Samsung Announces New Flagship Galaxy S 4 Competitor to Apple's iPhone

[samcraig]

Maps and Email is better example to use, but the point is that by not letting you change you aren't advancing the OS, but that's not true at all

All separate issues. Both Android and iOS are constantly changing and improving. Both OSes are great choices for consumers with flagship phones on each platform.

The pissing contest is silly. People can have their preference - but that doesn't make the alternative "crap." People should just enjoy the phone they have and the experience they've chosen and/or switch when they no longer are.

 

[7709876]

I would prefer a bigger battery in modern smartphones rather than shaving off mm in a quest for 'thin'

A phone that doesn't last a day on a single charge isn't progress.

 

[dannys1]

When you try to cramp so much eye catching features to a phone, you need to trade off something else.

Build quality?

 

[szw-mapple fan]

Now waiting for the incremental iPhone 5S in 6 months, still featuring a dual core CPU when the rest of the world has movied on to quad core.

My iPhone never lags and has absolutely no problem running all my apps smoothly. It's a waste of CPU to pack something like that in a phone.

----------

I was thinking the exact same thing.

Maybe people will finally stop complaining iPhones's lack of exterior change?

 

[viewfly]

You take their presentation into consideration if the phone is worth your time or not. What kind of vague argument is that?
Why not discuss the fact that this phone has features and sensors not seen in phones before that can help push boundaries, of what we expect from the next generation of smartphones.

Your lack of technological aware is stunningly clear. You rather want to fight like a beast in a cage, protecting and keeping the fan-war alive.

Naming calling is the heart of fan warring. There are innovations, useful features, gimmicks and spec bumps.

I didn't see anything really with a wow factor that you saw. That's all. Cool it with the naming calling and personal insults , okay?

 

[trondah]

Now waiting for the incremental iPhone 5S in 6 months, still featuring a dual core CPU when the rest of the world has movied on to quad core.

Are you ****ing serious?

Wow, this ******** about Apple fans being "sheep" means nothing when you see how brainwashed the fandroids are. More cores absolutely does not mean better. It means each core actually runs slower than if you would have fewer cores, and if your application is not written specifically to utilize more cores (not all apps can actually gain from it either), then your app will actually be slower.

I thought kids today grew up with a better understanding of technology. Turns out all it takes to sell them phones is more RAM, more CPU, more pixels. Better specifications on paper equals a scientifically better phone in the eyes of fandroids, I see it on every board and every news article. "Apple is doomed" LOL.

5" phone, really? How do you fit that in your pocket? ****** design much? Poor support? When is 4.2 going to ship for Galaxy II and III? Still Touchwiz and malware infested appstores, right?

 

[dannys1]

So thats two Android phones that are better than the S3, Sonys Xperia Z and the HTC One, both better made, and better designed than this lump of cheap Korean plastic again.

Seriously don't get what voodoo Samsung has over people, their TV's can be great, their mobile devices are very cheap and nasty feeling things. Much better Android options - but to be honest they're all mini tablets, I don't want a 5 inch phone screen, I want a phone - and when they make them smaller, such as the S3 mini its not where near the standard, beauty and functionally of the iPhone 5.

You can't really compare them, these gigantophones are always going to be more powerful, its like comparing a 15" Macbook Pro to an 11" Macbook Air…for me these these devices are in a different category to the iPhone.

If you prefer that and Android thats fine, who cares? Perhaps I hope the iPhone loses just enough popularity that it still makes financial sense for Apple to keep making it - then I can return to just using and enjoying the phone I like best without Android fans banging on about some "war" they've made up in their own heads.

 

[Les Kern]

There's nowhere really left to go with phones.

The revolution is over.

We're at the "supply chain management" stage of the game until they are superseded by an entirely different form factor.

Was just thinking the same thing a few weeks ago... and it led directly to thinking about the watch. I'd put my money on that.
(Disclaimer: I suck at predictions)

 

[inselstudent]

Some of the replies in this thread are just what I expected. Apple is falling behind the competition, not just Samsung.

