My shopping experience at multiple stores left me still undecided

[GadgetGator]

Well, I finally got to play with both the S4 and the HTC One tonight and came back still undecided. I have been torn since the specs of the One and S4 were announced and was hoping seeing them in person would push me one way or the other. It didn't. But it was interesting. In a frustrating way.

First stop Tmobile. Didn't have either phone just as I suspected would be the case. It just happened to be next to my bank otherwise I wouldn't have stopped there at all! So on to the next..

Best Buy. With the Samsung store within the store concept here now, HTC (and everyone else) is at a real disadvantage. Plenty of Samsung devices to try vs. dummy cardboard models for all the others. Not a fair or even match. The 2 employees behind the Best Buy phone counter were SLAMMED with customers, so even asking to see a real life functioning HTC One here, wasn't even an option. so I spent time in the new Samsung area and got to spend a long time with the S4. I came away both impressed and disappointed (a recurring theme with these two devices for me). The screen was WAY brighter and more beautiful then I thought it would be. Far better then the S3. But the touch wiz software is just garish to me. Yeah I suppose I could use a different ROM someday, but should I have to? Next disappointment was the windowed cover. I thought the idea was so cool. but the implementation was not. It would not stay fully closed and there is nothing to keep it closed either. Just horrible. Way overpriced too. But it felt okay at least. As did the phone itself. For some reason the buttons were barely lighting up. Not sure why. And I did notice some lag here and there in the software. The most frustrating thing of all at Best Buy, was seeing the full two sided rack of all sorts of cases for the S4 and seeing NOTHING..not one single case on display for the HTC One. I wasn't expecting as much, but I wasn't expecting zero either.

AT&T store: with time running short, the HTC one would be my sole focus here. I spotted and quickly grabbed the floor model. First thing that bothered me was the back button placement. I knew this would bother me, but it was even more of a bother then I thought it would be. Perhaps I would get used to it in time, but not sure. Then there was the screen. This thing is supposed to be brighter then the S4? I sure didn't see it. And I made sure the brightness was all the way up too. I'm not so sure that this unit wasn't defective because I think that screen should have looked much better then that. So I am going to be wanting to try some more units out. Sound. I really wanted to try the boomsound speakers but frustratingly the store was using this phone as their BT audio source for Beats Speakers. I didn't want to mess around with that as it would have been very obvious as that was the music for basically the whole store, so that will just have to wait. The responsiveness however was something I could see and was AMAZING. No slow down at all. Smooth as butter. Totally impressive.

So, that was it for my initial shopping trip. Will be updating as I explore both devices some more. Maybe hit the Sprint store in the next few days and see what they've got. Still leaning towards the One I think, but tonight muddied the water quite a bit for me.

 

[myth75]

Good to see you're giving both a proper test. I've heard nothing good about the AT&T models, from manufacturing defects to terrible battery life. I have Sprint and I've had no issues with my battery life, even while streaming hbo go and Hulu. I am not using LTE either so that has a lot to do with it.

So far I have no regrets on my purchase. Love the responsiveness and my screen is much brighter than my 4s was.

Look forward to more of your adventure. Good luck.

Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 2

 

[Newtoandroid99]

Good to see you're giving both a proper test. I've heard nothing good about the AT&T models, from manufacturing defects to terrible battery life. I have Sprint and I've had no issues with my battery life, even while streaming hbo go and Hulu. I am not using LTE either so that has a lot to do with it.

So far I have no regrets on my purchase. Love the responsiveness and my screen is much brighter than my 4s was.

Look forward to more of your adventure. Good luck.

Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 2

Nothing good about the AT&T models? Really? I am on the fence on which phone to get and i hadn't heard that at all but maybe I missed it. So the AT&T version has battery issues and more defects? I would say these are probably 2 of the biggest worries I have about getting a One.

 

[mrbootcrm]

The S4 may have appeared brighter due to the over saturated look of AMOLED. Compare them side by side and you'll notice the One has a much more accurate color balance. Which screen you like is pure preference but I will say most reviews I've read have stated the HTC is more visible in sunlight. For me Samsung screens remind me of going over to friends houses who just got a new TV and to show it off they have it set to "vivid" which burns my eyes. I'm not sure I could deal with looking at that every day.

 

[myth75]

It's only what I've read. I'd say that most people with decent phones don't post as opposed to those who get defective ones. I have heard first hand about battery issues with AT&T android phones in general from friends, so who knows.

As for build quality, it was minor stuff like left over plastic shavings in the headphone jack or the sides not lining up. Little stuff. Mine came flawless.

I am completely happy with mine and feel it's the best phone I have owned thus far. If I start running my battery dry more often I'll just invest in a Mophie juice pak and be done with it, but I'd like to keep it naked just a while longer or get a crystal clear case. It's a fantastic phone and just feels better than the Sammy. But then again, I've always been a fan of HTC build quality.

Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 2

 

[acrewdog]

Button layout annoyances are temporary. Once you rewire your brain to use a particular phone(about three days) you won't notice any issues anymore. I thought I would dislike the start button location and miss having a menu button but after a few days everything smooths out and I find that I have trouble using my old phone anymore.

 

[ObiDin]

I've got an AT&T One and had no issues with battery life. I easily make it through a full day(16-18 hours depending on when I head to bed and plug it in) with an average of 30% battery remaining with moderate use. My definition of moderate use is bluetooth streaming audiobooks for ~1hour a day in my truck on the way to and from work, a few calls, text messaging, downloading and updating a few apps, using google now, manually updating my email on open, and using twitter and internet a ton.

Mine does have the extremely small gap at the bottom of the phone but nothing can fit in there, I've tried.

 

[aokusman1]

Get the one. Samsung support can be terrible. My brother recently sent his under warranty s3 to Samsung because it stopped charging. They said they couldn't fix it and the warranty was void, asserting the problem was caused by a third party charger, which is a complete lie, as he only has the charger that came with the phone.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2

 

[GadgetGator]

The S4 may have appeared brighter due to the over saturated look of AMOLED. Compare them side by side and you'll notice the One has a much more accurate color balance. Which screen you like is pure preference but I will say most reviews I've read have stated the HTC is more visible in sunlight. For me Samsung screens remind me of going over to friends houses who just got a new TV and to show it off they have it set to "vivid" which burns my eyes. I'm not sure I could deal with looking at that every day.

But if it was the AMOLED throwing me off, shouldn't I feel the same way about the S3? Cause I don't. I think it has a dim screen too. But like I said, I still think that particular HTC One was defective and not living up to it's potential. It just didn't look right. So I'll be trying out some different ones at some different stores cause I just don't think that one was giving me an accurate impression at all. It really didn't look any better then the two year old phone I have now. and I know THAT can't be true.

 

[snookasnoo]

Do you have a Costco membership? They have functioning demos and the best prices on the HTC One. I've been using a loaner S4 and am having a hard time getting past the cheap feel, feature bloat, features that don't work, and above all..LAG.

Well, I finally got to play with both the S4 and the HTC One tonight and came back still undecided. I have been torn since the specs of the One and S4 were announced and was hoping seeing them in person would push me one way or the other. It didn't. But it was interesting. In a frustrating way.

First stop Tmobile. Didn't have either phone just as I suspected would be the case. It just happened to be next to my bank otherwise I wouldn't have stopped there at all! So on to the next..

Best Buy. With the Samsung store within the store concept here now, HTC (and everyone else) is at a real disadvantage. Plenty of Samsung devices to try vs. dummy cardboard models for all the others. Not a fair or even match. The 2 employees behind the Best Buy phone counter were SLAMMED with customers, so even asking to see a real life functioning HTC One here, wasn't even an option. so I spent time in the new Samsung area and got to spend a long time with the S4. I came away both impressed and disappointed (a recurring theme with these two devices for me). The screen was WAY brighter and more beautiful then I thought it would be. Far better then the S3. But the touch wiz software is just garish to me. Yeah I suppose I could use a different ROM someday, but should I have to? Next disappointment was the windowed cover. I thought the idea was so cool. but the implementation was not. It would not stay fully closed and there is nothing to keep it closed either. Just horrible. Way overpriced too. But it felt okay at least. As did the phone itself. For some reason the buttons were barely lighting up. Not sure why. And I did notice some lag here and there in the software. The most frustrating thing of all at Best Buy, was seeing the full two sided rack of all sorts of cases for the S4 and seeing NOTHING..not one single case on display for the HTC One. I wasn't expecting as much, but I wasn't expecting zero either.

AT&T store: with time running short, the HTC one would be my sole focus here. I spotted and quickly grabbed the floor model. First thing that bothered me was the back button placement. I knew this would bother me, but it was even more of a bother then I thought it would be. Perhaps I would get used to it in time, but not sure. Then there was the screen. This thing is supposed to be brighter then the S4? I sure didn't see it. And I made sure the brightness was all the way up too. I'm not so sure that this unit wasn't defective because I think that screen should have looked much better then that. So I am going to be wanting to try some more units out. Sound. I really wanted to try the boomsound speakers but frustratingly the store was using this phone as their BT audio source for Beats Speakers. I didn't want to mess around with that as it would have been very obvious as that was the music for basically the whole store, so that will just have to wait. The responsiveness however was something I could see and was AMAZING. No slow down at all. Smooth as butter. Totally impressive.

So, that was it for my initial shopping trip. Will be updating as I explore both devices some more. Maybe hit the Sprint store in the next few days and see what they've got. Still leaning towards the One I think, but tonight muddied the water quite a bit for me.

