Samsung S4 vs iPhone?

[AlohaStyle]

Hey fellas,

Long story short, my iPhone froze up on me last week while doing an iOS update and I lost ALL MY DATA including precious videos of my 2 young kids, Cuba trip etc, etc. Needless to say, I'm pretty pissed. I don't have anyone to blame but myself though which makes me more pissed. LOL

Now that my iPhone is back to factory settings it's the perfect time to get new phones for my wife and I. I've had an iPhone since the original and love them, but am sick of them being tied to itunes and keeping contacts organized has been a pain over the years during updates etc.

Question is... has anyone here converted from an iPhone over to the Samsung Galaxy S4? What are your thoughts... pros/cons of both? To the S4 owners, how do you handle playing music? Is there a music player like the iphone has the ipod, or do you pretty much just stream music using pandora, google music etc? I mainly stream music, but it's nice to have an internal player for the occasional time like on flights or out in the woods etc. How are contacts managed... through Google contacts?

Other pros/cons I should be aware of? My wife and I will be upgrading shortly but I'm leaning towards the S4 but am afraid I will regret it.

 

[Monsterdg]

Apple is getting a lot of flack for changing the ports on the 5 so all the old chargers are bunk unless you get adapters (more $). With that said, the wife is a die hard iphone/apple person.

I'm in the android camp and have heard nothing but good things about the S4; however I'm holding out for the HTC One (I'm currently on Verizon and it's coming shortly). From the reviews, the S4 and HTC One are neck and neck so I don't think you can go wrong.

Personally, I use Google Music (uploaded all my CDs into the google cloud, very little if any issue if signal is lost) and Sirius from my droid and love them. I've dabbled with Spotify, Pandora, etc. just never got into the groove, although you have many many fans of each. My contacts are on my phone synced with both a work and personal email account and backed up to the cloud.

 

[MoJo]

Question is... has anyone here converted from an iPhone over to the Samsung Galaxy S4? What are your thoughts... pros/cons of both? To the S4 owners, how do you handle playing music? Is there a music player like the iphone has the ipod, or do you pretty much just stream music using pandora, google music etc? I mainly stream music, but it's nice to have an internal player for the occasional time like on flights or out in the woods etc. How are contacts managed... through Google contacts?

Other pros/cons I should be aware of? My wife and I will be upgrading shortly but I'm leaning towards the S4 but am afraid I will regret it.

Sorry to hear that you lost all that data. I've never owned an iPhone and do not have the gs4 (currently have the galaxy nexus) so I can't give you a lot of advice, but I know people who have made the switch to android and loved it and some hated it AND I know people who made the switch from android to an iPhone and loved it and some hated it. It really just comes down to personal preference (which you probably already know). The biggest con is probably just having to get used to a new OS and learning the new way to do the things you did on the iPhone.

Regarding the music question, there are multiple music players available for you on android and even google music will play music from your local files.

From google music help page
"You can play music stored on your device’s internal storage through the Google Play Music app so that you can listen to music when you don’t have an Internet connection. You can do this either by making some of your online music available offline or by copying music directly from your computer to your device."

I personally stream all my music from my google music library and have not tried their all access service or other options and do not know how it compares to what you have on the iPhone.

For contacts, they can be managed through google contacts, but don't have to. I use google contacts though so I wont be much help with the other options. I know a few years ago when I was at a job that used MS exchange I was able to sync my outlook contacts as well. If you have a way you would prefer to use to manage your contacts I would just search to see if it is supported, more than likely someone else has already tried to do that and can tell you if you can or can't.

Your carrier might also allow returns within 14 days or so, so you might want to check on that. That way you could go with the S4 and if you don't like it within a week or two exchange it for an iPhone. My ex was able to do this on t-mobile years back (blackberry to android).

 

[twenty5]

I have the GS4. I also have been in charge of our company's phone contracts and phones for the last 6 years or so. When the S4 came out, it was upgrade time and everyone switched over except for 3 people that insisted iphones were better. We got them the iphone 5 and within the 30 day return period, two traded them in for S4s and one stayed with the iphone. In my opinion it is a MUCH better phone.

As for music, I use Amazon Cloud Player, I am pretty sure you can upload all of your purchased music from itunes to it also. You can import up to 250 songs for free and everything you purchase from amazon doesnt count towards that.

Google backs everything up (photos on Google+, contacts in gmail, text messages and call lists in gmail etc. etc. etc.) just like your apple cloud was supposed to if you had it set up right. Its easy to convert all of your apple contacts to gmail contacts. I had to do it for a few phones and then back again..

Most of this was probably just random thoughts... It took me an hour to write this while working. Hope it makes sense/helps...

 

[ilikefishes]

Run from apple as fast as you can. You will enjoy anything more than the new i-POS.

 

[Hoshneer]

I went from an iPhone to S3. You can download an app in the apple market I believe to back up you contacts and send them through your email to change it over to Android. I believe you can export through iTunes also. I love my S3 and I will never go back, although the iPhone is definitely better for certain people. The S3 is more versatile and I love the fact that I can buy a 7000 mag battery for it.

