Galaxy S4 - Watch Thread....

Zorachus said:
With the upcoming Android 5.0 KLP release due soon after Google I/O in May, for the Nexus line, good luck getting a 5.0 ROM anytime soon for the S4. With a fully new point release, new ROM's based off a big release like that take extra long to release on non Nexus devices.

CM11 for non Nexus phones will take months to come out, and be rough alphas to start, sure glad I have the Nexus 4 now.
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Assuming everything happens linearly, the same way with the same timing as it has in the past is presumptuous at best. With every major new version they have been tightening up and streamlining these relationships and update delays between google, manufacturers, carriers and end users.

As Android continues to eat away iOS marketshare I'd also anticipate Google slowly taking the free reign that the carriers enjoy now back out of their hands, starting with a checkbox to receive updates direct from Google. Just a hunch.
 
Verass said:
Well this was an interesting read.
http://www.geekwire.com/2013/wont-buy-subsidized-android-phone/
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While I've been saying this for awhile, he completely misses the point. He cites T-Mobile, but if you buy a phone directly through them, you get the same issues with bloatware. Don't want bloatware? Then buy a iPhone or a non-branded device. However, the latter causes more issues, as most unlocked devices do not fully support T-Mobile. The unlocked and developer editions of the HTC One don't support AWS HSPA, meaning 3G/H+ coverage is spotty at best on that device.

And as for carriers stopping updates, believe it or not, that's a backwards assumption. Yes, carriers do DELAY updates. But stop them? Outside of Rogers and one Euro carrier dealing with the HTC Desire, I haven't heard of carriers stopping an update. Verizon actually held a few deadbeat OEMS (Motorola and HTC, specifically) at gunpoint and forced them to update their phones as per their contractual agreements. Many Motorola phones have seen updates when their unlocked counterparts have not. The HTC Thunderbolt was given the 4.0 update long after HTC bailed on Desire HD (unlocked equivalent) owners and their 2.3 phone.

If he is concerned with bloatware, buying a device at full price or subsidized through a carrier doesn't matter, DO NOT BUY THROUGH THE CARRIER. This is harder in the US because of our fragmented networks. In Europe, all of the networks use the same bands and technology. It's no different than connecting your laptop to a different wifi hotspot, aside from the need for a sim card. In the US, each carrier has blocks up preventing you from taking your phone to another carrier. T-Mobile has been rapidly fixing the incompatibility issues between them and AT&T, but they aren't there yet.

Get a Nexus if you want pure Android with no bloatware. Get an iPhone if you want a phone that fully supports your carrier and has no bloatware. Otherwise, your options are either to pay out the ass for an unlocked device that may or may not support your network fully, or root and customize your device.
 
I am mainly annoyed with Sprint not updating my HTC evo 4g (still on 2.3.5) when I think the latest is 4.1
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Verass said:
I am mainly annoyed with Sprint not updating my HTC evo 4g (still on 2.3.5) when I think the latest is 4.1
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You're mistaken, I'm afraid. Version 2.3.5 was the last version released for the HTC Desire Snapdragon S1 variants (which included the Desire, Incredible, and Evo 4G). HTC even pulled the plug on a full 2.3 update for the international Desire, initially, while Verizon and Sprint forced a 2.3.x update for their variants. The international community did eventually get a stripped down 2.3 update for the Desire, but you had to get it from the HTC developer site.

Sprint was on your side on that matter, not against you :)
 
Medion said:
You're mistaken, I'm afraid. Version 2.3.5 was the last version released for the HTC Desire Snapdragon S1 variants (which included the Desire, Incredible, and Evo 4G). HTC even pulled the plug on a full 2.3 update for the international Desire, initially, while Verizon and Sprint forced a 2.3.x update for their variants. The international community did eventually get a stripped down 2.3 update for the Desire, but you had to get it from the HTC developer site.

Sprint was on your side on that matter, not against you :)
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Ah thank you for clearing things up for me :)
 
onedestinazn2 said:
I've generally noticed over the past few years sprint has been very good at updating phones
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This seems to be true. Sprint probably puts up less roadblocks than AT&T or Verizon. The Sprint GNex got 4.2 in January, while it took until March for Verizon's to get it (despite being virtually identical hardware). The Evo 4G LTE got 4.1 in December, while AT&T's One X got it in March (the international One X got 4.1 in late November).
 
I went to the AT&T store today preparing to get the iPhone 5 and I messed around with the SGS4 for a little while and i was blown away at how awesome the SGS4 screen was!
Sure it's a little exaggerated and over saturated, but I like. Even the text and contrasts look amazing.

I was sure I was sure I was going to be the iPhone 5, but now i have serious second thoughts and now leaning towards SGS4...

Anyone else getting this?
 
Fahim said:
I went to the AT&T store today preparing to get the iPhone 5 and I messed around with the SGS4 for a little while and i was blown away at how awesome the SGS4 screen was!
Sure it's a little exaggerated and over saturated, but I like. Even the text and contrasts look amazing.

