the S4 was never going to meet expectations

[xlDeMoNiClx]

Isn't there widgets that duplicate this almost exactly

From my Galaxy Note 2 via Tapatalk

Most likely. Which is why I'm still leaning towards the S4 but I'm waiting for the review to come out.

 

[DroidXcon]

Most likely. Which is why I'm still leaning towards the S4 but I'm waiting for the review to come out.

Yeah I hear you. I appreciate reviews but I they don't take into account what devices are like after being rom'd. But great for hardware views

From my Galaxy Note 2 via Tapatalk

 

[xlDeMoNiClx]

Yeah I hear you. I appreciate reviews but I they don't take into account what devices are like after being rom'd. But great for hardware views

From my Galaxy Note 2 via Tapatalk

I might get into rooting when I upgrade, right now it's not really worth it with my 3VO. The people who do that though are a minority so I'm not surprised they go through the trouble to add that section into their reviews.

 

[croppz]

If I could have TouchWiz with the flip clock Sense has had up until Sense 5.0 I'd be happy.

Sense 5 still has the flip clock. Im using it right now on sense 5

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Android Central Forums

 

[xlDeMoNiClx]

Sense 5 still has the flip clock. Im using it right now on sense 5

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Android Central Forums

The review said they got rid of it. Maybe flip clock was the wrong way to put it.

 

[croppz]

The review said they got rid of it. Maybe flip clock was the wrong way to put it.

Unless the dev that made this rom put it in seperately, it is still here. The "new" sense clock isnt so bad, i prefer the old one though.

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Android Central Forums

 

[xlDeMoNiClx]

Unless the dev that made this rom put it in seperately, it is still here. The "new" sense clock isnt so bad, i prefer the old one though.

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Android Central Forums

Yeah, the old one is what i meant. Even before I got my phone I liked the look of it.

 

[crester]

If I could have TouchWiz with the flip clock Sense has had up until Sense 5.0 I'd be happy.

Just put a clock widget!!! lol I have a flip clock from HD Widgets on my main page.

 

[GrooveRite]

Just put a clock widget!!! lol I have a flip clock from HD Widgets on my main page.

This man speaks the truth! +1 for HD Widgets! My flip clock away from Sense, on TW!

 

[MikeLip]

Isn't there widgets that duplicate this almost exactly

From my Galaxy Note 2 via Tapatalk

Yes. HD Widgets has flipclocks. Customizable flipclocks, both alone and with weather.

 

[anon5664829]

AH HA!!!.......he revealed his handicap!! lol! j/k man......all in good fun

HTC fanboys, LG, fanboys, Apple fanboys UNITE, We must bring down the GREAT EVIL, SAMSUNG

 

[technohippo]

nah, Samsung makes great phones. If you complain about interface and design, then you don't understand that they have to make money

 

[paintdrinkingpete]

I disagree there. I found the S4 disappointing, when it could have easily met or exceeded my expectations.

1. Build materials and quality. Having used the Xperia Z and HTC One, they absolutely blow the S3 out of the water, and will blow the S4 out of the water. There is no reason why Samsung couldn't have gone with a premium material for the phone build. Sony and HTC seemed to have put in the effort to make an excellently designed/manufactured device, Samsung just rehashed their materials/design. People will want to say it's because of the removable back - there are phones that are made of metal and have removable backs, hell Samsung made one (Wave), so that excuse is out the door. Having owned an S3 and removing the back a few times, I started noticing cracks on the plastic which is not comforting at all.

Samsung have more money than Sony and HTC put together. Absolutely no excuse why they couldn't have made a premium feeling phone.

2. Screen. I know AMOLED is their thing and the colours are highly saturated, but I personally prefer the LCD3 screen in the One and even the LCD in the Sony screen. Given that LCD screens have more accurately calibrated colours, better battery life while web browsing, can get much brighter (which greatly helps sunlight visibility, especially in Australia) and less prone to burn in - I would have preferred a great LCD display over AMOLED.

3. Legacy button layout. The physical home button and 2 capacitive buttons were fine and dandy with the Galaxy S and S2, but now times have changed and I think Samsung should really focus on pushing tech forward with adopting the stock on-screen button layout of Android now.

4. Performance. I have concerns about the performance of the phone. Android Central had a hands on, which showed laggy screen swiping, GSM arena had laggy screen swiping and Gizmodo's impressions said that the HTC One was faster than the Galaxy S4 in every context. Could be due to early software/hardware, but that doesn't sound good at all for a high-end Android phone.

5. Samsung's direction. Watching the abysmal S4 presentation, I feel like Samsung is more focused on a phone store experience rather than a real-world phone experience. The phone is packed to the gills with gimmicks and it seems more designed for a customer to be wowed by all these 'features' at a phone store then them actually being used outside of one. It seems they're only focused on that initial wow factor to grab the sale. I had the S3 and things like tap-to-top and smart stay didn't even work properly for me, let alone be of any use.

These are just my opinions, and I know not everyone will share them, but they are the biggest issues I had with the S4. As such, I'm not interested in getting one as competitors have more attractive products to me.

On a side note, I find it hilarious that Samsung had commercials mocking Apple for using the same design with the iPhone 4S "If it looks the same, how will anyone know I upgraded?", when Samsung have essentially done exactly that:

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18hhpxvf0ao60jpg/original.jpg

All those things you listed may be features you'd like, but I have to agree with the OP; not because any of your points are wrong, but only because I don't think anyone should have really EXPECTED any of those things with the S4. A lot of folks may have been pleased to see those features, but I think most of us knew Samsung wasn't going to stray too far out their comfort zone after the S3 did so well. In other words, I think those items you listed are simply reasons why some folks don't like the Galaxy S line, and not necessarily features anyone expected them to add to the new S4...and OP did start a thread about "expectations" after all.

