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Phones · Samsung Galaxy S

Samsung Galaxy S Galaxy S4

6owners with an opinion
60%of verdicts positive
2/2positive/negative since 2024
0happy after 3+ years

Praised for ease of use and repairability; criticized for reliability and durability.

What owners wrote

Doesn’t like it
After the first battery of my Samsung S4 expanded at the end of its life in less than 2 years, I found a utility that didn't work perfectly but could limit charge anywhere between 30 to 100% most of the time, and it prolonged the lifetime of the couple of later batteries during the 10+ years I used the phone with a limit around 66%. I was glad to see my new Samsung XCover 7 has a built-in option to limit charge to 80%, although a flaky usb cable could sometimes overcharge to 100%. And also has a removable battery.
Likes it
In 2014 I spent a week with my Samsung Galaxy S4 as my only computer. (My laptop was damaged and it took a while to repair. IT asked if I wanted a loaner and I said I'd get back to them if the phone proved inadequate.) I was testing embedded hardware, so my main tasks involved a UART port into a dev board. One Bluetooth serial interface later, I was in business; there were some Arduino IDE ports or something similar that had a respectable serial terminal, and that's all I needed to see log messages. Monitor plugged in over Samsung's weird MHL-HDMI thing; knockoff cable was only a few bucks. It had a power passthrough, so I used the otherwise-useless Cisco VoIP phone on my desk (I was a contractor and the phone wasn't active) as a USB power source to charge the S4. Bluetooth keyboard, Alt-Tab works for switching apps, and having real keys makes composing email a breeze. Bluetooth mouse, pops up a cursor on the screen and works just like touch with better ergonomics. Bluetooth headphones, for taking conference calls and listening to music. I wanted for nothing, and the whole mess fit into my coat pockets, I didn't bother carrying a backpack that week. It's a decade later and this is still a fringe activity?
Likes it
My old Samsung Galaxy S4 was water proof and had a removable battery. At least, it was waterproof enough to be able to answer a call in the shower, if need be. I never fully submerged the phone, but casual exposure to water was absolutely fine. Oh, and it had O-rings around the edge of the battery cover. It was a pretty great phone. Its downfall was being too thin. It didn't fit great in my pocket and it ended up getting bent when I sat down. Didn't break the phone, but was enough to leave aermanent bend in the phone about 3/4 of an inch from the top and a little bit of delamination in the one corner. Even with the bend, I kept the phone for quite a while before it finally met its demise falling out of a coat pocket onto asphalt exiting a car.