with a unibody design like the iPhone or HTC One. The big one being access to the battery. Popping the back off allows you to remove the battery and is how you get to the microSD and SIM card slots. Plastic also has the advantage of not weighing much. The S4 is just 4.6 ounces, 0.1 ounces less than the S3. Somehow Samsung has added a bigger screen, kept the overall phone the same size as the S3, and made it slightly lighter. That’s impressive.

The 5-inch display on the Galaxy S4 approaches, but doesn’t exceed, the fragile line between phone and “phablet.” Like the HTC Droid DNA, the S4 still feels like a phone and one-handed use can be accomplished reasonably if you have normal- to large-size hands. The screen itself boasts a 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution and all the bright, popping colors we’ve come to expect from Super AMOLED displays (AMOLED displays extremely dark blacks, which make a big difference when watching media). With wide viewing angles and good sunlight visibility, the screen is one of the S4’s best features.

Samsung has incorporated some of the goodies we first saw on the Galaxy Note series into the S4’s display technology, like Air View. Just hover your finger over the screen to bring up extra information (ex: text of an email) or expand images in the gallery without actually having to open them. We like the idea of this feature, though sometimes having stuff pop up when you don’t intend can get annoying. The S4 is also equipped with a high sensitivity mode for the cold winter months when you don’t want to remove your gloves to use the touchscreen.

Samsung loaded the Galaxy S4 with a daunting number of software features and goodies and eye candy and tricks. Some enhance the Android OS experience, and some you will turn off and never think about again. Most of them are worth checking out to see if they fit your needs. Just set aside a good long time to do so. Check out our full Galaxy S4 coverage for deep dives into all the best features and functions.

The Galaxy S4 runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with Samsung’s TouchWiz UX user interface on top. TouchWiz is one of the most extensive interfaces for Android and not only makes the operating system look different visually; it changes some of the functionality entirely. The extensive graphic design is not as elegant or refined as HTC’s Sense (seen on the HTC One), though some widgets are very nicely styled. We wish the UI matched the elegance of the hardware.

Bottom line: We highly recommend the S4The TouchWiz features that increase efficiency are the best, such as Air View (hovering your finger to display info). We also like the Smart Screen functions that keep the screen on as long as it can detect your eyes; it now allows you to scroll down an email or webpage just by tilting the phone a tiny bit. Unfortunately, many of these features only work in Samsung’s apps or a select few from partner developers. For instance, Smart scroll only works in Samsung’s browser but not in Google Chrome.

Samsung’s most extensive Android takeover is Easy Mode. More immersive than when we first saw it (and disabled it…) on the Galaxy Note 2, now it doesn’t just fill your Home screens with oversized icons. When turned on, users get bigger icons, larger font sizes in some apps, simplified settings, and simplified apps, too. This is Samsung’s bid to make the Galaxy S4 appeal to older or less tech-savvy users who are interested in Android but aren’t digital natives.

In addition to controlling the Galaxy S4 with your eyes, you can control it with a wave of your hand. An IR sensor at the top of the device detects hand movements that control certain apps (again, mostly Samsung’s) so you don’t have to physically touch the screen. When Samsung talked about why someone would want or need these gestures at the now infamous unveiling of the S4 at Radio City Music Hall, the use cases were less than compelling (my nails are still wet!!). In later briefings, the company offered better ones. In the car you can answer the phone or skip to the next song simply by waving a hand over the screen – you won’t have to take your eyes off the road to press an icon. It’s also nice when cooking since you won’t get food on the screen.

Samsung’s S Voice now has a car mode, further enhancing the voice control options. S Voice still isn’t as robust as Siri, though the voice recognition engine gets better with each new release. We found the S4’s other voice control options useful in some cases. Being able to snap a picture by saying CHEESE cuts down on shake. But in apps like the music player, the phone picks up on any surrounding conversation and may stop your music even if you don’t specifically say STOP.

Put a beautiful, full HD display on a smartphone and people expect to take advantage of it. Thanks to the great colors and wide viewing angles, video watching and gaming is great on the Galaxy S4. The speaker on the back is loud enough for sharing video with a group as well – just don’t expect well-rounded audio quality. The speaker doesn’t face front like those on the HTC One, so setting the S4 on a soft surface muffles the audio. On a hard surface this isn’t a problem since a small bump raises the phone up enough for sound waves to travel. Samsung doesn’t put as much effort into audio as HTC so don’t expect Beats Audio level quality even with headphones plugged in. The S4’s audio is better than the Galaxy Note 2, and we like that there are user-accessible equalizer settings for those who want to tweak.

The media feature that impressed us the most is the Galaxy S4’s universal remote control and TV guide. We’ve seen the basic functionality before on Galaxy tablets with an infrared port and the Peel Smart Remote app. That app is now called WatchOn and serves the same purpose — helping users connect their TV, cable box, and other entertainment center devices to the One Phone To Rule Them All. If you have a 2013 Samsung Smart TV, the app does extra tricks, like allowing users to push video content to the TV or stream live TV to the phone. If you don’t have a 2013 Samsung Smart TV… buy one?