 

[GadgetGator]

Do you have a Costco membership? They have functioning demos and the best prices on the HTC One. I've been using a loaner S4 and am having a hard time getting past the cheap feel, feature bloat, features that don't work, and above all..LAG.

My local Costcos have Verizon kiosk in them. Never seen any other phones for sale. Is this a regional thing?

 

[slab0meat]

I'm on Sprint and visited the store Sunday, specifically to try both those phones as well. The only Android phone I've ever had is my current EVO 3D, which I've liked a lot. Played with both (oddly, despite several people in the store, I was the only one trying these two phones).

I'm still undecided, while reading these forums a lot. I'm a little concerned about people saying how warm their Ones are getting (though some say it doesn't happen...)

 

[mayconvert]

Looks like I am not the only person that is having a REALLY hard time choosing between these two Great phones.
My local AT&T store has the HTC One and S4 just a couple of devices apart so that you can look at both side by side.
I can tell you for sure that the HTC screen better in every way than the S4 IF you like bright true Whites and better Color accuracy. Maybe the store you went to have a bad unit or something.
I am trying to not let the aluminum vs Plastic come into play. aluminum = no battery access: Plastic = battery access.
The S4 may be plastic but still feels really nice in hand. But, so does the HTC One. Both are 5 out of 5 for hand comfort to me.

I most likely won't have either for more than 6-8 months before selling and getting a new device so the battery "going bad" and not being able to replace is 100% non issue for me.
I have adopted a new policy of selling my phone on something like craigslist and paying full retail makes more sense to me.

One thing I have seen with Android, If I want Key Lime Pie and don't want to wait 14 months for it, I will be required to sell my current device and get a new one anyways. ( I don't want to Root my device )

I honestly Love both devices htc and s4.
HTC One Pros:
Speakers ( I watch youtube, play song pop etc)
The simple UI (like everything about it, they layout, looks etc)
The Screen is perfection. Better than iPhone 5 IMO (for color accuracy and brightness and Whites)
After looking thru my camera roll on my iPhone. I honestly take 90% of my photos Indoors.
S4 Pros:
Tons of features (although I would turn off all the hand waving and Eye feature fluff right out of the box)
The camera, even tho they went a completely different route than HTC the camera is great. Specially for outdoor (not that its bad indoors)
Latest OS 4.2 vs HTC 4.1 (not sure how long it will take for HTC to get 4.2....6-8 months?)

Honestly I don't know what they added between 4.1 and 4.2 tried to search on here but all I saw was a bunch of Super minor things in the menu area. But having the latest OS can't be a bad thing.

In the end, after playing with both, I am still undecided. The hot chick in AT&T said the S4 was the way to go. But unless she lets me see her naked, her opinion doesn't matter.
MY brother is a sammy fanboy so of course he wants me to go S4 but his wife went HTC One. lol
Today I may want the S4, in 2 hours I will want the HTC again. ugh.

Since I am paying full retail I guess I could buy each device and keep it for a week and then decide, but thats such a hassel. ....

 

[GadgetGator]

LOL at the naked opinion comment. It is a tough choice. Right now I am in a holding pattern. It's nice that AT&T is offering the 64gb version of the One, but really don't want to switch carriers for it. And no one is selling a larger S4 either leaving people with less then 9GB of app storage, so that's not good either. For me I need at least a 32GB S4 or a 64gb One. So if they want my money, they will have to make them available. I'm not going to get stuck with a low storage memory device ever again.

 

[DioramaMaker]

Looks like I am not the only person that is having a REALLY hard time choosing between these two Great phones.
Today I may want the S4, in 2 hours I will want the HTC again. ugh.

You sound JUST like me. Worst is that is that I talk through my thoughts with people so my friends and family hear about it constantly until I've made my decision.

AT THIS POINT IN TIME. HTC has me in their court. The memory size out of the box is great. I love the screen, much more than the Galaxy. I'm learning buttons anew anyway coming from my iPhone, so that's a mute point, most of my pictures are indoors as well (though the One's outside performance isn't too shoddy, it would seem), I am a huge fan of the body.

In the end, after playing with both, I am still undecided. The hot chick in AT&T said the S4 was the way to go. But unless she lets me see her naked, her opinion doesn't matter.

If the AT&T chick is willing to go that far for a sale, then I'm thinking the two phones won't be the only thing you're playing with.

 

[myth75]

My one doesn't get any warmer than my iPhone did under heavy use. And you have to remember, this phone is aluminum and conducts heat a lot more where the iPhone had a glass back and yet still got very warm.

I have never had this phone get so warm where it was uncomfortable. Ever after hours of video and gaming.

4g may have something to do with it though. I have no 4g coverage here so I have disabled that radio for the time being and cannot comment on whether or not it has any impact on temperature.

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