All about Samsung Galaxy S4

[WelshBloke]

It is incredible how successful Samsung is with such terrible industrial design.

Don't get me wrong, I have a ton of Samsung stuff, they all hit that feature/price sweet point where you just don't care the thing is covered in stupid glossy plastic. But man I wish they'd let that design die the death it deserved years ago.

Theres plenty of other phones made out of glass or aluminium or whatever, I'd rather Samsung stuck with this and they at least give us an alternative of how we want our high end phones constructed.

 

[Anubis]

about the only other design id take over samsungs is nokias, i like samsungs TBH. much more then the iphone which i find too heavy for its size and uncomfortable to hold

 

[saratoga172]

I don't have a huge problem with the plastic as long as it feels sturdy and doesn't break on the first drop. The plastic usually holds up relatively well.

The octa-core is intriguing, but I'm set until my contract is up in September. And going from the Galaxy Nexus I'm really liking the smaller size of my ip5. Yes I can, and did, adjust to the bigger size, but it always felt just a tad large. It was manageable but I definitely prefer the smaller size. The Razr M I used for a month was near perfect.

 

[Red Storm]

Personally the whole "Plastic sucks!" thing is completely overblown to me. Also it's somewhat funny that the companies who are constantly touting their superior design materials are the ones not making much money.

It looks like the S4 is going to look similar to the S3. That's a shame, but by no means a deal breaker.

 

[dguy6789]

Surely I am not the only one that finds it odd that so many people are making it sound like looks make up 85% of what determines if a phone is good or not.

It could be the ugliest phone ever produced and still be the best phone on the market. Functionality over vanity any day of the week.

 

[dawheat]

Hmm the Samsung preview photo doesn't have a speaker grill at the top front like the video/leaked image does.

If it ends up being the actual phone, color me surprised. While not necessarily expecting a move away from plastic, I did think they'd introduce an updated design language which would roll down to the other Galaxy phones, esp the Note 3 later this year. This is way closer to the S3 than I expected.

Hopefully the screen is great, battery life improved, and the camera better than the HTC One. Battery life especially seems to be an achilles heel for the current round of flagship Android phones and IMO the biggest advantage Apple has.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Personally the whole "Plastic sucks!" thing is completely overblown to me. Also it's somewhat funny that the companies who are constantly touting their superior design materials are the ones not making much money.

It looks like the S4 is going to look similar to the S3. That's a shame, but by no means a deal breaker.

I don't have a problem with plastic, but something about the Galaxy S3 and this possible S4 I don't like. My first thought is the glossy plastic and I'm sure it's a part. Though I look at the Galaxy Note 2 and think it's a decent looking phone. So maybe it's the combination of glossy plastic with the brushed aluminum pattern on the S3 and now the glossy plastic with the carbon fiber looking pattern on the S4 that bug me. Maybe I'm not quite putting my finger on it, but it just looks a bit... meh.

Another thing that bugs me about the S3 is how rounded it is. I think it helps with how the phone feels in the hand and that's important. But I think Samsung might have gone a bit overboard, it looks too rounded. The S4 apparently eases up on that a bit.

I think I kinda wish Samsung maybe would just use the Galaxy Note 2 design for it's smaller S4 though. I like that it's just a solid color without any fake cheap looking patterns. It's rounded in the right places without being too rounded, and the camera is flush.

 

[Red Storm]

Hmm the Samsung preview photo doesn't have a speaker grill at the top front like the video/leaked image does.

If it ends up being the actual phone, color me surprised. While not necessarily expecting a move away from plastic, I did think they'd introduce an updated design language which would roll down to the other Galaxy phones, esp the Note 3 later this year. This is way closer to the S3 than I expected.

Hopefully the screen is great, battery life improved, and the camera better than the HTC One. Battery life especially seems to be an achilles heel for the current round of flagship Android phones and IMO the biggest advantage Apple has.

Razr Maxx and Note 2 are far beyond the iPhone in terms of battery. iPhone is middle of the pack of flagships, better than some, worse than others.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Surely I am not the only one that finds it odd that so many people are making it sound like looks make up 85% of what determines if a phone is good or not.

It could be the ugliest phone ever produced and still be the best phone on the market. Functionality over vanity any day of the week.

Well not 85% for me... But if it was the ugliest phone ever produced, I probably wouldn't buy it no matter how functional it was.

But I think nit picking on how a phone looks is fine, because chances are for many of us most high end phones will be functionally the same for our needs.

