Getting an S4: Are the problems still there? Your experieces?

[quynhuong]

Hello! I'm getting an S4 very soon as an upgrade from my Pantech Crux. Ive been using my ipod, but i wanted a phone i could do everything on. I debated between the iphone 5 and the S4 but i wanted to try android. The s4 seems like a great phone, and after researching, there seemed to hve been issues like overheating, bad lag, audio, etc. there were updates that were meant to fix this, so if i were to get the phone now, would the problems be gone?
Also, an everyone tell me their personal experience with this phone and their opinion? Thanks!

 

[davidsnoodles]

The few people that have bad experiences with their phones will go to great lengths to prevent people from buying it. On the other hand, some people who love their phones will go to great lengths to make it seem that there is nothing wrong with the phone. I've read from both sides, people that experience lag, people that don't, overheating, audio, blah blah blah. I love my S4. I can say that for me, I experience no lag on my phone. BUT, I'm not using the stock launcher (TouchWiz), instead I use Nova Launcher. I have no lag when swiping through the application pages, opening or closing pages. I would say that the camera is a little bit slower than I would like (at least it seems slower than the one on my S3.) As for overheating, it does get a little warm when I'm downloading really big files (like 100+MBs), but other than that, daily things like streaming music, reading books, browsing the web - it doesn't get hot at all. OH, almost forgot, it will get hot if you use Google+ with auto backup to upload a ton of pictures. It especially gets hot when it uploads videos (mine were quite large, 1080p videos that were like 5+ minutes.)

What else, audio, the speaker is fine for me. Personally I don't like listening to music on the speakers of ANY phone, it just sounds bad no matter what - I use headphones. Besides, who else wants to listen to what you're listening to? It's quite annoying in my opinion. The one thing I do love is I have a pair of LG Tone+ bluetooth headphones that support apt-x codec and it sounds GREAT. Other bluetooth headphones/devices aren't going to sound as great if they don't support apt-x.

I've been using Android for a while now and switched to the iPhone 5 for a week - I truly missed my S3. The iPhone to me was just so... utilitarian? As in, you use it as a phone. To text. That's about it. Or that's how it seemed to me. I missed having the widgets tell me information immediately and the customization Android offers. iOS was too boring for me.

I used to use my iPod for music and my Android phone for everything else too (back on my original Incredible). Now I use my S4 for everything. I don't use the stock music player for my phone though because I have all my music stored of Google Play. I do really enjoy using the Google Music app. It could be a tad bit more intuitive, but it's very handy.

There are a lot of things you have to think about. Does appearance matter to you? Build quality? Materials used? How the device feels in your hand? How it fits into your pockets? Is it too big? Too small? I found that comparisons like call quality are really not that essential anymore as most people text anyways, but now-a-days, phones are pretty good with call quality. It's not like you're talking through cans connected by string... Maybe go to your local Best Buy, pick up the one you're leaning towards a little bit. If you're a little bit curious about the other and feel like you might have a better experience with the other, exchange it for the other.

 

[astroboi82]

I got my S4 about a week ago, and I must say I haven't experienced any of the problems you mentioned.

I came from an iPhone 5 and I would have to say this has it over that all day long.

Just my personal opinion but the galaxy is so much faster and the integration of apps is far better than ios

Sent from my GT-I9505 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[JGouse0498]

I've had my S4 nearly 1.5 months now.

PROs

• Battery life is remarkable for the battery size that comes in it!
• Support from expandable storage via microSD card.
• 1080p screen resolution has to be seen to truly be appreciated.
• 4G LTE (mine is Verizon) and GPS both lock on to signals extremely fast and stable.
• Samsung has, thus far, been timely with their software updates and has taken user feedback into account (e.g. the "apps-to-SD" feature)
• Camera has a bunch of neat features, takes pretty good pictures (low light is still an issue but that's not surprising), and takes clear video too.

CONs

• Screen extremely difficult to see in direct sunlight--even at maximum brightness
• Bluetooth connection can sometimes be problematic when I try to interface with my Hyundai Elantra
• TouchWiz interface looks too cartoonish...but that was an easy fix by installing NOVA LAUNCHER.
• Slight lag at very odd times (e.g. - TEMPLE RUN 2 stutters to the point where I've lost multiple games due to it, but other games like RIPTIDE GP run flawlessly)
• Size can be a tad cumbersome to use especially when inside a protective case (Otterbox Defender on mine)
• Advertised features such as Smart Scroll, etc. only work with stock and/or Samsung apps (e.g. - Scroll doesn't work on Chrome) and even then they are inconsistent and buggy...but disabling them really doesn't diminish the user experience anyway.

