Budget 15-20K Is Galaxy S4 @ 18k. Is it worth buying now?

J

Jose.Palai

Disciple
Galaxy S4 is available @ 18k in amazon now

Is it the same Galaxy S4 which sold at 40k? Will I get the same quality?

Galaxy S4 a 2 years old model. Is it an outdated phone? Do you think it is a worth buy? Can I go for it?

The huge difference in price is unbelievable. Is there any kind of trap or something? Pls help.
 
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Jose.Palai said:
Galaxy S4 is available @ 18k in amazon now. Is it the same Galaxy S4 which sold at 40k? Will I get the same quality? Galaxy S4 a 2 years old model. Is it an outdated phone? Do you think it is a worth buy? Can I go for it? The huge difference in price is unbelievable. Is there any kind of trap or something? Pls help.
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Yes, it's the same S4 (back is even better) Official Lollipop makes it even sweeter, it's worth the buy even it is 2 years old because the processor and RAM are good enough even for moderate gaming. you get easy ASS and branded item compared to all chinese imports like ZTE, Huawei or Meizu etc. It's not a trap, friend has purchased it.
 
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paarkhi said:
Yes, it's the same S4 (back is even better) Official Lollipop makes it even sweeter, it's worth the buy even it is 2 years old because the processor and RAM are good enough even for moderate gaming. you get easy ASS and branded item compared to all chinese imports like ZTE, Huawei or Meizu etc. It's not a trap, friend has purchased it.
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Thanks
 
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Lollipop update is not worth it. From what I've heard Samsung has not executed it too well. The phone is laggy and the battery life is shorter. That aside, this is seriously one of the best branded phones you can buy in under 20k. Because it was a flagship you don't have to worry about the usual Samsung issues of build quality and internal issues. The camera, battery and overall featureset of this phone is solid and top notch.
 
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RD274 said:
Lollipop update is not worth it. From what I've heard Samsung has not executed it too well. The phone is laggy and the battery life is shorter. That aside, this is seriously one of the best branded phones you can buy in under 20k. Because it was a flagship you don't have to worry about the usual Samsung issues of build quality and internal issues. The camera, battery and overall featureset of this phone is solid and top notch.
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Thats true... Phone has become super laggy... Need to install custom ROM now to go back to kitkat I guess....
 
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dont worry ...it comes with kitkat only lollipop is possible

Check amazon FAQ
Q: is this phone with android kit kat or jelly bean because you have mention both ?
A:
it will be with kitkat...and u can upgrade to lollypop version

I had placed order yesterday, just before giving up and going for a temporary low cost phone after considering all options - mi4 (no gorilla glass), vibe x2 (poor audio), moto g (poor battery), OPO (bit too wide to my liking, plus reports that it is not the same as the international ones) alcatel oneidol x+ (almost went for it, ticked all boxes except unknown service availability),

Go for S4.
 
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paarkhi said:
Yes, it's the same S4 (back is even better) Official Lollipop makes it even sweeter, it's worth the buy even it is 2 years old because the processor and RAM are good enough even for moderate gaming. you get easy ASS and branded item compared to all chinese imports like ZTE, Huawei or Meizu etc. It's not a trap, friend has purchased it.
Click to expand...
RD274 said:
Lollipop update is not worth it. From what I've heard Samsung has not executed it too well. The phone is laggy and the battery life is shorter. That aside, this is seriously one of the best branded phones you can buy in under 20k. Because it was a flagship you don't have to worry about the usual Samsung issues of build quality and internal issues. The camera, battery and overall featureset of this phone is solid and top notch.
Click to expand...
Apologize for the thread hijack but I would like to know more about all these and how good the S4 i9500 really is. Lots of bloatwares i heard. Also tell me about the developer community support if you can. Just saw the price. I'm thinking of getting the OPO btw, good design,krait 2.5ghz and good battery 3100mah. I've stopped trusting Samsung models from S3 onwards.
heh just saw the battery for it from Mugen. 5500 mah. Awesome. :D
http://mugen.co/mugen-power-5500mah...-galaxy-s4-i9500-i9505-with-battery-door.html
 
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paarkhi said:
Yes, it's the same S4 (back is even better) Official Lollipop makes it even sweeter, it's worth the buy even it is 2 years old because the processor and RAM are good enough even for moderate gaming. you get easy ASS and branded item compared to all chinese imports like ZTE, Huawei or Meizu etc. It's not a trap, friend has purchased it.
Click to expand...
S4 exynos had a load of issues when it came out, heating etc. Samsung issued a lot of updates which kinda fixed it. But it dampened excitement after the hugely successful S3. Should be stable now.

Otherwise there's a lot of things going for the S4. But battery is poor compared to today's standards according to phonearena's battery benchmarks. Expect light to moderate use, anything more then better get a spare battery or charger as you won't make it to the end of the day.

S4 is as good as the original galaxy core for battery life. This is something that plagued most of the devices that came out in that era due to the inefficient screen tech. The G2 did better than the S4. Can't get that now though. The Mi4 or OPO do a good deal better in battery than the S4 for little more. Though support with them is a bigger question as you mentioned. For budget devices just compare moto e or lumia 635 to S4 (!). 635 is a real surprise there because usually lumia battery is crap.

Not surprised they're selling S4's as close to half a million were imported.

3rd party development only stock roms so don't expect too much.
 
