Former N4 user - WOW... Impressed!

[SeanBlader]

Get the Galaxy S4 if you might make a business taking daylight photos, the 13mp will give you more options and flexibility as well as the ability to crop AND print...

On the otherhand if you're an amateur photgrapher, and there might be ANY chance that you go pro or might be taking more than 100 pictures a day, you should get the cooler phone and then get a SLR. Then I have to recommend the One, it will work great as a secondary camera that you use for opportunity shots when the SLR isn't around.

 

[seventeenseconds]

Nice post. I too am an iPhone user (currently 4s) but a tech junkie, and secret android fanboy. I really love android but left after 2.3 because of instability. I needed a very dependable phone as my main driver, so tried out the iPhone (albeit reluctantly) and well got comfortable. But that Android thorn in my side would not go away, and I think Android has come a long way since 2.3. I am up for a renewal in a few months and I am considering the Nexus or the One. I love the One, but I am concerned only about the camera. I have a amateur phone photography thing going on with my 4s, though older, takes some pretty good pictures. I have heard or seen conclusive evidence of the HTC One?s ability in that regard. I take daylight pictures. Can I hope it?s daylight ability is as good as any?

Depends on subject and what you're uploading those pictures to (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Flicker, etc). If your subject is landscapes, it's good, but not a strong as the 4S if you're pixel viewing at 1:1 resolution. There won't be as much edge detail as you're getting with the 4S. That said, if you're uploading these pics to Facebook or any service that's downsizing them and not viewing full resolution, then you'll never see or notice the difference -- they'll look just as good (some cases better). In just about any other subject and lighting the One will produce better results across the board for any current generation camera phone.

There's plenty real-world user examples on Flicker and G+ if you do a little searching.

 

[Russ Smith]

Nice post. I too am an iPhone user (currently 4s) but a tech junkie, and secret android fanboy. I really love android but left after 2.3 because of instability. I needed a very dependable phone as my main driver, so tried out the iPhone (albeit reluctantly) and well got comfortable. But that Android thorn in my side would not go away, and I think Android has come a long way since 2.3. I am up for a renewal in a few months and I am considering the Nexus or the One. I love the One, but I am concerned only about the camera. I have a amateur phone photography thing going on with my 4s, though older, takes some pretty good pictures. I have heard or seen conclusive evidence of the HTC One?s ability in that regard. I take daylight pictures. Can I hope it?s daylight ability is as good as any?

Standard shot on auto

Sent from my awesome HTC One B-)

 

[bgapfire]

I appreciate your write up. You have inspired me to do a pros/ cons list. Here we go:

Pros:
1. Great size for MY hands. I was able to do some things one handed and still able to operate comfortably with two hands.

2. The display is great. If you're in this forum, you are already aware of the specs so I won't get into them. With that said, I don't see the huge gains people have raved about when it comes to TEXT over my N4 or any 720 screen. The colors are represented well.

3. Sense 5 icons look more mature for lack of a better word. I have owned a plethora of smartphones just as you have and I enjoy looking at the icons. Sense is pretty clean to look at.

4. Very aesthetically pleasing to view. I find myself looking down at the phone for no reason at all. LOL.

Cons:
1. As great as the phone feels in my hand (get ready), it is sharp feeling. I always prefer to use my phones naked and the rounded corners of "other" phones allows it feel better in MY hand. This doesn't take away from PRO for this device- I just feel it more after holding it for a while.

2. Sense has a lot of customization but doesn't have a Do Not Disturb or Blocking Mode available. I know I can get something out of the Play Store but there is something to having it stock within the system. People complain about all of the gimmicks from other phones, but they are options and features available within the stock system that allows users not to have to search the Play Store if they don't want to.

3. In an attempt to simplify the app draw, they made it a mess. Here is where you should stick with the stock Android usage and allow options to refine or filter the drawer to the users specifications.

4. I dislike the power button on top.

All in all, this is a great phone and will certainly test drive for the next 12 days. Honestly, I would hate to return it. I can deal with the cons by replacing the launcher or finding applicable apps in the Play store. I currently own an N4 and Note2. I can definitely see myself using this as my daily driver.

Thanks for reading.

 

[vwarp]

Depends on subject and what you're uploading those pictures to (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Flicker, etc). If your subject is landscapes, it's good, but not a strong as the 4S if you're pixel viewing at 1:1 resolution. There won't be as much edge detail as you're getting with the 4S. That said, if you're uploading these pics to Facebook or any service that's downsizing them and not viewing full resolution, then you'll never see or notice the difference -- they'll look just as good (some cases better). In just about any other subject and lighting the One will produce better results across the board for any current generation camera phone.

