Samsung is a strange company. Only shortly after releasing their flagship Galaxy S4, the Active comes along as a form of apology to what the S4 should have been.
The Similarities
The Active and the S4 are nearly identical when it comes to specs. It is loaded with the same TouchWiz interface, more functions than you would probably ever use (or find in the menus), an absurd amount of camera modes, and much the most of the hardware specs. All other things equal, using both the S4 and the Active is an identical experience.
Where Similarities End
While the software and performance are identical, the Active is built to be resistant to both water and dust. The build feels sturdy, with a higher quality plastic back cover, rubberised base and top, and hard keys. It is an aesthetically better looking phone than the flagship S4 — particularly in the orange colour — and feels more premium, too.
The hard keys need some getting used to at first (and if you are coming from a fully capacitative phone, like the HTC, you will know why) but it becomes natural after a while. That said, the menu button has proved difficult to reach and is less sensitive than the other buttons — at least in the unit I had — requiring more deliberate than intuitive usage.
Another aspect of the phone that really stands out, though, is the screen: Samsung ditched the AMOLED and opted for a TFT panel, and it baffles the mind why Samsung continues using AMOLED. Sure, the blacks are deeper, but AMOLED screens are too saturated to be real and the blue tint has always been a thorn on the side of otherwise a great screen. The Active displays beautiful, real colours with great white balance (cooler than the iPhone and HTC) and is sharp and responsive. It is gorgeous to look at and use.
Where the Active is overshadowed by the flagship S4 is the camera. While not bad by any means, you will notice the difference between in bringing down the resolution to 8MP. Again, it is not bad by any means — but comparing it to the S4, it certainly is a bummer, considering the phone’s target are outdoorsy folk who are very likely to be taking plenty of photos of their adventures.
False Expectations
While the phone is great overall — and is better than the S4 in many respects — there are oddities which should have been thought of and addressed in the design. Being marketed as a waterproof phone, it is very easy to fall into the trap of not reading the fine print: you have to make absolutely sure that the ports are closed and that the cover is properly sealed. These are extra steps that you should do yourself every time you want to take a dip into the pool, essentially putting yourself at risk of drowning your phone if even a tiny portion of the cover has not been sealed properly. If you change SIM cards and batteries frequently, this becomes a real problem. Samsung could have — and should have — circumvented this by making a uni-body phone.
Which brings us to the next point: the phone is not as durable as it looks. The strong plastic and the rubber may feel rugged, but in reality they function as an aesthetic feature rather than a solution to a problem. Dropping the phone will likely result in the cover falling off. Drop the phone next to water, and you risk your exposed phone drowning — which has happened, and now my phone is sitting in a bowl of rice, awaiting revival. Do not expect this to be a Nokia 3310, able to be dropped, flung across the room, or otherwise be subjected to physical abuse. This is still more of a fashion phone rather than a GoPro camera. It is not recommended that you go diving in the sea with the phone; all the phone really offers is for you to feel safe having it around the pool and for you to take a couple of snaps before putting it back outside said pool.
Should You Buy It?
If you are looking for a Samsung phone, then you can’t go wrong with the Active. It has all the features of the flagship phone (sans a drop in megapixels), better screen, better built quality, and is also water and dust resistant if you are using common sense and being careful. While Samsung should have thought of a uni-body design and make the Active more durable, overall, the it feels as though this is what the flagship S4 should have been.