Having said that, I don't argue with any of your points, except for #4 (I'm not going to judge performance on a pre-production model...hell, Steve Jobs couldn't even get an iPhone to connect to the Internet on one of his demos a while back).

The beauty of it all is, THIS IS ANDROID! -- WE HAVE CHOICES! When Apple released the iPhone 4S and it didn't have a larger screen or LTE or many of the other features that it's users had been clamoring for, they had no choice but to just say, "Oh well...just I'm stuck this for a while...". We, on the other hand, don't have to like Samsung's latest flagship. If you don't like the plastic and the AMOLED screen, just get something else, like the HTC One.

I was an HTC guy for years, but really like the GS3 I have now...not really sure which direction I'll go next, but since I'm on Verizon...it will probably be the S4 if I upgrade any time in the near future.

Frankly, if I wasn't on Verizon, I'd probably go Nexus all the way regardless. The Nexus 4 wasn't quite the device that was going to get me to switch, but we'll see what next year's model brings...

 

[Ry]

Are they going to sell the GS3 as the Galaxy S4 mini?

 

[warpdrive]

Personally, I feel that people are fully underestamating the new AMOLED screen of the new S4....

5" 1080p, diamond pixel layout, 440ppi (same as the 5" DNA), features to turn off the high saturation/contrast if wanted, and viewing angles that are so much better then the one or DNA that it is in another galaxy.
Let's also not forget that all this is packed into a slightly thinner body. Oh, and just as bright as the DNA and ip5.


I have a feeling that we will all change our minds about how good LCD3 is compared to the new AMOLED once you view it in person. Thankfully, it should be soon.

 

[lou61166]

I have nothing against the s4, it will probably be feature packed like we all have come to know and love.
The pros of this phone are the screen and the battery. The screen is a super AMOLED, I love this kind of screen the colors are brilliant. It also works really well in day light, this is a place others are sub-par. It will also be a full HD screen. The battery is 500mah bigger which isn't much but may add or an extra hours of video playback for long flights, or about 10 minutes of TDKR that gave eats battery like hot cakes. Here is my blog on it High-End Android: Samsung Galaxy s4 : Best Software, Few Things New in Hardware

The thing I hate most about it is OCTA. They try to pass it on as an 8 core prossesor, but it is really just a quad core with for real cores and four crappy battery savign cores. I really hate the GPU also, it is only slightly better than the Ipad 3 GPU. With tegra four and snapdragon 800 this thing will be left in the dust within four months of release. I have a page on my blog dedicated to just these four proccessors High-End Android: Exynos Octa VS Snapdragon 800 VS Tegra 4 GPU's

Super LCD 3 is sub par maybe i need to have my eyes checked,i find this statement sub par.

 

[DroidXcon]

Super LCD 3 is sub par maybe i need to have my eyes checked,i find this statement sub par.

I don't see where he said SLCD3. Maybe I need my eyes checked

From my Galaxy Note 2 via Tapatalk

 

[BOSSY TEXAS CHICK]

It has completely met and even exceeded my expectations....And i expected A LOT : )

There's just something about the Samsung Galaxy Series that just continues to "check all the boxes" with each iteration. From my first day with the Samsung Vibrant after trying so many other smartphones, i KNEW Samsung was on to something : ) To me, they nailed it....

Anyone who can look at the SIV and say it doesn't offer many upgrades from the SIII are seeking to be critical. I can see sooooooooooo many "it wasn't broken, why fix it" if Samsung had done a complete re-design. Since half of the population were prolly going to complain if they TOTALLY changed the design, they probably figured why even bother, its worked thus far...

And i think this design has many subtle improvements from, "tone on tone diamond-like pattern, from squared off edges, to cramming a 5 inch screen on a 4.8 chasis, resolution increase of about 25%, bigger battery, wireless charging capability, gorilla glass 3, infared port for remote control, camera increase from 8MP to 13MP, FFC camera bump from 1.9 MP (720p) to 2MP 1080p recording), and that's just to name the hardware improvements, and i LOVE how they didn't REMOVE any previous hardware/software, like soooooooooooo many OEM's do...It is EVERYTHING the SGS III was and MORE!

... I won't bother to get into the software, yes, many of the features might be hype, but i still like having a phone capable of soooo many little tricks, regardless of how often i'll use them, and out-of-box shipping with most current version of Jelly Bean, coupled with all the hardware upgrades, i will be first in line the day this is available...

It boggles my mind how many ppl are comparing Samsung to Apple. Show me ONE EXAMPLE of Samsung trying to limit your storage, dictate what programs you can use, hinder your connectivity options or limit your buying choices in ANY WAY....O

BTC

 

[GrooveRite]

It boggles my mind how many ppl are comparing Samsung to Apple. Show me ONE EXAMPLE of Samsung trying to limit your storage, dictate what programs you can use, hinder your connectivity options or limit your buying choices in ANY WAY....O

AMEN!!

 

[I Can Be Your Hero]

The pros of this phone are the screen and the battery. The screen is a super AMOLED, I love this kind of screen the colors are brilliant. It also works really well in day light, this is a place others are sub-par.

Uh what? AMOLED screens are notorious for having bad sunlight visibility. They're not backlit and don't reach the brightness levels of many LCD screens. Having owned a Galaxy S, S2, S3, Note and GNexus, it was impossible to see what's on the screen outside unless I shaded the screen with my hand. Haven't had to do that with my Nexus 4 or iPhone 5. Can see the screen easily.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2