Since it arrived last year, the Galaxy S III has been the world's best-selling, non-Apple smartphone. An impressive feat, but of course, this only builds expectations for the sequel, as does Samsung's Megatron-sized hype-machine.

It's good to be king, especially when Samsung knows that it reached the top position after some early missteps. The Behold didn't earn the Korean manufacturer many friends, but the Galaxy S showed that Samsung could twist Android's software just enough to combine interesting features with...

Polished hardware and software; Improves upon winning formula; Powerful quad-core processor; User-replaceable battery; Great camera; Expandable storage

Plastic design is not for everyone, particularly on a flagship phone; HTC One delivers tough competition

The simple truth is that the Galaxy S4 and high-end rivals the HTC One and iPhone 5 are all excellent, highly recommended phones. The One and iPhone 5 have stronger design points of view with focused, flagship features. The HTC One is about Blinkfeed, Watch, and Zoe.

A blinding number of features; Incredibly fast; Ships with Android 4.2.2; Relatively small for its display size

Plastic body; Low light photo performance isn't so hot

The Galaxy S3 firmly moved Android phones from iPhone wannabes to fully-fledged iPhone alternatives, matching Apple's baby in terms of performance and many features, and in the process became the best-selling Android phone in the world.

Slim and light; terrific screen; powerful processor; very good camera; loads of features

Possibly too many features; mono (not stereo) speaker; no HDMI port

Gutsy and powerful; Lush screen;

Underwhelming design; New gestures a bit gimmicky;

Samsung has done an exceptional job the past few years building interest and recognition for their Galaxy-branded smartphones. The fervor isn't quite on the level of Apple's iPhone launches, but if the attendance of their " Samsung Unpacked " event at Radio City Music Hall and the buzz on-line for...

You'd think Samsung's gameplan for this year would be pretty simple after shifting more than 50 million Galaxy S3s . Make last year's stonkingly successful phone slightly bigger and slightly better, sell bucketloads, then kick back and blow raspberries at the competition until 2014 rolls around.

Gutsy and powerful; Lush screen

Underwhelming design; New gestures a bit gimmicky

The list of cool things the Galaxy S4 can do is astonishing. Right out of the box, without downloading a single app, you can perform a plethora of magic tricks. It follows your eyes, and it will pause a video if it senses you looking away.

Everything you loved about the S III, but more of it; Big battery lasts all day; Super AMOLED 1080×1920 screen is one of the sharpest you can buy, and it uses the new, more durable Gorilla Glass 3; MHL 2.0 port lets you connect to an HDTV; Crisp daylight photos.

Samsung's software is big bag of "why?" Construction is cheap, and there's nothing exotic or inspiring about the hardware design; Camera software is kludgy, and low-light shots get noisy quickly; Pricing varies widely (see above) but leans toward expensive

The Galaxy S 4 is a solid improvement over the GS3, and the best Samsung device we've ever used, but we'd love to see Samsung come up with a fresh design and premium look.

Superb 1080p Super AMOLED display; Camera takes impressive daylight shots; Snapdragon 600 delivers solid performance; Battery life better than most flagships

Several new features are impractical and half-baked; Boring overall design without premium look or feel

The Samsung Galaxy line of smartphones is a juggernaut; like the iPhone, the next generation will sell well based simply on brand loyalty, trust and familiarity. Even so, the Samsung Galaxy S4 has a lot to offer, and though I wasn't overwhelmed with love for the Galaxy S III, the S4 is seriously...

Huge display in a not so huge phone; excellent camera; removable battery; entertaining new features

Feature overload; only 9 gigs of internal storage on 16 gig model; still slippery