I have been a fan of Apple products for many years and currently own an iPhone 5 which I am very happy with, However I am also a tech enthusiast who just loves gadgets of all kinds. With this in mind, I had the opportunity of acquiring a Samsung Galaxy S4 for next to nothing (compared to the retail price) so I decided I would unleash my inner geek and dual wield 2 top end smartphones, You know, for the lolz as they say.
Previously back when I had an iPhone 4 I also had a Galaxy S2 which lasted a week before it went on eBay. At that time I felt that Android just wasnt up to scratch in general (think it was running Gingerbread at the time like many low end smartphones even now). I also didn't like the screen. Whilst bigger and more vibrant I felt the quality of the screen overall didn't compare well to the retina display when side by side.
So back to the present! I have forced myself to primarily use the S4 for a week to give it a solid run in, customise it, and just generally use it day to day. In doing this I have come across some interesting bits and bobs (some I didn't expect) so I thought Id start a thread in the hope of helping someone who may be on the fence. This post IS NOT for fanboy rants so lets try and keep this nice and friendly ok? What i will say before I get to my conclusion is that no matter which phone you have its swings and roundabouts. The are both very good phones and both have positive and negative points. A few of which I'll hopefully cover below.
Build Quality
There has been much said about the Galaxy S4's build quality but to be honest I didn't find it as bad as people make out. The device is comfortable to hold due to its curved edges and feels nice in the hand. It doesn't feel heavy and it looks thin. There are no creaks or movement in the body and everything feels sold.
(Taken with the iPhone 5, I'll admit that the first thing I did was remove the 'Life Companion' cheese. Simply awful).
One thing I did notice was what I thought was a crack in the fake metal band that runs around the sides of the phone:
After further inspection there are lines like these on all four corners, presumably joins in the plastic which further give away the fact that its made of plastic and not metal. One other thing Im not keen on is the way the camera module isn't flush with the back of the phone. Due to this, if you rest it on a table it sits right on the camera, not the best of designs. Also the camera module is a big rectangular thing whereas on the iPhone its a neat circle that sits flush with the phone.
The Screen
Since the S2 things have changed! The screen is gorgeous, the fact that Samsung have been able to make it larger without increasing the size of the phone is great. Viewing the screen is a joy from browsing the web, to viewing videos and photos. Although I dont need a screen of this size Id be lying if I said I didnt want it on my iPhone:
One thing I have noticed is that its harder to see in daylight, in this respect the iPhone 5 performs better. The brightness has to be cranked up to max in daylight which is a shame. As the battery manager shows, the screen is the biggest battery drain on the device. The whole full HD 1080p is basically marketing guff as well, whilst the S4 screen is virtually flawless it doesn't appear to be anymore 'HD' than that of my non HD retina display. Both are sharp, clear, vibrant, and lovely to use.
Android OS & Apps
Android has moved on A LOT since I last used it. As we all know it can do a lot and is very flexible. There are many many things I like about it. However where iOS does less, it does those things better. On Android it does more but some features are still half baked. Saying that I could very happily use Android day to day. Also when Jellybean arrived there was much talk of 'Project Butter'. Let me state right here and now, from my use there is still plenty of lag, delays, and sometimes freezes. Some people will attribute this to touchwiz etc, but the fact remains that this is state of the art hardware and it lags and stutters still. The gallery is one example, tap the icon, slightly longer than expected delay to open, sometimes with a stuttery animation. Sometimes not. Swiping between homescreens, again sometimes stuttery sometimes not. The lockscreen, sometimes the animated light effect will also stutter. A good example would be attempting to click on an app a second time thinking that it didn't register my first tap. I cant say that I ever mistakenly think this with the iPhone. There is just a little more, I dunno, delay or lack of responsiveness.
Other areas of the OS can also irk. Google Talk was replaced by Hangouts. Going to the Play Store tells me that Hangouts is installed however its still showing as Google Talk on my device. Today it turns from an 'installed' button to an 'update' button so I update the app. Its now become Hangouts but the app icon has remained the old Google Talk icon. I also installed an app today that after configuring it and closing it my home screen wouldn't move, then it came up with a message saying the app had a problem at which point normal service resumed. The ringtone volume is also weird, when someone calls it starts ringing quietly and then abruptly explodes up to the volume I have it set at. Seems to do that every time and it sounds a bit naff to be honest. Not sure if that is a bug or something I can change somewhere?. I have come across many little things like this throughout the OS that bug me and are something I have never encountered using iOS.
Haptic feedback is great, I really like the feature and would love to have this on my iPhone. Now I don't know if this is an Android thing or an S4 thing or what but I find that the intensity of the feedback seems to change by itself for no reason. So for example sometimes when Im typing I can clearly feel it, other times it goes really faint for no reason.