There's plenty real-world user examples on Flicker and G+ if you do a little searching.

I usually do landscape photos indeed, and I don?t usually edit, save from cropping or adjusting brightness/contrast.. And judge from "Russ" photo, the One seems quite decent. It is really a nice phone, sense seems to be a bit less intrusive (for lack of a better word) than TouchWiz these days. Let?s see what happens in the next few months though, the new Nexus if such is to come, or the infamous Google X.

 

[Andrew ONeill]

Can't have those accessories for One, there is no back cover. All reviews I read said camera is better on S4 not because of 13 mp but because its just better (actually one of the best in current phones), and as far as screen goes they also commented that S4 is easier to see outside in sun. Also 0.3 doesn't sound much, but to me Note with 5.5 is HUGE vs my 4.7 screen and thats only 0.8 difference. One also has the same notification led as One S (which I used for a while) had, and while its a very nice design, you can't even see it from angles....I love how they made it on Nexus 4....I hope its something similar on S4

If you are talking about extended battery for the ONE as an accessory then yes you can have it, removable back not required. It's called the mophie juice pack, also a battery equipped case said to be on the way.
What reviews have you read and from what sites? The S4 is not even out yet and i've read a dozen different reviews/watched several more on you tube and all have said the ONE's new "ultra pixel" design makes for the best low light pictures because they let in 300% more light than your standard mega pixels. It's not even close! No other cell phone camera compares. The S4 camera aperture is sais to be a now common F/2.2 while the ONE set the bar for optics and for the first time ever for any smart phone it has a F/2.0 aperture. Again, much like it's low light performance this too is better than anything ever seen on a smart phone! While i'm sure the S4 camera will be quite nice in regular light, it will not be able to compete with the one in it's strengths.
The brightness of the S4 screen is only slightly better than the S3(258 lux vs 213 lux) both well below the industry average of 299 lux which the ONE exceeds. I can tell you from personal experience that the S3 sucked in sunlight. The S4 won't be much better and my ONE is much better, it beats my S3 by a mile! Again, no comparison.
0.3 doesn't sound like much because it's not much. Now 0.8 is almost a full inch, i can see that being more noticeable but 0.3?
not so much.
I can't say much about the led notification light on those other phones you mentioned but i've never has a problem seeing it on my ONE. Either way, your getting down to the frivourless stuff now.

 

[robsawalker]

Played around with One today and saw full review of S4.....I think S4 is a clear winner here. One has amazing quality, but despite AL casing it can still get damaged easy. S4 wins against One in almost every category: 4.2.2, camera, battery, features, screen size, SD card, nice multi color hidden LED, removable battery, many different accessories including some sensors and wireless charging cover, flip cover, etc. And not to mention that kernel source was already released.

Hey Kolyan
With respect, I do not agree the S4 is a "clear winner" in any way whatsoever.

Firstly, I haven't used the S4 yet so I am making assumptions here, but I have seen it and seen others using it. Lets take your list point-by-point:

* "one has amazing quality (HTC) but despite AL casing can still get damaged": you are begging the question here, it is completely irrelevant. Quite apart from which, the HTC outclasses the Samsung phone in this respect.

* "S4 has 4.2.2": Who cares? The HTC One is to receive it imminently. Also, there's little there to get excited about, I have it on my Nexus 7 and my GS3 has 4.1.2. You would be hard pushed to point out anything valuable there

* "Camera better on S4": Really? You sure about that? I disagree entirely. Yes, the S4 will take better pictures under some circumstances and has a higher MP count so you could print larger images off. But, who the hell prints mobile phone camera images off? I have NEVER done that. If I want to take photos I want to print I use a DSLR. The HTC will take superior images in low-light conditions, and nobody can argue that. It also has a better lens with a wider aperture (f2 versus f2.2) and can shoot at 8fps! Not sure what the S4 can do (anybody know?) but doubt it can match that. So no, S4 doesn't win here either.

* "Battery": Okay, S4 has removable battery and HTC doesn't. But neither does the iPhone, and that hasn't put people off that, has it? I have an S3 and 2 spare batteries. Know how many times I have used them? NEVER. HTC also do a nice little remote charger battery you can charge up. As long as it gets to the days end without charge, I'm happy. But I concede some may see this as an advantage.

