Galaxy S4

[Fernandez21]

Been doing some research and it seems you either need the adapter to go from Full USB to the size of the s3 and do it wired, or have root access. Man i've been saving my PS3 controller for this very moment. I wanna play vice city with a controller damnit!

You could get one of these, it works great with vice city on my one.

http://www.androidcentral.com/moga-pro-review-must-have-gamers?style_mobile=0

 

[onthecouchagain]

I remember seeing early previews of the s4 and noticing lag and stutter too. Everyone chocked it up to early software. But now that it's out it still seems to be an issue.

I can safely say I have yet to experience stutter of any kind on the One. Wonder what it is about the s4... Touch wiz?

Does it still lag or stutter for those with s4's that are running nova launcher?

 

[MRU]

I remember seeing early previews of the s4 and noticing lag and stutter too. Everyone chocked it up to early software. But now that it's out it still seems to be an issue.

I can safely say I have yet to experience stutter of any kind on the One. Wonder what it is about the s4... Touch wiz?

Does it still lag or stutter for those with s4's that are running nova launcher?

It's better with nova, but yes it seems to be touchwiz and samsung services / apps / features that are to blame.

Just comparing memory usage between the one and the same apps open on the S4; the One runs at around 580-650mb the S4 1.2-1.5gb

A dramatic increase in memory usage for the exact same apps to be open, so clearly 'apps' themselves are not to blame so it can only leave Touchwiz and samsungs app services that are eating their way in the background.

Physically turning off all the gesture and scroll features and manually going into the app management and disabling samsungs apps helps indeed, proving they are mostly to blame.

Samsung added 'a ton' of features - but seemingly was too lazy to 'optimise' any of them or check that they didn't cause OS jitters.

This can be fixed in a software update, but really it shouldn't have come out of production software without the optimisation and it is frustrating.

Nova and other launchers mitigate things, as does turning off all the 'extra's ' but then at the end of the day what are you left with ?

----------

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2256651
Looks like the red tint and/or smearing are known issues. I haven't read the whole thread but probably another software screw-up by Samsung. They ought to fix this with a future update.

On the whole, the impression I get from reading the xda forum is that this phone was rushed to the market before all the bugs were fixed. I think Samsung should have taken its time to ensure that everything was in order before selling such a powerful and complex device.

There also seem to be some QC issues (as expected for early units) so if any of you suspect hardware faults with your s4, you should be able to get it exchanged.

Yes I posted in my first impressions was that the screen liked to pick up finger prints.

Adding a better oleophobic coating should have been Samsung's fix - not air gestures.

I would definetly recommend anyone with the phone pick up Spigen SGP Steinheill Glas.T slim screen protector. It improves sunlight viewing and has a better oleophobic coating that samsung screen does naturally.

It's pricy for a screen protector but totally worth it.

 

[daveathall]

I remember seeing early previews of the s4 and noticing lag and stutter too. Everyone chocked it up to early software. But now that it's out it still seems to be an issue.

I can safely say I have yet to experience stutter of any kind on the One. Wonder what it is about the s4... Touch wiz?

Does it still lag or stutter for those with s4's that are running nova launcher?

I noticed stutter when I first took it out of the box, no discernible lag when opening apps. I have now installed a launcher (Nova) all swiping etc is as smooth as on my Nexus 4, the only time I notice stutter is when I double tap the screen to reveal the doc, it always stutters here, but I can live with that.

I didn't buy it for the hands free scrolling or air view so have these disabled, TBH, I'm loving this phone.

Went into York this morning and took a couple of snaps. These are straight from the phone, uploaded to photobucket with no enhancements.

 

[MRU]

I didn't buy it for the hands free scrolling or air view so have these disabled, TBH, I'm loving this phone.

Went into York this morning and took a couple of snaps. These are straight from the phone, uploaded to photobucket with no enhancements.

Image

Image


Image

GREAT Shots Dave And York is always a cool place to take photos

Enjoy the phone bud I bought a decent set of headphones from the 'richer sounds' store there in the background

 

[The Game 161]

Wow those are some amazing photos

Would think they are from a pro camera.

 

[MRU]

Wow those are some amazing photos

Would think they are from a pro camera.

