*** The Official Samsung Galaxy S4 Thread ***

I have found the following the best for achieving a close/identical experience to stock android...... but better (in some areas anyway!) ;) :p

stock android keyboard
stock Alarm clock
Stock SMS app or sliding messaging
Dialer with this theme
Stock calendar
stock camera & Gallery
Nova launcher prime with the built in stock android icons
Lock screen (can get the stock lock screen theme/UI) or this
Stock (CM10) calculator
Multi-tasking window

Then there are apps to replace the notification bar i.e. omega, status bar +, super status bar, however, they are a bit buggy!

And everything to do with sense, touchwiz is either disabled or hidden via nova
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handy cheers, I've grabbed the dialler and calculator, I was already using the google calendar, nova and holo locker. I don't want the stock camera, thats probably one area that samsung have got some usable tricks.

I know its for the sake of having an identifiable branding throughout the ui but it's never been the bloatware thats bothered me that much in touchwiz/sense etc its how bloody awful they make the UI look, to be fair pre duartes move to holo (which he insists isn't a theme or look which is odd) sense and touchwiz were at least as good as stock if not better but not any more.

Give me a black background with light blue small point text mixed with some white all in a grown up font and frankly OEMs can stuff in whatever they want and I'll give it a go.

Thats the issue with the S4 google edition. Thats $300 for an sd slot, removable battery and 1080p screen. If you lose everything samsung have added to the S4 its basically just a very capable high end phone. I'd like to see a google edition that kept all the smart stay/cool camera features/smart scroll etc all as apps on top of an AOSP build which I could choose to have and use or not and to uninstall if I want.

The google edition is just another set of pre arranged apps and choices you can't change just in the other direction.

If samsungs version is everything but the kitchen sink the google edition is a bit no kitchen sink, kitchen or even running water just buy a nexus 4 or Moto X version.
 
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Likewise, the camera really does suck compared to the OEM camera apps :( Not to mention quality isn't as good either!

Agree with everything else there although I personally love the new sense :p Prefer it over stock mainly because it has a better unified feel throughout (plus the other reasons you mentioned with touchwiz, more features etc.), google and other companies especially Samsung need to work on that area imo.
 
S4 Active reportedly sporting lower specs than normal S4.

Oh well, it was a fun run while it lasted :p
 
Nexus18 said:
Likewise, the camera really does suck compared to the OEM camera apps :( Not to mention quality isn't as good either!

Agree with everything else there although I personally love the new sense :p Prefer it over stock mainly because it has a better unified feel throughout (plus the other reasons you mentioned with touchwiz, more features etc.), google and other companies especially Samsung need to work on that area imo.
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I can't bear the menus etc on sense, from what I've seen they're still trying to give me "quick" options when I'd rather just have a full menu and iirc they have a load of pictures on there too, I can read.. I don't need a picture!
 
My black mist 19505 came with a white wall plug and usb cable.. Just to check, is that normal? Seemed a bit odd to me, either way..

Also on the case, is it supposed to be slightly raised above the speaker?
 
Thanks.

One other thing.. If I'm on a white screen - swear the bottom third of my screen has a very light purple tint to it.. Has anyone heard of anything like that?
 
toString said:
Thanks.

One other thing.. If I'm on a white screen - swear the bottom third of my screen has a very light purple tint to it.. Has anyone heard of anything like that?
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Avicus said:
So, I finally got my replacement S4 from vodafone today. Did a proper test run to make sure the screen was perfect (my old one had a pink tint at the bottom).

All was well, screen was great. I was overjoyed. And then I realised that my hand is slowly cooking. On standby. Yeah, they sent me an overheating one.

:mad::mad::mad:
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on the custom rom front, I don't know what I'll be doing. everything I learned from all the flashing of my S2 has taught me that by large its a waste of my time. In the two years that i've had the S2, I found 2 roms that i could say felt complete and finished.... and I flashed that phone a fair amount. Those two were light'ning Rom, i forget which version, and PA2.54. Everything before, between and after became a waiting game for the next release in order to fix whatever bug was introduced in the last release or add whatever feature was missing. That included future versions of PA which i pretty much stuck to from 2.54 onwards - the current 3.15 or whatever I had on my s2 was just unfinished.

