From iPhone to Samsung Galaxy S4

[tohio]

I'm really thinking of getting the S4, over the last few days i have seen some good reviews from people that rank its as one of the best smartphones. Can anyone tell me if i go to the store and buy this phone, what kind of customisation will i be able to do with the phone? (Live wallpapers, widgets e.g.) i mean without changing the operating system or messing with anything (i haven't used Samsung or Android devices before so i wouldn't be confident enough at first to mess around with the OS and stuff like that) I just want to know what more with it i can do that i cant with my current iPhone.

Look at this article it is a good reply to your question:

iCan't: 5 Things Android Users Take For Granted and iPhone Users Just Can't Do

 

[Argelius1]

I made the switch for many of the same reasons you mentioned. It's only been a couple of days, but my quick initial impressions:

PROS:
[1] LOVE the bigger screen. No problem using it onehanded or putting it in my pocket. Apple really needs to revisit their screen size
[2] LOVE that I can choose my preferred apps for browsing, email, SMS, etc. It's ridiculous that on my Mac and can do this, but on the iPhone I cant.
[3] Customization possibilities are amazing. (See cons).
[4] Keyboard and text input is VASTLY superior to the iPhone. Love that you can't choose from a number of different possibilities.

CONS:
[1] Don't like how notifications are displayed. (I know that Android did this before Apple, but Apple definitely improved on the notification panel, making it visually appealing and organized).
[2] Miss app badges; the gazillion of teeny, tiny white (and frequently obscure) status bar icons are a mess, all crammed together up there.
[3] I find almost all the motions and gestures that Samsung hails as making the S4 unique are inconsistently deployed, largely gimmicky, and frequently don't work.
[4] Too many customization options and inconsistencies. Okay, I LIKE being able to customize things, but I do miss the across app/platform consistency that Apple is known for. Definitely makes for a more predictable experience that doesn't change radically depending on what app you happen to be using.

Anyway, just my 2-day old experiences. I'm sure these will change as I get more experience with Android and the S4.

 

[garublador]

I'm really thinking of getting the S4, over the last few days i have seen some good reviews from people that rank its as one of the best smartphones. Can anyone tell me if i go to the store and buy this phone, what kind of customisation will i be able to do with the phone? (Live wallpapers, widgets e.g.) i mean without changing the operating system or messing with anything (i haven't used Samsung or Android devices before so i wouldn't be confident enough at first to mess around with the OS and stuff like that) I just want to know what more with it i can do that i cant with my current iPhone.

It's easy to say what kinds of things you can do, like adding widgets, live wall papers, changing the grid (number of rows and columns of icons), changing the icons themselves, etc., but it's probably more effective to give some examples:

Beautiful Android Themes, Wallpapers, and Homescreens

As for functionality, with Tasker your options are nearly limitless. Here are some basic profiles people have set up:

Profiles - Tasker Wiki

Here's a guy that automated his apartment using voice commands:

Check out this awesome Tasker/AutoVoice home automation setup

 

[dave25A]

Have you jailbroken before?

No I haven't, I tend to buy phones and use them out of the box with there OS

 

[dave25A]

It's easy to say what kinds of things you can do, like adding widgets, live wall papers, changing the grid (number of rows and columns of icons), changing the icons themselves, etc., but it's probably more effective to give some examples:

Beautiful Android Themes, Wallpapers, and Homescreens

As for functionality, with Tasker your options are nearly limitless. Here are some basic profiles people have set up:

Profiles - Tasker Wiki

Here's a guy that automated his apartment using voice commands:

Check out this awesome Tasker/AutoVoice home automation setup

Some of those look really cool would I able to do that with my phone. If I get the Samsung Galaxy S4 will I be able to do what's shown on those articles straight out of the box? Or would I need to jailbreak?

 

[garublador]

Some of those look really cool would I able to do that with my phone. If I get the Samsung Galaxy S4 will I be able to do what's shown on those articles straight out of the box? Or would I need to jailbreak?

You may have to check with each one individually to be sure, but my understanding is that they do not require rooting. Some will, however, require you to buy software and/or icon packs or wall papers (usually $1-$4 each).

 

[dave25A]

You may have to check with each one individually to be sure, but my understanding is that they do not require rooting. Some will, however, require you to buy software and/or icon packs or wall papers (usually $1-$4 each).

Ok cool, I don't mind paying ?1-4 for them, worth it to be able to customise

 

[noaim]

You have to understand 2 things. 1) The screen is an inch bigger on the S4. It requires more battery to power it than the tiny screen on a little iPhone 5. So you have to decide if the benefit outweighs the con.