* "Features": Again, really? please tell me the feature on the S4 you think that is superior to what the HTC offers. Non-touch scrolling between images? Eye-detection on web page scrolling? Photos with your mugshot slanted in the corner? Almost everything I have seen added to the S4 looks gimmicky and pointless. The one thing I DO like is the whole health suite, which is neat. But, the HTC has Blinkfeed and Zoe's. Ok, let's take a minute to talk about Blinkfeed, because I keep hearing people say 'it's just flipboard'. But it isn't, is it? I use Feedly and Flipboard a lot, but the widgets for them are basically crap. THIS is what makes Blinkfeed so desirable to me - its right there on your homescreen. No need to go into an app. Now, at the moment I concede that Blinkfeed has some annoyances in it (from what I have read) but hopefully they will develop it - I really think it's a great idea and is the 'next step' after widgets in UI. With a little tweaking it will be superb and no other phone offers anything like it right now (except you could maybe argue aspects of WP8 are similar). Zoe's also look brilliant, and again nobody else has anything similar right now. Now, I actually think touchWiz isn't as bad as many make out, and the S4 will be an awesome phone, no doubting, but for me the features are too gimmicky.

* "screen size": you jest, surely. Both screen are same resolution. Personally, I don't mind Samsung crazy lumo-colour screen too much (although the S4 sounds like it will be better in this respect), but the HTC One's screen is simply stunning. Yes, it's 0.3" smaller than the S4, but let's be serious here, that's nowt as they are the same resolution. So a tie IMO.

* "SD card": Again, I had untold hassle with the expansion slot in my S3 and it had to be sent away a couple of times before they managed to get me one that worked properly. When I did get it working I put a 16gb card in (total 32) and it hasn't come out since. It IS annoying having 2 data areas though. I have ended up with media and images on both, which is a pain. I do get why some see it as an advantage, but not me, sorry.

* "multi-colour hidden LED": come on! Ok, the LED is neat, and it changes colour. HTC has 2 colours and 2 LEDs, Samsung has one. I'm sure cool things can be done with both. It is such a small thing, if you are listing that as a reason to pick one over the other though, you really are struggling! The Samsung is also better because it has 'Samsung' written on it.....

* "Removable battery": Mentioning it twice won't mean it's twice as good. Mention it again, make the S4 even better!

* "Many different accessories including flip cover": Whooo! Let the party begin! Such a ridiculous point I'm not even going to discuss it.

The other thing is, all your doing is drawing up 2 lists of items and comparing them. You need to live with both for a while to make an honest comparison. Nobody has done that yet, but everyone who has used the HTC one has said how it is probably the best smartphone ever. The S4 will be amazing, no doubt about it. I can't imagine many people posting: "well, traded my blackberry in for an S4, but think I'm going to return it because it just isn't impressive enough for me....", it will be totally stunning. BUT, apart from the sh*tty tricks Samsung have been playing, they have chodded a load of gimmicky stuff into the phone but it looks the same as the S3, which to my mind does look rather toy like, and there is nothing really new and different about it. The HTC just looks beautiful, genuinely offers some completely new stuff and it looks like HTC have really sat down and though about improving the end-user's experience rather than just banging out loads of flashy bells-and-whistles stuff they think will impress geeky phone-heads and adolescents (and I count myself as the former if not the latter).

So, to summarise, NO the S4 is NOT the clear winner.

I would say, however, that anyone buying either phone WILL be a "clear winner" though.

Cheers!


Robsa

 

[EverNap]

^^ I haven't really used an HTC One before, but from what I've read, it seems like the One's pics should be good enough as long as you don't plan on printing them on sizes greater than A3.

 

[Dgree03]

I too am a former N4 user. . (Tried the z10 as well)

This phone is the best smartphone I have ever had!

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2

 

[Jnorton2724]

Great to hear people love the HTC One, its a really nice phone and I hope HTC does well with it. The HTC One screen is gorgeous, by far the best I've seen on a phone.

As for me, I still absolutely love having a Nexus device and will stick with future Nexus devices that release. My GS3 isn't being used and after using the HTC One for a couple days nothing really made me want to switch from my N4.

That's just me though, but as I said, its an amazing phone. Anyone that gets one will be very happy!

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Android Central Forums

 

[That70sGAdawg]

You guys that say the speakers are too loud- Make sure you have "beats" on as it reduces the volume, but increases the clarity and Bass..