Now, I cant be bothered with that for another two year. Also, samsung have a lot more samsung-only features with the s4 - i will not flash anything that means i loose air view or multi window, for example. So me to go looking, I will be wanting to flash something samsung-based, meaning that's anything aosp/cm based out the window unless those features are built in.

SO, PA team, if you are reading this; I'd love it if you did what MIUI did with the S2 and released an S4 rom that was samsung based so that I could keep all the nice samsung features but also gain all the lovely stuff you guys have produced (even if I dont like PIE), that would be fantastic. Samsung + PA settings - touchwiz = win.
 
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James - did you get the sd card email from amazon with updated delivery date?


All I need from a custom ROM is a bit of debloat, themeing and some tweaks like torch when you press home button on lockscreen, no low battery notification, no increasing ringtone etc.
 
james.miller said:
on the custom rom front, I dont know what I'll be doing. everything I learned from all the flashing of my S2 has taught me that by large its a waste of my time. In the two years that i've had the S2, I found 2 roms that i could say felt complete and finished.... and I flashed that phone a fair amount. Those two were light'ning Rom, i forget which version, and PA2.54. Everything before, between and after because a waiting game for the next release in order to fix whatever bug was introduced in the last release or add whatever feature was missing. That included future versions of PA wich i pretty much stuck to from 2.54 onwards - the current 3.15 or whatever I had on my s2 was just unfinished.

Now, I cant be bothered with that for another two year. Also, samsung have a lot more samsung-only features with the s4 - i will not flash anything that means i loose air view or multi window, for example. So me to go looking, I will be wanting to flash something samsung-based, meaning that's anything aosp/cm based out the window unless those features are built in.

SO, PA team, if you are reading this; I'd love it if you did what MIUI did with the S2 and released an S4 rom that was samsung based so that I could keep all the nice samsung features but also gain all the lovely stuff you guys have produced (even if I dont like PIE), that would be fantastic. Samsung + PA settings - touchwiz = win.
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sounds to me like you need wanamlite to be honest.

Just a cleaned up stock rom.

in fact actually it sounds to me like you should get odin and use it to flash a pre rooted (if you need it) version of whatever the latest stock firmware is.

You can't have all the features with the very latest android version unless they've been released by samsung so just use odin or wanam or something like that to flash the latest version of the stock rom without having to wait for your carrier to get off their backsides and give it to you.
 
kona786 said:
James - did you get the sd card email from amazon with updated delivery date?
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I did, yes.

Hello,

We are pleased to report that the following item will dispatch sooner than expected:

"Samsung 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 Grade 1 70MB/s MicroSDHC Pro Memory Card - Frustration Free Packaging"
Previous estimated arrival date: June 12 2013 - July 13 2013
New estimated arrival date: May 25 2013 - May 29 2013

For more details, please visit the Your Account section of our web site

You have not yet been charged for this item. We do not debit money from your payment card until just before your items are dispatched. We will send you a dispatch confirmation email on the date of dispatch.
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Im assuming I'll get it Tuesday/Wednesday with Monday being a bank holiday and sunday being...a Sunday, but sooner would be nice:p

matt100 said:
You can't have all the features with the very latest android version unless they've been released by samsung so just use odin or wanam or something like that to flash the latest version of the stock rom without having to wait for your carrier to get off their backsides and give it to you.
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Hopefully they have started as they mean to carry on, as EE/T-MOB/Orange got ME2 firmware before the sim-free handsets did, in the UK at least. Until then I think I can wait unless samsung do something radical with a new firmware release that I just HAVE to have :)
 
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james.miller said:
I did, yes.

Im assuming I'll get it Tuesday/Wednesday with Monday being a bank holiday and sunday being...a Sunday, but sooner would be nice:p
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I reckon you'll get yours by Friday, they always deliver pretty quick IME.

Mine should be here tomorrow :cool:
Prime customer.

Have you noticed much in the ME2 update? I don't remember seeing KNOX in the manage apps bit before the update.
 
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