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iPwnz said:
Apologize for the thread hijack but I would like to know more about all these and how good the S4 i9500 really is. Lots of bloatwares i heard. Also tell me about the developer community support if you can. Just saw the price. I'm thinking of getting the OPO btw, good design,krait 2.5ghz and good battery 3100mah. I've stopped trusting Samsung models from S3 onwards.
heh just saw the battery for it from Mugen. 5500 mah. Awesome. :D
http://mugen.co/mugen-power-5500mah...-galaxy-s4-i9500-i9505-with-battery-door.html
Click to expand...
If you plan to get between OPO and S4 then better go with OPO, have used S4 and using OPO so can say OPO is better than S4, OPO has lot of dev support for long time whereas S4 has brandname and easy ASS. Samsung phones has lots and lots of bloatware like S Voice (instead of voice search google), chaton messenger and lot of services running in the background sucking the battery juice all the time, then you need to root and install greenify or disable them.
If you use native 3G video calling (on service provider) then OPO doesn't have it only samsung has it but you can use Skype or any other on OPO.
blr_p said:
S4 exynos had a load of issues when it came out, heating etc. Samsung issued a lot of updates which kinda fixed it. But it dampened excitement after the hugely successful S3. Should be stable now.

Otherwise there's a lot of things going for the S4. But battery is poor compared to today's standards according to phonearena's battery benchmarks. Expect light to moderate use, anything more then better get a spare battery or charger as you won't make it to the end of the day.

S4 is as good as the original galaxy core for battery life. This is something that plagued most of the devices that came out in that era due to the inefficient screen tech. The G2 did better than the S4. Can't get that now though. Not surprised they're selling S4's as close to half a million were imported.

3rd party development only stock roms so don't expect too much.
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Yes, I remember myself complaining about S4 heating but it was rectified with software updates and now the problem is no more, battery life was also slightly improved with the software update, anyhow I rooted the phone and removed all samsung bloatware so battery life for me was good since beginning,
 
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I'm a Note 2 user, not S4. The bloatware is insane. Even after installing a custom rom on my N2, I still had some Samsung bloat that would keep wakelocking the damn thing. Eventually, I manage to sort it all out thanks to Greenify. But that said, not all of it is crap. Multiwindow and Airview have been really useful on several occassions. I use Samsung toolbox to switch between apps very frequently. Samsung even uses a clever Wifi connection logic that switches me between Wifi and 3G for the best connection automatically. S Finder searches through the entire phone quickly and through the notification bar. S Health is great for counting steps and fitness data and currently no free app can out do it.

The S4 I used belonged to a friend and and was quite reliable despite being 100% stock. No overheating, battery life was pretty good (sot around 3-4hours) on moderate usage, camera was extremely good and the phone was smooth and zippy. Compared to the OPO and mi4 the S4 is going to look a lot weaker as the S5 is what competes with the OPO/Mi4. But then again you do not have that shield of good service and warranty behind you if you take the OPO/Mi4.
 
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Yes, the bloatware in TouchWiz ROMs are indeed insane! I mean I don't count Air View, some motion features (swipe to take screenshot, cover the display to mute ringer etc.) and Multi Window as bloat (no sane person could count them as bloat!) but the features like Smart Scroll, Smart Pause, Smart Say, these never worked properly and they are garbage, I honestly don't know who uses them. But being said that none of these feature had cause me any wakelock at all!

One thing though, after playing with Lollipop TouchWiz (Note 3 in my case) I am really impressed with it. I mean I rarely found the interface lagging, it is significantly better than KitKat TW, undoubtedly. So they might be moving to the right direction with it.

And on the topic, S4 at 18k is more than worth (and I hated the phone, at least the Exynos version), I mean you are getting a very good camera, and brilliant display, a nice compact size, and I think it already got the Lollipop update right? So what could go wrong anyway? And kindly stop comparing One Plus One, MI4 and stuffs with a flagship Samsung phone. Stop trolling.
 
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Huge thumbs down for samsung phone. Except for note series almost many samsung phones are like landlines. No wonder samsung users are usually seen searching for chargers. Their battery life is way poor than average lumias or even chinese phones.

Brother was very excited when he bought S4 when it was released and since then striving hard to keep the battery going & as everybody pointed out they come bundled with useless samsung branded stuff. And many failure samsung stories around.

Hardware wise samsung is way too good I agree but their os isnt tweaked properly and everything seems so power hungry.

What was with nokia is now happening with samsung, good for them. No wonder the plumbers and even cylinder delivery boy also flaunt their s4 s5 and notes. So its that much popular in India as a common mans phone.
 
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The biggest problem with S4 is battery life. Having said that none of the flagship phones I've used recently including iPhones are great in this department. The touchwiz bloat can b tackled with custom roms. Initial pricing is nowhere a good yardstick to say it's a good buy or not.

Samsung phones Come with certain default goodies which cannot be easily overlooked.

Gorgeous display
Capacitative dedicated properly placed Back button
User Removable battery
Service reach
Micro SD support
Network and call quality - which is always topnotch.
Etc to name the few.

After using OPO, Mi3, I feel S4 at that price is a good buy.
OPO call volume issue is pathetic, the flagship phones are always good in these basic functions of phone. Which is very vital, IMHO.

Slightly OT but, Samsung seems to have learnt lessons from S5 sales, their build quality and aesthetic appeal has improved. Newer touchwiz is leaner in bloatware department. Hopefully things will improve from now on.
 
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What? It should have been 4.4.4. Cant believe that now cos. all are heading to lollipop, samsung still rolling on older release. So now if you happen to visit service center then you might get the latest of the last kitkat!
 
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iPwnz said:
cool. tell us about the bloatwares. :p

finally found the source of all my doubts. it was this post of yours. where did all these reports come from? I want to look into more.
Click to expand...

From the OPO thread in TE. best of luck with the hunt for the source. :p

ithehappy said:
Just download the 5.0.1 ROM and flash?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the update. think i will first get used to this before updating, so that i will know if its better.
 
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