Who’s afraid of the big, bad S4?

Everything about the Galaxy S4 is so confidential, I’m beginning to wonder if this day is real life or fantasy. We’ll know at 730 then!” I tweeted over a week ago.

I had found myself on a snap trip to New York, with a few other members of the local press, to witness the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S4. On March 14, less than a year after the Galaxy S3 was unveiled in London, the brand’s latest flagship smartphone was — as the launch title goes — “Unpacked” to a packed house at the Radio City Music Hall.

While Samsung used to be the kind of brand that would launch major products with little fanfare, the traction it’s gained in recent years — they’re now second only to Apple in the global smartphone market — has spurred the cult around the brand to snowball into a full-blown annual tech event. The brand’s current profile is such that everything about the phone prior to the event was under strict confidentiality. Members of the press who sampled the phone were asked to sign a five-hour-long gag order.

And rightfully so. The pre-release hype for the S4 was unlike any other Samsung gadget thus far. Rumors about the smartphone’s features ran rampant online, the subject of countless message board threads and Twitter conversations.

Galaxy wars

And while Samsung’s own pre-release hype helped — including guerilla performances in high-traffic areas as well as prominent billboards (“BE READY 4 THE NEXT GALAXY”) — the competition’s own efforts really sealed the deal. On top of Samsung’s billboard in Times Square, LG took one out that said “LG Optimus G is here 4 you now,” mimicking the Samsung ad and effectively photobombing the S4.

On the other hand, Apple uncharacteristically struck back a few days before the launch in media interviews: “Android is often given as a free replacement for a feature phone and the experience isn’t as good as an iPhone,” Apple senior vice president of marketing Phil Schiller told The Wall Street Journal. Apple also posted a new iPhone 5 marketing page on its website entitled “There’s iPhone. And then there’s everything else.” Of course, with the perceived industry leader visibly shaken and fighting back to gain what it seems to see as lost traction, you begin to wonder: Is the new Samsung Galaxy S4 really that good?

That question was drilled into my head later on when after a day of conducting “confidential” interviews and watching pre-release hype unfold online (including leaks and speculative blog entries), I lined up in the cold with my colleagues at the Radio City Music Hall only to find HTC’s promo team doing their best to steal some of the spotlight. It was an interesting marketing strategy, going around the lines of people waiting to see the new Samsung phone and try to steal some thunder by distributing hot chocolate, coffee, and cup noodles. At the end, while enjoying my hot cup of cocoa, all I could really think was, Wow, if they’re going to this much trouble, this phone must be amazing.

When we asked Samsung Asia president and chief executive Gregory Lee earlier about the increasingly cutthroat competition, especially the Schiller interview two days before, he said, “I cannot comment on our competitors. None of our answers are related to any of our competitions… We’re a global player.”

Lee, for one, believes that despite coming so soon after the S3, the market is willing and able. “(They) are always the first to switch, I think, people who have to have the latest,” he said. “We’re not sourcing from one area of consumers, but from different areas.”

Chase the competition

After a long wait, we made our way into Radio City Music Hall to find Broadway actor Will Chase opening the show. Chase, who played Debra Messing’s lover in the series Smash, brought out a coterie of theater talents in a tribute to New York’s Great White Way. While the song-and-dance proved a welcome distraction, Samsung president and head of IT and mobile communications division JK Shin eventually came out and delivered his keynote address. “Unpacking” the new prize in the Samsung portfolio, Shin discussed the phone’s features to an eager audience.

In the end, all the buzz around the phone proved prescient. The photos that leaked earlier that day on tech website Mobile IT168 seemed to get it right. Features like the wireless charging and eye tracking functionality aside, most of the things the rumor mill predicted were there.

While the S4 looks very similar to the S3, Samsung’s latest is 7.9 mm thick versus the S3’s 8.6 mm. A marked characteristic of the S4 though, is the world’s first full HD Super AMOLED display, in a five-inch large screen with 441 pip for impressive visual quality.

The S4 also has the “Dual Camera” function, allowing simultaneous use of both front and rear cameras, as well as “Dual Video Call,” thanks to a 13 megapixel rear camera.

Meanwhile, the Drama Shots allows you to make animated GIFs on the spot — handy for any Internet troll, of course. The “Erase” feature also proves an effective antidote to photobombers. You can literally erase an unwanted head in a shot. Photoshop on-the-go, if you will.

The Group Play function makes me recall the good old days of Gameboy cables, when I’d link up Gameboys with friends and share games. There’s no need to link up now. You don’t even need Wi-Fi or signal. You can share and play games, music, and files with up to eight S4 users.

For jetsetters, there’s the S Translator, which allows you to translate in over 10 languages.

My favorite function of the S4 has to be Smart Pause. For this generation’s A.D.D.-prone youth, Samsung has conceptualized a feature that recognizes when your eye shifts while watching videos. It automatically pauses the moment your eyes shift and comes back when your eyes return.

Of course, the features that really make the phone worth your time are the touchless gestures. I’ll call it telekinesis.

For the S4, that means being able to scroll through pages without touching the phone as well as answering calls without any contact. Air Gesture and Air View allow you to operate and preview by hovering over the screen. Really, Marty McFly would be jealous.

Future games

Earlier in the day, Gregory Lee said in his interview with us:  “We’re in a very early stage of smartphone development. In the future, smartphones will get better and better where it’s going to do so many things than what it’s doing today… Technology is moving so fast there’s always that desire to want to own the next thing.” That rang through my head as I watched the S4 unpacked.

Growing up, I always thought The Future would look like kids skating on air, cars flying, and robot dressers. Blame the movies. Blame Michael J. Fox. But in a packed hall in New York City at the tail end of winter, it sure looked like The Future could fit into my pocket.