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Galaxy S4

Played around with one at the Samsung Store in Westfield in London. There was a whole bunch of them setup and the store was virtually empty so I got to play undisturbed.

Before I talk about the phone...Samsung need to hire marketing people that know what the hell they are doing. There we have a bright, airy store, full of staff and table full of S4's to play with, yet no footfall. Yet inside the mall they had a large floor space with very attractive staff (all tall and blonde), yet only one unit to share between them.

Anyway the phone:

+Build quality was solid. No creaking, clean lines.
+The black unit is actually very smart in the flesh.
+The screen is very, very good.
+It was responsive with no lag.

-The materials used are a bit crappy coming from glass and aluminium products (I don't case my iPhones). The back of the phone felt a bit...weird.
-TouchWiz isn't great...I'll want to do something about that ASAP.

First impressions are a bit mixed :-/
 
Tsuchiya said:
Played around with one at the Samsung Store in Westfield in London. There was a whole bunch of them setup and the store was virtually empty so I got to play undisturbed.

Before I talk about the phone...Samsung need to hire marketing people that know what the hell they are doing. There we have a bright, airy store, full of staff and table full of S4's to play with, yet no footfall. Yet inside the mall they had a large floor space with very attractive staff (all tall and blonde), yet only one unit to share between them.

Anyway the phone:

+Build quality was solid. No creaking, clean lines.
+The black unit is actually very smart in the flesh.
+The screen is very, very good.
+It was responsive with no lag.

-The materials used are a bit crappy coming from glass and aluminium products (I don't case my iPhones). The back of the phone felt a bit...weird.
-TouchWiz isn't great...I'll want to do something about that ASAP.

First impressions are a bit mixed :-/
Click to expand...


Yeah .... That's kind of my biggest concerns regarding the aesthetics, and yeah Touchwiz too.
 
So I just played around with the S4 at the galaxy kiosk inside my local best buy, and I have to say it's a huge step up from the S3 as far as I'm concerned. The screen is MUCH better, it's sharp, has good viewing angles, and the colors are much more natural looking. The build is actually quite nice, while I prefer matte finish over the hyper gloss, there was no flex or creaking, and the finish was even and the seams were tight. It's still a step down from the iPhone and HTC One, but it's MUCH improved from the GS3. Performance seemed good, didn't notice any lag, though my one still feels faster. Played with some of the extra features, like smart scroll and hover. They worked ok, kinda hit or miss, not sure if it's the software or if its the learning curve.

While I still prefer my One, the GS4 was impressive. It's funny, I absolutely hated the GS3, but everyone loved it, while the GS4 seems to be getting a lukewarm reception, and I think it's a really good phone.
 
Anyone get their pre ordered S4 AT&T yet? I want impressions!

There's a couple on craigslist already for $750. Ridiculous

----------
Dontazemebro said:
Yea, just read the Gizmodo review. They have the GS4 as an all around inferior phone to the One.
Click to expand...

Meh. People praised the One X and praised it last year. We all know how that turned out
 
Finally received my phone, even though fedex delivered it to the WRONG address. :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Man first android device ever..this is going to take some getting use to.
 
Lindsford said:
How do I stop all my messages from going to I messages
to my iPhone? This is driving me nuts
Click to expand...

Go into your messages setting and disable imessage. If you have an iPad or mac that also gets your imessages, you must remove your number there too and make sure people are sending the texts to your number and not your apple id.
 
Fernandez21 said:
Go into your messages setting and disable imessage. If you have an iPad or mac that also gets your imessages, you must remove your number there too and make sure people are sending the texts to your number and not your apple id.
Click to expand...

Thanks will definitely try that.
 
YourAvgUser said:
Yes you can b/c you have full freedom on Android :rolleyes:

And when a usually anti-iPhone (despite their partnership) and pro-Samsung like the Yahoo media gives you this kind of review, something's up.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/galaxy-s-4-is-a-good--but-not-a-great--step-up-151539575.html
Click to expand...

You obviously can't read because that review was written WSJ's WALT MOSSBERG you know the ONLY commentator(Not journalist his connections to apple would get him fired for ethics violations if he was) allowed to interview Steve Jobs when he was alive and receive super early tester units because he will always praise Apple products. His opinion is so tainted it can't be used critically.

http://www.zdnet.com/apple-upgrades-bloggers-to-favoured-status-updated-4010025445/

http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-02-06/tech/31028708_1_itunes-treatment-press
 
I saw one today. I'm not impressed with the build quality or TouchWiz, so it reinforced that I made the right decision to go with the HTC One as the replacement to my iPhone 5.
 
Wankie said:
You obviously can't read because that review was written WSJ's WALT MOSSBERG you know the ONLY commentator(Not journalist his connections to apple would get him fired for ethics violations if he was) allowed to interview Steve Jobs when he was alive and receive super early tester units because he will always praise Apple products. His opinion is so tainted it can't be used critically.

http://www.zdnet.com/apple-upgrades-bloggers-to-favoured-status-updated-4010025445/

http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-02-06/tech/31028708_1_itunes-treatment-press
Click to expand...

The ONLY person? what about Actor, Geek and Twitter bastion Steven Fry.
 
Extremely happy with the screen thus far. Man do apps look beautiful :)

Any recommendations for MUST have apps?
 
Last edited:
MacRumorUser said:
The ONLY person? what about Actor, Geek and Twitter bastion Steven Fry.
Click to expand...

I love Steven Fry but his 1 hour interview created a grand total of three short paragraphs that don't amount to anything. How many ~150 word 1 hour interviews have you seen? Either Jobs just spoke marketing stuff and Time didn't feel like printing it or Apple had the right to choose what was published.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1977113-4,00.html

But this is off topic, I was simply trying to explain to the previous poster why a Walt Mossberg GS4 review isn't very trustworthy because he is in a ridiculously incestuous relationship with Apple.

http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/2010/01/28/no-nonsense-and-no-names-at-apple-ipad-event/
 
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4G ATT speed. Non lte
 

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Tsuchiya said:
Played around with one at the Samsung Store in Westfield in London. There was a whole bunch of them setup and the store was virtually empty so I got to play undisturbed.

Before I talk about the phone...Samsung need to hire marketing people that know what the hell they are doing. There we have a bright, airy store, full of staff and table full of S4's to play with, yet no footfall. Yet inside the mall they had a large floor space with very attractive staff (all tall and blonde), yet only one unit to share between them.

Anyway the phone:

+Build quality was solid. No creaking, clean lines.
+The black unit is actually very smart in the flesh.
+The screen is very, very good.
+It was responsive with no lag.

-The materials used are a bit crappy coming from glass and aluminium products (I don't case my iPhones). The back of the phone felt a bit...weird.
-TouchWiz isn't great...I'll want to do something about that ASAP.

First impressions are a bit mixed :-/
Click to expand...
Is the rear cover textured or smooth plastic like the S III?
 
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