yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] inolvidable:
In general I agree with you. Both phones are brilliant. You have to choose one or another though, and as both of them are great, the petty (and no so petty) details become relevant.

IMO there are some differences that, because of their subjective nature, should not be judged as huge or negligible benchmark data-driven. Two distinct DACs scoring wonderful audio tests mean two wonderful DACs but It does not imply negligible sound differences between them. By the way, I have not been able to find a single i9500 audio review and I am looking forward to reading one. I would be gratefulto anybody who could link it.

On the other hand, I think we can all agree on ticking some of the differences such as LTE capability, exynos performance potential, OpenGL 3.0 full implementation or local warranty as important, not subtle and objective future proof values to take into account when it comes to going for one of the models.

To recap, in my view you can not go wrong with any of the S4 variants but I definitely think their differences determine an optimal match depending on individual needs and personal preferences

Note: The apparent gap in camera performance between the two versions is nearly anecdotal to me. If finally sensors turn out to be different, I would be bothered by Samsung dissimulation rather than the subtle photo quality itself.

Edit: Big and quite widespread issue in Qualcomm DAC regarding sound crackling/distortion on low impedance headphones. It seems not present on Wolfson S4 so far. I hope it is just a matter of firmware tweaking

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2258831&page=7

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2211624&page=3
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] N1NJATH3ORY:
Please can someone answer this for me, is HSDPA+ dual channel or is just a single channel ?? With + just being a boost ? Witch is it people ? Thanks
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] soundping:
Is your network dropping out sometimes?

Tripping a 13 ID error?
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] N1NJATH3ORY:
Witch country are you based in?
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gavinfabl:
Does the i9500 have issues on the Three network in the UK? I'm reading reports it might be.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] StuartTheFish:
Don't know, none of the uk are getting the i9500 in the first place unless people import them.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] N1NJATH3ORY:
Where did you read this ? UK version of the S4 is i9505 on the 3 network it's getting around 20+ meg download and 5+ upload its running on DC HSDPA 3's ultra fast network...
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] gavinfabl:
The thread title is about the Octa i9500 version, hence my question. It is relatively easy to import this version and I was wondering if anybody was having an issues with the i9500 on Three UK.

I am fully aware the i9505 is fine. The reason I ask is that it is very easy to import either the 32 or 64gb version i9500. Not fussed about LTE, so long as I get 3's normal fact speed on DC HSPDA.

So my question if anyone knows the answer who imported the i9500, does it have issues on the 3 network in the UK?

and I dont want a 16gb version of either version - useless amount of memory
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] N1NJATH3ORY:
If you check a few post back, a user did do some speed test on the i9500 on 3 network and its a joke.. he's getting around 3 meg download and 1 meg upload... He did say the weather is messed up and that could be causing the lame slow speeds but I personally think the Octa does not have DC HSDPA all its got is slow 3G connection chip witch is a piss take from Samsung...

I myself was going to get a import version of the galaxy s4, but after the speed test results forget that.. I can't believe Samsung wouldn't include DC HSDPA on there Octa version, the other thing to be beware of is even if you get the Korean model of the s4.. You will still have the same slow download speeds, as there's one on eBay.com 1000bucks buy it now and it's highlighted that its a 3G handset it don't support 4g other then korea 4g LTE.....
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Beefheart:
It would indeed be a useless amount of memory without the memory card slot. As it is, paying additional money for the larger device is a false economy. Unless having over 80gb is a must, you're far better buying the 16gb model then buying a fast class 64gb card.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] demlasjr:
You are worst than Samsung itself. The games can't be installed on sd card, only if you're rooted. 9 GB for a device isn't so much space nowadays *sigh*
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] mathieulh:
The I9500 is DC-HSPA the radio however is nowhere near as good as qualcomm's baseband. That said, qualcomm is used to provide better basebands than its competition.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] N1NJATH3ORY:
How do you know for sure i9500 has DC HSDPA ? Have you done speed tests ? Do you own a i9500 ? Witch country are you based in ? I really would like to purchase one, but I don't wont it, if it's slow HSDPA only... As I use tethering daily for work and stuff, ill be screwed if its HSDPA only.... Thanks
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Beefheart:
I am worst than Samsung itself? That doesn't even make sense.

