Samsung Galaxy S4 Active

[marlar]

Hi,

I am mainly interested in S4 Active because the LCD screen should be better than S4 for viewing ourdoors, especially in direct sunlight.

But how much better is it? Or phrased differently, how bad is S4 really outside?

Also, is S4 better than S3 outside? (I ask because I know somebody with S3, so I could try it out).

BTW, I also like the physical buttons. But the camera is better on S4, and Active lacks temperature and humidity sensors which could be useful sometimes,

It's really really hard to choose

 

[TraumaRN]

Hi,

I am mainly interested in S4 Active because the LCD screen should be better than S4 for viewing ourdoors, especially in direct sunlight.

But how much better is it? Or phrased differently, how bad is S4 really outside?

Also, is S4 better than S3 outside? (I ask because I know somebody with S3, so I could try it out).

BTW, I also like the physical buttons. But the camera is better on S4, and Active lacks temperature and humidity sensors which could be useful sometimes,

It's really really hard to choose

So I upgraded to an S4 Active yesterday. $100 bucks.

Impressions so far:

I like the physical build and physical buttons.

The screen is easily viewable outside even in the sun. The color reproduction is quite nice. Slightly limited viewing angles but nothing horrible.

No complaints with the camera so far. And much faster obviously than my GS2.

Battery life seems fine, at work today will be the real test. Signal inside my house is the same or better.

So far I'm loving it.

 

[jintoku]

What we really need is somebody verifying or falsifying the Engadget report of much worse battery life due to the LCD display. If they're right this is a big disadvantage. If they're wrong, the increased brightness of the Active's screen outdoors is a big plus.

 

[TraumaRN]

What we really need is somebody verifying or falsifying the Engadget report of much worse battery life due to the LCD display. If they're right this is a big disadvantage. If they're wrong, the increased brightness of the Active's screen outdoors is a big plus.

I'll certainly keep everyone informed about battery life.

 

[gorcorps]

What we really need is somebody verifying or falsifying the Engadget report of much worse battery life due to the LCD display. If they're right this is a big disadvantage. If they're wrong, the increased brightness of the Active's screen outdoors is a big plus.

If I knew somebody with a plain S4 I'd be able to test, but I don't. I can tell you that the battery life isn't as bad as it looked like out of the box, so maybe a few recharge cycles has helped? The first week I doubted I'd be able to get a full day out of it without curbing use (same problem as my S3) but now I'm pretty comfortable with the battery life. I'm usually near 30% at the end of the day with moderate use in a terrible signal area.

 

[Passenger57]

Bump!

 

[gorcorps]

Bump!

Why? Unless you have new questions or info it's kind of a tease bumping a tech thread for no info.

Just so this wasn't completely wasted, I'll give an update. I feel like this is the first Android phone I've had where I'm not itching to get a new rom. With a different launcher and keyboard I'm perfectly happy with how it sits stock. I did root it just in case, but there's nothing I really want to change. I would maybe make some UI tweaks so it's not so childish and colorful, but that's not even that bad. Any samsung feature you don't like is easily disabled, and the ATT stuff isn't so integrated that you can't ignore it. And you should still be able to get rid of it after root, even though I haven't tried yet.

 

[Gorgenapper]

Update...I'm about to get this phone. blairharrington's review was very instrumental in pushing me to the point of actually wanting it

A bunch of questions before I pull the trigger, does it still have the usual S4 screen modes like 'Movie Mode', etc? Just in case I want to try out different modes. Also, how is the screen/color reproduction compared to the HTC One, if anybody knows? blair mentioned that it was no worse than the iPhone 5, which already has an excellent screen.

What about talk quality? Is it still good? (read a review somewhere which dinged it on talk quality, but that could be because of the network)

Also, any tips and tricks to share if and when I get the phone? Obviously root it, then how to remove the useless bloatware crap (I'm in Canada, AT&T stuff is useless to me)? etc. . Oh yes, and use Nova Launcher Prime, a quick glance on the google play store has convinced me that it is the way to go for home screens.

I'll be new to Android, coming from an iPhone 4S. I detest iTunes and I hate having to sync my movies, music, pictures and such through it. I work best through the file system with copy and paste, multiple folders, subfolders within subfolders, etc. Does Android offer such flexibility? I don't care if I have to plug it in to my computer to work with it like an external drive. Anything else I'll have to get used to, coming from iOS to Android, and probably never looking back?

 

[TuxDave]

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Sams...amaged-Samsung-Galaxy-S4-Active-units_id46097

And so it begins. One time offer so if you're smart you probably would stop testing the waterproof nature of the phone on the second unit.

 

[WelshBloke]

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Sams...amaged-Samsung-Galaxy-S4-Active-units_id46097

And so it begins. One time offer so if you're smart you probably would stop testing the waterproof nature of the phone on the second unit.

Lol, what with that and the xperia z issues waterproof phones aren't looking to impressive at the moment.

Mind you I had one and it failed under the conditions it was advertised to work in they had better replace it or they'd be looking at a small claims court case ultimately.

 

[blairharrington]

Update...I'm about to get this phone. blairharrington's review was very instrumental in pushing me to the point of actually wanting it

A bunch of questions before I pull the trigger, does it still have the usual S4 screen modes like 'Movie Mode', etc? Just in case I want to try out different modes. Also, how is the screen/color reproduction compared to the HTC One, if anybody knows? blair mentioned that it was no worse than the iPhone 5, which already has an excellent screen.

