Well, this is a day I never thought I would see! I have jumped ship and bought a Samsung Galaxy S4! I really kind of shocked myself especially after IOS 7 which I really think is a great upgrade. But after several frustrations and having to help my husband set up his new Droid device and then playing with my daughter's S3, I called Sprint, cancelled my 5S order and went to the Sprint store and got the S4.
Here are my initial thoughts, what I miss about the iPhone and what I like about the S4!
Ok, yes, I miss my familiar Apple interface, ease of syncing everything with my Mac and stuff like that. The Samsung has taken me two days and I am still not totally set up where I want to be but this is what I have accomplished so far!
Music - syncing my iTunes to Google with Music Manager and using Music Play on the Galaxy - works great - actually better because I have access to my entire library and can select what to store on my phone without having to be connected to my computer.
Photos - using Dropbox's automatic picture upload on the Galaxy and then an automator script to automatically dump anything in that folder into iPhoto. A few minutes to set up but working great.
Reminders - using Reminder for iCloud to sync my reminders (this was the only thing I have paid for so far!)
Do Not Disturb - the S4 has Blocked Notifications - works the same way only a little better because you can create a custom list instead of just being able to select favorites as exemptions to the silent rule.
iMessage - found MightyText - works the same way but adds some great features like a notification on my Mac of incoming phone calls. And I get all my text messages there, not just Apple ones!
But what I really like about the Galaxy that has me not regretting my decision so far!!! (I am an Apple lover so it is hard for me to endorse their competitor!)
1. The keyboard! Wow - there is a number row above the letters - no more switching screens just to put a number in a password or email address. And Swype is just amazing - I have no idea how it makes sense of my wild swipes but it does!
2. Word predictions - it used to drive me crazy on the iPhone that every time I went to log in somewhere I had to type out my entire email or username. Galaxy pops it up as a suggestion as soon as I start typing, one click and I am done - love it!
3. Widgets and layout - finally I can put icons wherever I want!!! I used to jailbreak just for this feature - five pages packed with rows of icons is aggravating. The Galaxy lets you mix and match widgets and icons so each page looks different and of course if you pinch in on any screen, you get thumbnails of every page and just touch to go to the one you want.
4. Split screen - I can have two apps open at once - how cool is that?!
5. FREEDOM to download whatever apps I want from anywhere!! Yes, that is huge!
Battery life seems about as bad as the iPhone but I have been using it a lot the first few days, installing apps, setting up and just playing so I will see when I get down to normal usage.
And finally the size of the phone - it is huge compared to the iPhone! This is bad and this is good - I still haven't figured out how I am going to carry it, when to put it half the time, etc. However, I actually love having more screen space and you can get a lot more done with the larger screen. Less zooming in and out of webpages etc.
Overall, I think I am really going to like this phone. Once I get over my old inherent dislike for the Android operating system (based on the older versions of the OS), I hope to be more productive with this device and that is what really matters to me!
Sorry, Apple, I do love IOS7 but your continual controls and limitations have sent me over to the dark side...and I am not sure I will return!
No comments:
Post a Comment