Product Review: Samsung Galaxy S4

Posted on September 12, 2013 by jozjozjoz

8A-2013-09-12-Joz-SamsungGalaxyS4EDITORS NOTE: This review was written in June 2013 but got (temporarily) eaten by the blog monsters.

Let’s just put it this way: I’m fully entrenched in the world of Apple. I use an iPhone, an iPad, and a MacBook Air. So when Verizon Wireless sent me the new Samsung Galaxy S4 to try out, I was not necessarily going to be unbiased in my opinion from the start. That being said, here are my thoughts after using it for a few weeks.

Out of the box, the phone is very pretty. It’s much sleeker than the boxy feel of the iPhone 5. The screen is huge (5 in.) and the colors and text are sharp and clear. The touchscreen is responsive and once you enable the swype feature for typing, it’s relatively easy to text and email. It runs on Android 4.2.2 (Jellybean) and thumbing through the app store (Google Play Store) I found all the apps I use with regularity on my iPhone.

Things I liked about the phone:

~Picture and video quality. I took video of Yoshi’s choir and the sound/picture, even from the back of the hall, were comparable and even superior to some of the dedicated camcorders I’ve used.

~It’s a mobile hotspot for up to 10 devices. This came in handy at meetings leading up to and the actual V3con event.

~Battery life. I was able to take over 15 short videos (2-6 minutes) and pictures and while I had to charge the phone to upload everything to my DropBox, I was happy that I was able to capture everything I needed to from my events.

Things that didn’t work so well:

~Using it as a phone. We get virtually no Verizon cell service at our house, so it was hard to judge call quality or reception.

~Ow. The phone gets really hot when used for longer periods of time.

Overall, a very nice phone, with almost all the apps I use on a daily basis. Would I trade in my iPhone 5 for the Samsung Galaxy S4? Probably not unless I was going to make the switch to Android, but if I was going to go that route, this phone would definitely be a contender.

Note: I did not receive monetary compensation for this review, but I did receive complimentary usage of a Samsung Galaxy S4 device with Verizon Wireless service for a few weeks.

About jozjozjoz

jozjozjoz is a taiwanese-american gal who lives and blogs underneath the hollywood sign and who doesn’t clean her fishtank unless the fish starts to do the backstroke. she is also able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but cannot stop from bumping into door handles, cabinet doors, and anything else that protrudes or has a sharp edge. she does not run with scissors for this same reason. she can pet the fur off a dog but don’t ask her to go anywhere near a horse. or a moth. or a roach. her dealings with L.A.’s finest (aka the parking violations department) are legend, as are her giant sneezes. Other than the two too many joz’s, jozjozjoz is a perfectly normal, relatively sane individual who defies the odds, reaches for the stars, and carries moonbeams home in a jar. She’d rather be a fish… but not in her own dirty fishtank. http://www.jozjozjoz.com
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