Best review so far

[archer75]

I've been going through all the reviews and am seeing quite a bit of variation in terms of benchmarks, call and camera quality. My guess is the reviews must be on different firmware versions. I know GSMarena did a review and then went back and updated it after getting new firmware and it much improved in a number of areas on the phone.

 

[dmmarck]

I've been going through all the reviews and am seeing quite a bit of variation in terms of benchmarks and camera quality. My guess is the reviews must be on different firmware versions. I know GSMarena did a review and then went back and updated it after getting new firmware and it much improved in a number of areas on the phone.

I have never trusted GSM/PhoneArena, regardless of phone reviewed or outcome.

 

[omniusovermind]

I don't see why these reviews are all of a sudden changing people's mind about getting the S4
I think the GS4 has an advantage over the HTC One with the bigger screen, removable battery and MicroSD Slot

I've always believed the SD card removable battery crowd has always been a minority. A very vocal minority on smartphone forums, but a minority nonetheless.

 

[adriandb]

I would be in tapatalk long press home switch to browser to check something come back to tapatalk via multi task home button and it would refresh and load back up to where I was. Worse though be putting stiff into a order form in the browser leave browser for phone call come back page would refresh and have to pu my info back in again. Doesn't do that on my gs3.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

So just to see if I could reproduce this, I started this reply then switched over to mail, sent mail from two accounts and read mail from three accounts. Then I switched to my browser, which didn't reload my pages, and browsed a bit. Then I came back to tapatalk and finished this post. No reloading. I don't see the issue.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2

 

[ratchetjaw#AC]

So just to see if I could reproduce this, I started this reply then switched over to mail, sent mail from two accounts and read mail from three accounts. Then I switched to my browser, which didn't reload my pages, and browsed a bit. Then I came back to tapatalk and finished this post. No reloading. I don't see the issue.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2

Well that's great. Not arguing. Just voiced what happened to me daily the three days I had it. Maybe it was my unit cause it was very reproducible for me. Glad its working right for you. It's really a nice phone

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

 

[meyerweb#CB]

This new batch of reviews seems to be echoing what I've said about the "features" - they're gimmicks; very situational in their uses and function. Samsung pouring so much focus into those took away from effort that could have been put on other, practical areas.

SD Slot and removable battery are non-factors for me. Because of these reviews, I've really begun to reconsider getting it as a result... I'll definitely be trying both the One and SIV out beforehand extensively.

Just curious what you consider more "practical areas." Whether the new features are gimmicks or not, I don't really see where the S4 is lacking, except for people who confuse the "feel" of aluminum with "build quality."

To each his own, but the SD card is very important to me.

 

[dmmarck]

Just curious what you consider more "practical areas." Whether the new features are gimmicks or not, I don't really see where the S4 is lacking, except for people who confuse the "feel" of aluminum with "build quality."

To each his own, but the SD card is very important to me.

I don't necessarily think "feel" should be separated from build quality. A creaky plastic phone--like my Galaxy Nexus--has a certain feel that the One does not. For me, that's not only indicative of the materials used, but the quality of the construction and attention to detail.

 

[madlaw1071]

I don't necessarily think "feel" should be separated from build quality. A creaky plastic phone--like my Galaxy Nexus--has a certain feel that the One does not. For me, that's not only indicative of the materials used, but the quality of the construction and attention to detail.

My S3 has never creaked and it's almost 1 year old. It's plastic but solid. And best thing, if the back cover got scratched for 10 bucks I get a new one.

 

[dmmarck]

My S3 has never creaked and it's almost 1 year old. It's plastic but solid. And best thing, if the back cover got scratched for 10 bucks I get a new one.

I do appreciate that. My ex-roommate's S3 sounds like the Titanic when it sunk in that terrible mid/late 90's film. So does the Galaxy Nexus, unfortunately.

