Hi Guys,
I'm planning to buy S4 but have found quite diverse feedback, like the issues with heat up, lagging etc. I had to choose between HTC One & S4 but the image quality in daylight shots, SD Card & removable battery was what I prefer the most.
I would also love to know which one should I go for i.e. i9500 or i9505.
I'll be playing some casual games not the most graphic intense games and that too for about 30-40 min at a time, will be always on wifi ON, emailing, fb etc.
I would love to hear from S4 users who are using it from quite sometime.
Thanks
Been using i9500 for seven months. Perfectly happy with the device. Never had a problem with a single game. After 4.3 update it has become extremely smooth. No overheating. All stock.
Thanks for your reply. I would also love to know if there is any difference between the two in camera shots.
tahirk said:
Hi Guys,
I'm planning to buy S4 but have found quite diverse feedback, like the issues with heat up, lagging etc. I had to choose between HTC One & S4 but the image quality in daylight shots, SD Card & removable battery was what I prefer the most.
I would also love to know which one should I go for i.e. i9500 or i9505.
I'll be playing some casual games not the most graphic intense games and that too for about 30-40 min at a time, will be always on wifi ON, emailing, fb etc.
I would love to hear from S4 users who are using it from quite sometime.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are going to have to choose between a variant of the S4, then why not go for the i9506 (if it's available in your area). It has advanced LTE, Snapdragon 800 (faster than the 600 on i9505 and Exynos on 19500) and also Adreno 330 GPU.
I also compared the battery life and performance with a friend running the i9505 and it lasted about 1 hour longer and looked a tiny bit faster in opening games. This is the latest model of the S4 and if it's available, you should definitely get it. Also it doesn't have the annoying knox warranty issue like the i9505, so rooting it would not be a problem (although rom development is a bit slow)
den10 said:
If you are going to have to choose between a variant of the S4, then why not go for the i9506 (if it's available in your area). It has advanced LTE, Snapdragon 800 (faster than the 600 on i9505 and Exynos on 19500) and also Adreno 330 GPU.
I also compared the battery life and performance with a friend running the i9505 and it lasted about 1 hour longer and looked a tiny bit faster in opening games. This is the latest model of the S4 and if it's available, you should definitely get it. Also it doesn't have the annoying knox warranty issue like the i9505, so rooting it would not be a problem (although rom development is a bit slow)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, i9506 isn't available in our area. I have to choose between i9500/i9505
i9500 uses Sony Exmor RS sensor compared to i9505's Sony Exmor R sensor.
so, i9500 takes better picture to i9505
Camera is better on the i9500 from what I've read so far. But yes, custom rom development is much less than that of 9505. If that doesn't matter to u much, then go for 9500 as it is a little better than its cousin in almost every respect.
So, i9500 will be a good choice to choose between the two.
Can we expect the overall performance including battery performance to improve once we have official KitKat for S4?
I9505 for development. Ability to flash Google Edition Roms and there are many custom TW roms and AOSP roms. It is better supported by the devs if development is important.
Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
nikzDHD said:
I9505 for development. Ability to flash Google Edition Roms and there are many custom TW roms and AOSP roms. It is better supported by the devs if development is important.
Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I would want the ability to flash & custom roms, but if Samsung makes KitKat available for i9500/i9505 at the same time than I'll go for the stock i9500 as we didn't have 3G coverage yet (talking about 4G is over the moon here).
How different are the camera performance on the two. I have seen quite a few shots & found that sometimes I would see i9500 doing good & the other times i9505
Also can we expect the camera performance to get better with new firmware or KitKat.
Both cameras are probably on par. The I9500 has a newer sensor inside it. Firmware updates bring camera firmware updates too. Both should be fine, but obviously your not going to get picture quality when you compare to a digital camera or DSLR.
Both are adequate in good lighting conditions and compare to the other handsets currently out there.
Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
Hi,
I am looking to renew my phone now. First I was thinking in the S4 considering the price is quite good now the S5 is out. But then I thought maybe is more wise to get a S4+ since I plan to use the phone for a couple of years. But it seems that there is less support for the i9506 than for the original 9505 in terms of ROMs. What should I choose?
I have also cosidered the S5 but the price is too high and the only plus I see from it is the camera + dust/water protection. It feels better an S4 with the black edition back cover than the S5...
