Samsung / Reviews

Despite the gimmicks and reduced storage space, the Galaxy S4 is a great bit of hardware for the most part, complete with a few useful features. But many others impact on the overall usability of the phone.

It might be a great as a camera, it may play advanced 3D games without breaking into a sweat, and may have the stamina to go on for a full day, but unless you're easily impressed by the gimmicks, you'll feel that this phone is a bit of a handful on a day-to-day basis.

You should also stick to getting all of your music, games, movies, books and magazines from Google and skip all the Samsung stuff. Although the S Health app is worth a look.

The intermittent lagging can probably be eliminated by the new Google Edition, but until that's available I have to conclude that the S4 falls short of perfection.

Read original review at Pocket Gamer.

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So, does the Samsung Galaxy Fame hold up? Well, yes and no. It certainly gets points for style, and anyone pining for the halcyon days of flip phones might like the form factor. On the other hand, its relatively poor performance and less-than-beautiful screen aren't going to help win the Galaxy Fame any fans.

Read original review at Android Authority.

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The Samsung Galaxy Fame's software package and commendable performance from a single-core processor make it a an interesting device, but it's currently at a price point where more capable competition can be found. It's stripped-down Young sibling will nab the most frugal of shoppers, while more powerful competitors from Nokia - as well as last year's midrange Android offerings - mean that the Galaxy Fame has to undergo a price readjustment if it has any hopes of doing well this summer.

Read original review at GSMArena.

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Most of the shortcomings in the Galaxy S 4 are the same as in other Android devices -- such as the issues with its VPN client and its tendency to carry bloatware. Most of its software, UI, and hardware work just like they do in the Galaxy S III. That means, unfortunately, the battery life is still low. I didn't even get 24 hours in mostly standby use on a full charge. Be sure to enable all power-saving modes in the Settings app to stretch the S 4 to run a full workday.

It's too bad that most of the S 4's cool features are limited to a scant handful of apps that don't work all that well anyhow -- but that means you won't get in the habit of using and being frustrated by them.

Read original review at InfoWorld.

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This is still one of the best Android smartphones that you will be able to buy this year. The trinity of specifications, hardware and performance on the Galaxy S4 work in absolute unison. That said, while the abundance of new features are great, they still require a lot of polish, as it can get overly complicated at times.

Samsung has pretty much checked off all the technical aspects that make a great smartphone, but the end product looks as though only their engineers worked on it, while the designers were goofing about. The Galaxy S4 is a technical marvel through and through, yet its distinct lack of personality and finesse to be truly crowned the Android smartphone of the year, even if sales figures might refute that.

Read original review at Mobile88.

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The 16GB, Wi-Fi only version of the Galaxy Note 8 is available in the United States for $399, a price that isn’t exactly cheap, but not unreasonably high either. It’s clear that Samsung made some compromises in the specs and features department to be able to offer the Note 8 at that price point, but does the end result justify the financial effort?

The answer boils down to one point – do you care about the S Pen, and if so, how much are you willing to pay to have it? The stylus is the biggest selling factor of a device that is in most regards average. The camera is lackluster, the battery life is only decent, and the software is standard fare if you don’t care about the S Pen features. On the plus side, the Galaxy Note 8 offers great performance and the display is relatively good, making it a good option for media consumption and gaming.

Read original review at Android Authority.

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In the end, it's a trade-off. If you're willing to trade ruggedness and a less worrying about your phone's well-being for lower specs and a bulkier build, the Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2 is worth keeping in mind. That said, there are other similar phones like the Kyocera Torque and Samsung's own Rugby Pro as options to consider.

Read original review at Android Authority.

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The Galaxy Note 8.0 has two cameras, but both are rather uneventful. There's a 5-megapixel rear camera on the back that doesn't have a flash, while a front-facing 1.2-megapixel camera handles video calls. Both still images and videos captured with the rear camera are of a poor quality, with excessive image noise and a lack of detail particular issues. The front-camera works fine for video calling apps like Skype, but the quality of still photos is predictably poor.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 has slightly disappointing battery life. It lasted an average of a day and a half during our testing, sometimes pushing almost two days depending on use. Compared to both the iPad mini and the Google Nexus 7, both of which can easily last up to three days, the result is below par.

Read original review at PC Advisor.

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What Samsung has done here is taken the Galaxy S III and made everything bigger and better; except the device itself, which – impressively – is both smaller and lighter. As a technical tour de force, the S4 is hard to criticise and, thanks to the increasingly rare features of a removable battery and a micro SD slot, it will be the default choice for many canny smartphone users.

That said, the styling leaves me cold, the plastic body looks and feels a bit cheap when compared to the opposition, and TouchWiz really is a bit of an aesthetic shambles compared to Jelly Bean’s stock UI. I’ve no doubt all those extra features will attract buyers but I’d be lying to you if I said I thought many of them were essential to the smartphone user experience.

Read original review at Register Hardware.

