Samsung Galaxy S4 Accessories Hands-On Review

We’re still slowly trying to wrap our heads around last night’s Samsung Galaxy S4 reveal as there was just an insane amount of information dumped onto the public all at once. But Samsung did not only unveil the Galaxy S4 as they also showed off a number of accessories that will work with their newly announced smartphone, as well as some other Galaxy S devices.

S Health Scale

One of the first accessories for the Galaxy S4 we saw was Samsung’s scale, that would be used as a companion accessory to the S4’s S Health application. As you would expect, the scale can help you keep tabs on your weight loss or gain and input it into S Health via Bluetooth. We weren’t informed if the scale would do anything outside of simply weighing you and helping you record that number to your Galaxy S4, which we would hope it does more since that can pretty much be done manually with any scale you own.

Wireless Charging Pad

Wireless charging is slowly starting to become the preferred method of charging mobile devices in recent years, and Samsung is finally introducing its first wireless charging pad with the Galaxy S4. The Galaxy S4 is equipped with Qi wireless charging capabilities and will be able to charge itself by simply placing it atop the wireless charging pad. A Samsung representative made sure I was aware the S4 could charge itself regardless what angle it was placed on the pad by flipping it around in a number of directions. This would probably be most helpful to people who tend to empty out their pockets all at once, hoping their S4 will land on their wireless charging pad.

Samsung Wireless Gamepad

As we mentioned last night, Samsung’s wireless gamepad features dual analog sticks, a D-Pad, shoulder buttons, runs on 2-AAA batteries and connects to the Galaxy S4 via Bluetooth. The gamepad feels comfortable in the hands as it feels just right in the hands. Both analog sticks mimic the analog stick found on the Nintendo 3DS, which is less of a full-analog stick as it hugs the controller more. The controller’s D-Pad didn’t click as much as I would like in a D-Pad as it rolled around to input the directions I was having it perform. If I had to relate it to a console controller, it definitely reminded me of the Xbox 360’s D-Pad, which is a D-Pad I’ve despised for years because of its rolling nature.

The game that was demoed with the wireless gamepad was Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode II, which ran super smooth on the Galaxy S4. The delay between inputs on the gamepad to the actions performed in the game were nonexistent as every input resulted in an immediate response, which is crucial in a game like Sonic where responsiveness is crucial. And with the wireless gamepad promising to allow for up to 100 hours of gaming on just 2-AAA batteries, you can be sure you’ll be using it for a while before needing a fresh set of batteries.

Daniel Perez
Categories: Cellphones, Reviews
Tags: Accessories, Bluetooth, Galaxy S4, gamepad, Samsung, wireless charging