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daveathall

macrumors 68020
Aug 6, 2010
2,379
1,410
North Yorkshire
It was my Carrier that replaced it, not HTC themselves. Hence quick turn-around (still faster than they actually said it was) and yep 6 days from Friday last when I sent it off in the post for return.

Last digits are 106.11 on this from the outset - which is what the updated software was on the last model.




The other thing swinging me towards the HTC One is battery life. Despite having most stuff turned off on the S4 I find it definitely is consuming more battery than the One did during my time with it. At the end of the day I'm getting down to 20% on the S4, on the HTC One I'd be down to around 50%. Not sure why this is - but it is.

Must admit that this is a bonus. I'm really looking forward to this comparison. :)
 

AppleRobert

macrumors 603
Nov 12, 2012
5,729
1,133
Go into settings / my device / language and input / and tick the JB keyboard, and in default - change that to JB keyboard. :)

Guess I should have read the accompanying instructions. :) Typing now with no bad keystrokes. Yippe!

Look at it this way. The Jets have many quarterbacks for controversy, you have two phones to choose from.
 

Djlild7hina

macrumors 6502a
Mar 28, 2009
754
67
decisions decisions... still can't decide which one to get. I guess I'll wait for wwdc to see if iOS7 will win me back over
 

MRU

macrumors Penryn
Aug 23, 2005
25,370
8,952
a better place
Let us know how it is going with your decision! :)
I know you are torn and really like both phones.



Yep. Currently its like this (these are my subjective personal opinions)

S4

+ Fantastic camera
+ fast in applications
+ unbranded & sim-free meaning updates should come fast
+ I like the design of the phone, it's plastic but certainly not cheap - but do undserstand when folks say it doesn't look 'as' premium.

- Touchwiz is honestly a mess. I'm a graphic designer & illustrator so aesthetics are important to me and the GUI consistency on the S4 is simply appalling. (notification bar only transparent if you use Samsung's wallpaper, repeated applications such as 2 music application, 2 stores, 2 video apps, widgets that dont compliment each other, they look jarring against each other)
- Features such as Air View and Smart Scroll that add little to the user experience and in many ways detract from it.
- Aggressive memory usage, and stuttering in the OS
- Battery life despite having 300mAH more is lasting less time than the HTC One. I'm ending the day on 15-20%
- 9gb storage available is paltry, and with 4.1+ not supporting apps on the SD card it is a concern over storage of bigger software titles in the future.


HTC One

+ Beautiful handset
+ Fantastic speakers (Boomsound) and sound generally on the device with beats making noticeable difference when enabled
+ GUI consistency is excellent - every stock app it has compliments each other
+ Music app is one of the best out there, Beats audio enhances this.
+ FM Radio
+ Battery life was very good for me indeed. I'd get through my day with 50% left on most days.
+ Blinkfeed is great for mobile viewing, and shows great potential
+ HTC Share and HTC Zoe's are fantastic


- Camera 4mp is not the greatest in daylight landscape shots where detail is in the distance, not in the immediate vicinity.
- Aluminium scratches easier
- menu button not mapped to long press of the back button yet - though it should be (even tells you in the instructions)



---

The decision boils down to 'does a much superior camera outweigh all the other plusses and minuses of both devices.
 
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jamezr

macrumors P6
Aug 7, 2011
16,081
19,082
US
I am holding out hope that one of them will allow the usage of an SD card as internal storage
you can use it for storage....my music (6GB) and pictures (2GB) are on my SD card and Dropbox now syncs with the SD card. But hopefully they will develop a rom that will allow apps to be installed on the SD cards....fingers crossed!
 

FlipCup

macrumors member
Apr 29, 2013
53
0
you can use it for storage....my music (6GB) and pictures (2GB) are on my SD card and Dropbox now syncs with the SD card. But hopefully they will develop a rom that will allow apps to be installed on the SD cards....fingers crossed!

Exactly. That's the hard part, if apps could be put onto an SD, I would go purchase an S4.
 

spinedoc77

macrumors G4
Jun 11, 2009
11,488
5,413
Yep. Currently its like this (these are my subjective personal opinions)

S4

+ Fantastic camera
+ fast in applications
+ unbranded & sim-free meaning updates should come fast
+ I like the design of the phone, it's plastic but certainly not cheap - but do undserstand when folks say it doesn't look 'as' premium.

