[G2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Ainvar:
I chose the G2 over the S4

I came from the S4 Ran CleanROM and Then Eclipse for TW and then just went to CM 10.2. I really did love the phone. Had good to great battery and with the custom TW ROMs and CM 10.2 on it the S4 was awesome except for the home button. I really do prefer the display keys over HW. Also out of all the gimmicks Samsung put on the phone with the kernel and everything, I really did like the IR functionality along with its range. I do like some of the extra sensors the S4 has like the barometric and temperature sensors (used the barometric sensor a lot since I suffer from migraines and being able to see the pressure around me change and graph it was a plus).If I would have kept this phone stock though, there is nothing that would have made me want to keep it. The other real deal breaker for me was the lack of real storage without the need to use a SD card. I do like the use of SD cards but I also like to keep everything organized and hate having everything all over the place or having to use something like Folder Mount which worked for 80% of most of my needs.

Got the G2 and holy hell this things flies circles around the S4. Only thing I have done was root it to make the softkeys smaller and also black instead of grey. Debloated a little just by freezing the apps since a few I couldn't freeze through Application Manager. The battery life is awesome and probably the best device with battery life I have had of all the LTE based phones I have owned on VZW (Charge, Bionic, GNex, S4, & G2). The screen is phenomenal after coming from the Bionic, Gnex (worse screen ever), & S4 (I did think this screen was pretty good, but I am sure anything after the Gnex is pretty good.), and I also find the screen better than on my Nexus 4 which I have tweaked the colors on very well. Also the knock knock feature has been very very handy with me. I am use to the hardware buttons being on the back and yet the camera has been mistaken as a button many times in my learning curve on this phone but I am getting better with it. I love that the headphone jack is at the bottom with the USB so my cables are all in one area. The lack of SD and a removeable battery is not a big deal to me I have 20+ gigs available to me and having unlimited data I am covered with almost everything. I keep a good bit of music and such cached locally on the phone for those times I don't have data access through Amazon and Google Music. I have my other files and such I need cached locally also through drive and dropbox. So I am covered there. The GPS on the G2 seems to be very slow to lock on 50% of the time as the S4 was almost instant 100% of the time.

The only five issues I really have with the G2 are

1. the small buttons (but I know this was done to make room for wireless charging)

2. The radio seems a bit weaker and speeds a bit slower compared to the S4.

3. All the damn bloat not only from LG but from VZW also. If they insist on putting the bloat on the phone let it be uninstallable and places in the storage area of the phone. Keep the phone system partition(s) clean, small, and tidy to allow the user to have as much space as possible for the apps they want.

4. The IR on this phone is a real joke, but hey it will home your aiming skills when you do want to use it.

I know I hit a few things above for both phone but overall the biggest negative on almost anything from VZW and also the Phone Manufacturer is what they think we want on a phone to make the most $$$ for themselves and limiting our flexibility of utilizing the device to a 100% of our needs and wants.

1. Seriously all the freaking bloat and some of the UI overlays. Samsung Touchwiz is by all the powers in the universe the most horrid UI/UX I have ever seen in my life. It is like Win XP and HP Unix kidnapped a leper colony and dumped them in an inbred colony and lastly merged themselves with the two to make the TW UI/UX. The default colors and everything about it just makes me want to find the people responsible for the layout, color, and everything and beat them with a sack full door knobs. Now I have to say the G2 interface is much nicer than TW is many ways but it has its issues also from the overweight notification panel and the abused screen real estate, I mean why not make that screen look sexy as hell and make the UI/UX fluid and minimal similar to stock Android? Allow it to be adjusted to exactly how the user wants it. If they have bad eyesight and need huge icons, text, and buttons, then let them adjust it. If they have the eyes of an eagle and want everything so small you need to use a toothpick to make your selections then let them adjust to it. I know there are some limitations to the above but if they are making their own overlay then why not make it 1000000% functional and so badass that even the die hard stock android loving enthusiast will say damn that is a bad ass overlay. The G2 launcher I like some of it but it doesn't measure to Apex launcher (My personal choice) or Nova launcher which is also a good one. The knock knock feature on the G2 should be native to the phone itself and not tied to the launcher, now I am sure their are some logistical reasons for this but I am sure it could be overcome and if not let the android community have a go at it. I am sure I could find more on this but everyone gets the idea.

2. Can we please keep the freaking buttons standardized across the platform? If not then make them all 100% customizable by the user without the need of rooting the phone. I really love the AOSP layout and it just works for me. When I switch between AOSP, Blur, TW, and whatever G2 crap is called; I feel like my dyslexia and ADHD took a turn for the worse and is playing a horrible joke on me.

3. Overall as a company using Android OS for their phones if you cant make it look or work better than stock, please don't delude yourself or the company backing you or it. Keep your crap in R&D until it is ready for prime time. Don't make your customers your beta testers unless they chose to be. Also overall why not make your your hardware work with AOSP and then your UX/UI and gimmicks be something easily removeable for the customer. Your bottom line level of support for your device should be does it work in AOSP? If not then it is a driver issue and get it work. Then build your overlay, skin, or whatever you want on top of AOSP. This way the user has a choice and you did all the heavy lifting at the back end and it doesn't matter if they want to use your overlay or AOSP cause you made it work at the base level. Also I understand this is all easier said than done but it is very much possible and would make it more modular which would give it more flexibility and also evolution in the future.

So overall if I had to chose between these two devices and could not root or customize I would chose the G2 with a 90% satisfaction rate. If I had to chose over hardware and overall usability without being able to root I would also chose the G2 due to the awesome screen and battery life. I personally think the S4 has a better radio but not by much so far in my usage and testing. The GPS on the G2 could be better but it is not a show stopper.

Hopefully this post was not too much over kill and didn't vary off topic to much...