Things I LOVE and things I HATE about the S4

[coryh131]

Hi,
I'm a new member here but I was dying to provide feedback on this phone so here it is! In the last year, I have personally used (for personal use or work) a Windows phone, iPhone 4, 4S & 5, Galaxy S3 and Note 2. I switched from the Note 2 to the GS4 last Saturday.

THINGS I LOVE:

1. Group texting. Finally! My biggest frustration with android was that group texting wouldn't work without a third party app like Group Me. Now group texting works just like the iPhone or Windows phone.

2. The camera. I would always take pictures with an iPhone 4S or 5 (work phone or wife's phone) because the outdoor picture quality was better on the iPhone than the Note 2 or GS3. The picture quality on this phone is amazing.

THINGS THAT ARE OK:

1. Battery life. Battery life on this phone is not near as good as the Note 2 but it's not near as bad as the GS3. I think the iPhone has a better battery life as well if you're a heavy user (like I am).

THINGS I HATE:

1. It's finicky. Twice I've needed to snap a picture quickly and my lock screen was frozen. I had to reboot the phone and miss out on the pictures. It reminds me of the touchscreen blackberrys a few years ago.

2. Clock on the lock screen. The default lock screen clock takes a full 1-2 seconds to update when you push the button to see what time it is. Before it updates, it shows the time of the last time you had your phone screen on. If you look too fast, you'll think it's the wrong time which is a huge deal for people like me who don't wear watches anymore.

3. New features. I was excited about the IR blaster and lock screen widgets. The IR blaster doesn't seem to work for receivers so I can't adjust volume...it could be that I just haven't figured out how to set it up. The lock screen widget is an adjacent lock screen so you might as well just unlock the phone.

Overall the group texting and camera are enough to keep me from going back to the Note 2 but I may seriously consider the HTC One.

 

[loucifer75]

Good list.

I dislike that the email notifications seem to be more delayed than I find acceptable. Gmail is significantly (a good 10-20 minutes) late in pushing new email to me, just don't understand it.

 

[PaulWog]

I'm new to Android as well as to Galaxy phones. This is my first real smartphone. I'm quite familiar with the iOS (I have an iPad), so it's a new experience. I'll list my version of pros/cons/inbetweens about this phone to do with the experience in general, including my transition to Android on the Galaxy S4

Pro
- Screen is a nice and comfortable size, etc
- Camera is great
- Swipe-typing is great on this phone. I hear it's on all Android devices, but it's one of my favorite things.
- Phone feels nice in the hand, etc, etc... it's just overall quite nice.
- Voice features are quite good. There's still some things to be desired (ex. "create contact" doesn't work), and there's some bugs (I was driving today and the navigation feature wouldn't read anything out to me... got home, had to fiddle with it, and it randomly started working again).
- Screen material is really nice (the glass feels slick and good and is easy to clean with any cloth-like material... smudges rub off without any problems unlike some touch devices).
- I guess since I haven't owned any other Android phones, I don't have a lot to compare in order to discern what a major "pro" is in some instances. However, I can say that beyond my neutral/con comments, I have nothing but good things to say about the phone.

Inbetween
- IR blaster works on everything I've tried it on, but it doesn't come with enough features on it to be *that* useful. It also doesn't support holding down a button (in order to switch through channels continuously and quickly), and the smart channel features that come with it don't actually find the proper TV listings (so that's useless and could've been really nice).
- Some of the features are nice, but most of the new gesture features and other things are absolute gimmicks. Ultra-touch sensitivity is not useful at all and doesn't work when I test it after turning it on (it works, but not good enough to function with the gloves I've tested). Other features like eye scrolling are useless... etc. But hey, Samsung tried, and they got some gimmicks right (but most of their gimmicks don't make sense & weren't a selling feature from the start). Feels like they got a group of middle-school students together and scrambled some forced ideas together before they released the phone and that's what their air gimmick stuff is.

