Anyone else have second thoughts on getting a S4 now that HTC One is getting rave reviews?

Beards said:

Yes, unfortunately I'm the one prattling on so I sincerely apologies in advance.
It used to be fine when we had apps like Apps2SD which would at least allow you to transfer Apps and data files to an external card but Google being Google who simply do not like external storage took out the option of App and data transfer with Jelly Bean.

It annoys me no end when on one side we have one telling us we must use internal storage and the Cloud but on the other side we have the manufacturer not providing suffice internal storage and developers giving us great apps at the cost of storage space...... The two just do not meet.

It is a great shame for me personally. I have several medical apps which although are only 50MB in size they however require well over 1GB each of added files, all that have to be stored with the main app.

Oh for a metal S4 (hint.... could be on the cards by the end of the year) with it being a 128GB model to boot.

Click to expand...

Exactly.

What I want, no one makes -

• Sufficient storage so I don't have to manage one single thing, or, as little as possible, much, much less than now.
• All user storage accessed via USB mass storage, no more MTP, no more special PC add-ons to get to my stuff - all accessible with the world's simplest USB driver for any Windows, and no add-ons for a Mac or Linux PC.
  • This can be done with an extra software layer between the USB port and memory storage, so stop telling me how hardware works, you manufacturers. If you can not figure how to apply an internal client/server model for that, pay me, I'll do it for you.
  • And you can still share storage while connected, just like MTP, only without the Mickey Mousing around.
  • Don't tell me that my internal storage has to be FAT32 to be accessed via USB storage. With a client/server model and a hardware buffer or two, that's not true.
• If there must be separate partitions for /data (where user apps+data go) and user storage, then give me a slider that I can use any time to raise one, lower the other
• If that's all one partition, fine. Do not break it into folders and hold my hand with MTP. Did I mention that I hate MTP? Because it basically sucks?
• No more bragging about how they've done me a favor with the new age of Honeycomb/ICS/Jellybean storage. The file system models are not modern, they're still stone age, better alternatives exist, fix it.
  • Oh, yes you can span internal storage and an external card and address it all as one filesystem as far as the user is concerned. Advanced Linux platforms do this every single freaking day. Don't tell me you can't.
• Give me that with options that include 96 and 128 GB.
• If you want to use a card for that, fine. How about making the device recognize SDXC/UHS-1 instead of just SDHC/Class 10 and letting me triple my bandwidth?
  • This just in, we're all sick and tired of hearing that widgets cannot go on to the sd card because of boot-time mounting issues and sd card speed. Fix it, we've only been complaining for years about that.

Except for one component described above, and I could be wrong on even that not already laying around somewhere, all of the technology I describe _exists_.



But it doesn't exist on a smartphone.

BzB said:

for android i think the battery discussion and sd card storage are more relevant than on the iphone. why?

the iphone typically has good battery life given comparable usage and battery size to an android phone (non-rooted). android phones can run through battery faster due to multitasking functionality, lte, etc. it's easy to lose track of how fast your battery is depleting or how long you can go before you need to recharge. being able to swap in a fresh battery is a huge benefit to power users or a huge relief to users that don't monitor their battery closely. also consider the flexibility of being able to put in an extended battery for even longer up time.

the sd card storage provides a "safe zone" for media on an android phone. updates, upgrades, flashing roms (for rooted phones), can put on board storage in jeopardy of being lost. i've seen a lot of cases where galaxy nexus users lost all of their data while performing a simple carrier upgrade. an sd card can be easily removed which pretty much eliminates the possibility of data being lost by accident. it also makes data storage and arrangement a cinch since you can just pop out the card, plug it into your computer and have it recognized as a drive. sometimes computers\android act funky when you plug in your phone and how it recognizes internal storage. for iphones i suppose they have some of the same risks, but not as much since most of the onboard storage is saved in itunes.

so...in terms of the sg4 and the one, user preference is a significant driver, but the practicality and flexibility of sd card storage / swappable battery is an undeniable advantage imo.

Click to expand...

That battery thing varies by user.

We have a few new One owners claiming better battery life than their iPhone 5 models - no rooting, no babysitting. (side note - I'll put my phone, stock, up against an iPhone for most battery uses and either win or tie in many categories, and it's a 2012 job.)

