Samsung Galaxy S3 Opinions

[Hailwood]

I've been an iPhone user for the last ~4 years and have, overall, been pretty satisfied with them, especially my current 4.

Rather than just buy a 5, I'm interested in considering other options that might be out there, and the Samsung GS3 looks like a pretty cool phone. I've not had any experience with Android-based phones, but I'm pretty tech savvy, so I'm not worried about a steeper learning curve.

I'm going to find someplace to play with one this weekend to see if I like the form factor, but I am interested in opinions of folks that live with the phone daily on usability/reliability and especially opinions relative to the iDevices. I currently have AT&T and intend to continue with them, so the opinions of any other ATT users would be doubly valued.

Thanks!

Edited October 19, 2012 by Hailwood

[TheBrown57]

I'll have to let my roommate post here, he just traded his 4S for a S3 and he is on AT&T.

[Gunner75]

I love my gs3. Be warned its huge. If you got smaller hands you might have issues. A great alternative is also the Motorola photin q. Slighty smaller with a qwerty slide out keyboard. The gs3 is fast with is 1.5ghz cpu and a full gb of memory. If you end up going with either you wont go wrong. You will want to turn off a few of the stock options to save battery life. At stock settings ill go dead in about 6 hours

On a full charge i have my battery life extended to about 15 hours. But its also depending on what apps you keep active and your wifi usage turned on. If you need help configuring it hit me up. There are also some videos on youtube on how to optimize it for best battery vs performance

sent from my galaxy s 3 using tapatalk

[05candygrand]

Getting my GS3 on Nov. 1

That is all I have to contribute to this thread.

[CBBaron]

Pros

Great large screen

Very thin

Fast

Cons

Large

Battery life

Its always a tradeoff. The S3 has a fast processor and big bright screen. So its dimensions are large and battery life is not great. Ofcourse it depends on what you are doing.

Id definitely recommend the phone but you have to decide on your own trade-offs.

Craig

[Zorro]

A friend upgraded from the 4s to the 5. said it felt like the same damn phone. he was a huge iphone fan. since the 5 didnt give him a new car feel...he returned it for the s3. Said he loves the s3 and is glad he got it.

I have the s3. Battery life is so-so but i'm constantly on it. My friend rooted his and played with the settings and is getting about 2 days on a single charge.

There you have it.

As for the size...i love the size...i'd wouldnt mind a bigger phone.

[Tonik]

Rather than just buy a 5, I'm interested in considering other options that might be out there, and the Samsung GS3 looks like a pretty cool phone. I've not had any experience with Android-based phones, but I'm pretty tech savvy, so I'm not worried about a steeper learning curve.

I don't have the S3 but my kid does. He is not an Apple hater and in fact runs Apple on all his desktops/laptops. He has had pretty much every phone in the book Iphone 4's, every recent Android you can think of.

He loves his S3, says it is the best phone he has ever had.

But as others have said Android vs Iphone OS and form and fell is all personal preference.

[Hailwood]

Thanks for the input, everyone. My wife's iPhone4 died on her, so we got her a 5 and I actually like it quite a bit, I'm just curious what else might be out there.

Also, I hear a lot of iOS vs. Android debate, but not having had an android device I don't really feel like I'm entitled to an opinion, and I'm curious what 'the other side of the fence' might be like.

[conn-e-rot]

droid razr maxx hd is sounding promising but it just hit the shelves

[myhondas]

I have the S3. I prefer the S3 over the I5 for a few reasons. I only got the 16gb phone instead of the 32gb one since I saved about $50. I have a 32gb micro sd in it and can upgrade to the 64gb at anytime for less than $50. I figured that 96gb in the phone would be overkill. I have a ton of music and videos and pictures on my card and documents and spreadsheets and etc etc.....and still I have only got up to 8gb on the micro card. Ringtones and files and apps are easy to get and run much faster than on the i5. I find siri is more realistic and human like than S voice. As stated, it is easier to upgrade battery, memory on S3 where you get what you buy on I5. I5 has a stronger case and holds up better when dropped than the S3. I watched a video of both phones being dropped into a HD Blender.....the I5 turned to dust much faster than the S3. the S3 screen size is a little larger but not by that much. S3 doesn't have facetime, but skype works just as well. Price of both were about the same except that I could have a 96gb phone for about $270 where the max the I5 had was 64gb. I bought the 4300 mHa extended life battery, but have yet to really need it as I am getting a full day and 6 hrs on the standard one......they say the big battery is good for about 2.5 days without needing to plug in.