Oh I also realised quickly that I hate the cheesy look of touchwiz and loved the homescreen of the S4 shown at the Google conference (the Google edition S4). A few tweaks later I now have the exact same layout as the S4 shown at the conference. Much less touchwiz = win. Customisation like this is something iOS will NEVER have. Some comparison shots of my homescreen layouts:
Back when I had a Galaxy S2, apps were severely lacking compared to their iOS counterparts. While thats still sometimes true today the gap has closed somewhat. Check out a few comparison pics of some popular apps. S4 on the left iPhone 5 on the right:
(notice the skeuomorphism featured on the S4's calendar app lol)
Camera
I was really looking forward to the 13mp camera. I really did have high expectations from it. It has a lot of modes and photo trickery which is nice. However upon direct comparison to my iPhone 5 I was left a little disappointed. Its a great camera in its own right but, well check them out for yourself and see what you think (not the greatest of photo subjects but you get the idea). S4 on the left, iPhone 5 on the right. All images have been reduced in size:
The last shot of the watch actually had the S4's HDR mode on in an attempt to give the image a bit of a boost. All in all Im just not as happy as I should be with the pictures I am getting from it. More accurately, Im not as happy as I was EXPECTING to be so maybe its me.
Additional Features
Im finding NFC very useful and already use it daily. Coupled with NFC Task Launcher I have it doing some really useful things. I have a NFC tag hanging in my car, when touching my phone against it, it puts the S4 into driving mode, loads up S-Voice Drive, and cranks up the screen brightness. I have one at my bedside that puts the phone in silent, sets my alarms for the morning, and puts the phone into power saving mode to conserve battery. Pretty cool stuff although i can see why Apple are not completely buying into it as its not really anything more than a cool feature at this time. Some people wont use NFC, I personally think its awesome.
Conclusion
It didn't take me long to realise that things were different this time. The S4 wont be going on eBay like the S2 did. Do I need two phones? nope, but what the heck. Its a solid smartphone and if you are primarily an Android user its simply fantastic. If you have an iPhone and are thinking of switching it may not be as clear cut. Just like I did you may spot little things here or there that bother you, however the allure of a bigger screen and features such as NFC may be more important to you than the occasional issues here and there. iCloud and iMessage are another 2 features I don't really want to say goodbye to either and whilst there are alternatives on Android they don't all gel together quite as well. We have Key Lime Pie to look forward to in the not too distant future which Im sure will improve and refine the Android OS further.
Hope this write up will be of some use and please bare in mind that it is nothing more than the thoughts and observations of one little person. Everyone will have different feelings, needs, and experiences. I'll finish up by saying that if I HAD to chose one or the other at this moment in time I would probably have to say goodbye to the S4. Luckily I dont have to and can enjoy the best of both worlds
Previously back when I had an iPhone 4 I also had a Galaxy S2 which lasted a week before it went on eBay. At that time I felt that Android just wasnt up to scratch in general (think it was running Gingerbread at the time like many low end smartphones even now). I also didn't like the screen. Whilst bigger and more vibrant I felt the quality of the screen overall didn't compare well to the retina display when side by side.
So back to the present! I have forced myself to primarily use the S4 for a week to give it a solid run in, customise it, and just generally use it day to day. In doing this I have come across some interesting bits and bobs (some I didn't expect) so I thought Id start a thread in the hope of helping someone who may be on the fence. This post IS NOT for fanboy rants so lets try and keep this nice and friendly ok? What i will say before I get to my conclusion is that no matter which phone you have its swings and roundabouts. The are both very good phones and both have positive and negative points. A few of which I'll hopefully cover below.
Build Quality
There has been much said about the Galaxy S4's build quality but to be honest I didn't find it as bad as people make out. The device is comfortable to hold due to its curved edges and feels nice in the hand. It doesn't feel heavy and it looks thin. There are no creaks or movement in the body and everything feels sold.
(Taken with the iPhone 5, I'll admit that the first thing I did was remove the 'Life Companion' cheese. Simply awful).
One thing I did notice was what I thought was a crack in the fake metal band that runs around the sides of the phone:
After further inspection there are lines like these on all four corners, presumably joins in the plastic which further give away the fact that its made of plastic and not metal. One other thing Im not keen on is the way the camera module isn't flush with the back of the phone. Due to this, if you rest it on a table it sits right on the camera, not the best of designs. Also the camera module is a big rectangular thing whereas on the iPhone its a neat circle that sits flush with the phone.
The Screen
Since the S2 things have changed! The screen is gorgeous, the fact that Samsung have been able to make it larger without increasing the size of the phone is great. Viewing the screen is a joy from browsing the web, to viewing videos and photos. Although I dont need a screen of this size Id be lying if I said I didnt want it on my iPhone:
One thing I have noticed is that its harder to see in daylight, in this respect the iPhone 5 performs better. The brightness has to be cranked up to max in daylight which is a shame. As the battery manager shows, the screen is the biggest battery drain on the device. The whole full HD 1080p is basically marketing guff as well, whilst the S4 screen is virtually flawless it doesn't appear to be anymore 'HD' than that of my non HD retina display. Both are sharp, clear, vibrant, and lovely to use.