It should be no surprise then that video is also great, and the audio that goes with it is of high quality as well. Even though you can shoot in full HD, you’ll probably be happier watching your videos on smaller screens.

Since the rear-facing camera is so good, Samsung bundled an Optical Reader app with the S4. It’s one of the best apps on the phone. The Optical Reader uses OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to read text in real time and translate it to and from English and over a dozen other languages. The app will capture large blocks of text using a picture, which you can then save. Our favorite example is the ability to snap a picture of a business card and save the data to Contacts. When you do, the app places all of the information in the correct fields; all you have to do is double check and save.

Here in the United States, the Galaxy S4 ‘only’ has a quad-core processor. Some of the overseas models get the fancy new octa-core CPU, but not us. Still, the 1.9-GHz quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM are plenty speedy and scored 12,185 on the Quadrant benchmark. That’s on par with the HTC One (12,031) and higher than the LG Optimus G Pro (11,780), both quad-core phones. Our usage bears this out. Even with all the eye candy of the TouchWiz interface taking up resources, we experienced smooth, speedy performance and high framerates.

Wireless connectivity includes Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, GPS (GLONASS), an Infrared blaster, and GroupPlay powered by DLNA technology. The Galaxy S4 is LTE-ready, and will launch on seven different LTE carriers: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, U.S. Cellular, Cricket, and C Spire.

Our review unit is a Sprint model, and Sprint’s LTE network hasn’t officially launched in New York City though we did find some places that allowed it. Where we could connect, the signal was rarely strong and speeds rarely fast. Using the Speedtest.net app, the fastest download speed we recorded was 6.6Mbps and the fastest upload 1.7Mbps. When not on LTE, the phone fell back on the 3G network where we managed to eek out 1.03Mbps down and 0.45Mbps up. Sprint’s network never seemed stable on the S4, be it 3G or LTE. The bars would fluctuate between one and four while we sat perfectly still. And though calls were clear on both ends, they dropped twice on us during testing. As we test the S4 on other carriers we’ll update this review.

The 2,600mAh battery inside the Galaxy S4 is barely enough to keep the phone juiced if you’re a heavy-duty user. The longest life we saw was just above 11 hours on a day when we were mostly in a 3G area. On days when we were mostly on LTE, the S4 lasted between 7 and 8 hours with heavy use. As with the HTC One, the combo of full HD display, quad-core CPU, and LTE might be too much for this size battery. At least you can swap it out for another. But if you want something that lasts all day, you’ll need to employ some battery saving tricks.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 is bursting at the seams with cool features and high-end hardware, all jumping up and down for your attention. Some are overkill, some we’re sure you will use and love. But ultimately the S4 will be judged on smartphone essentials: comfortable design, good display, speedy performance, and long battery life. It scores high on the first three, but struggles on the last. The reason we rate it higher than the HTC One, which also had battery issues? You can swap this battery out, if need be. Granted, we wish it wasn’t necessary.

Bottom line: we highly recommend the Samsung Galaxy S4. The phone launches on seven carriers over the next few weeks. It will cost just $150 down on T-Mobile, $200 with contract on AT&T and U.S. Cellular, and $250 on contract with Sprint. Verizon Wireless, C Spire, and Cricket have not announced pricing. Whichever carrier you switch to or stay with, the Galaxy S4 is among the best smartphones you can buy right now.

THE SAMSUNG GALAXY S4—a svelte, elegant phone—is an enticing gadget, and the first time you hold it in your hands, you’ll immediately want to put it through its paces: calling friends, browsing the Web, checking your email, and more. As you’ll see in the rest of this book, it can do some remarkable things that make you feel as if the phone has superpowers.

To help you unlock all those powers, though, you need a solid understanding of how the Galaxy S4 works and familiarity with all its different parts. You’ll want to know where all its buttons, keys, and ports are located, for example—not to mention how to get to your Home screen and panes, and use some of the device’s amazing new features, like its ability to let you navigate by merely moving your eyes.

THREE-QUARTERS OF THE WAY up on the right side of the Galaxy S4, you’ll find a small, rectangular silver button. It may be only a single button, but it’s a hardworking one, and it performs multiple functions. Press it with your S4 turned off, and your S4 springs to life. Press and release it when your S4 is turned on and active, and it puts the phone into Standby mode. If your S4 is turned on, press and hold it and a screen appears that lets you do the following:

When you put the Galaxy S4 on Standby using the Power/Lock button, the screen stops responding to touch. It blacks out, indicating that the screen is locked. Always lock the screen before putting the Galaxy S4 in your pocket or bag to avoid accidental screen taps and potentially embarrassing unintended phone calls. In fact, every time you leave the phone untouched for a certain amount of time—as little as 15 seconds to as much as 10 minutes (Brightness)—the screen automatically locks itself.