While it may seem that the "pros" list is rather generic as opposed to the more specific "cons" list, keep in mind that, at least in my own opinion, I consider all the positives I mentioned to be "deal-breaker" features for me. Temple Run 2 can run as smooth as butter and be vibrant in the sunlight, but if my phone can't make it through the day on a charge or hold a steady 4G signal, then it's useless to me. The Galaxy S4 does have its fair share of bugs and blips (what electronic device doesn't?), but Samsung really got it right in the areas that count the most.

Bottom line is that this is a solid phone and currently one of--if not THE--best Android phone on the market.

 

[Andrawer]

I had some lag/stuttering on my S4 that disappeared with the latest update. Haven't had any other issues and am now extremely happy with my S4. (ok, I wish the headphone controls for music...forward, goback, pause, etc. worked as well as the iphones...would be easier for exercising/running)

Even though I REALLY like my ipad mini, my last apple phone was the iphone4 (wife and 1 kid have a iPhone 5) and I couldn't imagine returning, it would definitely be a big step backwards for myself. The new IOS7-beta on my iPad is ugly...don't understand...doesn't add anything of value to the typical user except for super thin icons/fonts.

5" screen on the S4 is perfect size (considering I had the Note/Note2 which are excellent also but just a bit big for the stuff I use my phone for).
Can't lose with the HTC one either.

 

[fijiphil]

I love my s4, it's nearly the perfect phone, except for one massive problem. I have a 64gb SanDisk SD card to hold my music, but I get frequent messages that the card has been unexpectedly removed. The phone then remounts it, checks it for errors which takes a while and then off we go again. The problem seems to be far worse when I am moving around but can happen at any time.i don't know if it's hardware or software related I also don't know how common this problem is but plenty of people on this forum are complaining of similar.

 

[HardRightHand]

I love mine as well, except that the audio crackles badly with headphones anytime 4g Data is on. Its a very solid phone otherwise, and I have 0 complaints.

 

[totalsmoshy]

The few people that have bad experiences with their phones will go to great lengths to prevent people from buying it. On the other hand, some people who love their phones will go to great lengths to make it seem that there is nothing wrong with the phone. I've read from both sides, people that experience lag, people that don't, overheating, audio, blah blah blah. I love my S4. I can say that for me, I experience no lag on my phone. BUT, I'm not using the stock launcher (TouchWiz), instead I use Nova Launcher. I have no lag when swiping through the application pages, opening or closing pages. I would say that the camera is a little bit slower than I would like (at least it seems slower than the one on my S3.) As for overheating, it does get a little warm when I'm downloading really big files (like 100+MBs), but other than that, daily things like streaming music, reading books, browsing the web - it doesn't get hot at all. OH, almost forgot, it will get hot if you use Google+ with auto backup to upload a ton of pictures. It especially gets hot when it uploads videos (mine were quite large, 1080p videos that were like 5+ minutes.)

What else, audio, the speaker is fine for me. Personally I don't like listening to music on the speakers of ANY phone, it just sounds bad no matter what - I use headphones. Besides, who else wants to listen to what you're listening to? It's quite annoying in my opinion. The one thing I do love is I have a pair of LG Tone+ bluetooth headphones that support apt-x codec and it sounds GREAT. Other bluetooth headphones/devices aren't going to sound as great if they don't support apt-x.

I've been using Android for a while now and switched to the iPhone 5 for a week - I truly missed my S3. The iPhone to me was just so... utilitarian? As in, you use it as a phone. To text. That's about it. Or that's how it seemed to me. I missed having the widgets tell me information immediately and the customization Android offers. iOS was too boring for me.

I used to use my iPod for music and my Android phone for everything else too (back on my original Incredible). Now I use my S4 for everything. I don't use the stock music player for my phone though because I have all my music stored of Google Play. I do really enjoy using the Google Music app. It could be a tad bit more intuitive, but it's very handy.

There are a lot of things you have to think about. Does appearance matter to you? Build quality? Materials used? How the device feels in your hand? How it fits into your pockets? Is it too big? Too small? I found that comparisons like call quality are really not that essential anymore as most people text anyways, but now-a-days, phones are pretty good with call quality. It's not like you're talking through cans connected by string... Maybe go to your local Best Buy, pick up the one you're leaning towards a little bit. If you're a little bit curious about the other and feel like you might have a better experience with the other, exchange it for the other.