2) Android does a lot more as an OS than iOS does. So it can tear through a battery much faster. If you're able to get 10-12 hrs of Screen On time with an iPhone 5 (which is miraculous) then I would imagine you could get closer to 7 or 8 with the S4. Everyone I know with the iPhone 5 is not getting anything close to what you're getting. So you must be a light user and that will help with the battery on the S4.

In settings there is two measurements
Stand by time and usage

Usage I get 10-12 meaning "actual usage" surfing calling texting etc etc

I often have 15 or so hours stand by with it.. I understand the screen is bigger 8 hours would be fine if that's only usage..

I'm not a light user I'm a heavy user

As far as the friends not getting that that stinks

This is my second iPhone 5 I cracked my first one . I get great LTE signal where I live though so that could also be it!

I really want a second
Phone and the s4 looks awesome so I'm not trying to cut the phone down or anything!

Cheers!!


Sent from my iPhone 5 using Tapatalk 2

 

[dave25A]

In settings there is two measurements
Stand by time and usage

Usage I get 10-12 meaning "actual usage" surfing calling texting etc etc

I often have 15 or so hours stand by with it.. I understand the screen is bigger 8 hours would be fine if that's only usage..

I'm not a light user I'm a heavy user

As far as the friends not getting that that stinks

This is my second iPhone 5 I cracked my first one . I get great LTE signal where I live though so that could also be it!

I really want a second
Phone and the s4 looks awesome so I'm not trying to cut the phone down or anything!

Cheers!!


Sent from my iPhone 5 using Tapatalk 2

I'm thinking of getting the Samsung Galaxy S4 and just buying an extra battery for when I'm at university in case I run out of battery power. And option I don't have with my iPhone.

 

[richgascoigne]

I've had every iPhone since launch in 2007. I was also becoming bored of iPhone and while looking nice, functionally it hasn't moved on in the last few years in my opinion. I jumped to an S4 and 64gb sd. I was slightly miffed that you can no longer move apps to sd cards, but to be fair the vast majority of space on my iPhone was home movies and photos. Both of which can go on sd quite nicely. There are loads of utilities that overcome or even complement iPhone things such as icloud. Dropbox and Google drive for example can auto sync valuable photos and video. You for 50gb of Dropbox for free with the S4 so there's a good start. I'm also a mac user with Ipad and retina Mac book. The only thing to initially consider is to move to Google calendar and ship over the entry's. loads of forums to show how to do this. So far there is nothing I miss from my iPhone 5 that isn't either better on S4 or is easily catered for by an equivalent app

Posted via Android Central App

 

[dave25A]

I see that Samsung have announced another version of the Samsung Galaxy S4, calling it the S4 Active, i'm not sure if i should wait for the active or just buy the standard S4 :-/ i will be using my phone at home but also commuting on the bus/train to university. I don't do any sports or anything major outdoors, so the only use i can think of me getting the S4 Active would be waiting at the bus stop if its raining and not having to worry about my phone getting wet in my pocket.

 

[Robert Lyon]

I don't have experience with the S4. I had iOS though from 2008 to early this year and then switched to Google's Nexus devices. Here is the my scoop from someone who had iOS for a long time. Stock android at least is nearly as stable as iOS. I say nearly because there are bugs every now and then. For example, the first month that I had my Nexus 10 tablet, it would restart on me every few hours of use. The 4.2.2 android update corrected the problem, and I didn't have the issue for long, but for someone that purchased the tablet at release, they would have had the glitch for several months. That's been the only glitch so far on the N10, and doing web searches, it was fairly wide spread. For my nexus 4, I hadn't had any glitches until the new Google play a couple weeks ago. Nearly every time I unlock my phone now, Google play music is on the screen, even when it wasn't the last used app. It's getting super annoying. Other than those two issues, the only negative I can think of is that there's more ads while browsing. Sometimes it's super annoying. It will be a rolling screen on the bottom and a side screen on the left, and no matter how many times I click the"x" it always comes back getting in the way. With all that said however, Android is so much superior to ios. There's many more features and I find that the entire OS is more logical and easier to use. You might have a learning curve, but as long as you go in with an open mind, it's easy to overcome. Another issue is that web commenting isn't as good. The text boxes for commenting usually suck. Take this comment for example, the reply box is small and can't be made bigger. I can see three rows of text. That is a common theme with blog commenting for me. The only specific I can say regarding Samsung, is that during my approximately year long investigation of Android (which included a crap load of web research and also just playing around with phones in stores) the s3 was always glitchy every time I played with it. For example, once I went to a Verizon store and played with the s3 for about a half hour. It would reset on me and close apps sporadically. It did this 3 times in a half hour. I did play with the Note 2 on several occasions and didn't notice the same glitches. This was also on an older version of android, which was less stable. I decided to go with stock android because I wanted fast updates directly from Google (for example Nexus 4 has had 4.2.2 for several months already.) Here is my bottom line advice for you. Go to the stores and play with the s4. If you like it, make the switch. Get familiar with android and how it works, and I'd be willing to bet that you'll love it. I will never go back to iOS.

