The Korean model (octa-core and LTE) costs $800 and is only available with the 32GB configuration (for now).
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Galaxy S4
- Thread starter Chris092881
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The Korean model (octa-core and LTE) costs $800 and is only available with the 32GB configuration (for now).
I did something extremely random, and spontaneous today, and picked up a GS4 to replace my GS3. However, I'm not all that convinced that the experience is any better. I think smartphones have peaked IMO. I don't have long to decide, but I might return it, stay with my GS3, and wait for the 5S, or Note 3. The decision is a hard one to make, but WOW the display on the S4 is by far the best I've seen.
What's amazing about the S4 is how thin it is and how much that matters in terms of ease-of-use handling that insane 5" screen. It just makes 5" not sound daunting to use. It helps that it's narrower too.
Great design. The plastic will either bother you or not. I'm indifferent, but do hope Samsung uses more inspiring materials in the future.
Great design. The plastic will either bother you or not. I'm indifferent, but do hope Samsung uses more inspiring materials in the future.
The other amazing thing about the S4 is unlike the new HTC One, it won't stop responding to touch and freeze up for 30 seconds or more.
I'm thinking g of going from my nexus 4 to the s4 that thing is packed with features. I am going to get the phone for my mom first and check it out from there. It coming to T-Mobile tomorrow so I might go and pick one up before I decide to make the switch.
The only thing I want though would be the fast updates that the N4 offers.
The only thing I want though would be the fast updates that the N4 offers.
A software glitch in the one affecting some users that a fix is already rolling out for is now considered a selling point in favor of the s4?
That's silly. I'm sure if I nit picked I could find a myriad of s4 issues such as the fact the device only comes with 9gb usable space, that out of the box it consume far much more memory meaning its OS is not as optimised.....
But I won't......
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They look great Lindsford.
It isn't exactly octacore, more like 4+4 cores. Where the phone will automatically alternate between the two depending on the usage scenario.
From benchmarks, the Exynos-flavoured S4 edges slightly in performance. I believe Phonedog has one GT-I9500 pending a review.
True but that's only the 16GB and unlike the One, you can add additional storage space to the S4. So 9GB out of the box doesn't mean much when you can drop a 32GB SD card in it.
dual-sim-samsung-galaxy-s-4-launches-in-china
http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/26/dual-sim-samsung-galaxy-s-4-launches-in-china/
http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/26/dual-sim-samsung-galaxy-s-4-launches-in-china/
Mine has just arrived.
Just setting up. Initial impression, doesn't feel cheap at all, but isn't as nice as the One.
Though this is from my carrier, surprised to find NO carrier branding at all and more surprisingly totally sim free / unlocked.
Basically this is a factory unlocked unbranded device. That's quite cool.
Setting up and despite what everyone who says to the contrary. THERE IS LAG/STUTTER!
Camera takes 2-3 seconds to launch, enough time to make you think its not recognised your button press so you press the icon again.
Maybe those who think there isn't have never experienced a handset without lag, but there certainly is with the S4.
Just setting up. Initial impression, doesn't feel cheap at all, but isn't as nice as the One.
Though this is from my carrier, surprised to find NO carrier branding at all and more surprisingly totally sim free / unlocked.
Basically this is a factory unlocked unbranded device. That's quite cool.
Setting up and despite what everyone who says to the contrary. THERE IS LAG/STUTTER!
Camera takes 2-3 seconds to launch, enough time to make you think its not recognised your button press so you press the icon again.
Maybe those who think there isn't have never experienced a handset without lag, but there certainly is with the S4.
Ok so my phone is set up.
At the moment I'm keeping touchwiz. I don't want to dismiss it with less than a few hour usage, so I'm going to keep it for a day or two but there are some annoyances, that probably wont grate as much after I've got used to them.
further initial impressions & how I have set up the phone.
The Samsung keyboard is lousy compared to swiftkey and HTC One stock keyboard. The choice to use small keys with big black space between them results in a very cramped keyboard experience despite a 5" screen.
I have decided to install swift key.
