Let me preface this by saying that I do not pay for most of the phones I use. Testing and learning them is part of my job, and the hardware is a tool to do it with -- much like a mechanic needs wrenches. I've had a black Sprint S4 here for a bit, and have been observing and thinking about what I'm seeing.
Here's the most interesting part about what we're (Phil, Alex and myself) seeing about the lag. The Sprint version seems to be (much) more affected than the AT&T/Rogers version and the Euro version (S600). We have not tried the Exynos version. All I can think of here is something Sprint has pre-loaded may be contributing to the issue. That's not very scientific, but nothing sticks out to explain this.
Having said that, let me tell you that most of these "issues" about the lag are a bit overblown. Other than a gallery bug (more later) none are show-stoppingly bad. With the tweaks found in this forum and others (animations, shutting off services and S voice, etc) I see the following:
The lock screen lags if you're using any of the effects. The Ripple effect is the worst. Choose none.
Incoming notifications make the phone stall fora split seconda fraction of a split second.
Opening apps sometimes will have a stutter. I've seen no pattern here, which makes me think this is dependent of either free RAM or CPU load.
Weather widget sometimes redraws when going back "home".
The Gallery is FUBAR
Other than the Gallery, none of these is nearly as bad as people make it out to be, especially if you've done any of the "fixes". Without turning off some of the features, yes it can be a bit frustrating on occasion, but there is nothing here that a bit of software tweaking won't fix. Samsung wants to sell a billion of these, and I expect some sort of update soonish to get people in love with the S4 again.
Now, the gallery. It's slow. It locks up. It freezes. It has caused a full reboot more than once. Not every time, but it's never a speedy experience. Especially if you've tied uploads to your Dropbox account to the camera photos. This will start out OK, but as you add items to the gallery it gets steadily worse. Samsung needs to fix the Gallery app. I'm sure they will. Alex says if you have enabled camera uploads in Dropbox, you'll need to factory reset to fix it. I've factory reset numerous times to see how apps affect the lag overall, so I have to believe him (as my gallery is better after a reset). I'm almost feeling there is an issue with the media scanner at play versus the code for the gallery app itself. Just a guess.
Now, since I didn't get in on the review for this one, my impressions of the best selling phone of the year (yes, it will be).
It's plastic. Lots of things are plastic. This is shiny and slick plastic, which looks and feels different from soft-touch plastic. If Samsung had just used a soft touch coating none of this crap would be an issue. They didn't. The phone isn't going to break because it's plastic, nor does it feel bad (or slimy like some folks mentioned). In fact, it feels very ergonomic and solidly built. It feels as good to hold as the HTC One does, at least to me.
The screen. I <3 Super AMOLED's colors and blacks. Yes, it's fake color but I don't care when I'm watching a movie. Having said that, the screen on the One or the iPhone 5 is clearer and slightly sharper. So what? The screen on the S4 is really nice, and with my glasses off holding it 2 inches from my eyes, I'm not hating pentile like I did with the G Nex or even the S3. If every phone came with a screen this good we'd be lucky.
The storage. 9GB. That's enough for me. It might not be enough for you. It's not gonna change, and if you want everything but the kitchen sink included you have to have somewhere to put it all. Know in advance that you get about 9GB free on the 16GB version, and deal with it your own way. Wait for the 32 or 64, get a One, switch back to the iPhone, whatever you need to do. Just do it
The features. Half of them don't work as advertised. But when they are shut off they are out of my way. I do wish the translate app worked a bit better, and that Samsung would just abandon S Voice altogether
I would choose the HTC One, because I like the camera features and front facing speakers. I also need to hate on the SD card and menu button, which I think is holding back the whole platform. But you might not think that way. It's cool. Diff'rent strokes and all.
Hopefully, this helps someone who hasn't had a chance to see the S4 for themselves sort through all the online garbage about lag, and plastic, and gimmicks, and 9GB.
This is what I've come to expect from Android Central. A supposedly technical discussion about lag on a phone turns into a sales pitch for the HTC One. I'll bet if anyone of us forum members had posted a recommendation for the S4 in the HTC One forum we would have been castigated by the forum members and the moderator. Shameless.
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