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

[matttye]

Air gestures seems like a very unnecessary feature.

Agreed. For a television or something where you're somewhat far away from it, fine, but for something you hold in your hand I find it largely unnecessary.

Can see it being useful for builders, mechanics and other people who often have dirty hands, but I can't see a personal use for it myself.

Being able to use it with gloves on is much more useful and I applaud them for that. I know they're not the first.

 

[jchase2057]

I must have been asleep and missed this!!
When did Apple made 7" tablet?

7.9" to be exact.

 

[Eidorian]

Better late than never but these larger phones fit a certain niche. I find my Samsung Exhibit too small at 3.5" and then my Nexus 7" too large to use under the sheets in bed.

 

[iTravis]

I am very exited for this phone to come out. Apple seriously needs to react to this instead of keep bashing them and lose market share.

I'm a little confused about the bashing statement. In what way has Apple bashed Samsung? Phil spoke out against Android in defense of Apple, but he would only be wrong if they were lies. Samsung on the other hand has lowered themselves to launch a marketing campaign that disses Apple left and right. That's how you know your pathetic and don't have any true innovation to offer, when your main marketing technique is to convince the consumer that your opponent is not as great at what you do, while Apple just chooses to show off innovation in use with their commercials. Have you also noticed how Samsungs commercials went from the normal Android high tech crap to resembling something more like an Apple commercial by showing customers using the phone in everyday life? When they're not to busy trying to convince us of something that we know not to be true, they just flat out copy Apples marketing techniques! They're truly pathetic.

 

[maxosx]

Taking ten paces back & looking at the big picture, what I like best about the Galaxy S 4 is the way it pushes Apples buttons.

Phil Schillers actions proves that Samsung has frightened Apple.

Therefore as one who has a _Brand_ preference for Apple, I'm feeling good about what's just taken place. Perhaps Samsung has gotten Apples full attention & motivated them.

Apple has several months before their traditional launch date to respond. Done right, no one can convince me that Apple's incapable of beating Samsung. As I see it, it's simply a matter of "will they"?

If Apple places the iPhone at the top of its priority list, they can easily create a superior product.

Or conversely, if they spread themselves to thin with Apple this & that, thinking the warmed over 5 relabeled as a 5S is enough, they may find themselves no longer untouchable.

Only time will tell if Apples still got what it Takes.

 

[firestarter]

Hey! Samsung! You're gonna use up all the plastic in the world But all jokes aside, this phone doesn't appeal to me as a competitor to my iPhone 5. I have to admit that it really is one of the best Android phones out there.

Plastic will be OK once Apple starts to use it though, right?

https://www.macrumors.com/2013/03/1...n-plastic-and-fiberglass-shell-in-4-6-colors/

 

[machestnut]

bye bye Iphone

This is bittersweet, I have been a iphone user since the first one and have been upgrading all the way to the 5. This is the phone that is finally making me switch and its all apple's fault. IOS is still stuck in the past and is very limited unless you jailbreak it. IOS is very boring and has had so many problems, that I'm done with it. I hope apple will get their act together and update IOS to be more of a competitor.

 

[lildimsum7]

He does have a point. I've been using an S3 for a few weeks now and overall I love the way it integrates with the Google ecosystem however in terms of the phones UI performance it does lag quite often. Eg if in chrome or an app and you hit home the it looks like it's trying to do it smoothly but can't and the transition ends up looking really choppy. And sometimes I don't see everything on the home screen at once, the time widget loads up last and you get the general impression the phone struggles with this kind of thing. Not sure technically what this is down to, poor coding or implementation but given it's a quad core with 1GB RAM I would expect better. My old iPhone 4 did not even do this.

that's true. but that's why custom ROMs and different launchers exist! my Samsung Captivate UI with a custom ROM and Nova Launcher works just as smoothly as any other phone out there

 

[r.harris1]

This is bittersweet, I have been a iphone user since the first one and have been upgrading all the way to the 5. This is the phone that is finally making me switch and its all apple's fault. IOS is still stuck in the past and is very limited unless you jailbreak it. IOS is very boring and has had so many problems, that I'm done with it. I hope apple will get their act together and update IOS to be more of a competitor.