While the screen is locked, the Galaxy S4 still operates behind the scenes, checking email and Facebook on schedule. You can still get phone calls and text messages, and even listen to music while the screen is locked.

When you again want to use the Galaxy S4, you’ll need to unlock it. Press the Power button or the Home key. Then put your fingertip on the screen and slide it to the right or left. Your Galaxy S4 is now ready to do your bidding. You’ll get notifications about missed calls, text messages, and so on. If you’ve set up a PIN on your phone so that only someone with a password can use it, you’ll have to type in the PIN before you can use your phone. (See Screen lock for details on how to set up a PIN.)

You can adjust the amount of time it takes for the Galaxy S4 to lock itself. You can also turn off Locked mode entirely. And for added security, you can also require that a password be used to unlock your S4, or even that a specific finger swiping motion be performed on the keyboard before it can be unlocked. For details, see Screen lock.

AT THE TOP OF the Galaxy S4, you’ll find a 3.5-millimeter headset jack. Notice that it’s a head set jack, not just a garden-variety head phone jack. It doesn’t just let you listen; it accepts incoming sound as well. That’s so you can plug a headset (like an earbud headset) into it and use it for making phone calls.

THE SCREEN IS WHERE you and the Galaxy S4 do most of your communicating with each other. Compare the Galaxy S4’s screen to that of almost any other phone, and you’ll immediately notice how roomy it is—5 inches, measured diagonally (technically, that’s 1920 x 1080 pixels). It’s got extremely high resolution (443 pixels per inch, for the techie crowd). When you turn it sideways, it switches to a widescreen TV and movie format.

Because you’re going to be touching the display with your fingers, it’s going to get dirty and streaky. Simply wipe it clean with a soft, lint-free cloth or tissue. The screen is scratch-resistant, but if you’re worried about scratches, get a case or screen protector. See Appendix B for ideas.

Proximity sensor. Have you ever noticed that when you’re talking on your S4, the screen often goes blank? That’s thanks to the proximity sensor. It senses when your face is close to it during a phone call and automatically turns off and blanks the touch screen as you keep talking. It does this to save power, and so you don’t accidentally touch the screen while talking and perform some unwanted task.

Ambient light sensor. Senses the light level and adjusts your screen’s brightness as a way to save battery power. So in bright light, it makes the screen brighter and easier to see: in dim light, it makes the screen dimmer, since bright light is not needed.

Accelerometer. As its name implies, this sensor measures acceleration and motion. The Galaxy S4 uses the accelerometer to sense the orientation of the screen and turn it to either landscape or portrait mode. But clever app makers use it for other things as well, such as automatic collision notification, which detects when you’re in an accident and then automatically makes a call for assistance for you. There’s even an app that works with the phone’s magnetometer to detect potholes as you drive, and create a log about their locations, which you can then email to your local department of public works. (It’s called Pothole Agent. Search for it on Google Play, as described on Using Google Play Store.)

Gyroscope. This measures motion and is used for a host of features. For example, the S4 uses the gyroscope in concert with the accelerometer to interpret motion gestures you make and let you operate the phone by waving your hands.

Infrared gesture. This sensor uses infrared light to sense your gestures so that you can control the S4 without touching it. Yes, you read that right. You can control it by waving and other gestures thanks to this sensor. And as you’ll see later in this chapter, you can even control scrolling by moving your eyes. (You’ll learn all about these tricks later in this chapter on Pinch and Spread.)

THE GALAXY S4 MAKES sure to keep you updated with information about its current status and any news, updates, and information it thinks is important. It does so by displaying a variety of icons in the status bar at the top of the screen. The status bar is divided into two parts. On the right side, you’ll find icons that inform you about the current state of the Galaxy S4, such as signal strength, 3G or 4G connection status, the time of day, and so on. At left is the Notification area, which alerts you when you have email or voice messages waiting, an event on your calendar is about to occur, and more.

Most of the time you use your Galaxy S4, you’ll be tapping on virtual buttons on the keyboard. But down at the bottom of the Galaxy S4, there are three keys, one fat, black physical one and two virtual ones that light up only when you touch them. From left to right, here’s what they do.

Add apps and widgets. Lets you add a shortcut to your Home screen or a pane that when tapped launches an app or widget. A widget does things like set an alarm or show you how many apps are running. For details on shortcuts, see the note on Note.

Set wallpaper. Tap this option, and you can change your Home and Lock screen wallpaper. Some of the choicest choices here are the live wallpapers that display changing information, like a windmill that reflects how windy it is at your current location. For more details, see Set wallpaper.

Edit page. This lets you delete any one of your five (yes, that’s right, count ’em, five!) home screens, also called panes. You can even create a new pane. See Deleting and Adding Panes for details.

Repeat after me, Dorothy: There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home.…Wherever you are on the Galaxy S4, press the Home key and you’ll come back to the familiar Home screen. You won’t even need to tap your ruby slippers together.

