SGS3 vs SGS4

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FiveFig

Gawd
Joined
Jun 27, 2011
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Hi, so the point of this is a basic ROI problem.

Currently I have a nice working Verizon Samsung Galaxy S, with a grandfathered unlimited data plan. I now live in an area with reliable 4G service and am looking to upgrade to a 4G capable phone. I've looked at the DNA and the other phones offered and have narrowed it down to the Samsung Galaxy S3 or S4.

Here is where I need your guy's help. I can't decide if I should get the SGS3 for $250-300 or if the upgrade to the SGS4 is worth $650 (or double the price).
I know there are a couple changes in the hardware and software between the 3 & 4, but for the difference I could get a nice Tablet as well.

If anyone went from the 3 to 4 already can you give any examples of differences you noticed?

Thoughts?
 
As an owner and heavy user of a GS3, I see no need to move to the GS4. By heavy use, I mean that it's the daily norm for me to use it for dl'ing service/repair manuals, part lookups, calls, emails, texts, photos, videos, [H], etc. The GS3 is more than stout enough for all that. That's just me, though.

If it came down to choosing between the GS3 and another phone, then the other choice for me would be the Note2, not the GS4.
 
Between those two, I'd go S4. The possibility of having an official AOSP ROM build for the device is huge IMHO.
 
I plan on rooting whatever phone I get so I might have to wait to see what kind of roms are going to be released for the verison S4

Was there any sort of change in the radios between the S3 and S4 or is the hardware the same? I plan on tethering to my laptop so it's a major deciding factor.
 
I'd personally get the S4 between those two because the US S3 only has a dual core that lacks the power to decode HD content in software mode. My case is very specific and probably won't apply if you don't stream HD content around your home.

I would wait out for the true flagships of this generation of phones that has the Tegra 4/snapdragon 800/Exynos 5 though. It'll be the same price as all the flagships except tremendously more capable. But if you don't care about raw performance and just want a smartphone to do average smartphone stuff then the S3 would be the one to pick. It does 99% of the things the S4 does for half the price.
 
I plan on streaming quite a bit of material so maybe the S4 hardware upgrade is enough of a difference?

When you say true flagships, what phones are you talking about? I haven't looked into the next gen phones very much. What type of release dates, 3rd or 4th quarter this year?
 
Flagship phones lol, the HTC one just came out and the s4 did too
 
Just get the S3. It will stream higher bit-rate HD (720p at least, anything higher is pointless on its display) video fine, esp. if you use hardware acceleration like in DicePlayer or MX Player.

I doubt radios/reception are much different between the two or the Note 2. My Note 2 gets great reception, significantly better than the Gnex I had before it at least.

But yeah, I'm not sure how the One and S4 aren't labeled "true flagship" phones. They have the fastest hardware available right now (and just a tad slower than the Exynos 5 in the benches I've seen) and should decode/stream anything you throw at it with ease. Are you trying to fold with your phones or something? :p
 
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Agenesis said:
I'd personally get the S4 between those two because the US S3 only has a dual core that lacks the power to decode HD content in software mode. My case is very specific and probably won't apply if you don't stream HD content around your home.
Click to expand...

I'm surprised that you had this problem. With my SGS2 (dual-core Exynos), I had zero problems streaming 720p MP4 from my home media server. I wasn't using Plex either, just ES File Explorer to locate the file, then streamed as-is through the Touchwiz Media player.

With 1080p MKV, I've only tried VLC beta, and it was tolerable, but skipped in some areas. Work in progress. Don't see why the more powerful S3 can't handle this.
 
Medion said:
I'm surprised that you had this problem. With my SGS2 (dual-core Exynos), I had zero problems streaming 720p MP4 from my home media server. I wasn't using Plex either, just ES File Explorer to locate the file, then streamed as-is through the Touchwiz Media player.

With 1080p MKV, I've only tried VLC beta, and it was tolerable, but skipped in some areas. Work in progress. Don't see why the more powerful S3 can't handle this.
Click to expand...

The nightlies of VLC are pretty darn slick playing mp4s and flvs downloaded off youtube or elsewhere. Haven't tried an HD movie yet on it though.

http://nightlies.videolan.org/build/armv7-android/
 
FiveFig said:
I plan on streaming quite a bit of material so maybe the S4 hardware upgrade is enough of a difference?

When you say true flagships, what phones are you talking about? I haven't looked into the next gen phones very much. What type of release dates, 3rd or 4th quarter this year?
Click to expand...

Yes, there will definitely be a difference if you're streaming content. It's an older revision of dual core Krait versus a newer quad core Krait that offers a 15% difference in IPC.

