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Galaxy S4 - Watch Thread....

Yeah, that's about the only thing I like about the home button on my Note 2; waking it up with it. It is much easier than using the power button, so I'm that lazy too, lol. I just preferred the on-screen nav keys on my old Gnex over the physical home button and capacitive keys for everything else. On-screen keys would have been perfect on the Note 2 with the S-Pen; it was a bit of an oversight IMO to have a device that uses a stylus, but the stylus doesn't work on the capacitive keys and it's more cumbersome to use the home button while using the stylus (at least much more so than if there were on-screen nav keys in the first place).

On the Galaxy S phones though, I guess it doesn't matter as much. I know people complain about losing screen space with soft keys, but I don't think that matters much on a 5"+ device and they disappear when it really matters anyways (while viewing videos and pics). Plus it's nice to customize in third party ROMs; like adding a search button, changing the order, hight/width, color and order of the buttons, etc.
 
T4rd said:
On the Galaxy S phones though, I guess it doesn't matter as much. I know people complain about losing screen space with soft keys, but I don't think that matters much on a 5"+ device and they disappear when it really matters anyways (while viewing videos and pics). Plus it's nice to customize in third party ROMs; like adding a search button, changing the order, hight/width, color and order of the buttons, etc.
Click to expand...

Indeed, the on screen buttons are great, not really sure why people complain about them, especially since they can lead to smaller devices, and as you said, when it really matters (video, pics, other media), they go away anyway...


Would be awesome to have a 4.3 inch nexus with on screen buttons, basically a razr m, but with a high quality camera and nexus software...
 
Personally, I'm getting irked by those who rush to proclaim these rumours as fact (not ComputerBox34, at least, he's a bit skeptical), especially when we know how problematic rumors were around the GS3. The gist:

Until Samsung makes it official or someone gets what is undeniably the final product in their hands, none of this is confirmed. No exceptions.

Remember, the company was hiding the legit design in dummy cases, and there were any number of fake renders that people swore were real... until they weren't. We can go based on what Samsung is known to be working on, such as the likelihood that there will be at least a quad-core Exynos 5, and the state of competition suggests that a 5-inch, 1080p screen wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility. But spec sheets, renders and even benchmarks are easy to fake. Someone adding "confirmed" or "reliable source" to their blog post doesn't make it so.
 
Aurelius said:
Personally, I'm getting irked by those who rush to proclaim these rumours as fact (not ComputerBox34, at least, he's a bit skeptical), especially when we know how problematic rumors were around the GS3. The gist:

Until Samsung makes it official or someone gets what is undeniably the final product in their hands, none of this is confirmed. No exceptions.

Remember, the company was hiding the legit design in dummy cases, and there were any number of fake renders that people swore were real... until they weren't. We can go based on what Samsung is known to be working on, such as the likelihood that there will be at least a quad-core Exynos 5, and the state of competition suggests that a 5-inch, 1080p screen wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility. But spec sheets, renders and even benchmarks are easy to fake. Someone adding "confirmed" or "reliable source" to their blog post doesn't make it so.
Click to expand...

I don't think anyone here considers any specs confirmed. Italia claimed that his source was confirmed, but then later admitted that he was wrong. I took a pot shot at Sammobile (the source of my last post), and Computerbox just reposted info based on the same source.

Most people in this thread have had a level head, taken these leaks as "possibilities," and added their own speculation.
 
More and more I read about the Galaxy S IV, sounds like the incremental upgrade like the iPhone4 to iPhone 4S. Rumors say it will still be shiny plastic round shape like the S III, have the three hardware buttons on the bottom, not on screen like a Nexus, and overall design look very similar to the current Galaxy S III. Except the big jump to a 4.99" 1080p screen and running a sightly updated 4.2 Jellybean with updated Touchwiz, and faster processor, etc...

I was hoping for a full new design, like Polycarbonate as the One X or something industrial design like the iPhone 5. I think the S3 looks and feels too cheap, and slippery. I hope not pentile screen again ?

Rumors point to the S5 in Spring 2014 as the MAJOR update.

Oh well, I can give two craps about the S IV, really waiting on the Nexus-Five, and the Goorola X, and Note III.
 
ComputerBox34 said:
That would make it the Galaxy Note 3
Click to expand...

Hah, indeed. No way the S line would get to be that large. 5.3" was the size of the original Note. I'm hoping 5" is the barrier for normal smart phones. Anything larger is phablet territory, regardless of bezel size.
 
Zorachus said:
More and more I read about the Galaxy S IV, sounds like the incremental upgrade like the iPhone4 to iPhone 4S. Rumors say it will still be shiny plastic round shape like the S III, have the three hardware buttons on the bottom, not on screen like a Nexus, and overall design look very similar to the current Galaxy S III. Except the big jump to a 4.99" 1080p screen and running a sightly updated 4.2 Jellybean with updated Touchwiz, and faster processor, etc...

