Going from iPhone 5 to S4..

[SimonZed]

Hey Etceteraism
I dont know the answers to all your questions and in fact maybe none of them - given this is day 5 on Android but thought I would see what I can do to help alleviation any frustrations.

2. in relation to sleep mode if you put the phone on mute is there still a buzz when a message (etc) comes through? There isnt for me, ie it is completely silent - to do this you use the swipe down settings menu from the top of the screen and then click the Sound button until it says mute.

5. I thought about the swiftkey keyboard but stayed with the stock standard one and now use it by swiping my fingers across the key board to form words (ie instead of pressing the buttons individually). It works a treat and is faster than pressing the buttons, least for me anyway. I also notice two things, you dont have to select the word from the top of the keyboard, whatever the word is in blue at the top thats the word that is going to be used. Secondly you dont need to hit the space bar between words, you just swipe across the screen for the word you are trying to spell then swipe again for the next word etc etc. Its incredibly quick and amazingly accurate at picking the right words. I think its great not having to hit the space bar between swipes.

Anyway hope that helps and apologies if I wasted your time because you know the above.

Cheers
Simon

 

[GB333]

Etceteraism - I don't have an S4 yet (Verizon) but I can answer your questions based on my current Android phone (HTC Sensation)

Sleep mode: I use an app called "Ringer-Volume" for this, it does exactly what you said.
Keyboard questions: Swiftkey will do what you asked about. You just need to go into the settings and set it up. I have mine set up to insert the correct spelling when I hit the space bar. I have the premium version of Swiftkey on both my phone and my Android tablet and I LOVE it. I believe you can also select the size of the keyboard, so that should solve that problem, too. You can also select different color themes for it.

There is almost ALWAYS an app for any issue you might have with an Android phone. =)

 

[snookasnoo]

Agree. iPhone users will notice the cheap build quality, LAG, and in your face Touchwiz. I recommend you turn off as much as possible, disable the massive amount of bloatware then customize the phone to the way you want it to work. Hang on to your iPhone for at least a week. Alot of people switch back one they figure out Android doesn't really offer them anything new or anything they can't get through jailbreaking their iPhone. Your also going to want to root the S 4. Read the S4 forum on XDA Developers for how and why you would do this. What this phone badly needs is custom roms but the bootloader is not unlocked yet.

I know this is dangerous on an S4 forum but for lots of iPhone users, I would recommend the HTC One. It's not going to be such a big jump in design, simplicity and fluidity. I can see that some people would go straight to the S4 and it is probably better for hardcore Android fans but otherwise, give the HTC One a good look.

Tom

 

[snookasnoo]

iPhone users will notice lag quite a bit more than Android users. How anyone doesn't see the massive amount of lag on the S4 is beyond me. It's really pathetic given this phones specs.

I've done all these (turned off S voice, animations to 0, all air view and hand gesture sensors off). Unfortunately, still not as fast as iPhone 5. There is tangible lag still. I bet a vanilla android root would fly though.

 

[idoesdroid]

Welcome to android lol

I hate to break it to you but it's not an Android issue. TW is bloated. No one is denying that, not even Samsung. But here's the thing, if you don't like it, don't use it. There are several other Android devices that have less of bloat and rooting is not required. The HTC One comes to mind and in terms of specs, it's a close match to the S4. This is the beauty of the Android ecosystem - one size does not fit all and there are many sizes (devices) to choose from.

I personally have the S4 and I do have some minor lag issues but I accept that fact since I have most of the bells and whistles turned on in TW. One of my bosses wanted the HTC One and I played with that for a couple of days before giving it to him. I can tell you there's definitely NOT any noticable lag whenever I'm changing between apps/screens, accessing emails, playing a game. I previously had the HTC One X so the One was a pleasant surprise in its performance and UI simplicity.

 

[idoesdroid]

iPhone users will notice lag quite a bit more than Android users. How anyone doesn't see the massive amount of lag on the S4 is beyond me. It's really pathetic given this phones specs.

Fortunately for me, I've not experienced any of these major lag issues that others have mentioned. Just for clarity, I have A LOT of the bells and whistles turned on in TW. I'm attached to my company Exchange server. I have my personal Gmail running in the Gmail app. I have an Outlook.com account and I'm using their app to access. I also have Yahoo accounts where I also use their app for it. I never notice any lag when accessing any of my emails. Yes, I know that I can access all of my email accounts from the email app but universal inboxes do not appeal to me. I don't like it in iOS and I don't like it in BB Z10.