Does anyone know if this is the GS3 camera or an advanced version? Not that my GS3 takes particularly bad photos but the GS4 is better. I had a GS4 for a week but returned it because I'm trying to hold out for the Note3 but this one looks good.
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Samsung S4 active or Samsung S4?
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Lol you'd have to have your head pretty deep in the sand to not know Samsung is the largest electronic manufacturer on the planet. So yes, people still buy Samsung products.
Even with an Apple ecosystem I own more Samsung products including appliances. And most of the Apple products I own are full of Samsung parts.
Yeah not everyone get their kicks from having to wrap their premium baby in a cheap case.
LOL...I can't imagine who you could be talking about, MRU.
Now, to your question about the ports, the charging port has a cover that flips out, but apparently the headphone jack doesn't (Samsung says it's waterproof on it's own and doesn't require a cover). I find that fascinating.
I've held off from getting the S4 up until now, but the Active might push me over the edge. I love the rugged looks of it and I'm fine with the 8mp camera as opposed to the 13mp camera in the regular S4. If it's as good as the camera in my old S3 or Note 2, it'll work just fine for my uses. I love those cameras.
LOL...I can't imagine who you could be talking about, MRU.
Now, to your question about the ports, the charging port has a cover that flips out, but apparently the headphone jack doesn't (Samsung says it's waterproof on it's own and doesn't require a cover). I find that fascinating.
I've held off from getting the S4 up until now, but the Active might push me over the edge. I love the rugged looks of it and I'm fine with the 8mp camera as opposed to the 13mp camera in the regular S4. If it's as good as the camera in my old S3 or Note 2, it'll work just fine for my uses. I love those cameras.
Wow that's interesting about the headphone port indeed. All phones should have this then. The flaps on the Xperia Z were not ideal, be interesting to see how the active holds up once in peoples hands and water conditions.
I'll be more curious about water damage warranty claims. You can't really void a warranty from water damage with a waterproof product.
Be curious how they did the microphones and speakers too. I have a life proof case on my iPhone and it works as advertised but its comes at a price (screen covered in plastic, sound comes out the back, only OEM sized connectors work, screw cap on headphone jack, etc). It would nice to just not have to worry about it.
It also adds a certain level of durability IMO. You can't really knock Samsung for being cheap since you need to add a 80-100 dollar case to an iPhone to give it that level of durability and it limits functionality. Plus you need to worry about the case failing and then your phone getting wet and costing you to replace/repair it.
Btw I don't really use the waterproof feature for underwater use. I use it as protection from the elements since I do a lot of backpacking and at work where I'm outside a lot.
Be curious how they did the microphones and speakers too. I have a life proof case on my iPhone and it works as advertised but its comes at a price (screen covered in plastic, sound comes out the back, only OEM sized connectors work, screw cap on headphone jack, etc). It would nice to just not have to worry about it.
It also adds a certain level of durability IMO. You can't really knock Samsung for being cheap since you need to add a 80-100 dollar case to an iPhone to give it that level of durability and it limits functionality. Plus you need to worry about the case failing and then your phone getting wet and costing you to replace/repair it.
Btw I don't really use the waterproof feature for underwater use. I use it as protection from the elements since I do a lot of backpacking and at work where I'm outside a lot.
Exposed headphone jack is really interesting. Note 8.0 reviews regarding the TFT panel are for the most part positive. This phone is really interesting. I'm going to check it out as soon as it arrives at my local AT&T store.
The one obvious flaw is that the screen does not appear to be any better protected versus other phones sporting Gorilla Glass. Would have been great if they added some silicone to the front bezel to help against shattered screens if you drop it.
The one obvious flaw is that the screen does not appear to be any better protected versus other phones sporting Gorilla Glass. Would have been great if they added some silicone to the front bezel to help against shattered screens if you drop it.
Google would have answered this for you. I'll provide a link.
http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/06/05/samsung-galaxy-s4-active-gets-official-same-great-specs-mostly-ip67-waterproof-rating-available-this-summer/
I just like that it is a high end smartphone that is also rugged meaning no more having to handle smartphones like babies worrying about breaking etc. Tired of smartphones being fragile.
I would've preferred if they just made the flagship S4 water&dust proof and didn't bother making the Active.
If what I've heard is true and the Active is cheaper than the regular S4, they're just undercutting themselves. It's better to not saturate the market with all these variants of the same phone. If the S5 is waterproof I may jump ship, but with Samsung making so many different phones for so many different uses, I'll stick with an Apple phone.
I suspect extended software support is less likely for the variant phones, so I'd prefer Samsung consolidate all these options into the flagship. Probably cheaper to manufacture lots of the same phone than multiple slightly different variants anyway.