The vast majority of users on here would be rooting their phones, hence my post. And there are very few games and apps that can't either be installed on the external sd or moved there afterwards. As such, for most people on here, it makes more financial sense to buy the device with the smallest amount of memory and purchase a large SD. If for whatever reason you're not one of them fine, but there is no need to be insulting.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] demlasjr:
Saying you're worst than Samsung is not an insulting mate :)

About moving....you can have more trouble moving the apps than just installing them in the phone directly. For the price difference it doesn't deserve it. Also, for moving the apps you need to mess with the root, you may lose the warranty, you can have errors in games and so on. I'm rooted on my S3, but I prefer to keep the big games on my internal memory than moving them. The price difference isn't that huge between 16 and 32gb, at least that's what I'm expecting.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] N1NJATH3ORY:
What's this obsession with games ? Seriously guys if you wanna play mobile games get a ps vita forget android games :)
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] demlasjr:
What about Google Music files (offline mode), GMaps (offline mode) and the big apps ? Are they work on ps vita ? :D
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Alexanderbooth:
Iim pretty sure basing the speed of the s4 on 1 persons speed tests is a bad idea, someone who has the lte version could get speed that slow if the signal is **** in there area.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] lostmyphone:
Just for informational purposes; I'm in a major US market and getting consistant 6-14Mbps H+ speeds so the phone is capable.

Best thing to do is do your homework on the carriers capabilities how it relates to the i9500.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] N1NJATH3ORY:
Hi do you know if its on DC HSDPA via your carrier ?
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] N1NJATH3ORY:
Thats the thing it's not the LTE version i9500 doesn't have the LTE chip, or its not compatible with UK LTE networks.. Its one or the other, as samsung did say its Octa chip works with all 20 LTE bands...

So what i was trying to find out, LTE don't work that's been confirmed.. But what about DC HSDPA does it support that ? As from the speed test results it's a joke.. But true going by one test result is lame as well...
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] demusss:
FYI I have a i9505 on Threes network.

Just run several tests this minute using speedtest.net here are the results in Mbps:

down 8.59, 9.86, 5.74, 8.30, 8.83

up 1.84, 1.70, 2.27, 1.65, 2.93

These look a little slow compared to some from other days. The highest results I've had down down is 19.28, 17.06, 16.45 Mbps. The highest up is 3.34, 3.25, 2.58, 2.31 Mbps.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] N1NJATH3ORY:
Thanks that's pretty good results, it all depends where you are! But I'm really after i9500 on 3 network similaronline did some tests for me, but his download speeds where really poor.. He did state that 3 UK is doing repairs on where he was based, maybe thats causing the slow issues...
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] N1NJATH3ORY:
What about the Chinese version of the s4 is that LTE compatible ? As it is Octa core version...

http://m.gsmarena.com/samsung_i9502_galaxy_s4-5420.php
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] N1NJATH3ORY:
Ps vita is a monster, even though the browser sucks, but video playback only MP4 support though and YouTube is flawless crisp colour reproduction, plus they do maps as well Google maps and email too twitter Facebook too and if you got enough storage I'm sure you can have music on the move.. the inbuilt 3G modem is really strong, I did some online gaming with it over the gsm network and the games where lag free.. For once sony has done a brilliant job with mobile gaming :)
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] mathieulh:
It's not LTE compatible, in fact there aren't LTE networks commercially available in China yet.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] N1NJATH3ORY:
I don't think that matters china ain't got LTE networks that phone suppliers won't produce LTE phones for the Chinese market...I'm sure I have seen some china mobile phone manufactures that have LTE in the phones they sell.....

