Samsung Galaxy S4 or HTC One

[nick_elt]

Cheap aluminum? You know why cars are made of metal and not plastic? If plastic was so superior why are many structurally rigid items made of metal and not plastic? Cranes, cars, storage containers, keys, etc. Plastic is much cheaper than aluminum. Battery life is indeed important. But you and I both don't have any data on that just yet. And nowhere did I say battery life is not important.

All it has? You know that low light performance is a big differentiating factor between a <$1000 DSLR and a $4000 DSLR? How much light a sensor "sees" is the fundamental to how a camera performs.

HTC's engineering is not determined by their stock holders nor their share price. For example, Sun Microsystems had some of the best engineers yet they failed as a business. HTC's engineering is far superior to Samsung. Their stock prices have nothing to do with how well their engineers perform.
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You will find ALOT more plastic in a car than aluminium but anyway we are not talking about cars so the point is mute. We also are not talking about dslr cameras and you shouldnt put the One in the same sentance because I see where they were coming from but in application the Ones camera IS NOT amazing. If HTC's engineering is so superior, why cant they engineer a decent battery???????? Plus i dont find the One a looker either, I do think the one x+ is one of the best looking phones ever (if not the best) but everything else(bar the screen) let it down.

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Aluminium and phones dont go together

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Just read snowleopards other posts. I wont get trolled into other replies, the guy cant be for real.

 

[MRU]

One of the most asked questions about the HTC One is, "Can you turn off blinkfeed?"

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I think that's because people are not seeing it in the long term. If your other applications could also integrate with Blinkfeed which is why the SDK is out there, then HTC hopes you'll be able to get your sports updates directly there without opening an application. Get your TV listings (or reminder about a programme ou have flagged) without opening another app etc.. Maybe your notes and reminders integrated with calendar and other services all filling up that little hub.

I genuinly think they have a grander vision of it in the long term than just an RSS reader. They envision it to become your personal hub. However they need to get developers to support it. Enabling Blinkfeed to be turned off would be counter productive to this aim/vision - by everyone having access to it they can say to devs - look everyone has it. Here's the SDK/Api Please use it.

By bringing Blinkfeed into all their 2012 handsets and new handsets (midrange) going forward, again they can say look there are a lot of people with this - please add support for it.

Blinkfeed could become one of the greatest features and a genuine changer - but you have to look at what it with vision about what it could bring - rather than just assume its Flipboard.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

People will hate the idea but im 100% sure Samsung will start making phones sealed and present a solid looking/feel device like the htc one.

That would probably only work, as long as they have a mirco sd slot on the side.

That's exactly what bloatware is. What do you think it is?!

"bloatware
A piece of software, hardware or website that attempts to do too much and becomes utterly useless for users. An example of bloatware would be a word processing application that also tries to be your page layout program, drawing tool, and web browser; absorbing half your hard drive and all your RAM in the process."

Software that attempts to do too much!

Features are great, but if there are thousands of features you don't use it becomes more difficult and cumbersome to find the ones you DO use.

I don't see any of those G4 features taking up much resources or space at all. Most features will be disabled out the box, and you'll get a popup depending on what your doing whether or not you want to enable a feature or leave off. This is how the G3 is.

 

[0dev]

Yea, I'll take my display in reality not over-saturated thanks.

Enjoy the inferior washed out display

So plastic doesn't scratch?

Not as badly or as visibly as aluminium, no.

Plastic is terrible for a number of reasons. First, plastic is harmful to the environment. It's not as recyclable as aluminum and other materials.

Cry me a river, Greenpeace

Second, it's an insulator. Not really doing the SoC any favors for keeping heat trapped in rather than spreading it out.

You make it sound like thick solid aluminium is actually any better for getting rid of heat.

Third, it creaks. Out of the ~10 Samsung Galaxy devices (S2, mostly S3 and some other various Galaxy line phones), all of them creak when I press a button or grip the sides or something.

Well that settles it then, the functionality of the phone is totally hindered by the slight creaking! BTW I've got a friend with an S2 and another with an S3 and neither of those creak.

Fourth, the plastic is glossy. So while it's not unique to plastic, it will get kind of slick/slimy/slippery feeling because of the oils in your skin. Some people with less oily skin won't find it as much of a problem. But I have somewhat oily hands apparently since the S3 kind of felt slimy after I used it for a while. I could wipe it of course.

The plastic on the S4 is not glossy.