If what I've heard is true and the Active is cheaper than the regular S4, they're just undercutting themselves. It's better to not saturate the market with all these variants of the same phone. If the S5 is waterproof I may jump ship, but with Samsung making so many different phones for so many different uses, I'll stick with an Apple phone.
I suspect extended software support is less likely for the variant phones, so I'd prefer Samsung consolidate all these options into the flagship. Probably cheaper to manufacture lots of the same phone than multiple slightly different variants anyway.
Quoting GSM Arena, it does have good viewing angles. I think it's a Super LCD panel of some sorts, much like what HTC uses.
Or, something similar to the Xperia Z's but with tweaked viewing angles? I'm not so sure, let's wait for a tear down.
Oh baby! :drools:
I was real close to buying the S4 but held off due to it's AMOLED display and glossy plastic body...
... but the S4 Active has definitely pushed me over the buyers edge due to it's LCD display and matte finish
Can't wait to see it in stores on the 21st
A quick history.
First smartphone is the iPhone 3G in 2008. Move onto the iPhone 4 in 2010. iPhone 5 in 2012. And now the S4 Active.
I had the G Pro for 3 days. Decided it was too heavy and large for me. Hated the speaker too.
Wasn't in a rush to ditch the iPhone 5. My only one serious complaint was the screen size. iOS 7 addressed most of my OS gripes.
My experience with Android is pretty limited. I feel like I've learned a great deal in a matter of days. Overall I give the nod to iOS however I feel the iPhone 5 is too small for my needs right now.
I ruled out the One because I hate that power button placement and the S4 because I can't stomach Samsung's OLED screens. No matter what mode.
The S4 Active intrigued me because it offered an LCD panel, was 5", and had 3 physical navigation buttons. I don't like capacitive buttons and strongly prefer on-screen or physical ones.
I'll try to write this in as few words as possible. Overall I'm happy I left the iPhone 5 for the S4 Active.
Let's begin with the screen. Without question my favorite part of the S4 Active. It's beautiful and to my eyes looks no worse than the iPhone 5 screen. I think the ppi difference is irrelevant. Anything over 300 is negligible to the human eye in my experience.
Some people may worry about viewing angels on a TFT LCD. I don't see washout at any angle. I don't have my iPhone 5 and sold it pretty much immediately after purchasing the Active so I did not compare side by side. Regardless it's a non issue for me. I can see the screen just fine at an angle in those rare moments when I even do that. Most of the time I'm looking at the screen head on.
The bottom navigation buttons are terrific. They look and feel great. I think the back button is best suited on the right because most people are right handed and will hit that button more frequently than the menu button.
The volume and power buttons have a very subtle textured feel to them.
The back plastic appears to be a touch less slippery than the one on the S4 however it's still somewhat slippery and accumulates skin oils, etc. Personally it doesn't scream 'cheap' to me but it also doesn't feel great by any means. I might get a subtle case down the road. Quality plastic that feels good in your hand can be done on phones. (HTC First, Blackberry Z10, Xperia ZL.)
USB port requires you to open and close it. It opens and closes very easily. One must decide if having to open/close it will bother them. It's a non issue for me.
The very top and bottom of the back have a terrific textured rubber area. I wish these rubbery parts could have been used on the sides too which are very slippery sadly. There also appears to be 4 non-removable screws in the corners. I'm curious if this was done for looks or provides an actual purpose.
The headphone jack is at the top and is waterproof.
The phone itself is water resistant up to 3 feet for 30 minutes. It's also dust proof somehow. I have no desire to test out how it reacts to water. I'll just wait until I'm caught in a rainstorm and have to use my phone or I drop my phone at the beach. I do like the idea of putting my money behind a device that at least attempts to combat water. I frequent the beach in the summer so thumbs on that front.
The screen is still as prone to shattering as a normal S4. I wish Samsung could have placed something on the front to protect the screen from breaking if it falls. (Rubber on the front bezel?)
The phone is slightly heavier than the regular S4. (21 grams.) It makes for a decent weight that isn't heavy. At the same time I wouldn't want to use a heavier phone. I personally prefer a lighter phone in all circumstances.
The camera appears to be pretty solid. It's an 8 MP shooter so it should be worse than the one on the regular S4. I haven't taken a ton of photos but I'm happy with the results.
I'm running Nova Launcher Prime plus TeslaUnread with the Stark icon pack. I like this launcher a great deal. The stock TouchWiz apps are pretty terrible. The Notes app is laggy. The Gallery absolutely sucks. (I'm using Gallery ICS. It's not much better. I'm all ears for suggestions. I think the camera roll is so far the worst thing compared to the iOS camera roll.)
Gmail app is great. I hated it on the G Pro back in May but it appears 4.5 has made a world of difference. It's really terrific.
Using the Habit browser. It's great. Safari iOS IMO is excellent and this one comes close. Lacks the ability to pin a webpage onto your homescreen. Need to copy and paste the URL into the stock browser to do this. Pretty annoying but I'll deal.