I would really appreciate some opinions/tips. Thanks!!!
i think S5 doesn't bring anything new to the table besides little cpu power.
its bulkier larger heavier. for me it;s no,no. s4 is large as it is.
you can have I9506 which is snapdragon 800 edition of s4 which is almost the same as s5 processing power.
Yeah but when u get i9506 u r stuck with stock firmware there is currently minimal development for it, and there is no 4.4.2 kk for it yet.
I wish I had gone for the i9505
Sent from my GT-I9506 using Tapatalk
i did use my S1 for years - from 2.2 (and after rooting and costum ROMs) to 4.2 - its still very good usable ..
i would say nearly as fast as on stock 2.2 when i bought it
only web rendering went a bit slow on some pages
so as long as you are not a gamer or massive picture editor you wont need the extra cpu power for years (my guess)
As of 2 weeks ago, I received the Galaxy S4 (I9505) and I was rather happy having a faster mobile now. That is, until I added back the games I was playing on my Galaxy S3. For example, the game Family Farm Seaside (2D game I believe) was working perfectly and smoothly on my Galaxy S3.
But when I added it on my S4, the smoothness just vanished and it's quite shucky / laggy. Especially when I move around the screen. The stutter really starts when multiple things happen within the game (harvesting multiple crops at the same time) where the framerate just drops dramatically.
I've googled for a couple of hours, and the only "solutions" I can find is force the GPU on 2D games, force 4x, etc. I've tried all combinations, but it makes things worse rather than improving things.
Now.. My Galaxy S3 is using Cyanogenmod (current latest nightfly version) and has no problems with the game. Before you might ask.. While my S4 is also using Cyanogenmod (also latest nightfly), the game had issues on the S4 Stock ROM as well. Combined with the fact that I've tried multiple S4 Roms before I went to Cyanogenmod completely.
Is this an issue within the game or is this merely hardware related? (or software) of the S4? I'd figured the S4 would be faster, not slower.
its because the s4 doesnt get the right optimization, the S4 is better in term of everything but support, its related to the cpu, gpu....the S2, S3, NOTE 2 are better for gaming because they had good support....
So you are saying I can't do anything to solve the current issue at hand?
Skyriderz said:
As of 2 weeks ago, I received the Galaxy S4 (I9505) and I was rather happy having a faster mobile now. That is, until I added back the games I was playing on my Galaxy S3. For example, the game Family Farm Seaside (2D game I believe) was working perfectly and smoothly on my Galaxy S3.
But when I added it on my S4, the smoothness just vanished and it's quite shucky / laggy. Especially when I move around the screen. The stutter really starts when multiple things happen within the game (harvesting multiple crops at the same time) where the framerate just drops dramatically.
I've googled for a couple of hours, and the only "solutions" I can find is force the GPU on 2D games, force 4x, etc. I've tried all combinations, but it makes things worse rather than improving things.
Now.. My Galaxy S3 is using Cyanogenmod (current latest nightfly version) and has no problems with the game. Before you might ask.. While my S4 is also using Cyanogenmod (also latest nightfly), the game had issues on the S4 Stock ROM as well. Combined with the fact that I've tried multiple S4 Roms before I went to Cyanogenmod completely.
Is this an issue within the game or is this merely hardware related? (or software) of the S4? I'd figured the S4 would be faster, not slower.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi
What about cange the PERFORMANCE PROFILE into Performance mode,(in Settings-Performance)and change the CPU governor into the Performance mode?Hope this could help
I'm afraid that isn't helping either.. If I do large amount of things inside the game (Family Farm Seaside) the frame rate drops a lot. Should mention that I don't have any problems within 3D games.. as far as I know anyway.
Good day everyone. I came from the Note 3 N9005. Just can't help but notice the S5's generalized lag. Lag is everywhere. Almost all the apps I used to use on my Note 3 smoothly, lags here.
All apps stutter specially when scrolling quickly, which I didn't get on my Note 3. Tried restoring several times to no avail.
Is there any way to reduce the lag? Will flashing the Poland Lollipop firmware solve this?
I dont want to root or anything, and void my warranty, so everything, i like to stay stock as what i did with my Note 3 without any problems.
Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated.
