S4 not as good as an iPhone

[pablohoney46]

I thought long and hard about leaving my iPhone. I wanted a change, a new style of phone. all of the comments I have read on this forum and others convinced me there was no reason to not change. oh dear what have I done!!
As far as the operating system goes fine. but -
- docking stations and chargers are limited. hardly any on the market
- Kies, isyncr and other music transfer apps are awful. they freeze and crash, don't transfer what you want etc
- Google play is awful - I buy a song but it stays in the cloud and can't listen to it unless with good signal etc. so I have to go through extra steps to download to the s4 direct. why it doesn't do that by default I don't know. once on the device I can only play using the default music player - can't find any downloaded Google play music on my rocket player. so I used iTunes to buy and download on my PC and then go through the painful process of transferring to my s4
- battery life is appalling

as a camera it is superb and it is great to have an SD card. but I will be selling to fund purchase of new iPhone that has far better support in terms of ancillaries and download of music

 

[benhmadison]

Re: s4 not as good as an iPhone

I thought long and hard about leaving my iPhone. I wanted a change, a new style of phone. all of the comments I have read on this forum and others convinced me there was no reason to not change. oh dear what have I done!!
As far as the operating system goes fine. but -
- docking stations and chargers are limited. hardly any on the market
- Kies, isyncr and other music transfer apps are awful. they freeze and crash, don't transfer what you want etc
- Google play is awful - I buy a song but it stays in the cloud and can't listen to it unless with good signal etc. so I have to go through extra steps to download to the s4 direct. why it doesn't do that by default I don't know. once on the device I can only play using the default music player - can't find any downloaded Google play music on my rocket player. so I used iTunes to buy and download on my PC and then go through the painful process of transferring to my s4
- battery life is appalling

as a camera it is superb and it is great to have an SD card. but I will be selling to fund purchase of new iPhone that has far better support in terms of ancillaries and download of music

Android is not iPhone. There are different ways of doing certain things. It sounds like you are more comfortable with the iPhone and that is fine. Each user has their preferences. I wouldn't post an opinion statement saying the iPhone is better than the s4 because it's an opinion but more importantly you aren't going to get any help or support on this forum with a title like that.

Sent from my HTC One using AC Forums mobile app

 

[tippmann15]

Re: s4 not as good as an iPhone

As someone with an iPhone 5 and a Galaxy S4.... I wish I never would have spent money on this ip5, o well :-(. Different needs I suppose.

GS4/iPhone5

 

[scott2ya]

Re: s4 not as good as an iPhone

I switched from the iphone 5. There is a learning curve for the gs4 that is for sure, but there was one for the iphone as well. You are just used to the iphone. I can tell you that I love my gs4 and would never switch back. Funny how the iphone now is trying to catch up to Android now.
Being able to customize and use different keyboards or messaging apps as well as the bigger screen was what I mainly wanted. Good luck with your iphone, I don't miss mine one bit. Don't miss iTunes one bit.

Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk 4

 

[academy]

Re: s4 not as good as an iPhone

Not wanting to hijack this but I have been dithering over swapping from my iPhone 5 to the s4 for the last few weeks. Battery life is my main reason (don't like the battery cases for iPhone).
You guys that switched over, how have you found the battery life?
Also, our house is completely in the apple ecosystem, iMac, atv, iPads, MacBooks, AirPort Extreme, airport express, how easy will it be to get the s4 to play nice and hopefully sync email (including an @me account) ?

Thought I would ask as there seems to be a few converts in here that are happy with it

Thanks

 

[shanghaichica]

Re: s4 not as good as an iPhone

Why dont you buy music from amazon.You can download it directly to your phone and it will play in any app.

Posted from my Galaxy Tab 2 10.1

 

[CaptainBroflovski]

Re: s4 not as good as an iPhone

I thought long and hard about leaving my iPhone. I wanted a change, a new style of phone. all of the comments I have read on this forum and others convinced me there was no reason to not change. oh dear what have I done!!
As far as the operating system goes fine. but -
- docking stations and chargers are limited. hardly any on the market
- Kies, isyncr and other music transfer apps are awful. they freeze and crash, don't transfer what you want etc
- Google play is awful - I buy a song but it stays in the cloud and can't listen to it unless with good signal etc. so I have to go through extra steps to download to the s4 direct. why it doesn't do that by default I don't know. once on the device I can only play using the default music player - can't find any downloaded Google play music on my rocket player. so I used iTunes to buy and download on my PC and then go through the painful process of transferring to my s4
- battery life is appalling

as a camera it is superb and it is great to have an SD card. but I will be selling to fund purchase of new iPhone that has far better support in terms of ancillaries and download of music

I disagree with your statement, although I respect your opinion. Kies works fine for transferring data and music, and Google Play Music is just made that way. It's a different ecosystem, it won't work like an iPhone. If you were looking for something like the iPhone, you probably should have stuck with it. Anyway, good luck with the new purchase!

