[RANT] Are any of you disappointed with the Galaxy S4?

[davoid]

You are in fact a perfect candidate for the S4, like I've stated a good hand full of times towards S2 owners...It will make for a very nice phone for you!

However the point I was making goes a little something like this.
If you were an S3 owner instead of an S2 owner, would you be making the switch to the S4? Do you think the S4 is so much better then the S3?

I totally agree. You already asked me whether I would be upgrading from my S3 to the S4 and I doubt it. It doesn't seem much of an upgrade that is true. But then again the offerings from other manufacturers don't either.

However I am interested to see how it performs with the new battery. A significant improvement in the phone's stamina might tempt a number of S3 owners to change. It is a considerable increase in capacity - roughly 25% which could add another 6 hours onto a single charge for the average user. And for someone who thinks it an inelegant solution to remove your case and phone back in order to swap out the battery, it would make it a much more attractive proposition.

 

[lennydude]

I can understand your points 100% Sean and agree with most of them but what else is there that is a better phone. I have owned HTC and will never again put myself through that crap again unless they change their ways which has not happened up until now.

The material the phone is made of is a zero point to me. I always have and will use some sort of a case so what the back of the phone is made of doesn't really matter to me at least.
I think the S3 is a better phone than the iPhone 5 and if history proves itself Apple will be releasing a iPhone 5S which will have a compass, or Siri, or their map program and all the Appleites will line up and buy the crap.

I am afraid we are in a position that stinks. I really do believe that the OEM's have come to a point where the "smartphone" has reached its useful limit. What else can they cram into the software that we actually need, and the hardware is more than able to run any software they throw at it.

We need new tech, NOT a new smartphone

 

[The_Chief]

As much as I would like to love the S4, I don't. Great software innovations, sure... but Sammy just can't lose that home button, can they? Do they really think users will miss it that much compared to soft keys like the Galaxy Nexus? They'll miss it: for about 5 seconds.

All I can say is the features on this phone set us up for some EPIC phones (Maybe X? Nexus 5?) come fall/winter... right when many of us are due for a new one

 

[Rxpert83]

As much as I would like to love the S4, I don't. Great software innovations, sure... but Sammy just can't lose that home button, can they? Do they really think users will miss it that much compared to soft keys like the Galaxy Nexus? They'll miss it: for about 5 seconds.

All I can say is the features on this phone set us up for some EPIC phones (Maybe X? Nexus 5?) come fall/winter... right when many of us are due for a new one

I would rather have all capacitative then the physical home, but I would not want all software like a nexus for my main device

 

[Drew5150]

I would rather have all capacitative then the physical home, but I would not want all software like a nexus for my main device

+1 all android phones should come like that. Can we please have search back Google?

 

[trparky]

I don't understand all this hatred about a physical Home button. Why all this hate? I just don't understand why.

 

[markyboy81]

I don't understand all this hatred about a physical Home button. Why all this hate? I just don't understand why.

I'm with you on this one, I actually quite like the home button, it gives you another way of unlocking the phone. I have a galaxy note tablet and although I can see the sense of not having one on a tablet, it does infuriate me sometimes.
I think on a phone I'd just keep hitting it by mistake like I do with the menu and back buttons!
I have an s3 and I may buy the s4. If I'm able to sell the s3 for half the price of the s4 then I'll probably do it

 

[Slug]

If you were an S3 owner instead of an S2 owner, would you be making the switch to the S4?

LTE support only arrived recently in European S3s, so I expect a lot of interest in the S4 from many S3 owners now that LTE is more widespread.

 

[sean76]

LTE support only arrived recently in European S3s, so I expect a lot of interest in the S4 from many S3 owners now that LTE is more widespread.

Good point...Kind of like all us nexus 4 owners using HSPA+, and then bam the nexus 5 releases with LTE

I'd agree on Europe for interest being piked on the S4 if one owns an S3 and want's some fast LTE. But I doubt that buzz will be as high for S3 owners here in the States, since they already have a similar LTE S3...

However T-mobile has yet to roll LTE out, so they're customers may be a little more willing then say an at&t, vzw, or Sprint customer.