Wallpapers & transparent notification bar. The notification / taskbar is only transparent as long as you use Samung's Wallpaper or the live wallpaper than comes with it. Load up another image and the notification bar is black. Spent ages thinking I had done something wrong, going in and out of settings only to discover this is how it is... Thats little silly but something folks should be aware of if only to save themselves hunting in the menu options.
Powerbutton/Standby - I keep reaching to the top I'll get used to it, eventually. But certainly for me as a left handed user the power button on the upper right side of the device is 'NOT' ergonomic. Though I can see for right handed users it would be preferable.
Lag / Stutter - it's still there, it isnt as pervasive as it was when my phone was installing apps from google play store. However there are still traces of it in the app drawer.
Developer Options - I have enabled in order to enable USB debugging so Android File Transfer on the mac can work.
I have disabled animations in developer options however strangely they are still there.
Folder animation is protracted. It can take a couple of seconds for a folder to open to show you the contents in the folder simply because of the animation. It's over bloated and totally unnecessary.
S-Calendar I thought I would not like but it's nice.
E-Mail app (stock) is better than HTC's Sense 5 stock email browser.
I have disabled things I wont use day to day in any meaning full way - this included S-beam, Air View, Air Gesture, Smart Stay, Smart Scroll, Multi Window. I have no use for them. I will experiment to see if they tempt me, but at the moment they are just a distraction to the user experience of the device for me. They incur more memory over head (yes I enabled them and checked memory management, with them enabled more ram was used) and for that penalty - hit on ram and stuttering I suffered with them on - they are just NOT worth it.
Charging - seems to be faster than the HTC One. Whether that makes any difference as most folks charge whilst they are in bed.
Glare / Finger grease. The screen does attract more finger print smudges than on the HTC one. Will see how this improves when my glaS.T screen protector arrives.
I have disabled lock screen. I prefer to just wake my device and it be on. Glad the option is there to do that.
When I go walking later I will take some photos and give you my impressions and a few samples to compare and contrast.
--
Summise so far.
Touchwiz - OK, not bowling me over and the new features are heavy on its resources. There are stutters, there is no pretending otherwise. Hopefully software updates rectify that.
Build Quality - yeah its plastic, yeah it doesn't feel maybe as nice in the hand as the HTC One, but that in no means makes it feel cheap or tacky. Also the phone 'looks massive' but place it and a iPhone 5 on top and your surprised by how little 'extra' size there is on the S4 and yet it does superficially look massive. That's a good thing by the way, a 5" screen in a phone just a bit bigger than the iPhone 5 is good stuff indeed.
Call Quality - is very good, made a number of calls so far and it's clear and defined.
Sound Quality of speaker - as good as the iPhone 5 / iPad mini. Do not have the overall depth of sound of the HTC One's boom sound speakers. But certainly not bad by any means.
Touchscreen sensitivity - is almost too much. It detects a press almost before you actually tap screen, and I have high sensitivity turned off.
quick edit animations are now off. Must have been software glitch earlier. much speedier now and no taking forever opening folders.
At the moment I'm keeping touchwiz. I don't want to dismiss it with less than a few hour usage, so I'm going to keep it for a day or two but there are some annoyances, that probably wont grate as much after I've got used to them.
further initial impressions & how I have set up the phone.
The Samsung keyboard is lousy compared to swiftkey and HTC One stock keyboard. The choice to use small keys with big black space between them results in a very cramped keyboard experience despite a 5" screen.
I have decided to install swift key.
Wallpapers & transparent notification bar. The notification / taskbar is only transparent as long as you use Samung's Wallpaper or the live wallpaper than comes with it. Load up another image and the notification bar is black. Spent ages thinking I had done something wrong, going in and out of settings only to discover this is how it is... Thats little silly but something folks should be aware of if only to save themselves hunting in the menu options.
Powerbutton/Standby - I keep reaching to the top
I'll get used to it, eventually. But certainly for me as a left handed user the power button on the upper right side of the device is 'NOT' ergonomic. Though I can see for right handed users it would be preferable.Lag / Stutter - it's still there, it isnt as pervasive as it was when my phone was installing apps from google play store. However there are still traces of it in the app drawer.
