So I've had this phone for about 5 days now and I have very mixed feelings about it. Previous to this I owned an iPhone 3 and iPhone 4 so my review is going to be based on my experience with Apple products. I played with my S4 phone and an iPhone 5 in store.
Construction: The iPhone 4 and 5 feel SOLID. Aluminum chassis and glass on the front and back make it feel very durable. You feel more confident handing it. The Samsung has a flimsy plastic backing held on with tabs and feels VERY fragile. I'm afraid to even put it in my pant pocket for fear that it would break. Taking the back cover off, the battery just falls out.
Screen:
The screen seems dull almost like it's a demo phone with a fake pic instead of a screen. But this is mostly because I'm spoiled by my iPhone 4's screen which is very high contrast and punchy. I should have uploaded the pic before I left but when you lay the iPhone 4 beside the S4 the screen of the iPhone just makes the S4 look dull. When you are watching videos or looking at pics they look more realistic on the S4 but looking at the same pics on the iPhone 4 makes you say "wow". The iPhone 5 is even better because there is no pixilation. The iPhone 4's resolution is noticeably lower than the iPhone 5 and S4. My kids much prefer the look of the iPhone 4 over the S4 because of its contrast.
Network and Browsing:
My iPhone 4 was on the 3G network which was painfully slow for me. Even loading pages on Wi-Fi was slow. The S4 by comparison is lightning fast but when compared to an iPhone 5 it seemed like the iPhone 5 was about 1/2 a second faster despite having a slower processor.
Special apps:
Siri on iPhone5 lags way behind the S4 here. The S-voice on the S4 is deadly accurate for voice/speech recognition. I can say "Text Sandra, I'm going to be a few minutes late because Titan ate the neighbour's dog and I'm waiting for him to poop him out" and it will get every word correct and it will text Sandra with that message. The iPhone5's Siri is good as well but seems like it can't do as much as the S4 can when it comes to voice control.
The S4 has face recognition which allows you to unlock your phone with your face, scroll up and down in web pages by tilting your head up or down, and pause video when you look away from the phone. None of these work reliably in anything but a brightly lit room and even then it's not very reliable. I'd rather leave these features turned off. The hand gesture thing where you wave your hand over the phone to answer or flip pages works again only in a brightly lit room and only if your hand goes directly over the sensor at the top of the phone at the right speed; another feature to leave off.
Video chat is very annoying. On my iPhone 4 I simply click CONTACTS, then click on the person's name I want to Facetime with, and then click FACETIME. It connects and works almost flawlessly as long as you have a good Wi-Fi signal. With the Samsung you have to download Hangouts or some other video chatting program first. My wife has an S4 as well so we tried Chat On and Hangouts (by Google). In order to video chat through Hangouts, which was the most recommended program for video chatting by users, you must first setup a Gmail account and make sure the other person has one as well. I tried 16 times in a row to video chat with my wife before it successfully connected. It kept giving me or my wife errors saying the other person didn't have Hangouts or wasn't available when we were sitting next to one another. We found what worked was DISABLING or DELETING your Hotmail email address from Hangouts and only leaving Gmail there. When you look at the people that are allowed to video chat with through Hangouts it only shows people from my Gmail whom I've ever emailed. NO ONE from my phone contact list which is the opposite of iPhone which allows you to facetime with any other iPhone user regardless of what generation phone he/she has.
Screen mirroring or displaying media from your phone to a smart TV is annoying, slow, buggy, and unpolished. It seems like Samsung just made this feature available because they figured out how to do it without really perfecting it. Apple on the other hand, in my opinion, only offers services like this when they can perfect them and make them bug free. Apple isn't perfect either though. The Apple maps thing is still atrocious.
When I want to save and email a pic from Facebook on the Samsung I must sync it to galleries first and then download it and then use another program to email it. If I want to rotate the pic first I must use a fourth program. With the iPhone 4 (again this is last generation's phone), I simply hold my finger on the pic, download it, then open it up in gallery, click edit, click rotate, click save, click email, done. All using 2 programs and it takes about half as much time on this 4 yr. old phone than the Samsung.