- Touchwiz is honestly a mess. I'm a graphic designer & illustrator so aesthetics are important to me and the GUI consistency on the S4 is simply appalling. (notification bar only transparent if you use Samsung's wallpaper, repeated applications such as 2 music application, 2 stores, 2 video apps, widgets that dont compliment each other, they look jarring against each other)
- Features such as Air View and Smart Scroll that add little to the user experience and in many ways detract from it.
- Aggressive memory usage, and stuttering in the OS
- Battery life despite having 300mAH more is lasting less time than the HTC One. I'm ending the day on 15-20%
- 9gb storage available is paltry, and with 4.1+ not supporting apps on the SD card it is a concern over storage of bigger software titles in the future.


HTC One

+ Beautiful handset
+ Fantastic speakers (Boomsound) and sound generally on the device with beats making noticeable difference when enabled
+ GUI consistency is excellent - every stock app it has compliments each other
+ Music app is one of the best out there, Beats audio enhances this.
+ FM Radio
+ Battery life was very good for me indeed. I'd get through my day with 50% left on most days.
+ Blinkfeed is great for mobile viewing, and shows great potential
+ HTC Share and HTC Zoe's are fantastic


- Camera 4mp is not the greatest in daylight landscape shots where detail is in the distance, not in the immediate vicinity.
- Aluminium scratches easier
- menu button not mapped to long press of the back button yet - though it should be (even tells you in the instructions)



---

The decision boils down to 'does a much superior camera outweigh all the other plusses and minuses of both devices.

Gah, such a hard choice, I'm up for renewal and really thinking about one of these as the Note 2 is kind of feeling too big with summer and shorts and wearing scrubs at work.

I'm pretty stuck between these 2. I'd love to have "real" speakers like the One, and that nice aluminum feel, but the lack of expandable memory, the camera and only having Android 4.1.2 sucks, especially not having 4.2 as it fixes group messaging. The S4 looks appealing too, but I hope it doesn't have a horrible screen in sunlight like the Note 2, I'm not thrilled with the speaker, but it's a solid choice.

Either that or I've been entertaining thoughts of going back to the IP5, sigh.
 

jamezr

macrumors P6
Aug 7, 2011
16,081
19,082
US
Yes. However, not all android phones have only 16GB of internal storage with the OS and bloatware taking up 6GB.
Get a 32GB SD card move all of you music over and set that as you picture storage......now you have 48GB for the phone....makes that 6GB seem kinda small now....
 

jrswizzle

macrumors 603
Aug 23, 2012
6,107
129
McKinney, TX
Gah, such a hard choice, I'm up for renewal and really thinking about one of these as the Note 2 is kind of feeling too big with summer and shorts and wearing scrubs at work.

I'm pretty stuck between these 2. I'd love to have "real" speakers like the One, and that nice aluminum feel, but the lack of expandable memory, the camera and only having Android 4.1.2 sucks, especially not having 4.2 as it fixes group messaging. The S4 looks appealing too, but I hope it doesn't have a horrible screen in sunlight like the Note 2, I'm not thrilled with the speaker, but it's a solid choice.

Either that or I've been entertaining thoughts of going back to the IP5, sigh.

Having both the One and the N4 I feel like I can offer some consolation on a few things:

(1) The HTC One STARTS at 32 GB vs. paying the same price (or more) for 16GB (only 9GB usable) on the GS4.
(2) I don't see any difference in group messaging from the One to the N4....I think it sucks in the stock app either way.
(3) I've heard and read the display on the GS4 is a big step up from past AMOLED tech - right on par with the top IPS LCDs on the HTC One and iPhone 5. Brightness would likely still be an issue though.
 

MRU

macrumors Penryn
Aug 23, 2005
25,370
8,952
a better place
Gah, such a hard choice, I'm up for renewal and really thinking about one of these as the Note 2 is kind of feeling too big with summer and shorts and wearing scrubs at work.

I'm pretty stuck between these 2. I'd love to have "real" speakers like the One, and that nice aluminum feel, but the lack of expandable memory, the camera and only having Android 4.1.2 sucks, especially not having 4.2 as it fixes group messaging. The S4 looks appealing too, but I hope it doesn't have a horrible screen in sunlight like the Note 2, I'm not thrilled with the speaker, but it's a solid choice.

Either that or I've been entertaining thoughts of going back to the IP5, sigh.


It really is a tough choice. Being able to experience them both so fully has left me seeing the benefits and negatives of both devices.

I honestly do think Samsung have made a bit of a bags on the software of the GS4. A phone so powerful, yet doesn't particularly feel like it is mostly down to the software.

