[General Questions and Answers] Galaxy_S_:
Need advice on which phone to pick!

My husband and I recently moved to AK due to his military career and we are switching from Sprint to AT&T since our service sucks here and AT&T is the only one that actually has a store up here. I am on the fence between a couple devices. I am really leaning towards the Galaxy S4 Active, as I like the appeal of the some what waterproof feature. Being in Alaska and all with the snow in the winter it'd be nice to be able to use my phone to do anything I want during a blizzard or while making a snow angel. Haha =] I have been reading a lot of reviews and the only difference I have found between the S4 and S4 active is obviously the camera, and the fact that the front and the rear facing camera can't be used at the same time, and screen quality. The S4 is Super Amoled which is more vibrant, and the S4 Active is an LED sceen, which also drains battery way faster. The camera quality is really not a big deal to me since I have a Canon digital camera that I take with me whenever I want to get actual print quality pictures. I mostly just use my phone camera for quick shots that I want to text to someone or be able to upload to facebook on the spot. So as long as the camera takes good pictures (which I have seen in reviews it does, just not in low light) then I am fine with that. Why exactly would I need the front and rear facing camera to work at the same time? lol. I have never had a phone that does that and I don't really see the point of it or why it would be important or a reason to choose the S4 over the S4 active. But maybe I'm just missing something. So if so, feel free to enlighten me. I'm all ears =] The screen quality not being as good kind of sucks, but it was also said that the Active screen is easier to see in direct sunlight than the S4, though I won't be seeing much sun in the winter so that point is null. lol. The only thing that might possibly be a deal breaker for me with this phone is the battery life. I am ALWAYS on my phone so battery life is a big thing to me so I don't know if having a juice sucking LED screen would be the best fit. HOW bad is it?

Another thing with the Galaxy S line. Or Samsung, specifically. I had one of the phones in their very first line of Galaxy S (hence the username). I had the Vibrant on T-mobile. I know it was a long time ago and they were still really experimental as it was one of the first ones, but the first line of them basically became the phones that Samsung forgot about. It NEVER got an update. And Samsung was terrible about making promises about the phones future that they never kept. I know the Galaxy S's are one of the top phones out there right now, so I assume they get updated frequently? Do they now have good manufacturer/carrier support? I want to make the right decision as I will have this phone for a while. And I don't want to get something that is going to be forgotten about when the next new big thing comes out. Does the future of the S4/S4 Active look good? Will it still receive updates even when something else comes out and takes it's place as the new big thing?

Been also thinking about the HTC One. I know it's a processor and a software version below the S4's but I've seen that HTC is pretty good with keeping their phones UTD on the newest Android, for the most part. And how much of a difference would the processor actually make? Figured I'd ask about this one, too. As it is also one of the top phones on AT&T right now.

Please, shed some light, share your opinions. Thank you!