 

[jackdubl]

I totally agree. You already asked me whether I would be upgrading from my S3 to the S4 and I doubt it. It doesn't seem much of an upgrade that is true. But then again the offerings from other manufacturers don't either.

However I am interested to see how it performs with the new battery. A significant improvement in the phone's stamina might tempt a number of S3 owners to change. It is a considerable increase in capacity - roughly 25% which could add another 6 hours onto a single charge for the average user. And for someone who thinks it an inelegant solution to remove your case and phone back in order to swap out the battery, it would make it a much more attractive proposition.

That's what I'm waiting on. Battery life.

 

[FinancialWar]

That's what I'm waiting on. Battery life.

Why would you want to upgrade because of the larger battery capacity on the S4?

There are a plethora aftermarket extended battery available for the S3, check the S3 accessories forum on XDA, you can get ZeroLemon 7000mha for the S3.

 

[davoid]

Why would you want to upgrade because of the larger battery capacity on the S4?

There are a plethora aftermarket extended battery available for the S3, check the S3 accessories forum on XDA, you can get ZeroLemon 7000mha for the S3.

Some of us don't want a big ugly battery stuck onto the back of our phones that more than doubles its thickness. If we can get better battery performance within the same or even smaller form factor, then that is what we'd rather have, and that is presumably what the S4 has delivered.

 

[jhawkkw]

Some of us don't want a big ugly battery stuck onto the back of our phones that more than doubles its thickness. If we can get better battery performance within the same or even smaller form factor, then that is what we'd rather have, and that is presumably what the S4 has delivered.

The battery is bigger in capacity, but I have a feeling performance is going to be roughly the same. It might improve a little bit, but if so not by much. The increase in screen size combined with going from 720p to 1080p is going to cause more power consumption and effectively make it a wash.

 

[FinancialWar]

Some of us don't want a big ugly battery stuck onto the back of our phones that more than doubles its thickness. If we can get better battery performance within the same or even smaller form factor, then that is what we'd rather have, and that is presumably what the S4 has delivered.

Obviously you don't haven't done any research on batteries for the S3. There are extended batteries with larger capacity that comes in the stock size.

 

[davoid]

The battery is bigger in capacity, but I have a feeling performance is going to be roughly the same. It might improve a little bit, but if so not by much. The increase in screen size combined with going from 720p to 1080p is going to cause more power consumption and effectively make it a wash.

Well I'm not too sure about the display using much more power. It's only 0.2 of an inch larger, and although it's got more pixels they're smaller. I don't know if the technical facts about smaller pixels using less power will back up my theory but it seems sound. If each pixel emits less light then it presumably uses less power. I'm just putting it out there as a possibility

 

[davoid]

Obviously you don't haven't done any research on batteries for the S3. There are extended batteries with larger capacity that comes in the stock size.

Obviously you shouldn't make assumptions about what research I've done and use the word "obviously" as I particularly had in mind that monster of a battery that you specifically mentioned in your post.

I've looked for larger capacity batteries of stock dimensions but the only one I've seen that is reported to match the claimed capacity is the mugen but it was only 2200mAh iirc and hardly much of an improvement, although I haven't checked recently as it's not a priority for me. I saw some Chinese brand called Gold on a Note forum on xda that people were enthusing about but I didn't find one for the s3 that had confirmed actual capacity as it was claiming an optimistic 3600mAh or thereabouts.

EDIT: I apologize if my initial response to your advice seemed unappreciative. I didn't mean to demean your advice. It was just a kneejerk reaction to my mental image of that zero lemon battery and I know your suggestion was well intentioned and I never intended any disrespect. It's just that battery man!

 

[EarlyMon]

Let's assume that common-sense predictions are reasonable.

Let's also assume that until the phone and its options are in are in our hands, that it's more reasonable to assume that all questions on the table are 100% valid - because none of us actually KNOWS what the SGS4 will be like, just looking at the SGS3 may - or may not - be enough.

Cheers!

 

[maryli753]

i think on the whole, the galaxy s4 is worth your consideration, though looks extremely similar to the Galaxy S3, but seeing from the specs, it will be better than the upcoming iPhone 5S>>>>

 

[kylegrant]

plus samsung did some amazing stuff with the gs4 which i don't think people paid attention to.

