I don't like my Galaxy S4

[mplsleprechaun]

As stated in the title I don't care for my Galaxy S4. I just upgraded to this phone a few days ago through best buy with Verizon as my carrier. I have a few days to make up my mind as to whether or not I want to change my device. I had an HTC Thunderbolt before this and loved it til the battery started to go which took a good year to do. The battery on the S4 is already worse than my Thunderbolt ever was and can only decrease in quality from here. Would it be worth it to switch to an HTC One or Moto X? I would go the obvious battery life route and switch to the Droid Maxx or Ultra but I'm not a fan of Droid phones (had the Inc2 and didn't like it) but I did like my Thunderbolt and have never owned a Motorola before. Thanks in advance for any help given.

 

[jamjr74]

As stated in the title I don't care for my Galaxy S4. I just upgraded to this phone a few days ago through best buy with Verizon as my carrier. I have a few days to make up my mind as to whether or not I want to change my device. I had an HTC Thunderbolt before this and loved it til the battery started to go which took a good year to do. The battery on the S4 is already worse than my Thunderbolt ever was and can only decrease in quality from here. Would it be worth it to switch to an HTC One or Moto X? I would go the obvious battery life route and switch to the Droid Maxx or Ultra but I'm not a fan of Droid phones (had the Inc2 and didn't like it) but I did like my Thunderbolt and have never owned a Motorola before. Thanks in advance for any help given.

Well I've owned all 3 and love my s4! Maybe u got a bad one? Anyway personal preference is huge when picking up a new device. The htc one is a solid device and I'd give that a try if your used to htc. The moto x is also a nice device but I am not really a Moto fan and at the same price point I think the htc one is a better option. Good luck!

Galaxy S4!!!

 

[tgyberg]

I watched a video of the Droid Maxx and there is very little "droid" about the phone at all. It's closer to the Nexus than anything I've seen out of the box. Another option is the Note series, HUGE battery there as well!

 

[Quicksilver7714]

As stated in the title I don't care for my Galaxy S4. I just upgraded to this phone a few days ago through best buy with Verizon as my carrier. I have a few days to make up my mind as to whether or not I want to change my device. I had an HTC Thunderbolt before this and loved it til the battery started to go which took a good year to do. The battery on the S4 is already worse than my Thunderbolt ever was and can only decrease in quality from here. Would it be worth it to switch to an HTC One or Moto X? I would go the obvious battery life route and switch to the Droid Maxx or Ultra but I'm not a fan of Droid phones (had the Inc2 and didn't like it) but I did like my Thunderbolt and have never owned a Motorola before. Thanks in advance for any help given.

That's odd. I had a Tbolt for a month and hated it. Worst batter ever. It routinely lasted no longer than a 8 hours. I have had my S4 for several months now and it lasts about 24 hours per charge. Now I must say that I am usually streaming music for 6-8 hours a day and I am a heavy user.

I have also owned several Motorola phones, OG Droid, Droid X, Bionic, and Razr. All have hade decent battery life. And have performed very well.

If you want the best possible batter life I would recommend getting a Droid Maxx. The 3500mAh battery is sure to power of through the longest of days with plenty left to spare. Also Motorola is widely regarded as the manufacturer with the best wireless radios. And as such usually has the best wireless connection and signal.

As for the Moto X, it's essentially the same hardware/ software as the current Droid lineup, Maxx, Ultra, Mini. But it offers a different package/style than the Droids.

I'd the S4 isn't doing it for you I would check it out. Now the HTC One is a good device and comparable to the S4 but it has a smaller battery so it should, depending on usage, last almost as long as the S4.

I'm going to say that you probably have a defective device or a rogue app that is causing the CPU to be active way more than it should. A full factory reset may clear up any issues.



Beamed From the white sun in the S4 Galaxy.