I was hoping for a full new design, like Polycarbonate as the One X or something industrial design like the iPhone 5. I think the S3 looks and feels too cheap, and slippery. I hope not pentile screen again ?

Rumors point to the S5 in Spring 2014 as the MAJOR update.

Oh well, I can give two craps about the S IV, really waiting on the Nexus-Five, and the Goorola X, and Note III.
Click to expand...

Although I'm not sure I care much about LG phones, the new G pro 5.5" is announced, the Xphone and newer Note3 looks really good for the new year too. Too bad the M7 looks like it might be dead in the water before its released.
 
Exynos 5 OCTA core confirmed? If this is true, I am so excited!

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/mob...g-galaxy-s4-specs-confirmed-by-benchmark-app/

Samsung_Galaxy_S4_benchmark_2.png
 
Antutu has two tabs that show the device hardware; "Device Info" and "System Info". The System Info tab pulls the information directly from the OS. The Device Info tab pulls it from an unofficial database. The tab shown above is the Device Info tab, meaning it was not pulled directly from a device. That information was manually entered.

Another issue is the screen resolution. Samsung has traditionally used a physical home button flanked by capacitive buttons. That would make sense, given the listed 1920x1080 resolution. However, many rumors suggest that Samsung is going away from the physical button and will be using on-screen buttons. If true, then Antutu would not list 1920x1080 in the benchmark results, but rather, slightly lower like the Nexus 4 shown in the same comparison. That's not evidence of faking, but rather, evidence of a physical home button if this image is real (which I highly doubt given my previous concern).
 
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As a hobby photographer I put probably more than the usual emphasis on camera/photo quality. And there is still SO much room for improvement in phone cameras. I've been waiting for someone other than Nokia to actually innovate in this area....and it's not Samsung (yet). It's HTC with the One. As far as I'm concerned if the the S4 has the usual ho-hum camera with a ridiculous 13MP just for the sake of "more megapixels" than they lost me already. I don't care how nice the other specs are because all the other high end phones this year will be just as nice on CPU, ram, display specs.

The new HTC One has my attention for the camera alone. They totally made the right decision to go bigger sensor, bigger pixels, smaller MP, and OPTICAL image stabilization. Of course convincing non-photo oriented consumers of that will be the trick. But I can't wait to see detailed comparisons of the HTC One photos in a variety of photographic situations. I want to see more manufacturers going the way of the One's camera. Ideally....a NEXUS phone with a camera like like that....I'd be throwing my money at Google!
 
I am very curious to see the final design and spec's of the Galaxy S4. Rumors were saying it would be almost as thin as the iPhone 5, while also packing a beefy sized 2600mh battery. That would be amazing to see such a thin lightweight phone with a huge battery like that.

And on top of that, the new processor and GPU are supposed to be very efficient, and better for battery life too.

Right now I am all about battery life, phones have gotten fast enough for me, don't need them any quicker, but long battery life is very important, and even better if removable. Couple times a year I go on camping trips, is nice to have replaceable batteries, and then also helpful if the battery itself is large and the phone efficient to last long on a single charge.

I am no iPhone fan, but have to give them credit, on using only a 1450mh sized battery, but that thing can get pretty darn good life out of it. An Android phone with a 1450mh battery would be dead in less than 8 hours.

We need more phones copying Motorola's MAXX style battery, a beefy 3300mh battery, while also going into a thin phone.

When will phones have battery life that last 24 hours, but 24 hours of real world use, not disabling features, or turning stuff off to save battery life. I mean using it for GPS navigation for couple hours a day, make tons of phone calls, have all sync features enabled and running 24/7. I had the Note 2 for three weeks, even that beast of a phone would die on me after 16 - 18 hours with heavy workday use, like two hours worth of phone calls, GPS for 90 minutes, texting like mad, surfing the web non stop, reading and sending e-mails, sync accounts all on. Even that phone couldn't last a full day with that type of heavy non stop use. And I was running a good custom TW ROM, with kernel known for battery life. Sure the Note 2 was great on weekends with WiFi, I would get 36 hours out of it, but on a weekday at work using the phone all day, no way.
 
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Zorachus said:
I am very curious to see the final design and spec's of the Galaxy S4. Rumors were saying it would be almost as thin as the iPhone 5, while also packing a beefy sized 2600mh battery. That would be amazing to see such a thin lightweight phone with a huge battery like that.

And on top of that, the new processor and GPU are supposed to be very efficient, and better for battery life too.

Right now I am all about battery life, phones have gotten fast enough for me, don't need them any quicker, but long battery life is very important, and even better if removable. Couple times a year I go on camping trips, is nice to have replaceable batteries, and then also helpful if the battery itself is large and the phone efficient to last long on a single charge.

