Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

“If you went into a store and had a choice between a Samsung Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5s,

  • Samsung Galaxy S4

    Votes: 20 38.5%
  • iPhone 5s

    Votes: 32 61.5%

  • Total voters
    52

Macdude2010

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 17, 2010
1,354
551
The Apple Store
Hello All,
I am doing a survey for a research paper, this will be one of my primary sources in my paper.
The Question is: “If you went into a store and had a choice between a Samsung Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5s, price not being a factor, Which would you choose?”
 

rui no onna

Contributor
Oct 25, 2013
14,921
13,273
Hello All,
I am doing a survey for a research paper, this will be one of my primary sources in my paper.
The Question is: “If you went into a store and had a choice between a Samsung Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5s, price not being a factor, Which would you choose?”

You do realize this is a website generally geared towards Apple, therefore, results will be skewed in the iPhone 5s's favor, right?

I'd go iPhone 5s but that speaks more of my dislike for TouchWiz than anything else.
 

Macdude2010

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 17, 2010
1,354
551
The Apple Store
You do realize this is a website generally geared towards Apple, therefore, results will be skewed in the iPhone 5s's favor, right?

I'd go iPhone 5s but that speaks more of my dislike for TouchWiz than anything else.

Thats why I went to the alternative forum, Apple forum on an Android subcategory should be equal enough.
 

Stooby Mcdoobie

macrumors 6502a
Jun 26, 2012
834
45
I would go with the S4 and slap an AOSP ROM on it. I don't like iOS and the iPhone's screen is smaller than I like in a mobile device.
 

BJMRamage

macrumors 68030
Oct 2, 2007
2,753
1,285
I've used both...iPhone 5S for me.

granted that is after using an iPhone 4 for 3 years and having bought lots of apps, and things compatible with the iPhone (as well as having an iPad and wife with iPhone and Macs).

I liked the larger screen of the S4 for watching video. the camera on the S4 wasn't too good. the "special" things it had never really worked. good idea, bad execution. and then the capacity...the S4 was almost cut in half straight out of the box.
 

mib1800

Suspended
Sep 16, 2012
2,859
1,250
S4 for me. ip5S is missing the following:-

- bigger screen
- customization (incl. widget/home and lockscreen)
- flexible and more capable OS (like intent/background multi-tasking, multi-format file support, unrestricted sharing and integrated Google services )
- SD slot and USB host (allows easy movement of files in and out of phone)
-camera shooting modes e.g. front+back shot
- IR Blaster
 

Menneisyys2

macrumors 603
Jun 7, 2011
6,003
1,106
5s, assuming it comes with 7.0.x and is, therefore, JB'able. There's no contest: a JB'n 5s is far better than the old S4.

If not JB'able, I'd wait and purchase one of the following:
- iPhone 6
- Note 4
- LG G3

I'd pass the cuurently (or very soon) available Samsung S5 and the LG Pro 2. Both have some fatal flaws; for example, the S5 lacks OIS and the Pro 2 has some annoying framedrops while shooting 4K.
 

akuma13

macrumors 6502a
Jan 10, 2006
934
430
5s, assuming it comes with 7.0.x and is, therefore, JB'able. There's no contest: a JB'n 5s is far better than the old S4.

If not JB'able, I'd wait and purchase one of the following:
- iPhone 6
- Note 4
- LG G3

I'd pass the cuurently (or very soon) available Samsung S5 and the LG Pro 2. Both have some fatal flaws; for example, the S5 lacks OIS and the Pro 2 has some annoying framedrops while shooting 4K.

Totally agree, the ergonomics on the S4 is one of its fatal flaws. Everything else can be remedied with a custom rom but I have a jailbroken 5s and love it.

All the announcements so for have been meh (and im not expecting much from htc). So I'm sticking with my 5s for a while.
 

rockitdog

macrumors 68030
Mar 25, 2013
2,724
1,241
I'm 6 one way and half a dozen the other on this one. Both have good and bad points. The iPhone has lost some of its prestige IMO and Samsung is close to being the mobile King these days.
 

viskon

macrumors 6502
Oct 20, 2012
464
10
S4 wins it for me. Can't stand iOS- small screen, locked down, proprietary interfaces, et al.
 

sixrom

macrumors 6502a
Nov 13, 2013
709
1
I'm a serious Apple enthusiast that uses both iPhone and Android. My Samsung Galaxy S4 is much more advanced than my iPhone 5S. There's a good possibility the upcoming iPhone 6 will be the best iPhone yet, and it may catch up with some of the features and benefits that Android offers.