What really sucks is that the I5 changed the charge/input/output port and now ALL IPhone accessories no longer will accept the I5 without the adapter which they will give to you for $30 Both phones have 8mp cameras on the back, but the I5's is superior for both video and stills. S3 has a better front camera then the I5 , but at the range/distance that it is used, it really isn't that big of a deal. I love the motion feature of the S3 and also face/voice/pattern security unlock. Where's my Iphone/Ipad is better than where's my droid. Final decision was the S3 was a much better deal and had much better versatility than the I5

[jbot]

i have an s3. like it, but i've been using android since my first smart phone. gf has iphone 4s, that is nice as well. played with a 5 a couple friends had. neat phone, good screen, quick and snappy like all iphones are when they first come out.

i've had my s3 since july, and it's been great so far. usually 1.5-2 days of battery depending on use. if you're a heavy multimedia user, expect to last .75-1 day. i talk on my phone more than web browse, etc, but i do a fair bit of everything due to biz use. by far, the fastest, most versatile android phone i've had.

i have small, flattering hands, and the iphone 5 is a better fit for it than my s3. i kinda wanted a smaller phone, but nothing was out at the time with the features in the size i wanted so i got the s3. i will say that while the screen is fairly ginormous on the s3, it is very thin, light, and rounded off in the right places so you dont notice it as much as.. say, my old droid X (a smaller screen but heavier and thicker). if you have big hands, and dont have a whole lot of other apple stuff to meld it with, you should give the s3 a good look. if you like the apple philosophy (good and/or bad) then stick with the iphone.

[Pokey]

Apple keeps China in business, that is enough for me to stay away.

[Brownsfan1]

I like my Samsung it does what I need it to do.

[Radio Flyer]

I was going to get the Galaxy S3 but I'm holding out for the Galaxy Note 2.

Look at the Galaxy Note 2, if you can't handle the size of the screen it's not for you, if you can deal with a large screen/ like it, it's going to be the best phone out when it hits the market (Oct. 25th Release Date). Ability to multitask, has tablet features, S Pen, FAST internet browsing. Lots of little things that will come in useful.

The S3 is an Amazon for under 200 with an upgrade right now. The Note 2 will be 300 with an upgrade.

I like Samsung products and like to stick with them for my cellphone. I have the original Galaxy as my first smartphone and I've had it for 2 years now with zero problems.

There are lots of good devices coming out within the next few weeks/months from other manufacturers as well. Plus there are rumors of a Galaxy S4 already.

[Hailwood]

Thanks again, everyone.

Look at the Galaxy Note 2, if you can't handle the size of the screen it's not for you, if you can deal with a large screen/ like it, it's going to be the best phone out when it hits the market (Oct. 25th Release Date). Ability to multitask, has tablet features, S Pen, FAST internet browsing. Lots of little things that will come in useful.

The specs on the Note 2 look pretty killer, but it's just too large for what I'm looking for. I think the S3 would be about as large as I would like, but I need to play with one in person to confirm.

I'm going to run down to the local store and see if they have any working display models I can try out.

[blue03636]

I have had mine since mid august and love it. I'm on the net, text, fb and whatnot quite a bit and get about 2 days. It's a bit big at first but I really don't notice it now.

[BDBGoalie]

Pros:

Not Apple garbage

Great large screen

Very thin

Fast

Battery life

Cons

Large

I love the phone. It is fast and the battery life is great for me. The one thing I don't like is the heartbeat sensor that turns the screen off while you're on a call. Just annoying when you have to input things on the keypad.

I am coming from a shitty shitty LG Revolution.

[Tpoppa]

I still think my GS2 4G is badass.

[BikerBoy]

had the s3 for 3 days , took it back , have iphone5 now , love it.

but i am an apple fanboy.

[Hailwood]

Well, after playing with one in-store, I picked up a GS3 tonight and am currently familiarizing myself with the OS and getting all my info transferred.

So far I really like the larger form factor and it is indeed a snappy device. I'll report back as I continue to use it, but so far I'm pretty pleased.

[ZachG91]

No complaints from me so far. Just got back from the sprint store not too long ago.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

[max power]

I think Im about to pull the trigger on a pair of GS3'S. Everyone still happy with them?

The decision between GS3 & Iphone5 is one of the tougher choices I've had to make in a while. Lol.

I decided to go GS3 because I will save $100 on the pair and wont have to buy new car chargers. Iphones proprietary port is bullshit.

[jblosser]

had mine since they came out in July, absolutely no issues at all.

[Cheech]

Just switched from AT&T to Verizon and picked up a GS3. My hand was more-or-less forced after I put my Motorola Atrix through the wash.

The ins-and-outs of the GS3 are pretty well covered in here already, the only thing I have to add is be very aware of the lifecycle support of whatever phone/ecosystem you're about to buy into. I bought into the Atrix thinking that Webtop was going to be awesome, and Motorola is going to have my back on updates. Not the case. Any updates I got for the phone came from rooting, which brought with it its own set of problems. My point is, stay with something that has a extremely wide userbase like the GS3, and not with something that was a manufacturer afterthought to fill some sort of niche that's going to get forgotten about in 6 months.

[Hailwood]

I think Im about to pull the trigger on a pair of GS3'S. Everyone still happy with them?

The decision between GS3 & Iphone5 is one of the tougher choices I've had to make in a while. Lol.

I decided to go GS3 because I will save $100 on the pair and wont have to buy new car chargers. Iphones proprietary port is bullshit.

I'm really happy with my decision. I've had my GS3 for a couple weeks now and still really enjoy using it. Even without rooting (which I haven't done yet) the options for customization over iOS are nice, and I really like the larger screen.

Also, I was able to grab a 32GB micro-SD card from Amazon really cheap last week and got some good quality micro-USB cables for charging for less than $5 from monoprice, so I'm pretty set on accessories at this point.