I am no iPhone fan, but have to give them credit, on using only a 1450mh sized battery, but that thing can get pretty darn good life out of it. An Android phone with a 1450mh battery would be dead in less than 8 hours.

We need more phones copying Motorola's MAXX style battery, a beefy 3300mh battery, while also going into a thin phone.

When will phones have battery life that last 24 hours, but 24 hours of real world use, not disabling features, or turning stuff off to save battery life. I mean using it for GPS navigation for couple hours a day, make tons of phone calls, have all sync features enabled and running 24/7. I had the Note 2 for three weeks, even that beast of a phone would die on me after 16 - 18 hours with heavy workday use, like two hours worth of phone calls, GPS for 90 minutes, texting like mad, surfing the web non stop, reading and sending e-mails, sync accounts all on. Even that phone couldn't last a full day with that type of heavy non stop use. And I was running a good custom TW ROM, with kernel known for battery life. Sure the Note 2 was great on weekends with WiFi, I would get 36 hours out of it, but on a weekday at work using the phone all day, no way.
Click to expand...

I swear Zorachus, I love your passion for phones, but man sometimes you make no sense. You're "all about battery" life and yet you ditched the note 2 for a phone with literally 60% of the battery life? If you were truly all about battery life then you would have dealt with the big screen. And holy hell man. 18 hours of heavy use is not a full day to you?
 
Seeing all these headlines for a march 14th unveil guess I will have to put my Verizon upgrade on hold. Was thinking of going with the moto droid RAZR maxx HD, but I might as well wait a week and half for the s4 to see what it is like. But damn, do we really need a 5" screen. Hopefully they stick with the 4.8 which is already big enough. If the RAZR M did not have semi spotty 4g reception I would be all over it. I just don't understand this need for monster screens. Get a tablet if you need bigger (hence why I have a nexus 7). Well guess I shall wait and see what options I have.
 
Phones will rarely to never have good battery life, the reason is because its all about thin and saving money for the company, its brilliant, they get to sell you less for a higher price. Go pick up some of the earlier smart phones and see how thick they are then ask yourself the question why was it OK to make those then but not now? The answer is as I stated you get way more profit out of thin. So no matter how good batteries and power savings get they will always cut the battery even smaller. Most companies have a target of lasting the average consumer through about the work day and that's it.

Phones like the razr maxx are great but always niche players. The other option is if you are someone like apple who can sell people slower CPUs to save on power. My solution has always been simpler, I don't need a phone that is that thin and I laugh at how many people go buy a thin phone then strap a monster case on it. I just buy an extended battery and never have to worry about it. So the only thing that pisses me off is when companies seal batteries into phones.
 
braamer said:
441 PPI?!?

At some point, if not already, this is going to get ridiculous.
Click to expand...

It started with the HTC DNA/J Butterfly late last year, so this is hardly new now and will pretty much be the standard PPI/resolution for higher end 2013 phones. Personally I think it's overkill too; I'd rather have better performance and use less power/resources on a 720p display than have that ridiculously high res on a ~5" screen.
 
1080p screens now, but still stock 4 x 4 grid :rolleyes:

I know launchers like Nova can change that to a good 5 x 6 grid or whatever you like. But coming stock at 5" 1080p screen looks ridiculous with 4 x 4 grid. So much wasted and empty space.

Maybe Key Lime Pie will change that finally ?
 
I am watching the S4 as well. Literally. Just watching and will see how it is, no plans of buying. I'm a big Note user and haven't even upgraded to the Note 2. Will probably upgrade in the next round.

I agree with the posts above. I'd better have improved performance and even better battery life than a high res/more PPI packed screen.
 
S4 better have massive battery life for me to consider it. I dont really care for a humongous 5" screen, I just want a fast, flexible, usable, solid phone with really good battery life. I have tried pretty much every flagship phone from android and the battery life just doesnt cut it for me.
 
///AMG said:
S4 better have massive battery life for me to consider it. I dont really care for a humongous 5" screen, I just want a fast, flexible, usable, solid phone with really good battery life. I have tried pretty much every flagship phone from android and the battery life just doesnt cut it for me.
Click to expand...

So get an extended battery... Some people just have a higher usage than the averages they use to make a decision and you can sit around hoping one day someone will make that phone or you can just buy a bigger battery. That's half the point of removable batteries.
 
///AMG said:
S4 better have massive battery life for me to consider it. I dont really care for a humongous 5" screen, I just want a fast, flexible, usable, solid phone with really good battery life. I have tried pretty much every flagship phone from android and the battery life just doesnt cut it for me.
Click to expand...

You weren't impressed with the RAZR MAXX HD?
 
Should be some great technology in the S4. I think I'll be skipping it but you never know when I might get that "itch"

I currently have a VZW S3 and I love it (rooted it with Eclipse 1.2 rom and kt747 kernel) I get great performance and battery life.
 