Talking of speakers, do you know when they're really impressive. When you get a phone call and it starts ringing. The clarity is amazing and you'll unlikely miss a call from not being able to discern it ringing clearly. The S4 in comparison has made me miss a couple of calls because I simply didnt hear it ringing because its kind of nondescript. The ringtone selection on the SGS4 is really quite poor with most ringtones having a very slow build up. The problem with that is by the time the ringtone is built up enough to hear it, the person ringing has given up waiting for you to answer. It doesn't even have a traditional sounding phone ring, it has a weird bell king of one that sounds very strange.

As for sunlight, yes the S4 in my experience is hard to read in the sunshine compared to the HTC One. I put a steinheil Glas.T screen protector on it, which helps somewhat, but it's still not the greatest and its not like we have that bright sun in Ireland ;)

I am genuinely surprised that the battery life has not been as good as the One, but I suspect it's samsung's software at fault. I can open apps running in management and often the samsung apps like s-voice and such are all running even though I haven't even used them or launched them. It seems to launch a lot of samsung's services by itself.

Like i say I don't want to micromanage.


The question is can I hold out for CM10 or something, and how confident am I at putting on a new phone rom ? (answer so far = terrified)

----------

not yet......but correct for now....But with the SG4 you can add a SD card to add more space.......makes up for the bloatware that ALL carriers add to phones.....

My carrier never added a single thing to the phone. Not a single thing. The only bloat is samsung's own.
 

xchampx13

macrumors regular
Aug 4, 2012
128
0
It really is a tough choice. Being able to experience them both so fully has left me seeing the benefits and negatives of both devices.

I honestly do think Samsung have made a bit of a bags on the software of the GS4. A phone so powerful, yet doesn't particularly feel like it is mostly down to the software.

Talking of speakers, do you know when they're really impressive. When you get a phone call and it starts ringing. The clarity is amazing and you'll unlikely miss a call from not being able to discern it ringing clearly. The S4 in comparison has made me miss a couple of calls because I simply didnt hear it ringing because its kind of nondescript. The ringtone selection on the SGS4 is really quite poor with most ringtones having a very slow build up. The problem with that is by the time the ringtone is built up enough to hear it, the person ringing has given up waiting for you to answer. It doesn't even have a traditional sounding phone ring, it has a weird bell king of one that sounds very strange.

As for sunlight, yes the S4 in my experience is hard to read in the sunshine compared to the HTC One. I put a steinheil Glas.T screen protector on it, which helps somewhat, but it's still not the greatest and its not like we have that bright sun in Ireland ;)

I am genuinely surprised that the battery life has not been as good as the One, but I suspect it's samsung's software at fault. I can open apps running in management and often the samsung apps like s-voice and such are all running even though I haven't even used them or launched them. It seems to launch a lot of samsung's services by itself.

Like i say I don't want to micromanage.


The question is can I hold out for CM10 or something, and how confident am I at putting on a new phone rom ? (answer so far = terrified)

----------



My carrier never added a single thing to the phone. Not a single thing. The only bloat is samsung's own.

Talking about CM10 idk what carrier and all but the carrier im on is already having prealpha builds. I know its only prealpha but its still a good sign that support is being shown so early from the start.
 

MRU

macrumors Penryn
Aug 23, 2005
25,370
8,952
a better place
Talking about CM10 idk what carrier and all but the carrier im on is already having prealpha builds. I know its only prealpha but its still a good sign that support is being shown so early from the start.

How easy is it to put these roms on and do they mess up your warranty ? I regularly post on XDA but roms make my head spin, even the easy start guides need a degree to understand. It just looks tricky and highly confusing, especially if you are on a mac.
 

xchampx13

macrumors regular
Aug 4, 2012
128
0
How easy is it to put these roms on and do they mess up your warranty ? I regularly post on XDA but roms make my head spin, even the easy start guides need a degree to understand. It just looks tricky and highly confusing, especially if you are on a mac.

yeah im on a mac as well. there are already rooting methods that work for the GS4, but the Recoveries like TWRP and CWM are still not perfectly working yet(But are being tested). About rooting on mac I believe there is a method that works but you may want to double check on that(since I have not rooted yet). Putting the ROMs on as far as I know is not to hard to do. I am waiting for everything to get a little more stable if ya know what I mean, since its still a very new phone.
 

Lindsford

macrumors 6502a
Mar 14, 2012
531
18
I could be extremely dense. But in not showing a Visual Voice mail option?

also another picture. Is it spring yet?

not sure why they keep uploading all goofy and sideways
 

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