The logic that most people use a case, therefore the phone's materials doesn't matter is pretty retarded. It's just justification for the phone's cheap materials that you have inherently admitted. I'll bite though. Yes, you're right. But that doesn't mean plastic is better than aluminum. Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it's better/worse. I don't see the studs in my walls. But I sure as hell want them to be made of solid wood over say plywood or particleboard. Just because solid wood is a better/more expensive material.

Plastic is a perfectly acceptable material to make a phone out of. It's the best material for actually letting radio waves through, it's very resilient, and it doesn't scratch as easily as aluminium.

And as you've admitted, most people stick their phones in cases anyway and, in fact, most of those cases are... you guessed it... plastic.

 

[matttye]

I don't see any of those G4 features taking up much resources or space at all. Most features will be disabled out the box, and you'll get a popup depending on what your doing whether or not you want to enable a feature or leave off. This is how the G3 is.

I remember them, they're quite annoying Nobody likes boxes popping up when they're trying to work.

Apparently a highly compressed 13MP JPG will be about 1.25MB in size. Drama shot takes 100 pictures in four seconds. Will that not result in 100MB of pictures each time it's used? I could be completely wrong about this as I don't know how it works; it might use some kind of uber compression wizardry

 

[MRU]

[/COLOR]Just read snowleopards other posts. I wont get trolled into other replies, the guy cant be for real.

In fairness AutoUnion fella has been equally as trolling (if not more so) and has been hijacking a number of threads with the same comments repeated ad-nausem the last few days. When you answer with fact and evidence to the contrary he doesnt reply he just ignores the response and continued to post the same irrational vitriol over and over.


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I think both Phones are grand and the matter of which is better is subjective and down to which appeals to your own idea of design aesthetics and software preferences.

But this goes for any smartphone. But to irrationally attack someone or something and to over egg the negative to extremes is just silly.

 

[nick_elt]

Sure I do.

It's software that tries to do too much and becomes bogged down with features.

But they arent apps, you can turn it all off. It isnt bloatware. Google + is bloatware.

 

[MRU]

Enjoy the inferior washed out display
.

Can we stop being silly.

Both the HTC One and the SGS4 have arguably the best displays out there. So the technology is different. So what, the reality is both offer great quality, great clarity, great colour reproduction and great viewing angles.

Stop the sillyness and smug comments - especially when you know the poster you are quoting can not reply.

It's tiresome.

 

[matttye]

But they arent apps, you can turn it all off. It isnt bloatware. Google + is bloatware.

It doesn't have to be an app to be bloatware. It's just any software that tries to do too much.

The question of whether the S4 tries to do too much is down to the individual.

Why argue over the semantics?

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

I remember them, they're quite annoying Nobody likes boxes popping up when they're trying to work.

It's only one time popups. I doubt anyone is doing anything important on their phone at first setup. Don't see where the annoyance comes in.

Apparently a highly compressed 13MP JPG will be about 1.25MB in size. Drama shot takes 100 pictures in four seconds. Will that not result in 100MB of pictures each time it's used? I could be completely wrong about this as I don't know how it works; it might use some kind of uber compression wizardry

You can choose a range of MP/Res on the G3. I'm sure it's the same on the G4. Also space will not be a concern for me as I'll be getting the 64gb version and load my 64gb card inside.

 

[nick_elt]

It doesn't have to be an app to be bloatware. It's just any software that tries to do too much.

The question of whether the S4 tries to do too much is down to the individual.

Why argue over the semantics?

All the camera features are selling points to alot of people. It is what makes it different to say sense. I think you just dont like touchwiz and thats fair enough, not everyone does. But its not bloatware.

 

[matttye]

It's only one time popups. I doubt anyone is doing anything important on their phone at first setup. Don't see where the annoyance comes in.



You can choose a range of MP/Res on the G3. I'm sure it's the same on the G4. Also space will not be a concern for me as I'll be getting the 64gb version and load my 64gb card inside.

The annoying popups aren't the initial phone setup ones, but the ones you get when you first go into an app like the calendar, probably some time after you've already set the phone up.

It's only mildly annoying, don't get me wrong.

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All the camera features are selling points to alot of people. It is what makes it different to say sense. I think you just dont like touchwiz and thats fair enough, not everyone does. But its not bloatware.

I like Touchwiz and I like a lot of the features (smart stay, notification toggles, swiping left/right in contacts to message/call, being able to call/message someone after you hang up the phone, etc.), but I find some of the camera features to be bloatware. I don't take a lot of pictures. I would rather have the usable space that those features take up.

 

[maxosx]

Last year upon the release of the S3, and HTC One via AT&T I bought both just for the fun of doing a comparison over a period of time. In the end I prefer the Samsung, yet the HTC was a very close second.

