Why I switched back to S5 from HTC M8

[NYClawstudent]

Here in NYC, the S5 has been outselling the M8 five to one. Every best buy that I have visited had plenty of M8's in stock with dwindling S5's. That doesn't say much though--as the S5 has more ads all over TV and in the subway.

And believe me, I read just about every relevant review for the S5 and M8, including the Verge, CNET, engadget, slashgear, Android Central, Anandtech, etc. Even then, it was still very difficulty to decide. Only after I had the M8 for a full weekend, could I tell that it was not the phone for me.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

WIth regards to that comparison shot with screen real estate, they aren't showing the exact same content, which makes it an unfair comparison. I'm not saying the on screen buttons don't take up space (they do), but that particular pic of the two side by side isn't representative of the real difference.

Also, when viewing videos in YouTube, Netflix, etc, those buttons get hidden. So while they don't give you the full amount of real estate for web browsing and stuff, they do give you the full screen for video playback.

It's also not that surprising that anyone with a long history of Samsung devices would prefer the S5. It just makes sense logically.

Oh, and with regards to the on screen buttons becoming some sort of standard, I'm not sure Google will do that any time soon. They would obviously prefer it, since that's how it is on Nexus, but they provide flexibility in the guidelines for a reason. With the buttons so heavily integrated into the design of the device they would almost surely have to give advance notice to manufacturer's so they can design around it.

 

[wookiee2cu]

I had the GS5 for about 24 hrs before I took it back to AT&T. The call quality and muffled sound was too much for me in the end. I don't care about the screen or camera enough to justify keeping it. It's a phone at the end of the day and those radios in Samsung phones are terrible.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using AC Forums mobile app

I wonder if this is area/carrier/production batch specific. I bought mine from AT&T on 4-16 and I'm in the Seattle area and I have no problem with calls being muffled on either end. I don't blame you though, that would drive me nuts and none of the features would justify keeping it in my mind.

 

[BBSeattle]

How in the world did you come to that conclusion? Disregard anything you seen on either screen....pretend it's a blank white screen. Good grief.
Look now at the area "that's lit up" from top to bottom.Seriously, you should have given this a little more thought. And before you respond, seriously give it some thought.....(just trying to help you out here, the whole world's watching).

WIth regards to that comparison shot with screen real estate, they aren't showing the exact same content, which makes it an unfair comparison. I'm not saying the on screen buttons don't take up space (they do), but that particular pic of the two side by side isn't representative of the real difference.

Also, when viewing videos in YouTube, Netflix, etc, those buttons get hidden. So while they don't give you the full amount of real estate for web browsing and stuff, they do give you the full screen for video playback.

It's also not that surprising that anyone with a long history of Samsung devices would prefer the S5. It just makes sense logically.

Oh, and with regards to the on screen buttons becoming some sort of standard, I'm not sure Google will do that any time soon. They would obviously prefer it, since that's how it is on Nexus, but they provide flexibility in the guidelines for a reason. With the buttons so heavily integrated into the design of the device they would almost surely have to give advance notice to manufacturer's so they can design around it.

 

[Transcendence]

I feel like people who clearly have a bias towards one device should limit their involvement in forums of a device that's competing with it (M8 user posting on the S5 forums and vice versa). It just leads to way too much bickering.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

How in the world did you come to that conclusion? Disregard anything you seen on either screen....pretend it's a blank white screen. Good grief.
Look now at the area "that's lit up" from top to bottom.Seriously, you should have given this a little more thought. And before you respond, seriously give it some thought.....(just trying to help you out here, the whole world's watching).

Mostly because when comparing anything it's important to have identical content. With different content you invalidate the results. It's also important to see the impact of the difference.

I understand the "lit up area" statement, but that's not the right way to do it. Extra space for the sake of extra space is useless. The question is "How does this impact my experience? " which your picture fails to answer.

Compare your pic to mine. Which is easier to see the available real estate on and the impact it has on the overall experience?

People can look at mine and say "oh, I'll get a few extra lines of text" and then decide if that's a big deal for them or not.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

 

[rustum]

Is M8 screen smaller than M7 in terms of length.

