Samsung Galaxy S 4 Active
Phone Scoop Review
Jun 25, 2013 by Eric M. Zeman
The Galaxy S4 Active is a tougher, water-resistant version of Samsung's flagship Android smartphone, and it offers most of the same features. Phone Scoop puts it through its paces in this full review. read review ›
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NOT SO WATERPROOF
Well, it could be a dream-come-true, as my husband was counting down days before the Galaxy s4 Active was released in stores. And it looked and felt just right and great, until we gave it a "dip test": in our community pool at depth ~10 inches we took two 1-min videos about 3 minutes apart.
The camera lenses got fogged, hardware buttons got disabled and the charger port stopped working. (yes, we did ensure the USB charger port was properly covered at the time of submerging). The phone's camera was switched to "Aqua mode". Despite all the advised precautions, the phone had leaked water in.
The AT&T refused to exchange it claiming it was ***damaged by water*** (how unexpected for a phone advertised to take underwater pictures!!!).
Samsung customer and tech support first reaction was "WHO TOLD YOU THAT YOU COULD PUT IT IN WATER?
We were asked to bring it to the RSI repair services to evaluate the leak cause. They discovered that water got in through the two bottom screws and made Samsung to send us a replacement phone.
However, from now on we will not be comfortable to use the "Aqua mode" to take underwater pictures and videos, as next such a try may as well result in another two to three days of nervous waiting on the phone with not-so-friendly customer support or in a repair service's lobby (who were very helpful and polite I must say)...
So the bottom line: this is a good phone, but I would strongly recommend not to be fooled by its heavily advertised "waterproof" feature.
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GS4 Active
Very impressive phone. I live n west Tx. & am out n the oilfield on a regular basis. Great 1080P LCD HD screen. Better n sunlight than Amoled.
Long batt life with lots of calls, texting & interneting. Very clear calls, quick wi-fi & bluetooth connections. Nice clean lines & good apperance, really like the looks & solidness of unit. With the Snapdragon 600+ (MDM9215) pro processor, Adreno 320 GPU & 2 gigs of dual channel Ram, the unit can handle anything u throw @ it.
Bout the only thing that take's a little effort is removing & replacing the plug n the mini usb charging port. Oh well, water & dust resistant necessity.
Had to search a little to find case on Amazon, not a big selection & b SURE one for a GS4a, not the original GS4.
Thx, FreddieBoy
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Dont trust the "water resitant" feature
I have had my Galaxy s4 active for over a week and decided i should do the water test in a friends pool and try out the camera. well it was working until i had it sitting out and my friend put it in the hot tub and it just broke. restarted it and it powered back on. then the malfunctions occurred: wont lock, cant hear when on the phone, and having to restart the phone.
I recommend only using the water resistant part for accidents.