As usual, my take on it, is it's simply personal preference. I've had every Galaxy since the first S model, and hence have a bit of brand preference for their product.

 

[Bahroo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGHaagJrCr0

Ehh the S4 does not look impressive to me TBH

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

The annoying popups aren't the initial phone setup ones, but the ones you get when you first go into an app like the calendar, probably some time after you've already set the phone up.

It's only mildly annoying, don't get me wrong.

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Your thinking of the tips popups.

I like Touchwiz and I like a lot of the features (smart stay, notification toggles, swiping left/right in contacts to message/call, being able to call/message someone after you hang up the phone, etc.), but I find some of the camera features to be bloatware. I don't take a lot of pictures. I would rather have the usable space that those features take up.

How much space do you really think is being taken? I highly doubt it's anything worth missing.

 

[matttye]

Your thinking of the tips popups.



How much space do you really think is being taken? I highly doubt it's anything worth missing.

Probably not. My main gripe is that I don't think the OS should do everything. If I wanted 39393937 different camera features I'd download an advanced camera app that had them.

What Samsung should do is try to make Touchwiz as extensible as possible and then release a bunch of apps in their store. Billions of features for those who want them, but not for those who don't

The OS should provide a framework for apps to use and build on, not provide everything itself.

 

[F123D]

I won't be upgrading since I already have a Note II but it'd be difficult to decide on a device if I were. Both look like excellent devices each with their positives and negatives.

HTC with it's design and stereo speakers. Samsung with it's larger screen, expandable storage and swappable battery.

Materials wise, I'd slap a case on either phone I'd get so metal or plastic, that's not high on my list.

At the moment, I'm leaning 60/40 towards the S4 but we'll see as more hands on reviews get released in the coming weeks.

 

[tbayrgs]

Well, you've already pointed to one thing that drives me nuts. The auto correction is just horrendous. And it has a lot to do with the keyboard simply not registering every key press (i will literally see keys gray out, meaning they've been tapped, but the letter doesn't show). When you thumb fast, it just doesn't keep up (true on the iPad as well). This leads to horrendous auto corrections.

Lack of suggestion bar, lack of predictive text, lack of control over personal dictionary (this is a huge one. It'd be nice if we could have the ability to save and NOT save words we want or don't want), not being able to long press for alternative symbols, no lower-or-upper case signifier, etc.

The narrow screen size plays a bit into it, too, but it's really the software that fails.

And worse, Apple doesn't deem it needs any upgrading considering it's been 5 years going without any sort of major improvement.

The S4 has Swiftkey's predictions algorithyms baked into its keyboard. Swype, Thumb Keyboard, Smartkeyboard Pro, Swiftkey themselves have all proven what and how a keyboard should function on the smartphone. I mean, customizable keyboard sizes (doesn't have to be difficult. Swiftkey offers "small, medium, large" -- simple), customizable alternative characters, so many things... that all help improve your personal typing experience.

The iOS keyboard, in short, is just old. Don't forget, it gave birth to the internet phenom known as "Damn You iPhone Auto Correction". The iOS keyboard is a joke.

***This is mainly gathered from my time with the 4S. And to a lesser extent, my time with my iPad 3rd gen (though I don't type as much on the iPad. It's used more for games, etc.).



EDIT: Also, side note... the dictation is so much better on Android. I hate that iOS' dictation waits for you to finish your sentence before it begins loading words out. It often misses entire words, sometimes whole sentences, if what you're dictating gets remotely lengthy. Whereas on Android, it goes word by word as you say it, is extremely accurate, and you're able to see when things go wrong so you can stop/edit. You also don't have to press the MIC key again to "stop" the recording, as you do on iOS.

This is why I think you're going to be miserable using an iPhone. Keyboard is probably the most used feature of a smartphone and if you're unhappy using it, you're gonna be unhappy with the phone. And unfortunately, the options don't improve much even with a jailbreak.

I'm comfortable enough using the iOS keyboard as I used it for years and my natural typing style came from using it but I'll completely agree that it's vastly inferior to many options available on Android. I personally love Swiftkey (only gripe is having the number keypad on the left--not convenient for us righties ) and having it as on option on iOS would go a long way towards improving it.

 

[onthecouchagain]

This is why I think you're going to be miserable using an iPhone. Keyboard is probably the most used feature of a smartphone and if you're unhappy using it, you're gonna be unhappy with the phone. And unfortunately, the options don't improve much even with a jailbreak.

I'm comfortable enough using the iOS keyboard as I used it for years and my natural typing style came from using it but I'll completely agree that it's vastly inferior to many options available on Android. I personally love Swiftkey (only gripe is having the number keypad on the left--not convenient for us righties ) and having it as on option on iOS would go a long way towards improving it.