Best hardware feature on the S4 is definitely the camera, remarkably it's the feature that is getting less prominence over the 'gimmicky' smart scroll and air gesture from a marketing standpoint....

 

[Borealis]

Yes I posted in my first impressions was that the screen liked to pick up finger prints.

Adding a better oleophobic coating should have been Samsung's fix - not air gestures.

I would definetly recommend anyone with the phone pick up Spigen SGP Steinheill Glas.T slim screen protector. It improves sunlight viewing and has a better oleophobic coating that samsung screen does naturally.

It's pricy for a screen protector but totally worth it.

Apologies for any confusion I might have caused by using the term 'smearing' without going into detail; but I did not mean fingerprints.

What I am referring to is the red tint with black colors, and grey smearing when scrolling. This is apparently due to red subpixels in the RGB AMOLED array not turning off correctly, or some techie explanation like that. Again, apparently, this can be fixed with software. Hope Samsung addresses this soon.

And I agree about the Spigen screen protector...excellent stufff. I use it on my S3. It's easily the best SP I've used so far on any of my devices. 100% recommended.

 

[Borealis]

Daveathall, nice photos. The S4 seems to have a truly top-notch camera indeed, one matches even dedicated point and shoot cameras in good light.

Here is a new link on a fresh comparison between the cameras of the S4 and HTC One (with updated software).
http://blog.gsmarena.com/htc-one-an...software-intervention-check-out-the-samples/#

"Obviously the HTC dev team has done a good job optimizing the One camera output. However, as far as daylight perfromance is concerned the Taiwanese flagship is still unable to match the Galaxy S4, which arguably has the best camera in the Android realm."

Also,
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/gal...ur-camera-tests-except-in-low-light-50011117/

"The S4 manages to produce sharper, more visually appealing images than the competition in nearly all of the tests. With the host of extra camera features -- Animation Photo, Best Face, Drama shot, etc -- it's arguably the best phone to consider right now if photography is your primary concern."

 

[onthecouchagain]

Has Anand done a review of the S4 yet?

Why yes they have: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6914/samsung-galaxy-s-4-review

 

[xchampx13]

I am now succesfully rooted, took a little less than 60 seconds to complete.

 

[Krimsonmyst]

I remember seeing early previews of the s4 and noticing lag and stutter too. Everyone chocked it up to early software. But now that it's out it still seems to be an issue.

I can safely say I have yet to experience stutter of any kind on the One. Wonder what it is about the s4... Touch wiz?

Does it still lag or stutter for those with s4's that are running nova launcher?

Like I said in an earlier post Couch, the lag seems to be very varied between handsets. Over on XDA there are people using words like 'horrible', 'unusable', 'laggy disappointment' and 'abhorrent'. Now they might just be uber sensitive to one or two little stutters here and there, or they might have handsets that are really bad.

I bought one on launch day and like I mentioned in an earlier post, it occasionally skips a frame when returning to home screen from an app, or sometimes when unlocking the screen - but it is quite literally just a tiny one frame stutter. If you weren't looking for it you probably wouldn't even notice.

I installed Nova launcher first thing out the box (mainly just because I don't like the TW launcher), and I really don't have any complaints about it. Yeah, it would be nice of the occasional stutter didn't occur, but it's certainly not ruining my experience of the S4.

I'm looking forward to the custom Roms though. Not the AOSP/AOKP ones mind you, mainly because I like a lot of the features that TW has (the pulldown toggles are far better than the stock Android ones IMO), but I think a slimmed down TW rom with bloatware removed would be a great thing to have.

EDIT: I haven't experienced any of what I would call 'lag' either. On a hardware front the phone is lightning quick.

 

[The Game 161]

My phone has been dispatched

Woooo

Should arrive by wed.

 

[CD3660]

Excellent.

Where are you getting it from?

I pre-ordered from Amazon on the 21st of April and have had various delivery estimates changed. Now there is no estimate at all, and I am losing patience.

Might cancel and go elsewhere.

 

[Lindsford]

You could get one of these, it works great with vice city on my one.

http://www.androidcentral.com/moga-pro-review-must-have-gamers?style_mobile=0

Was definitely considering that as my back up option. How do you like the controller?

 

[The Game 161]

Excellent.

Where are you getting it from?

