Is this a good selling point for the Samsung S4.

[RavenSword]

Right now I'm under my parents data plan with ATT. I plan on going to tmobile more towards the end of the year when my ETF is lower or I think I might be able to get out with little or no fee.

When I do, I was probably thinking of going with a galaxy S4.

Now, before I continue, I'm curious to know if it'll even be worth getting the S4 at that point or just wait for the S5? WILL THE S4 be able to keep up tech wise for at least two years or so? I know phones improve every day pretty much, but I'm just curious.

Now, my actual question was whether or not you guys think mainstream popularity is one reason to consider buying a phone?

It's not that I need to follow the crowd or whatever, but isn't there certain advantages to owning the most popular brand of android phone? As in finding accessories, tech support and etc? And since its the front runner android phone, wouldn't it be safe to assume it'll get good or great update support as far as OS update and bug fixes?

Also, I'm worried of HTC going out of business, which would effect support for the HTC one.

But here's one thing I'm worried about the S4, and part of it IS Samsung success thus far.

Samsung is obviously building up its ecosystem (video, music, apps, cloud, etc) that I'm worried one day there going to just fork android and do their own thing ala amazon, which I think would be terrible for the same reasons I think amazon's is terrible. I want a android phone made by Samsung. Not a Samsung phone running Samsung.

Grant it, that's probably a fair bit unlikely, but it seems to be erring that way a bit

Anyway, what do you guys think?

 

[friedtators]

it sounds like you are bored. owning the latest and greatest is about disposable income. i see that toy, its shiny and i want it. bam. is the phone part of your imagine? is to some people. others its about having the best tech and using it not just having it. the younger you are the less disposable income you have. with some parents you have theirs others not so much. on an android phone having a phone that works well with great battery life is more maybe whats called for. if you gotta have an s4 get the google edition and you will not have to worry about samsung in the future

 

[effreyj]

You can't go wrong with the Galaxy S4. You're absolutely right that being mainstream will mean that it will get more updates in the future and I do have the same concern about HTC as you do that if it goes out of business then you'll never get another update again. No matter when you buy a phone, in a year there will be better ones, so even if you wait a year for the S5, then you could say the same thing about waiting for the S6. I do seem to notice that high-end phones are coming out less frequently than they were a couple years ago. For example, right now the "high-end" phones are the GS4, HTC One, and iPhone 5. Other than Motorola putting out a new phone in the next couple of months and the new iPhone, it's going to be a year or so before Samsung or HTC make another high end phone.

As for your concern about Samsung forking Android, I think that's extremely unlikely. Even if they did, it would be for new phones and not for your GS4. The GS4 will always run Android, and I'm 100% certain of that.

 

[garublador]

Now, before I continue, I'm curious to know if it'll even be worth getting the S4 at that point or just wait for the S5? WILL THE S4 be able to keep up tech wise for at least two years or so? I know phones improve every day pretty much, but I'm just curious.

It has as at least as good of specs as any other phone out there right now. The top of the line phones that come out with as good of reviews as the S4 will generally last at least two years.

Now, my actual question was whether or not you guys think mainstream popularity is one reason to consider buying a phone?

It's not that I need to follow the crowd or whatever, but isn't there certain advantages to owning the most popular brand of android phone? As in finding accessories, tech support and etc? And since its the front runner android phone, wouldn't it be safe to assume it'll get good or great update support as far as OS update and bug fixes?

Those are all valid assumptions. You'll probably find more accessories for the S4 than you will any other phone out there becasue of the popularity. There's a decent chance it will get good support, but that's always an unknown. FWIW, the S3 got some feature upgrades on a couple carriers just this last week.

Also, I'm worried of HTC going out of business, which would effect support for the HTC one.

AFAIK the One is a decent seller as well. You won't have as many options for accessories as the S4 and there don't appear to be any major bugs with it. At most there will be a couple months at the end of your contract where you may not get the updates and support you really want, but I doubt there will be support that's actually needed. There's not a lot of incentive for any company to give stellar support for a device that's about to become obsolete and replaced by many customers.

But here's one thing I'm worried about the S4, and part of it IS Samsung success thus far.

Samsung is obviously building up its ecosystem (video, music, apps, cloud, etc) that I'm worried one day there going to just fork android and do their own thing ala amazon, which I think would be terrible for the same reasons I think amazon's is terrible. I want a android phone made by Samsung. Not a Samsung phone running Samsung.

Grant it, that's probably a fair bit unlikely, but it seems to be erring that way a bit

Anyway, what do you guys think?

Then you'll have the option to not get a Samsung phone for your next phone. I agree with effreyj's assessment of Samsung and Android. I don't think there's any basis for your worries.