Apple will always be more limited in it's functionality than Android since Apple keeps theirs proprietary. That's just how it is. Many people don't mind the limitations. It depends on personal needs. They're different platforms for different purposes.
 

rockitdog

macrumors 68030
Mar 25, 2013
2,724
1,241
I'm a serious Apple enthusiast that uses both iPhone and Android. My Samsung Galaxy S4 is much more advanced than my iPhone 5S. There's a good possibility the upcoming iPhone 6 will be the best iPhone yet, and it may catch up with some of the features and benefits that Android offers.

Apple will always be more limited in it's functionality than Android since Apple keeps theirs proprietary. That's just how it is. Many people don't mind the limitations. It depends on personal needs. They're different platforms for different purposes.

The S4 has better features but that doesn't mean it does stuff better. To me the fluidity of the OS, the predictability of the apps and quick acting camera still give the iPhone a slight nod over the S4.
 

mib1800

Suspended
Sep 16, 2012
2,859
1,250
The S4 has better features but that doesn't mean it does stuff better. To me the fluidity of the OS, the predictability of the apps and quick acting camera still give the iPhone a slight nod over the S4.

You got it all wrong. S4 definitely does stuff better - why? because 5S cannot do many of those stuff AT ALL. ;)
 

Savor

Suspended
Jun 18, 2010
3,742
918
iPhone 5s and I generally don't like iOS.

It have to be a black edition with the faux leather backing and be the GPE for me to pick the S4 over 5s.

AMOLED and black front panels should go hand in hand together. Esp with a black live wallpaper like the Nexus Revamped to save battery. I never understood why Samsung would market white/dark blue front panel flagships with hideous green all over their core apps and cartoonish icons from TouchWiz. Samsung's color schemes makes iOS7 and Apple's hideous choices for icons, neon, and translucency look halfway decent in my eyes.

The best looking skin is Sense 5/6, Huawei's Emotion UI themes, and Sony which generally keeps close to stock Android. I find KitKat to look better than iOS7 even if it isn't a complete revamp the way Ice Cream Sandwich was.
 

MRU

macrumors Penryn
Aug 23, 2005
25,370
8,952
a better place
I'd approach this as if both phones were free - i'd take the iPhone 5S as it's retail value and second hand value far exceeds the Galaxy S4, especially given the S4 is about to be replaced with the S5.
 

rockitdog

macrumors 68030
Mar 25, 2013
2,724
1,241
You got it all wrong. S4 definitely does stuff better - why? because 5S cannot do many of those stuff AT ALL. ;)

See, I disagree. What the iPhone does well it does great. Samsung throws everything into their devices weather its been worked all the way through or not. Eye Scrolling, Air View, Air Gesture are all nice features to have but all have bugs and need to be ironed out and it makes the user experience more frustrating than anything else.

Another great example of this is the camera software on the S4, sure it's awesome that it has a million features but it takes forever to find the right setting and the camera is often slow and unresponsive when you try to use those features.
 

mib1800

Suspended
Sep 16, 2012
2,859
1,250
See, I disagree. What the iPhone does well it does great. Samsung throws everything into their devices weather its been worked all the way through or not. Eye Scrolling, Air View, Air Gesture are all nice features to have but all have bugs and need to be ironed out and it makes the user experience more frustrating than anything else.

Another great example of this is the camera software on the S4, sure it's awesome that it has a million features but it takes forever to find the right setting and the camera is often slow and unresponsive when you try to use those features.

A calculator is always faster and easier than a pc. Because it can only do simple things just like iphone.

Some of these features are not based on exact methods just like you can't get 100% accuracy using the TouchID on 5s.

Like I say these features that are not available iphone. If they were can apple do it better? I doubt so looking at history like the crippled email that can't do attachments easily or the centralized settings which is a pain to use or your data gets deleted when you uninstall an app or the hotspot that can't function when you move away from settings screen or notification that block the screen and so many others.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.