Samsung Galaxy s3

mole'

anyone have one yet?

AsSiMiLaTeD

I never thought I'd say this, but I played with one yesterday and the screen is actually too big to me.

I prefer the smaller screen of the s2, but 4" is actually my ideal size. That's what I had on the Hatrix and it was a perfect size for me.

newrival

The phone is crazy nice. We've got a couple in the office, and some of us are making the move out of the sealed fortress of Apple as our contracts allow. In my opinion, Apple needs to do something huge soon, Windows and Android phones are just killing them in functionality and actual usefulness.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Funny, after all my android phones I find my iPhone to be the most usable of the bunch. I'm not saying the iPhone is the best phone on the market because it's not and is a 2 year old design which might as well be 50 in phone years. But i have issues with functionality, other than the occasional flash content which is becoming more rare and something they'll never change, I cannot think of a single to do that my phone cannot handle.

I so do not want to start another apple android debate here, just want to share my two cents. I have a well documented 'grass is greener on the android side' departure from the iPhone, only to ultimately return with my tail between my legs after 5 android devices in the span of a little over a year. Android has come a long way since then though, and the galaxy s3 is a superb phone.

I also really like the htc one lineup as well.

mole'

i have a HTC thunderbolt but will be making the switch here soon. the Samsung Galaxy s3 32gb will be shipping out on next tuesday. for Verizion that is

newrival

Android hasn't been a great product until the introduction of v4.0 (ice cream sandwich) and 4.1, jelly bean, is even nicer. If you haven't used either of these, you haven't seen what Android is capable of. Before these, the software was clunky, difficult to use, and difficult to navigate. Android is so smooth now, and will only get better. If you use gmail, gtalk, google voice, googe calendar, etc. you NEED an Android phone. It is astonishing what they've accomplished.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Funny enough, I went through the big Froyo change with a couple of the phones, wow that seems like soooo long ago I never actually had an issue with the OS or interface, and I rooted and modded the hell out of 3 of the phones and really got heavily involved in the xda community, posted several things here on it.

All my issues were hardware related (bad gps on the craptivate, screen issues on the Atrix, random reboots on the S2, etc). I did run into the occasional software glitch but that was often because I was running untested ROMs and such, so never faulted the OS for any of that. The hardware issues though were present on both stock and hacked ROMs and are very well documented for each of the phones I had.

That's not to say the iPhone hasn't seen it's share of problems, we all remember antenna-gate with the iPhone 4. In fact when that happened I made fun of all my Apple fanboy friends who'd bought one as it if somehow validated my foray into the Android world. It just so happens that the problems I had on Android phones were deal-breakers for me and any complaints I have on the iPhone are very minor in comparison.

I had, and still have I suppose, all the google services (gmail, google voice, google calendar, picasa, etc) and would agree that if you're in that ecosystem then an Android phone absolutely makes the most sense.

As I understand it, the hardware is much better in Android phones these days, so going back to your original statement I agree that Apple is going to need to step up if they're going to remain competitive. If they come out with an iPhone 5 thats just a little faster than the 4S they're going to get slammed and a lot of people that have been holding on for the last year I think will abandon them and head over to Samsung or HTC.

nguyendot

Coworker got one. It's very smooth. The screen is superb. It's a good size. My Galaxy Note is gigantic, but hey surfing on it with LTE is amazing.

mdaudioguy

Initially, I wanted one just because I wanted the latest and greatest, but I've been running a pretty nice ROM on my S2 as of late and realized that I'm not really wanting for anything more right now. Soon enough, they'll have some really good Jellybean ROMs out there, so I could see myself skipping the S3 altogether. That, and AT&T extended how long I have to wait for an upgrade...

Syndil

The other half just upgraded her phone. Coming from the original EVO, the choice came down to the Galaxy S3 and the EVO LTE. Once we saw the phones in person it was no contest; went with the EVO LTE. Screen size was not a factor (4.7 vs 4.8 inches), but build quality was. The EVO LTE just feels like a much more solidly constructed phone. The S3 feels too plasticky.

Also the screen on the EVO had better colors than on the Galaxy. It was as if the color temperature on the Galaxy's screen was set too cool--everything was too bluish.

Very interested to play with Google Wallet and NFC, as soon as I figure out where we can use it.

AsSiMiLaTeD

All the Samsung screens have that cooler overall color temp, and I also prefer both the evo and the One depending on which carrier you use. Those may be the best phones that exist today, and the fact that Sense may be the best Android UI is a huge bonus as well.

Syndil

Eh, can't really declare a best. Best for her, at least. I still stubbornly cling to my hardware keyboards. Not giving up my Pixi yet. Really isn't a competitor for it if you value both a small smartphone and a keyboard. There was the Veer (another WebOS phone), but it didn't last long before HP threw in the towel so I never had the chance to own one.

Speaking of keyboards and throwing in the towel, RIM just got another nail in their coffin:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/14/us-rim-patent-verdict-idUSBRE86D00C20120714

Drenis

That article doesn't imply RIM is throwing in the towel.

Syndil

No, but I did. Writing has been on the wall for quite some time, IMO.

