I told myself I would give the S4 a good week of use before I decided if I would keep it or go back to my Note 2. Well, after a full week I'm sorry to say I'm going back to my Note 2. Don't get me wrong, the S4 is a great phone. The resolution and colors of the screen is the best I have ever seen. The camera features, while a bit gimmicky, are fun to play with. The thinness and lightweight of the phone are incredible for a 5" phone. The IR blaster will definitely come in handy.
BUT, there were a few things that made me go back.
First and fore most is the screen size, while 5" is a big screen by almost anyone's standards, coming down from 5.5" was just too big of a drop. I believe it's a 22% difference in screen viewing area. The massive Note 2 screen makes people's jaws drop when I pull it out and since I use the hell out of my camera, I'm always showing off the pics I take, so the bigger the screen the better. The dreaded "S4 lag" wasn't too bad on my phone, but it was noticeable a few times. The battery life was decent, but once again I was spoiled by the Note 2. Under light/heavy use I got about 27/14 hours out of the S4 and with the Note 2 I got about 36/20 hours. Any one of these things by themselves and I probably just would have kept it, but all three together and I had to go back.The thing i will probably miss the most is the insane resolution. You can't really tell a difference when looking at pictures or videos, but it is definitely noticeable when your on a website with small text. Also, the "better" camera on the S4 is a moot point. It was VERY hard to tell a difference between pictures taken by the S4 and N2. The one difference I did see was that the N2 had a better viewing angle. I had to step back a few feet with the S4 just to get the same width of the N2.
My own personal experience was that the battery was a lot better with the N2, the cameras were pretty even and the more pixels are only noticeable with small text. The S4 may beat the N2 on any benchmark, but the S4 was laggy and my N2 isn't. The stylus wasn't that much of a factor since I don't use it that much.
I REALLY wanted to like the S4 since I love having the latest and greatest mobile phones, but it just felt too much like a downgrade from my Note 2, so I went back and gave the S4 to the Mrs. to replace her S3.
BUT, there were a few things that made me go back.
First and fore most is the screen size, while 5" is a big screen by almost anyone's standards, coming down from 5.5" was just too big of a drop. I believe it's a 22% difference in screen viewing area. The massive Note 2 screen makes people's jaws drop when I pull it out and since I use the hell out of my camera, I'm always showing off the pics I take, so the bigger the screen the better. The dreaded "S4 lag" wasn't too bad on my phone, but it was noticeable a few times. The battery life was decent, but once again I was spoiled by the Note 2. Under light/heavy use I got about 27/14 hours out of the S4 and with the Note 2 I got about 36/20 hours. Any one of these things by themselves and I probably just would have kept it, but all three together and I had to go back.The thing i will probably miss the most is the insane resolution. You can't really tell a difference when looking at pictures or videos, but it is definitely noticeable when your on a website with small text. Also, the "better" camera on the S4 is a moot point. It was VERY hard to tell a difference between pictures taken by the S4 and N2. The one difference I did see was that the N2 had a better viewing angle. I had to step back a few feet with the S4 just to get the same width of the N2.
My own personal experience was that the battery was a lot better with the N2, the cameras were pretty even and the more pixels are only noticeable with small text. The S4 may beat the N2 on any benchmark, but the S4 was laggy and my N2 isn't. The stylus wasn't that much of a factor since I don't use it that much.
I REALLY wanted to like the S4 since I love having the latest and greatest mobile phones, but it just felt too much like a downgrade from my Note 2, so I went back and gave the S4 to the Mrs. to replace her S3.
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