 

[FoxKat]

Have to chime in here... I too have been terribly disappointed with the battery life of the S4. Fortunately when Verizon replaced my RAZR MAXX, they didn't send a battery or back (I say fortunately...explain in a sec). So I went to the Verizon store and bought a battery and rubber cover to get by. Then Verizon agreed to send a battery and back (my phone is black but all they had were white backs...but whatever!). So now I have 2 batteries. If I didn't I'd be SOL at around 6:00pm every day. I don't even use the phone during the day but it's nearly dead by then and almost definitely by about 8:00pm. I charge overnight...and yes - I DID charge it fully BEFORE using it (for all you smart alec's out there, lol!)

While having a replaceable battery is a benefit, not having a separate battery charger makes juggling and keeping both batteries charged a real chore. I will likely be buying a stand-alone charger. That is, unless I sell the S4 and get the MAXX instead. I am seriously looking at it for many reasons, not just the battery. I do like the SWYPE interface on the Motorola phones since it adds 4 cursors at the top of the keyboard whereas the Sammy only has the blue cursor caret that you move with your finger. Makes for a difficult edit on the fly.

I also don't like the radios. I have less signal strength in my home now with the Sammy versus my old RAZR MAXX, I lose 4G in the house now where before I had 2 bars. There is one road I travel often where it dips really low into a valley where the train crosses it and I used to get poor signal and choppy phone service there many years ago. Since going to the OG Droid and then D2, Razr and finally RAZR MAXX, I have never suffered any service interruption there, or even the slightest bit of audio quality issues. With the S4, I have very poor service through that area, and voices come in all chopped up and in combination with "bleeps" and "buzzes" and all manner of digital noise artifacts making communication there and for from about 45 seconds to as long as several minutes (if I get the traffic light at the train station), on the way down the hill and back up the other side completely impossible. I NEVER had anything even minuscule in audio quality problems with the MOTOROLA phones.

In my home, I have WIFI with a 11 DB Gain antenna to reach the end of our rancher. With the Sammy, I can't sit in bed and use WIFI since it cuts off and on, between 0 and 2 bars...but instead have to revert to Cellular data, and 3G at that just to have a constant signal and no data interruptions. With the MOTO phones, I had consistently 2 or 3 bars of WIFI signal and relatively fast communication in the bedroom. There is another room even further away at the far end of the ranch where the S4 gets NO WIFI whatsoever. The MOTOs still had WIFI back there, from 1 to 2 bars consistently.

I may seem like a MOTO Fanboy, and perhaps I am, but I've never experienced the kinds of poor reception, both cellular and WIFI with ANY of the MOTO phones I've owned (when compared to their competitors' counterparts), as I am now experiencing again with the S4. I know that going to the MAXX will cause me to lose the replaceable battery (big deal with 48 hours runtime), and I'll lose that beautiful high resolution screen (can't see it anyway with the multi-focal contacts in so I can see distance and relatively close), and the IR Blaster is a nice touch (like to use it to control my TV and AVR, DVD, etc.), though I can get a dongle to fix that problem. I am also going to be upgrading my AVR from the Denon AVR-3806 to something that's web-connected so the remote control in IR will be no longer an issue since newest Denon AVRs can be controlled via the Ethernet to WIFI or full-on WIFI connections instead.

Also the functionality of the S4 irritates me in some cases, such as that shortcut bar...gets in the way of typing if low on the screen, or selecting items in a webpage if further up. I'm sure there's a way to remove it but I haven't tried to research it yet. I tried to root today but it failed...I must have missed that boat when I updated the firmware. I don't have wireless tether working so I can't use it to support other devices for internet connection. I am very leery of the screen getting cracked since there's virtually nothing but the thin metal band around the sides to separate a tile floor or concrete walkway and the glass. There have been numerous mentions of the glass cracking on the first fall. I have NEVER cracked ANY of my MOTO Droids. In fact I still have the OGD, D2, & D2G and use them as game phones and remote controls, etc.