Ah, but that’s just the beginning of what you can do. Look down at the bottom of the screen. Tap the icon of a chart on the left, and you come to an app manager. Most of the screen shows you which apps are running, along with details about them, such as how much RAM each takes up. Tap End, and you kill the app (and free up that RAM).

If you tap the Downloaded button at the top of the screen, you see all the apps on your system, along with details, such as how much space they take up. Tap Uninstall to uninstall any.

Tap RAM at the top of the screen, and you come to a simple RAM manager. It shows you how much RAM is currently being used. Sometimes apps are sloppy, and even after you close them down, they continue to use RAM. So tap “Clear memory,” and it clears up some of that left-behind RAM so you get more to use.

Now, take a look back to the screen you get to when you hold down the Home key. Tap the Google icon at center bottom and you enter the world of Google Cards—a series of compact panels that give you any information important to you. Google Cards can keep you apprised of the weather, any trips you have coming up, what the traffic is like on the way to work, and more. See Using Cards in Google Now for details.

FOR TRANSFERRING FILES AND syncing music and movies between your computer and the Galaxy S4, there’s a micro USB port at the bottom of the phone. A micro USB port is much smaller than the normal one on devices like printers. To connect the S4 to your computer, you’ll need a micro USB cable, one of which comes in the Galaxy S4 box. The S4 can connect to both Macs and PCs. When you connect your S4 to a computer by USB cable, your phone gets power and charge from the computer. But it charges at a much slower rate than when you use the normal charger.

The Micro USB port is also a charger port. Connect the charger attachment to one end of the USB cable and the other end to your phone to start the charging process. If you use power-hungry features like video and GPS, you may have to charge the S4 every night. If you stick to mostly phone calls and text messages, you may be able to get by with charging only two or three times a week.

You can use the Galaxy S4 while it’s charging, unless the battery has run down completely. In that case, it’ll need to build up a charge before you can turn it on.

This port does one more thing as well. The S4 may be small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, but it’s still a big-time entertainment machine. That’s because it’s HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) capable. With it, you can view videos and photos taken on your Galaxy S4 right on your computer or TV screen—as long as they also have HDMI ports. Plug one end of the cable into your Galaxy S4, the other into your PC or TV, and you’re ready to go. What does that have to do with the USB port? Plenty: You can buy a special attachment to connect your phone to an HDMI device. See Connecting to the TV by Cable for details.

When you connect your Galaxy S4 to a PC for the first time, your PC may not recognize it. That’s because your PC may need special drivers (small pieces of software) to communicate with the Galaxy S4. Windows will try its mightiest to find the drivers, but there’s a chance it won’t be able to locate them. If it doesn’t, you can go over to the Samsung help website (www.samsung.com/us/support/) and search for Samsung Galaxy S4 drivers. Then download the drivers and follow the instructions for installing them.

IS YOUR RINGER TOO loud? Too soft? Get it just right by using this long silver key on the S4’s upper left. Press the top part to make the volume louder, and the bottom one to make it softer. When you press, a ringer volume app pops up on your screen, showing you how much louder or softer you’re making the ring.

THE GALAXY S4 HAS a battery cover. Yes, that’s right, an actual battery cover—you can remove the battery and replace it with a new one, unlike some other cellphones. To remove the battery, flip the S4 over, put your finger underneath the small plastic slot on the upper left and pull off the battery cover. You’ll see the battery, which you can easily remove by putting your finger into the slot at the bottom and gently pulling up. Don’t pull it hard or yank it.

The Galaxy S4, despite its large screen and considerable capabilities, can go a reasonably long time on one battery charge. But if you use a lot of power-sucking features, you may not even be able to get through one whole day without having to recharge. In addition to turning off the screen or putting it into Standby mode when you’re not using it, there’s a lot you can do to make your battery last:

Be smart about email fetching. The more often the Galaxy S4 checks email, the faster the battery runs down. Either check email manually only when you need to, or increase the interval at which the phone checks. Launch the Email app, press the Menu key, and then select Settings and tap the name of your email account. Tap “Sync schedule”→“Set sync schedule.” You can choose from intervals between 15 minutes and 12 hours, or manually.

Use “Power saving mode.” Power saving mode turns your Galaxy S4 into a power-sipper. To do it, from the Home screen, tap the Settings button, select Settings→“My device” and then turn on “Power saving mode.”

Turn off antennas you’re not using. If you’re not using a Bluetooth headset, and don’t need WiFi or GPS services at the moment, by all means turn them off. They use up tons of power. Pull down the Notification panel, and you’ll find widgets for turning off (and back on) WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth. Putting the Galaxy S4 into Airplane mode turns off all these settings at once, as well as turning off the radio that connects you to the cellular network. Find the Airplane mode widget by sliding the widgets to the left.