When you get Nova Launcher on an S4 can you delete it and go back to Touchwiz? (relatively new to android) Also, when you have Nova Launcher can you use those dumb features like smart scroll and air view?

- - - Updated - - -

The few people that have bad experiences with their phones will go to great lengths to prevent people from buying it. On the other hand, some people who love their phones will go to great lengths to make it seem that there is nothing wrong with the phone. I've read from both sides, people that experience lag, people that don't, overheating, audio, blah blah blah. I love my S4. I can say that for me, I experience no lag on my phone. BUT, I'm not using the stock launcher (TouchWiz), instead I use Nova Launcher. I have no lag when swiping through the application pages, opening or closing pages. I would say that the camera is a little bit slower than I would like (at least it seems slower than the one on my S3.) As for overheating, it does get a little warm when I'm downloading really big files (like 100+MBs), but other than that, daily things like streaming music, reading books, browsing the web - it doesn't get hot at all. OH, almost forgot, it will get hot if you use Google+ with auto backup to upload a ton of pictures. It especially gets hot when it uploads videos (mine were quite large, 1080p videos that were like 5+ minutes.)

What else, audio, the speaker is fine for me. Personally I don't like listening to music on the speakers of ANY phone, it just sounds bad no matter what - I use headphones. Besides, who else wants to listen to what you're listening to? It's quite annoying in my opinion. The one thing I do love is I have a pair of LG Tone+ bluetooth headphones that support apt-x codec and it sounds GREAT. Other bluetooth headphones/devices aren't going to sound as great if they don't support apt-x.

I've been using Android for a while now and switched to the iPhone 5 for a week - I truly missed my S3. The iPhone to me was just so... utilitarian? As in, you use it as a phone. To text. That's about it. Or that's how it seemed to me. I missed having the widgets tell me information immediately and the customization Android offers. iOS was too boring for me.

I used to use my iPod for music and my Android phone for everything else too (back on my original Incredible). Now I use my S4 for everything. I don't use the stock music player for my phone though because I have all my music stored of Google Play. I do really enjoy using the Google Music app. It could be a tad bit more intuitive, but it's very handy.

There are a lot of things you have to think about. Does appearance matter to you? Build quality? Materials used? How the device feels in your hand? How it fits into your pockets? Is it too big? Too small? I found that comparisons like call quality are really not that essential anymore as most people text anyways, but now-a-days, phones are pretty good with call quality. It's not like you're talking through cans connected by string... Maybe go to your local Best Buy, pick up the one you're leaning towards a little bit. If you're a little bit curious about the other and feel like you might have a better experience with the other, exchange it for the other.

When you get Nova Launcher on an S4 can you delete it and go back to Touchwiz? (relatively new to android) Also, when you have Nova Launcher can you use those dumb features like smart scroll and air view?

 

[Darnell0216]

When you get any 3rd party launcher, you can switch back to your default either by uninstalling it or simply changing the settings. Gestures are built into the OS and not the launcher, so they remain unaffected. However, if you decide to use someone else's app to do something (like using Firefox instead of the stock browser), it will not support them.

 

[garublador]

When you get Nova Launcher on an S4 can you delete it and go back to Touchwiz? (relatively new to android) Also, when you have Nova Launcher can you use those dumb features like smart scroll and air view?

Yes and yes. Though I suspect that the first one won't be an issue. Just changing the grid (number of icons per screen) makes a gigantic difference in how much you can fit on the screen. TouchWiz on the S4 does a horrible job of using the big, high resolution screen and being able to add more icons and widgets per screen makes using a different launcher a no-brainer for me.

I've had my S4 since it was released for Verizon and there were some small issues at first. The "lag" (more like studdering) was there a bit at first, but it's been gone since the latest update.

My phone gets a bit warm when using navigation or if I'm in a really bad area of reception (the only time it's happened I was in an interior room of a hospital). I had an app go "rogue" and it heated up a bit but that was after the latest update but before I did a factory reset.

I never had the crackling you'd hear with low impedance headphones, but it's my understanding that it's fixed.

I use iSyncr to automatically sync iTunes with my phone over WiFi. If you want to (or are forced to) keep using iTunes I'd seriously consider using this method.

With the latest update to Google Play Services the battery life has been pretty good even with Google Now location based cards and AutoLocation in Tasker following my location. I'm actually quite impressed.