Worried about all the bad reviews on Galaxy S4

[Sam Cheong]

I have an AT&T 32 GB as well and I'm enjoying it. The phone can be quirky sometimes but overall I'm happy with it. My wife doesn't miss her iphone at all as well .

 

[Johnny Roberts]

No lag on my T-mobile s4. It performs beautifully. DO NOT hesitate to by this phone, you will not regret it.

 

[mayconvert]

ok. I couldn't stop myself. I took back my 14 day old LG OGP and traded for the S4.
ummm. Not sure where the lag thing came from. But I can't find any. The camera is amazing.
There are things I like better on the LG, and a few I like better on the Samsung. I'm a happy camper so far.

 

[kioko91]

Swapped my note 2 in for the s4 on my last day of best buys return policy (no restocking fee ftw) and I don't regret it.

I'm on Verizon, but I've always used nova launcher to hide their bloat. Turned off transitions in the dev options but left novas on. Phone is noticeably faster than the note and s3 in my experience. Plus being only 5' with tiny hands one handed operation was impossible. This phones size is perfect for me. I think you'll grow to love it once customized to your liking.

 

[anon(5421739)]

I always take reviews with a grain of salt and play with the phone myself in the store to get a feel for it. So far, it's been a great phone for me and I don't regret buying it.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[Notsosure]

I had all the iPhones except 5, switched to Note 2 for the android. I really loved the Note 2 but the size was getting to me and I really hated carrying it. Switched to a Droid DNA then switched to S4. No regrets. Love the device. I read plenty of reviews prior to switching over. No matter which phone review you look at there will always be bad reviews. The only way you will know whether you will love the device is just simply trying it out for a bit. I can say I made a great choice

Sent from my Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk

 

[dgfragile]

I got my Samsung S4 last week (upgraded from the iphone 4) ... it's great! Works well so far.

 

[L N]

Long time lurker on these forums, first time poster tonight.
Got Verizon S4 on Wednesday and am loving it. Of course I am upgrading from an old Droid2 and while I miss the slide out keyboard as I am a heavy email user, the S4 is a decent little computer and phone too. I mean think about it... its a computer that we can talk on and it won't totally replace the PC.

Read about the storage situation and I just took the 8G SD out of the old Droid2 and slid it in and everything came right over (photos and music.) No problems with space on the S4 either, but I'm not playing games on it. (OK, I've got a bunch of stupid games that I play to kill time but that's about it.) I still have 7.82 on the S4 and 2.33 on the SD (and I think I am going to get a bigger card.)

Bought another S4 for my son today as he graduated from HS and maintained his awesome scholarship to a very good school (no Senioritis and he got an A in Calculus which deserved to be rewarded) and he's thrilled with it. While setting it up from scratch I bought him 32GB SD for his iTunes and photos, and haven't had any problems with him doing anything as he's figuring things out pretty well.

Also I am very impressed with the battery life of the S4. Out of the box on Wednesday I set it up and charged it for an hour. Used it for 6 hours straight on the internet, playing music and taking photos before I needed to charge it. Even now its still at 27% after being on for 12 hours and used a lot.

If you're concerned about battery life, just turn off some of the energy hogs as recommended on these forums. I've not had any problems with lag either but I'm not watching movies or TV shows on the S4. Where I live I am on the edge of 3G/4G service and sometimes I have no service at all depending on the weather. (ATT/Sprint/T-Mobile doesn't even work out here.) So I'm very happy when I do have service on my phone and calls don't drop. Have had good weather here while using the phone so no calls have dropped. (Phones and internet out here in the country is comical as I'm the very last house on the line for DSL and sometimes that's iffy too.)

Anyways, there are a lot of super-users and tech-savvy people on these boards, and I've learned a lot here over the years when I had a problem or question about my old Droid2 as I could just lurk and get my answer. I'm writing about the S4 because I think the vast majority of people who get this phone will be like me: somewhat tech savvy but not an expert, probably not going to jailbreak or root anything, and want a computer/email/phone that is dependable with a decent battery life. I'm still on my honeymoon with the S4 but don't have any regrets after six days of steady use. Had there been any issues the kid would not have gotten one. (He wanted an iPhone but can't replace battery or slide in a memory card.)

 

[Jim Seth]

I am coming from iPhone (started off with 1st gen until 5) and honestly I can't be more happy with this phone, customization is endless (not rooted yet) and I can control my phone the way I want. As far as lag is concerned I haven't found one yet, I am still relatively new to android world and learning all the tricks it's a great phone, you won't regret it !!

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[Zod1010]

I had the HTC One for a week, and returned it this weekend for the S4. I don't notice any lag. Granted, I've disabled some of the unnecessary, gimmicky "Air" features, but the phone is very fast.

People get too caught up with their phone choices. Both models are excellent, and both surpass anything that's come before it. So in essence, picking either will mean your next cell phone will be the best cell phone you've ever owned.

