Samsung Galaxy S4, should you take the plunge?

So finally here I am back into the writing business, and this time for Samsung Galaxy S4.

I was quite intrigued with all the hype around the Galaxy S4, such that I decided to find out a bit more about it.

Now that the dust has settled much of the critiques say that it’s a fast hardware with interesting software added on top for a headline grabbing anticipation. However strict usability gurus would condemn this to be a gimmick.

In the end, people who have followed the gold rush to the iPhone, would have lived with it for a year or two. They would ask the question

• “What’s really new” with this new Galaxy model?
• And not only so, how much of a change will it make to my life?
• Do I really need this device over what I have?

The answers variedly range. But before all that the most important question to address is if you are willing to change your iReligion (remember the ‘cult of Mac’?)

Then, assuming you have the money to spare, have been with your current device for a while,or are at the end of your contract, or would not mind getting another one – the choices start taking shape.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind ‘exploring’ alternatives. After all a phone is a phone. And more than that it should be able to do all the things that I want it to do plus more as the market grows.

Incidentally, the iPhone has been growing happily with the trend and in doing so has been establishing new market models.

Some serious thought has to be given to the point ‘do I really need a new phone’?

In all honesty, the answer would be a big NO. Why?

Insignificant but honest - A realisation has set in with all smart phone users is that their smart batteries would not last longer than a day, and hence carry a secondary phone or a spare battery pack. I carry both

The smarter the device, the more it can do, the more you will use it, the more will its battery get drained. And then when you really need to use that phone, it will give up on you.

Apart from being a show off accessory, what will a new device help you achieve?

Let’s look at the most common uses of a smart phone.

Common uses

1.       Phone – GSM, VOIP, SIP calls

2.       Email – connectivity with major Email providers like Gmail, Yahoo, Exchange/OWA

3.       Messages – this includes internet based messages like iMessage, Whatsapp, Viber etc

4.       Web Browsing

5.       Variety of applications

6.       Music

7.       Videos

8.       Books – iBooks, Kindle, Google Books

9.       Maps – Apple Maps, Google Maps…

10.   Navigation – Google Navigation, Apple Navigation, Tomtom, Nokia Maps…

11.   Wallet apps – Pass book, Google Wallet

12.   Camera/ Photos

Niche uses

1.       Wireless Charging

2.       NFC payments

3.       Finger print authentication (hyped to be on a future iPhone)

From the list above, the niche ones are still hardware dependent and newer phones will continue to experiment adding newer and more advanced hardware capabilities. However, most current phones will satisfy the common uses.

If we come back to the point of this article then the choices can be reviewed with more clarity. If your phone functions well then the point of replacing it with a device which does much of the same really reduces to the one of: Would it change my life? The answer would be ashamedly NO.

As for me I am have been happily using an iPhone 4S for the past year and have decided not to take the plunge to Samsung world for now.

Take care,
Swapnil

P.S - I visited John Lewis last weekend and saw a ditto copy of MacBook Air made by Samsung running Windows 8..LOL!