So if my choices came down to the world's ugliest phone that had a removable battery and the sexiest phone ever created without the removable battery, I'm okay admitting I don't need to change batteries that badly.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Razr Maxx and Note 2 are far beyond the iPhone in terms of battery. iPhone is middle of the pack of flagships, better than some, worse than others.

Maxx is like an iPhone with a Mophie Juice Pack. Note 2 isn't really an iPhone competitor.

The iPhone is not in the middle of the pack of flagships. In the Engadget battery rundown tests, the iPhone destroys the HTC One X, SGS3, Nexus 4, Optimus G.

also let's look at Anandtech:

 

[MrX8503]

It is incredible how successful Samsung is with such terrible industrial design.

Don't get me wrong, I have a ton of Samsung stuff, they all hit that feature/price sweet point where you just don't care the thing is covered in stupid glossy plastic. But man I wish they'd let that design die the death it deserved years ago.

Marketing does wonders. Using plastic is one thing, but faux metal with gloss makes it look cheap.

If its plastic, I prefer matte.

 

[Red Storm]

Snip

You mean the battery test they changed for the iPhone launch and have yet to update with phones like the Note 2, Razr HD and Razr Maxx, all of which are more than likely to post better numbers?

I stand by what I said. The iPhone is in the middle of the pack. It's better than some flagships, and worse than others.

 

[dawheat]

You mean the battery test they changed for the iPhone launch and have yet to update with phones like the Note 2, Razr HD and Razr Maxx, all of which are more than likely to post better numbers?

I stand by what I said. The iPhone is in the middle of the pack. It's better than some flagships, and worse than others.

Sorry - I was referring to phones like the S3 and its competitors (DNA, the new One, the new Xperia) - all which seem to have noticeably worse real-life battery life than an iPhone 5 (the only thing I'm jealous of my wife's phone and I struggled with when I switched to my current S3). Amazing what the 5 does with a 1440mAh battery.

The Note 2 gets around it by having a huge honking battery and I don't have any experience with the Motorola phones (efficiency or huge honking batteries?).

 

[Dulanic]

Holy cow, I opened this thread and I thought maybe I had misclicked to a thread for 2 years ago with all this plastic talk.

 

[Shlong]

Almost everyone I see with an S3 or iphone have some sort of case on them. Plastic thing is pretty overblown to the average joe who will have a case on it anyways.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

You mean the battery test they changed for the iPhone launch and have yet to update with phones like the Note 2, Razr HD and Razr Maxx, all of which are more than likely to post better numbers?

I stand by what I said. The iPhone is in the middle of the pack. It's better than some flagships, and worse than others.

Ok so the iPhone 5 blows away flagships like SGS3, and HTC One X by a healthy margin in battery tests.

But because the reviews didn't include the Razr HD, Maxx, and Note 2, you're going to disregard the current results and say the iPhone is in the middle of the pack?

The only result that really is valid is a comparison against the Razr HD. The Maxx is an HD with an extended battery. I would say there's no phone like that out there in the market. It's like benching against an extended S3 battery or an iPhone with a juice pack. So yes, if you happen to win with a Maxx, I'm not impressed. It took a battery 2.5x the size to do it. And the Note 2? That's not even the same territory. The SGS3 is a representative sample. Why do you insist on the Note 2 anyway? Because it's got a 50% larger battery? If you take the SGS3 results in the Anandtech tests and you give a 50% boost, then yes, it will match the iPhone 5. Throw in the Note's larger screen, and it won't be that big of a boost in battery.

And let's not forget the iPhone has a 1440mah battery, which is impressive. If you really wanna go up against any of these phones, they have massive batteries.

Also no matter how I tweak my SGS2, Nexus 4, they just cannot touch my iPhone 5 in terms of battery. So in that sense the iPhone is at the top of the pack.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Engadget Battery Rundown:

Razr HD MaxX: 14:04
Razr Maxx: 11:25
iPhone 5: 11:15
Note 2: 10:45
Razr HD : 10:42
GS3 VZW: 9:15
GS3: 9:02
Optimus G: 8:43
HTC One X (Global): 7:32
DNA: 6:38
Gnex (LTE disabled): 6:15
Nexus 4: 5:18
GNex: 5:15

Soooo middle of the pack there. Even if it was a mere 9 hours I'd say it's above average esp for having only 1440mah. Put it at 8 hours, and I'd say average. The only phones beating it are the MAXX phones with 50% more battery than average flagships, and 2.5x more battery than an iPhone 5. I'm pretty sure if the GS4 hit 11 hours, or scored as well as the iPhone 5 did, people would be praising its battery forever.