JUST ABOVE THE BATTERY, you’ll also find a small slot for the MicroSD card, which is about the size of a fingernail—and much smaller than the normal SD memory cards used in cameras. Your Galaxy S4 may not have come with an SD card, so you may have to buy one. The S4 can use one that stores up to 64 GB of data. Place the card in the slot with the arrow facing in. You’ll hear a click when it’s in place. After that, replace the battery cover.

After you install the card, and you turn on the phone, you’ll see a notification that the S4 is preparing the microSD card for your use. Then, go to the Home screen and press the Menu key. Select Settings→Storage. Scroll down, and you’ll find a new group of settings under “SD card,” listing information like how much total space is on the SD card and how much space remains. (If that information doesn’t appear, it means that your SD card hasn’t been formatted properly. There’s a simple solution: tap, “Mount SD card.” If your phone doesn’t recognize it after that, tap “Format SD card.” That should do the trick.)

If you want to replace the SD card—for example, if you have a 16 GB card and want to replace it with one that has more capacity—it’s easy. From the Home screen, press the Menu key, and then select Storage Settings. Then tap “Unmount SD card” in the SD card section.

When you’ve done that, turn off the phone’s power and remove the battery cover. You can then slide out the MicroSD card. Then insert a new MicroSD card and follow the instructions in this section for telling your Galaxy S4 to recognize it.

YOUR SAMSUNG GALAXY S4 includes not one, but two cameras, both capable of taking videos as well as photos. The camera on the back, which is the one you’ll normally use for taking photos and videos, has a whopping 13-megapixel resolution. The camera that faces you is primarily designed for video calling and video chat, although you can also take photos with it (self-portraits mostly). It’s got a 2-megapixel resolution. Don’t look for a physical camera button for taking photos; instead, you tap an onscreen button (Taking Still Photos).

TO ENJOY ALL THE services your Galaxy S4 is capable of delivering, you need to have a Google account, and possibly a Samsung account as well. On your smartphone, an account is a central location for managing all the services you can get. The Google one is absolutely necessary, but you may want to set up a Samsung one as well. This section tells you what you need to know about each.

In order to use your S4, you need a Google account. That’s because the S4’s underlying software is made by Google, and uses many Google services, such as Maps, Gmail, and more. If you already have a Google account—if you’ve ever used Gmail, for example—great! You can use that account and all the information and settings you’ve stored in it. Or, you can create a new Google account when you sign in to your S4 for the first time and start fresh.

When you first start your phone, it prompts you to walk through logging into your account or setting up a new one. After that, if you want to make changes, you can head to one central location. At the Home screen, press the Menu key, and then choose Settings→Accounts→Google.

If you like to use additional Samsung services you can also set up a Samsung account. Otherwise, you don’t need it. Depending on your carrier, you may be prompted to create a Samsung account or log into an existing one when you first set up your phone, right after you log into or create a Google account. But if not, you can create one afterwards. At the Home screen, press the Menu key, and then choose Settings→Accounts→Add Account, and follow the prompts. To change settings, press the Menu key, and then choose Settings→Accounts→Samsung Account.

What you see on the Home screen and panes may differ somewhat from what you see here. Cell phone carriers often customize them, put their own apps on them, and sometimes even change them over time.

App icons. Typically, the Home screen has four icons—one for checking email (right on the icon, you see how many new messages you’ve got), one for checking your calendar, one for using the camera, and one, called Play Store, to let you search for and download new apps—tens of thousands of them, many of them free. As you’ll see later in this section, you can add or delete icons from the Home screen.

Dock. Just below the app icons is a row of five icons. They sit in an area called the Dock, and they’re different from the app icons. Unlike the app icons, you can’t delete them. As you’ll see in a little bit, there are other screens you can move to, called panes or panels, but the icons in the Dock stay in place no matter which pane you visit. (The app icons change according to what pane you’re on.) The Phone icon launches the Phone app; the Contacts icon shows you your contacts; the Messaging icon lets you send and receive text messages (it shows how many messages you’ve got waiting); the Internet icon launches your web browser; and the Apps icon reveals a whole new screen called the App Drawer, filled with apps, apps, and more apps.

Pane indicator. Just above the Dock you’ll see four small circles, two on either side of an icon of a house—the Home screen. They each represent a different pane. The brightest circle shows you which pane you’re currently viewing. To jump to any pane, tap its button (or slide your finger across the screen).

Press the Launcher icon, and up pops the App Drawer, which includes all the Galaxy S4’s preinstalled applications, plus any apps that you’ve downloaded and installed. There’s more than can fit on one screen, so swipe your finger to the right to get to another screen filled with them. Tap any icon to run the app.

Look up at the top of the App Drawer. There are three tabs: Apps, Widgets, and Downloads (represented by a down-arrow icon). The Apps tab, naturally, shows all your apps. Tap Widgets, and you’ll see all the widgets on your S4—these are handy little gadgets that accomplish tasks for you, like displaying weather or traffic information.