I also got from Note 3 to S5 and got the same feeling but you will get used to it in a month or so. Note 3 was better optimized and also had 3Gb of ram that's why was snappier. My only regret is that I didn't bought HTC M8 after I sold Note 3 because I am super tired of touchwiz and the device still lags even on the new lollipop update.
you made a big fail bro' to sell your note 3 and buy the crappy laggy s5 i came from s4 to s5 i had no lagg and no problems with my s4 and s5 feels like a downgrade it is overpriced peace of crap bad sammy bad
Sent from my SM-G900F using XDA Free mobile app
still having the bad lagg the only good thing about s5 is the baterry life i have lagg in every app and game i play subway surfer lagg omg on my s4 never had laggn in subway surfer or any other app on my s4 turned off s voice and the animations and never had lagg but in s5 omg this is really bad for a phone that coasts 500 euro off contract too bad
Sent from my SM-G900F using XDA Free mobile app
Dont know what launcher people use to experience lagg on the S5. TouchWiz? I use Nova Prime and everything is fluid even games.
@ciprian- was considering the M8 but the black strip with the logo is an ultimate eyesore and a no-no for me.
@fliptroniks-no transitions everything disabled. My real gripe is with apps. They all lag when i scroll quick.
@Prosafe- i am using Apex. Still have the stutter in-app.
If i had to root to get a smooth experience on this, this is trash. Didn't have to do it on my Note 2, S4, One M7, One Max, G2 and Note 3. Cant go back to Note 3 as i have already sold it.
So sell it....
Hello folks.
I'm looking to replace my current cell phone. It needs to be an unlocked CDMA (Sprint) phone. Things that are important to me:
high quality screen
processing power
decent storage
Things that aren't that important to me:
camera
I have a price limit of $150. Given the above, I am looking at:
Moto E4
Galaxy S5 (refurbished)
Galaxy J3 Emerge
Moto G4 Play
All of them have 5" screens, but the S5 has the highest resolution (the rest are 1280x720). The S5 also has the highest clock rate.
My concern is that the S5 is using technology from 4 years ago, while the rest are more recent. Should that be a concern, or is the S5 the best option here?
Thanks!
mrfeh said:
Hello folks. I'm looking to replace my current cell phone. It needs to be an unlocked CDMA (Sprint) phone...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your best bet is to post this question within one of the following threads that is specific to your question.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1846277
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1620179
Good Luck!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I DO NOT provide support via PM unless asked/requested by myself. PLEASE keep it in the threads where everyone can share.
yes
mrfeh said:
Hello folks.
I'm looking to replace my current cell phone. It needs to be an unlocked CDMA (Sprint) phone. Things that are important to me:
high quality screen
processing power
decent storage
Things that aren't that important to me:
camera
I have a price limit of $150. Given the above, I am looking at:
Moto E4
Galaxy S5 (refurbished)
Galaxy J3 Emerge
Moto G4 Play
All of them have 5" screens, but the S5 has the highest resolution (the rest are 1280x720). The S5 also has the highest clock rate.
My concern is that the S5 is using technology from 4 years ago, while the rest are more recent. Should that be a concern, or is the S5 the best option here?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
in my opinion, for this expense and one of the best!
I use a Samsung Galaxy S5 Neo and everything works fine.
2 weeks ago there was an update for the S5 over OTA. It is still alive and good.
In USA the normal S5 is still a smartphone that is one of the bestsellers.
I have no need to get another phone.
And the original S5 is better than my neo.
Gesendet von meinem SM-G903F mit Tapatalk
I would go with the S5...
Amoled screen, wireless charging, fingerscan...16mp cam..
Put LOS or RR and youll get the best deal...
Or try a xiaomi mia1
Hello, had a galaxy s5 for around 3 years. My unit had a bit of a network issue, which sullied my experience, so be careful when buying a refurb!
Also, if processing power is important to you, you should note that it has constant slowdowns/stutters and, though not as often, crashes. It also heats up pretty quick and has mediocre battery life, draining pretty fast with any decent usage. The chipset really does not hold up compared to mid range chipsets now imo. Near the time I upgraded, it became nearly unusable for a bit whenever i turned the wifi on, though a factory reset and a sparser app library has alleviated the worst aspects of using the phone. It might be powerful specwise, but in irl use I find newer midrange chips outperform it in day to day use.