They are becoming like the US auto manufacturers in the 70's and 80's, they got fat and lazy and the Japanese came in and kicked their butts.

Apple is so smarmy and arrogant (Phil Schiller) and has such a brainwashed fan base they think they can just sit back.

The tides are turning...the company you devoted yourselves too doesn't care about what some of you want...

I'm no apple fanboy, but I must ask, how old are you, please? A serious business like Apple, Samsung, Google, HTC, whichever you like, would NEVER treat their customers the way you describe it. It's not like Apple, or any other company, would say "hey those dumb ****s don't mind anyway, so let's sell them old hardware and software, they're gonna buy it anyway." No man, if they decide against certain features, there's a good reason behind it. No NFC, well, Apple just doesn't feel like its really necessary yet. And they're right too, I for one have never seen anyone do anything with NFC where I live. So, as it is, it's just a gimmick. Same goes for "comfortable" quick settings. Apple don't want their customers to even start messing with their phone settings all the time, they want people to use their devices.

Of course, opinions differ here, but so do they on any subject. While I would actually have a use for quick settings, it really is okay without, and I could never see some people, my parents for instance, use such quick settings. Because most people don't wanna mess with such things, they actually just want to USE THEIR GOD DAMN PHONE.

 

[0000757]

All separate issues. Both Android and iOS are constantly changing and improving. Both OSes are great choices for consumers with flagship phones on each platform.

The pissing contest is silly. People can have their preference - but that doesn't make the alternative "crap." People should just enjoy the phone they have and the experience they've chosen and/or switch when they no longer are.

That's my point and philosophy.

 

[samcraig]

5" phone, really? How do you fit that in your pocket? ****** design much? Poor support? When is 4.2 going to ship for Galaxy II and III? Still Touchwiz and malware infested appstores, right?

You know your post resonated with me until you got to the end where you just flew into ridiculousness. Should have quit while you were ahead.

I said earlier in this thread - specs are silly. Can they be important - sure. But it's not the specs alone. It's how they are used.

Megapixels don't mean anything - how do the pictures look?
Cores don't matter - how does the phone perform?
Pixels don't matter - how does the screen look?
Internal memory does it matter - how does the phone perform?

That's why I pay little mind to benchmarks as numbers don't tell the story. Let me put the phone in my hand and use it. Really use it. Not for 10 minutes. Not for a day. But long enough to really see how it works FOR ME.

 

[Bantz]

The eye scrolling stuff sounds great, I do hate when im reading a good article and the phone dims the screen etc.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

There a two kind of people. The first ones know what OSX and iOS is all about, and what is the philospohy for the designing an apple product. And then there are some new apple users who still dont understand it and sell themself for inches and megapixels.

Its like the art, some people see the beaty of it, and some people dont. Some people think that bigger is better, more powerful is better but at the end is all about you and the product, the feel, the emotion, the passion about holding it and using it. And when I went to to apple store to take a look at the iPhone 4 and then the iPhone 5 for the first time. Ohh man, I knew I was holding more then megapixels and inches, I was holding a masterpiece.

Excellently put.

 

[Oletros]

After saying

More cores absolutely does not mean better. It means each core actually runs slower than if you would have fewer cores,

You say?

I thought kids today grew up with a better understanding of technology

 

[derek4484]

Hardware wise

this phone is a beast! The display is pentile matrix. But at 1920x1080 I'm not sure if pentile matrix vs full RGB is going to be an issue. The chinese rumor site said it has the octa-core processor. But the USA versions will probably get the Snapdragon Pro quad core CPU.

I'm not real big on the software on it though. And at 5" it may be too big to comfortably fit in your pants pocket. I like phones in the 4"-4.3" size range. My previous phone, before getting the iPhone 5, was an HTC Rezound. It had a S-LCD2 1280x720 resolution 4.3" screen that was simply amazing to look at and it felt like the perfect size.

 

[KPOM]

And I as a non stock holding consumer care about which company makes the most profit because............?