I was sure I was sure I was going to be the iPhone 5, but now i have serious second thoughts and now leaning towards SGS4...

Anyone else getting this?
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There should be a S4 somewhere around the office today. I myself got a HTC One; with a couple of small complaints, I love this phone. Hopefully I will get a chance to fiddle around with the S4.
 
CHANG3D said:
There should be a S4 somewhere around the office today. I myself got a HTC One; with a couple of small complaints, I love this phone. Hopefully I will get a chance to fiddle around with the S4.
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Spoiler alert: He's going to like the One better.
 
Smashed Ixnay said:
My S4 is here and in my hands!!!! Can't wait to use it!
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Can you our anyone else for the matter comment on touchwiz making the phone "laggy". Because so far except for a few reviews saying it is extremely laggy I haven't seen it in any of the videos.
 
I've heard about some stutters though which seems believable considering the amazing amount of bloat Samsung has packed in this time round (not a problem for me since I'm going to root and freeze all the crap immediately).
 
ChronoReverse said:
I've heard about some stutters though which seems believable considering the amazing amount of bloat Samsung has packed in this time round (not a problem for me since I'm going to root and freeze all the crap immediately).
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Hard to believe the extra tracking software is causing anything since they aren't designed to run all the time. I don't consider them bloat either, they may not work 100% the time, but they are the first to attempt this, so it can only get better if they support it further.
 
Trimlock said:
Can you our anyone else for the matter comment on touchwiz making the phone "laggy". Because so far except for a few reviews saying it is extremely laggy I haven't seen it in any of the videos.
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I don't know that i'd call it lag. Lag would imply it's slow to respond. Rather i'd say there is some stutter in some of the opening/closing animations that don't appear to affect actual app loading times.
 
sprint is chargine $50 more than anyone else. Now before I don't think it was a big deal that the phone was 250 on sprint now that I know that everyone else is selling it for 200, I am very annoyed. I don't know what sprint is thinking maybe their bad deal with apple has something to do with this.
 
rudy said:
sprint is chargine $50 more than anyone else. Now before I don't think it was a big deal that the phone was 250 on sprint now that I know that everyone else is selling it for 200, I am very annoyed. I don't know what sprint is thinking maybe their bad deal with apple has something to do with this.
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If your contract is up or about to be, then I'm sure you can convince them to drop it to $200 considering all of their competitors are at that price.
 
Trimlock said:
Can you our anyone else for the matter comment on touchwiz making the phone "laggy". Because so far except for a few reviews saying it is extremely laggy I haven't seen it in any of the videos.
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ChronoReverse said:
I've heard about some stutters though which seems believable considering the amazing amount of bloat Samsung has packed in this time round (not a problem for me since I'm going to root and freeze all the crap immediately).
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I did not notice this when i was using it. It was way faster than the iPhone 5 as i was both of them side by side
 
Fahim said:
I did not notice this when i was using it. It was way faster than the iPhone 5 as i was both of them side by side
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That's good to hear. I'll be picking up mine hopefully next week (Canada) so looking forward to it.
 
ComputerBox34 said:
This is bullshit:

http://www.androidcentral.com/mail-bag-why-does-my-16gb-galaxy-s4-only-have-88gb-space
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LOLZ! I was going to point that out in my review. But S4 is pretty good phone. It does almost everything well. If I didn't have my One next to it, I would say the S4 is hands down the best phone. TouchWiz is slow at times (even with air gesture off), but not significantly; HTC feels slightly faster at launching apps. Chrome performance on both phones are about equal. HTC did launch it quicker. Screen-wise, they are both great for reading. I do like the HTC One better, but that may be me trying to brainwash myself because it is MY phone... LOL. (There I said it!) For watching movies, the S4 looks better in darker scenes. Sound wise, HTC totally wins. Battery life, I don't feel what I did was scientific enough. In like an hour or two of playing with both phones, the One got down to 84% while the S4 got to 78%. I would call them even because I know I had the screen on longer on the S4 because I was fiddling around with settings. Would I change my phone? No, but if you give me a S4 for free, I'll gladly take it. Which phone would I use daily? The HTC One... more chicks noticed it during lunch... "Is that the new iPhone 6?"

P.S. I dunno if any has noticed that ItaliaFerrari has been banned. I remember someone here claiming he has contacted the fella and actually vouched for him - not pointing any fingers.

P.P.S. Amazon App Store app is slow as heck in both phones. Netflix is so frigging smooth.

P.P.P.S. I watched Paranorman on Netflix for the Netflix test.
 
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I think ill shall be picking up an S4 when T-Mo gets them instores .... The G.Nexus is long in the tooth when I leave it without rebooting for a month :D And for my general usage ...... LTE will be a plus :D
 
ComputerBox34 said:
This is bullshit:

http://www.androidcentral.com/mail-bag-why-does-my-16gb-galaxy-s4-only-have-88gb-space
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The comments on that article are ridiculous, apparently no one at android central has ever used a computing device before.

1 tons of idiots are making comments like 16GB should be 16GB usable. Yes because that has ever happened before in the history of computing, does apple, HTC or anyone else list a 32GB phone as only a 27GB phone? LoL really guys holy crap do any of these people even think before posting?

