Galaxy S4

[Piobaire]

Mrs. Piob just got one. I shall be trading in my iPhone 5 soon.

 

[hopkins_student]

What did she have before? I've got a galaxy nexus and the poor battery life is killing me so it's time to make a change. I loved the Nexus 4 I bought for Europe, but sadly it's a no go for Verizon. The S4 sounds like it can best the Nexus 4, but I'm anxious about a non-Nexus phone and it's ability to get updates and also about all the bloatware that could come installed with it.

 

[Piobaire]

I had a nice reply all typed out and then this multi-post glitch thing kicked in.

I was saying she had a Galaxy S so this is a big move up. Battery life seems very good. Full work day, doing the playing around you do with a new phone, and battery still at 64% at the end of the day.

I also originally said the screen is large and beautiful and the homescreen splits so multiple widgets can be running and accessed at once. It's pretty slick.

 

[Piobaire]

W

 

[otc]

I am patiently waiting for the Galaxy S4 Mini to come into existence. I have been resisting the iphone 5 but as my current phone (Galaxy S) keeps getting worse, I need something soon.

An S4 bulge in your pants is not SF approved...but I don't need 100% of the power and screen of the S4. As long as its got modern android, works well, and has good battery, I am satisfied.

 

[Piobaire]



I am patiently waiting for the Galaxy S4 Mini to come into existence. I have been resisting the iphone 5 but as my current phone (Galaxy S) keeps getting worse, I need something soon.

An S4 bulge in your pants is not SF approved...but I don't need 100% of the power and screen of the S4. As long as its got modern android, works well, and has good battery, I am satisfied.

As an I-5 owner I can tell you the S4 is way more what I want. I would hold off it you can.

 

[gomestar]



battery still at 64% at the end of the day.

 

[shibbel]

The OLED screen is a deal breaker for me, the color saturation is annoyingly unnatural. The lag is also an issue when compared to iOS, but if you can get over that, I guess you'll be happy. Although I've heard shutting off all the rendering crap does away with most of the hesitations.

 

[Piobaire]



The OLED screen is a deal breaker for me, the color saturation is annoyingly unnatural. The lag is also an issue when compared to iOS, but if you can get over that, I guess you'll be happy. Although I've heard shutting off all the rendering crap does away with most of the hesitations.

I've not noticed any lag. In fact I feel the S4 offers a faster and smoother user experience.

 

[shibbel]

It's definitely there, it was very apparent in the week I had the phone for, but if you don't notice it, it isn't an issue.

Here's one video putting it up against the HTC One starting around the 3:13 mark:

[VIDEO][/VIDEO]

 

[otc]

Is it easy to get rid of Sense on the HTC One?

One of the constant problems with Android are the little bits of input lag. Jobs was right to put a strong focus on the UI elements--does android still not run the UI at a high priority compared to other things? My S gets laggy as hell sometimes...not as bad with a cyanogen update to jellybean, but still not perfect.

Still prefer how android works to iOS, but I struggle with the huge screens and focus on stupid functions I don't use...Don't let me unlock the phone with facial expressions until you can give me a seamless interface and a battery I don't have to think about for 24 hours.

 

[shibbel]

I don't think Sense is anywhere near as intrusive as TouchWhiz- aside from Blinkfeed, there's really no need to get rid of it. It changes the look of stock Android, but unlike the S4, there's nothing there that's bogging things down or changing the feel of the OS. With that said, you can't get rid of it unless the phone is rooted and loaded with stock Android or some custom ROM.

Also, it seems Google is starting to take a granular approach to reunify Android for those that want something closer to stock. They Just released the stock keyboard last week, and you can get a lot more stock bits and pieces in the from the Play store.

 

[otc]



I don't think Sense is anywhere near as intrusive as TouchWhiz- aside from Blinkfeed, there's really no need to get rid of it. It changes the look of stock Android, but unlike the S4, there's nothing there that's bogging things down or changing the feel of the OS. With that said, you can't get rid of it unless the phone is rooted and loaded with stock Android or some custom ROM.

Also, it seems Google is starting to take a granular approach to reunify Android for those that want something closer to stock. They Just released the stock keyboard last week, and you can get a lot more stock bits and pieces in the from the Play store.

Swype FTW!

I like the metal case of the HTC better...but the rumors of the HTC One Mini have it coming out even later than the S4 mini and I don't think I can wait that long.

Hopefully I can get a pretty stock rom for either phone. Cyanogen has been good to me so far.

 

[Piobaire]

The HTC certainly opened that widget faster but my I-5 does not open widgets any faster than that S4. Oh. Wait. No widgets in iWorld.

 

[shibbel]

Pio, have played around with Windows phone 7, excuse me, iOS 7 yet? Seems like way too incremental of an update for a 7.0 release. Siri still sucks compared to Google Now, but it is only beta 1, the new voice isn't even in it yet. I think Apple should have at least made dock icons accessible from the lock screen.