Samsung Galaxy S4 - finally at the end of its service life.

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spotify95
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Samsung Galaxy S4 - finally at the end of its service life.

Postby spotify95 » August 20th, 2021, 11:24 pm

Poor Samsung Galaxy S4... I think it's finally reached the end of its service life.

The battery still works and it is still in good condition.
Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/4G/GPS still works, as does the headphone jack, etc.
However...
Android 4.2 is really out of date now (I could upgrade to Android 5.0, but that won't really do much, and it might decrease performance)
The web browsers are no longer being updated
Apps on the Google Play Store are showing as no longer supporting the device (I presume it is taking the OS as being too old)
Apps that need updates are refusing to update due to device support (see above?)
Apps that are installed cannot update due to the OS - and if I was to factory reset, I won't be able to get these apps again as they won't be downloadable
YouTube is saying that my version is out of date and I can't get the latest version due to the OS being too old (despite my Google Account having YouTube Premium - I got this for free for 3 months due to having Discord Nitro - and Discord Nitro was available for free for 3 months from Epic Games)
Gmail is using an out of date version - but it works
Google Hangouts is using an out of date version - but it works (for now... no warnings about Hangouts being replaced with Google Chat, unlike more modern devices I own)
TuneIn Radio works - albeit incredibly slowly
Spotify is incredibly slow - but it works when it wants to
Signal (messaging app) doesn't install at all and WhatsApp will be significantly out of date
Internet is slow - but this could be the wi-fi strength/wi-fi issues (in any case, the wi-fi and 4G connectivity were both faster when being used as a main phone, many years ago).
eBay won't work - the last version for this OS is no longer supported and the latest version requires Android 5.0+ - not 4.2 (using the eBay website on a phone is a pain in the backside, hence using the app!)
The phone doesn't support VoLTE (Voice over LTE, or 4G Calling) so when 3G goes, it can't make/receive calls (I do not find 2G as fit for purpose in 2021).

Plus anything else I find...

At the end of the day, this phone will have to be retired from use, it can't even be used as a secondary phone anymore. It will probably end up in a drawer, for use as either a media player (it still works with Spotify/TuneIn/local MP3s - and it still has a headphone jack) or a secondary camera (the cameras still work and are respectable). I can't even use it as a secondary phone for my second phone network, since nothing works well anymore in terms of applications!

I think I will now be looking for a new secondary device... if my old Galaxy S7 Edge was still working (it died last year with a NAND issue), I'd be using that as my secondary!


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