Posted by The Android Central app

 

[CaptainBroflovski]

Re: s4 not as good as an iPhone

Not wanting to hijack this but I have been dithering over swapping from my iPhone 5 to the s4 for the last few weeks. Battery life is my main reason (don't like the battery cases for iPhone).
You guys that switched over, how have you found the battery life?
Also, our house is completely in the apple ecosystem, iMac, atv, iPads, MacBooks, AirPort Extreme, airport express, how easy will it be to get the s4 to play nice and hopefully sync email (including an @me account) ?

Thought I would ask as there seems to be a few converts in here that are happy with it

Thanks

The battery life is good, but seeing you have all apple basically getting it to sync and play nice won't be as easy as you think. You have a me account you want to sync, and the only thing I believe you can sync with that is email and that's it. It's a wonderful phone, it will take some adjustment though. You'll have to break out of the Apple ecosystem just a bit

Posted by The Android Central app

 

[rj160202]

Re: s4 not as good as an iPhone

You have to remember, he's coming from Apple...he's not used to having multiple options

 

[Almeuit]

Re: s4 not as good as an iPhone

FYI... Buy the song you can download it. Simply click the pin in the Google Music app .

Sent from my T-Mobile HTC One using AC Forums.

 

[mattmatt299]

Re: s4 not as good as an iPhone

I tried switching from a 4s to a Galaxy Nexus. It was a painful experience. The Android apps (the ones that work) are much worse quality than iOS. Music and Photo syncing is a Lot more work. Car integration is non-existent, except for using an aux cable. Samsung radios are so bad I could not even make phone calls where the iPhone had no problems.

There were just so many things wrong with switching I wound up going back to the iPhone 4S within a month. I'm also looking forward to getting iOS 7 in a few weeks. How many 2 year old Android phones still get updates when they are 2 years old?

I encourage you to try Android, but don't get rid of the iPhone just yet. Fast CPUs and a big screen don't equal happiness. And as far as openness, I found the Android system so locked down with locked bootloaders and Verizon bloatware that saying Android is open is a joke.

Just so you know, my house had been mostly Android since e OG in 2009 - OG, DroidX, Droid X2, Eris, Incredible, Incredible 2, GNex, two Nexus 7s. We never kept any of the phones for more than a year due to various frustrations ( still have the Nexus 7s though). My iPhone 4S is our first iPhone in the house and I still love it after almost 2 years.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk - now Free

 

[josearmz10789]

Re: s4 not as good as an iPhone

Having an iphone is like being in prison, no liberty and no choices whatsoever. Being on android on the other hand is like being free, you get to go anywhere you want.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[Edible Walrus]

Re: s4 not as good as an iPhone

Not wanting to hijack this but I have been dithering over swapping from my iPhone 5 to the s4 for the last few weeks. Battery life is my main reason (don't like the battery cases for iPhone).
You guys that switched over, how have you found the battery life?
Also, our house is completely in the apple ecosystem, iMac, atv, iPads, MacBooks, AirPort Extreme, airport express, how easy will it be to get the s4 to play nice and hopefully sync email (including an @me account) ?

Thought I would ask as there seems to be a few converts in here that are happy with it

Thanks

Mine has lasted roughly 20 hours before requesting a recharge

 

[CaptainBroflovski]

I tried switching from a 4s to a Galaxy Nexus. It was a painful experience. The Android apps (the ones that work) are much worse quality than iOS. Music and Photo syncing is a Lot more work. Car integration is non-existent, except for using an aux cable. Samsung radios are so bad I could not even make phone calls where the iPhone had no problems.

There were just so many things wrong with switching I wound up going back to the iPhone 4S within a month. I'm also looking forward to getting iOS 7 in a few weeks. How many 2 year old Android phones still get updates when they are 2 years old?

I encourage you to try Android, but don't get rid of the iPhone just yet. Fast CPUs and a big screen don't equal happiness. And as far as openness, I found the Android system so locked down with locked bootloaders and Verizon bloatware that saying Android is open is a joke.