 

[maxmillian1]

I've had the iPhone, 3G, 3GS and the 4, I've loved all of my iPhones. What I hated was the fact that apple married me to AT$T, I hated paying 4,500 a year for home, iPhones and iPads and only getting 3G when everyone without an iPhone were on their second phones with 4g, moving screen savers, large screens, exchangeable battery's, SD Cards and and and. So I told my wife that if the iPhone 4S doesn't have a larger screen ( because I was tired of turning my phone to landscape EVERYTIME I wanted to see something) moving screensaver and 4g, I'm done. Cutting this long story short-er, I've found my s4 to be better in most regards to the best iPhone, is seems like everyone is worried about the plastic body, ive never had a problem with durability or the fit and finish, but even when I had my iPhones my phones are always in a small, lite, thin case, I'm not an Otter box person. I say switch and give the s4 a try.

 

[kgk1985]

The Mrs. has an iPhone 5. She cannot get over 5 hrs of screen time (typical use, light gaming and browser) with brightness at 50%. Her friends, also with iPhone 5's have similar results. They can generate similar standby (as can I on my S4) as you mention, but never these results together. Care to share your secret? I'll pass it along.

Posted via Android Central App

If you're referring to noaim, he's trolling. There's no way in hell he is getting 10-12 hours of screen time in one charge. Not even with brightness down. If your wife and friends have trouble getting 5 hours, imagine 10 being possible? Just an isheep in the wrong forum. Pay no attention

sent from Galaxy Note 2

 

[nickgalaxys4]

Hi Everyone,

Over the last 18 months I have begun getting tried of Apple and there small updates in regards to phones (3Gs then the 4, 4S and now the 5) rumours have it that the iPhone 5S will be nothing but a small update and nothing major. Over the last month or so I have been thinking about switching to the Galaxy S4, however a couple of things consern me, 1- is the S4 as reliable as my iPhone as been? 2- How easy is it to switch over (I have a lot of content on iTunes). 3- Hows the battery life? And 4- Do you find the plastic of the S4 more durable?
I would appreciate any advice as I'm unsure if I should switch or not! I have not used Andriod before.

Thanks

1 Yes my GS4 is just as reliable as my 4S was
2 If you give your self a day to get use to and setup the phone it is very easy to switch over, music is very easy to move over from iTunes
3 Battery life is awesome
4 I love the plastic back get to the SD Card that Apple never had.

 

[Neo Harland]

If itunes is that important, get a cheap ipod touch and maintain all of your Apple itunes junk... The Galaxy is faster, smarter, and more intuitive than ANY iPhone to date.. step into the future.....

 

[anon(6174973)]

Hi Everyone,

Over the last 18 months I have begun getting tried of Apple and there small updates in regards to phones (3Gs then the 4, 4S and now the 5) rumours have it that the iPhone 5S will be nothing but a small update and nothing major. Over the last month or so I have been thinking about switching to the Galaxy S4, however a couple of things consern me, 1- is the S4 as reliable as my iPhone as been? 2- How easy is it to switch over (I have a lot of content on iTunes). 3- Hows the battery life? And 4- Do you find the plastic of the S4 more durable?
I would appreciate any advice as I'm unsure if I should switch or not! I have not used Andriod before.

Thanks

I used to be an iPhone user in the past. So, I hope my response help you.

1. The S4 is more reliable for me as I usually play games and use apps on my phone. It is also less prone to crashing when I run several apps at one time.

2. It is very easy to switch over. Just use Kies and it will help you synchronise your iTunes library with your phone.

3. The battery life is noticeably more than the iPhone as it has a 2600 mah battery capacity. I am able to run the phone for about a day with heavy usage. Hell, I could even use the phone for three days straight with just texting and music.

4. The plastic used is not some cheap plastic bags or sweet wrappers. It is polycarbonate, which is proven to be far stronger and durable.

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