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I liked the Samsung Galaxy S4 a lot. The screen is wonderful, and I found myself switching to it every time I needed to check out a YouTube clip or a film trailer. I can’t say the same for the rest of the device however. Yes, having a removable battery and an SD card slot is great, but it shouldn’t be at the expense of a premium feel handset, and performance on a phone this expensive (and with these specs) should be blazing. I’m not talking about benchmarks, I’m talking about real world use. There’s not point having the fastest CPU out there, if the software running slows it down. This seems like something Samsung can fix, but will they? I don’t know.

Read original review at Coolsmartphone.

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its a flip and its better for me cause I only text on it

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This is my 3rd samsung phone, my first smart phone. First thing it does not have a manual, being a very much older user, I am not tech savy, I NEED A MANUAL. I have DIAL-UP service 167 pages of manual takes forever to download.

This phone is NOT BLUETOOTH COMPATIBLE. I spent 1.5 hours at the telus store before someone called the dealer only to have him say, that samsung has not fixed the bluetooth glitch. Needless to say $80 some odd dollars later, I do not have a hands free, wire free connection to my phone.

After having my phone for a week, I accidently learned today how to make outgoing calls and text messages. Sorry, no manual I will probably not buy samsung again.

Louise Kerr Ormstown Q.

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In the case of the Samsung Galaxy Ace II X, you get a little more than what you pay for.

Considering this is a very cheap, entry-level smartphone, it works quite nicely. The screen is big, the phone is very light and slim, battery life is excellent (provided you are not using wifi, that is a killer, as it is with all phones), and the touchscreen works well. Video runs smoothly, and I've not yet had problems with connectivity or dropped calls.

That being said, there are certainly some downsides to the phone. It has very limited RAM, and can be pretty sluggish at times (which can be frustrating). As well, the camera is not fantastic (even as far as phones go) - although I suppose I could call it 'satisfactory'.

If you are looking to upgrade to a smartphone, but you don't want something extremely expensive, buy this phone. It works well and you will like it.

If you want to do a million tasks at once on your phone and need something fast, upgrade to a faster phone, the Samsung Galaxy Ace II X won't cut it for you.

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After less than 1.5 years with this phone, the battery will not charge. More specifically, the phone will not allow the battery to charge.

Samsung only provides a 1 year warranty on its products. I am now stuck with this paperweight, and a data and voice contract that I have not been able to use.

I have been very disappointed. I will be switching back to my iphone.

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Just got this phone yesterday, luvin it alot, like the size, just needed for text and phone really, but I luv the other features, like checkin my email, a great little phone, cant wait til load all my music..

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Had very high expectations for this phone. I finally got this phone and was disappointed. Slow and laggy at times. Screen is beautiful. Touch screen is delayed. RAM gets eaten up a lot. Have to clear memory every couple of minutes when actively doing different tasks.

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This phone is so much better than the iPhone... They are so similar yet so different! there isnt anything that I cant do. The only complaint that I have is I cant change the notification for the different types of messages (ie: facebook, text, email) so they all notify me in the same way so im rushing to my phone to see what it is and end up disappointed that its only a fb message ;p

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Had this for 3 days now. Impressed with the beautiful screen and fast processor. Upgraded from the Galaxy Ace which had bad resolution, slow processor and inefficient memory. Very happy so far, except for the battery life which doesn't last as long as my previous phone (G. Ace).

Pros:
Camera takes nice pics, Wifi and Data is fast, screen is beautiful & bright (not like Galaxy Ace), large phone but it is light and evenly balanced, inexpensive = great phone for the $. Downloaded 'Opera Mobile' and browsing is faster than installed browser.

Cons:
Battery life could be better. Phone is a little slippery, will get a skin to protect it and fix this problem. Some Google/Samsung 'bloatware' is evident. If you get that stuff off this phone would be even faster!

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I’ve had this phone for a few months and though I’m not an intensive user I have to say overall I’m pretty pleased with it – except for one problem, and it’s a deal breaker: it only has 150MB (131MB according to the specs) of internal memory, which is COMPLETELY inadequate. This was my first Android phone and initially I wasn’t concerned about the internal storage, I figured I’d just put everything on the SD card. Turns out, that’s not how Android rolls. Some apps can only be run from internal storage, and even the ones you can transfer to the SD card often leave large chunks (in some cases over half the total memory required by the app) in internal storage. As a result you will run out of internal memory after installing a relatively modest number of apps, and once internal storage is full you will not be able to download any more apps or update the ones you already have. This is really a massive design flaw, no doubt done for reasons of economy. Calling this a “smartphone” is borderline false advertising.

If you’re adventurous you can try rooting your phone (this will void the warranty and worst case could FUBAR it), which will allow you to use an app to force Android to move entire apps to the SD card. This isn’t for the feint of heart but it’s the only way I can see to make the phone semi functional for its intended purpose.

A better bet is just get a phone that isn’t brain dead out of the box, however.

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I installed a 16Gb micro sd card. I installed about 1Gb of wma and mp3 music. I transferred photos from my old Sony-Ericsson phone, but could not install its videos. I was able to install low res videos. I installed Opera Internet and its also very fast. The camera works well, haven't tried video mode yet. I have had the phone for a little over one week, and I find that the battery is good for two to three days with occasional wifi use.

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