What to get - Maxx or Galaxy S4?

[vzzoom]

I guess, I can chime in. My girlfriend has the s4 on tmobile and i got the maxx. One thing I liked on the s4 was the smart cover and girl friend loves it except it covers volume rocker and can make changing the volume cumbersome ( only form of protection). The maxx has the active display which basically matches it and I'm happy with it. S4 does have all those neat features like hand gestures, smart scroll ect but my girlfriend rarely uses them because they don't work 100% of the time and limited to standard browser and a hand full of other apps. Both phones are snappy and the s4 easliy gets a full day of life 8am to 6pm, she has never had phone die on her during the day if battery goes bad easily replaceable or battery swap . From the 7 hours I've had with the maxx I lost 20% battery life of heavy use and toying around with it (new phone stuff) would have to carry an external on the go charger if things go south. I like the S4 for micro sd card plus on board storage, the maxx is stuck at 32gb ~27gb usable i'm at 25.48 gb with only apps on the phone. I think the s4 has a better screen but for me i can only notice if i'm looking really close but at a glace they both seem nice. I like the camera better on the s4 seems to be all around good, maxx takes good non flash shots but i get a blue color using flash maybe my case haven't figured it out. Shake to open camera on the maxx is a cool feature it takes 2 seconds to open where on the s4 it takes slighly longer with the camera app on home page. At the moment the aftermarket accessories for the s4 is way better in terms of options.

When its all said and done its all a matter of preference. I've always had a droid phone so the maxx was the most natural and seamless transition. if you've been using samsung phones with touch wiz, I imagine its a similar experience. When my girl friend has trouble finding something in the settings, it can be difficult for me to help at times but when i use a droid i typically have no problems finding what I need. Little things like familiarity help tip the tables for me

good luck and always check the maxx and s4 in person leave your money at home and come to verizon the next day knowing what you want

 

[Charlie Hong condon]

same dilemma im having.. i had s4 now for about a week and my first impression was .. pretty cool phone it's definitely got the highest specs of any verizon smartphone out for sure. but coming from a razr maxx with the 3300 mah battery and going down to 2600 mah i can certainly notice the battery life difference.. im really thinking of getting the new maxx. only draw back is down grading processingpower to dual core even though it has x8 system it's not a true 8 core processor. but it seems like the x8 system did something wonderful to make the maxx not lag at all and the battery on it rocks. S4 my favorite missed feature will be tv remote which works flawlessly for both of my tv's at my house. it's just a really cool convenience feature not to have to look for your tv remote. anyone that has a maxx please share any really cool things about it besides the google now call my phone feature and the always on notification feature and the twisty camera which are definitely cool .. i just want to feel better about ditching my s4 for the maxx..

 

[Charlie Hong condon]

nice to hear i have s4 right now and waiting for droid maxx preorder for only 200 bucks.. that was my thought to was s4 lags quite a bit for a quad core even after shutting off everything in developer option.. i wish the maxx was quad core on paper too but its only dual which is bummer but it has x8 system whatever that means but it seems to make the phone run super smooth from playing with it for a few minutes at the store but its the battery that's making me pick the maxx overall. but i'll surely miss the tv remote feature from the s4 it's a super cool built in feature for the s4 that the maxx doesnt have

 

[Charlie Hong condon]

you can get the maxx for 200 ... how? go to best buy mobile they price match online deals .... tell them wirefly is selling them for 200 and they will preorder it for you for only 200 for the maxxx what a deal

 

[Charlie Hong condon]

maxx for 200 at your local best buy mobile.. let them know wirefly has it for 200 and they price match that's what i did and it worked like a charm im using s4 right now and waiting for my maxx... im gonna miss the s4 a little bit for it's tv remote

 

[Dreamliner330]

nice to hear i have s4 right now and waiting for droid maxx preorder for only 200 bucks.. that was my thought to was s4 lags quite a bit for a quad core even after shutting off everything in developer option.. i wish the maxx was quad core on paper too but its only dual which is bummer but it has x8 system whatever that means but it seems to make the phone run super smooth from playing with it for a few minutes at the store but its the battery that's making me pick the maxx overall. but i'll surely miss the tv remote feature from the s4 it's a super cool built in feature for the s4 that the maxx doesnt have

User experience and fluidity is more important than specs. Even the lowly HTC First (Facebook phone) has a smoother UI than the S4 because its stock Android and doesn't have any terribly programmed bloat. The MAXX will 'feel' faster than your S4....watch.

maxx for 200 at your local best buy mobile.. let them know wirefly has it for 200 and they price match that's what i did and it worked like a charm

I've got a $50 credit for Best Buy Mobile from a promotion earlier this year too...I could get the MAXX for $150...hmm.

im gonna miss the s4 a little bit for it's tv remote

pfft, what a worthless feature. Your TV comes with a remote, and a Harmony remote is better in every single way.