Clipboard is just bizarre. Everything you copy in TouchWiz goes to the 'clipboard'. Yet you can't access it directly. I looked online and it appears the only way to access it or delete its contents entirely is to compose a text and hold down in the dialogue area. Just weird.
I had an absolutely nightmarish time trying to transfer music onto the G Pro last month. iSyncr, DoubleTwist, and AFT all failed me in spectacular function. Thankfully, with fingers still crossed, I found an amazing solution with an app called WiFi File Transfer Pro. It crashed when I tried to upload my entire music folder (51 GB) in one click. Instead I'm forced to upload files individually by artist. This is taking some time but it appears to be working just fine. I can now transfer music onto my SD card with no wires and no headaches. Individual albums upload very quickly. I also have all my music uploaded to Google Music. (But don't use it directly because I have a data cap plus I want my music at all times.) It appears that using the Google Music app to play the music on my SD card is working perfectly with respect to artwork because it's just mirroring what I already have uploaded onto Google Music. The stock Music app provided limited artwork in comparison.
iOS overall still gets the nod when it comes to overall app quality. I think most would agree. It's just more polished.
Keyboard was giving me a lot of issues. Went from terrible Samsung one to SwiftKey but wasn't satisfied. Personally I like the iOS keyboard a great deal. Autocorrect is a big deal with me and I don't swipe or use suggested words. I'm going back and forth with the stock Android keyboard and the Jelly Bean one and they both appear to be solid choices.
Battery life appears to be on par with my iPhone 5. Certainly not much better or worse.
This is a big one: back speaker. I find myself listening to the speaker a good deal. It's very good on the S4. It was terrible on the G Pro so I was worried but I'm really happy with it. It's on par with the one on the iPhone 5. Obviously it's most likely not as good as the one on the One but I'm very happy with it. Having it on the back is somewhat annoying. It should always be on the bottom or the front IMO.
I think that's it. If you have any questions I'll try to answer them. I'm very open to using an iPhone again but not until they offer a 5" model. The 5" screen is probably my sweet spot with respect to smartphones.
Forgot to add that I love the notification light.
First smartphone is the iPhone 3G in 2008. Move onto the iPhone 4 in 2010. iPhone 5 in 2012. And now the S4 Active.
I had the G Pro for 3 days. Decided it was too heavy and large for me. Hated the speaker too.
Wasn't in a rush to ditch the iPhone 5. My only one serious complaint was the screen size. iOS 7 addressed most of my OS gripes.
My experience with Android is pretty limited. I feel like I've learned a great deal in a matter of days. Overall I give the nod to iOS however I feel the iPhone 5 is too small for my needs right now.
I ruled out the One because I hate that power button placement and the S4 because I can't stomach Samsung's OLED screens. No matter what mode.
The S4 Active intrigued me because it offered an LCD panel, was 5", and had 3 physical navigation buttons. I don't like capacitive buttons and strongly prefer on-screen or physical ones.
I'll try to write this in as few words as possible. Overall I'm happy I left the iPhone 5 for the S4 Active.
Let's begin with the screen. Without question my favorite part of the S4 Active. It's beautiful and to my eyes looks no worse than the iPhone 5 screen. I think the ppi difference is irrelevant. Anything over 300 is negligible to the human eye in my experience.
Some people may worry about viewing angels on a TFT LCD. I don't see washout at any angle. I don't have my iPhone 5 and sold it pretty much immediately after purchasing the Active so I did not compare side by side. Regardless it's a non issue for me. I can see the screen just fine at an angle in those rare moments when I even do that. Most of the time I'm looking at the screen head on.
The bottom navigation buttons are terrific. They look and feel great. I think the back button is best suited on the right because most people are right handed and will hit that button more frequently than the menu button.
The volume and power buttons have a very subtle textured feel to them.
The back plastic appears to be a touch less slippery than the one on the S4 however it's still somewhat slippery and accumulates skin oils, etc. Personally it doesn't scream 'cheap' to me but it also doesn't feel great by any means. I might get a subtle case down the road. Quality plastic that feels good in your hand can be done on phones. (HTC First, Blackberry Z10, Xperia ZL.)
USB port requires you to open and close it. It opens and closes very easily. One must decide if having to open/close it will bother them. It's a non issue for me.
The very top and bottom of the back have a terrific textured rubber area. I wish these rubbery parts could have been used on the sides too which are very slippery sadly. There also appears to be 4 non-removable screws in the corners. I'm curious if this was done for looks or provides an actual purpose.
The headphone jack is at the top and is waterproof.
