After Day 1 -- First Impressions

[paintdrinkingpete]

Just switched from a GS3 to my new GS4...here are a few impressions/observations/questions:

1. First thing you notice is the screen quality -- absolutely brilliant.

2. White themed Messaging app and Contacts -- is there any way to change it to a dark theme, similar to the S3? I definitely prefer dark theme to light theme, but obviously that's just preference.

3. Default contact avatar. I personally think it looks a bit weird.

4. Notification bar. Did they have to make the font so big? With that stupid eye icon that's always on, once I have Bluetooth and GPS running there's only room for like 3 notifications. I keep my font set to smallest size, but that doesn't seem to affect notification bar.

5. Where's the WIFI toggle in the notification pull-down???

6. Reception seems to be better than the S3. I used to only ever get a few bars of "1X" at my office, yet today with my S4 I'm looking at 2-3 bars of "3G" (I'm in an interior office with lousy cell reception in general, but definitely seems to be a bit better).

That's about it so far. I don't want this post to sound negative, because I'm definitely impressed so far -- these are just a few of things that stood out to me, trivial as some may be. The first thing I did was root, and now that LOKI'd recovery is available, hopefully soon some nice ROMs will be out that will allow me to fix the things I don't like!

NOTE: I've even already found a mod to remove the "eye" icon from notification area!

 

[Notsosure]

In regards to #5 the answer is you wont be able to find it in the pull down bc it was removed by carrier.

Sent from my Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk

 

[paintdrinkingpete]

In regards to #5 the answer is you wont be able to find it in the pull down bc it was removed by carrier.

Sent from my Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk

I see...

Verizon: "We have the best network!!! ... but we're going to do everything in our power to make sure you use it as little as possible!"

 

[Dural]

Just the opposite. If you can't turn Wifi on you're more likely to use that network and accrue data usage/charges. Regardless, the enable Wifi option is on the bottom of the pull down notification bar. I'm not sure why some consider this a huge inconvenience.

If push comes to shove, one can install a home screen control widget for Wifi (e.g., Beautiful Widgets). Enjoy your new device.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Notsosure]

One recommendation that I do have is you can automate the process of turning on wifi automatically. Now I personally dont use it but you can buy a tasking program. A good one is Tasker. So you dont have to constantly turn your wifi on and off yourself.

Sent from my Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk

 

[paintdrinkingpete]

Just the opposite. If you can't turn Wifi on you're more likely to use that network and accrue data usage/charges. Regardless, the enable Wifi option is on the bottom of the pull down notification bar. I'm not sure why some consider this a huge inconvenience.

If push comes to shove, one can install a home screen control widget for Wifi (e.g., Beautiful Widgets). Enjoy your new device.

Posted via Android Central App

Well, first Verizon annoys you to enable it, then doesn't allow you to turn it off *easily* (while your point is valid, this is what I assume their rational was).

Do you have the Verizon version? Because I certainly do NOT see a wifi option at the bottom of the pull-down notification bar.

Obviously there are plenty of other ways to accomplish the task, however I'm used to using the notification bar quick setting, which isn't there. Not a huge deal, to be honest, just something I noticed. Also, I like to keep my homescreen pretty "minimal"

One recommendation that I do have is you can automate the process of turning on wifi automatically. Now I personally dont use it but you can buy a tasking program. A good one is Tasker. So you dont have to constantly turn your wifi on and off yourself.

Sent from my Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk

I'm quite familiar with Tasker...but sometimes I do like to be able to quickly change the setting manually.

 

[Notsosure]

Well, first Verizon annoys you to enable it, then doesn't allow you to turn it off *easily* (while your point is valid, this is what I assume their rational was).

Do you have the Verizon version? Because I certainly do NOT see a wifi option at the bottom of the pull-down notification bar.

Obviously there are plenty of other ways to accomplish the task, however I'm used to using the notification bar quick setting, which isn't there. Not a huge deal, to be honest, just something I noticed. Also, I like to keep my homescreen pretty "minimal"



I'm quite familiar with Tasker...but sometimes I do like to be able to quickly change the setting manually.

Same here. One reason I wanted a phone with TW UI is the convenience pull down. I was disappointed also with verizon removing this convenience feature of wifi toggle in the pull down screen. Im sure rooting can remove their block but I dont want to root. Seems like they enjoy removing alot of features, even LTE switch in settings has been removed. Instead they fill the phone with useless bloats.

Sent from my Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk

 

[garublador]

Do people really see an advantage to turning WiFi off? I have mine on all the time, only use it at home and so far it's only accounted for ~2%-3% of my battery usage for the day. I've had my phone on for 5 hours today and the WiFi doesn't even show up on the battery usage chart.