I'll also miss the camera on the S4, probably. Cameras were never their strong-point in the Moto phones...but I don't really NEED a good camera on my phone. I use it mainly for pictures of products, labels and scanning bar-codes. I have a digital SLR that I take when going out anywhere that I feel the need to record, and for every other "spur of the moment" shots, the camera on the RAZR MAXX was sufficient. I'm not taking professional portrait shots or High Resolution landscape scene shots, no sports games for me, so it's sufficient... Yeah, I'm compromising...but it's a small compromise against having a phone that works and being able to use internet in buildings where the S4 fails. I find the S4 won't get a signal in the supermarkets, big box stores, etc. My Moto ALWAYS had signal - even if it was low it still worked.

I may regret it once I've moved to the MAXX, but I doubt it. I've played with them in the store and they're every bit as snappy as the S4, and the user interface just feels more natural and comfortable to me. The phone itself feels far sturdier, more like a "piece of equipment" rather than a "phone/PDA". I LOVE the Kevlar back (and now sides). It is slip-resistant and just looks good.

Well, I suppose my rant here will be met with both criticism and (hopefully), helpful suggestions, but I'm just not "at home" with the S4.

 

[jackiescivic]

Moto fan boy alert! ;-)

At first I wasn't impressed by the s4, because of the experience I had on the s3 (lack of signal, 15-18 hour battery life). But Sammy made some great improvements with the s4. When I borrowed it over Memorial day weekend, I averaged 30-40% longer battery life than the s3. Absolutely nothing to write home about when you compare it to my Razr Maxx and Maxx HD, but still more than enough to get me through the day (and I'm a heavy user of my phone. Not FoxKat heavy, but heavy enough).

I found that the s4 had equal radio signal strength in my house as my Maxx HD, but I was unable to test call quality (I live in a self proclaimed dead zone), the problem, as FoxKat said, was in data signal. At my gym, I easily had LTE with Moto, but the s4 was dial-up!!

I've loved the HTC One from day 1. The sound quality is AMAZING! I can deal with no external storage since it comes with 32gb internal. Obviously, the lack of removable battery isn't an issue either, and Moto hasn't had one for almost 2 years now. The issue for me, is again, battery life. Signal strength for my house is better with HTC than it is with Sammy, but nothing compares to Moto.

 

[SFGate]

I would definitely recommend the full factory reset before making your decision. Best of luck.

 

[wardo]

Weird you don't like the s4 only issue I have is the camera sucks.
I have had a bunch of htc stuff and will never buy any of their stuff again.

Samsung is much better.
Take the s4 back and wait until the end of this month for the note 3.

 

[jamjr74]

Weird you don't like the s4 only issue I have is the camera sucks.
I have had a bunch of htc stuff and will never buy any of their stuff again.

Samsung is much better.
Take the s4 back and wait until the end of this month for the note 3.

Camera sucks? Really. The s4 has one of if not the best camera of any device out right now. Maybe faulty device?

Galaxy S4!!!

 

[wardo]

Camera sucks? Really. The s4 has one of if not the best camera of any device out right now. Maybe faulty device?

Galaxy S4!!!

The consistency of it taking those good is the problem. Auto focus is terrible. Taking pictures indoors or without a flash is such a pain.
When it does get the picture right they are amazing

 

[BOBD1950]

As stated in the title I don't care for my Galaxy S4. I just upgraded to this phone a few days ago through best buy with Verizon as my carrier. I have a few days to make up my mind as to whether or not I want to change my device. I had an HTC Thunderbolt before this and loved it til the battery started to go which took a good year to do. The battery on the S4 is already worse than my Thunderbolt ever was and can only decrease in quality from here. Would it be worth it to switch to an HTC One or Moto X? I would go the obvious battery life route and switch to the Droid Maxx or Ultra but I'm not a fan of Droid phones (had the Inc2 and didn't like it) but I did like my Thunderbolt and have never owned a Motorola before. Thanks in advance for any help given.

------------------------------------------

Once I figured out the (my) best power management..(NO i don't dim the screen to gray! )..my HTC 1 will never let me down after 20 hours..at least.

YOU cant go wrong with this device..at all. Just get the 32gb v.

 

[jackiescivic]

I didn't have any issues taking pictures with the s4 when I used it over a weekend, and I used the camera A LOT (I'm a photographer, after all)