Developer Options - I have enabled in order to enable USB debugging so Android File Transfer on the mac can work.
I have disabled animations in developer options however strangely they are still there.
Folder animation is protracted. It can take a couple of seconds for a folder to open to show you the contents in the folder simply because of the animation. It's over bloated and totally unnecessary.
S-Calendar I thought I would not like but it's nice.
E-Mail app (stock) is better than HTC's Sense 5 stock email browser.
I have disabled things I wont use day to day in any meaning full way - this included S-beam, Air View, Air Gesture, Smart Stay, Smart Scroll, Multi Window. I have no use for them. I will experiment to see if they tempt me, but at the moment they are just a distraction to the user experience of the device for me. They incur more memory over head (yes I enabled them and checked memory management, with them enabled more ram was used) and for that penalty - hit on ram and stuttering I suffered with them on - they are just NOT worth it.
Charging - seems to be faster than the HTC One. Whether that makes any difference as most folks charge whilst they are in bed.
Glare / Finger grease. The screen does attract more finger print smudges than on the HTC one. Will see how this improves when my glaS.T screen protector arrives.
I have disabled lock screen. I prefer to just wake my device and it be on. Glad the option is there to do that.
When I go walking later I will take some photos and give you my impressions and a few samples to compare and contrast.
--
Summise so far.
Touchwiz - OK, not bowling me over and the new features are heavy on its resources. There are stutters, there is no pretending otherwise. Hopefully software updates rectify that.
Build Quality - yeah its plastic, yeah it doesn't feel maybe as nice in the hand as the HTC One, but that in no means makes it feel cheap or tacky. Also the phone 'looks massive' but place it and a iPhone 5 on top and your surprised by how little 'extra' size there is on the S4 and yet it does superficially look massive. That's a good thing by the way, a 5" screen in a phone just a bit bigger than the iPhone 5 is good stuff indeed.
Call Quality - is very good, made a number of calls so far and it's clear and defined.
Sound Quality of speaker - as good as the iPhone 5 / iPad mini. Do not have the overall depth of sound of the HTC One's boom sound speakers. But certainly not bad by any means.
Touchscreen sensitivity - is almost too much. It detects a press almost before you actually tap screen, and I have high sensitivity turned off.
quick edit animations are now off. Must have been software glitch earlier. much speedier now and no taking forever opening folders.
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It seems that Samsung will never get rid of the LAG in thier phones... Even with an 8 core processor.. Unbelivable!!!
returned HTC One for G4
so had the One for a week......Loved the phone. Loved the speakers facing the front and the sound they put out. Did not like Sense. Has to install a launcher (Nova) to get around Sense. Could not get around the wake button being on top. Could not get used to not having a physical home button. I came back to what was familiar to me in that I previously had the GS3 and the Note 2. TouchWiz is very nice. I like the layout and where everything is.....it just feels more intuitive to me. I don't see myself having to install Nova again. Finished setting up me GS4 last night so now to test the battery and sync bluetooth with my truck.
Phones I have owned so far this year....
GS3....Note 2......iPhone 5, HTC One.....GS4
so had the One for a week......Loved the phone. Loved the speakers facing the front and the sound they put out. Did not like Sense. Has to install a launcher (Nova) to get around Sense. Could not get around the wake button being on top. Could not get used to not having a physical home button. I came back to what was familiar to me in that I previously had the GS3 and the Note 2. TouchWiz is very nice. I like the layout and where everything is.....it just feels more intuitive to me. I don't see myself having to install Nova again. Finished setting up me GS4 last night so now to test the battery and sync bluetooth with my truck.
Phones I have owned so far this year....
GS3....Note 2......iPhone 5, HTC One.....GS4
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Personal preference are going to be the main things that divide the two phones. They are both killer phones.
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If it's any consolation I just powered off my device and powered on again and it 'seems' smoother. Will keep an eye on it anyway.
