Well, it finally happened. I broke my phone whilst playing a furious game of air hockey. Leaning against the table for those slam shots resulted in my loyal Samsung Galaxy S4 getting its LCD broken and cracks in the glass.
I am currently in Seattle, my insurance ran out recently and I had to go and find a new phone. I tried to find just a straight up Galaxy S4 for a decent price, to no avail.
I considered repairing it first, but to buy the LCD yourself including shipping is about $150 and then you need to buy the glass separately. Phone stores want to charge $240 to repair the phone.
I was able to find a Galaxy S4 Active for $180 including shipping. It’s used, but in better condition than my S4 was and undeniably cheaper than repairing it myself or paying someone else to do it.
So, is there a difference?
Not really. The camera in the Active variant is 8mp on the front, while the none-active variant is 13mp. Do those extra megapixels matter? Not really. Comparing the image quality of the active and non-active variants does not display any noticeable difference.
The benefit of the S4 Active is the fact it is waterproof (to an extent) and dust proof, very handy if you’re fishing or near water. I am not an overly active person, but it is nice to know I can go near water (like leave my phone on the edge of the pool) without worrying about getting it wet.
