Isn't anyone impressed by some of the revolutionary things Samsung has done with the GS4?
When it comes to android, there are 4 major manufacturers.
Samsung
HTC
LG
Motorola
Of these HTC is known for bulky builds, and an old idea of luxury, the One X and now One series, have done absolutely nothing but have tiny non removable batteries, non expandable storage, nothing special with screens, overall they are just normal. Plus they are fragmented, there's the One, Droid DNA, J Butterfly, etc.
LG made the Nexus 4 and Optimus G, they also have small non removable batteries, and aside from getting the S4 Pro SoC, the phones aren't too impressive. They got 13 MP cameras, but not good quality ones.
Motorola, The only competitor who is truly offering something competitive, Motorola has been putting in good build quality and design with expandable storage. They don't make revolutionary phones on size, but they do make pretty good phones, and their claim to fame is the 3300mah MAXX line for Razr Phones, both thin and high battery capacity.
Now what Samsung has done is nothing short of miraculous. They took the giant batteries of Motorola, but managed to keep the battery as removable. The put 2600mah into a 7.9mm device, the droid razr hd is 2500mah at 8.4mm for comparison, and 9.3mm for 3300mah in the razr maxx hd. So basically samsung had outdone the battery kings, I bet an extended 3500mah battery could make the phone only 9.5mm or so thick.
On top of this, Samsung has taken the wireless charging of phones like the Nexus 4, and somehow crammed that in too, and put in a 13MP camera, to compete with the high end of other lines.
Furthermore, Samsung made this phone smaller, it is the same height, and slightly less wide, despite a bigger screen. It is the smallest phone with a 5" screen and is smaller than all of the 4.7 and 4.8" screen phones, let alone the 5" ones. If that isn't impressive, I don't know what is.
Now yes they didn't change the design much, but there wasn't much to change, they have always used plastic, that much is certain not to change, there is borderline no bezel or anything to this device, and they did change the look on the front bezel and it look cool, and the side of the phone looks cool as far as I'm concerned too. The only downside is sticking with the shiny slippers backplate. Something more like Motorola's carbon fiber design would be much cooler.
Overall though, Samsung is basically kicking butt, they have managed to beat or match their competitors in every field possible. Unlike their competitors, there isn't a single thing the GS4 has to give up, it has it all, in the best possible package. The only downside at all is the plastic, if you care about that, but the truth is, most people don't really, if they did, samsung would have moved away from it as a building material years ago.
Now if someone can tell me what the competition has to offer now, or what they could possibly offer in the future that bests this phone, I'd love to hear it, because aside from a more powerful SoC or more RAM, all of which is guaranteed for later phones, I don't think Samsung did anything wrong. Engineering-wise, they have made a true marvel.