 

[bukowski on ice]

Take into account that a lot of people who first purchase and don't go into the system settings to configure the phone for optimal use (changing the power settings or app settings which use memory in the background of the OS) might end up with some lag that they weren't expecting. But while going through this thread, it seems like most people didn't have any lag problems even without changing settings. It's an impressive piece of hardware from what I've experienced so far. I for one am pleased with it.

 

[garublador]

I've had the Verizon S4 since last Thursday. There are times when the animation stutters a bit, but it doesn't actually slow down the phone. It just seems to be an animation thing for the most part and it isn't always there. I switched to the Nova launcher becasue on TouchWiz I could only figure out how to get 4 rows of icons but on Nova I get 5. I don't need a little key telling me what home screen I'm on, I can tell that by the content of each screen. I see the "lag" in Nova sometimes, too but it doesn't seem to be quite as bad. It didn't really bother me in TouchWiz, either, so how big of a deal it really is will depend on your personal preference.

The only software complaints I might have are similar with what I've experienced with every other Android phone. I don't know if it's me or the SD cards I've had or what, but every once in a while my phone won't recognize the SD card when I boot it up. This has happened with every Android phone I've used: Motorola Droid (worst), Motorola Droid X2 (just occasionally), and the S4 (only once so far but the phone is new). There's also a greater than what seems like should be necessary time it takes to open the camera, but only sometimes. It's not nearly as bad on the S4, but the performance is inconsistent. Sometimes it comes up immediately, sometimes it takes a couple seconds. My older two phones were orders of magnitude worse. I've just chalked these up to Android issues rather than phone specific issues.

The only hardware complaint I have so far is that it's a slippery bugger. My Droid X2 had a tackier, matte finish and didn't slide around. The S4 slides all over the place.

 

[Notsosure]

I've had the Verizon S4 since last Thursday. There are times when the animation stutters a bit, but it doesn't actually slow down the phone. It just seems to be an animation thing for the most part and it isn't always there. I switched to the Nova launcher becasue on TouchWiz I could only figure out how to get 4 rows of icons but on Nova I get 5. I don't need a little key telling me what home screen I'm on, I can tell that by the content of each screen. I see the "lag" in Nova sometimes, too but it doesn't seem to be quite as bad. It didn't really bother me in TouchWiz, either, so how big of a deal it really is will depend on your personal preference.

The only software complaints I might have are similar with what I've experienced with every other Android phone. I don't know if it's me or the SD cards I've had or what, but every once in a while my phone won't recognize the SD card when I boot it up. This has happened with every Android phone I've used: Motorola Droid (worst), Motorola Droid X2 (just occasionally), and the S4 (only once so far but the phone is new). There's also a greater than what seems like should be necessary time it takes to open the camera, but only sometimes. It's not nearly as bad on the S4, but the performance is inconsistent. Sometimes it comes up immediately, sometimes it takes a couple seconds. My older two phones were orders of magnitude worse. I've just chalked these up to Android issues rather than phone specific issues.

The only hardware complaint I have so far is that it's a slippery bugger. My Droid X2 had a tackier, matte finish and didn't slide around. The S4 slides all over the place.

In regards to the lag there was a post showing how to activate the developer option. Went in, disabled the animations, now it works like a charm

Sent from my Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk

 

[LegalAmerican]

There's always going to be positive and negative reviews of every device. I assure you, I personally have a talent of being able to see either side and play "Devil's Advocate" if I needed to. Especially if I was paid by my employer to provide a counter point.

See for yourself what you think, and consider the negative AND positive reviews but don't let either sway your decision. Your own experience is worth fifty thousand reviews. If you like it, great. If you don't, return it and try something else.

 

[rugmankc]

One update on phone. SVoice works great with Maps. Best ever voice dictation for me. And Web browser rendering/reflow is much better than my One S.

Sent From My 32gb Samsung Galaxy S4 Running Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[YragTtocs]

I've always had the biggest iphone. I've moved from iPhone 4S 64GB and it was nearly full with podcasts and music! I was worried too about the memory but I know we've only started getting the 32GB S3 in the UK so the chances of the 32/64GB S4 any time soon were going to be very slim.

Got my 64GB card form Amazon for around ?44 and my S4 with all the apps I had on my iphone and all the other stuff have still left me with loads of internal memory. All my music is on the SD card. Happy days.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Android Central Forums

 

[Olivia23]

Well I should get it tomorrow and I'm so excited I can hardly wait, it feels like Christmas! I don't think I'll have a problem with the 16gig because most of my gigs add up because of music, pictures and videos. I don't like a ton of apps on my phone and tend to delete the ones I don't use much. I just hope I don't have any major bugs with the phone like some have.

 

[droidlouise]

take a look at the Speck Candy Wrapper Cover - it's not bad protection and provides a really good grip