 

[Rev2010]

Soft buttons are the one thing that keeps me away from buying a device. I have soft buttons on my Nexus 7 2013 edition (obviously) and I love the tablet and kept it, and I do use it often, but the one thing that drives me nuts it typing on it. The soft buttons are right underneath the spacebar and I often hit them when trying to hit the spacebar, it's maddening. Never been a problem with my Galaxy S3 so I stayed with Samsung and got the S5. A little miffed that they changed the menu button to Apps, and yeah I know holding the button down launches the menu in some apps but still. Still way better than on screen menu buttons, plus they waste screen real estate.


Rev.

 

[Transcendence]

Everyone has their preferences. I'm happy the M8 uses on screen buttons and don't feel like it hinders my screen size at all. Others will feel differently. It's such a small difference either way, but to each their own.

Thumbs up to Samsung for including the multitasking button this year, though. Took a minute to get used to instead of long pressing the home button, but it was very welcome in the end.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[NYClawstudent]

I think Kevin's picture only confirms my thoughts---that the additional screen size on the M8 really is of no benefit. The M8 is undoubtedly larger and does have a larger viewing area for netflix and youtube videos. But for 98% of the time one is using the device--the on screen available real estate is narrowly smaller than the M7. That's somewhat perplexing and an interesting design choice by the HTC team. It would have made more sense for the on screen buttons to be located within the "HTC bezel" area.

But I'm no phone engineer. I just find the actual screen real estate on the S5 to be more useful and sensible. When I get a 5.1 inch phone--I want to be able to use as much screen as possible.

 

[BBSeattle]

Wow, denial or willful ignorance...not sure which one but here goes; who cares what the content is?
It's a simple post comparing screen size, no more no less. It simply is what it is.
Your comment:
The question is "How does this impact my experience? " which your picture fails to answer.
I don't recall anyone asking the question and I certainly don't recall this being the reason I posted the pic so how does my "picture" fail to answer the question?
It's your question....maybe a new thread by you is in order to answer the questions that you are asking.

Stop for moment....listen....it's just a pic showing the differences in screen size.
Everything else you are talking about comes across as an apologist trying desperately to justify the smaller screen real estate.

Mostly because when comparing anything it's important to have identical content. With different content you invalidate the results. It's also important to see the impact of the difference.

I understand the "lit up area" statement, but that's not the right way to do it. Extra space for the sake of extra space is useless. The question is "How does this impact my experience? " which your picture fails to answer.

Compare your pic to mine. Which is easier to see the available real estate on and the impact it has on the overall experience?

People can look at mine and say "oh, I'll get a few extra lines of text" and then decide if that's a big deal for them or not.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/04/24/qututy5a.jpg

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

 

[Aquila]

Ladies and gentlemen, please keep discussion productive and on topic. Personal attacks, insults, taking threads off topic and other disruptive posting behaviors are not acceptable. If you do not like a post, please behave like an adult and move on, or if you feel it violates the forum rules, please report it. At no point should members be calling each other out in posts. Thanks.

 

[BBSeattle]

Well thought out response.
I agree that his pictures only support what I had said, the screen real estate is not 5".....simple as that.
Nothing more was suggested, implied, etc. Not sure why this information hurts so bad for so many.

I think Kevin's picture only confirms my thoughts---that the additional screen size on the M8 really is of no benefit. The M8 is undoubtedly larger and does have a larger viewing area for netflix and youtube videos. But for 98% of the time one is using the device--the on screen available real estate is narrowly smaller than the M7. That's somewhat perplexing and an interesting design choice by the HTC team. It would have made more sense for the on screen buttons to be located within the "HTC bezel" area.

But I'm no phone engineer. I just find the actual screen real estate on the S5 to be more useful and sensible. When I get a 5.1 inch phone--I want to be able to use as much screen as possible.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

Wow, denial or willful ignorance...not sure which one but here goes; who cares what the content is?
It's a simple post comparing screen size, no more no less. It simply is what it is.
Your comment:
The question is "How does this impact my experience? " which your picture fails to answer.
I don't recall anyone asking the question and I certainly don't recall this being the reason I posted the pic so how does my "picture" fail to answer the question?
It's your question....maybe a new thread by you is in order to answer the questions that you are asking.

