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Hey everyone, Isa here!
And today I've got a review of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Play Edition.
You can buy the unlocked, 16GB version from the Google Play store for around six-hundred-fifty-dollars.
The Galaxy S4 Play edition is essentially a copy of the carrier version -- and on the
outside, you can barely tell the difference.
The Play edition is available from the Play store only in white, so you don't have a lot
of options.
The hardware is pretty much the same as the regular -- carrier version S4, with the exception
of the phone running stock Android.
To see how this phone performs next to the carrier version S4, I ran a few benchmarks.
In Geekbench; to my surprise, the carrier version S4 beat the Play edition by 24 points.
In real life performance, I can honestly say that the Play edition experiences less lag,
and is overall a lot snappier.
One of the biggest pros to choosing the play edition over the carrier version is because
updates to Android come directly from Google.
Also keep in mind that because the Play edition is an unlocked phone, the absence of carrier
applications and software does make an impact on storage.
When it comes to storage, the carrier version S4 leaves 9GB out of the available 16GB, and
the Play edition leaves a mouth-watering 12GB, which is obviously much better.
However, both of these phones have support for a microSD card up to 64GB.
In terms of battery life, the S4 is packing a 2,600 mAh battery that with extensive testing,
the Play edition S4 does get me around 10 to 20% more to play with than the carrier
version S4.
Most likely because of the absence of all the power-hungry TouchWiz features.
Because TouchWiz is nowhere to be found on the Play edition S4, we lose a ton of the
fun camera features that carrier version has.
However, the stock Android camera isn't at all that bad, as you'll get some cool features
like PhotoSphere and Panorama.
In the end, anyone that wants to save on storage, and have an overall snappier experience with
their phone, will probably be happier with the Play edition S4.
But if you like the bells and whistles that TouchWiz brings to the table, and you don't
mind skins, you'll most likely be best with the carrier version.
So that pretty much wraps up my comparison and review of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Play Edition.
Thanks for watching, and I'll see you, in the next video!