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My last day to decide (Galaxy S4 or iPhone 5)

If there isn't much Android can do over iOS for you, keep the iPhone.

Neither the GS4 or One impressed me much so I've been holding onto a Droid DNA as I wait for devices in the second half of 2013. It's sure to be a pretty exciting one. Moto X, Note 3 (likely disappointing this year as rumors point to spec upgrade with the same "Design 2.0" (Inspired by Nature) as the previous two generations of Galaxy devices), and the next-generation Nexus device. All of this along with Android 4.3 (possibly even 5.0) is definitely worth waiting for.

Hold onto your iPhone 5.
 
Explicitic said:
If there isn't much Android can do over iOS for you, keep the iPhone.

Neither the GS4 or One impressed me much so I've been holding onto a Droid DNA as I wait for devices in the second half of 2013. It's sure to be a pretty exciting one. Moto X, Note 3 (likely disappointing this year as rumors point to spec upgrade with the same "Design 2.0" (Inspired by Nature) as the previous two generations of Galaxy devices), and the next-generation Nexus device. All of this along with Android 4.3 (possibly even 5.0) is definitely worth waiting for.

Hold onto your iPhone 5.
Click to expand...
Good points. I'm glad I kept the iphone. I always go back to it. Android is amazing and I wish I had a lot of android options on my iphone. But, there's always a better android phone coming out within weeks of the current big bad flagship. And the software updates are always a bit lagged by all the hands it has to pass trough before it gets to the phone.
Android also still just isn't as smooth of an os. That is definitely my opinion and may not be how everyone sees it. But when I'm typing a text (which is probably the thing I do the most with my phone), the keyboard just has a weird feel to the input. It's like it's just a little behind. Hit the lock button to wake up the phone and there's some animation that has to happen for the phone to show everything on the screen. There's just a lot of little things like that which drive me crazy. With the iPhone, I know I feel like I'm going to have a great performing phone for at least the 2 years I signed up for, and if I ever want to trade or sell it, which I usually do, it'll be in demand no matter how old it is.
 
S4 is the far better phone to me in every area...for my personal needs. depends what is important to you.

to me the iphone 5 was just too damn small.
 
Personally I'd keep the iPhone and give the S4 back. That is just what I would do though. Since selling my S3 and joining iOS I like three things. Facetime as its far more reliable on a mobile device than Skype in my experience with many of my friends and colleagues using iPhones. iMessage is neat as many of my friends have it and its a free clean messaging service, although I use Whatsapp too. And finally iTunes. I love podcasts and find iTunes cater for this very well. The store for buying music is much easier to navigate and for apps it seems nicer to use than the Play Store.

They are my main reasons and there may well be alternatives on Android but I just happen to prefer them on iOS. If you are a hardware geek and love customisation and a massive screen, then you'd be a fool not to go onto Android IMO. They both have pro's and con's and the only person who can decide your preference is you OP. :)
 
Bugeyeblue said:
Working on it right now. I think I'm going to take back the s4 and use the iphone 5 for now. It'll reset my upgrade eligibility so I can get something else whenever I want with no restocking fees since I bought it at best buy. Maybe buy whatever the next best android thing is. Maybe the htc one if it comes to Verizon. Maybe the note 3. Maybe the iphone 5s (...name is unknown for sure, obviously).
Click to expand...

i was in the same boat as you 3 weeks ago. bought S4 while still having the ip5. end up returning the S4 to keep my upgrade, sold the ip5 ($475 for 16GB), and bought a used Note 2 ($430). I'm keeping the upgrade for the note 3 thats suppose to be due in Oct/Nov...

So far so good, I don't miss the iphone at all. all the apps that I normally use are there...after about $15 in the play store i got the note set up to replace everything i used to do with the ip5. Already got use to the large screen. looking at my wife's ip5 I can't imagine going back to a screen that small...
 
maximus96 said:
i was in the same boat as you 3 weeks ago. bought S4 while still having the ip5. end up returning the S4 to keep my upgrade, sold the ip5 ($475 for 16GB), and bought a used Note 2 ($430). I'm keeping the upgrade for the note 3 thats suppose to be due in Oct/Nov...

So far so good, I don't miss the iphone at all. all the apps that I normally use are there...after about $15 in the play store i got the note set up to replace everything i used to do with the ip5. Already got use to the large screen. looking at my wife's ip5 I can't imagine going back to a screen that small...
Click to expand...

