>>The Samsung Galaxy S4 introduction lives up to the hype-filled anticipation.

>>The Samsung Galaxy S4 introduction lives up to the hype-filled anticipation.

and

>>Samsung Galaxy S4 Unveiled: Spectacular Specs & Innovative Features

Really? I've not read any other outlet claiming that Samsung lived up to their own hype.

Gizmodo:

>>Samsung Galaxy S IV Hands On: Everything New Is Old Again

The Verge:

>>These are mostly small improvements, though, and in some ways the Galaxy S4 feels like an upgrade designed less for people who own the previous generation and more for those looking for a first smartphone, or upgrading from a two-year-old device.

>>"Air Gestures" let you scroll through pictures or scroll a webpage by literally swiping with your hand, without touching the screen — you just sweep from left to right over top of the phone, and it responds. It looks ridiculous, but it works. "Air View" gives your finger the power to hover over an email or date and see the information hidden behind, which previously only the Note and S Pen combination could handle. Those both work surprisingly well, though they’re certainly as much gimmick as game-changer. From our limited testing, "Smart Pause" and "Smart Scroll" skew more toward gimmick — they’re supposed to detect your eyes, and either pause your movie when you look away or scroll when you reach the bottom of a page, but neither worked much at all in our time with the GS4.

I dunno. Given that I watched at least 2 preview videos of a kid carrying a glowing box that held a device in his "favorite color" (white or black, apparently) and a promise that something amazing was about to happen, I'm a bit amazed that your takeaway is that they matched their own hype.

To make the obvious quip: Apple doesn't tell anyone anything, and people invent hype that Apple doesn't live up to and get disappointed. Samsung fashions hype in house that they don't live up to and you applaud?

You say:

>>Perhaps the most anticipated feature is Samsung Smart Scroll, which is designed to let users control the screen by where they look. You can scroll the browser or emails up and down without even touching the screen. "It recognizes your face looking at the screen and movement of your wrist and then scrolls the pages up or down accordingly."

Except, that's not what I was anticipating, or what tech blogs seemed to be anticipating. I read all about a feature that saw where your eyes were and scrolled based on that, not based on a wrist flick. Nevermind that the Verge says it doesn't work worth a damn.

And, of course, we'll need to wait for the full review. Battery life. Screen quality. Smoothness. Do these new features work or are they something anyone will use? None of that is contained in "spectacular specs".

Given that Samsung didn't appear to provide any live usage of the product in question -- those appeared to be pre-shot videos? -- I'm not hopeful.

Also, from a purely subjective point of view: I found the entire presentation to be unfunny and cloying.