Name your preferences of the GE S4 over the regular S4!

[quietlybrilliant]

So far I'm surprised that the only thing I like better is:

--No bloatware (thought I could try harder getting rid of that on the regular version)
--slightly snappier, though I thought Nova launcher did a pretty good job
--color profile is far more realistic and pleasant on the eyes than the regular S4's overly vibrant regular mode or too dull movie mode

Things I don't like as much:

--camera interface seems less intuitive and has less functions (I really enjoy the feature on the regular S4 when it puts together quick collages out of pics of the same subject, such as my daughter's facial expressions when she was sitting with me in the coffee place yesterday). I actually still don't understand how to access the settings/features of the camera on the GE.
--the fact that this phone is white

 

[planoman]

I do not have the GE S4 yet but plan to get it. I like touchwiz and vanilla android. I have had all galaxy S and Note series phones and also the Nexus 4. I would switch the SIM for a week at a time or on the weekends. I really liked my Nexus 4 and the interface but there were three serious things that were show stoppers for me eventually ( Had it for 5 months)

1. No LTE which I live in a very strong LTE area
2. Limited storage space...16GB was it. I used several cloud services but they are slow and I did not want to wait for wifi etc...
3. Camera- This was why I sold it. Anything other that bright light and the picture were just meh...and forget about video because the auto focus was a real disappointment.

The S4 GE should fill the bill on all of these issues. I have been impressed so far with what I have heard and also liked using Google Wallet as well and am looking forward to using that again. I am also not crazy about having a white phone but I have several cases so not to concerned about that. The S4 GE should go well with my S4 TW!

I am interested in hearing more on how people are using the Micro SD card. Are you moving pictures and videos over to the SD card?

Sorry I did not really give any contrasts to the S4 but once I get the S4 GE, I will come back and give some more feedback on that device versus the S4.

 

[cdd543]

So far I like the phone a lot compared to both the One and regular S4. It's very snappy and fluid--a lot more than the s4 I had and even more than my rooted One. Battery life so far seems on par with both of those devices and not really better or worse.
I've run into a few annoying issues so far.
1. Bluetooth operation in my 2013 wrangler--it connects, but does not function for phone or a2dp--just disconnects. This is a major issue for me as every other device I've used(ip5, one, regular s4) all connected and worked flawlessly.
2. Quite annoying that all photos snapped in portrait orientation rather than landscape auto rotate when inserted in an mms. If I take it in landscape, it works fine, but sometimes you want the portrait aspect. I tried dropping the res to 8mp and it did the same thing.
3. Enterprise wifi connection issues--had to spend a day digging on google to find a solution to that one, but luckily I did.

I only owned a nexus 4 for short time so I'm not sure if these are just typical 4.2.2 issues(I know #3 was). These little things give it a feel of lacking polish unfortunately and it sucks to feel like I need to immediately be seeking out the 4.3 leak to see if it fixes this.

 

[planoman]

Thanks for the feedback. I am very happy with my s4 and car bluetooth and do not recall an issue with my Nexus 4 but remember hearing bluetooth complaints. I would have expected 4.3 to be out or ciming soon. I hope my bluetooth isn't borked ...

Posted via Android Central App

 

[qnet]

My GE S4 will be delivered Monday. One of my main preferences is the way stock Android handles all the Google services. It just does it better IMO. I like when I set up the phone, and log into my Google account how it immediately starts downloading all my apps, every single one of them. I never remember any of my touchwiz phones doing this.

I also prefer the look of stock Android vs. touchwiz all the way down to the phone icon. It seems like Samsung tried to make the touchwiz icons look too much like an Iphone. It looks cartoonish to me. I don't like how the earliest you can set the stock email app on touchwiz to check for email is 15 minutes, just like the Iphone. With stock Android you can set it to 5 minutes.

I don't like how touchwiz takes up space on the homescreen by adding the page scrolling dots (or whatever they're called) at the bottom just above the dock. Stock Android also takes up space with it's persistent search bar on every screen, this is why I always use Nova launcher.

Stock Android since ICS from my experience runs smoother and doesn't lag or stutter as much as touchwiz.

There are some things in touchwiz I wish were integrated into stock android such as showing the battery percentage and the music player.

If you use a lot of the Google stuff like I do and, don't have to have all the features of the regular S4 then I think the Google S4 is the phone to have. Unlike some people, I really like the S4 design, and it's nice to have it running stock Android without having to root it and install a custom rom.

I just wish they would have released the Google edition when they launched the TW S4. I don't think it would have hurts sales and everyone would be happy and chose the version they wanted.

 

[wilbarger]

My bluetooth functions the same in my car as the S2 did. I can stream music thru bt and the phone works perfectly. I have a 2010 MB E350 and they are usually far more trouble to connect to than American made cars. Sorry, but do not have any tips for you to try. You might check in some forums for your car and see if someone on there might have some hints.

 

[mattopotamus]

Does the IR blaster work? The have heard mixed results.

 

[fulleraj]

IR blaster works fine. Downloaded WatchOn app from Samsung in the Google play store and it works with my TV and cable box.

Sent from my Sammy GS4 Google Edition using Tapatalk2

 

[cdd543]

My bluetooth functions the same in my car as the S2 did. I can stream music thru bt and the phone works perfectly. I have a 2010 MB E350 and they are usually far more trouble to connect to than American made cars. Sorry, but do not have any tips for you to try. You might check in some forums for your car and see if someone on there might have some hints.