Tap the Download icon, and you’ll see just the apps that you’ve downloaded to your S4. Those apps also show up in the Apps tab, which lists every app on your S4, whether built in or downloaded.

What you see on the four panes, two to either side of the Home screen, may vary according to your carrier, and what Samsung put there before you bought the phone. You may well see things onscreen that aren’t covered in this section.

To get to another pane, slide your finger to the left or right on the Home screen, and you move from the Home screen to one of the panes. What’s on the pane changes—you’ll generally see a mix of app icons and widgets. If you don’t like what you see on any pane, don’t worry; as you’ll see on Customizing the Home Screen and Panes, you can fiddle with it to your heart’s content. (The Dock, however, remains the same no matter where you go.) The pane indicator has changed—a different button now shines brighter, to show you which pane you’re on.

The Galaxy S4 is powered by an operating system from Google called Android, as are many other phones, such as the HTC EVO 4G and HTC One. The Android operating system is constantly getting updated, and those updates are automatically sent to your phone when they’re available. So what you see on your S4 may vary slightly from what you see onscreen here, depending on the version of Android you have on your phone. At this writing, the Galaxy S4 comes with Android version 4.3, nicknamed Jelly Bean.

Also, it’s common for the manufacturer to tweak the phone’s interface, sometimes in significant ways. Samsung adds its own TouchWiz interface, which makes many changes to Android. So when you compare the Galaxy S4 to other Android phones, you’ll notice differences.

There’s still another reason why your Galaxy S4 may differ slightly from what you see in this book. This book happens to be written based on the Samsung Galaxy S4 sold for T-Mobile phones, so it may slightly differ from what you see on phones from other carriers.

The first screen you come to asks to select a city to which you want to travel, or else to view popular destinations. To select a city, tap “Select city,” search for the city, and S Travel takes you straight to where you want to go.

If you instead want to choose from popular destinations, life gets a bit more confusing. Start by tapping “Recommended destination.” But when you do that, nothing happens. You must tap the Back button—the one at the top left of your screen in the app, not the normal one at lower right. When you do that, the app sends you straight to a destination of its choosing—you get no say in the matter. But this method might be just the thing when you’re looking for new travel ideas.

Back on your destination’s main screen, you can get similar information about restaurants and things to do. You can also book flights and visit travel forums. The forums offer a wealth of detailed information—if you want to find out whether it’s better to travel between Florence and Sienna by train, bus, or car, for example, they’re the place to go.

WHEN IT COMES TO the basic layout of your Home screen, you’ve got two choices: Standard Mode and Easy Mode. In Standard mode, you see the normal home screen layout described so far in this chapter, with all its widgets and apps. But maybe you don’t want to see all those widgets and apps. Maybe you want something simpler, with big, easy-to-see icons. In that case, you want Easy Mode. On the Home screen, simply tap the Settings button, and then tap “Home screen mode.” On the screen that appears, choose Standard or Easy mode.

HERE’S ONE OF THE many nice things about the Galaxy S4—it’s easy to put your personal mark on it. Wish there were different apps on the Home screen? No problem; you can easily add them. Want to change the location of apps, or move around widgets and add new ones to each of your panes and the Home screen? It’s a breeze. The rest of this section shows you how.

The Home screen and all its panes are much like a prepared canvas, waiting for your Picasso-like touches. Instead of paint, you can add widgets, shortcuts, and folders, and new, original wallpaper.

To do any of the above, the first step is the same: Press and hold your finger anywhere on the Home screen or a pane. A “Home screen” menu appears, with the following options.

The Home screen and panes have limited real estate—there’s only so much you can put on them. In fact, when the phone is factory fresh, the Home screen and panes may already be full. If you try to put something new on them, like an app or a widget, the S4 won’t let you do it. Nothing happens when you hold your finger on the screen or pane. In that case, you have two options: delete apps or widgets (Folders) or create a new pane (Deleting and Adding Panes).

Here’s where the Picasso part comes in. You can add a wallpaper image to the background of your Home screen, just like adding wallpaper to your computer desktop. When you select this option, you’re first asked whether you want to set wallpaper for your Home screen, Lock screen, or both.

If you choose Gallery, you can take any of your own photos (Opening the Gallery) and use it as wallpaper. The Wallpaper choice lets you simply use a static wallpaper. No matter which you choose, you get to preview the wallpaper first. Live wallpapers are backgrounds that change, either because they’re animated or because they grab information from somewhere and then display it as part of the wallpaper background. So the Bubbles wallpaper, for example, displays bubbles rising, falling, growing, and moving across your screen. After you preview it, tap “Set wallpaper,” and you’re set.

When you add wallpaper to your Home screen, it also shows up as the background on all your panes. And when you add it to a pane, it shows up on your Home screen.

If you select a picture from the Gallery, you can crop the photo to fit the screen. The S4 suggests a crop for you. You can change it by moving any of the squares that define the crop. Make your selection, tap Done, and you’ll see only the cropped area fill your screen.