I use both operating systems. "Exciting" isn't a word I'd use to characterize either one one of them. Both let me run apps and interact with people and things and get information. Both are reasonably mature and fairly solid implementations. Android lets you control more of the lower level details, if that's your thing. For you, what's boring about iOS and exciting about Android? What problems are you having with iOS?

 

[charlituna]

Worst Keynote Ever
I hated the fact that they didn't even demo the features in real time. Just video's..

And what about that girl with the gloves and all the goddamn dancing??
.

Waste of time for sure. Rather like all the hip hop dub step nonsense in the Surface ads. The latter ones actually starting showing the device doing something so that was better but they could have dumped the dancing fluff and done more of the product stuff. Short, sweet and to the point is better in this age of universal ADHD attention spans

 

[Oracle1729]

Technology reached a point where it's not about the size anymore. It's about how you engineer your software and how do you optimise it to take the most out of the hardware you've got.

So how do you engineer software to make a web page look as good on iPhone's dinky narrow screen as it does on the S4's wider larger screen?

How do you make a movie look as good on Apple's 4" 640 row screen as Samsung's 5" 1080p screen?

Since it's not about the size anymore I guess both screen sizes give equal performance given the properly engineered software?

Size matters. Your girlfriend lied.

 

[charlituna]

however i hoped apple would innovate in a way of shaping the way cellphones, subsidies and contracts are done in the US and they havent.

So you're upset that Apple didn't rewrite something they have no control over.

They aren't a cell service company, a cable TV company. ISP etc. it's unfair to expect them to change anything in those realms as they have no power. Hell they can't change that freaking HBO gripe about rampant torrents of their shows while not letting them go up on iTunes until two years after airing. Because Apple doesn't control the copyrights

 

[mrcalabash]

Apple stock went up $11 after the S4 announcement.

 

[vvswarup]

Everyone was expecting the SG4 to drive the final nail in Apple's coffin. Well, the consensus is that while it's a great phone and all, the SG4 is not the final Apple killer.

 

[charlituna]

There's only two things I want added to iOS:

1) Shared file space for user data. No reason Apple couldn't whip out a Finder like app for iOS in a week or so.

You want, you feel you need. But you aren't the target audience. Does the target audience need it. Probably not. At least not the way you want it. Common bucket storage to make switching apps for certain doc types easier sure. Saving into a space where you don't have to 'share to iTunes file sharing' to copy to computer or go through that headache to use something in another where it makes sense (like putting a GarageBand creation in your music library or using it in iMovie), sure. A full on Finder, not really. Much of the target audience barely uses Finder on their computer beyond open/save via their apps. And they have little to no clue where their files live and don't care as long as Word or whatever can find it. Basically the same as how iOS treats stuff

 

[Jaro65]

....everyone in my friends circle and work place are dumping their iphones for samsung.....

Given that 50% of US smartphone users have iPhones, you're running against some statistical odds here.... You sound like a troll.

 

[vvswarup]

however i hoped apple would innovate in a way of shaping the way cellphones, subsidies and contracts are done in the US and they havent. i dropped the iphone end of last year because i didnt want to be tied to a contract and carrier would double priced plans anymore or subsidies. so i have a nexus directly from google and while not all is perfect the latest version of android does pretty well.

What you describe is not innovation, IMO. And as someone else has pointed out, the business model for cellphones is not in Apple's control.

But now that you mention carriers, let me tell you something. When the iPhone first came out, Apple signed an exclusivity deal with AT&T. They signed that deal because AT&T was the only company that would agree to Apple's terms and was willing to take a flyer on it. And that's still the case these days. With other devices, carriers put their own branding on phones and lock them down. With Apple, they can't do that.

i want unlocked phones at better prices, instead of $700 smartphones that are outdated in 3 months. where the game changing is in smartphones is moving in the way of prepaid, better smartphones unlocked at lower prices. thats the smart move and hopefully apple, google, sony or samsung pick up on it and move that way.

It's not Apple's fault that smartphones become outdated in 3 months. The fact is that the industry is just that competitive.

 

[charlituna]

Not everyone lives close to an AppleStore - so what do these people do? Yes - send the device back to Apple for repair.

They call apple care, put down deposit on REPLACEMENT phone which is sent to them. They then have like a week to send back the dead one without paying any late fees. If the dead one comes back with no damage they get the full deposit back. If it is damaged like say liquid then they have to pay the replacement device cost and get back any additional fees (although as I recall from the half dozen times I've had to do this during location filming the deposit basically is the replacement device fee plus applicable local sales tax).