 

[mayconvert]

As someone new to android forums doing research to see if I can handle the switch from LONG time iphone user with a mac, to an android phone, I find reviews do nothing but confuse me.
I have read 20 reviews for each phone I am trying to decide between. S4 or HTC One. I have watched 20 video reviews on each one.
As far as I can tell These two phones are Both awesome.
Does the S4 have a lot of "fluff" thats basically useless? Maybe. Does the HTC feel like it lacks "fluff" compared to the HTC One? Probably.
As an outsider, that currently has an iPhone 5, that is still trying to decide between these two phones, it's a very hard choice.
One phone has this, One phone offers that. One can do this, One can do that.
Honestly guys. There is no clear cut "winner" between these two devices. For people who NEED (must have can't live without) a removable batter/SD card), the S4 wins for them.
For people like me, who have NEVER had a removable battery or an SD card slot, I find those silly needs (HTC does come with 32GB, not 16) and you would think the the HTC is a hands down winner for someone like me.
Even with All that. I still can't decide. I can say I had the GS3 for about 3 weeks before taking it back for the iPhone 5 again.
Things like Visual Voicemail being part of the OS, Apps that were polished to a shine, tight integration via iCloud, iTunes, Pages, Keynote, Numbers, Do not disturb, Cloud tabs, Reading List, a Native email client that handle every kind of mail on the market, made the S3 seem like frankensteins toy, you had to put it together to get it to work.
But, even with a not so great experience, I can't just rule the S4 out of my choice. I'm ready to give it a serious try again and all these reviews saying HTC wins / no wait S4 wins aren't helping me at all.
When I get the S4 in the store where I can play with it and then turn around and do the same thing on the HTC, then and only then will I be able to make a Good decision as to which One will work 4 me. (see what i did there =p)

P.S. my sister in law got her HTC One first day of release. She charges it at night, uses it moderately during the day and gets home 10 hours after the phone has been removed from the charger and has 70% battery life left. she doesn't have a car charger or a charger at work. Kind of makes a removable battery a moot point for her.

 

[omniusovermind]

As someone new to android forums doing research to see if I can handle the switch from LONG time iphone user with a mac, to an android phone, I find reviews do nothing but confuse me.
I have read 20 reviews for each phone I am trying to decide between. S4 or HTC One. I have watched 20 video reviews on each one.
As far as I can tell These two phones are Both awesome.
Does the S4 have a lot of "fluff" thats basically useless? Maybe. Does the HTC feel like it lacks "fluff" compared to the HTC One? Probably.
As an outsider, that currently has an iPhone 5, that is still trying to decide between these two phones, it's a very hard choice.
One phone has this, One phone offers that. One can do this, One can do that.
Honestly guys. There is no clear cut "winner" between these two devices. For people who NEED (must have can't live without) a removable batter/SD card), the S4 wins for them.
For people like me, who have NEVER had a removable battery or an SD card slot, I find those silly needs (HTC does come with 32GB, not 16) and you would think the the HTC is a hands down winner for someone like me.
Even with All that. I still can't decide. I can say I had the GS3 for about 3 weeks before taking it back for the iPhone 5 again.
Things like Visual Voicemail being part of the OS, Apps that were polished to a shine, tight integration via iCloud, iTunes, Pages, Keynote, Numbers, Do not disturb, Cloud tabs, Reading List, a Native email client that handle every kind of mail on the market, made the S3 seem like frankensteins toy, you had to put it together to get it to work.
But, even with a not so great experience, I can't just rule the S4 out of my choice. I'm ready to give it a serious try again and all these reviews saying HTC wins / no wait S4 wins aren't helping me at all.
When I get the S4 in the store where I can play with it and then turn around and do the same thing on the HTC, then and only then will I be able to make a Good decision as to which One will work 4 me. (see what i did there =p)

P.S. my sister in law got her HTC One first day of release. She charges it at night, uses it moderately during the day and gets home 10 hours after the phone has been removed from the charger and has 70% battery life left. she doesn't have a car charger or a charger at work. Kind of makes a removable battery a moot point for her.

As a former iPhone user you've just pointed out what I've been saying all along. The removable battery SD card crowd are a small group. You just hear it a lot because while small, they repeat it a lot on android forums so it's become somewhat of a mantra in those places.