2nd almost all storage is rated wrong so a 16GB flash drive is probably only like 15GB anyway.

Finally its as if all these idiots forgot what the point of external storage is, the phone has a microsd slot, if 9 GB isn't enough for you spend 10 bucks on a new SD card. Should be called iPhone central these guys clearly don't know anything about phones, or computers.

I am fine if someone says they are unhappy with that amount of OS / app space off the start but almost none of the guys were saying that, they were all saying stuff that was so much more stupid. As for me, I think Samsung could probably be more efficient but I think pushing software on phones to try to make them do more is a good thing and they gave us and SD slot so you got nothing to whine about.
 
rudy said:
Finally its as if all these idiots forgot what the point of external storage is, the phone has a microsd slot, if 9 GB isn't enough for you spend 10 bucks on a new SD card. Should be called iPhone central these guys clearly don't know anything about phones, or computers.
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Good luck installing apps on that SD card.
 
rudy said:
The comments on that article are ridiculous, apparently no one at android central has ever used a computing device before.

1 tons of idiots are making comments like 16GB should be 16GB usable. Yes because that has ever happened before in the history of computing, does apple, HTC or anyone else list a 32GB phone as only a 27GB phone? LoL really guys holy crap do any of these people even think before posting?

2nd almost all storage is rated wrong so a 16GB flash drive is probably only like 15GB anyway.

Finally its as if all these idiots forgot what the point of external storage is, the phone has a microsd slot, if 9 GB isn't enough for you spend 10 bucks on a new SD card. Should be called iPhone central these guys clearly don't know anything about phones, or computers.

I am fine if someone says they are unhappy with that amount of OS / app space off the start but almost none of the guys were saying that, they were all saying stuff that was so much more stupid. As for me, I think Samsung could probably be more efficient but I think pushing software on phones to try to make them do more is a good thing and they gave us and SD slot so you got nothing to whine about.
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It's one thing when 16 gb is advertised and you have access to only 14.

It's another when you advertise 16 and only have access to ~9 in change. That's almost HALF of the advertised user storage going to the OS.

SD slots mean nothing when you have more than 9 gb in apps and games. The only think you can put on SD cards is media.

I can see why some people would be upset.
 
Is there any way to get the Galaxy S4 on the T-mobile $30/mo plan?

The minimum that I can see that they offer is $50/mo and I don't see any way to buy the phone outright without a contract.
 
ComputerBox34 said:
The only think you can put on SD cards is media.
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Did they remove the ability to install/move apps to the SD card? My SGS2 is also 16GB, but it has the old partitioning where you get only 2GB for apps. I've never had issues with space. My Incredible used to only allow about 150MB for apps before low on space issues, and I rarely bumped up into that. Both devices allowed me to move apps (most of the install size) to the SD card.

ggplay said:
Is there any way to get the Galaxy S4 on the T-mobile $30/mo plan?

The minimum that I can see that they offer is $50/mo and I don't see any way to buy the phone outright without a contract.
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You have to get the refill cards from Wal-Mart.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Tmobile-30-Wireless-Airtime-Card/15443357
 
Yes I can see how a few odd users with unusually high needs for apps would be upset, but the mass of android devices only has that or less storage available. And it has not bothered them, this article is fear mongering.

It seems to me I remember larger apps giving options to offload some of the files to the SD card, you got such an app you need to do something like that otherwise how can you sell to someone with something like a nexus 7 with only 5gb usable?

Point is once you offload media you are saving a lot of space for most people, for the few that have an unsually high load and bad programmers behind apps they need, well guess you gotta get a different phone.
 
Medion said:
Did they remove the ability to install/move apps to the SD card? My SGS2 is also 16GB, but it has the old partitioning where you get only 2GB for apps. I've never had issues with space. My Incredible used to only allow about 150MB for apps before low on space issues, and I rarely bumped up into that. Both devices allowed me to move apps (most of the install size) to the SD card.



You have to get the refill cards from Wal-Mart.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Tmobile-30-Wireless-Airtime-Card/15443357
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Those phones are 2+ years out of date.

In ICS+ implementations that I have seen, all the internal storage is now one pool (minus secured storage for ROM, etc.) and the SD card sits on the side. Apps can no longer be "Moved to SD Card" like they were in Android 2.3 and below.

In some cases, developers of large apps (such as games that are 500+ mb) will put the large pools of game data into /storage/sdcard0/Android/data/com.appname

The problem is that "sdcard0" is simulated space of internal storage and not the ACTUAL SD card.
 
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After buying a while lot of games my gs2 16 GB with 32 GB microSD, I ran out of space very quickly. There is only so much data you can move off to SD. My sd card had like more than 20 GB free with my internal memory at ~300 MB. I can't even get updates sometimes, "insufficient memory." I had to go to the system app manager and let it do its thing for a couple of minutes till it gave me more memory after running, and if that still didn't work, i had to make the tough decision to uninstall an app.
 
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