Before opening the box, one of the first things I did was to quickly buy a cover and a screen protector...ok, I bought two covers because it was one for $6 but 2 for $10 at the toy outpost in Vivocity, and the screen protector was only $4. Probably the cheapest covers and screen protectors in Singapore...and they have iPhone ones too.
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Firstly, I love the look of the S4 in the box. The packaging is made from 100% recyclable materials, down to the soy ink they used for printing. It gives a lovely back to nature look, with the wood grain a nice contrast against one of the newest and most powerful smartphones in the world at this moment. To save space and pack flatter, they have included an adapter plug that is detachable, and the ear piece comes with a mic and extra ear plug covers.
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Though the glass used by the S4 is Gorilla Glass 3, I decided to take no chances, and I spent the next 30 minutes trying to put on the screen protector. The protector is more likely to get scratched then the glass screen, as the Samsung Galaxy S4 is the first phone in the world to use the latest, toughest Gorilla Glass 3. The soft case with the transparent hard backing didn't fit very well, since I had the raised Starhub sticker at the back of my phone. Instead of taking the sticker off, I changed covers. Both were my favourite blue anyways! The soft cover fit the phone perfectly and it only made the phone slightly bulkier. Did I mention that it's really difficult for one hand operation, since the phone is pretty wide? I have small hands, and I nearly twisted my thumb while attempting a one hand typing feat on the S4 - one sentence took me a minute to type and the enter button was what made me give up and type with both thumbs instead. Thumbing made it alot easier but it took me awhile to notice that instead of getting frustrated by all the letters coming out wrong, the interface gives you the option to choose the word you want.
Just don't type the wrong word too many times, as the highly evolved interface learns the words you type and adds your words to the options that appear when you type a certain word pattern. It learnt my email address after like 5 logins into 5 different social services. If you proofread and realise that you have strange words in your text, you can just tap any part of the word and simply choose the right word and replace that offending spelling mistake. You can switch this feature off you want to, under settings.
Just don't type the wrong word too many times, as the highly evolved interface learns the words you type and adds your words to the options that appear when you type a certain word pattern. It learnt my email address after like 5 logins into 5 different social services. If you proofread and realise that you have strange words in your text, you can just tap any part of the word and simply choose the right word and replace that offending spelling mistake. You can switch this feature off you want to, under settings.
 Warranty card brings you to this page, which is for the S3! |  Speedtest out of the box |  Updating the phone, it will shut down, restart and the camera will also get updated. |  The speed and the connection to the wireless network has improved after the update! |
I was very annoyed that the site listed on the warranty card led me to a Samsung site which told me about some winner of the Samsung Galaxy 3 last year but did not allow me to do any warranty registration. Surely this page would be of paramount importance and they should ensure that the registration page is up to date. After googling around for 20mins to no avail, I finally went to my gmail and fished out the old site which I registered my tab, beam and printers.
The old site, on Samsung.com (USA) works.
 Found the site for warranty registration at last! |  3.8V Lithium Battery |  |  |
Did a speedtest to see what is happening, as my phone seems to be taking a very long time to download my google contacts. To my horror, the results were shockingly terrible as compared to my iphone5. Something must be wrong with its wifi component. After searching on Google, I found out that it is a known problem with some routers, and happily, Samsung released not one, but two updates by the 13th of June, which is timely, since I just got my hands on this phone.
After the update which updated even the camera, the speedtest results were fantastic. Sitting in the same spot in my room, using the same test server and application, I had results that surpassed my iphone5!
I went to Contacts and tried to dial out and the phone HUNG! How can it hang on the most basic of all functions, the phone function? I did a quick trouble shoot, and realized that the hanging of the phone was due to the contacts application. I checked and rechecked, resetting the entire phone, taking out the battery and still, the same thing happened. I called the service center at this point and they tried to make me bring down my NEW PHONE for REPAIR the first time I called. I called a few more times with different people telling me different methods of solving the problem.
After going to Settings, Accounts, Google and deleting my google account, then adding my google account again and resyncing only the contacts application, the problem was solved for half a day till I synced my other google applications. I redid this five times before finally decided enough was enough.
Refusing to bring my phone down for repair, I insisted on getting an exchange with Starhub, my provider of the phone. Being a Platinum Club member with Starhub has its perks. I exchanged my new phone for another S4 and this time, the contacts app didn't hang even with 10,000 contacts synced to it. If you encounter any problems at all, it is probably that unit you have, so don't believe anyone who tells you it is just a software problem. The s4 is designed to work out of the box.
I am glad I didn't wait it out, as the new phone that I got after my first bad encounter worked beautifully. It didn't run hot even when all the applications are closed with a task manager ( Which I downloaded after I discovered my phone was hot even when the screen was off, and placed in my bag. ), it didn't hang when I clicked the contacts button and it didn't hang in the Facebook application either.
Will the S4 replace my iphone 5 as my main phone? We will find out after a week or two, so watch this blog!
After the update which updated even the camera, the speedtest results were fantastic. Sitting in the same spot in my room, using the same test server and application, I had results that surpassed my iphone5!
I went to Contacts and tried to dial out and the phone HUNG! How can it hang on the most basic of all functions, the phone function? I did a quick trouble shoot, and realized that the hanging of the phone was due to the contacts application. I checked and rechecked, resetting the entire phone, taking out the battery and still, the same thing happened. I called the service center at this point and they tried to make me bring down my NEW PHONE for REPAIR the first time I called. I called a few more times with different people telling me different methods of solving the problem.
After going to Settings, Accounts, Google and deleting my google account, then adding my google account again and resyncing only the contacts application, the problem was solved for half a day till I synced my other google applications. I redid this five times before finally decided enough was enough.
Refusing to bring my phone down for repair, I insisted on getting an exchange with Starhub, my provider of the phone. Being a Platinum Club member with Starhub has its perks. I exchanged my new phone for another S4 and this time, the contacts app didn't hang even with 10,000 contacts synced to it. If you encounter any problems at all, it is probably that unit you have, so don't believe anyone who tells you it is just a software problem. The s4 is designed to work out of the box.
I am glad I didn't wait it out, as the new phone that I got after my first bad encounter worked beautifully. It didn't run hot even when all the applications are closed with a task manager ( Which I downloaded after I discovered my phone was hot even when the screen was off, and placed in my bag. ), it didn't hang when I clicked the contacts button and it didn't hang in the Facebook application either.
Will the S4 replace my iphone 5 as my main phone? We will find out after a week or two, so watch this blog!
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