Most you are without a working phone is the shipping time and you can pay for express shipping to you which means like 2-3 business days. With Samsung etc you could be looking at 2-3 weeks

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Can someone please define for me a "photo with audio" ?

It's basically a video with a still shot rather than moving one.

So like you take a photo of the kids to send to grandma for her birthday and they actually say 'happy birthday' which she hears when she opens it.

Gimmicky at best and can probably be done in a half dozen free apps off the iOS store. That's the thing many folks ignore with this kind of presentation, those window phone ads etc. many of the things they demo aren't going to be used by the masses other than to see what the fuss is about and those that want it can find apps to do many if not all of them, often for free or cheap. Might have to jailbreak but for the folks that have to have that feature they likely already have anyway or are game to do it now

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Why do you need to be in contact with Apple's customer service? Doesn't it just work?

Sure does. Until you put some crappy built app on it (like Facebook) that screws things up and you are one of those 'stupid users' that doesn't know how to fix it. Or you drop it in a puddle of water and it doesn't turn on now. Would you rather pay a couple of hundred for a service swap or $800 to the carrier for a full price retail cause you are only four months into your contract. Most would say the lower price

 

[twigman08]

They call apple care, put down deposit on REPLACEMENT phone which is sent to them. They then have like a week to send back the dead one without paying any late fees. If the dead one comes back with no damage they get the full deposit back. If it is damaged like say liquid then they have to pay the replacement device cost and get back any additional fees (although as I recall from the half dozen times I've had to do this during location filming the deposit basically is the replacement device fee plus applicable local sales tax).

Most you are without a working phone is the shipping time and you can pay for express shipping to you which means like 2-3 business days. With Samsung etc you could be looking at 2-3 weeks

Again people always seem to forget a lot of the other ways Apple Support tries to help you.

I didn't have Apple Care on my first iPod Touch and I had a problem with the headphone jack. Still let me put down the deposit, they sent me a new iPod Touch, a return label, and box. A week and a half later I received my deposit back. So in my case I had never even lost anything or was without anything (since the iPod Touch still worked just had headphone jack problems).

Though Apple "bought" me as a customer for a very long time when they replaced my iPhone 4 out of warranty for FREE at the Apple Store. I had start to get some weird dead pixel problems where almost half the screen would just go out it would seem at random. They first inspected it for signs that it had been dropped (never was) and the guy said "we really aren't supposed to do this but we've never seen anything like this...so I'ma get my manager to see what I can do." Next thing I know manager came out himself with an iPhone 4. Logged onto their wifi, restored via iCloud, had all my data back in minutes. Walked out of the store like nothing had ever happen. From that personal experience I will almost always look at Apple first for quite a while.

 

[charlituna]

Direct Call (if you are txting, just put your phone up to your ear to call the person)

one button in iOS or if you have 'raise to speak' turned on with siri you lift up phone and say 'call {name of person}' and she will do it for you

Tap to Top

in basically all core iOS apps that have 'multiscreen' content like safari, messages, mail. Can be added by developers to theirs

Tilt to Zoom

gimmick. pinch to zoom really isn't that much more work and you get fewer false hits

and so on.

These features aren't new, special or really that amazing in the eyes of many folks cause they aren't geeks. and yet Samsung hypes them like they are the end all and be all. How about things that are important to the masses like new hardware and software to improve call quality, 802.11ac support either right now or at least software that can flip it on when the router support is there. how about not upping the megapixels on a camera but instead the low light sensors, the focus and so on. These are the things that any company should be looking at rather than the razzle dazzle.

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Apple, pull your finger out. It's embarrassing to not have some of the features this new S4 has. I'm a very loyal Apple devotee, but don't take my type for granted.

Its hardly embarrassing. the mass audience won't use most of this stuff beyond a couple of times to see what the fuss is about and then will forget about them. Just like many if them forget that Siri can do more than read off turn by turn directions.

Most folks feel that Apple is better off focusing on stability and performance and avoiding another wifi bug that sends folks into three and four digit usage bills than putting moving shadows on the skeuo buttons in apps. And they feel that many of things tilt etc tricks from folks like Samsung are just more shadows

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How is the iPhone 5s better than this ?