I will find out for defo and report back here thanks
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] N1NJATH3ORY:
Just found this via Engadget so its the Korean model I need to get :)

Before we dive into specifics on the processor and its performance, let's note that your purchase decision may be influenced by your interest in LTE. The I9500 is resigned to using quad-band HSPA+ (850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100) and quad-band GSM / EDGE (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900), despite the fact that the Exynos 5410 has a radio capable of supporting up to 20 different global LTE frequencies. Only Korea's SHV-E300 actually offers any compatibility with the faster tech -- and it's likely only going to serve you well in Asia. For US users, this means your only LTE option is to choose from the Snapdragon 600-powered devices used on all seven networks that carry the device. That's bad news for many folks who may be hoping to buy an unlocked Exynos model with compatible LTE.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tclocki:
This may be a newb reply but I have a gt-i9500 and it does say on its box that it just supports up to HSPA+ signals only. No LTE.

I love the octa core version. I deliberately chose it over the snapdragon version of the s4.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] N1NJATH3ORY:
Nice but what kind of speeds can HSPA+ ACHIVE in real world use ?
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Nicko80:
Well I just watched a lot of reviews about octa vs Snapdragon... And my conclusion is that, octa sucks.

First... The 8 cores dont work at same time like it was anounced by Samsung, it only works on a 4 block, in other words, only 4 cpu work on the same time... Due to drive problems.

Second... Battery life the octa wins in 5%...only... Octacore to win 5% battery? Really?

Third... Only the snapdragon as Lte speeds... Octacore doesnt have... Only the Korean version as Lte

Why buy a octacore? I dont know you all tell me...

And for all of you that have speed problems just try to change the modem and flash it using Odin... Maibe it Will solve most speed problems...

Im from Portugal here we have good speeds on H+ and 4G.

H+ until 14 Mega down and 3 down... Some places are lower.

4G... 75mega until 100 if close to a antena 4G with 20 plus upload..
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] N1NJATH3ORY:
Got any links ? Octa is way better, its much more power efficient plus its a power house.. True not all 8 cores work at once, but you have to remember its early days give it a few months samsung will tweak the Octa monster up and it will leave the snapdragon lagging..
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Beefheart:
For me as a fan of stock Android, the fact there has already been AOKP and CM releases for the I9505 (which speaks volumes about how easy the architecture is to develop for in comparison to the closed source Exynos) more than makes up for any supposed shortfall between it and the I9500. Its also worth noting that performance shortfall is exaggerated by many, including the post above. As I have said earlier in the thread, it won't equate to a discernable difference in real life terms given the power of both chipsets.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] mathieulh:
Engadget is wrong, the main problem with the I9500 is that it does not have a LTE compatible radio. Because Samsung Electronics claim that the Exynos SOC can work with a radio compatible with all 20 LTE bands, that doesn't mean the I9500 ships with one.

In fact, even the Korean model, which does support LTE only comes with a baseband capable of handling Korean LTE bands. So unless your country's operators use the same bands, you are out of luck. Even then, there will be bands they use that your phone won't. That makes it somewhat a risky investment.

---------- Post added at 10:32 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:24 AM ----------

Wrong, the fact that the only 4 cores run at one has nothing to do with an issue. It is by design. They however can only switched by cluster of 4 because of a failed implementation design. Normally the Big.Little architecture is more flexible.

---------- Post added at 10:44 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:32 AM ----------

Define "way better" because it's not. As far as the cpu goes. Krait 300 is only about 15% lower in performance on average which does not translate in real life use, it's also a lot more power efficient, especially while running power intensive tasks (the A15 cores on the Exynos are just way too power hungry and have to be throttled. This cpu would have been suited for a tablet rather than a phone) the GPU is slightly better on the snapdragon as well, in fact it becomes a lot better if you run anything using Opengl ES 3.0. The memory management is done better on the Exynos SOC but I am not sure if that translates significantly in a real life use anymore.

Last but nonetheleast the qualcomm baseband is just a lot better in terms of both support (number of bands, features...) and performances than its Samsung counterpart.

