Questions about the S4 for those who owned it awhile.

[RavenSword]

So after some internal debate, I've decided not to go back to its and stick with android. Now I just need to decided on which android phone I'm going to go with.

Originally it was motor x vs HTC ONE, but honestly I thought it was maybe not fair to include the S4 in the mix.

The things that put me off to the phone were how much available storage space is on the phones 16 gb hard drive, the complete overkill of features, and all the bad stuff I've heard about touch wiz.

But the things that seemed appealing to me about the phone is I think it has a better chance of receiving OTA updates than the carrier HTC ONE does, it's more serviceable (repair wise), it supposed to have a better battery, and I can always get a bigger one if I want to.

But I also heard that the phones performance was leggy or hitch, probably due to all the stuff it does like smart scrolling, eye tracking, and etc. Has this been fixed?

I wanted to get some feedback and opinions from those who have used the S4 for some time now to get there take on it and if they'd still make the choice to get it if they had to or recommend it over other phones out now?

Does disabling the stuff like eye scrolling and the other feature stuff help performance of the phone?

 

[asanatheist]

I've owned the HTC one and used the moto x. Both are lag free the x felt good but not how some people make it out to be. Lastly some people complaining of lag used it with older firmware.
The lag isn't major IMHO that's with 3 different Samsung s4s.

The camera voice controls and features including servicing make it way better for me.

 

[STSVA]

It's easy to disable the bells and whistles, like eye control. I haven't had a significant lag issue with mine. I've got around 21GB of music on an SD card, so for me the 16GB internal memory is not an issue.

 

[garublador]

I've had mine since it was released on Verizon. I didn't have the option of the One or Moto X at the time.

There was a bit of lag at first. I have not experienced it since the latest firmware update that came in July. The phone's performance has been incredible.

I played with some of the features when I first got the phone but turned them off. I never really expected to use any of them, either and didn't feel like rethinking that part of the UI. If I ever get to where I think it would be useful to have some of the eye tracking features I might try them again, but I can't say I really gave any of them a fair chance. They're easy enough to turn off so I don't see why they'd be considered a negative on their own.

The main reason I'm happy I got the S4 is the uSD slot. AFAIK, AT&T is the only carrier with the 64GB One and the way I use my phones 16GB and 32GB internal storage are pretty much the same (I need more than 32GB to store my music and both my iPod and iPod to car stereo adapter system both just died). So even now I'd probably get the S4 because I'm on Verizon and want more than 32GB of storage.

However, if the 64GB One were an option it would probably win out. I really like the camera on the S4, but I think the One would be good enough and having all of my storage internal for about the same price as a S4 + SD card is really appealing. The removable battery is nice, but I haven't needed it on my last two phones (or my wife's last two phones, either) so it doesn't seem to be that big of a deal to me.

If I decided that I didn't need to store my music on my phone then the decision would be easy, I'd go for the Moto X. The extra features they added by using the low power "cores" seem way more useful than the extra stuff on the S4 or One and the battery life appears to be incredible, thought the battery life on the S4 has been really good for me.

 

[oshia86]

My S4 still lags. The phone has to be restarted at least once a day. This is after going through all running processes and only leaving what I need (not much). I also use Nova Launcher and have messed with the developer options. Battery life is enough to get me through a day. I don't use a lot of the "features", but I've tried most of them and some of them should be labeled as "beta". Storage is great with the 32gb version + 32gb sd card. Camera is fantastic. I've yet to have a dropped call or lose gps signal etc.

I came from an iPhone 4S to the S4, and I don't have experience with other Androids. I don't think I will be getting a Samsung phone the next round, but I do believe it will be an Android device.

 

[RavenSword]

When you disable the eye tracking, smart scrolling, and other features, do they still show up in the notification toggles?

How's battery on this phone? And have you found touch wiz hard to use? That's one thing I'm nervous about as I have been using stock android on my nexus 4.

 

[STSVA]

When you disable the eye tracking, smart scrolling, and other features, do they still show up in the notification toggles?

How's battery on this phone? And have you found touch wiz hard to use? That's one thing I'm nervous about as I have been using stock android on my nexus 4.

The eye tracking, etc., are still in the dropdown toggles after disabling, but you can re-order the toggle icons so they're at the bottom if you don't plan to use them. I've found the battery to be fine once I got control over things like Google Services that tend to eat up battery fast; I should note that I'm not a heavy user in terms of watching streaming videos, playing games, and other things that are likely to eat up the battery fast. I've also found Touchwiz to be fine, but everyone has different preferences when it comes to phone appearance and operation, so that may not mean much.

 

[garublador]

When you disable the eye tracking, smart scrolling, and other features, do they still show up in the notification toggles?

Yes. The toggles are still there and you can choose which 5 show up in the notification shade.

How's battery on this phone? And have you found touch wiz hard to use? That's one thing I'm nervous about as I have been using stock android on my nexus 4.

The battery has been pretty good. I control synching myself (Gmail every 15 minutes and everything else once an hour), I have all Google Now cards on and all location tracking/sharing on, I leave WiFi on all the time, I have extra location tracking done in Tasker (though I suspect it just piggy backs off Google Now) and I have Bluetooth and NFC both off. I've been off the charger for 9 hours and I'm tracking to get 2.3 hours of screen time and 32 hours of time total extrapolating from my usage of the phone so far (I'm at 72% battery left with 39 minutes of screen time).

I wouldn't worry about TouchWiz. People make a huge deal out of these skins, but most of what they're complaining about is the extra stuff that's been added or the little menu changes. The added stuff can be disabled and most of the changes are minor. IMO it's just not that big of a deal and most stuff can be customized, anyway. If you don't like how it looks (IMO they did a terrible job of using the space on the screen) you can always (and I highly suggest) get a 3rd party launcher. I use the free version of Nova and the control it gives me over my home screens is amazing. I'm pretty sure I'd use it over the stock launcher as well. FWIW, I went from Gingerbread to JB with TouchWiz and haven't had any problems figuring anything out. It's still Android.

 

[swent1]

I came from iOS and would not go back. I have spent quite a bit of time playing around with my friends HTC One and thought it was a fantastic phone. Its beautiful really, and I didn't have much to complain about. Its personal preference. I like how the screen looks better on the S4 the HTC (I like the saturated colors). I found between both our phones the S4 had better battery. I also like the plastic (probably one of few lol) I feel safer taking the phone out of its case knowing there isn't any metal to scratch or damage. And I have to say this S4 has had its fair share of drops and its still in perfect condition! Not a fan of touchwiz but that was taken care of with a launcher. Not a fan of Sense 5 either, so that wouldn't have brought me over. I havent noticed really any lag, and if you dont like the gimmicky features i find it to be almost non existent when theyre turned off. I would say, along with many others, play around with them, read and watch reviews and pick what one suits you best. They both are being upgraded to 4.3 anyways

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