I recently upgraded to a redmi note 5 (china) and it was an upgrade in every way. From build to smoothness to battery life (and both cameras but you don't care about that). It also has the 6' display while retaining the same width as my s5, thanks to the 18:9 display. The aspect ratio is great in all apps that aren't games and in general UI use. It also has oreo out of the box and will get updates in the future, unlike the s5.
The redmi 5 plus(china) could also be a replacement that's cheaper, but I can't vouch for the screen on that one. The redmi note 5 has a bright lcd that looks really good. It's not amoled, but the transition hasn't bothered me at all, it's quite excellent! I've gotten compliments on the screen from many friends who have seen it in person as well.
So, yeah, look into the phone and see if your budget can be adjusted. Shoot for the 3/32 GB which is a steal imo. Oh, and it has a micro sd card slot, just like the s5, so storage won't be an issue. Another plus with these phones is that they actually have a fingerprint scanner that's not trash - another thing from the past that does not hold up.
I looked up the prices for these phones and they seem to be out of the 150$ budget, so, if the budget is rigid you might want to look into the redmi note 4, which can be found for 160$ and has all the same internals as the redmi 5 plus. I cannot vouch for how good the screen is, but it's 1080P IPS LCD. I would personally consider it a better phone to buy than the Galaxy S5 as well (working fingerprint scanner, larger screen, equivalent if not better chipset usability wise).
Anyway, I'm not really as knowledgable as most people in xda but I am a s5 owner, so I figured I'd chip in and try to help.
While S5 is still a nice phone, it is not worth buying one at this time. The best option would be to get current/last year mid end phone. Look at the local market websites, maybe there are good deals. Xiaomi redmi 5 plus is nice phone for low price, also redmi note 4 is nice phone too, you will get better peformance than S5, or at very least the same, more ram, much better battery life due to bigger battery and better chipset, you will get android updates.
S5 is still a great phone.. Do not buy refurbished.. you can find great deals on Ebay.. My cost $110 no dings, or dents or scratches.. Phone actually had very little call time on it.. Moto's IMOP are junk.
Hi ,
I personally think you should go for a newer phone like Honor 8. The main problem i would have with an S5 is the fact that it only has 16GB internal memory. Apart from that it is still a great phone.
With those 16 GB you will always struggle if you want to install many applications and keep Whatsapp data on your phone.
loomax12 said:
Hi ,
I personally think you should go for a newer phone like Honor 8. The main problem i would have with an S5 is the fact that it only has 16GB internal memory. Apart from that it is still a great phone.
With those 16 GB you will always struggle if you want to install many applications and keep Whatsapp data on your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It does support SD Cards up to 128 GB though. I'm a kinda heavy user and never had problems with storage, always around 3-4 GB free in internal. Though I did put my games on my card obviosly (there was some app that does this, I forgot name).
i picked mine up monday for 45$. cracked rear camera glass. still takes photos fine.
anyway, i love the thing. i went from an s7 to an iphone 7 then to and old moto then to this. i love the effing thing. i get 2 days in low power mode with the original battery. im hunting for a parts phone now.
the s5 has issues from what ive heard but so far, im running fine.
After 2 weeks using the S5 of my wife I have to reverse my opinion. I installed latest lineageos 14.1 on it and it works like a charm. With lineageos there is still a lot of internal memory left for apps. Bluetooth which is often a problem for custom roms seems to work pretty well.
I've actually recently bought an S5, and although it is not the best option, the support for it has been huge over time and its still going on with amazing roms like AEX or CrDroid.
The only part I dislike is the storage, because yea 16GB are little to me. And the fact that it is refurbished is good contrary to what people assume, because, then that means its already fixed, you wont have to go through that pain as you would with a new one waiting to fail, that's how it is, you have more chances of a new one having issues than a refurbished one because that one already had them and its already fixed. On the other hand, "refurbished" doesnt always mean "it broke and we fixed it", usually its because people return it to the store, the package is open, they cant sell them as new, even if theres nothing wrong with it, it automatically falls to the "refurbished" category and not many people think of that.
Now, the Moto G4 is actually a better option, it has a good performance, but you should opt for the Plus version with 32GB internal
So, I'd recommend the G4 Plus, if you cant buy that, then the S5 is the way to go
S5 is still going strong.
I would not change it, but I need a dual SIM phone now.