This option lets you add apps or widgets to your Home screen or any pane. A widget is an applet that performs a small, specific task, often grabbing and displaying information from the Galaxy S4 or the Internet. When you select this option, you get sent to the App Drawer, with the Home screen or a pane in the background. You’ll see the familiar tabs along the top—Apps, Widgets, and the download icon. Tap either Apps or Widgets, depending on which you want to add. Swipe to see more apps or widgets if there are more than can fit on one screen. If you want to add an app, hold your finger on it. Then drag it up into the brighter portion of the screen above it and let it go.

When you add an app to your Home screen or a pane, you’re not actually moving that app to the screen or pane. Instead, you’re adding a shortcut to the app, and that’s a good thing. When you tap the shortcut, you run the app, just as if you had tapped it in the App Drawer. But there’s a difference: If you delete the shortcuts on the Home screen or pane, you don’t delete the app itself. It still lives on. But, if you delete the app from the App Drawer, it disappears from your S4.

You can’t customize the App Menu (also called the App Drawer) the same way that you can the Home screen. If you hold your finger on it, nothing happens.

Folders hold information and files, the same way they do on computers. You’ve already got lots of folders on your Galaxy S4, like your folder full of contacts, and bookmarks from your browsers. When you install apps, they may create their own folders as well—the Pandora Internet radio app, for example, creates a folder of your radio stations. You type in a name before placing the folder.

Some widgets can be resized or customized after you add them to your Home screen or pane. Press and hold your finger on a widget and then release it. An outline appears around the widget, with four circles, which are sizing indicators. Move those to resize the widget.

To move a widget, folder, or shortcut, hold your finger on it for a second or two. The pane or Home screen gets outlined, and a small highlight box appears around the widget, folder, or shortcut. Drag it to its new location and take your finger off. That’s where it’ll stay. You can even drag it to another pane—just move toward that edge of the screen.

To delete a widget, folder, or shortcut, also hold your finger on it for a second or two until the highlight box appears. You’ll notice a Delete icon in the shape of a Trash can at the top of the screen. Drag the doomed item to the Trash can. When you see it turn red, release it—it’s gone.

LET’S SAY YOU’VE GOT a pane tricked out with widgets, shortcuts, and folders. You decide that you’d like it all to go—every widget, every shortcut, every folder. Rather than deleting them one by one, you want to delete them in one fell swoop. Just delete the entire pane. So for example, if you had the Home screen and six panes, you’d end up with the Home screen and just five panes. Fear not—you can also add a new pane back.

To delete a pane, when you’re on the Home screen or a pane, tap the Menu key and select “Edit page.” Thumbnails of the Home screen and all the panes appear, including even smaller thumbnails of the widgets, shortcuts, and folders on each. At the top of the screen, you see a trash icon.

WITH THE GALAXY S4, your fingers do the walking. They do all the work that you do on a computer with a mouse or keyboard. Here are the eight finger strokes you can use on the phone’s screen.

Tapping is as basic to the S4 as clicking is to a mouse. This simple gesture is how you press onscreen buttons, place the cursor for text entry, and choose from menus. Note that’s a finger tap; the screen is designed to detect a fleshy fingertip, not a stylus.

Touch an object and hold it for several seconds, and depending on what you’re holding, an option menu may appear. For example, when you touch and hold the Home screen, a menu appears that lets you add an object such as a widget, change your wallpaper, and so on. You also touch and hold an object as a way to grab onto it if you then want to drag the object somewhere.

Slide your finger across the screen to perform some specific tasks, like unlocking your phone after it’s been put into Standby mode, or answering a call if the phone is locked. You’ll also use the sliding motion to move through all five panes.

Think of the flick as a faster slide, done vertically when scrolling through a list, like your contacts list. The faster you make the flicking motion, the faster your screen scrolls—sometimes too fast. You can stop the motion, though, by touching the screen again.

In many apps, such as Google Maps, Mail, Browser, and the Gallery, you can zoom in by spreading your fingers—placing your thumb and forefinger on the screen and spreading them apart. The amount you spread your fingers will determine the amount you zoom in.

LOOK MOM, NO HANDS! No longer is that only the cry of a child showing off riding a bicycle without touching the handlebars. You can do the same thing with your S4. Amazingly enough, you can control it by just moving your hands without touching the screen, or more remarkably, simply moving your eyes.

These are probably the most mind-boggling new features added to the S4. All you need to do is move your eyes to control the screen. And it’s so easy, that you don’t really need to do anything except what comes naturally, because they follow the way you normally move your eyes when you read.

Smart Scroll. When this is turned on, the S4 uses its camera and software magic to let you scroll through screens and web pages by merely tilting your head. Tilt your head down to scroll down, and up to scroll up. You’ll know Smart Scroll is turned on when you see an eye icon in the status bar. If you prefer, you can instead tilt the S4 forward or back to scroll. But what fun is that?