 

[thegrants82]

Do people really see an advantage to turning WiFi off? I have mine on all the time, only use it at home and so far it's only accounted for ~2%-3% of my battery usage for the day. I've had my phone on for 5 hours today and the WiFi doesn't even show up on the battery usage chart.

I know it is funny that people worry so much about turning off wifi when it doesnt hardly use any battery ar all...

Posted via Android Central App

 

[infinity12402]

Ya apparently the wifi only shows up as a notification on the Verizon version. Ill be switching to AT&T so that I can stop getting gimped phones.

 

[Notsosure]

I know it is funny that people worry so much about turning off wifi when it doesnt hardly use any battery ar all...

Posted via Android Central App

Its more along the lines of convenience. When my battery last for the whole day when I had the note 2 I could care less about turn wifi on and off, in fact I kept both wifi and gps location on the whole time. But when my battery cant last the whole day since I consider myself somewhat of a power user I spend time figuring out any way I can save some battery juice. When im at work or out where I know there wont be any wifi why keep it on and use this 2 to 3 percent battery juice?

Sent from my Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk

 

[paintdrinkingpete]

Its more along the lines of convenience. When my battery last for the whole day when I had the note 2 I could care less about turn wifi on and off, in fact I kept both wifi and gps location on the whole time. But when my battery cant last the whole day since I consider myself somewhat of a power user I spend time figuring out any way I can save some battery juice. When im at work or out where I know there wont be any wifi why keep it on and use this 2 to 3 percent battery juice?

Sent from my Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk

Same, plus, based on my own experience, it does save more than "2-3%". My battery will usually be 10-15% lower when I'm leaving work on days that I forget to turn it off (and I rarely use my phone while at work, so it's usually easy to determine the cause of the increased battery drain).

On top of that, I've also started using the Snapdragon Battery Guru, which will turn my wifi on/off automatically based on time and location cues. This is actually great, but then I need the toggle to turn wifi on manually at times because the app hasn't learned that location yet.

 

[Dural]

Do you have the Verizon version? Because I certainly do NOT see a wifi option at the bottom of the pull-down notification bar.

Obviously there are plenty of other ways to accomplish the task, however I'm used to using the notification bar quick setting, which isn't there. Not a huge deal, to be honest, just something I noticed.

Yes, on Verizon and the Wifi pull down on notification bar remains there as a notification for me permanently since using Wifi. Interesting that it isn't on yours; don't recall seeing any settings that would affect this either.

 

[Cigar-Junkie]

Do people really see an advantage to turning WiFi off? I have mine on all the time, only use it at home and so far it's only accounted for ~2%-3% of my battery usage for the day. I've had my phone on for 5 hours today and the WiFi doesn't even show up on the battery usage chart.

When playing ingress wifi tying to connect slows me down, I prefer to go 4G. Just saying.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 2

 

[garublador]

When playing ingress wifi tying to connect slows me down, I prefer to go 4G. Just saying.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 2

Good point. I forgot about the data transfer speed advantage you get form 4G.

 

[DreamSTi]

You can turn the "eye" off in the notification bar. Settings > my device > smart screen > turn smart scroll off.

 

[MikeLip]

When you pull down the notification bar, UNDER the "Ongoing" is the Wifi control. Tap that to turn wifi off. As to why, it's because that bloody wifi popup is bloody well the most annoying thing about how Android is currently handling connections. If I wanted to connect to a local wifi network I'D DO IT. Don't put a d*** popup over what I am doing, you dinks. The only way to get rid of it is to turn off wifi altogether. I wouldn't mind if it appeared in the bar and scrolled by up there, where it doesn't interrupt what I am doing. As it is it's intrusive as h***.

They aren't alone in that. Blackberry OS6 and 7 does it too. Every time I pass a McDonalds the entire screen gets covered with a big notification that there is an available wifi network, with the McDonalds logo on it. I wonder how much BB made from that?

 

[snookasnoo]

iOS does the same thing but you can tell it to stop doing that.
Eliminating the wif symbol is one of the scummier Verizon practices. They do it to try to get you to use as much bandwidth as possible hoping for overages unless you have unlimited. Why people think they do it to save you bandwidth is beyond me but thats what a lot of people seem to think.

 

[Grung]

Do people really see an advantage to turning WiFi off? I have mine on all the time, only use it at home and so far it's only accounted for ~2%-3% of my battery usage for the day. I've had my phone on for 5 hours today and the WiFi doesn't even show up on the battery usage chart.

If you live in a household with 4 phones, 2 laptops, a tablet, and a wireless printer, yes...there is an advantage at times to me using my 4G