the S4 was never going to meet expectations

russel5150

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just my two cents here, but with all the "pre unpacking" rumors and speculations of the S4, does anyone really think it was going to live up to the expectations?
if you stop and look at the S4 as it has been shown its really not a bad phone.

i currently have a note2, and love it. i dont mind that its plastic, most people slap some sort of case on the phones anyway.

i really couldnt imagine samsung steering too far away from the galaxy look and still call it a galaxy line of phone.

the phone has what most consider good hardware ( I didn't say awesome, because im not an expert) its still going to be fast and have a great looking screen. i couldnt believe how smooth my note2 was finally talked myself into giving up my razr maxx.

yes, for some of us the removable sdcard is important.. every time i think of a phone that doesn't have one i think iphone lol.. so im glad this one gives the owner the option of how much memory they want.

anyway, it looks like a galaxy phone... which it is..

i like it, its not something im going to go trade my note2 for, but if the note3 is a bigger phone than ill def be looking at the S4 as a replacement when its time if nothing new has caught my eye.

i guess my point is that i think a lot of us were expecting this magical phone that looked like nothing else... and what we got was the next logical step in a series...
 

I Can Be Your Hero

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i guess my point is that i think a lot of us were expecting this magical phone that looked like nothing else... and what we got was the next logical step in a series...

I disagree there. I found the S4 disappointing, when it could have easily met or exceeded my expectations.

1. Build materials and quality. Having used the Xperia Z and HTC One, they absolutely blow the S3 out of the water, and will blow the S4 out of the water. There is no reason why Samsung couldn't have gone with a premium material for the phone build. Sony and HTC seemed to have put in the effort to make an excellently designed/manufactured device, Samsung just rehashed their materials/design. People will want to say it's because of the removable back - there are phones that are made of metal and have removable backs, hell Samsung made one (Wave), so that excuse is out the door. Having owned an S3 and removing the back a few times, I started noticing cracks on the plastic which is not comforting at all.

Samsung have more money than Sony and HTC put together. Absolutely no excuse why they couldn't have made a premium feeling phone.

2. Screen. I know AMOLED is their thing and the colours are highly saturated, but I personally prefer the LCD3 screen in the One and even the LCD in the Sony screen. Given that LCD screens have more accurately calibrated colours, better battery life while web browsing, can get much brighter (which greatly helps sunlight visibility, especially in Australia) and less prone to burn in - I would have preferred a great LCD display over AMOLED.

3. Legacy button layout. The physical home button and 2 capacitive buttons were fine and dandy with the Galaxy S and S2, but now times have changed and I think Samsung should really focus on pushing tech forward with adopting the stock on-screen button layout of Android now.

4. Performance. I have concerns about the performance of the phone. Android Central had a hands on, which showed laggy screen swiping, GSM arena had laggy screen swiping and Gizmodo's impressions said that the HTC One was faster than the Galaxy S4 in every context. Could be due to early software/hardware, but that doesn't sound good at all for a high-end Android phone.

5. Samsung's direction. Watching the abysmal S4 presentation, I feel like Samsung is more focused on a phone store experience rather than a real-world phone experience. The phone is packed to the gills with gimmicks and it seems more designed for a customer to be wowed by all these 'features' at a phone store then them actually being used outside of one. It seems they're only focused on that initial wow factor to grab the sale. I had the S3 and things like tap-to-top and smart stay didn't even work properly for me, let alone be of any use.

These are just my opinions, and I know not everyone will share them, but they are the biggest issues I had with the S4. As such, I'm not interested in getting one as competitors have more attractive products to me.

