So I finally got my first smartphone today.  A Samsung Galaxy S4.  Pretty nifty device.  Sure there are bad things about AT&T, but it's awesome to have a device with me that can do so much.  I had originally been thinking about getting an iPhone 5 until I had heard about this one and did some comparisons.  So now I don't have to have another Apple product besides my iPod, yay.

Psh old dumb phones ftw anyday

Smartphones are evil. I dont know about at&t plans but verizon kill you on the data....but what the hell man if you enjoy it live the dream brother

Smartphones are evil. I dont know about at&t plans but verizon kill you on the data....but what the hell man if you enjoy it live the dream brother

 

 

Verizon isn't HORRIBLE if you have a large family and the price is pretty reasonable.  Since i work for a large company that has corporate discounts, combined with having 7 smartphones on the plan, I think the monthly bill is only about $300/mo with 14 gigs of shared usage + unlimited talk and text (so about ~$40 a month per person with 2 gigs each).

 

We've never gone over the data thankfully.  Came close a month or two when I've gone a little overboard, but otherwise it's not too bad.

 

I 100% agree though that standard shit is way overpriced!  We get bent over so much when it comes to the internet and access plans.

 

 

Anyways, HOORAY KEVIN!  I'm sure you'll like your new phone.  I have an S3 which I upgraded to from my old Droid X2 I had forever.  Samsung makes a pretty great phone, although I've been eyeing that new HTC One.

Excellent choice. The S4 is pretty sweet. I am looking forward to hearing more about the Samsung Note 3.

I will soon be upgrading my Evo 4G LTE to a Galaxy S4. Is it awesome?!

I will soon be upgrading my Evo 4G LTE to a Galaxy S4. Is it awesome?!

 

I think it's alive.  There's a feature where it will pause videos if you're not looking at it (utilizing the front facing camera and facial recognition).

 

Of course I've never used a smartphone, so anything decent would be pretty cool next to the crappy prepaid flip phone I had been using.  Still, $25 every 3 months was nice compared to $100 every month, though working at Walmart I get an associate discount of 20% off my monthly bill (so it'd be $80 plus tax), a waived activation fee, and I think $50 credit on the first bill.  I got 450 minutes per month with rollover at $40 (the minimum, I don't talk to too many people), 3GB Data at $30 (Would have got 5 at $50 but found it only adds tethering and you can still go to 5GB for the same price if you go over at $10 per GB), unlimited messaging at $20, and the $10 per month warranty (which includes water damage and theft, though I ordered the Defender Edition S4 Otter Box case).  Not too bad.  I wanted to go with Sprint, what with them offering one of the last unlimited plans, but they don't have good coverage in my area.

I currently have Sprint. Very happy with their plans because I use about 4 to 6 GB of data a month. Very useful. 

 

I'm glad you like it. I think you've convinced me to upgrade within the next two weeks. 

 

EDIT: BATTERY LIFE. HOW LONG?

I had Sprint and recently left. They are the absolute worst provider in my area. Worst customer service. 4G? Forget about 4G with Sprint, it does not exist. Top that off with Sprint having the slowest 3G speeds of all time. Sprint is behind in infrastructure as well. I had an S2 and it kept falling back to 3G. I could not raise 4G to save my life. I had the phone looked at and replaced and the new one had the same exact problem.

 

There was a test on CNET or somewhere showing how much slower they were. Give me unlimited everything all day but if I can't access it and use it then what good is it? I am telling you it was bad. This stuff is expensive and I want to maximize it. If that is not possible I will go back to a dumb phone lol.

 

I had AT&T in the past and they were good. No real complaints there. I hopped over to Verizon right now and can say that my phone is always connected to LTE and rarely falls back to 3G. The speeds are much faster than Sprint.

The battery life is supposed to be really good, it has a decent bit higher capacity battery than the iPhone 5 from what I hear.