 

[anon175469]

pfft, what a worthless feature. Your TV comes with a remote, and a Harmony remote is better in every single way.

Unless you live in a house where you're constantly losing them! S4 can even control Apple TV... so if you're used to having this feature, even if you're in the minority, it's a big one to lose!

I have them both currently. DM is definitely smoother / faster - it just screams and never lags or feels bogged down. Not that the S4 is bad by any means, but man the DM is smooth.

I think the whole "Samsung has crappy radios" mantra is leftover from the Gnex and before and simply not true any more - or if someone can actually prove with physical evidence that Sammy uses weaker radios, that would be nice... Everybody talking about that has an old Samsung device. I've had an S3 and S4 on Verizon and the signal has been as good or better than any of my Moto or HTC LTE phones.

The S4 will support AWS spectrum when Verizon releases it - it's looking like the DM won't. Not a huge deal, but still...

The S4's camera isn't quite as fast as the DM's, but is still better all-around, and more consistent. Even low-light shots, which tend to suck on any device. The DM way over-processes it's pictures, you can't zoom or crop them near as much as the S4's.

"Ok Google Now" has aways to go... I can't text my wife in the car without touching the DM. I can with the S4 thanks to S-voice. S-voice works surprisingly well in most scenarios and allows me to interact with the phone completely touchless, unlike the DM.

Yet I still can't decide which to stick with... both truly awesome devices. If the Maxx's camera was more up to par I'd stick with it in a heartbeat... I use my phone camera a LOT...

 

[LOTL2]

"Ok Google Now" has aways to go... I can't text my wife in the car without touching the DM. I can with the S4 thanks to S-voice. S-voice works surprisingly well in most scenarios and allows me to interact with the phone completely touchless, unlike the DM.

Now this is surprising are you sure about this?

 

[Snareman]

Now this is surprising are you sure about this?

Yea, I thought that was one of the big selling points of the phone.

 

[anon175469]

Now this is surprising are you sure about this?

Yea, I thought that was one of the big selling points of the phone.

Unless there's a setting I'm missing somewhere (which I've checked pretty thoroughly), this is how it works...

"Ok Google Now... Text <wife's name> Hey I should be there in about 15 minutes"

Wait a few seconds, it pulls up with my wife's picture with the text message underneath and the "send" option. It's not like some things (like a phone call) where there's a progress bar waiting for you that will eventually force the action... it waits until you hit send. If the text is off at all, I either start over completely (which is fine because you can use "Ok google now" again) or fiddle with it and edit the text manually.

It does the same thing for calendar appointments. And for phone calls, it defaults to the speaker being off - which, I would assume, if you're calling someone via voice command, you'd want the speaker on by default. But you have to hit "speaker" on your phone. The music takes a lot of "post voice command" work as well.

At this point (and hopefully this will change), it's no more intuitive than Voice Search, or hitting the "mic" next to the Google Search widget - they've simply added a way to "tap" that mic with your voice from anywhere and any state. That's very very cool in and of itself, but it's lack of intuitiveness after that initial command renders it somewhat useless IMHO. FWIW, general searches, navigation, etc. work fine - but again, identical to Google Now/Voice Search before.

Not to be trollish, but S-Voice on my S4 is 1000x more intuitive, even if it's not on its own core (for those that had the S3, S-voice is a lot better on the S4). I might have to wake S-voice with a button (unless I have it set to always on or in car mode), but from that point forward it's 100% voice. I can also customize wake commands and have a few different ones set. But S-voice works like this:

"Ok Galaxy (customizable)... text <wife's name> Hey I should be there in about 15 minutes"

"Ok, is this the message you want to send?" and shows you your message, but then prompts you via VOICE to continue... if I say "yes" or "send" or whatever, it'll send it... if I leave it in the S-voice app, she'll notify and read new texts back to me. If the text was wrong, I can say "no" or "edit" and she'll immediately ask for a new message. Again, complete voice interaction. Works the same for calendar appointments as well. Music isn't perfect on the S4 either - but if you haev music ON your device, you can use the S4's Music app and control it with "next, previous, pause, play, volume up, volume down" - and it works great as long as that music isn't too loud!

If they integrated Moto Assist more with Google Now it would be great... but MA is limited to a generic text response right now as well.

