A few weeks back, I wrote a post about a smartphone that I’d been testing, the Blackberry Z10. Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been testing an android, the Samsung Galaxy S4.
Again, I put it through is social media paces, and here are my thoughts.
Big screen! This thing has a 5″ screen. It’s huge. If you are the kind of person who likes to watch videos or youtube on your phone, by golly this is the phone for you. For me, I find it a bit big. I need something that will easily slide into my back pocket, and this one does, but just barely. I think it might be too much phone for me, but I totally get the appeal of the big screen.
Easy unlocking & message hub. One of my favourite things about this phone is how easy it is to unlock and use. A simple swipe unlocks the phone, and a swipe in the other direction pulls down your message centre. All of your notifications come here–facebook, email, twitter, the works. It’s really cool. You can also control your settings from here.
The camera: great camera! 13 Megapixels!! That is some serious zooming ability, people!
Apps: the phone comes with quite a few good apps built in. I did have to download Twitter and Instagram. But it comes with the full google suite installed, and also Flipboard. Which looks amazing on the 5″ screen by the way.
Hard “back” button: there’s a button on the bottom of the phone that is the “back” button. I love this feature. It’s really smart.
What I didn’t like:
The battery life: as with the Blackberry, I found the battery didn’t last the whole day. The good news? It charges fast.
I did have problems with some of the apps: Twitter was especially crashy.
I don’t like the autocorrect: it’s even worse than iPhone!
Overall, though, I really liked this phone. It’s a more affordable option than the iPhone, so for a lot of people, it’s a good option. Plus, with android’s open source platform, there are lots of apps available.
So… what’s next?? the iPhone 5, of course. Stay tuned!
Big thanks to the nice people at Telus for loaning me this phone.
Great review. I have been looking at this phone. Tough decision between this and iPhone.
I know! I’m struggling with the same decision!
I don’t know if you got to play around with it, but there is a great program loaded on the note you should try. It’s called Knox. It allows you to keep you work and your personal stuff separate and protected. Can’t do that on an iPhone.
Cool! THanks for the tip!
The Blackberry Z10 has a similar feature, I understand.