Cell Phone Review: Samsung Galaxy S4 + Cricket Wireless

It’s been a month since I started using Cricket Wireless’ cell phone service and the Samsung Galaxy S4 phone they gave me to try out. Most days, I’m more than happy with the service and the phone. But I have dropped calls and occasionally the extra steps built into navigating the phone make me ache for the simplicity of my ancient iPhone 4.

Here’s why you should switch to Cricket for $50 a month.

What I like about the Samsung Galaxy S4.

• The huge screen is really amazing. The resolution is incredibly high and the colors are intense. Pictures look amazing on screens, though I haven’t printed any out.
• The phone is super light and svelte, so even though it’s considerably bigger than my old iPhone 4, it doesn’t feel bulky or cumbersome.
• I’ve been able to find every app that I’ve wanted in the “play store” and I love not having to enter a password to download an app!
• There is FREE GPS on the phone, something that will make me safer driver. Not sure if newer iPhones and other smartphones include this for free.
• I really like having the weather on my homescreen, and it’s super easy to add other cities, scroll between the cities, and get more info about the weather on a particular day.
• You can search Google with your voice, like Siri on iPhones. It’s especially useful when I’m looking up a phone number of a business.
• My phone came with a super cool charge that has a USB port on one end, and THREE DIFFERENT chargers on the other. So my husband and I can both charge our phones with one device.

What I like about Cricket Wireless.

• The service has been almost as good as Verizon, except for about 1-2 missed called per week. On Verizon, I dropped a call maybe once a month. For me, the huge savings on my monthly cell phone bill are worth it.
• We’re saving $50 or more per month on Cricket compared to Verizon, and this includes a smartphone for my husband, who has been using a simple phone. If we had two smart phones on Verizon, our bill would top $200 per month. That’s insane!
• There are free unlimited music downloads, though we weren’t able to set a favorite song to be our wake up alarm.
• Cricket sends me a concise text with my monthly billing info. So modern.
• When we called customer service with a question, the rep was helpful and polite. Also, we didn’t have to wait long to get a real person on the line.

Some things about the Galaxy S4 bug me.

• If you want to archive an email, you can’t be reading the email. You have to go out to the list of emails, then archive. The time it takes adds up when you archive emails dozens of times a day.
• I had to create a “contact” for voicemail, unlike my iPhone 4, where I could tap a button and see a list of my recent voicemails. On the Galaxy S4, I created a voicemail contact, made it a favorite, then when I call it I have to enter a password and again confirm that I want to listen to my voicemail. If I’m calling voicemail, of course I want to list to my voicemail! And my phone already has a password, so asking me for another password is annoying.
• Navigating the phone takes a few more steps than my old iPhone 4, which is cumbersome. It just feels like the designers wanted there to be so many options for how do to things that there is an abundance of choices.
• The ear bud device for talking on the phone in the car isn’t great. The earbud keeps falling out of my ear and I’m not able to turn down the volume enough. Maybe I just got a lemon.
• The piece of metal around the screen is incredibly soft. I’ve dropped my phone three times and twice it left huge dents in the metal. It boggles me why the other piece of metal around the screen would be so soft!

The service has not been perfect.

• I drop 1-2 calls per week on Cricket Wireless. But the money we’re saving far outweighs a bad call now and then.
• For some reason, we won’t be able to get an iPhone on Cricket because of where we live. I believe it’s because we’re outside of one of Cricket’s hubs. Note, most of you WILL BE IN a Cricket hub, so this won’t be an issue. My husband really wants an iPhone, so I’m not sure I’ll be able to convince him to stay on Cricket.
  You can check your zip code to see which phones are available in your area HERE.

Are you happy with your cell phone and service?

I received a Samsung Galaxy S4 phone and free cell phone service from Cricket Wireless in exchange for my honest review of them.