PrazVT

The S3 is nice - but it's basically an S2 Skyrocket w/ more ram and a nicer screen. The U.S. doesn't get the quad core CPU - it's the same Snapdragon cpu as the Skyrocket. Still - two of my co-workers got them, it's very pretty. I just got a Galaxy Tab 7.7 (Verizon) and I love it. perfect size! But it needs ICS ...honeycomb is just laaaggy.

rooftop59

I just went from a samsung captivate (frustrating but liked it) to an iPhone 4S (really liked it but apple's handcuffs still srive me crazy) to an HTC One X. The HTC is light years beyond that craptivate, and I think edges out the iphone.

Sherardp

Scored one today. Very nice phone.

PrazVT

How come yours is dual core? I thought international versions had the quad core cpu. (not that it really matters ultimately). Anyway looks cool! My SII is looking ancient already lol.

Sherardp

PrazVT wrote: »

How come yours is dual core? I thought international versions had the quad core cpu. (not that it really matters ultimately). Anyway looks cool! My SII is looking ancient already lol.

I think some of the specs changed for Japan, though it should be a faster processor than the Galaxy II.

Zeros

rooftop59 wrote: »

I just went from a samsung captivate (frustrating but liked it) to an iPhone 4S (really liked it but apple's handcuffs still srive me crazy) to an HTC One X. The HTC is light years beyond that craptivate, and I think edges out the iphone.

I also went with the HTC One X because I'm impatient and didn't feel like waiting for a SGS3. So far it is much better than my Captivate (SGS1) was.

Syndil

It's a better phone anyway, IMO.

PrazVT

The S3 and One X are very similar phones hardware-wise. Same Snapdragon S4 @ 1.5GHz. But the S3 has more RAM (2GB vs 1GB) and a microSD slot.

@sherardp - yes, the S3 is faster than the S2 for the same reason - more RAM. S2's CPU doesn't support LTE radios either.

Zeros

PrazVT wrote: »

The S3 and One X are very similar phones hardware-wise. Same Snapdragon S4 @ 1.5GHz. But the S3 has more RAM (2GB vs 1GB) and a microSD slot.

S3 also has a removable battery.

mole'

Zeros wrote: »

S3 also has a removable battery.

i like that feature a lot

nguyendot

PrazVT wrote: »

The S3 and One X are very similar phones hardware-wise. Same Snapdragon S4 @ 1.5GHz. But the S3 has more RAM (2GB vs 1GB) and a microSD slot.

@sherardp - yes, the S3 is faster than the S2 for the same reason - more RAM. S2's CPU doesn't support LTE radios either.

Just depends on which S2 you got. The Skyrocket used a different CPU (it had to) to get LTE support. Kinda double edged sword though. With no quad core I guess I'll stick with my Note for a little while longer.

PrazVT

The S2 Skyrocket has the Snapdragon S3 @ 1.5GHz - one iteration earlier than the S4 in the GS3 and One X, but both are dual core.

I wouldn't worry about more cores just yet - even ICS doesn't make use of the extra cores efficiently. Higher clock speed + more RAM = better responsiveness right now. The Xolo phone Intel released in India is only a single core, but in single threaded benchmarks it's faster than everything except the HTC S One.

Either way - for playing FLACs, MKV / M2TS movies, or games - all these phones have more than enough power.

I'm just waiting on the ICS update for my Tab 7.7 (Verizon). Android 3.2 is laggy as @#$!$#.

Glowrdr

I really want to make the switch back to Android, but not sure I can yet. Last one I had was the original Motorola Droid. Someone tell me that these 2 things have changed, and I will go back!

1) I need native support with Outlook. I.e. calendar, notes and contacts. I don't want to run one program to sync my google contacts, another to sync my google calendar, and just abandon my notes altogether

2) I love the fact that I can go a full day (24+ hours) with fairly heavy usage on my iPhone 4 without a charge. Granted, this means no Angry birds for hours on end - but it's been out long enough now so I'm past that phase. A good example is that I used my phone to stream Pandora for volleyball at a graduation party. It was streaming for a good 3-4 hours, and my phone never dropped below 75% charge (this was also later in the afternoon, so my phone had been unplugged for quite a few hours by this point) My Droid got to the point that if I unplugged it at 5am to goto work, it was dead by 7pm if I didnt plug it in during the day

For functionality, nothing beat my old Blackberry. But that's like saying that nothing is more informative than an encyclopedia. What fun is that?

nguyendot

Outlook or active sync? Active sync does it all now.

Battery life heavily depends on the phone. The s3 has a huge capacity, whereas the atrix hd has crappy capacity.

Glowrdr

Does active sync work for android? I'm familiar with it from the Windows phone days (Treo). Forgot what BB uses. When I had my Droid (granted, it's been a couple of years now) - you needed to use 3rd party apps to sync things. And there wasn't a decent one-size-syncs-all type solution, so the answer was to use a couple of apps.

If something about this has changed, I'd be all over a Galaxy. I just don't want to hope that I can make a bunch of 3rd party stuff all work harmoniously together.

PrazVT

Android has Microsoft Exchange Activesync support. I have my Cisco work email and calendar (meetings, etc.) on my S2. It works perfectly.

Syndil

Android has had native Activesync support for a while now.

Here's a handy chart comparing what all the mobile Activesync clients support:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Exchange_ActiveSync_clients