Why did you return the S4? Specifically what didn't you like about it?
 
fotomatt1 said:
Why did you return the S4? Specifically what didn't you like about it?
Click to expand...

Nothing really. I wanted a bigger screen than the s4 so I went with the Note 2 even though it has a lower resolution. i don't play games much so the speed difference didn't matter to me. touchwiz seem to run at identical speeds. I'm planning on getting the Note 3 when it arrives and the rumors so far point to a even bigger screen with 1080p so i can live with 720p for now.
 
What features did you use most on the GS4? Sounds like it wasn't anything that you can't do on the iphone.
 
sk24iam said:
What features did you use most on the GS4? Sounds like it wasn't anything that you can't do on the iphone.
Click to expand...

the screen made browsing the web a much better experience...

the led notification light blinks a different color for different events using the Lightflow app. I have each inbox set to a different color, so a quick glance tells me what i missed...

swiftkey keyboard...stock samsung keyboard kind of sucks...swiftkey make the accuracy of thumb typing equal to the iphone...turn on "flow" (gesture typing) and its no comparison really....the text prediction works really well, sometimes i can finish a whole sentence with the predictions without typing anything...

xbmc on a 5.5" screen, i don't use it that much as the ipad is bigger, plus each tv already has its own rig, but its nice to have... when constipated...

i like how you can browse for apps at the google play store, click "install", and they download and show up on the phone...

built in data counter, i like that i can see how much data i've used up and which app used how much...Onavo Count suppose to do that on the iphone, but you have to install their profile which renders voicemail useless...at least that was the case for me, maybe its fixed now...

while at work, at where i sit, the S4 and Note 2's wifi pulls a stronger signal from the weak but free wifi than my ip5 did. on the iphone 5 it would connect to the ssid, but i can never load any pages, it always reverts back to LTE...with the 3 weeks that I had the note, I left wifi on since its usable. Now i'm 5 days away from the next billing cycle with 1.2GB still left...

NFC tags...i used to think nfc is pointless because apple said it was pointless...now I have nfc tags at home, at work, in my car, and on my keychain. They were about $1 each. When I get in the car, I tap my the back of my phone to the tag and the phone turns the brightness and volume all the way up, turns off wifi, turns on bluetooth, and launches Waze so I can see the surrounding traffic condition, all in one step. When I get to work, I tap the phone to the tag at my desk and it turns off bluetooth, turns on wifi, lowers brightness, and sets the phones to vibrate. I have the tag at home set up similarly. its convenient...

the cerberus app (which gets a free lifetime license today thru appgratis) is similar to find-my-iphone, except it can do more stuff, like take a screen shot, take a picture with the front or back camera, take a video, record audio, get call/sms logs, in addition to the usual wipe phone/sd card memory, lock, alarm, etc...

widgets, to some they're useless as you can accomplish the same thing thru the app, but i like the Simple Calendar widget where it lists my next few days out on my home screen...

there are more that i can add, but i've already got a wall-of-text going...these are just my experiences...others might or might not feel the same...
 
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Bugeyeblue said:
Working on it right now. I think I'm going to take back the s4 and use the iphone 5 for now. It'll reset my upgrade eligibility so I can get something else whenever I want with no restocking fees since I bought it at best buy. Maybe buy whatever the next best android thing is. Maybe the htc one if it comes to Verizon. Maybe the note 3. Maybe the iphone 5s (...name is unknown for sure, obviously).
Click to expand...

I was in a similar situation as you. I returned my Galaxy S4 on the last day that I could, but I picked up an HTC One instead and I absolutely love it. That being said.. I sold my iPhone 5 in December for a Galaxy Note 2.. so I prefer the GS4 over the iPhone 5, but the HTC One over the GS4.
 
Bugeyeblue said:
Working on it right now. I think I'm going to take back the s4 and use the iphone 5 for now. It'll reset my upgrade eligibility so I can get something else whenever I want with no restocking fees since I bought it at best buy. Maybe buy whatever the next best android thing is. Maybe the htc one if it comes to Verizon. Maybe the note 3. Maybe the iphone 5s (...name is unknown for sure, obviously).
Click to expand...

Give it a few days before making your decision. If you hate touchwiz that much luckily once the nexus edition of the s4 is out it will be pretty easy to flash stock android on the verizon version and also not have any strange bugs.
 