 

[Red Storm]

The Maxx is a flagship phone, it doesn't matter what size battery it has. It's for sale and can be obtained and so it belongs in the conversation.

And LOL at the Engadget test. I have a Note 2 and it runs circles around the iPhone 5. I had to use one for a month testing for our company, by the end of the day the iPhone needed charging, which is the typical expectation. The only phones that have ever been able to last me two days with typical usage are the Maxx line and the Note 2. In my case the iPhone was a hair better than the S3.

 

[Skurge]

Engadget Battery Rundown:

Razr HD MaxX: 14:04
Razr Maxx: 11:25
iPhone 5: 11:15
Note 2: 10:45
Razr HD : 10:42
GS3 VZW: 9:15
GS3: 9:02
Optimus G: 8:43
HTC One X (Global): 7:32
DNA: 6:38
Gnex (LTE disabled): 6:15
Nexus 4: 5:18
GNex: 5:15

Soooo middle of the pack there. Even if it was a mere 9 hours I'd say it's above average esp for having only 1440mah. Put it at 8 hours, and I'd say average. The only phones beating it are the MAXX phones with 50% more battery than average flagships, and 2.5x more battery than an iPhone 5. I'm pretty sure if the GS4 hit 11 hours, or scored as well as the iPhone 5 did, people would be praising its battery forever.

http://blog.gsmarena.com/lg-optimus-g-pro-battery-tests-are-over-here-are-the-numbers/

Click on expand on each. The iphone 5 only wins in the browsing test. It's nothing special in the other tests. Seeing as I spend more time making phone calls than anything else. A nexus 4 would be a better option battery life wise for me.

A laughable comment right?

Also, 20hrs 3G talk time? Holy crap, I need a new phone.

 

[ChronoReverse]

I like the GSMArena benchmarks. Overall the Note 2 is better (double the talk time and 1 hour extra video) than the iPhone 5 but Apple has some kind of secret sauce for web browsing (extra hour).

http://blog.gsmarena.com/motorola-droid-razr-maxx-review-hands-on/
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_note_2_att_tmobile_sprint_verizon-review-836p2.php
http://www.gsmarena.com/apple_iphone_5-review-822p3.php
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_i9300_galaxy_s_iii-review-761p3.php

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

The Maxx is a flagship phone, it doesn't matter what size battery it has. It's for sale and can be obtained and so it belongs in the conversation.

And LOL at the Engadget test. I have a Note 2 and it runs circles around the iPhone 5. I had to use one for a month testing for our company, by the end of the day the iPhone needed charging, which is the typical expectation. The only phones that have ever been able to last me two days with typical usage are the Maxx line and the Note 2. In my case the iPhone was a hair better than the S3.

My iPhone 5 has:
- Exchange mail sync 24/7
- Twitter push
- Facebook push
- Gmail push
- Latitude

It screens on every time a notification comes through. Keep in mind I play Ingress so I get a LOT of stupid notifications throughout the day of my resonators being destroyed. I can see my iPhone screen flashing on and off on my desk.

My Nexus 4 has:
- Exchange mail 7am - 7pm
- Twitter push
- Facebook disabled
- Whatsapp
- Gmail
- Latitude

I have a custom kernel on my Nexus 4 for power saving. I run Greenify to greenify random apps I don't want started. I spend a great deal of effort making sure I don't have wakelocks left and right. Meanwhile I have NOT even given a damn about how the iPhone may have too many apps running.

My iPhone will go home with 60%+ of battery easily. I can fall asleep and forget to charge it and use it the second day no problem. I frequently play with my phone in the bathroom or at my desk. Sometimes I sit back for a game of Temple Run to unwind after a meeting. I've forgotten to charge it TWICE before and at 10am on the 3rd day I had 1% battery before I finally plugged it in.

My Nexus 4 drains 5.7% battery per hour MINIMUM just sitting at my desk during the day. This is barely checking it where my screen drain is like 3rd or 4th on the list. It goes home with 40% battery and this is barely using it. If I sit at the toilet reading some articles, or anything, it's screwed. Drains like mad.

So in my case the iPhone runs circles around my Nexus 4. Maybe Samsung or Motorola did a much better job than LG/Google, but the iPhone 5 does exceptionally well.

