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.