Navigation/GPS:
Samsung definitely has this in spades. GPS navigation/maps, and Google Now...very impressive. Apple isn't even in the game when it comes to these services. I'm really happy with Samsung for these. Works flawlessly and effortlessly.
Bloatware:
This Samsung Galaxy S4 is a 16 GB phone. Out of the 16 GB I have less than 9 GB for myself. So the system and bloatware take up 7 GB??? WTF?? On the iPhone 4 the system and bloatware take up maybe 3 GB. The 32 GB one isn't available yet. I have a 64 GB SD card on the S4 which is nice but on the 32 GB iPhone 4 I never felt a need for an SD card. Never ran out of space despite my kids taking THOUSANDS of pics with it.
So over the weekend I rooted the Samsung which was VERY easy. A lot less complicated than the iPhones. Took me all of 4 minutes as a newbie.
I deleted all the Samsung and Rogers (my phone service provider) apps. Big mistake. It's too early on and there aren't any programs that work better than what Samsung or Rogers offers in regards to S-Voice, voicemail, and speech to text. I ended up loading a lot of them back in...ugh.
Battery life:
The Samsung Galaxy S4 has a 2600 mAh battery. My old iPhone 4 has a 1420 mAh battery. I'm a heavy cell phone user and by the end of the work day my iPhone 4 will still have 30-40% power. With BARELY using the Samsung S4 the battery was at 15% within 7 hrs. If I don't touch my iPhone 4, after 8 hrs. it shows 99% battery life. Now people will say, well turn off this and that. But why should I have to when I don't on the iPhone?? Forget about tethering or using it as a Wi-Fi hotspot or Bluetoothing. HUGE drain on the Samsung's battery. Bluetoothing or Wi-Fi hotspotting with the iPhone will leave me with 20-30% power at the end of the day (8 hrs.) while Samsung will be long dead before 5 hrs. are up. I've turned off all the Wi-Fi, sync, and other services on my Samsung while employing battery saving techniques and it still sucks way more juice than the iPhone 4 where I do nothing to save battery power.
Overall:
I like the customization aspect of the S4. I like the widgets, live wallpaper, and different home screens. I'm a big Google fan but I don't appreciate it being rammed down my throat. People bitch about iTunes but Google/Android isn't any better. I would even say they are WORSE. The reason I bought the S4 was because I think it has the perfect sized screen, and has lots of neat customization features. I still very much like the phone. I just wish it had a better battery, less bloatware, more storage space, and a more complete OS that handled everything for you so you didn't have to open and close multiple programs to do the same action on an iPhone. I really wish Apple had come out with a better phone to battle with the Samsung S4. The iPhone 5 wasn't really leaps and bounds ahead of the iPhone 4S in my opinion which is why I went to Android. Plus the bigger screen is much nicer on the Samsung. The iPhone 5's screen looks weird and videos playing on it have a strange border on the side because of the off ratio. I don't regret buying the Samsung. Just wish Apple had a better product. Maybe in 2-3 years.
One more thing I forgot to mention...
Samsung Kies Sync/Recovery tool for the PC. The Phone suggests you use Samsung Kies to download new firmware, backup your apps, etc.
WORST PROGRAM EVER.
Tried it some 10-12 times last night. NEVER WORKED ONCE at ANYTHING. Sometimes doesn't recognize the phone even though the PC does. I'm running Windows 7 with the correct drivers. PC always says my phone's name etc. Kies is clueless. Can't sync, can't see the phone, etc. When it does see the phone it crashes during back up.
GARBAGE.
I ended up using Odin. Click, click, done.
93 Camaro Z28 (The fast one)
01 Trans Am WS6 (The cute one)
Esla T6 Dog Sled (Not cute, not fast, scary as hell)
Originally posted by faiz999 i completely disagree with ure assessment of the s4 screen. its far from dull and probably the best screen on a phone ever.
everything else is debatable, but i havent handled the s4 enough to agree or disagree.
I'll post a pic tonight of the iPhone 4 (not 5) sitting next to the S4. Both set on max brightness and auto brightness off.