No one can answer that since the iphone 5s doesn't exist

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He was mudslinging and got caught. The Nexus will get K first, but the Nexus will not get Touchwiz or any of those updates. I wish I knew it was getting those sweet camera capabilities, for example, but it might not. They are different beasts.

Schiller was just mudslinging and yet you basically just confirmed his comment. He basically said that there's no promise that any new hardware will have the latest software (unlike how at Apple they design the two side by side) and you said that the Nexus will perhaps not get 'any of those updates'. And we don't know if the Nexus or this Galaxy will get the new software that Google is likely to announce at I/O or when. Thanks to the carriers wanting to mess with the system, updates are often months behind and don't always work on the hardware that was out when the vanilla release by Google was done.

These are facts of the game at this point so not really 'mudslinging' by Schiller.

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The fact you've walked into an Apple store many-a-time to replace a broken iPhone is surely an attestation to the iPhone's poor build quality - otherwise you wouldn't have to replace them so often!

or he's a klutz. glass breaks, water damages electronics. these are facts of life. And that could be the reason he's had to replace his phone. not that it was broken=defective

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If the iPhone's 326 pixels per inch is Retina Display (meaning you cannot see individual pixels with the naked eye), why is there an advantage to having 441 pip? Seems like a waste of GPU power for no noticeable improvement.

Because it's based on math that takes into account your vision quality and how far away you hold the phone. 441PPI means you can have better vision than the 'average' user and/or hold it closer and still not see the pixels.

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A lot of unnecessary features!

iPhone just need NFC, a better camera and battery,all the rest is unused on a daily basis.

Most folks would never use NFC, particularly daily. Either because they are not in an area where stores etc support it or they are too nervous about having their wallet in their phone.

And even that it's still in the "betamax v VHS" stage they really might not since what they could use it for might not be the flavor Apple includes.

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^This.

If Apple truly didn't have anything to fear, Phil Schiller wouldn't have addressed them in his interview, MR mods wouldn't post it on the site, and you wouldn't be talking about it.

You are assuming that Phil volunteered his comments out of a place of fear and not simply because he was asked a question and addressed the question asked.

 

[firewood]

IOS is still stuck in the past and is very limited ... IOS is very boring and has had so many problems...

Exactly right.

And it's not going to change, because that's why iOS devices sell so well and have such high average customer satisfaction. Apple polishes old boring features (stuff Palm had a decade ago) and makes them actually useful and even fashionable. Whereas the stuff that excites bored people doesn't last (Netbooks! Toshiba tablets running *FULL* Desktop Vista!). The limitations of iOS are one of the big reasons that its animations are smoother than Android. And customers like smooth. If boring and limited mints $Billions in device and app sales, why change to something exciting and less profitable? Start your own company if you like losing money.

Trying to sell stuff to bored people is a losing strategy. Thanks Samsung for playing the part. Take their money.

 

[JAT]

I would like a voip phone with true unlimited Data and a low monthly bill.

And I'd like an AMG to cost $500, I'd work an extra day to pay for it. I don't think even Sweden would give you what you want.

 

[SomeDudeAsking]

Given that 50% of US smartphone users have iPhones, you're running against some statistical odds here.... You sound like a troll.

Please cite sources to back up your claim of "50% of US smartphone users have iPhones" per forum rules.

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These features aren't new, special or really that amazing in the eyes of many folks cause they aren't geeks. and yet Samsung hypes them like they are the end all and be all. How about things that are important to the masses like new hardware and software to improve call quality, 802.11ac support either right now or at least software that can flip it on when the router support is there.

Did you even bother reading about the Galaxy S4 before trying and failing to bad mouth it with incorrect information in your posts? The Galaxy S4 does indeed have 802.11ac support right out of the box: http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/samsung-galaxy-s4-the-hardcore-geek-s-best-bits

 

[nia820]

Almost 1100 post on a thread about a samsung phone on one of the biggest apple forums.

I think samsung can say "mission accomplished."

For such a crappy or none worthy phone you folks sure are giving it a lot of attention.

 

[lordofthereef]

Air gestures seems like a very unnecessary feature.

If they implement it right, I can see it being very useful on some websites that require the hovering of a mouse to get to a drop down menu. Other than that, I agree.