Smart Stay. This fixes one of the most common annoyances with a smartphone. You’re doing something on the phone, but you haven’t touched the screen for a while, so the screen turns off. Smart Stay fixes that. As long as you’re looking at the phone, it stays on. (Smart Stay is the only feature that’s not brand-new with the S4. It’s been around since the S3, but it works better now.)

Smart Pause. Here’s another very cool feature. While you’re watching a video, if you look away from the screen, the S4 pauses the video. Look back and the video starts playing again.

Here’s another way to control the S4 without touching the screen. You just make gestures above it, like a magician on stage. Air gestures don’t work everywhere on the S4, since apps have to be built to recognize them. So you may need to do some experimentation before you find the ones that do. At this writing, that includes email and the browser.

Quick glance. If your S4 is on a flat surface, facing up, with its screen turned off move your hand to above the sensor and you’ll be able to see various pieces of status information, like missed calls, unread messages, your battery power, and others.

Air move. Move icons to other panes and screens by holding down the icon with the finger of one hand, then moving your other hand to the right or left across the sensor.

This feature, which originated on the Samsung Galaxy Note II, lets you hover your finger over the S4 to get information from it. For example, hovering over a web page magnifies it, hovering over a picture in the Gallery opens it, hovering over a Calendar event reveals more details about it, hovering over a truncated text message reveals the full message, and so on.

To turn on Air view, see the full list of what you can do, and customize it, go to the Home screen or pane, tap the Menu key and select Settings→My device→“Air view.” Slide the “Air view” button to On to turn it on, and Off to turn it off. Tap the words “Air view” when it’s turned on to select which actions you want to be able to take by hovering your finger and then customize them.

Multi Window is an S4 feature you could easily miss—but don’t. It lets you do more than one thing on the phone at the same time. For example, watch a video while your also checking your email. What could be handier?

Right out of the box, Multi Window is turned on. To use it, when you’re doing something, like browsing the Gallery or viewing a photo, press and hold the Back key. A menu appears down the right-hand side of the screen, with icons for a variety of apps: web browser, email, text messaging, and so on.

Drag the icon of the app you want to use (in addition to the one you’re currently using) to a portion of the screen, and then drop it there. The second app opens, so you have two apps open on your screen simultaneously.

Drag the separator between the two windows to change the relative size of each app on screen. Hold down the separator and then release your finger, and you’ll display a set of Multi Window controls. They let you switch the relative position of the windows, make one of the windows full-screen, or close down either of them.

Multi Window has a menu that you can pull up even when you’re not using Multi Window. Press and hold the Back key, and you see a small semi-circle on the left side of the screen. Tap it to bring up the menu: tap it again to make the menu recede. If you’d like to stop the semi-circle from appearing, hold down the back key. That won’t turn off Multi Window; it just makes the semi-circle stop appearing. To bring it back and display the menu, hold down the back key once more.

NEW YORK/SEOUL, March 15 (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co premiered its latest flagship phone, the Galaxy S4, which sports a bigger display and unconventional features such as gesture controls, as the South Korean titan challenges Apple Inc on its home turf.

The phone, the first in the highly successful Galaxy S-series to make its global standalone debut on U.S. soil, was unwrapped at Manhattan’s iconic Radio City Music Hall on Thursday evening. Some industry watchers were clearly dazzled by its features, setting a high bar for Apple to surpass.

The S4 can stop and start videos depending on whether someone is looking at the screen, flip between songs and photos at the wave of a hand, and record sound to run alongside snapped still pictures. But other industry watchers said the phone would not overturn an industry that lives and dies by innovation.

The S4, which Samsung preceded with a marketing blitz that drummed up industry speculation reminiscent of some of Apple’s past launches, will be available by the end of April and rolled out to 327 carriers in 155 countries, including U.S. service providers Verizon Wireless , AT&T Inc, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile USA.

The S4 will use either Samsung’s own applications processor or Qualcomm Inc’s Snapdragon central processing chip, depending on the country. But the Korean company kept mum on exact dates and prices.

Samsung took a slightly different tack with the S4’s launch, using actors and a full live orchestra to present the smartphone’s various features via a series of skits - as perhaps befitted its theatrical platform.

Samsung said the Galaxy S4 will sport a bigger 5-inch display than the S3’s 4.8 inches. But because the new display will cover more of the phone’s surface area, the device itself will be the same length and slightly narrower, thinner and lighter than the previous generation.

The newest features involve different options for navigation. For example, if the phone senses someone is looking at the screen, the user can tilt it forward or backwards to scroll up and down a Web page.

But what it can do is sense when it has someone’s attention. When a video is playing, for instance, the stream will automatically pause if the person glances away and it will restart when the eyes refocus on the screen.

The idea is to make it easier to change the song playing without having to pick up the phone while driving or to avoid putting sticky fingers on the touch-screen display while scrolling through a Web page at mealtimes.