I expect to hear the same with iPhone 5 -> SGS4 converts.

I think the place where a battery option really excels is for those with not-great phone reception.

When that happens, the biggest power consumer stops being the screen and starts being the cell phone radios.

No handset can fix that. Either the carriers up their tower game, or you need a battery option, if that problem applies to you.

EarlyMon said:

Exactly.

What I want, no one makes -

• Sufficient storage so I don't have to manage one single thing, or, as little as possible, much, much less than now.
• All user storage accessed via USB mass storage, no more MTP, no more special PC add-ons to get to my stuff - all accessible with the world's simplest USB driver for any Windows, and no add-ons for a Mac or Linux PC.
  • This can be done with an extra software layer between the USB port and memory storage, so stop telling me how hardware works, you manufacturers. If you can not figure how to apply an internal client/server model for that, pay me, I'll do it for you.
  • And you can still share storage while connected, just like MTP, only without the Mickey Mousing around.
  • Don't tell me that my internal storage has to be FAT32 to be accessed via USB storage. With a client/server model and a hardware buffer or two, that's not true.
• If there must be separate partitions for /data (where user apps+data go) and user storage, then give me a slider that I can use any time to raise one, lower the other
• If that's all one partition, fine. Do not break it into folders and hold my hand with MTP. Did I mention that I hate MTP? Because it basically sucks?
• No more bragging about how they've done me a favor with the new age of Honeycomb/ICS/Jellybean storage. The file system models are not modern, they're still stone age, better alternatives exist, fix it.
  • Oh, yes you can span internal storage and an external card and address it all as one filesystem as far as the user is concerned. Advanced Linux platforms do this every single freaking day. Don't tell me you can't.
• Give me that with options that include 96 and 128 GB.
• If you want to use a card for that, fine. How about making the device recognize SDXC/UHS-1 instead of just SDHC/Class 10 and letting me triple my bandwidth?
  • This just in, we're all sick and tired of hearing that widgets cannot go on to the sd card because of boot-time mounting issues and sd card speed. Fix it, we've only been complaining for years about that.

Except for one component described above, and I could be wrong on even that not already laying around somewhere, all of the technology I describe _exists_.



But it doesn't exist on a smartphone.

Click to expand...

Excellent..... I personally would not add any further comment to that reply, it would not serve as any justice. :thumb:

chris2k5 said:

Not really. The market for removeable battery and SD slot account for very little of the target audience.

Both removable battery and SD slot are easily fixed:

1. Instead of carrying that spare battery around, carry an external battery that is around the same size.

2. HTC gives you 32GB out of the box instead of 16GB already. More than enough.

Click to expand...

I'd be very curious to see the link(s) to studies that backs up your statements. Or are you simply basing that off of your own sentiments.
And 32GB is more than enough? According to who, you? Did you happen to notice the 2 major reasons people flooding to this thread have for why they won't get the One are the two reasons you say don't matter? Smh

lou61166 said:

samsung radios have been known to not be great.

Click to expand...

this is the exact reason I hate my GS2, I will never get another Samsung phone again, I have my HTC One preordered can't wait for it to get here this Friday 04/19/2013

Ok, we've pretty well beaten the radio horse to death.

This thread cannot contain all of the ongoing past arguments.

Few here have used the One, only one has used the SGS4, let's stick to these phones.

Cheers, thanks.

Beards said:

Unfortunately not the UK market SIM Free.
This market will only see the 16GB model released at launch.
Further, it has been noted once you switch on a new S4 for the first time that 16GB will have dropped to 9.8GB remaining.

As I mentioned before, with Apps increasing in their additional data files at an alarming rate it simply gives little longevity in owning and using a 16GB S4.

Click to expand...

Simply let us choose where we install applications like you would on a PC, it would make life so much easier.

But I know, Google will never allow that as it would make sdcards more useful which they don't want and manufacturers like charging premiums for devices with more memory.

Shocky said:

Simply let us choose where we install applications like you would on a PC, it would make life so much easier.

But I know, Google will never allow that as it would make sdcards more useful which they don't want and manufacturers like charging premiums for devices with more memory.

Click to expand...

Linux filesystems support file ownership and execution rights flags.