1. The width of the phone went down from 70.6 to 69.8mm. This means the gs4 will be easier to hold than the gs4, if only slightly.....

2. The battery is well sized, but the battery size isn't all they did. They made the phone 7.9mm thick. The gs3 was 8.6mm thick.....

amazing!!

 

[Gomjaba]

As much as I would like to love the S4, I don't. Great software innovations, sure... but Sammy just can't lose that home button, can they? Do they really think users will miss it that much compared to soft keys like the Galaxy Nexus? They'll miss it: for about 5 seconds.

All I can say is the features on this phone set us up for some EPIC phones (Maybe X? Nexus 5?) come fall/winter... right when many of us are due for a new one

What I hate more than the home button is the touch sensitive back button - I cannot count the amount of times I accidentally hit that in a game and screwed up the progress as a result.

 

[jhawkkw]

Well I'm not too sure about the display using much more power. It's only 0.2 of an inch larger, and although it's got more pixels they're smaller. I don't know if the technical facts about smaller pixels using less power will back up my theory but it seems sound. If each pixel emits less light then it presumably uses less power. I'm just putting it out there as a possibility

Granted this was on a Tegra 3 processor, but going from the transformer prime 10.1 tablet that was 720p, to the transformer infinity of the same size and battery but 1080p saw battery life reduce by 40 percent. These newer processors might be better at handling it the extra pixels so the decrease won't be that bad.

 

[davoid]

Granted this was on a Tegra 3 processor, but going from the transformer prime 10.1 tablet that was 720p, to the transformer infinity of the same size and battery but 1080p saw battery life reduce by 40 percent. These newer processors might be better at handling it the extra pixels so the decrease won't be that bad.

Wow, that's quite a reduction. You know I didn't consider that gaming could be a bigger battery drain. A GPU rendering 3D at a much higher resolution is going to use more power. It will be interesting to see how our speculations pan out.

 

[ChiTownJim]

Jim where u been hiding man? I thought you we're an HTC die hard , with all that love you gave to your original Droid Incredible...lol

I just never really come on this site anymore, I use to really modify my phones before changing the rom and or kernel every few days. I don't really do that anymore, seems like most phones just come with the features I need now.
I use to love htc but after the rezound I jumped ship for a Galaxy nexus then an s3 and now a note 2. Love Samsung, but I was really close to gerting a DNA (bought a DNA for my dad as a Xmas gift) the build and screen of the DNA is so much better then my note 2 but only 16gb of storage, non removable undersized battery and no pen, killed it for me

 

[sean76]

I just never really come on this site anymore, I use to really modify my phones before changing the rom and or kernel every few days. I don't really do that anymore, seems like most phones just come with the features I need now.
I use to love htc but after the rezound I jumped ship for a Galaxy nexus then an s3 and now a note 2. Love Samsung, but I was really close to gerting a DNA (bought a DNA for my dad as a Xmas gift) the build and screen of the DNA is so much better then my note 2 but only 16gb of storage, non removable undersized battery and no pen, killed it for me

Ahhh ha...A stock man now, like me...lol! I have no patience for the root stuff and all that, just not my cup of tea, the way these phones come is fine for me.

Yea man the DNA has some screen, the ONE should even be a little more crisp because of the smaller screen size. But who knows when this thing is going to release already. Been using my nexus 4 as my daily driver running on a prepaid T-mo unlimited everything plan for $70, not bad at all. But I'm really missing LTE man!

As for the S4...My initial response was jeez its an S3s...lol! But after playing with my friends S3 last night (sold mine 2 months ago) and not having one in my hands for a while I realized again how thin the phone is and how large the screen is. And the S4 one ups those areas with the addition of some other enhancements. I was always a Samsung guy, just wondered and began to like the look of the LCD screens and such. Most likely I'll grab the one when it releases and leave the S4 for my brother to get, and then put them in the ring together...lol

 

[sean76]

What I hate more than the home button is the touch sensitive back button - I cannot count the amount of times I accidentally hit that in a game and screwed up the progress as a result.

I agree with the home button. Its just another moving part that can break and collect dust inside. I love the on screen buttons of my nexus 4....Every android phone should have them standard....