Just so you know, my house had been mostly Android since e OG in 2009 - OG, DroidX, Droid X2, Eris, Incredible, Incredible 2, GNex, two Nexus 7s. We never kept any of the phones for more than a year due to various frustrations ( still have the Nexus 7s though). My iPhone 4S is our first iPhone in the house and I still love it after almost 2 years.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk - now Free

I disagree with you that the apps on android are of less quality than iOS. Granted, choppiness and lag still exist on some android apps that aren't programmed that well. And Android is quite open, but the carriers are changing that. They're locking down everything, but the developers are working hard to unlock the phones. Personally, I only run custom. I don't like my phones getting chopped up by the carrier. That's one thing apple nails, not letting the carriers screw with the experience. Android is an amazing OS, it's just unlocking it's full capabilities

Posted by The Android Central app

 

[OhAlfie]

Re: s4 not as good as an iPhone

I thought long and hard about leaving my iPhone. I wanted a change, a new style of phone. all of the comments I have read on this forum and others convinced me there was no reason to not change. oh dear what have I done!!
As far as the operating system goes fine. but -
- docking stations and chargers are limited. hardly any on the market
- Kies, isyncr and other music transfer apps are awful. they freeze and crash, don't transfer what you want etc
- Google play is awful - I buy a song but it stays in the cloud and can't listen to it unless with good signal etc. so I have to go through extra steps to download to the s4 direct. why it doesn't do that by default I don't know. once on the device I can only play using the default music player - can't find any downloaded Google play music on my rocket player. so I used iTunes to buy and download on my PC and then go through the painful process of transferring to my s4
- battery life is appalling

as a camera it is superb and it is great to have an SD card. but I will be selling to fund purchase of new iPhone that has far better support in terms of ancillaries and download of music

Thanks for letting us know....adios...don't let the door hit ya in the you know what on the way out!!

 

[CaptainBroflovski]

Re: s4 not as good as an iPhone

Mine has lasted roughly 20 hours before requesting a recharge

My phone lasts only about 10 hours, but I'm a heavy user with the screen all the way up. It all comes down to how you use the phone

Posted by The Android Central app

 

[CaptainBroflovski]

Re: s4 not as good as an iPhone

FYI... Buy the song you can download it. Simply click the pin in the Google Music app .

Sent from my T-Mobile HTC One using AC Forums.

You can do that with the all access pass as well, which is a great feature to have if you don't have a signal sometimes

Posted by The Android Central app

 

[CaptainBroflovski]

Re: s4 not as good as an iPhone

Android is not iPhone. There are different ways of doing certain things. It sounds like you are more comfortable with the iPhone and that is fine. Each user has their preferences. I wouldn't post an opinion statement saying the iPhone is better than the s4 because it's an opinion but more importantly you aren't going to get any help or support on this forum with a title like that.

Sent from my HTC One using AC Forums mobile app

Not necessarily, we welcome all users on this forum. It doesn't matter if you run android, Windows phone, ios, or even Web os. You're welcome to come roam in the android Forums =)

Posted by The Android Central app

 

[garublador]

Re: s4 not as good as an iPhone

I encourage you to try Android, but don't get rid of the iPhone just yet. Fast CPUs and a big screen don't equal happiness. And as far as openness, I found the Android system so locked down with locked bootloaders and Verizon bloatware that saying Android is open is a joke.

That's not necessarily what people are talking about when they say "open." Android is open source and iOS is proprietary, so there's no question that Android is more "open" than iOS. Most implementations of Android, even the ones with locked bootloaders and bloatware (which is easy to disable) give the user much more control over both look and feel and actual functionality of the phone. Look at all the things people have done with Tasker, Google TV and home automation systems using Android. There is some similar functionality in the Apple realm, but you're stuck with their implementation. Because of how open Android is you can either use the stock implementation or customize your own.

In many cases if you try to make your Android phone work exactly like an iPhone you'll probably be unhappy. However, the one thing that has worked for me is synching with iTunes using iSyncr. Granted, I'm doing it on a Windows machine, so it, ironically, might not works as well in OSX, but I haven't had any problems synching whatever playlists I want automatically and reverse synching Amazon MP3's bought on my phone back into iTunes on our laptop.

As for battery, my wife has an iPhone 5 and I have an S4 and the battery life we both get is pretty similar. There's nothing magical about the iPhone battery life. I think one reason people think differently is becasue they'll have Google Now running on their Android device but not their iOS device. If you have the same Google Now cards enabled or disabled on both devices you'll find the battery life between the two to be very similar.

 

[pablohoney46]

Re: s4 not as good as an iPhone

Sound advice - will try thanks.