Yes, the S4 does this as well. Kinda fun changing channels at bars and seeing people look around like "lol, wait, WUT?"
I'd let the decision come down to aesthetics. I prefer the look and feel of the HTC, the S4 feels cheap. For me it'd be the HTC, by a hair.
3 months later and the HTC One is still a head turner. Glad I went with it. Sense is really well refined and the phone is such a pleasure to use - no frustrations at all. Beautiful inside and out. To this day my wife still gets surprised when she hears music playing and realizes that it's coming from my phone. I used to think I would never use phone speakers anyway, but I now use them all the time - in hotel rooms, the bathroom, with friends etc. I really hope HTC stays around for a long time, because they make some really good products.
A rare quality post from BGR - that should answer the OP's question quite well. http://bgr.com/2013/08/13/galaxy-s4-vs-htc-one-review-best-android-phone/
So after two weeks of research (I never realized how many homers and fan boys exist in the wonderful world of wireless wizardy), I have finally made a decision. I just placed an order via Amazon for the Samsung Galaxy S4 32Gb (Verizon) version for $180. Here is why I chose the S4 over the HTC One based on MY NEEDS/PREFERENCES.... 1) Battery life: HTC One's battery life is not great and is also non-replaceable. S4 offers better battery life and more importantly the option to change/replace battery as needed. This is huge for me, because if I am going to take advantage of the phone's features and my unlimited data package, I cant be glancing at my remaining battery life all the time. It would be counter productive. 2) More storage: My S4 has the same memory as the HTC One, 32GB. However, Samsung allows me to add 64GB of external memory via external memory card, which the HTC one doesn't. This is important to me because I am planning on moving my music library from my Ipod to my phone. Also, since I listen to my music whenever I can, I need longer battery life (see reason 1) While the Samsung S4 certainly is packed with a lot of gimmicks which most people including me will never use, (1) and (2) above are clearly not. If HTC One offered me these two options, I would have gone with it. In addition 3) Samsung offers better software/OS support/updates when compared to HTC. Not as important to me currently as the other two but could become important later on. No doubt, HTC one is sleeker, designed better, and looks better. This is certainly important to a lot of folks out there and it makes sense for them to go with HTC One. It is not that important to me however. I will most likely use some sort of protective cover over the phone so the external design and its feel is irrelevant to me. The other strong selling point for the HTC one is its fantastic front stereo speakers. For those that are going to use it, this is a great feature. However, I would not use it. If I am listening to my media content in public, I will be using my high quality headphones/earphones. If I am listening to my media content at home, I will be using my home theater setup. Yes, the HTC One's speakers are good, however they are not going to come anywhere close to my far superior home theater setup. The only time I could see using the phones speakers is when I am sharing a media content with someone? Yeah, thats going to happen once or twice a week at most, and thus, not worth it to me. The other thing about these speakers...I am assuming they would consume more battery life? And HTC One already has a shorter battery life to begin with. I dont particularly care about cameras in either phones, because as I said, I carry my Olympus OMD with me most of the places I go to. The camera comparison was a wash anyways. HTC one offers better low light performance while Samsung S4 offers better daylight performance with higher level of details. Samsung also might be better at taking videos. As for Moto X, it seems like its one generation behind in terms of hardware. I dont particularly care about customizing my phone using different colors. I think I was over that phase by the time I got done with middle school. Google now seems like a gimmick to me. If it does indeed work as well as they say it is going to, I believe Android will have its own version of voice activated commands soon, which will negate the one glaring advantage Moto X has. But more importantly, just like the HTC One, Moto X does not give me an option to change the battery or install external memory card, which the Samsung Galaxy S4 does. Samsung took my money.
I got an S4 last week, coming from a basic phone. Obviously, I've been impressed by all the new things I can do. A couple of disappointments though. A lot of times, the hand gestures won't work, and I can't do the screen capture with the hand wave at all (no biggie, but still). Another thing is all the damn bloatware. I've just about filled up all the 16GB I got with it. If anyone knows how to help with getting rid of bloatware, that'd be awesome. As far as the battery goes, wow it seems to drain fast for me. I can't go a day without putting it on the charger. Are there any apps that are truly effective? I tried out Battery Doctor, which didn't work well and am now trying 2x Battery or something.
Please delete any task-killers, and battery saving apps. Those batery savings apps tend to kill battery because they are constantly polling for battery stats. To disable bloatware, go to settings> applications> all applications (scroll to the right, make sure you're not on "downloaded")> find the bloatware app> click on disable (if you don't see disable, click on uninstall update, and then you'll see it) Be careful in that area, don't go disabling everything you don't think you need because some of that stuff can be critical to your system. As far as battery savings go. Go to settings, and either go to "about phone" and find your battery section there, or you'll simply see it labeled as "battery" when you go into the settings. It will tell you what app is consuming the most percentage of your battery.
either phone is fine, zboy. i disagree about google now being a gimmick. it's pretty heavy, but the most unobtrusive and useful thing about my phone. pretty much alleviates the need for task apps, weather apps, traffic info for frequent destinations, a separate universal search, etc. it's one of the main reasons i will not switch to another platform (unless i lived in some alternate universe where webos was still around).
Yeah, Google Now is ****ing legit. It's what I miss most from Android at the moment. It's weird knowing webOS is going on LG Tv's.
opening up old wounds. lol. my switch back to my white or black hp veer next month. who knows. :grin:
Zboy, know you made your decision, but the concerns about battery life on the One are quite overblown. I probably use my phone too much, but it still lasts a whole day. Battery life anxiety is pretty much a thing of the past for me now. Oddly enough, my wife has a Galaxy Note 2,and despite its humongous battery she seems to have more battery life issues than I do. And no, blasting music through the onboard speakers surprisingly doesn't drain the battery. I've tried.
Anybody know why when i download a picture of the internet on the phone it doesn't show up in the download media file unless i restart the phone?
phone (and version... touchwiz, sense, or google edition)? custom rom or stock? i'd go into settings>apps>all apps>gallery>delete data/cache. may vary depending on your setup. if you still can't get it to work, search for media scanner in google play.
Android has an issue on some phones where the media scanner service will only run at certain times of the day. I used to frequently experience this issue on my Galaxy Nexus. When I would download music, I would either have to wait about 30 minutes for it to show up, or restart my phone. Do you see "media scanner" service using up your battery when you go to your battery stats?
Haha, we replied at same time. Yup, what Omega said. There are apps that will force your phone to scan for new media.
Hell, I still have a Nexus One laying around. Love that ****ing phone. I want another OS to come around. WP is great, but it has it's setbacks. Nokia is the only one trying to keep it alive. MS just doesn't really care.
There will likely be a new Nexus phone towards the end of the year (as always). That's the phone I'm targeting, personally.
I get the feeling that they are, but then I get the feeling that they aren't. Mainly small issues with the OS. No VPN support, no back button in IE. They can't get their **** together when it comes to development and getting others on board. GDR2 is great, and I have it on my device. I'm just worried. I want to believe in this OS SOOOOOO bad. The update situation is pretty bad, just as fragmented as Android. Also what I mean is why on god's earth would anyone choose a NON-nokia wp8 device? There is no "here maps", or "here drive" , plus all the exclusive features of Amber from Nokia devices. I feel bad for HTC 8X users. HTC is a company that I'm quickly losing hope on Honestly, the OS is beyond ****ing smooth. It's user friendly, and it works. It just has some minor annoyances. I'm hopeful 8.1 will fix a ton of issues. I honestly don't want to switch back to Android.