FAT volumes like sd cards do not. They're as technically limited as the imagination allows.

The radio on the HTC isn't very good so if you want to use it off WiFi, you'd best be in a good signal area. If you are in 'moderate' to 'weak' you'll spend a lot of time without service. I have seen it fail carrier tests, but they have to range it regardless because of the strong demand.

Source? Because I've heard a lot of people say the opposite.

nomunk said:

this is the exact reason I hate my GS2, I will never get another Samsung phone again, I have my HTC One preordered can't wait for it to get here this Friday 04/19/2013

Click to expand...

The HTC One radio is very bad. And I mean even worse than the iPhone 5. I strongly suggest you test one first before you commit to a long contract.

Hadron said:

Source? Because I've heard a lot of people say the opposite.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately I cannot be specific because of NDAs, but I work in the mobile phone industry in the UK and get all these devices for early testing. I also see the known issues sent out by manufacturers and networks.

But I can show you this. Same network, both devices right next to each other. I just realised the times are different. I guess that will get the theorists going but this is just because of our testing - I grabbed each off the guys doing them to do this for you.

Both of these are final hardware. The S4 is not final software.

Can you do that with a dBm display?

Just a random image I found with both phones showing signal weakness in HTC One in comparison (this is not factual evidence just something I found).

There's no SIM in the One in that picture (that's a SIM error icon next to the signal bars), so it won't have any network signal.

Dizzyfish said:

Unfortunately I cannot be specific because of NDAs, but I work in the mobile phone industry in the UK and get all these devices for early testing. I also see the known issues sent out by manufacturers and networks.

But I can show you this. Same network, both devices right next to each other. I just realised the times are different. I guess that will get the theorists going but this is just because of our testing - I grabbed each off the guys doing them to do this for you.

Both of these are final hardware. The S4 is not final software.

Click to expand...

Welcome to the forums!

So, as you've made the claim that theorists won't believe you, I'd like to play.

Are you familiar with unix or its variants? Swell tool it has, called strings, you can use it to pull exif or equivalent data out of a photo in a jiffy. Let's look at yours -

[HIGH]$ strings Img_4206_zps4a27b250.jpg | more
JFIF
>CREATOR: gd-jpeg v1.0 (using IJG JPEG v62), default quality
$.' ",#
(7),01444
(etc etc snipped)
[/HIGH]That's not JFIF or EXIF data is it? No, that photo has been processed with the GD library (by Tom Boutell, whom I have nothing but respect for having used and recommended his tools myself).

You can do a lot with GD, it's sort of like a photoshop for web developers, I believe that many use it to merge images with logos and watermarks for example.

As I've just now downloaded a few photobucket photos from other members here, I'm seeing identifiers for their phone cameras - so the GD processing was not done by photobucket.

I notice that you list your name for all to see in your profile and it matches the photobucket account you used here. A simple google search indicates that this is your firm and their business -

Home | Lucid CX

Sounds like a VERY good company with innovative solutions to me.


I was especially interested in the part about developing comparative tools.

Now, given that we have several members here who already own the One, and all but one has been happy with its reception (and his does seem to be rather defective by not matching results of others, he's going to get that checked), and given that the timestamps are different, and given that the photo presented was processed and is not raw, and given that LucidCX is in the marketing and customer support fields and not the hardware testing business at all...

I count that as at least three strikes, so I think I'll be among those theorists that would like to take your presentation with a grain of salt.

Let's say a very large grain.

PS - unless you can explain why the shadow made by the light from the right on the One was not diffused by the light from above on the Samsung, along with the other facts I've presented, I think that I'll simply have to call shenanigans here.

trparky said:

Non-removable battery is an instant no-go for me. Batteries do lose their ability to hold a charge over time and when that happens, what will you do? You're at the mercy of your carrier/insurance provider/warranty provider to replace the battery for you. And that usually involves replacing the whole phone. Nope. Sorry, that doesn't fly with me.

If and when that happens with the S4, all I have to do is walk into my carrier's retail store, buy a new battery, pop the back of the phone off, remove old battery and install new battery. Instant new battery!

Much easier than having to rely on getting a new phone just for a new battery.

Click to expand...