So if you can get one, go for it.
However, I am not aware of CDMA capabilities or tested it, sorry. I have European model...
My uncle gave me his old S5 back in January to replace my dying S4 LTE-A, and with LineageOS 15.1, it feels like a brand new phone
im now rooted and running the latest lineage 14.1 and its awesome.
12 hours of battery, 4 hours of SOT and no issues. these nougat kernels are pretty nice. lol
people talking about storage, flash Lineage, have a clean sd card in and use the SD card as adptive storage. it shows it as all internal storage and works like a charm.
Bodisson said:
S5 is still going strong.
I would not change it, but I need a dual SIM phone now.
So if you can get one, go for it.
However, I am not aware of CDMA capabilities or tested it, sorry. I have European model...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
would you recommend the S5 as a backup to the Note 4?
I still have an S5 as a backup phone. Main phone Xiaomei Redmi Note 4x which I bought due to its superior battery life. The S5 imo is still good as backup phone and has an excellent camera (if you stick to TouchWiz based roms).
mrfeh said:
Hello folks.
I'm looking to replace my current cell phone. It needs to be an unlocked CDMA (Sprint) phone. Things that are important to me:
high quality screen
processing power
decent storage
Things that aren't that important to me:
camera
I have a price limit of $150. Given the above, I am looking at:
Moto E4
Galaxy S5 (refurbished)
Galaxy J3 Emerge
Moto G4 Play
All of them have 5" screens, but the S5 has the highest resolution (the rest are 1280x720). The S5 also has the highest clock rate.
My concern is that the S5 is using technology from 4 years ago, while the rest are more recent. Should that be a concern, or is the S5 the best option here?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello!
I can definately assure you that:
A. Off the phones you have listed AND
B. Your stated price range
The S5 is your choice!!
It is amazing!! You will not be dissapointed! Unlimited battery life (multiple batteries), screen resolution, clock speed etc etc.
I am currently typing from one! Lol, I have the OnePlus 3 and my good ol' trusty S5! Some tips:
You stated about being older firmware (S5 is marshmallow) whilst others are nougat..... The S5 is one of the most developed phones ever! even still!!! In literally 5 minutes and little knowledge you can flash a custom recovery and then a custom ROM, no root needed. I have used the S5 since the early days and have used pretty much EVERY rom, honestly!
I can suggest resurrection remix as THE most customisable, they have features beyond any other! They have 100% stable nougat build and Oreo also, I use them both. In fact we have multiboot so can run 2 ROMs at once just choose at boot!
We have lots of kernels if you choose to root like myself, this way you can have 2.1 amp quick charge, boot windows or Linux on PC from phone, double battery time, gaming performance and over clocking to 2.84 GHz!!!! The phone is a beast!! It is reliable as hell too! I have had mine rooted for 4 years, overclocked and its given me no worries....And waterproof with a removable battery!!!!!!
Hope this helps, any questions at all please ask, happy to help
ErbDroid said:
Hello!
I can definately assure you that:
A. Off the phones you have listed AND
B. Your stated price range
The S5 is your choice!!
It is amazing!! You will not be dissapointed! Unlimited battery life (multiple batteries), screen resolution, clock speed etc etc.
I am currently typing from one! Lol, I have the OnePlus 3 and my good ol' trusty S5! Some tips:
You stated about being older firmware (S5 is marshmallow) whilst others are nougat..... The S5 is one of the most developed phones ever! even still!!! In literally 5 minutes and little knowledge you can flash a custom recovery and then a custom ROM, no root needed. I have used the S5 since the early days and have used pretty much EVERY rom, honestly!
I can suggest resurrection remix as THE most customisable, they have features beyond any other! They have 100% stable nougat build and Oreo also, I use them both. In fact we have multiboot so can run 2 ROMs at once just choose at boot!
We have lots of kernels if you choose to root like myself, this way you can have 2.1 amp quick charge, boot windows or Linux on PC from phone, double battery time, gaming performance and over clocking to 2.84 GHz!!!! The phone is a beast!! It is reliable as hell too! I have had mine rooted for 4 years, overclocked and its given me no worries....And waterproof with a removable battery!!!!!!
Hope this helps, any questions at all please ask, happy to help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello.
Please make recomendation for Nougat and Oreo firmwares