The phone itself is water resistant up to 3 feet for 30 minutes. It's also dust proof somehow. I have no desire to test out how it reacts to water. I'll just wait until I'm caught in a rainstorm and have to use my phone or I drop my phone at the beach. I do like the idea of putting my money behind a device that at least attempts to combat water. I frequent the beach in the summer so thumbs on that front.
The screen is still as prone to shattering as a normal S4. I wish Samsung could have placed something on the front to protect the screen from breaking if it falls. (Rubber on the front bezel?)
The phone is slightly heavier than the regular S4. (21 grams.) It makes for a decent weight that isn't heavy. At the same time I wouldn't want to use a heavier phone. I personally prefer a lighter phone in all circumstances.
The camera appears to be pretty solid. It's an 8 MP shooter so it should be worse than the one on the regular S4. I haven't taken a ton of photos but I'm happy with the results.
I'm running Nova Launcher Prime plus TeslaUnread with the Stark icon pack. I like this launcher a great deal. The stock TouchWiz apps are pretty terrible. The Notes app is laggy. The Gallery absolutely sucks. (I'm using Gallery ICS. It's not much better. I'm all ears for suggestions. I think the camera roll is so far the worst thing compared to the iOS camera roll.)
Gmail app is great. I hated it on the G Pro back in May but it appears 4.5 has made a world of difference. It's really terrific.
Using the Habit browser. It's great. Safari iOS IMO is excellent and this one comes close. Lacks the ability to pin a webpage onto your homescreen. Need to copy and paste the URL into the stock browser to do this. Pretty annoying but I'll deal.
Clipboard is just bizarre. Everything you copy in TouchWiz goes to the 'clipboard'. Yet you can't access it directly. I looked online and it appears the only way to access it or delete its contents entirely is to compose a text and hold down in the dialogue area. Just weird.
I had an absolutely nightmarish time trying to transfer music onto the G Pro last month. iSyncr, DoubleTwist, and AFT all failed me in spectacular function. Thankfully, with fingers still crossed, I found an amazing solution with an app called WiFi File Transfer Pro. It crashed when I tried to upload my entire music folder (51 GB) in one click. Instead I'm forced to upload files individually by artist. This is taking some time but it appears to be working just fine. I can now transfer music onto my SD card with no wires and no headaches. Individual albums upload very quickly. I also have all my music uploaded to Google Music. (But don't use it directly because I have a data cap plus I want my music at all times.) It appears that using the Google Music app to play the music on my SD card is working perfectly with respect to artwork because it's just mirroring what I already have uploaded onto Google Music. The stock Music app provided limited artwork in comparison.
iOS overall still gets the nod when it comes to overall app quality. I think most would agree. It's just more polished.
Keyboard was giving me a lot of issues. Went from terrible Samsung one to SwiftKey but wasn't satisfied. Personally I like the iOS keyboard a great deal. Autocorrect is a big deal with me and I don't swipe or use suggested words. I'm going back and forth with the stock Android keyboard and the Jelly Bean one and they both appear to be solid choices.
Battery life appears to be on par with my iPhone 5. Certainly not much better or worse.
This is a big one: back speaker. I find myself listening to the speaker a good deal. It's very good on the S4. It was terrible on the G Pro so I was worried but I'm really happy with it. It's on par with the one on the iPhone 5. Obviously it's most likely not as good as the one on the One but I'm very happy with it. Having it on the back is somewhat annoying. It should always be on the bottom or the front IMO.
I think that's it. If you have any questions I'll try to answer them. I'm very open to using an iPhone again but not until they offer a 5" model. The 5" screen is probably my sweet spot with respect to smartphones.
Forgot to add that I love the notification light.
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Great review. A few points that might help.
The camera should be just as good as the one on the S3 or Note 2 (so very good). I've read that the 8mp camera might work better than the 13mp on the regular S4. Some people say the one on the S4 lags because the images are so large.
Quickpic is the gallery app you want. Seriously...download it and be happy. Plus it's free.
Try Boat Browser. It's got a ton of options and one yet to find another browser (stock or aftermarket) that I like more.
Jellybean Keyboard Pro is my favorite keyboard by far. I like the Google Keyboard as well, but JKP's word suggestion and autocorrect are better, IMO.
I couldn't agree more on the 5" iPhone screen or notification light.
I read an article on pocketnow that said the LCD screen on the active is pretty much unusable once it gets wet. Any truth to this?
That goes for most phones. The water registers as a touch. The Xperia z and tablet z can't be used under water either.
Good info, and thanks for the detailed write up, blairh. I'm also seeking a bigger screen and while I'm happy with iOS I'm ready to try something else. The other killer is the iphone5 is unusable with my polarized sunglasses.
Question: do any of the browsers work with iCloud.com, particularly the find my phone function? I know stock browser doesn't, I tried it in the store.
S4 screen is very warm compared to the S4A based on look at them in the store. HTC screen was kind of dim.