If it's any consolation I just powered off my device and powered on again and it 'seems' smoother. Will keep an eye on it anyway.
MRU, have you got the 8 or 4 core version please?
Ah that's what I was after. Is the calendar app on the HTC aesthetically better? I'm not really a fan of S-Calender and kind of wanted something closer to the simple but clean iOS one. Also in which way is the HTC email app inferior? Functionality/aesthetics? I don't like how the stock apps greys out read messages.
I've installed Nova launcher and I'm really liking it. TouchWiz has more menu options but it's still pretty good. RAM usage hasn't really changed but it does feel a touch faster.
MRU, have you got the 8 or 4 core version please?
4 core. Ireland & UK have same model. I believe most of western europe gets the Snapdragon model.
I was genuinely surprised to find this phone has no vodafone tampering what so ever. No splash screen, no pre-installed apps and having put an O2 and 3 sim in, it's sim free too.
Maybe Samsung didn't give them enough time to tamper - so early adoptees are given basically factory unbranded handsets.
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Yes the HTC one is more similar to iOS and its just less 'in your face' aesthetically whilst offering enhancements over the raw google calendar.
HTC email app is inferior only in the fact it doesn't automatically resize HTML emails when in portrait mode, you have to be in landscape. Whereas the S4's email app does show all the html email in portrait.
Small difference really (a nit pick) but I'd give the nod to the S4 on that aspect anyway.
MRU,
Please tell me what to try that shows lag. So far I have not disabled any features BTW.
Coming from the Rezound, the feel and comfortability of the S4 is welcomed. The Rezound was a brick, especially after I upgraded the stock battery. I will have to monitor the battery but we all do different things so .....
I want to try the camera, both stills and recording/playing video. Also want to try reading on the S4, I have other resources but I am just curious about it.
Excellent thread, folks. Big thanks for contributing.
BTW, I am curious about the upcoming controller.
Please tell me what to try that shows lag. So far I have not disabled any features BTW.
Coming from the Rezound, the feel and comfortability of the S4 is welcomed. The Rezound was a brick, especially after I upgraded the stock battery. I will have to monitor the battery but we all do different things so .....
I want to try the camera, both stills and recording/playing video. Also want to try reading on the S4, I have other resources but I am just curious about it.
Excellent thread, folks. Big thanks for contributing.
BTW, I am curious about the upcoming controller.
MRU,
Please tell me what to try that shows lag. So far I have not disabled any features BTW.
Coming from the Rezound, the feel and comfortability of the S4 is welcomed. The Rezound was a brick, especially after I upgraded the stock battery. I will have to monitor the battery but we all do different things so .....
I want to try the camera, both stills and recording/playing video. Also want to try reading on the S4, I have other resources but I am just curious about it.
Excellent thread, folks. Big thanks for contributing.
BTW, I am curious about the upcoming controller.
Try launching the camera. On the HTC One it pretty much comes on instantaneous, whereas the GS4 takes longer. Were talking fractions here and I think most people wont notice the difference unless they had the two side by side.
Also go into app drawer and flicking through and then to widgets there is little stutters here and there. It's not as bad as it could have been, but coming from something that had no discernible stutters it is noticeable.
Enable air gesture, smart stay, air view and all the other 'enhancements' and there is a noticeably more stutter once you start quickly going back and forth between things.
Literally though we are at a stage where the differences are going to be nit picking and subjective.
Since disabling all the animations and and the 'enhancements' (that I have no interest in anyway) it's noticeably smoother and most apps launch very quickly indeed, and multitasking between them is painless.
I disabled multi-view myself, and stuck my sidebar pro application there. I have no need personally of a 2.5" screen as a web browser so will stick without multi view feature.
So far though I do like the phone.
Depends what apps you are downloading. I have 70 apps and I'm using about 2.5gb extra from what came stock.
I don't have 'big' file sized games. If your downloading bigger games like Horn, Batman, Spiderman, modern Combat, Nova, Need for Speed - then YES the remaining space is too little.
But MicroSD cards are so cheap. I just got a Samsung 32GB Class 10, one for 25 delivered.