JBags said:
http://www.talkandroid.com/153123-second-set-of-screenshots-confirm-samsung-galaxy-s-iv-with-1-8ghz-quad-core-cpu-and-13mp-camera/


Quad-core 1.8GHz
13 MP camera

1920x1080 screen @ 441 PPI -> ~5in screen
Click to expand...

Look at the CPU speeds in that screenshot.

Core 0 - 1782MHz
Core 1 - 1782MHz
Core 2 - 1674MHz
Core 3 - 1782MHz

That denotes an asynchronous setup, a characteristic of Scorpion/Krait, but not Cortex A8/9/15. Legit or not, that screenshot was taken on a phone running a Snapdragon SOC. If it is legit, then further evidence of yet another Galaxy S Snapdragon variant.
 
If these new pictures are accurate, Samsung is just making another ugly duckling.

Why can't they make something that looks cool too. I really don't like the shiny plastic big screen design, just looks so cheesy. I have to give HTC credit on creating cool looking phones. The white One X was one sexy and great looking device over the Galaxy S3. And the new One looks pretty sharp too. I even prefer my Nexus 4 design over this, the Nexus phones have the black minimalistic design that looks cool :cool:

And I am no iPhone fan, but the iPhone 5 with the industrial design looks very nice as well.

I know, I know, it's about how fast the phone is, with great battery life supposedly. But I am a fan of good design as well. For now I am sticking with Nexus 4, and look forward to the Nexus-Five.
 
Regarding battery life, most sites are stating around a 2600 mah battery for a the S4 which is a nice 23% bump up from the S3's 2100 mah battery. Also they are stating that the screen will use a new PHOLED technology which is supposed to make the screen 25% more energy efficient. If both these rumors are true, we're likely looking at a phone with very respectable battery life.

As far as the phone looks, there's a very good chance that the pictures leaked this morning are fakes. That said, the phone will still likely be plastic. So far that doesn't seem to have hurt Samsung very much. The One X was admittedly a far sexier looking phone than the S3 but the One X sold 63 or so phones compared the 89 cajillion S3's that were sold. :D
 
Samsung doesn't make the good looking phones, HTC really does, but as long as Samsung puts in removable batteries they are going to win my sales, if HTC would just stop with the sealed batteries they could start winning some sales back. Then there is the screen, right now I could toss up between LCDs and OLEDs, I like the OLEDs better except in outdoor bright light conditions.
 
Probable timeline for the S4 -

Mar 14 - Announced
May 15 - Worldwide release
June 15 - US release
July 20 - Verizon release
July 21 - massive outcry over locked bootloader only for VZW
Sep 15 - bootloader unlock hack
Sep 16 - Details of next Nexus leak
Oct 1 - Note 3 release announced

You can see how this goes. By the time the phone is actually usable for Verizon, it's at least 6 months.
 
MrCrispy said:
Probable timeline for the S4 -

Mar 14 - Announced
May 15 - Worldwide release
June 15 - US release
July 20 - Verizon release
July 21 - massive outcry over locked bootloader only for VZW
Sep 15 - bootloader unlock hack
Sep 16 - Details of next Nexus leak
Oct 1 - Note 3 release announced

You can see how this goes. By the time the phone is actually usable for Verizon, it's at least 6 months.
Click to expand...

Sounds legit, esp. the bootloader on Verizon. That's pretty much guaranteed to happen. At least Samsung only signs and doesn't encrypt their bootloaders though, unlike Moto. I like to think that they only do the bare minimum to appease Verizon so devs can still crack the phone and have their way with it anyways.

Samsung is approaching Apple in terms of reputation and sales in the US though. So Samsung should eventually tell Verizon to piss off if they want to sell the phone with any modifications over the other variants, because at some point Verizon will need the Galaxy S phones more than Samsung needs Verizon to sell them (just like Apple does with the iPhone). I dream of the day that happens and it would be even more awesome if they refused to bloat up their phones with any pre-installed Verizon apps. But realistically, I doubt that will happen, but I like to think it's possible.
 
MrCrispy said:
Probable timeline for the S4 -

Mar 14 - Announced
May 15 - Worldwide release
June 15 - US release
July 20 - Verizon release
July 21 - massive outcry over locked bootloader only for VZW
Sep 15 - bootloader unlock hack
Sep 16 - Details of next Nexus leak
Oct 1 - Note 3 release announced

You can see how this goes. By the time the phone is actually usable for Verizon, it's at least 6 months.
Click to expand...
Announcing a phone and releasing it 3 months after the announcement has always struck me as retarded. People forget and the hype dies down. Phones should be available within a week of any announcement.

If there's one thing that Apple does right, it's hyping and putting on a good representation of their products
 
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