Con
- Screen is washed out & bad in bright situations... this can be fixed by turning screen brightness way up, but then battery life suffers incredibly
- Battery isn't all that impressive. Could be better. It's alright, but if they could've improved it by an extra 20% or so it might actually last nicely... I'm not particularly excited to get a second battery or a bulkier battery at a future time.
- Signal strength is subpar.
- Build quality is fine, but it leaves much to be desired. Would've rather spent an extra $50-$100 for a nicer build (and a nicer signal!).
- Mine came with a speck of dust inside/under the screen. It's not a big deal, but hey... enough of a reason to get it replaced. I'm sure this isn't an issue that is common among the Galaxy S4 units, but it's just my luck.

 

[archer75]

I'll edit this to add more as time goes on but so far....

Pro:
Screen size, resolution and colors
Camera
battery easily lasts me all day with some to spare
speed
auto connects to open wifi
Connects to wifi or cell networks faster than any device i've owned
GPS locks even before the map finishes loading
best build quality of all the plasticy phones i've owned. Actually feels pretty solid.

Con:
Hate the physical home button. My fat thumbs are always hitting part of the screen when hitting that button.
The IR remote app doesn't have many options. Doesn't have my TV in the list. No stereo receivers at all which is where I change volume. I wish it was more like a logitech harmony in terms of support and features.
Auto brightness sucks. It's always too dark.

- - - Updated - - -

Good list.

I dislike that the email notifications seem to be more delayed than I find acceptable. Gmail is significantly (a good 10-20 minutes) late in pushing new email to me, just don't understand it.

Seems pretty much instant to me. Maybe there are some network issues where you are? Something screwy is going on.

 

[Calidoc]

I'll edit this to add more as time goes on but so far....

Pro:
Screen size, resolution and colors
Camera
battery easily lasts me all day with some to spare
speed
auto connects to open wifi
Connects to wifi or cell networks faster than any device i've owned
GPS locks even before the map finishes loading
best build quality of all the plasticy phones i've owned. Actually feels pretty solid.

Con:
Hate the physical home button. My fat thumbs are always hitting part of the screen when hitting that button.
The IR remote app doesn't have many options. Doesn't have my TV in the list. No stereo receivers at all which is where I change volume. I wish it was more like a logitech harmony in terms of support and features.
Auto brightness sucks. It's always too dark.

- - - Updated - - -



Seems pretty much instant to me. Maybe there are some network issues where you are? Something screwy is going on.

Mind posting a screen shot of your battery usage after a day of usage? I'm having problems with my battery getting killed. I'm getting from 1.5-3 hours of screen usage on a full charge. Crazy.

 

[archer75]

Mind posting a screen shot of your battery usage after a day of usage? I'm having problems with my battery getting killed. I'm getting from 1.5-3 hours of screen usage on a full charge. Crazy.

Sure, I can do that. I'm working now and my work usage is very different from my day off usage but i'll get a screenshot of both and post this weekend.

 

[toujours_frais]

Yeah me too... Im starting to get disgusted by the feel of this plasticky back cover. Its greasy and leaves a lot of fingerprints. I might go with the black HTC One. A much better phone imo.

 

[Hush Martin]

Not trying to troll or anything! I have the One, it's a lovely phone. One thing: If voice activated features are important to you, this is the one area I've found where the One is weak. In that case you should probably stick with the S4. As far as battery life, mine has been excellent. It's made better by keeping the phone in power saver mode when indoors or doing less cpu intensive tasks. I go from when I wake until bedtime on a charge...I'm a pretty heavy user. Screen is on and I'm playing with it probably 6 hours or more a day-- Not gaming though. In my opinion, the One is a better phone over-all.

 

[Hush Martin]

Oh, I take that back now. LOL, apparently google now is linked on a long press to the home button and can do most anything siri can. Or, you can download Dragon Assistant (free) and use that on the long press home button instead. Dragon works *just* a little better. So, it's basically a wash on the voice command front.

 

[neonworm]

I can group text on my phone too.

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