Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE coming to South Africa

Tough decision for people taking 2 year contracts
Will LTE be mainstream within those 2 years or is it better to go for the non LTE model
 
Nimz said:
Tough decision for people taking 2 year contracts
Will LTE be mainstream within those 2 years or is it better to go for the non LTE model
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Can you not force for the phone to use 3g and lower instead of lte?
 
Prof.Merlin said:
Can you not force for the phone to use 3g and lower instead of lte?
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I'm sure you can, therefore it makes sense to go for the LTE version.
The only question now is, will Cell C have the LTE version available?
 
jes said:
Vodacom has revealed that it will offer the LTE version of the Samsung Galaxy S4
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For me LTE is not the important part, works fine on my iPhone 5 but does not provide a stellar difference in performance with VC's limited re-farmed 1800 spectrum. Maybe in time if they get more the difference will become notable.

Rather being able to choose the (Snapdragon) variant which will likely have far better independent developer support is important to me. When Android 5.x KLP comes out (later this year), I'd like to experience it within some reasonable period of time, not Samsung's usual continental drift like update cycles.
 
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I don't think the LTE version has the Samsung Exynos 5 Octa but rather the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600.

So personally i'd rather have an 8-core non-LTE version than a quad core LTE enabled version. I say this because, in sa at least, LTE is not only a rip-off but borderline non-existant. Tbh, most people will probably turn LTE off just to save battery.
 
At least we're one of the lucky markets that gets the choice, well done Samsung - they really do regard us as one of their more important markets (not to mention that release date which is on track with all their top markets).

I'm definitely going for the power savings on the Octacore, I usually keep my phone on EDGE when I'm out and about so LTE doesn't interest me in the slightest (unless they offered uncapped LTE at ADSL prices - excuse me for dreaming, back to reality now). I'm sure Android 5.0 will offer some interesting features, but I don't mind waiting for an official rom (though I'll probably change my ROM to whichever country gets updates first - SA updates are too slow - Samsung's only failing - though my friends with S3's are getting updates quicker now so maybe things are improving).
 
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oronte said:
I'm definitely going for the power savings on the Octacore, I usually keep my phone on EDGE when I'm out and about so LTE doesn't interest me in the slightest .
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Same here
 
oronte said:
I'm sure Android 5.0 will offer some interesting features, but I don't mind waiting for an official rom (though I'll probably change my ROM to whichever country gets updates first
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I suspect one may have to wait a long, long time for this.

I assume the jump to 5.x will be a more major (under the hood) update and since Samsung do so much customization to Google's original code, it will probably take them a fair amount of time adapt their TouchWiz & S-Apps.

To me specs are for marketing, software is the real differentiator.
 
Roman4604 said:
I suspect one may have to wait a long, long time for this.

I assume the jump to 5.x will be a more major (under the hood) update and since Samsung do so much customization to Google's original code, it will probably take them a fair amount of time adapt their TouchWiz & S-Apps.

To me specs are for marketing, software is the real differentiator.
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I (and I suspect most people) aren't particularly concerned: I've learned to just buy a phone for the features it has when I buy it. If it gets more features later, cool. I also seem to get lost in the hype of each new version of Android, the truth is that it's unlikely anything ground breaking is coming. I've eagerly anticipated each new update, but the reality is I hardly, if ever, use the new features, so waiting doesn't concern me. And I suppose the reason for this is Android does everything I need it to do already. New software features at this point are just marketing - in the truest sense, you never knew it existed or that you needed it, until they convince you that your life is incomplete without it.

In any event, if software is the real differentiator for you, then why are you concerned with the S4? Why not get a Nexus device?
 
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oronte said:
as you said specs are for marketing, so it doesn't matter which one you get.
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Obviously within the same generation/era of phones i.e. comparable to the S4 variants like One, Z, Nexus 5 etc.
 
Roman4604 said:
Obviously within the same generation/era of phones i.e. comparable to the S4 variants like One, Z, Nexus 5 etc.
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So you're saying specs do matter then?
Because Android 4.2.2 runs just fine on my Galaxy S with Cyanogen.
Keep in mind no one is holding a gun to your head, if you don't like the way Samsung does things then there are still lots of good choices to make. Sony, in particular, now have an excellent track record of working with the modding community, and the Xperia Z is no slouch.

Edit: Sorry, I don't mean to target you, but in every S4 thread, a dozen people complain about not being able to mod Exynos devices or how much they hate Touchwiz - if you feel you need to mod your phone then why not just buy an HTC or Sony? By your own admission the difference in hardware doesn't matter much (and I generally agree with you - I just prefer the physical dimensions and the screen quality of the S4 to One and the Z).
 
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oronte said:
So you're saying specs do matter then?
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Surely you can grasp what I said, why are you asking me to repeat myself?

oronte said:
Because Android 4.2.2 runs just fine on my Galaxy S with Cyanogen.
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Yes but that was a long time ago when Samsung had a better attitude toward indie developers. Things have gotten progressively worse since those days, specifically at a driver code level.

Even on my slightly newer S2 I can see differences at a driver level e.g. compass performance between CM10.1 & Samsung ROMs. Newer models like the S3 Intl have more important issues like camera quality due lack of fresh drivers, and its gotten to the point where most of the core CM team are giving up on Exynos.

So if you ask me an Exynos S4 owner will pretty much live within the same limited restrictions as an iPhone owner, single source of OS with update cycles dictated by the vendor. For me this negates one of the best aspects of owning an Android device.
 
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