Yeah I found plenty of info online about 4.2 breaking functionality with uconnect bluetooth connectivity and many others.

 

[planoman]

I plan to try this app on my GE S4 once I get it. It is called Floating Touch. Touch wiz already has so many menus and toggles etc. but on vanilla android this might be cool. I downloaded it to my Nexus 7 and wil set it up later tonight.

Floating Touch: A Personalized Floating Tool For You! [Special for Android OS] - YouTube

 

[anon(20944)]

Phone is exactly what I hoped it would be. Killer feature for me is battery life, but that's probably because I'm coming from a galaxy nexus. IR blaster works great, bluetooth pairs and works great with everything from my car to my motorola headphones.

If I had to find a complaint it would probably be with how the home button works. The button layout is just worse than nexus devices. The main issue is that when you give any button on a phone a "double click" function, like how double clicking the home button on this device opens the multitasking menu, you by design HAVE to then delay the reaction time of the button before it does its thing. The reason is that the hardware has to wait fractions of a second to see if you are going to click it again for the double click behavior. This is annoying as it makes the home functionality just feel slow when compared to a nexus device.

 

[planoman]

Phone is exactly what I hoped it would be. Killer feature for me is battery life, but that's probably because I'm coming from a galaxy nexus. IR blaster works great, bluetooth pairs and works great with everything from my car to my motorola headphones.

If I had to find a complaint it would probably be with how the home button works. The button layout is just worse than nexus devices. The main issue is that when you give any button on a phone a "double click" function, like how double clicking the home button on this device opens the multitasking menu, you by design HAVE to then delay the reaction time of the button before it does its thing. The reason is that the hardware has to wait fractions of a second to see if you are going to click it again for the double click behavior. This is annoying as it makes the home functionality just feel slow when compared to a nexus device.

Interesting.. so what do the buttons do on the GE S4? I read somwhere where all the button do not function like the TW S4 but I am still not sure what home, menu and back buttons do? Can the double press function be disabled?

I assume you can still use the home button to wake the device?

 

[cdd543]

Interesting.. so what do the buttons do on the GE S4? I read somwhere where all the button do not function like the TW S4 but I am still not sure what home, menu and back buttons do? Can the double press function be disabled?

I assume you can still use the home button to wake the device?

Yes you can wake it.

 

[quietlybrilliant]

Comparing the phones side by side for a while, I notice that the GE S4 is MUCH MUCH snappier than the AT&T S4 with opening apps, transitions, etc. Is this a known thing or just something wrong in the settings of my AT&T S4??

 

[qnet]

Comparing the phones side by side for a while, I notice that the GE S4 is MUCH MUCH snappier than the AT&T S4 with opening apps, transitions, etc. Is this a known thing or just something wrong in the settings of my AT&T S4??

I have to exchange my GE S4 because of another issue but I noticed this. I think it may have to do with Touchwiz. My replacement can't get here soon enough. I really liked the operation of the GE S4, it's very smooth and the transitions are fluid.

 

[kgbkny]

Comparing the phones side by side for a while, I notice that the GE S4 is MUCH MUCH snappier than the AT&T S4 with opening apps, transitions, etc. Is this a known thing or just something wrong in the settings of my AT&T S4??

I have to exchange my GE S4 because of another issue but I noticed this. I think it may have to do with Touchwiz. My replacement can't get here soon enough. I really liked the operation of the GE S4, it's very smooth and the transitions are fluid.

TouchWiz is indeed the culprit here. Various tech blogs compared both phones side by side and concluded that TouchWiz definitely slows the phone down. It also takes up over 3 gigs more space than stock Android.

 

[quietlybrilliant]

Has anybody figured out:

1) A simple way to display remaining battery percentage?

2) How the extra memory slot can be used?

3) A capacitive way to get back to the home screen? Physical button is nice for wake from sleep but unpractical for switching between applications, etc.

4) One detail I noticed that really bothers me is how the capacitive hardware buttons light up *after* being pressed (when one doesn't need to see them anymore), but are completely invisible on the white phone when not lit up. I wish there was a way to just turn the light behind them off since as is it is a pure waste of battery power.

 

[jsabo]

Has anybody figured out:

1) A simple way to display remaining battery percentage?

Swipe down to get to notifications, click on the icon in the upper-right, and you can see the percentage left. Don't know of a way to make it show up by default on the top.

Has anybody figured out:

2) How the extra memory slot can be used?

I loaded a bunch of pictures and the music that I can't live without onto it--they both show up in their respective apps.

Has anybody figured out:

3) A capacitive way to get back to the home screen? Physical button is nice for wake from sleep but unpractical for switching between applications, etc.

Probably not exactly what you want, but I find that if I hit "Back" often enough, I eventually get there.

 

[planoman]

Ordered my Google Edition S4 today! After I receive it, I will be able to contribute to this thread and forum a bit more.

 

[wilbarger]

Glad to see you pull the trigger. Looks like 4.3 should be moving down the stream before too long. There is already a good root, recovery and ability to load custom ROM's out. I have rooted and loaded the recovery, but will not be loading a ROM just yet.

My battery life is extremely good running 4.2.2. Probably at least 2x better than my S2.