I made the switch not long ago and I'm happy with my decision.

I had an iPhone 5 and exchanged it for a Galaxy Note II. I have it rooted and running a ROM, and it works flawlessly. I get superb battery life as well with the ROM.
 
Bugeyeblue said:
Good points. I'm glad I kept the iphone. I always go back to it. Android is amazing and I wish I had a lot of android options on my iphone. But, there's always a better android phone coming out within weeks of the current big bad flagship. And the software updates are always a bit lagged by all the hands it has to pass trough before it gets to the phone.
Android also still just isn't as smooth of an os. That is definitely my opinion and may not be how everyone sees it. But when I'm typing a text (which is probably the thing I do the most with my phone), the keyboard just has a weird feel to the input. It's like it's just a little behind. Hit the lock button to wake up the phone and there's some animation that has to happen for the phone to show everything on the screen. There's just a lot of little things like that which drive me crazy. With the iPhone, I know I feel like I'm going to have a great performing phone for at least the 2 years I signed up for, and if I ever want to trade or sell it, which I usually do, it'll be in demand no matter how old it is.
Click to expand...

I made the same decision as you, but I made it after one day with the GS4. I've tried a lot of phones and always go back to the iPhone. There are things I don't like about iOS and the iPhone 5, but I like it better, so far, than any Android or Windows phone I've tried.

If you aren't completely happy with something, there is no point in wasting an upgrade on it when new phones are coming out often.

Edit: By the way, the HTC One is coming to Verizon this summer.

https://twitter.com/VZWnews/status/341592724161560578
 
Last edited:
HiDEF said:
I made the switch not long ago and I'm happy with my decision.

I had an iPhone 5 and exchanged it for a Galaxy Note II. I have it rooted and running a ROM, and it works flawlessly. I get superb battery life as well with the ROM.
Click to expand...

which rom are you running that is getting better battery life than stock TW? thx
 
maximus96 said:
which rom are you running that is getting better battery life than stock TW? thx
Click to expand...

CleanRom ACE 4.9 by scrosler. I've provided the link below to his website and XDA thread for the AT&T model which is the one I use.

I've also taken it a step further by disabling some system autostarts, which helps even more. I'm getting on average close to 2 days without recharging. I do moderate surfing and some social media.

http://www.scottsroms.com/content.php

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1986893
 
HiDEF said:
CleanRom ACE 4.9 by scrosler. I've provided the link below to his website and XDA thread for the AT&T model which is the one I use.

I've also taken it a step further by disabling some system autostarts, which helps even more. I'm getting on average close to 2 days without recharging. I do moderate surfing and some social media.

http://www.scottsroms.com/content.php

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1986893
Click to expand...


Thanks, that was the one that I planned to try out this weekend. So its still pretty much like TW, but without all the bloat right?
 
maximus96 said:
Thanks, that was the one that I planned to try out this weekend. So its still pretty much like TW, but without all the bloat right?
Click to expand...

Yes. It's a TW base rom, so it's a stock rom. He removes all the bloatware and give you option to installs some extras; no big deal.

But his rom rocks. Can't wait for Samsung to releases 4.2 so he can get started on it.
 
jeffe said:
Slightly off topic but dropbox app might be a suitable app for you to automatically send photos to your macbook.
Click to expand...

yes i use that at the moment, also use flick with flick autouploader which always uploads my photos on the background whenever i take them. i just meant that i preferred the photostream ui etc.
:) but yeh, thanks
 
I have a solution for this! I have a Note 2 and an iPod touch- best of both worlds- you keep your android phone experience and get the best of apple ios-everybody wins!
 
I have an iPhone 5, and the screen is small, but the way I get around that is using the safari reader option when I'm reading web articles. Not only does it strip out all the ads, but you can bump up the font to a nice readable level without all the zooming. I think it's a good compromise, personally.
 
Everyone telling him which phone he should keep is really not doing him any favors.

If you spend more than a couple weeks with the device you should have a good impression on which phone you enjoyed the most. Surely they arent perfectly equal.

Gotta make up your own mind.
 
cnev3 said:
Everyone telling him which phone he should keep is really not doing him any favors.

If you spend more than a couple weeks with the device you should have a good impression on which phone you enjoyed the most. Surely they arent perfectly equal.

Gotta make up your own mind.
Click to expand...

So true. When it comes to giving advice: "test, adjust and make up your own mind" surely must be the best.
 
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