Stop for moment....listen....it's just a pic showing the differences in screen size.
Everything else you are talking about comes across as an apologist trying desperately to justify the smaller screen real estate.

I fail to see how I "justified" anything at all. I posted a pic that accurately portrays the difference in usable space in an easy to understand way. I apologize if you took offense to my criticism of your picture.

I also fail to see how providing even more information while also answering the initial question/inquiry is a bad thing.

 

[BBSeattle]

Yes, most of the time.
But it is also slightly wider that the M7.
Unscientific math shows the M8 with a 4.75" screen (when the onscreen buttons are showing, which is most of the time) and the M7 with a 4.7" screen.

Is M8 screen smaller than M7 in terms of length.

 

[killakumes]

sorry but i dont see buttons disappearing anytime soon. The beauty of andoid is options--and I dont see how google could reasonably enforce having on screen buttons. Not happening.

Ummm.... The same way they forced all phones to follow the multi-task button, home button, and back button or how every boot screen says powered by android. With every new android version Google makes a list of requirements for device manufactures wishing to use or apply a skin to android. Its also how they set hardware benchmarks to maximize the android experience for all their users. All you have to do is look at nexus devices to see the standards Google is going to roll out to all manufactures. On screen buttons will be the future for stock android and every other android powered device as well. Read into it, its quite interesting stuff.

Also in the spirit of customization on screen buttons are far more customizable by the end user

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

 

[Skyway]

I think Kevin's picture only confirms my thoughts---that the additional screen size on the M8 really is of no benefit. The M8 is undoubtedly larger and does have a larger viewing area for netflix and youtube videos. But for 98% of the time one is using the device--the on screen available real estate is narrowly smaller than the M7. That's somewhat perplexing and an interesting design choice by the HTC team. It would have made more sense for the on screen buttons to be located within the "HTC bezel" area.

But I'm no phone engineer. I just find the actual screen real estate on the S5 to be more useful and sensible. When I get a 5.1 inch phone--I want to be able to use as much screen as possible.

If you look closely at the picture, the m8's screen extends further to the edges on the sides. It may be marginal, but so is the difference in screen real estate you lose by having on screen buttons. Someone else did the math in another thread and the m8 actually has more screen real estate with the on screen buttons, but again it's marginal. I think they increased the screen size to accommodate the on screen buttons, not just to have a larger screen.

Personally I like the on screen buttons and they disappear when having them on the screen would hinder the experience, like movies or videos and a lot of games. My opinion of course

Posted via Android Central App

 

[BBSeattle]

No worries, no offense. Just not sure why you implied that my picture wasn't answering a question you made up.....why would it?
My post was simply showing that the M8 screen real estate is not exactly what many think it is, that's all. All the rest, you can answer.

I fail to see how I "justified" anything at all. I posted a pic that accurately portrays the difference in usable space in an easy to understand way. I apologize if you took offense to my criticism of your picture.

I also fail to see how providing even more information while also answering the initial question/inquiry is a bad thing.

 

[Almeuit]

Just my opinion, however I'm talking a cue from Google. They include them in their own phones, the Nexus line.

Posted via Android Central App

True... And the nexus line also runs their software with no bloat from carriers or any manufacturers since they provide them..

So by your logic is Google going to stop allowing bloatware from carriers and manufacturers?

Sent from my T-Mobile Note 3 using AC Forums.

 

[Skyway]

True... And the nexus line also runs their software with no bloat from carriers or any manufacturers since they provide them..

So by your logic is Google going to stop allowing bloatware from carriers and manufacturers?

Sent from my T-Mobile Note 3 using AC Forums.

Bloatware has nothing to do with the android software, that's added after each manufacture builds the phone and sends it out to the carriers.

Read a couple posts up, I'm not the only one who agrees that on screen buttons will be the future.

Posted via Android Central App