galaxy s4 or no?

[maddangerous]

Hey guys, im in a bit of a pickle. im wondering about smartphones, as i can get one later today, and im pretty settled on the Samsung Galaxy S4.

But i want to know what TF thinks.

It seems it has better hardware than any other smartphone, yet i have heard a few people say not to get it (and couldnt produce a valid explanation of why )


So.. is there any reason for NOT getting this phone?
id like to know:

why
and show me some form of proof (specs, personal experience, etc)

Edit: audio quality is kind of a big deal for me, so how is listening to music/watching videos through the S4 if anyone knows?

note: i saw This thread between the S3/4 and the Motorola razr MAXX HD, which was my second choice. The droid DNA is my third choice.

 

[KSoD]

If you want Audio Quality, go with the new HTC One. That has the best speakers available on the market right now. It beats the S4 an any other device out on the market in audio quality. Dont take my word for it, there are plenty of reviews that say the same thing.

HTC One, two months on ... | Android Central

That is just one of the many out there. You can see they have a section dedicated to the audio and even bring up the S4 in the article.

Other than that the S4 is hampered in the States. It is only a Quad Core rated at 1.9GHz. It isnt that much faster than the CPU in the HTC One or the new LG Optimus G Pro. Both are rated at 1.7GHz but using the SnapDragon 600 CPU. Which from what I hear is a bit better performance wise than the Qualcom CPU in the S4. If the S4 was international with the Octa Core then it would be worth it. But since they basically just vamped up the SIII to a Quad Core instead of Dual Core and gave you .3 inches more in screen size by reducing the Bezel, it isnt all that it is cracked up to be.

The Razr line is quirky at best. I know of several people have have used a few different versions of the Razr line and all of them have had issues at once point or another. 1 good friend of mine went through 4 different Razr phones before they replaced it out with a Samsung Nexus for him. 3 of the phones would not get data, no matter what. The other phones couldnt get any signal at all.

I dont know much about the Droid DNA. From what I see it is a bit slower than the HTC One, and S4. It is only rated at 1.5GHz compared to the 1.7 and 1.9 of the others. That shouldnt matter to much in the long run. But it will depend on the apps being run as well.

Also it is noted in several reviews from Android Central that the S4 can lag at times. I have seen it stated in several of their topics. I held an S4 today and operated it for about 10 minutes. It does have some nice features. Just swipe the screen to take a screenshot is a nice trick, but since the same can be accomplished with a hold of Power+home, it really is more of a gimmick on "Look what I can do" compared to other devices.

Other than that I really dont see what the S4 has to offer that cant be done on other devices. The only main draw I see is that it is already on Android 4.2.2 while the rest are still on 4.1.2, so it does have that going for it.

I am guessing that your going for Verizon based phones?

 

[iFargle]

To add to that, the HTC one has the best build quality of any phone out right now IMO.

Buuuuut.... Support would be an issue for me. In that case I'd go with the GSIV simply because of community / company support (rooting, custom ROMS, etc) I could care less about all the "features" they throw on the phone (software trickery stuff)

 

[carnageX]

To add to that, the HTC one has the best build quality of any phone out right now IMO.

Buuuuut.... Support would be an issue for me. In that case I'd go with the GSIV simply because of community / company support (rooting, custom ROMS, etc) I could care less about all the "features" they throw on the phone (software trickery stuff)

Don't worry, dev's will get on the One . They were determined to get AOSP working on my Rezound, so one guy pretty much coded up a custom RIL to get it working lol.

 

[Trotter]

The announcement of the "Nexus experience" GS4 coming out on Google sounds interesting.

 

[iFargle]

As much as I don't like the pasticy-ness of the back... I would really, really, really like one of these. It may be my next phone if I can convince myself $650 is worth it...

 

[maddangerous]

As much as I don't like the pasticy-ness of the back... I would really, really, really like one of these. It may be my next phone if I can convince myself $650 is worth it...

Same here, long long long story in a nutshell, i have an iphone 4 now :grumpy: i hate idevices... It is rather nice though i shall admit.

So if you can justify it, tell me please so i can too!! Lol

 

[fretinapaul]

Same here, long long long story in a nutshell, i have an iphone 4 now :grumpy: i hate idevices... It is rather nice though i shall admit.

So if you can justify it, tell me please so i can too!! Lol

You are right, Iphone devices are becoming worst to handle and use. Samsung Tablets, Google nexsus4 have more advanced features and looks good and easy to handle.

 

[redbuLL1397]

Yup.S4 is better than any idevices.