I will get the S4 or Note 3 at some point but it will be about 6 months or so just because I like to use customized software for it like Cyanogenmod. In my opinion there is no choice but I am sure there are still a few Apple guys out there. Just do us all a favor and don't get a cheap Android. Those are what give the brand a bad name. Good luck man and enjoy your new toy.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

 

[AlohaStyle]

Thanks for all the responses. Now gotta get ready for some salmon fishing then will figure out Verizon vs AT&T tomorrow and will probably go with the S4. My wife still wants the iPhone as she prefers smaller phone so will be interesting to see the differences. I still had the iPhone 4 so there will be changes I'm sure I wish I had...

 

[CWS]

I own a couple of Verizon operations and deal with both phones. I have never had a person return an SIII or SIV but many, many iPhone. I like to think of it as ability versus simplicity. The Samsung has endless abilities. The iPhone has many but is very simple to use. The Samsung based on its abilities is a little harder to learn. The iPhone because of it limitations; a little easier. I use all the phones we get in and love the S4. I have never paid for music and use Gtunes.

 

[Robertsndr68]

I agree with all the pro droid comments. Android has great internal music capabilities. They do everything iPhones do without charging you for it.

And as a 22 year old tech geek/nerd I have to suggest the HTC One over the S4 based on test drives of both and from comments from friends who have one or the other and the One has ZERO complaints.

 

[hdroadglide]

first and most obvious question....why didn't you have automatic back ups to the cloud???? i have a 4s and like it. the 5 didn't excite me and unless the 5s is a major upgrade, i'd look seriously at the others

 

[Heath]

I love my 5 and have all me info backed up on the cloud every time I plug the phone in. So I'll never have to worry about loosing info. I have heard a lot of good things about the S4 too. Just not my thing.

 

[StogieNinja]

I like to think of it as ability versus simplicity. The Samsung has endless abilities. The iPhone has many but is very simple to use. The Samsung based on its abilities is a little harder to learn. The iPhone because of it limitations; a little easier.

This is it, in a nutshell. (It's also why I use an iPhone... it's simple, like me!)

 

[AlohaStyle]

first and most obvious question....why didn't you have automatic back ups to the cloud???? i have a 4s and like it. the 5 didn't excite me and unless the 5s is a major upgrade, i'd look seriously at the others

cuz you get 5GB for free and I had more than that so I didn't do the auto... I'm a cheap ass so didn't pay for more. Then my main computer's motherboard broke down so I've been without a "main" computer for 6+ months thinking I would get a new one and get something set up. Procrastination and having 2 little kids prevented me from doing what I needed to do and back my shit up.

 

[AlohaStyle]

And as a 22 year old tech geek/nerd I have to suggest the HTC One over the S4 based on test drives of both and from comments from friends who have one or the other and the One has ZERO complaints.

Damn you... I thought I had an answer and now more research is needed!?! LOL

 

[Robertsndr68]

And as a 22 year old tech geek/nerd I have to suggest the HTC One over the S4 based on test drives of both and from comments from friends who have one or the other and the One has ZERO complaints.

Damn you... I thought I had an answer and now more research is needed!?! LOL

Just trying to help a buddy land the best option possible! Especially when you're investing that kind of money a little extra homework never hurts.

 

[CAJoe]

I have the GS4 and absolutely love it. I battled over the GS4 and the HTC One for awhile before I chose the GS4. Definitely suggest you look at both of those.

 

[MoJo]

And as a 22 year old tech geek/nerd I have to suggest the HTC One over the S4 based on test drives of both and from comments from friends who have one or the other and the One has ZERO complaints.

Damn you... I thought I had an answer and now more research is needed!?! LOL

and to throw one more in there, LG just unveiled their newest phone, the G2. just browsed through the specs and it looks like top contender, but we'll see when people start reviewing it.

 

[MoJo]

and sorry to keep bumping this thread, but read a couple reviews of the G2 and so far people aren't to thrilled about it, g4/htc one still probably better. although lower specs, the moto x seems to be getting some nice reviews as well to throw another one out there

 

[AlohaStyle]

Wracked my brain last couple of days looking into HTC One. Went into a few stores and talked to reps that own the phones and had me show pros/cons of both. Although I do like some of the pros of the HTC like the Beats Audio speakers, live feed, turning pictures into short video clips, and metal casing... I am going with the S4. Some of the reasons are I think the Samsungs have had good consistent products over the last few years whereas HTC has had some bombs, being able to swap out the SD card and battery and a touch bigger screen. I do not like the plastic feel of the phone though coming from owning iPhones a long time.

But getting away from itunes... woo-hoo!

 

[Hoshneer]

I do have one more suggestion, if you haven't bought it yet. You should consider buying from Best Buy, they have a much better replacement plan with $0 deductible and it covers the charger and headphones. Also sometimes you can get them to price match. Price matching is rare on the smartphones but they will match Amazon on accessories.