upgrading of S5 or staying with S4

[zerogear]

No, he was directly responding to a post about GPE. If you don't know what GPE is, you shouldn't be giving an opinion on Android options.

No. I was talking about TouchWiz. Calm down there champ.

 

[evident]

Not enough, still way too bloated & crappy UI.

Ok i'll bite. I've been using touchwiz since the galaxy S2, got a tmobile galaxy s4 and was using it with the GPE ROM until I actually switched to Tmo and am stuck with the TMO ROM's for wifi calling. as long as the thing is rooted, I can hide all the bloat. I don't get all the bitching and complaining about touchwiz, you can disable all of the crap so easily with root. I use stock android on my nexus 7 and there still isn't that much of a difference to me, besides the launcher

 

[dawheat]

Don't see point to upgrade to it from any 2013 flagship phone unless there is something very specific needed.

S4 users I wouldn't even consider it.

Battery life - the G2 blows the other 2013 flagships out of the water and in many measurements is even better than the Note 3 (combination of the S800 + bigger battery + other tweaks). I find a huge difference in freedom from worrying about running out of battery between my S4 and Note 3 - if the 2014 flagships are more like the Note 3/G2, then that'd be worth it for me. Unfortunately my S4 is a work phone so no upgrade for me

 

[sweenish]

as long as the thing is rooted.....I don't get all the bitching and complaining about touchwiz,

 

[jacktesterson]

Battery life - the G2 blows the other 2013 flagships out of the water and in many measurements is even better than the Note 3 (combination of the S800 + bigger battery + other tweaks). I find a huge difference in freedom from worrying about running out of battery between my S4 and Note 3 - if the 2014 flagships are more like the Note 3/G2, then that'd be worth it for me. Unfortunately my S4 is a work phone so no upgrade for me

I hardly doubt the S5 Battery life (in theory it should be better, we will wait and see) is going to be worth the cost of an upgrade to most unless you have $$ just to waste/blow. An extra hour here and there?

I have a Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 with the S800 and the battery life is mediocre at best, so it's not all chipset related.

I do admit the LG G2 is fantastic.

 

[dawheat]

I hardly doubt the S5 Battery life (in theory it should be better, we will wait and see) is going to be worth the cost of an upgrade to most unless you have $$ just to waste/blow. An extra hour here and there?

I have a Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 with the S800 and the battery life is mediocre at best, so it's not all chipset related.

I do admit the LG G2 is fantastic.

We're debating two different things. I disagreed with the statement that those with a 2013 flagship phone (excluding the G2) don't see a point in upgrading - the battery life improvement alone is non-trivial. When out and about on cellular network all day, I cannot get even 4 hours of on-screen time with my S4 (this with very few things syncing and all the gimmicks disabled). My G2 and Note 3 get 5 hours on-screen in worst case scenarios, and generally closer to 6 hours.

This is the difference between using the phone how you want all day vs having to be judicious. Going over 6 hours on-screen a day I think is the point of diminishing returns as even from 7am to midnight, there's only so much time you can be looking at your phone.

Now, whether this is worth the cost of an upgrade (say $300 after selling your phone) is something else all together. For some, no. For others who spend that much on gadgets regularly, sure.

And sure it's not all chipset related, but there has been a clear improvement in battery usage from the S600 to the S800. That combined with a larger battery and other improvements (like the Lucid power saving profiles), I'm guessing we'll see something in between the S4 and G2, but closer to the G2.

tl;dr - there will be nontrivial improvements, whether they're worth the cost to you is not what I was arguing.

 

[jpeyton]

Ok i'll bite. I've been using touchwiz since the galaxy S2, got a tmobile galaxy s4 and was using it with the GPE ROM until I actually switched to Tmo and am stuck with the TMO ROM's for wifi calling. as long as the thing is rooted, I can hide all the bloat. I don't get all the bitching and complaining about touchwiz, you can disable all of the crap so easily with root. I use stock android on my nexus 7 and there still isn't that much of a difference to me, besides the launcher

I'm on the same boat. I used to flash my T-Mobile GS4 to the GPE ROM, but about 4 months ago I flashed back to the stock T-Mobile ROM and haven't looked back.

I don't even need root to hide most of the bloat. Just Nova Launcher Prime.

Running the T-Mobile 4.4.2 stock ROM and Nova Launcher, my S4 feels faster than ever.

I've decided to hold out on my next upgrade until some Android phone manufacturer can come up with a camera that can keep pace with the iPhone. Not only in terms of quality, but speed as well.