Smartphones have consumed the world. Face to face conversations don't happen much anymore. If you look around you, everyone is staring at their phones now. No one even really looks at each other. If I didn't have to rely on mine so much for work, I'd probably consider getting rid of it.

Amen, Fap. No one even fucking talks on their phones anymore. It's all text, which I just never understood. Use a damn pager. lol

An update on the battery, 16h15m of scattered bits of use here and there throughout the day, and it's at 48%.  So really good battery life all things considered.  More than enough to make it through a day until you can get home and charge it, though I did get a car charger for it too.

 

In response to Fap's comment, yeah I can definitely see the interpersonal connection being lost.  But on the other side, it allows people to connect more, as faceless as texting may be, when you normally can't be physically near someone.  I work second shift so I don't see my brother much (who lives in the next town over in the other direction from where I work) and my dad is usually asleep by the time I get home.  The merit of a text over a call is that it doesn't require a sustained bit of your time at that immediate moment when you may not have it.  It's sent, they receive it and can view and reply to it on their time.

 

For me as of right now, I just like the idea of being able to have a phone/messenger/GPS/camera/video recorder/etc. etc. etc. with me.  Need to use the internet or get directions, and it's accessible.  As for data usage so far, I'm at 70MB of 3GB after 2 days, using a bit of Youtube at my hour lunch break, but nothing major, and connecting to WiFi at home.

I love technology but I understand both sides. It is nice to have a device with you that can do so many things. Its like an urban survival kit lol. An added bonus is you can easily text or call the ones you love that live in other cities or far from you. Even just a simple text can make you feel that someone is thinking about you with minimal time investment.

 

At the same time it is annoying as hell when your just out and about in the world and everyday people are holding you up because they are doing something on a phone. For example, your stuck waiting at a green light while someone in the front is not paying attention and probably texting while driving or finishing up thier phone conversation. There are many other examples of people just not paying attention and just looking down at their phones like some sort of robot drone. I always said zombies were already here haha.

I agree it works both ways. I'm sitting, waiting and I can check up on the forum. It's hard to judge technology when it has brought all if us together. However, I do hate going out and seeing the group on their phones. What's the point then?

When wife and I go out, we set our phones face down on the table and we have the understanding that we will not touch them.  Allows us to chat like real humans.

 

Congrats Kev on the new phone.

I think people lost personability before smartphones. I don't think it's just that to blame. Most of the people I hang around with have no problem not looking at their phones. Or looking at it very minimally. Nothing to interfere with a conversation or group gathering. 

I like to Google Image search "cellphone tumor". I'm strange that way.

I miss the days where you would call someone/go see them if you wanted to talk to them.

When wife and I go out, we set our phones face down on the table and we have the understanding that we will not touch them.  Allows us to chat like real humans.

 

Congrats Kev on the new phone.

We do this when we go out in groups of friends, and whoever touches their phone first pays for the meal. Usually no one touches it unless one of us gets a call (which is fine, it happens) or at the very end of the meal.

 

Minion is obsessed with his phone though, I need to pry it out of his hands sometimes.

When I posted about what percentage the battery was at earlier, that wasn't from a full charge, so this should give a better idea.  Right now (after fully charging it) it reads as having been on battery for 1 day, 15 hours, and 53 minutes with a remaining charge of 24%.  52% of the usage is listed as Screen, 18% as Device Idle, and the rest of the usages are all below 7%.  So the thing could go a couple days of moderate use without charging.  Lowering the brightness would have a pretty big effect too with the screen taking up so much of the battery.  Pretty good actually.  Again, I have a wall charger and a car charger, so it being able to hold that amount of charge is plenty good.

 

EDIT: So the final time from 100% to out of battery was 2 days and 2 hours.  Pretty good.  I'd basically have to charge it at home every other night, sans car charger.

Just picked up a HTC One last night, had an older HTC, our provider is sprint. So far it is cool and its supposed to go 19 hours on the battery.

I'm gonna be debating between the HTC One and the Galaxy S4. I think I'm gonna go with the S4 though. It'll get the most attention from Android developers.