Samsung Galaxy S 4 (GSM)
Phone Scoop Review
May 10, 2013 by Eric M. Zeman
The Galaxy S 4 performs very well on AT&T's network. Here is Phone Scoop's review of Samsung's 2013 flagship Android smartphone. read review ›
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Finally something to truly keep my interest
I've had this device for 2 Days now and absolutely love it. My recent devices include the Samsung Galaxy SIII, IPhone 5 Samsung Galaxy Note 2, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Rezound, Bionic, Droid X2 and Droid X (on VZW), EVO, EVO 3D and Phonton (Sprint). I carry an iPhone 5 for work. The S4 is my personal device â¨
Here's my breakdown:
â¨â¨PROS; â¨-Screen in crisp and a pleasure to look at. Colors are true and text is amazingly clear. â¨-Camera takes amazing photos and works like it should, smooth and worry free. â¨-Calls are clear and loud, no echoes or static. â¨-Data is crazy fast, processor works great and device maintains nice signal. â¨-UI works and interface has nice intuitive features that make it the best Android UI on the market. The features on the phone are by far the best on the market
Beats Audio are the real deal. The sound from these ear buds is nothing short of amazing. â¨
The battery life is astounding â¨â¨
CONS; None so far for this phone
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All fluff and no substance
I'll start the summary now: this is like eating candyfloss when you have a top-grade steak available. It's a quick buzz;nothing more. I worked in e-business for the world's 4th largest cell phone provide so have taken MANY phones through their paces. My work style is substance over fluff. I was eligible for an upgrade with my personal ATT phone and rather wait for the Q10, I went with the S4. Bad move.
Pros
Big screen
Nice Colors
Lots of customizable stuff - Pretty pink text dialog bubbles, etc
Cons
1. Battery life - AWFUL. I'm not a heavy duty apps user, BUT 50% down by the end of each morning?
2. Call quality - mediocre. Callers sounded like they had their phone a foot away from their mouths or were speaking through a plastic bag.
3. Browser speed- not the fastest. I did a speed test with the newest Nokia and Blackberry Z10 and the Z10 finished first each time.
4. There's not much logic to the home page or other pages. It takes a lot longer to customize or access what you need than other phones.
5. It's BIG. Yes, great for browsing but it's impractical and unwieldy as a phone. You may as well go with a tablet as go with this. Pocket-manageable..it is not. Not a phone-callers phone.
6. Business productivity? Not business-centric and can't handle the heavy duty calendar/email/phone/docs as well as the Blackberry which, let's face it, is the business phone to compare to.
If you are full of the tweeting life with a serious addiction to checking your facebook every 3 seconds, texting the person next to you rather than talk and want serious street cred with your pals for the next 3 months (i.e. the candyfloss phone)...this may be the phone for you. If, however, you need a media multi-manager that responds quickly, handles all the business you throw at it and is that 'quality piece of steak' (rather than asking you if you want to have the disco ball app)..then this is not the phone you need. Hit the Blackberry Z10 or Q10 for that.
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Plastic feel, terrible battery life and overrated
Carrier: AT&T
I got the S4, thinking it would be an awesome improvement over all the other Samsung Galaxy phones. I was very disappointed and here's why:
First for a 1080 Screen I found myself constantly fidgeting with the brightness control, and always wondering why I have to readjust the screen. Second I don't care what anyone writes, the battery life on this and my Note are terrible. Piss poor terrible. Come on, I run out less than three hours and I do all my heavy lifting on my other phone (I carry two). I was told that because I use push exchange email it drains the battery quicker. So why doesn't my other phone do the same and the screen is much brighter on the other phone.
The camera is mediocre at best, and feel like there are too many bells and whistles that really don't produce the quality picture it should be producing.
Finally the stock keyboard is ridiculous, the predictions are usually wrong, the options are poor and I always have to use SwiftKey to be able to put together 5 lines without having to stop every word to correct a typo. Really guys?
Long and short of it is, this phone is not for someone who depends on their phone for business and is a heavy user. Glad the 14 days are not up!