On a side note, I find it hilarious that Samsung had commercials mocking Apple for using the same design with the iPhone 4S "If it looks the same, how will anyone know I upgraded?", when Samsung have essentially done exactly that:

original.jpg
 

DroidXcon

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just my two cents here, but with all the "pre unpacking" rumors and speculations of the S4, does anyone really think it was going to live up to the expectations?
if you stop and look at the S4 as it has been shown its really not a bad phone.

i currently have a note2, and love it. i dont mind that its plastic, most people slap some sort of case on the phones anyway.

i really couldnt imagine samsung steering too far away from the galaxy look and still call it a galaxy line of phone.

the phone has what most consider good hardware ( I didn't say awesome, because im not an expert) its still going to be fast and have a great looking screen. i couldnt believe how smooth my note2 was finally talked myself into giving up my razr maxx.

yes, for some of us the removable sdcard is important.. every time i think of a phone that doesn't have one i think iphone lol.. so im glad this one gives the owner the option of how much memory they want.

anyway, it looks like a galaxy phone... which it is..

i like it, its not something im going to go trade my note2 for, but if the note3 is a bigger phone than ill def be looking at the S4 as a replacement when its time if nothing new has caught my eye.

i guess my point is that i think a lot of us were expecting this magical phone that looked like nothing else... and what we got was the next logical step in a series...

Well said, I think that Samsung is going to make a step in a total new direction with their next line of devices, Under the YOUM series. Everyone is talking about the Galaxy line but Samsung made it clear that YOUM is coming and perhaps that shaped the way they developed the GS4.
 

xxLiquidX

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I wasn't too impressed either when I saw it. I know it's a minute detail but I have always hates hating speakers on the back of phones and never understood why they were there for placement.

Perhaps if they went buttonless and front speakers then maybe it would have been better. I laugh at the higher and higher megapixle cameras that aren't exactly there best at taking cleared pictures but you sure can blow up the noise from their shot.

I think it will still be some time until a "perfect phone" comes out just because of everyone's expectations.

I'm looking for battery life, high quality display, excellent Camera, solid feel and materials, and lastly front speakers.

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planoman

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Heard the exact same thing with the iphone 4s. Everyone was disappointed and no one was going to get it bla bla bla.

As I recall it sold a million in three days. The S4 will sell. And for those of you with the premium materials thing at least you can get the One to fill that need.

I have a "premium" feeling Nexus 4 and I check the back glass every time I switch my SIM. And I have a protector on the back glass too. As someone said, I case up so who really knows. At last count there were 9000 threads on cracked glass on the back of the Nexus 4...

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The Real X Dawg

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Later this year or early next year the One's successor will be on the receiving end of this as well.


Sent from my Jelly Bean chomping Infuse 4G!
 

russel5150

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I can see the points brought up here..

I still dont think the plastic is a bad idea.. I hear more of screen breaking than the plastic on a lot of phones.

What you have to remember is phones are not supposed to last for years.. maybe they used too but technology moves so fast now days it doeant matter if you have a metal phone, the next new one is supposed to make you want it.. your not supposed to cherish your phone lol... your supposed to buy the latest and greatest. . Because thats how THEY stay in business.

Just my opinion.
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lou61166

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I disagree there. I found the S4 disappointing, when it could have easily met or exceeded my expectations.

1. Build materials and quality. Having used the Xperia Z and HTC One, they absolutely blow the S3 out of the water, and will blow the S4 out of the water. There is no reason why Samsung couldn't have gone with a premium material for the phone build. Sony and HTC seemed to have put in the effort to make an excellently designed/manufactured device, Samsung just rehashed their materials/design. People will want to say it's because of the removable back - there are phones that are made of metal and have removable backs, hell Samsung made one (Wave), so that excuse is out the door. Having owned an S3 and removing the back a few times, I started noticing cracks on the plastic which is not comforting at all.

Samsung have more money than Sony and HTC put together. Absolutely no excuse why they couldn't have made a premium feeling phone.

2. Screen. I know AMOLED is their thing and the colours are highly saturated, but I personally prefer the LCD3 screen in the One and even the LCD in the Sony screen. Given that LCD screens have more accurately calibrated colours, better battery life while web browsing, can get much brighter (which greatly helps sunlight visibility, especially in Australia) and less prone to burn in - I would have preferred a great LCD display over AMOLED.

3. Legacy button layout. The physical home button and 2 capacitive buttons were fine and dandy with the Galaxy S and S2, but now times have changed and I think Samsung should really focus on pushing tech forward with adopting the stock on-screen button layout of Android now.

