Samsung I9500 Galaxy S4

User opinions and reviews

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W
WHAT
LxJ
24 Sep 2013

HOW can such an expensive phone have no radio!!

R
RANJAN
rK$
24 Sep 2013

My galaxy s4 screen is working well, but glass is shattered. I have to change my s4 screen or is their any glass just above screen,is screen is covered under warranty or not.

s
shubham yadav
YQI
24 Sep 2013

kapil, 24 Sep 2013Hi,how s4 is updated through samsung kies?? Anyone please ... more1. install kies on your pc
2. connect phone to pc through usb .
3. it will show your current and latest firmwares. it will also have an option to upgrade firmware
4. click to upgrade firmware
it will guide you then. You will do it on your own after that.

It's really easy.

Have a good day.

g
gaurav
rJH
24 Sep 2013

really fantastic phone...&

k
kapil
PVt
24 Sep 2013

Hi,how s4 is updated through samsung kies??
Anyone please guide in detail and step by step to update it through KIES!!
Thanks in Advance!

s
shubham yadav
rKA
24 Sep 2013

Freefaller™, 24 Sep 2013@ shubham yadav I agree with a lot of what you are sayin... moreyeah I understand you now. You have i9505 and that has some sound problems like unusual distortions at some certain frequencies. and if an audio device does not have a good output, a good headset makes a lot of difference as you can spot that. But if a person uses i9500 with wolfson DAC, he will not be able to find any weak points even in the default headphones as the sound is really great and almost equals htc one.

look, its the DAC which matters. i9505 has qualcomm dac which has some problems . I read about them on some site which did some scientific tests to identify the cause of this distortion which really bugged them. wolfson dac in i9500 creates best in class sound.

the i9500 and i9505 may look similar but they are very different in camera, audio, processor and connectivity.

You may ask me if you want any further information on the difference between these 2.

Have a nice day.

F
Freefaller™
myS
24 Sep 2013

Leonard, 24 Sep 2013Talkback is off dude its some other problem@ Leonard

You say that you have an icon that looks like a speaker on your notification bar. I'm thinking that it might be a 'steering wheel' icon. If it is that then you have turned 'Driving mode' on. Have a look in Settings/My device.
Another thing it might be is 'Voice control' but that doesn't put an icon in the notification bar.
You state that it has only been happening for the last few days. The last option is that you have installed an app that turns on 'Text to Speech'.

c
chakra
7w0
24 Sep 2013

Henriquez, 24 Sep 2013My question on this phone is just about battery life. Pls h... more
I appreciate to this market product.Here i want to know the life of battery and additional battery for remote area. similarly i want to know the Internet connection from SIM-GSM at any time.
Thank
Best Regard
Chakra Bahadur Bista/Nepal

L
Leonard
Hkq
24 Sep 2013

Freefaller™, 23 Sep 2013@ Leonard Check to see if you have turned 'Talkback' on ... moreTalkback is off dude its some other problem

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Anonymous
s%{
24 Sep 2013

This is great

H
Henriquez
N9@
24 Sep 2013

My question on this phone is just about battery life. Pls how long does it last on averagely heavy use?

F
Freefaller™
myS
24 Sep 2013

shubham yadav, 24 Sep 2013Sorry freefaller i don't agree in this topic. according to ... more@ shubham yadav

I agree with a lot of what you are saying, but personally I found the supplied earphones only 'adequate'. They are good, in fact they are a lot better than any other 'out of the box' earphones, but there are better (and I'm not going to start a "my earphones are better than your earphones" debate). At the end of the day it is down to personal choice.
As for your question. In the UK we get the i9505 because all the carriers are now rolling out 4G. I KNOW that the i9505 has an inferior chipset and that is why you get a better output. I concede on that point.
On another point, I have 4G on my contract and believe me it is not all it is cracked up to be. Yes, the data transfer is blindingly fast, but there are other problems. The main one seems to be that all phones (not just the S4) are losing their signal all together when the phone tries to switch from 4G to 3G automatically; and sometimes you have to restart your phone to get the signal back. 4G is still in it's infancy, and this problem is a major concern here in the UK.

D
AnonD-33543
K2E
24 Sep 2013

AnonD-78030, 24 Sep 2013There are few apps that accomplish this . It's actually cal... moreThanks buddy

D
AnonD-33543
K2E
24 Sep 2013

Freefaller™, 23 Sep 2013@ shawon.nsu Yeah, the earphones that come in the box ar... moreThanks freefaller. :)

s
shubham yadav
GR{
24 Sep 2013

mkaravel, 24 Sep 2013Hey guys I see that a lot of people are fighting whether t... moregood article friend but I don't think anyone except trolls are comparing this to an iphone. Both are phones for different needs, have different ecosystems and hence are meant for different end users.

and just to tell you that the now so called gimmicky features may be put to some really great use later by software update. s4 has the hardware and just needs a great software to make these now useless features into real jewels. for now, these are just for show off like the aluminium body of iPhone.

have a great day.

s
shubham yadav
GR{
24 Sep 2013

rollsroyce, 23 Sep 2013I had planned to buy note 3 but when I realised, spending t... moreit feels much better than s3 or note 2 due to its shape. It has a better handling than almost all the phones in its category due to small size and large screen. Also it looks good in front. its the back that looks slight bad.