93 Camaro Z28 (The fast one)
01 Trans Am WS6 (The cute one)
Esla T6 Dog Sled (Not cute, not fast, scary as hell)
I also disagree. I had the iphone 4s and even my samsung galaxy s3's screen is noticeably sharper with better colour. I can't imagine the s4 having a worse screen. I don`t have a picture of it, but I did a side by side comparison between my dad`s girlfriend`s iphone 4s, and my sisters nexus 4, and the S3 was noticeably better with richer colours.
I completely agree with kies though. I don't understand how they can release such a piece of shit. With Itunes, you were able to do a full phone back up as soon as the iphone came out. Samsung has had quite a few years to work on it, and you still can't do a full phone back up. You can back up some contacts and random stuff like that, but still not a full back up with all your settings. It's stupid little OS difficulties like this that makes me consider going back to iOS. If only the iphone 5 wasn't so damn small compared to even the S3.
And yes, I know you can do a full back up if you root your phone, but you shouldn`t have to resort to essentially hacking your phone just to do a full back up.
same boat as OP. Galaxy note 2, screen is great, but when I take a picture and send it, it shows up as video and you cant zoom. also tons of apps download themselves, and gmail emails remove themselves after viewing.
I am looking for trade to iphone 5 for my mint note2 with extra battery.
The resolution and sharpness of the S4 is better but the overall look of the screen looks dull and the colours look placid. The iPhone's sharpness and resolution is meh but when you look at the screen it jumps out at you and looks punchy. You guys will see later when I post the pic. Give me 4 hrs.
93 Camaro Z28 (The fast one)
01 Trans Am WS6 (The cute one)
Esla T6 Dog Sled (Not cute, not fast, scary as hell)
never understood the "plastic" feel thing. I want my phone to be as light and "plasticy" as possible. I don't know anybody that doesn't put a cover on their phone anyway. Sleek aluminum just makes the phone slippery and easy to drop. That's about the last thing i'm looking for in a phone. The most important things are specs (CPU, GPU, RAM), connectivity (usb, hdmi etc.) , removable battery, support for microsd and size of screen depending on what I need to use the device (laptop replacement, media player, internet surfing, etc.). Plus the customizability of the OS and Apps. Big strike against Apple is being locked into their ecosystem. I'm not buying anything that doesn't give me the freedom to do what I want after I own it with maximum compatibly with other devices that are not of the same brand
When it comes to mobile screens, it must come down to user preference. I've heard the gamut of responses when comparing the iphone to amoled screens.
Although I too dislike the cheap plastic construction of the galaxy line, let me ask you this which would you feel more confident dropping onto a hard surface? While running across a street my phone jumped out of my pocket and literally bounced and slit across half the street, the damage, only some minor smudges on two corners, I was astonished.
The one thing to keep in mind (which the OP sounds like he knows) is this is iphone comparison vs Samsung, not necessarily Android. Most of the complaints are legitimately valid but they are mostly in regard to the bloatware that Samsung loads onto its phones. My recommendation is to just flash a stock ROM (CM10) which will also solve your battery problems.
You just have to get used to the Samsung screens (I'm comparing to S3, haven't seen the S4). The Samsung screens differ quite a bit in color temp to the Apple screens. If you're used to Samsung screens, Apple screens look like shit too. Apple's color calibrations (from the iPhone 4 and up) are more accurate. This is comparing to my color calibrated monitors. I routinely use the iPad as a reference device for color previews on edited photos.
Surprised nobody's asked yet, pics of Sandra?
Originally posted by SEANBANERJEE
I have gone above and beyond what I should rightfully have to do to protect my good name
I handle all these phones all day, it's my job. I test them till the cows come home trying to find flaws, and work with product development and vendors to solve the issues.
The S4 is a lot of hype, but the screen is pretty amazing on it, and while not leaps and bounds better than the S3 or Note 2, it is a pretty nice improvement, and IMO far better than the iPhone 4s.
Boosted life tip #329
Girlfriends cost money
Turbos cost money
Both make whining noises
Make the smart choice.
Originally posted by Mibz Always a fucking awful experience seeing spikers. Extra awful when he laps me.