Now going back to what you said. LOLOL@Engadget? They have an objective test they run. It's better than any anecdotal evidence you or I have. If you think their testing is flawed, go ahead. While I respect The Verge overall more than Engadget, I'm not going to take Josh Topolsky's anecdotal evidence that phone XYZ lasted a long time during the review. I'll take numbers

The Anandtech numbers I threw out backed up what I said. You threw it out because it lacked the Gnote, Razr Maxx HD. However, the iPhone 5 beat out the SGS3 and HTC One X.

The Engadget numbers I threw out showed that the iPhone 5 lost ONLY to the MAXX phones.

Now let's do GSMArena

The iPhone 5 does worse in video playback, but it's in no way middle of the pack. It blows away your coveted Note in web browsing yet again.

As for your insistence that the MAXX is a worthy competitor. Look, it's a RAZR HD with a extended battery. It's like if Samsung sold an S3 with an extended battery. OF course the extended battery should win. It better, especially if it's 50% larger.

I agree it's a phone that's readily available for purchase. But how do you expect the iPhone 5 to to fare when the flagship is the RAZR HD and the MAXX is the extended battery version of the flagship? The point is you're trying to hard to make the iPhone 5 look bad. Like I said, it makes more sense to compare the MAXX against an iPhone 5 with a battery pack. The MAXX is in a league of its own, and saying the MAXX beats out the battery life of any flagship phone on the market isn't even an achievement. It's a GIVEN.

 

[ponyo]

Holy crap. 5.7% minimum drain an hour while the phone sits? You need to dump the custom ROM and kernel and go back to stock. Because whatever you're doing, you're doing it wrong.

 

[dawheat]

Whatever tests show, my S3 doesn't come close to my wife's iPhone 5 for usable battery life. In no way does it mean I'm going to switch back to iOS, but Apple has done a fantastic job of having great performance and battery life with a ~1400mAh battery. I assume the S3 is pretty similar to its peers in the current sweet spot 5" range.

My S3, with a 60% larger battery can't get through the early afternoon of moderate to heavy usage without needing a charge. This is with a debloated ROM with GPS off.

While increasing battery size is certainly one way (and works well for the Note 2), I'd rather they focused on efficiency so that the increasing S4 battery size would get me through a full heavy usage day no problem.

IMO it's perfectly valid to criticize Samsung, HTC, etc for not focusing as much as Apple on efficiency. Why shouldn't we ask for better?

 

[Red Storm]

What I'm saying is that some sites seem to take the numbers approach (X does better in a specific web browsing test) and then subjectively proclaim that device has the best battery life, even if it's only better in one specific scenario. You can't do that, just like I can't go and say because the Note 2 has better overall battery life than the iPhone 5, it is better in any kind of battery test.

The things I had setup identically on the Note 2 and iPhone 5:

Exchange and Gmail push (combined 50-60 emails a day)
Twitter push
What's App (100-200 messages a day)
Roughly 2 ~300MB Dropbox downloads each day (TV episodes, watch 2 a night)
Maps/Navigation usage, about an hour a day (mostly to check traffic on various routes in the morning and evening)

The Note 2 also had:

Google Talk
Google Now, set to show and alert weather on location, as well as traffic alerts from location in the mornings and evenings.

The Note 2 consistently lasts me two days with this type of usage. The iPhone? one day.

The iPhone 5 gets one more hour of playback in the tests, but who watches 8 hours of video in a day? Same with the Moto phones getting 20+ hours of talk time, no body spends that much time talking on a phone. What we need is a quantifiable mix of all these different uses that would more closely resemble real world usage.

Also the Maxx is the flagship Razr Phone. The flagship is your best. The One X was the flagship until they launched the One X+ or whatever it's called, which then became the flagship. It only makes sense not to include a phone like the Maxx if it had a battery so big the device was comically large and thick like those extended 3rd party batteries. It looks like a typical flagship phone though.

 

[ChronoReverse]

Holy crap. 5.7% minimum drain an hour while the phone sits? You need to dump the custom ROM and kernel and go back to stock. Because whatever you're doing, you're doing it wrong.

Wow yeah. When I get more than 1% per hour I already start looking for a problem.

Whatever tests show, my S3 doesn't come close to my wife's iPhone 5 for usable battery life. In no way does it mean I'm going to switch back to iOS, but Apple has done a fantastic job of having great performance and battery life with a ~1400mAh battery. I assume the S3 is pretty similar to its peers in the current sweet spot 5" range.

I don't understand this. The tests show the S3 is worse than the iPhone5 so your experience is... expected?