Android OS & Apps
Android has moved on A LOT since I last used it. As we all know it can do a lot and is very flexible. There are many many things I like about it. However where iOS does less, it does those things better. On Android it does more but some features are still half baked. Saying that I could very happily use Android day to day. Also when Jellybean arrived there was much talk of 'Project Butter'. Let me state right here and now, from my use there is still plenty of lag, delays, and sometimes freezes. Some people will attribute this to touchwiz etc, but the fact remains that this is state of the art hardware and it lags and stutters still. The gallery is one example, tap the icon, slightly longer than expected delay to open, sometimes with a stuttery animation. Sometimes not. Swiping between homescreens, again sometimes stuttery sometimes not. The lockscreen, sometimes the animated light effect will also stutter. A good example would be attempting to click on an app a second time thinking that it didn't register my first tap. I cant say that I ever mistakenly think this with the iPhone. There is just a little more, I dunno, delay or lack of responsiveness.
Other areas of the OS can also irk. Google Talk was replaced by Hangouts. Going to the Play Store tells me that Hangouts is installed however its still showing as Google Talk on my device. Today it turns from an 'installed' button to an 'update' button so I update the app. Its now become Hangouts but the app icon has remained the old Google Talk icon. I also installed an app today that after configuring it and closing it my home screen wouldn't move, then it came up with a message saying the app had a problem at which point normal service resumed. The ringtone volume is also weird, when someone calls it starts ringing quietly and then abruptly explodes up to the volume I have it set at. Seems to do that every time and it sounds a bit naff to be honest. Not sure if that is a bug or something I can change somewhere?. I have come across many little things like this throughout the OS that bug me and are something I have never encountered using iOS.
Haptic feedback is great, I really like the feature and would love to have this on my iPhone. Now I don't know if this is an Android thing or an S4 thing or what but I find that the intensity of the feedback seems to change by itself for no reason. So for example sometimes when Im typing I can clearly feel it, other times it goes really faint for no reason.
Oh I also realised quickly that I hate the cheesy look of touchwiz and loved the homescreen of the S4 shown at the Google conference (the Google edition S4). A few tweaks later I now have the exact same layout as the S4 shown at the conference. Much less touchwiz = win. Customisation like this is something iOS will NEVER have. Some comparison shots of my homescreen layouts:
Back when I had a Galaxy S2, apps were severely lacking compared to their iOS counterparts. While thats still sometimes true today the gap has closed somewhat. Check out a few comparison pics of some popular apps. S4 on the left iPhone 5 on the right:
(notice the skeuomorphism featured on the S4's calendar app lol)
Camera
I was really looking forward to the 13mp camera. I really did have high expectations from it. It has a lot of modes and photo trickery which is nice. However upon direct comparison to my iPhone 5 I was left a little disappointed. Its a great camera in its own right but, well check them out for yourself and see what you think (not the greatest of photo subjects but you get the idea). S4 on the left, iPhone 5 on the right. All images have been reduced in size:
The last shot of the watch actually had the S4's HDR mode on in an attempt to give the image a bit of a boost. All in all Im just not as happy as I should be with the pictures I am getting from it. More accurately, Im not as happy as I was EXPECTING to be so maybe its me.
Additional Features
Im finding NFC very useful and already use it daily. Coupled with NFC Task Launcher I have it doing some really useful things. I have a NFC tag hanging in my car, when touching my phone against it, it puts the S4 into driving mode, loads up S-Voice Drive, and cranks up the screen brightness. I have one at my bedside that puts the phone in silent, sets my alarms for the morning, and puts the phone into power saving mode to conserve battery. Pretty cool stuff although i can see why Apple are not completely buying into it as its not really anything more than a cool feature at this time. Some people wont use NFC, I personally think its awesome.
Conclusion
It didn't take me long to realise that things were different this time. The S4 wont be going on eBay like the S2 did. Do I need two phones? nope, but what the heck. Its a solid smartphone and if you are primarily an Android user its simply fantastic. If you have an iPhone and are thinking of switching it may not be as clear cut. Just like I did you may spot little things here or there that bother you, however the allure of a bigger screen and features such as NFC may be more important to you than the occasional issues here and there. iCloud and iMessage are another 2 features I don't really want to say goodbye to either and whilst there are alternatives on Android they don't all gel together quite as well. We have Key Lime Pie to look forward to in the not too distant future which Im sure will improve and refine the Android OS further.
Hope this write up will be of some use and please bare in mind that it is nothing more than the thoughts and observations of one little person. Everyone will have different feelings, needs, and experiences. I'll finish up by saying that if I HAD to chose one or the other at this moment in time I would probably have to say goodbye to the S4. Luckily I dont have to and can enjoy the best of both worlds
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