1) Apple has patents out the ass for their phones and Samsung can't do anything in regards to styling without being sued by Apple
2) Rooted phones and Kies do not play well together whatsoever! So that could have been your frustrations there. If you need to remove software or restore it invest in Titanium Backup
3) If you are using a Android phone you should have a Gmail account regardless and if your trying to use Hangouts your using a gmail email account anyway. Hangouts was just released to the masses during the Google I/O and much like the new G+ page layout things are going to be buggy for a bit.
4) Being that you got the phone through Rogers they are one of the worst Telcos for dumping crap onto your phone. Check out XDA and you can probably find a good ROM that is very minimal with little crap on it. Just make sure to backup the programs you absolutely want first.
Originally posted by spikers I handle all these phones all day, it's my job. I test them till the cows come home trying to find flaws, and work with product development and vendors to solve the issues.
The S4 is a lot of hype, but the screen is pretty amazing on it, and while not leaps and bounds better than the S3 or Note 2, it is a pretty nice improvement, and IMO far better than the iPhone 4s.
The S4 was never really intended for people who had a S3. There are some changes but not enough to warrant it. I have a S2 and when I have the change to upgrade I will be doing so to the S4 because that will be the best bang for my buck.
But at the same time I am waiting because I know there are a few variations of the S4 coming down the line which I am interested in.
Originally posted by rage2 Surprised nobody's asked yet, pics of Sandra?
She's my boss. I like my job. Nuff said. :p
Originally posted by firebane 1) Apple has patents out the ass for their phones and Samsung can't do anything in regards to styling without being sued by Apple
2) Rooted phones and Kies do not play well together whatsoever! So that could have been your frustrations there. If you need to remove software or restore it invest in Titanium Backup
3) If you are using a Android phone you should have a Gmail account regardless and if your trying to use Hangouts your using a gmail email account anyway. Hangouts was just released to the masses during the Google I/O and much like the new G+ page layout things are going to be buggy for a bit.
4) Being that you got the phone through Rogers they are one of the worst Telcos for dumping crap onto your phone. Check out XDA and you can probably find a good ROM that is very minimal with little crap on it. Just make sure to backup the programs you absolutely want first.
Tried rooted and unrooted. Kies is crap. Even the Rogers tech guy said to me in a sarcastic voice "Isn't it just wonderful??".
I tried Titanium backup. The free version not the $4.99 version. The free version refused to restore S-voice after I backed it up. Said the operation was unsuccessful. Meh...I'm going to stop messing with it and just use a file manager program like Gemini or Astro to move my apps to the SD card.
93 Camaro Z28 (The fast one)
01 Trans Am WS6 (The cute one)
Esla T6 Dog Sled (Not cute, not fast, scary as hell)
Samsung AMOLED seems to have saturated look to them.
There seems to be a stock Android S4 coming. There is also a rumored stock Android One. Good sign if you don't like bloat ware.
Battery consumption has been always weak with Android. You either need some apps to control your radio or make sure you don't have too many chatty apps and services.
My brother in law suggested that the S4's battery life actually improves after a few battery cycles and also learns your habits so that's why I'm seeing slightly better performance this week.
Also learned from him that if the phone is on auto brightness it doesn't matter what brightness level you put the phone and the sliding tool is for changing the sensitivity of the sensor. I played with it a bit last night and it looks better than it did before by turning the sensitivity to 50%. It still doesn't look good in bright daylight though but the iPhone 4 has this issue as well and the iPhone 5 isn't much better.
93 Camaro Z28 (The fast one)
01 Trans Am WS6 (The cute one)
Esla T6 Dog Sled (Not cute, not fast, scary as hell)
I have an iPhone 4S and the screen is not impressive at all IMO compared to something like a Nexus 4. Can't comment on the SGS4. I am, however, a believer in IPS > AMOLED at least with the phones I've owned.
Also the iPhone 4, 4S, and 5 all have the same ppi so I don't know how you can say the 5 has less pixelation and noticably more resolution? The horizontal pixels are the same, they just made the phone physically longer.
My biased review of the Samsung Galaxy S4
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