4. Performance. I have concerns about the performance of the phone. Android Central had a hands on, which showed laggy screen swiping, GSM arena had laggy screen swiping and Gizmodo's impressions said that the HTC One was faster than the Galaxy S4 in every context. Could be due to early software/hardware, but that doesn't sound good at all for a high-end Android phone.

5. Samsung's direction. Watching the abysmal S4 presentation, I feel like Samsung is more focused on a phone store experience rather than a real-world phone experience. The phone is packed to the gills with gimmicks and it seems more designed for a customer to be wowed by all these 'features' at a phone store then them actually being used outside of one. It seems they're only focused on that initial wow factor to grab the sale. I had the S3 and things like tap-to-top and smart stay didn't even work properly for me, let alone be of any use.

These are just my opinions, and I know not everyone will share them, but they are the biggest issues I had with the S4. As such, I'm not interested in getting one as competitors have more attractive products to me.

On a side note, I find it hilarious that Samsung had commercials mocking Apple for using the same design with the iPhone 4S "If it looks the same, how will anyone know I upgraded?", when Samsung have essentially done exactly that:

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18hhpxvf0ao60jpg/original.jpg

excellent post could not agree more,Samsung is turning into the Apple of Android, which spells trouble for the consumer,they can make money off there name,and do not have to make a quality product thus saving them money in production.
 

Paul627g

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I'm not so sure that the S4 was a deal breaker but I think to many it was a let down... Many had high expectations....

My personal thoughts is were going to see current and future devices over the next 6 months maybe even a year or more lean more towards software upgrades and improvements. Hardware will take more of a backseat and we will see OEMs concentrate more on redefining and tweaking their UI's around Android.
 

Ry

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I think people have set expectations too high.

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Paul627g

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I think people have set expectations too high.

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Exactly... That is were I refer back to my statement of software becoming more key than hardware in the future...

There are in many situations across the board where things are still ' broken ' and not working as they should out of the box starting with Google and filtering down into the OEMs and their custom skins.. Some small, some bigger issues.. all very important and should be focused on more before pushing the envelope into the next great technology.
 

AllenRulz

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Exactly... That is were I refer back to my statement of software becoming more key than hardware in the future...

There are in many situations across the board where things are still ' broken ' and not working as they should out of the box starting with Google and filtering down into the OEMs and their custom skins.. Some small, some bigger issues.. all very important and should be focused on more before pushing the envelope into the next great technology.

Well said!!!
 

croppz

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I said this when it came out (the thread title). I am not impressed with the S4. It looks the same, it is still plastic, nothing drastic was done with touchwiz, god awful AMOLED PENTILE matrix screen, an 8 core processor that the US wont be getting. The list goes on and on. With the hype that surrounded this device, samsung could have been way more innovative and creative. The HTC One and Xperia, Moto X are going to blow this phone out of the water. Actually, since I am using Sense 5 as we speak, I KNOW that the One will blow it out of the water.

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croppz

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I think people have set expectations too high.

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Not at all. We all knew the hype that surrounded the S4 and samsung kept everything super secret for the longest time to build that hype and they come out with this? Basically an s3 with some new features, a better version of the crappy amoled screen and a quadcore processor for the US. Definitely a let down. Samsung is a smart company, they could have done better.

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MikeLip

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I'm not so sure that the S4 was a deal breaker but I think to many it was a let down... Many had high expectations....

My personal thoughts is were going to see current and future devices over the next 6 months maybe even a year or more lean more towards software upgrades and improvements. Hardware will take more of a backseat and we will see OEMs concentrate more on redefining and tweaking their UI's around Android.

Well, yeah. I agree with the poster who pointed out that the iPhone 4 was going to disappoint. Heck, so was the iPhone 5. That sure didn't stop people from buying it. In fact the iPhone 5 is a d*** nice phone. It has a beautiful display, great camera, and hey! It makes phone calls! Same thing goes for the S3, and the S4 will, umm, have a beautiful display and make phone calls... Not everyone wants a big display, and not everyone wants to customize. Most people want something that works and looks good. Know what else is with me all the time? An iPod Touch 5. It has NO music on it, but it has lots of apps. Why? Because it has a smaller screen, runs forever on a charge, runs the apps I want, and it's a work of industrial art.

