Samsung Galaxy S4, Red Aurora 16GB (AT&T)

I'd like to start out by saying that I've owned both Apple as well as Android devices, so there will be no biased answers in this review.I will break this into parts so you can skim through and find what you need easily! I will keep everything pretty basic to keep from confusing prospective buyers.SCREEN:The screen size on this device is perfect. Not too large, not too small. If you use your phone for things such as: Twitter, Instagram, web browsing, and some texting, this is the PERFECT size for you. The 5.0" AMOLED display is absolutely beautiful. The colors are bright and accurate although sometimes – as expected from Samsung – the colors can seem over saturated. At 441 ppi, individual pixels are not visible and text is very clear and crisp. While this is not the best screen ever seen on a mobile phone, it is nothing less than stunning.PERFORMANCE:In the time I spent with the phone, it was almost always snappy and responsive. I could have several applications open at once without the speed reducing too much. However, in typical Samsung fashion, there is the slight "TouchWiz" when navigating the UI. That said, most users will not notice the lag nor care too much about it. It is very minor and not a big deal.The power saving mode on this phone will throttle the processor & reduce screen brightness in order to save battery. When the feature is enabled you probably won't notice a difference in performance unless you are a very heavy user with several applications open and running. On that same note, you most likely see much more than a few minutes longer battery with the feature enabled. (At least I didn't)CALL QUALITY:The call quality on this phone was ALWAYS clear on both ends! I never had any reports of muffled speech or difficulty hearing me, nor did I have any difficulties hearing anyone. If the in call volume is all the way up & you still need more volume, this phone comes with a neat feature that increases call volume. Simply switch on 'extra sound' and the person you are speaking with will seem louder. Another interesting feature for improving in call quality is the 'reduced background noise' switch. Enabling this will ensure that people on the other end of the phone will not hear background noise from your end... Only what you are saying. This is nice if you spend a lot of time on the phone in high volume areas such as outside or a crowded airport or train station.BATTERY LIFE:The battery life seemed to be on par with other devices in it's class. I managed to eek out full days if I was careful. That is with moderate usage throughout the day. On the way home at the end of the day, my phone would be at about 35%. By the late evening (7 or 8pm) the phone was borderline dead. On average about 3 hours of screen on time can be expected. (With brightness at about 25% and power saving mode enabled). If the battery isn't quite what you hoped, have no fear! It does charge relatively quickly! You cant get to a full charge in about 2 hours or a little less. While the battery is not awful, I always found myself babying the battery in order to save it throughout the day.CAMERA:The camera on this device – 13 MP – is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! That's all I can say. The pictures are so clear, crisp, and detailed! I will attach some photos I took with the phone to show what I mean. The phone handles low light situations quite well, as well as video recording. If you are looking for a phone with a very nice camera for quick snapshots the camera on the GS4 will be more than good enough!BUILD QUALITY/DESIGN:The build quality is where this phone really suffers. The glossy plastic back and shiny plastic around the edges is simply not attractive. Other phones such as the iPhone 6 or HTC m8 show off beautiful metal unibodies which have a much more premium feel. Now I won't say that the GS4 is not a premium flagship phone, but it does not feel like one. That said, the plastic backing seems to be less susceptible to scratches, dents, and nicks.In my opinion, the front of the phone is beautiful and was designed quite well... I believe the back is where the GS4 lags behind the competition.That's all I have to say for now about the phone! It is a great choice for anyone looking to save money on an older phone without sacrificing too much in terms of performance. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask! Rememeber, below are pictures taken with the phone. Enjoy!(:

After about 8 months of use, I started getting the "SIM Card Removed" error more often. Then it also resulted in "SIM Card not inserted" error after rebooting. I tried every "fix" there was on the samsung and android forums. Even chatted with Samsung online tech support who told me I needed to operate it in SAFE mode and see if it was one of the apps that was causing the error. But they didn't acknowledge they had seen this error before. I finally called the AT&T support center (1 hour away) and made an appointment. When I got to the support center, he asked if I had backed up my information like he has asked. Then he proceeded to simply replace the phone with another one from the back after telling me that AT&T is aware of this issue and there was not "fix" for this since it was a hardware issue. Since my phone was still under the one year warranty, it was easier to just replace it. He added that Samsung will not admit that they are aware of this and will not issue a recall. Just be aware to those out there that get this error early on. Some phones (I also ordered a White S4 about two weeks later and it has not given that problem) will not ever get that error. Otherwise the S4 has been one of the best phones I've had. 3 Stars only because Samsung won't acknowledge the problem.

Been months and still works amazing

It worked great at first then about once a week it refuses to make or receive calls. It'll call someone but neither of us hear each other. It's not because I'm in a bad service area. It's happening everywhere. Somethings wrong with this phone and I'm not happy. I bought it as a gift for my mother who doesn't understand how to check settings and such, so when this happens I have to make a trip out of my way to go and try to help her. I've done everything I can and this time it's not working at all. What the heck is going on!! I also think this phone has been used before. Theres still a screen cover on it from the last person. Theres no way it is new. I even found apps that were not pre-installed on there and had to delete them before giving it to her. Are you guys running some sort of scam, pretending these are new phones? It keeps shutting off and restarting too. I can't even keep it on. It restarts by itself. What is wrong!!? It's practically unusable!

Let's be honest. It's a used, older version phone. The one I received was not quite in as good condition as they said, and examining it, it wasn't nearly as clean as I expected. That said, after I cleaned and sanitized it (other people's "gunk" was still evident) it worked fine for texting, talking, apps. Battery runs really hot when you surf the Web or play on an app. But they don't make these things to last forever I guessOh if you like to take pics, this has a good camera as long as you have a steady hand

I really like this phone. The display is very good, battery life is good. Audio quality is very good. I use it as a phone, for saving contacts, checking email, text messaging, missed calls and voicemails at home (the xfinity app is very good) and selected apps (bird identification, calculators, online chess, ...) I guess my only complaint is that it comes with many apps, and is continually trying to update them, that I'm not interested in at all (chats, music, hangouts, magazines, ....) that I wish I could remove.

Let me start this review by saying that make no mistake - this is an excellent phone and you will not be disappointed with it unless you were expecting more than just a light refresh of what made the S3 such a great handset. The S4 has somewhat more gimmicky features, but also packs a better assortment of hardware parts as well. I bought this phone for my fiance so I cannot say how it performs daily, but when compared to my S3, it is a small bit faster and sleeker. All in all, this was a great purchase and I would recommend a phone in the galaxy family if you are looking for a great all-rounder.