[Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] TarekElsakka:
Hello there

I have been trying to decide between the Galaxy S4 and HTC One for quite some time now that I am actually getting tired. I am the type of people who like to do a lot of research before buying a product just so I can avoid being disappointed by a certain issue after dishing out so much money. I used to be an Apple-fanboy but then I saw the light and switched to Android when I got the HTC One X, which was a MAJOR disappointment for me in terms of battery life, laggyness and OTA updates which we (in the Middle East) always received like three - four months after everybody else. I then switched to the Galaxy S3 and I am very pleased with it but there are a few things I don't like about it:

1) Camera in low light conditions isn't that good

2) It gets hot rather quickly, but mostly when playing games or when you've just installed a new ROM and are setting it up, installing applications and such

3) It is just so weak even with the flip cover 'protecting' the screen.. my device fell on its side from a very short table before and onto a carpet and the LCD started producing weird colors and eventually the screen died (the same day). The outside screen didn't crack, but of course I had to replace the whole LCD with the digitiser and such which cost me an arm and a leg.

4) The device is quite laggy when opening/closing applications and just a little bit laggy (sometimes) when swiping between screens, even though I make sure I always clear the recent applications page and "Clear Memory" every now and then.

I like the whole Air Gestures thing about the S4 but I consider myself a practical guy and therefore I am most likely going to turn them off as soon as I get the phone. I am more into customization and such and so air gestures aren't a deal breaker for me. I read A LOT about the S4 and I concluded that there must be an overheating issue with it even with very minimal usage (I usually browse, use whatsapp, try new applications from the PlayStore and listen to music from time to time but not a lot) and those used to heat up my device sometimes, up to 55 Celsius at one point, so I was wondering if the S4 suffers from the same problems? I also read that that issue was resolved in the latter shipments of the S4 and it was only in the very early ones, but I am not too sure. Battery life has been a pain in the butt for me with the S3 even though my usage is pretty minimal, as I stated before. I have tried dozens of ROMs (and I make sure I take all the precautions to getting a good battery life, like setting brightness to Auto, turning off unnecessary junk constant notifications, reducing the volume, turning off haptic feedback and keyboard tones) and I have never gotten a good battery life out of the phone. When I used BetterBatteryStats for a while and started comparing stats people posted online, I realized that the partially poor battery life is normal with some S3s. So I was wondering if the S4 suffers from the same problem?

I am so sorry for the long ass post, but anyway I am going to sum it up in a few sentences to make it easier if you don't want to read through the whole crap:

1) Are there battery issues?

2) Are there overheating issues?

3) Are Air Gestures actually useful? I know that's opinionated but practically speaking, did you turn them off or do you actually use them everyday?

4) Does the IR Remote integrated in the WatchOn application actually work well? I have a Sony Bravia and a two other LED TVs which aren't popular brands, would it work with them or are there specific models?

5) How weak is the device? And is the material still subpar like the S3's?

6) Does it actually feel different from the S3 or would I just be updating to a bigger screen with supposedly better display and camera?

Thanks guys!