The problem, as I see it, is the tech blogs. They pump everyone up (well, everyone who reads tech blogs anyway), expound on how wonderful the new phone is going to be (anyone remember the "Jesus Phone? That term still makes me a little nauseous. it's worse than "Phablet") and when it arrives hey, guess what? It's JUST A PHONE after all. It won't cure cancer or bring back the dead. Bummer. Maybe the next one will.
 

omniusovermind

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4. Performance. I have concerns about the performance of the phone. Android Central had a hands on, which showed laggy screen swiping, GSM arena had laggy screen swiping and Gizmodo's impressions said that the HTC One was faster than the Galaxy S4 in every context. Could be due to early software/hardware, but that doesn't sound good at all for a high-end Android phone.

5. Samsung's direction. Watching the abysmal S4 presentation, I feel like Samsung is more focused on a phone store experience rather than a real-world phone experience. The phone is packed to the gills with gimmicks and it seems more designed for a customer to be wowed by all these 'features' at a phone store then them actually being used outside of one. It seems they're only focused on that initial wow factor to grab the sale. I had the S3 and things like tap-to-top and smart stay didn't even work properly for me, let alone be of any use.

I agree with all of your points but the above two are the biggest deal breakers for me. To emphasize point #5 even more, here's my experience with the Samsung as a company in general:

After years upon years of being a Samsung fan, owning their TV's, DvD players and phones I had the misfortune of discovering that their business model had shifted away from the Samsung I used to love for premium quality towards a business model that is now purely interested in catching your attention with bling features and massive advertising and not giving a damn at all about quality. My first years of Samsung products were rock solid. But over the last 5 years, my Samsung devices were totally different. They offered more "features" of dubious usefulness but kept breaking within months after the 1 year warranty expired. All of them. My LCD TV went kaput and so did my BluRay player and my phone, all between 16 and 20 months after purchase. This is the state of today's Samsung and I won't touch the company ever again. At least Apple (which I don't own by the way so don't bother going there) has the decency to back up their overpriced phones with award winning rock solid support and chart-topping reliability ratings. Not so for Samsung and it shows. Being critical of a company that has delivered me 3 devices that broke within months of the 1 year warranty expiring is "setting my expectations too high"? What a joke. YGTBFKM.
 

planoman

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Heard the exact same thing with the iphone 4s. Everyone was disappointed and no one was going to get it bla bla bla.

As I recall it sold a million in three days. The S4 will sell. And for those of you with the premium materials thing at least you can get the One to fill that need.

I have a "premium" feeling Nexus 4 and I check the back glass every time I switch my SIM. And I have a protector on the back glass too. As someone said, I case up so who really knows. At last count there were 9000 threads on cracked glass on the back of the Nexus 4...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317

Correcting my own post. Looks like the HTC One is so premium, they cannot get the componets to built it. I was not overly excited or disappointed in the S4 because I do feel expectation were overblown. Not every new phone is going to be a revolutionary device. Gotta have some evolutionary in there some years.
 

GrooveRite

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...I know it's a minute detail but I have always hates hating speakers on the back of phones and never understood why they were there for placement...

So you don't risk cracking the screen while it rides in your jeans/pants pocket so you can hear the damn phone ring out in public! I have no idea why you would want the speakers on front with the screen for this matter! And no, I don't want it to vibrate because it kills your battery quickly!
 

smooth4lyfe

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Well said,
Even though my only disappointments is the design (I wish it looked much different), and no Touchwiz upgrade, I think its one of the best phones coming out.
The processor is using one of the fastest processors, and hardware was is definitely up to speed with the latest
 

Ry

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Not at all. We all knew the hype that surrounded the S4 and samsung kept everything super secret for the longest time to build that hype and they come out with this? Basically an s3 with some new features, a better version of the crappy amoled screen and a quadcore processor for the US. Definitely a let down. Samsung is a smart company, they could have done better.

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Android Central Forums

What hype?

What's wrong with keeping it "super secret" up until the announcement? Isn't that what they're supposed to do?

What's wrong with an upgraded S3?

Seriously? What were you expecting? lol.


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