Holy cow that became long, sorry...

 

[LOTL2]

jnt_ip,
Thanks for the very detailed reply. Its hard to believe that they would not take it a step further and make it a truly hands free device, especially for texting. Just when i thought i had made up my mind on the Maxx, along comes another plus for the GS4.

Im on the road a lot and wanted a truly hands off method of texting when i need to. I havent heard anyone mention this yet, but can you still text or email while your driving? There were some concerns that they were going to restrict certain things while you were moving.

 

[Snareman]

Yea, that essentially seems pointless if you actually have to touch the phone to get it to do what you're requesting since I thought the point was that it was hands free.

 

[STARGATE]

Im on the road a lot and wanted a truly hands off method of texting when i need to. I havent heard anyone mention this yet, but can you still text or email while your driving? There were some concerns that they were going to restrict certain things while you were moving.

I do, and I haven't heard about restrictions for that. Unless that you turn Driving mode on, which I never enable.

Sent From a Galaxy S4 Away!

 

[Aquila]

Just use tasker and add some functionality to a "listening mode" state that includes auto-voice continuous for the phrase "send text" or "send call" or whatever you want.

Edit: Or just wait until you can pull over to a safe location and send all day your heart's content. In the history of texting and e-mail, there has probably never been one so important that a 5 minute delay would matter. We should be asking these companies to make things safer for us to use our device, not soliciting help to break laws with less inconvenience to the criminal. Being a criminal ought to be as inconvenient as possible.

 

[anon175469]

Just use tasker and add some functionality to a "listening mode" state that includes auto-voice continuous for the phrase "send text" or "send call" or whatever you want.

Edit: Or just wait until you can pull over to a safe location and send all day your heart's content. In the history of texting and e-mail, there has probably never been one so important that a 5 minute delay would matter. We should be asking these companies to make things safer for us to use our device, not soliciting help to break laws with less inconvenience to the criminal. Being a criminal ought to be as inconvenient as possible.

FWIW I do think the Maxx makes it safer. First, as long as it's enabled in Assist, the phone will switch to driving mode automatically when you take off in your car... so that's one less thing to think about. Second, if you do get a text, it notify's you and asks if you want it read outloud, then asks if you want to send a response that says something like, "I'm driving, will get back to you - sent by Moto Assist", and it's completely voice interactive.

 

[MikeLip]

^Touchwiz is absolutely awful. Play with a S4 for 5 minutes and you can see what a stuttering nightmare it is. Yuck.

Who cares about a removable battery. It's so silly to carry around an extra battery...then go through the hassle of charging 2 batteries every night and fumbling around with de-casing the phone to put a new battery in every day...no thanks.

Agree on Micro SD though. But Google wants cloud storage...which is really stupid when a HD digital copy is 5GB+.

The stuttering is gone with the last update, so that is no longer an issue. Touchwiz becomes a non-issue if you install a launcher, which I always do since for whatever reason you STILL have just a 4x4 grid. Come on, Google, get with it. This isn't 2009 anymore.

 

[Dreamliner330]

The stuttering is gone with the last update, so that is no longer an issue. Touchwiz becomes a non-issue if you install a launcher

False.

since for whatever reason you STILL have just a 4x4 grid. Come on, Google, get with it. This isn't 2009 anymore.

For whatever reason, things just got bigger, along with the screen. I wish they would have shrunk things, like menus, icons and such.

 

[MikeLip]

False.

For whatever reason, things just got bigger, along with the screen. I wish they would have shrunk things, like menus, icons and such.

Do you own one? I do. I was unable to make it smooth until the last update. Now it's smooth. If you go to the S4 forums, you will also see that the latest update was a huge improvement. Do not, ever, insinuate I'd lie about something. If you have evidence to contrary, present it. But don't just say I'm wrong, when I know by direct experience I am not.

 

[Dreamliner330]

Do you own one? I do. I was unable to make it smooth until the last update. Now it's smooth. If you go to the S4 forums, you will also see that the latest update was a huge improvement. Do not, ever, accuse me lying.

I didn't accuse you of lying. I just said the statement is incorrect. I used one about 6 hours ago. It was updated and it stuttered a lot. It's still not as smooth as the HTC One. I haven't tried a Droid MAXX yet though.

 

[MikeLip]

I didn't accuse you of lying. I just said the statement is incorrect. I used one about 6 hours ago. It was updated and it stuttered a lot. It's still not as smooth as the HTC One. I haven't tried a Droid MAXX yet though.

Then you will have to explain why my S4 doesn't stutter anymore. Nor all the people who updated on the S4 forum.