It's an indication of the viability of the product line. Apple isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Neither, likely, is Samsung. However, there are real question marks regarding HTC, Nokia, and BlackBerry.

 

[DakotaGuy]

Most of this stuff doesn't matter. People keep forgetting that the iPhone sells because it's an iPhone. It's what everyone has and what everyone wants.

I notice some mention quad core processor? Who really cares about that? Very few. The dual core is good enough for a phone. How about screen resolution? Again pretty much nobody. How about 128 GB memory? With the cloud it's not really needed. 64 GB is good enough.

Apple doesn't need to do much to the iPhone 5S or even iOS for that matter. No matter what they do people will get in line and go crazy over the next launch. Apple can't lose with the iPhone.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

The eye scrolling stuff sounds great, I do hate when im reading a good article and the phone dims the screen etc.

But the tilt scrolling thing? What if I accidentally tilted it when I was trying to show something to my friend and it scrolled? That would be a mess.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

There a two kind of people. The first ones know what OSX and iOS is all about, and what is the philospohy for the designing an apple product. And then there are some new apple users who still dont understand it and sell themself for inches and megapixels.

I think you way oversimplfy. First, if a consumer doesn't intuitively understand a company's design philosophy then the company isn't communicating effectively. I don't think that is Apple though. Consumer's understand iOS, and whether it fits their personal needs. It's why it grew so fast in such a short time.

Clearly inches and megapixels are important because Apple has touted Retina for a couple years now and just "grew" the iPhone. But for some consumers it wasn't enough. These people did not "sell themselves" on a bigger, sharper screen; it's what they were attracted to; what they believe will work better for them. And we have yet to see Android users defect to iOS is huge #s so it must be working for them.

But there are also other reasons why people buy the Galaxy S phones over iPhones. Out of pocket cost, weight, different features, preference to Android.

 

[Les Kern]

I don't care what they come out with, I won't get an Android anything after the horrible taste my Transformer left in my mouth, BUT I sure could use a bigger screen. My eyes are old, my hands enormous and I grow weary. What I REALLY grow weary with is the money I spend on phones. It's nuts. I am contemplating getting a 30 dollar gas station phone, using my pocketable mini iPad as Wi-Fi is everywhere I go, BOOM, save a few hundred a month. So then I can watch from the sidelines and be entertained by the witty comments here.

 

[Rogifan]

If the unthinkable happened and Apple stopped making phones I'd go HTC. Can't stand Samsung and what they are about.

I would too except I had a bad experience with a previous HTC phone and horrible battery life.

AAPL is up $5 or so pre-market so obviously Wall Street doesn't think the S4 is the death of Apple. It may be a really great phone and will probably sell very well, but with all the hype around it you'd think they were going to reinvent the smartphone as we know it. Not sure it lived up to the hype. Even tech sites that are typically pro Samsung are saying a lot of these S-features are probably things most people won't use. And that's where Apple is different. They won't throw a bunch of features on a phone that people probaly won't use just for the sake of it, just so it can be listed as a feature on a spec sheet.

 

[samcraig]

without Android fans banging on about some "war" they've made up in their own heads.

Oh the irony - especially in this thread.

 

[kirk26]

Sorry, but Samsung passed Apple a while ago.

 

[Les Kern]

But the tilt scrolling thing? What if I accidentally tilted it when I was trying to show something to my friend and it scrolled? That would be a mess.

Not that it SHOULD be done, rather that it CAN be done, is what pisses me off to no end.

 

[KPOM]

Yes, it's the Apple customer paying that additional profit.

It's no different with Samsung. The margins on the SIII and S4 are likely pretty similar to the iPhone range. Samsung sells lots of cheap phones in emerging markets, probably barely above the cost of production (and probably would be loss making if not for the fact that those lines benefit from the R&D on the higher end phones). Samsung isn't a charity. They are in it for the money, too. Unlike Apple (to date), they see benefits in expanding the product line to dozens of products that chase market share at every segment of the market.