My gradual technology refresh of 2013 continues. Earlier this year, I replaced my laptop with a vastly more powerful one. A month ago, I swapped my aging 10" Viewsonic tablet for a much sleeker, smaller & lighter Samsung Galaxy Tab 2. This past week, I finally let go of my old Motorola Droid Bionic for a Samsung Galaxy S4.
The old Bionic was a decent phone, Android-based and the first multi-core phone available on Verizon's 4gLTE network. It really new how to drain a battery so I rapidly replaced the old one with a beefier, extended life battery; that larger battery bit the dust two months ago, forcing me back to the original short-life battery but that was enough to get me to this point.
What ultimately killed my Bionic (in my eyes anyway, since the machine is still very functional) was its increasing inability to operate at tolerable speeds. I keep 2800 address book entries, untold thousands of calendar entries (including syncing of ten different Google calendars), four different email accounts, numerous apps and more. With only 1GB of RAM and ever-increasing app bloat, it was speedy two years ago, slugging a year ago and would be brought to a crawl any time it struggled to sync my email accounts nowadays. It was time to let it go.
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octothorpe's suggestion, I looked at the HTC One, a new model which is truly a wonder. Sprint and AT&T both have the One available and I was able to test-drive it at a local Sprint store. Sadly, I really need Verizon Wireless' network as it is the only one which extends everywhere I travel or work, and they've only just announced they may have the HTC One available by late summer this year. I tried to wait but after more days of frustration with my old phone, I decided that Verizon's vague delivery schedule was too little, too late.
The S4 isn't a One, but it's pretty damn slick in its own right. It has a fast responsive user interface, a nice feel in the hand, a fantastic screen and a decent battery life. There are some software and hardware improvements over the S3, but they're rather obscure and not ones I either am likely to use or value: I really don't care if video stops when I look away since I typcally don't watch video on my phone. Ditto the eye-driven screen scrolling --cute, but I'm not chosing a phone on that. The enhanced camera is nice, but the older models were already more than good enough for my needs. I could easily have made do with the S3, but with the 4 released, the older model is effectively slated for end-of-life so I went with the current model.
So far, I haven't found any flaws with the S4. My only regret is my lingering bitterness towards Verizon Wireless that they are forcing their customers to terminate their unlimited data plans in favour of limited versions unless they're willing to pay a full $650 for an unlocked phone. Looking back at my data usage over the past year with the Verizon Wireless rep, I didn't exceed the 2GB/month level but once and that was an unusual circumstance. Most months, I'm unlikely to break the 1GB/month level. That was enough to make the sale for me, although I'm not likely to forgive Verizon Wireless' slap any time soon.
The old Bionic was a decent phone, Android-based and the first multi-core phone available on Verizon's 4gLTE network. It really new how to drain a battery so I rapidly replaced the old one with a beefier, extended life battery; that larger battery bit the dust two months ago, forcing me back to the original short-life battery but that was enough to get me to this point.
What ultimately killed my Bionic (in my eyes anyway, since the machine is still very functional) was its increasing inability to operate at tolerable speeds. I keep 2800 address book entries, untold thousands of calendar entries (including syncing of ten different Google calendars), four different email accounts, numerous apps and more. With only 1GB of RAM and ever-increasing app bloat, it was speedy two years ago, slugging a year ago and would be brought to a crawl any time it struggled to sync my email accounts nowadays. It was time to let it go.
On
octothorpe's suggestion, I looked at the HTC One, a new model which is truly a wonder. Sprint and AT&T both have the One available and I was able to test-drive it at a local Sprint store. Sadly, I really need Verizon Wireless' network as it is the only one which extends everywhere I travel or work, and they've only just announced they may have the HTC One available by late summer this year. I tried to wait but after more days of frustration with my old phone, I decided that Verizon's vague delivery schedule was too little, too late.The S4 isn't a One, but it's pretty damn slick in its own right. It has a fast responsive user interface, a nice feel in the hand, a fantastic screen and a decent battery life. There are some software and hardware improvements over the S3, but they're rather obscure and not ones I either am likely to use or value: I really don't care if video stops when I look away since I typcally don't watch video on my phone. Ditto the eye-driven screen scrolling --cute, but I'm not chosing a phone on that. The enhanced camera is nice, but the older models were already more than good enough for my needs. I could easily have made do with the S3, but with the 4 released, the older model is effectively slated for end-of-life so I went with the current model.
So far, I haven't found any flaws with the S4. My only regret is my lingering bitterness towards Verizon Wireless that they are forcing their customers to terminate their unlimited data plans in favour of limited versions unless they're willing to pay a full $650 for an unlocked phone. Looking back at my data usage over the past year with the Verizon Wireless rep, I didn't exceed the 2GB/month level but once and that was an unusual circumstance. Most months, I'm unlikely to break the 1GB/month level. That was enough to make the sale for me, although I'm not likely to forgive Verizon Wireless' slap any time soon.