Keyboard's a lot better.

Anyway: https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/17003018/

And:

Y'all wanna hear my iPhone 5 impressions?

So far, mostly good. Lots of quirks to adjust to, though. Like no dedicated back button, and no swiping (good lord, the keyboard BEGS for swiping). Typing, while better than it was on my 4S, feels so "manual". That's really the best way to put it. You have to work for everything. Whereas typing on Swiftkey, everything is natural (swiping, long pressing for secondary symbols, word prediction that can sometimes finish sentences for you, etc.).

So... "manual"...

 

[Krimsonmyst]

Don't like plastic devices....so HTC One is the winner for me between the two.

I hear a lot of people say this, but if the iPhone 5 was anything to go by, while aluminium looks very sleek, and feels cool in the hand, it's very susceptible to scratching and denting - being a relatively soft metal.

I've had an S3 since it launched last year, and even without a case for 90% of the time, the polycarbonate is VERY scratch and damage resistant. I've dropped the S3 a few times over the year - from varying heights onto various surfaces, and its quite interesting what happens. The back cover will generally fly off and the battery will fall out, but the plastic actually absorbs all the shock, and there is generally very little damage to the actual handset. I've been pretty luck in that my screen hasn't cracked, but even so, the body of it has held up really well.

So while aluminium might FEEL better, there's no guarantee that it's actually better for the durability or life of the phone.

 

[ugahairydawgs]

I hear a lot of people say this, but if the iPhone 5 was anything to go by, while aluminium looks very sleek, and feels cool in the hand, it's very susceptible to scratching and denting - being a relatively soft metal.

I've had an S3 since it launched last year, and even without a case for 90% of the time, the polycarbonate is VERY scratch and damage resistant. I've dropped the S3 a few times over the year - from varying heights onto various surfaces, and its quite interesting what happens. The back cover will generally fly off and the battery will fall out, but the plastic actually absorbs all the shock, and there is generally very little damage to the actual handset. I've been pretty luck in that my screen hasn't cracked, but even so, the body of it has held up really well.

So while aluminium might FEEL better, there's no guarantee that it's actually better for the durability or life of the phone.

Wife and I both have had iPhone 5s since launch and neither have a ding. Only protection on there are bumpers. And that includes a few drops.

 

[onthecouchagain]

Really sad that there's no clear cut Android phone. Not yet anyway.

I'm now using an iPhone 5. ... :T

 

[Krimsonmyst]

Wife and I both have had iPhone 5s since launch and neither have a ding. Only protection on there are bumpers. And that includes a few drops.

Well that's very fortunate then, because you don't have to look far to see people who have encountered many scratches out of the box, dings, dents etc.

 

[Tankmaze]

Obviously the one with great hardware design and material. Which is the HTC one

 

[sentinelsx]

Ya, SAMOLED is a HUGE bugaboo for me....especially since the news is the GS4 is still pentile

I'm not a jailbreaker or a rooter - prefer to simply set up and use, and don't mind the overlay so long as it isn't overpowering. If the battery life can be decent (just get me through a day on a day charge with pretty average usage) I think I'll be sold....

But I'm with you on the vanilla android opinion - if Google can wow with the Nexus 5 or Motorola Phone X, that will definitely be it. I don't have many complaints with the Nexus 4 - save the camera and the battery.

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I stand corrected on the Pentile matrix of the GS4......from another thread:



This would take away one of my bigger disappointments with the GS4....while I'm still not a huge fan of AMOLED, the Pentile matrix really turned me completely off to the GS3

Actually, i just figured i am missing vanilla android so much i am thinking of rebuying a nexus 4 instead of considering the GS4.

From the looks of it, Samsung wants their phones to be S-phones more than android phones.

And sure AOKP can fix that partially, but nothing makes AOSP runs great other than a nexus.

Looks to me the saying is right, if you have ever used an iPhone, the only android you would ever want is a nexus.

I guess i can hold on to a N4 until Xphone or the new nexus comes out. Who knows what is happening in the android landscape in the next few months. Will google get to take their android back from the current hostage situation with Samsung? Will need amazing marketing from Moto and Google for sure.

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Wife and I both have had iPhone 5s since launch and neither have a ding. Only protection on there are bumpers. And that includes a few drops.

2 drops and 4 corners of my iPhone 5 have dings and the aluminum has been compressed into the structure

I hate cases but oh well, that is an instant $150 off from my phone's resale. Lesson learnt to be more careful next time.