What about talk quality? Is it still good? (read a review somewhere which dinged it on talk quality, but that could be because of the network)

Also, any tips and tricks to share if and when I get the phone? Obviously root it, then how to remove the useless bloatware crap (I'm in Canada, AT&T stuff is useless to me)? etc. . Oh yes, and use Nova Launcher Prime, a quick glance on the google play store has convinced me that it is the way to go for home screens.

I'll be new to Android, coming from an iPhone 4S. I detest iTunes and I hate having to sync my movies, music, pictures and such through it. I work best through the file system with copy and paste, multiple folders, subfolders within subfolders, etc. Does Android offer such flexibility? I don't care if I have to plug it in to my computer to work with it like an external drive. Anything else I'll have to get used to, coming from iOS to Android, and probably never looking back?

Well I'm about to wrap up a month in Italy using the Active with a local SIM. I'll try to answer what I can.

Like most current Samsung phones, the Active possesses modes for the screen. I actually haven't altered mine. The LCD screen IMO is a vast improvement over the OLED of the vanilla S4. You have the option to play with the different modes.

Zero issues with talk quality.

I use Nova and love it.

I used AirDroid to put 30 GB of music onto my SD card. It worked very well but it took me 3 hours of dragging and dropping. AirDroid is wifi only, no cable, so it took a long time. Dragging too large an amount of data onto the phone always caused AirDroid to crash. So you might to use something else.

Android takes a bit of time to get used to. It was probably a week before I had it down. iOS apps have more polish. And TouchWiz sucks at copy and paste compared to iOS. Otherwise I think I prefer Android. Also the notification light is something I never want to lose again.

 

[Gorgenapper]

Well I'm about to wrap up a month in Italy using the Active with a local SIM. I'll try to answer what I can.

Like most current Samsung phones, the Active possesses modes for the screen. I actually haven't altered mine. The LCD screen IMO is a vast improvement over the OLED of the vanilla S4. You have the option to play with the different modes.

Yeah, the 5" LCD screen is pretty much one of 4 selling points for the Active (even reviewers on youtube have pointed out that the colour accuracy of the Active is better than on the S4) - the other two being removable battery, expandable memory, and Android. I don't believe there is another phone out there on the market with everything listed above. The HTC Butterfly S comes close, but lacks removable battery and no LTE in North America....

Zero issues with talk quality.

I use Nova and love it.

I used AirDroid to put 30 GB of music onto my SD card. It worked very well but it took me 3 hours of dragging and dropping. AirDroid is wifi only, no cable, so it took a long time. Dragging too large an amount of data onto the phone always caused AirDroid to crash. So you might to use something else.

Android takes a bit of time to get used to. It was probably a week before I had it down. iOS apps have more polish. And TouchWiz sucks at copy and paste compared to iOS. Otherwise I think I prefer Android. Also the notification light is something I never want to lose again.

Can't wait to try it out next week when it arrives. I know that I'll be comparing actions on it to my iPhone 4S for the first week or two, but I'm sure that the vast benefits of the phone hardware and OS will outweigh anything I'll miss from iOS.

As for updates to the phone OS...is this something only AT&T customers can get, or is there another way for us Canadians? I understand the bootloader is still locked on the Active...

 

[Passenger57]

Couldn't wait any longer for Verizon to get it, so I went with a regular S4 instead of the S4 Active.

 

[Aaronhunt]

samsung galaxy is beutifull mobile with various features like dust free, waterproof, having other various advanced features.
in todays market samsung is performing well and is ranking as top mobile company

 

[zerogear]

Samsung Galaxy S4 Active: Water Leaks through Screen

Be careful, it's not covered under warranty.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2396089

 

[Dari]

Samsung Galaxy S4 Active: Water Leaks through Screen

Be careful, it's not covered under warranty.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2396089

Isn't this phone supposed to be waterproof, or at least water-resistant? Now I'm hearing reports that it really isn't and Samsung is not repairing them under warranty. This is what happens when you buy garbage...

 

[StrangerGuy]

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Sams...amaged-Samsung-Galaxy-S4-Active-units_id46097

And so it begins. One time offer so if you're smart you probably would stop testing the waterproof nature of the phone on the second unit.

Right, let's not test a phone that is sold as waterproof by dipping it in water. Sounds very logical.

It's not the consumers bloody fault if the product fails to perform to it's specifications.

 

[blairharrington]

Isn't this phone supposed to be waterproof, or at least water-resistant? Now I'm hearing reports that it really isn't and Samsung is not repairing them under warranty. This is what happens when you buy garbage...

Not really sure why you felt the need to reply to something from mid-September. The Active is not garbage. I absolutely love mine. The camera is a bit lacking though.

The phone is not waterproof. People for some reason tend to not understand this or get easily confused. It was advertised as water resistant to a point. (3 feet for 30 minutes.) Problem is that the Active appears to have issues even if used under these terms. I won't defend this, however I also had no intention of dunking my S4 underwater at any point. My thought process was that I'd probably be safe if I got caught in the rain using my phone or if it somehow fell into a pool or at the ocean.

AT&T was forced to offer one replacement if you had water issues with the Active. But only once. I would still recommend the Active as long as you don't plan on taking underwater photos with it. What led to me purchase it in the end was the LCD screen.