Yes it doesn't stand a chance in feel compared to those htc one and iphones but really it doesn't feel cheap. Some people over exaggerate things. but those people have to keep their so called premium phones in a case but in s4 you can change back cover if it's damaged. so I consider this over an htc one with a tpu case.

m
mkaravel
n7U
24 Sep 2013

Hey guys
I see that a lot of people are fighting whether this phone outperforms iPhone or not. There is a lot of exaggeration, and honestly, anyone that claims any of the two devices nails the other, is either ignorant or liar.
I happen to have both, and here is my honest opinion:

iPhone is a jewel. Objects on the screen behave as if they where real, the frame rate of the movement is great, if you move a photo back and forth a few times, it still behaves as if it was a real piece of paper under your fingers. Android devices are by *far* behind on this aspect, and this is really annoying. (every android user who claims the opposite, has probably not laid hands on an iPhone before) Each an every moving item on the screen seems to move frame by frame (especially if you had iPhone experience before and you can compare), except if you move it extremely slowly. That being said, galaxy S4 performs closest to iPhone, compared to other Android devices. It is not iPhone, but it’s all the best you can get from Android.

iOs is a stylistic miracle. Especially iOS 7 is the most stylish and minimalistic environment I have seen on a mobile device. In contrary to the crowded and street-market-like appearance of android desktops.

iPhone and iOS are super-automate and super-easy to use, with the least options to explore and play with. (every iPhone users who claims that iPhone has a lot to play with probably has no experience with Android) One does not really have to think when using an iPhone, every task happens almost by itself.. That’s why iDevices are best for older and less familiar with technology people. However, things in an iPhone happen ONLY the way Apple allows them to happen. Recently I found my self having to repartition my HDD on my PC in order to backup one of iPhone’s contacts: For some reason iPhone needed to do a full phone backup when I tried to synchronize (no, if you have an iPhone you cannot just save contacts on PC). My C: partition did not have 16 Gb free for a full backup. And NO, Apple wiould not let me backup on another drive letter. Hilarious. Another ridiculous example is file sharing. iPhone is the only device you have to pay for MMS in order to send a contact or a photo to a person sitting beside you, even between two BLUETOOTH ENABLED devices. Forget all these nonsense on an S4

A few other stuff I have noticed are
iOS apps are generally of a better quality, iOS is not spammed with apps that have no reason of existence.
iPhone has a better design quality (admit it)
Apple does not include a technology in its devices unless its use is seamless and fluent (unlike S4 with its useless “gestures”)

S4 has a way better AND bigger screen but colors are a bit less realistic.
S4 has a bunch of new sensors that read environmental variables, AND IR port (yeah I have a universal remote in my pocket) while iPhone is stuck to proximity some decades now.
Android devices do not hesitate to encorporate new features (there are S4 gestures that DO work and are really good)
iPhone will not let you play a lot wth the appearance, the layout and the functions of the GUI..

To conclude, my opinion is that both devices hare their reason of existence, and refer to different groups of people. iPhone is better for older people looking for simplicity and ease of use, or for people (mostly young women :p) that care more for style than performance/specifications/modification.
S4 is the best Android has to offer (until now), and should be the only choice of geeks and generally people who like to tweak, modify and play a bit more with the options of their devices.

I have both and I do not regret buying any of the two.

s
shubham yadav
GR{
24 Sep 2013

AnonD-78030, 24 Sep 2013There are few apps that accomplish this . It's actually cal... morefor your kind information, reverse tethering requires ROOT ACCESS. hence I was correct that there is no way you can reverse tether in the default setup.

although thanks for the info. I knew I can do this by root but didn't know the name.

Have a nice day.

s
shubham yadav
U@$
24 Sep 2013

Freefaller™, 23 Sep 2013@ shawon.nsu Yeah, the earphones that come in the box ar... moreSorry freefaller i don't agree in this topic. according to gsmarena"The new earphones are dubbed HS330 and feature dual-speakers
(8mm tweeter and 10mm woofer) for improved performance with
both high and low frequency sounds. They offer better bass than
just about any other pair of headphones you can find in a
smartphone's retail package".

mine got a great earphones and s4(octa only) offers much better sound than htc one x and close to htc one. I have experienced it. The one x Just had a loud sound. That's not lovely. just listen on both side by side. The s4 has way clearer output with better bass. its pure sound.

You can also see the frequency response of s4 in s4 octa vs s600 comparison by gsmarena. It's almost perfect. The wolfson DAC has the best output of any phone available.but unfortunately this is available in only the octa variant of s4. look at my comment below. I told him it depends on version.

and the stock music player is great. It also has a decent equilizer. go to music player. press menu button. go to settings>soundalive> custom and boom there is a great 7 band equaliser with an extended option for bass and reverberation etc. and the best thing about stock is that it is optimised for your phone. It can come in lockscreen and all plus it has adaptsound etc.

btw freefaller which version you use???i9500 or i9505

have a nice day.

D
AnonD-57614
ut3
24 Sep 2013

Go 4 gs 4

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