I pre-ordered from Amazon on the 21st of April and have had various delivery estimates changed. Now there is no estimate at all, and I am losing patience.

Might cancel and go elsewhere.

Unlocked mobiles

I ordered on the 25th of April... They say any new orders will be shipped on 7th may. They get stock daily now... Might be an option for you?

 

[Fernandez21]

Was definitely considering that as my back up option. How do you like the controller?

I just got it yesterday, but so far it has been great. Very responsive and fast to pair up. I've tested it with sonic cd, vice city, snesGnes, and mupen64, and so far no problems at all. It's very comfortable to hold too. Only complaint so far would be I had a better range of motion for the phone mount, it only sits at one angle, but other than that it's fine.

 

[Lindsford]

I just got it yesterday, but so far it has been great. Very responsive and fast to pair up. I've tested it with sonic cd, vice city, snesGnes, and mupen64, and so far no problems at all. It's very comfortable to hold too. Only complaint so far would be I had a better range of motion for the phone mount, it only sits at one angle, but other than that it's fine.

Nice may have to pick one up this weekend. Mupen 64 gives me terrible lag with Mario Kart 64. I tried playing with the settings which only made it worse. Hows it been running for you? Gnes works great for me though

 

[CD3660]

Unlocked mobiles

I ordered on the 25th of April... They say any new orders will be shipped on 7th may. They get stock daily now... Might be an option for you?

Thanks.

 

[adder7712]

I noticed stutter when I first took it out of the box, no discernible lag when opening apps. I have now installed a launcher (Nova) all swiping etc is as smooth as on my Nexus 4, the only time I notice stutter is when I double tap the screen to reveal the doc, it always stutters here, but I can live with that.

I didn't buy it for the hands free scrolling or air view so have these disabled, TBH, I'm loving this phone.

Went into York this morning and took a couple of snaps. These are straight from the phone, uploaded to photobucket with no enhancements.

Image

Image


Image

Beautiful photos of the Hurricane.

 

[MRU]

I am now succesfully rooted, took a little less than 60 seconds to complete.

If you were Australian and said that I'd suggest getting something to help you last longer ;-)

 

[daveathall]

GREAT Shots Dave And York is always a cool place to take photos

Wow those are some amazing photos

Would think they are from a pro camera.

Daveathall, nice photos. The S4 seems to have a truly top-notch camera indeed, one matches even dedicated point and shoot cameras in good light.

Beautiful photos of the Hurricane.

Thank you very much for the kind comments fellas.

 

[ajumbaje]

Glas.T or ultra crystal? I'm definitely getting a spigen screen protector regardless of what phone I get.

Anyone have the protective case+ ? Or the s view?

 

[MRU]

Glas.T or ultra crystal? I'm definitely getting a spigen screen protector regardless of what phone I get.

Anyone have the protective case+ ? Or the s view?

I got the spigen ultra slim matte case for mine, it was excellent and I went with the slim Glas.t Great combo

 

[Vegastouch]

It's better with nova, but yes it seems to be touchwiz and samsung services / apps / features that are to blame.

Just comparing memory usage between the one and the same apps open on the S4; the One runs at around 580-650mb the S4 1.2-1.5gb

A dramatic increase in memory usage for the exact same apps to be open, so clearly 'apps' themselves are not to blame so it can only leave Touchwiz and samsungs app services that are eating their way in the background.

Physically turning off all the gesture and scroll features and manually going into the app management and disabling samsungs apps helps indeed, proving they are mostly to blame.

Samsung added 'a ton' of features - but seemingly was too lazy to 'optimise' any of them or check that they didn't cause OS jitters.

This can be fixed in a software update, but really it shouldn't have come out of production software without the optimisation and it is frustrating.

Nova and other launchers mitigate things, as does turning off all the 'extra's ' but then at the end of the day what are you left with ?

----------

I dont use the Touchwiz launcher or any of the Samsung services anyways so i wont miss anything. The only Samsung service ive used is their app store but i dont need to. I can get anything from Googles playstore.

Samsungs extras arent any use to me. I dont need Chat On, TalkBack, S Voice or S Suggest when i have WhatsApp, my own SMS and Facebook and Google Now.
Most of all SS's extras will be turned off and the same will be the case if i had a HTC One ....if it can be turned off. I will be using the gestures though.