Woah. I have an S4, and I wouldn't say the screen is a piece of shit at all. The colors are very slightly off sometimes, but the brightness certainly isn't low and I keep my screen at a very very low brightness level. I haven't noticed any artifacts.
Yeah, I spent about 2 weeks trying to decide between the iPhone 5, HTC One and S4.
Ultimately, the closed ecosystem of the iPhone with a lot of random up charges for things like a second charger $30+, lockin through iTunes, lack of compatibility with PC and a much smaller screen steered me a way from the iPhone.
When it came down to the HTC One vs S4, the choice was pretty clear. I grabbed a waterproof S4 which is about the same size as the HTC one and the S4 has a replaceable battery.
To be honest, each phone has major pluses and minuses, and there is no perfect phone anymore. There are days I wish I had the iPhone, but, overall the S4 is a dramatic improvement over the S2 which is a dramatic improvement over the BlackBerry Torch, which is a dramatic improvement over the Windows Treo which is a dramatic improvement over the pocket PC (Don't even get me started about the pocket PC).
I think we can all be glad phone technology has gotten this good. Its really amazing. Any top of the line phone bought today is dramatically better than any phone bought even 3 years ago.
[added] For the comment below, I have been swimming with mine twice, I also like to take it out while I'm drinking and drop it in my beer to watch people's reactions. Doing so does make the bottom buttons stick for a few days, but the phone works.
Sealing it is difficult. You need to take about 2 min to make sure the back is on properly and it takes a bit more force than you are use to.
But, yes, mine is waterproof. I wouldn't be surprised if there are some defective models. Its not like people are writing reddit posts about all the cool stuff they do with their S4 actives.