If you'd ask me, I would say both devices are on par performance wise. The choice would rather be about what is better for you. (Do you need LTE? Do you want the Wolfson DAC?....) and the expected long term support Samsung would provide.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Nicko80:
Do you remember those rumours about the octa that it heated up and couldnt work well...

Well the answer is that octa cant work with 8 cores at same time... Thats why the drives were design to work with 4 cores... With 8 cores, it Will heat up...

You can say whatever you want, Samsung had that problem and couldnt solve it...

Its not a design problem... Its logical... A 8 cores phone heats up... Its not computor.. Its a phone... They will not install a van on the back of it...

And all of you dont believe what i whrote back there just search on sammobile and other sites...
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] demlasjr:
Samsung never advertised that Octa will makes the phone working on all the 8 cores together, but either that will work only on pair, or all A7, or all A15 (never mixed)

Octa doesn't win with 5%. If you check that video (I know you seen that into a video), the S600 version have the Bluetooth enabled while Octa not. Check carefully. Also, S600 s turned on few minutes before the Octa.

Another thing you forgot if that Octa gpu sucks ;)

Finally... I feel you bro. I was so excited to buy my S4 Octa, until I found out that our doesn't deserve to import it (losing 1 year of warranty, having only US warranty), buy it with that old gpu without OpenGL ES 3.0), without 4G, without HD Sound and so.

I'm currently waiting for the 32gb version of the S4 Snapdragon. You can see it in my signature.

Cheers
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Nicko80:
It never advertise directly... But big. Litle concept shown online by them was anounced to work with 1 until 8 cores at the same time...

But the S4 doesnt work like big. Litle anouncment...
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] demlasjr:
Not from 1 to 8 cores together, but only 4 at the same time
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] 3473:
I got my Octa core today, did a speed test on three - 5mbps down. I'm guessing it does work on ultrafast
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] StuartTheFish:
5mb isn't fast, I could get that on my HTC sensation on hsdpa.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Beefheart:
5mb can be fast, if its the maximum your signal allows. The majority if the time the bottleneck isn't the device speed, rather the connection.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] StuartTheFish:
5mb download speed is 5mb download speed. 3473 is saying he thinks it must be able to support the higher speeds in order to get 5mb in the first place. It doesn't mean anything since 5mb was possible on hsdpa anyway. If he starts seeing download speeds considerably higher than that then fair enough, provided his network even supports faster in the first place.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] 3473:
On my i9505, I also get 5mbps. It's the most I ever get in my area, even at 3am

On the back of the box it says 42.2mbps

On my S3 (standard version), I could never get 5mb
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] StuartTheFish:
Maybe the s3's antenna simply wasn't as good as the s4 version? Like I say, my old HTC sensation could get about 5mb, in good reception areas of course. Does your network support 4g? Are you in an area that can even get 4g? If the answer is no to those, then you're never going to see much more than that no matter what phone you have.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] 3473:
I'm referring to ultrafast not 4g. I'm definitely in an ultrafast (dc-hspda) area

With ordinary 3g phones I've never been able to get 5mbps from my cell tower, it would always hover around the 0.9mbps mark, and 2mbps in early morning. I'll see if I can find an old phone to test this further
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] StuartTheFish:
Well I was under the impression that people were only wondering if the octa core could do 4g or not...
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] 3473:
Noo I was referring to ultrafast, which was also mentioned earlier

The i9500 definitely can't do 4g. It doesn't have the necessary modem (unless you get the korean version)

But if it can do ultrafast, that's good enough for me
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] StuartTheFish:
Ah, gotcha. I thought you were on about 4g, and that you seeing 5mb made you think it could do it!
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Meltus:
Not entirely sure what you're basing any of this on, the PowerVR SGX outperforms the Adreno 320 in almost every test I've seen. It's also the gpu that most Apple devices use so the vast majority of mobile games are probably going to have been designed with this gpu in mind. Also, the i9500 has the Wolfson wm5102 DAC which is apparently better than the Qualcomm variant.

