Goodbye iOS, hello Jelly Bean. I upgraded to the new Samsung Galaxy S4

As per the norm, my technology purchases are very important to me. After two years, and only one iteration of the iPhone, I was ready to move on. Even though I had been initially interested in the upcoming Sony Xperia Z, I lost interest after a few reviewers talked about the TFT screen (no AMOLED or IPS or OLED?) that looked washed out due to the narrow viewing angles. Listen, I don’t know about you, but as a Dad, I’ve constantly got the kids watching stuff next to me. And with a relatively small phone screen (compared to a TV), how the picture looks from a wide viewing angle matters. Also, I had a chance to visit an AT&T store in Newark, and they had the Sony Xperia ZL. Let me tell you, it was not comfortable to hold in your hand, and that’s pretty similar to the Z.

I also tried out the HTC One while was at the AT&T store in Newark that day. Does it have a nice build? Yes. Nice screen? Yes. Nice stereo speakers? No doubt. Can I tell you though, I was not impressed with the camera and the picture quality. Look, I’m not wowed by the great megapixel race — whose camera has more megapixels. I think it’s important to have maybe around 8 megapixels, in case I want to take a photo and use it in a picture frame or a custom calendar, yada yada. I took a few photos with the HTC One, and the picture quality was dim and not crisp at all. I later read that the camera would be sufficient if one primarily wanted to share photos through social media where photo resolution wasn’t as important. Well, it’s important to me.

I settled on the Samsung Galaxy S4. I considered the darker misty version, but that was hard to find locally. I wasn’t averse to the white edition, and besides, a little color wouldn’t hurt once in a while.

It’s been a few days, and I’m still getting used to Android, and figuring out all the settings, and installed applications that I previously had on my iPhone. I’m a little miffed that there’s no official NJ Transit application, because I found that pretty invaluable when determining the next train departure. I also miss having music to listen to, so I’m slowly researching how to transfer my music to the phone. I do like the large screen, and the thinness of the phone itself. There’s no case yet, because I like to live dangerously. I’ve raised my eyebrow a few times incredulously this week, because the battery depletes much faster than with the iPhone 4. I’ve turned off what I can, but I’m wondering if it’s the large screen and the 4G that is depleting the battery. I’ll keep playing around with it.

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