As for the true flagships I don't know know their exact names but they're coming within the next two months the latest. LG has already announced their Snapdragon 800 phone and there are many more on the horizon. The cpu performance will be 15% and above and the Gpu capability will more than double. (versus current Snapdragon 600 headsets) This thread has some nice information: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1739913

Can't go wrong with an S3 now.
S4 is good too.
But there's the true 2013 flagships coming in the next few months tops if you want to wait.

Medion said:
I'm surprised that you had this problem. With my SGS2 (dual-core Exynos), I had zero problems streaming 720p MP4 from my home media server. I wasn't using Plex either, just ES File Explorer to locate the file, then streamed as-is through the Touchwiz Media player.

With 1080p MKV, I've only tried VLC beta, and it was tolerable, but skipped in some areas. Work in progress. Don't see why the more powerful S3 can't handle this.
Click to expand...


My Exynos 4 Note 2 only hovers at around 20FPS with 720p 10bit content. I recently asked a S4 Krait owner to test a playback of a 1080p 10bit video and it was shown that it couldn't even get pass the 13FPS mark.

Now I just find it silly that a 1080p device couldn't even play 1080p content, even if the tests are kind of extreme. I imagine the A15 variants in the up coming months will rip through these tests as it was nothing.
 
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That is a rather extreme case ...... I play 1080p videos on my S4 now quite a bit, no jump/lag at all. Either pure H.264 / .mkv from the rip, or run through handbrake to make it nicer on the iPad ......


@ OP -- If your going to be keeping the phone for a while, Id say spring for the S4 (thats what I did), if you are going to update in like a year, then just get the S3 ..
 
10bit is a special case since it requires software decoding and is difficult even for some desktop CPUs.

For regular h.264 content, it'll be fine.
 
I know most people will go for the brand new higher spec-ed one, but there is a reason why some people call the GS4 the GS3S.

I would get the one better for my wallet. I dunno what the price of the Note 2 is, but if it's near the price of the GS3, I would probably be putting that on the very TOP of the list.
 
Agenesis said:
My Exynos 4 Note 2 only hovers at around 20FPS with 720p 10bit content. I recently asked a S4 Krait owner to test a playback of a 1080p 10bit video and it was shown that it couldn't even get pass the 13FPS mark.

Now I just find it silly that a 1080p device couldn't even play 1080p content, even if the tests are kind of extreme. I imagine the A15 variants in the up coming months will rip through these tests as it was nothing.
Click to expand...

That's a pretty unique situation. What 10-bit videos are you watching? Since Blu-Ray is an 8-bit source, I find no need to encode to 10-bit. While my older Blu-Ray rips are 720p 8-bit, my newer ones are 1080p high-profile 8-bit, and they play just fine on ye olde SGS2. However, with a previous XBMC beta, I did experience some dropped frames, as well as delayed response when trying to pause/rw/ff.

To the OP:

The Galaxy S4 is a newer generation of hardware. I don't know how long you expect your phones to last, but however long you expect to get out of the S3 (before obsolescence), add another year to the S4 since the s3 is already a year old. Take that into account when calculating the price differences. I'm assuming that you're currently using the Samsung Fascinate. That came out in late 2010, or just over 2.5 years ago. Going off that upgrade trajectory, you can anticipate 1.5 years of use for the S3 before you plan to upgrade again, or 2.5 years for the S4. Going by that trajectory, I'd get the S3 at half the price, and upgrade to another year-old handset in 18 months or so.

Whichever you get, enjoy the new phone :)
 
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Medion said:
That's a pretty unique situation. What 10-bit videos are you watching? Since Blu-Ray is an 8-bit source, I find no need to encode to 10-bit. While my older Blu-Ray rips are 720p 8-bit, my newer ones are 1080p high-profile 8-bit, and they play just fine on ye olde SGS2. However, with a previous XBMC beta, I did experience some dropped frames, as well as delayed response when trying to pause/rw/ff.
Click to expand...

If you encode in High 10 Profile x264 it supposedly results in less banding and space savings for comparable quality despite the source being 8-bits and the output display still being 8-bits (or 6-bits + hFRC). As for why this is I do not have enough familiarity with video encoding to answer that in any detail. But you can see here for perhaps some explanation - http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=155510

I believe the largest gains are sources involving animation (less "noise"? compared to live action). As such the widest use at the moment is for Anime (which would be what I assume that poster is using it for).
 
There both pretty much the same shit just one is tad bit faster in everyday general usage, larger by .2 inches unless you like an extension to your e-peen for benchmarks imo the SGS4 ain't much of "an upgrade" over the S3 (international version, quad with 2gb ram).
 
You guys that are having problems with streaming give BSPlayer a try. I am not a fan of their UI so much but it's by far the most stable/versatile player I've found on Android. I do, however, have 6 installed at all times just in case one of them can't play a certain file.

To the OP: I don't think it will matter much either way. They both should be a pretty sizable upgrade for you. I'm personally sticking with my S3 until Wicked Rom is out for the AT&T S4 and is stable.
 
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