Saying this though, whilst the i9500 is supposed to be slightly better, the emphasis here is on slightly. You probably wont notice any real-world differences at all so unless the reason for you switching is purely because of LTE there is absolutely no other reason to do so (apart from maybe better dev support).
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] demlasjr:
Really? Every test? Can you name 2, other than those cpu tests which includes gpu benchmarks too and are not made for Apple devices?

Test 3Dmark and GLBenchmark 2.7.

Also, Wolfson is same quality as Qualcomm Yamaha chip. Yamaha chip on Qualcomm have HD Sound, feature Wolfson have not without root. Also Yamaha had sold at least some hundred thousands pianos when Wolfson was in diapers (never heard about them since S3).

For me 9505 is a better smartphone. I can get any of the two, I'm Exynos fan, but this time I'm going for S600
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Meltus:
You missed the point of my post quite spectacularly.

You'll notice the words "Almost, "Apparently" and "Supposed" in my post. I'm not claiming any of it to be fact, just an informed opinion gained from various different sources.

The Exynos outperforms in ALMOST every test. I never said it was "definitely better". I was asking what calling it "crap" was based on (the post I quoted) as it most certainly isn't "crap" by any stretch of the imagination especially when the Exynos comes out on top in most benchmarks, perhaps they were CPU and GPU tests, my point is still valid: The GPU isn't "crap".

Whilst the two do have comparable audio chips, and in the real world you probably won't notice any difference between the two, the Wolfson, from what I've read, comes out on top. I'm not an expert in the technical differences between DAC's, so I don't know the validity of this claim but I've seen it mentioned a few times.

At the end of my post you will see that I say there is essentially zero differences between the two. If someone (like the guy I quoted) already had an i9500 then unless you really want LTE or the better dev support then there isn't much point switching.

That was the point.

Oh, Pianos are not the same as a tiny mobile phone speaker and the age of a company does not dictate it's quality.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] StuartTheFish:
Electric keyboards, synthesizers, DAC's, etc are very similar. And Yamaha are very good indeed, not just at electronics either. The R1, 3s-gte, and 2jz-gte are a few examples that spring to mind. A little off topic I know, but these things are all good examples of how good they actually are and why they're still around. If they were bad they wouldn't have survived this long.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Meltus:
Thanks, you sound like you know more about this than I do! I was saying that just because a company was making pianos before the other existed doesn't necessarily mean their modern day DAC chips are going to be any better. But again, I'm clueless on this topic :)
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] whatthehckeric:
Doesn't the i9500 have a better camera as well? Over in the camera forum I can see a pretty noticeable difference between the two. Part of why I'm torn between the i9500 and i9505.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] StuartTheFish:
Plenty of people say it's the same camera, and I'm more than happy with the pictures my i9505 can take. Not sure if uploading via tapatalk will downscale the image quality or not though:
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] 3473:
I have both the models. GPU wise, the PowerVR wins most benchmarks that I ran, but Adreno wins a few too

Smoothness wise, octa was smoother on touchwiz. The s600 would lag on animations and be jumpy. But put cm 10.1 on the s600, and it's like installing an ssd in your pc, it's so fast

Audio wise, I put FLAC's on both, tested with quite good headphones but can't tell the difference
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] StuartTheFish:
Touchwiz was allegedly sluggish on earlier rom builds, but on the newer ones it's fine. I'm on XXUAMDN and can't see any slowdown whatsoever. No doubt it'd be faster still without touchwiz though.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Meltus:
As far as I can tell they're both using the same Sensor so I think picture quality will be the same or very similar.
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] N1NJATH3ORY:
Lol that's not ultra fast 3 ultras fast is around 20+ meg not 5mbs that's a joke dude...
[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Beefheart:
I believe the Adreno has more advanced features (support for Open GL 3.0 for example unlike the PowerVR) but it is clocked slower.