 

[RavenSword]

it sounds like you are bored. owning the latest and greatest is about disposable income. i see that toy, its shiny and i want it. bam. is the phone part of your imagine? is to some people. others its about having the best tech and using it not just having it. the younger you are the less disposable income you have. with some parents you have theirs others not so much. on an android phone having a phone that works well with great battery life is more maybe whats called for. if you gotta have an s4 get the google edition and you will not have to worry about samsung in the future

No, your right about wanting a new toy. But I'm a tech head and I've excreted the always wanting the shiny new thing. I think that's something most of us have in common here.

As far as the Google edition GS4, honestly I'm not entirely sold on it yet. You get so many useless features when you Frankenstein in stick android in the S4. basically all there selling points. Plus I think I'd like the less money up front with the regular S4 on tmobile.

 

[tohio]

Right now I'm under my parents data plan with ATT. I plan on going to tmobile more towards the end of the year when my ETF is lower or I think I might be able to get out with little or no fee.

When I do, I was probably thinking of going with a galaxy S4.

Now, before I continue, I'm curious to know if it'll even be worth getting the S4 at that point or just wait for the S5? WILL THE S4 be able to keep up tech wise for at least two years or so? I know phones improve every day pretty much, but I'm just curious.

Now, my actual question was whether or not you guys think mainstream popularity is one reason to consider buying a phone?

It's not that I need to follow the crowd or whatever, but isn't there certain advantages to owning the most popular brand of android phone? As in finding accessories, tech support and etc? And since its the front runner android phone, wouldn't it be safe to assume it'll get good or great update support as far as OS update and bug fixes?

Also, I'm worried of HTC going out of business, which would effect support for the HTC one.

But here's one thing I'm worried about the S4, and part of it IS Samsung success thus far.

Samsung is obviously building up its ecosystem (video, music, apps, cloud, etc) that I'm worried one day there going to just fork android and do their own thing ala amazon, which I think would be terrible for the same reasons I think amazon's is terrible. I want a android phone made by Samsung. Not a Samsung phone running Samsung.

Grant it, that's probably a fair bit unlikely, but it seems to be erring that way a bit

Anyway, what do you guys think?

As you alluded to, owning the most popular Android smartphone has several advantages over having a second tire phone. First of all APP developers design APPS for the broadest number of users that will buy or use their product. Secondly, accessory manufactures will concentrate on providing products for the best selling phones at the expense of less popular phones. Replacement parts will be more readily available for the most popular phone (and the S4 is easier to repair than some other less popular phones). Timely updates are in the best interest of the manufacture. A happy customer will be a returning customer. Samsung has the money and resources to provide updates when necessary. The fact that the S4 arrived on the scene with the latest OS should tell you something about their technical ability. Given Samsung's success with their phones running the Android system I see no reason why they would risk moving to their own proprietary system. Even though Amazon has their own "fork" onto their own system it is still Android at heart (ask the many thousands of Kindle Fire owners who have rooted their devices to run like normal Android tablets). Finally, no one doubts that Samsung will be around to support their phones for a long time to come. You will find numerous people here who say these issues are not important. They believe if you love the phone just buy it. I think your are being a smart consumer by considering all the information available about a phone and its manufacture before making a purchase.

 

[RavenSword]

Yeah.

I think that's the problem with tech. It's upgrading so fast that I think you can never really have the very best for long. I just wasn't sure how much advancements in phones we were going to see by the time I'm able to get a phone on tmobile he'll, might even be early next year. Depends if I wanna pay ETF or not.

 

[RavenSword]

One part that appealed to me about the S4 is its battery. I have a nexus 4 right now and while I like the phone, I'm finding the battery to be lacking. I use my phone pretty heavily all day, and I'm often in the red towards the end of the day. And the S4 battery and and the fact it swappable would be nice. Although I do havea external battery. But still

 

[RavenSword]

Is there really a noticeable amounts of lag on this phone? I keep hearing people talking about that. Also do this thing heat up as much as my nexus 4 does?

 

[tohio]

Is there really a noticeable amounts of lag on this phone? I keep hearing people talking about that. Also do this thing heat up as much as my nexus 4 does?

There are numerous threads in this forum about lag but to save you some time: Someone will start a thread about S4 lag and then the vast majority of S4 owners will post that they have no lag. It is a subject that just won't go away. I think it is the"Urban Legend" of smartphone world. Now having said that, you will undoubtedly get some responses that say "so and so said there is lag", usually from someone who doesn't own an S4. But to satisfy yourself you may want to review the other posts on lag.

On the heat issue I don't experience it at all. I don't play games but I did use my phone as a GPS on a trip to New England last week and it never felt warm from being on continuously. Again, when this subject is discussed in this forum the vast majority of respondents say they don't have an overheating problem. A Google search will turn up any complains about overheating. But take some of the claims with a grain of salt. There was one poster in the AC forums who said the phone burnt his ear Ha Ha

 

[effreyj]

It's less of an issue with lag as it is that some of the transition animations are choppy. You can disable these and then you'll have no more lag.

 

[RavenSword]

Transition as in going from home screen to app compartment?