Initially this was my thought too. However I've had my HTC Evo 3D now for 2 years, and the battery still works fine. After having a device for 2 years you will get pretty sick of it, and likely will be itching to upgrade to a newer device anyway. I've never had a battery fail on this type of device after only a couple years, my battery in my iPod died but that was after 7 years and after sitting in my car in winter and summer. So in short, while it's nice to be able to swap out a defective battery, this isn't a deal breaker for me as I'll be upgrading to a new phone in 2 years anyway and very rarely do batteries fail that soon.

For the SD card slot, it all depends on how you use it. I won't have video on my phone (video eats up lots of space), and I'll have limited music as I already have all my music on my iPod, and my car has an iPod interface. So I have no need to put all my music on my phone. If I did, then I'd agree I'd want an SD card slot as 32GB wouldn't be enough. But my phone now has 8GB and I'm only using 4GB, so more then likely 32GB will be more then I will ever need on my phone. This won't be the case for everyone however. I also have a Asus Infinity tablet which I can insert a micro SD card, and can store videos and photos on there (for use with a larger screen).

So it all depends on your usage. If you're not using 32GB of space on your current device, then lack of expandable memory likely won't be an issue. If you find you need a lot more space, then I agree lack of expandable memory would be a deal breaker. But don't just write off the HTC One based on lack of expandable memory unless you've looked at your usage and determined you will need more then the 32GB that comes with the One. Galaxy S4 16GB will cost the same as the HTC One 32GB, but the S4 has expandable memory. But if you figure the extra 16GB that the One offers, you'd need a minimum of a 32GB+ card in the S4 (16+16=32, same as the One) to see any more space then you'd get with the HTC One.

The main thing I'm concerned about with the HTC One vs S4 is the timeliness of Android updates. HTC used to be good, but I got burned with my Evo 3D as that upgrade to ICS took forever and a day. It's hard to tell if that was because the 3D was a device that never caught on and they didn't dedicate many resources to it, or if it was a broader sign of HTC issuing updates overall. So at the moment I'm assuming the S4 will get faster and more frequent updates on Sprint then will the HTC One, but that's not to say HTC won't turn things around and be better then the S4. This is the main thing I'm concerned about, that and because the HTC one has the lack of a dedicated menu button this requires HTC to update Android to provide an overlay that provides you with a soft menu button. Where the S4 has a menu button, so less updating Samsung has to do with stock Android then HTC will.

Dizzyfish said:

The HTC One radio is very bad. And I mean even worse than the iPhone 5. I strongly suggest you test one first before you commit to a long contract.

Click to expand...

im only one year into my current contract so im gonna pay full price for the HTC One, but now I might just wait until the S4 launches first to test both out.

nomunk said:

im only one year into my current contract so im gonna pay full price for the HTC One, but now I might just wait until the S4 launches first to test both out.

Click to expand...

I think that's always an excellent approach at all times.

But not because of a questioned photo, but rather just because.

I want to keep my unlimited data, so I pay Best Buy for the trade in option. Total cost works out very similar to a two year deal minus the contract or losing unlimited data.

EarlyMon said:

Linux filesystems support file ownership and execution rights flags.

FAT volumes like sd cards do not. They're as technically limited as the imagination allows.

Click to expand...

I'm sure they could come up with a solution for this if they really wanted too.

Afterall it's already possible for rooted users to do this, i'm using my 64GB microsd for applications myself.

BTW, the height dimensions for the One and SGS4 are 136.6 vs. 137.4 - the One is less than one millimeter taller.

I applied a simple rectangle to see if the photo in question passed muster.


Because of the perspective difference, I repeated it at the midpoints in an effort to give every opportunity.


Enlarge or shink on your monitor to actual size.

Not exactly less than a millimeter difference, now is it?

Even if his picture is not fake, comparing just bars is not so useful. You need to test dbm, speedtest, browsing, etc.

Shocky said:

I'm sure they could come up with a solution for this if they really wanted too.

Afterall it's already possible for rooted users to do this, i'm using my 64GB microsd for applications myself.

Click to expand...

I agree, as said earlier - http://androidforums.com/samsung-ga...htc-one-getting-rave-reviews-post5740165.html

It was rumored that the GS4 would have a different lens made by Sony. Anyone else hear that?