Upgrading from S4...Should I get the S6 or Note 4?

[quynhuong]

I currently have an s4 which I've had for almost two years now, and I'm getting impatient with how glitchy and laggy it can become, as well we the crap battery. I'm able to get an upgrade but I was wondering if the Note 4 compares with the S6 and which I should upgrade to (the size of the note doesn't matter)
The camera is also very important to me and I hated how the S4 camera would either over sharpen in daylight or smudge everything in indoor light and darker, especially for selfies.
Also, has the unremovable battery really impacted anyone? My S4 is 32gb with a 32gb SD card which is so handy and I don't feel too much like dishing out a lot more memory for internal storage.

 

[Rukbat]

If the battery goes, you're without the phone for a few days with the S6, and it costs $45 plus your shipping to them. If the Note 4 (or if you wait, the Note 5) battery goes, it costs about $15 and about 30 seconds of your time. (Restarting takes longer than replacing the battery.)

And if the battery ever goes into thermal runaway (ask Sony about that - it changed a profitable year into a loss for them), popping the back off and throwing the battery out is a lot nicer than watching your phone burn. It's also handy if the phone gets wet - pull the battery before you do anything else. (I don't care if your pants fell down - pull the battery, then pull your pants up.)

Also the S6 has no SD slot. No flashing from the SD, no fixing a hard-bricked phone by booting from the SD, no 512GB card in 2 years when apps get even sloppier than they are now. (Even a 128GB card can hold a lot of feature-length movies, or enough songs that by the time you've listened to thm all, music will have gone in a different direction.)

The difference is in the note part - using the stylus for so many things. (You can leave it in the phone and ignore it, but it's nice for a lot of functions.) Play with a Note in the carrier's store and see if you like the feel, size and S Pen. (My personal choice between the two of them - since I wouldn't own a phone with a non-removable battery - would be a Note. I have a 3 - the 4 isn't enough of a change to be worth spending money on for me)

As for the camera - there are a lot of camera apps - some work more like cameras, others work more like phone apps. A good camera app won't sharpen the picture at all - that's up to the photographer (assuming it's in focus).

 

[jcp007]

I currently have an s4 which I've had for almost two years now, and I'm getting impatient with how glitchy and laggy it can become, as well we the crap battery. I'm able to get an upgrade but I was wondering if the Note 4 compares with the S6 and which I should upgrade to (the size of the note doesn't matter)
The camera is also very important to me and I hated how the S4 camera would either over sharpen in daylight or smudge everything in indoor light and darker, especially for selfies.
Also, has the unremovable battery really impacted anyone? My S4 is 32gb with a 32gb SD card which is so handy and I don't feel too much like dishing out a lot more memory for internal storage.

I got the 64GB AT&T black sapphire coming from the gS4. More than 50 GB free space. It has a great solid premium feel, nor more plastic back. premium materials all the way through. It's got great battery life but that depends upon your carrier. I absolutely don't miss either the card slot or the swappable battery.BTW, I have never seen anyone swap a battery. the GS6 has rapid charging and dual wireless charging formats built right in. The Exynos 7420 64 bit chipset with UFS 2.0 means that that GS6 is lightning fast with no noticeable lag. The QHD display is awesome, the best on Amy smartphone on the market. Both the display and chipset are more efficient than their larger and older brothers still managing to achieve comparable battery life despite being smaller.

There are all sort of alternatives to declutter your life by saving files that you are no longer using to external media. In addition to wireless charging and rapid charging which are wicked fast, there is a PowerBank option which is a great deal more practical that stripping off a case, the back cover, swap the battery,which I have never done or seen, and reverse this process of swapping th battery. TouchWiz is slimmed downed and the overall UI experience really makes a third party launcher unnecessary but that's your choice. It is also smooth as butter. Are there a couple of Lollipop issues? Sure but those should be addressed with 5.1 or 5.1.1 of Lollipop. You really can't go wrong with the GN4 but I don't have the need or want to keep up with a stylus or to hold a tablet up,to my ear to call someone. GS6 camera is great especially in low light. OIS and auto HDR as well as rapid focus make the camera one of the best out there,both the rear and front cameras.

 

[slpaige]

I went from the S4 to the S6 (64GB). I did check out the note 4, but it was to large for my taste (but you may like the bigger size). The camera takes some pretty good pictures from a few test shots I did in low medium to low light (way better than the S4) and it's super quick.