Thoughts on the Samsung S III Galaxy?

N2IT

I recently switched over and this phone is nothing but problems. The feel of the phone is weird, the alarm clock features fails, the battery life is nothing short of terrible.

I am sorry I switched over from Verizon to Sprint and took this phone.

Anyone else experience how poorly the Samsung phone really is? Even the OS is slow and clunky. iPhone 5 is a much superior product imo.

Therefore I am going back to the iPhone 5, it's not even close. Consistency and quality > gimmicks

N2IT

Check out this review

Samsung Galaxy SIII review | Phone Reviews | TechRadar

Excellent battery life (yeah right, nice lie)!

t3ch_guru

I'm happy with my Galaxy S3. I get about 2 days worth of battery life from it. Everything works fine on my phone. In my opinion, it's the best phone I've own to date.

N2IT

Have you ever owned an iPhone?

Just wondering what you are comparing this phone against?

Blackout

N2IT wrote: »

Check out this review

Samsung Galaxy SIII review | Phone Reviews | TechRadar

Excellent battery life (yeah right, nice lie)!

Im gonna disagree here, I have had my galaxy for a bit now, I have had no gripes about my battery life thus far, the only times I have issues is when its searching for signal, and im pretty sure I had the same issue with my iPhone 4

N2IT

I don't understand how you all are getting good battery life. I have asked several people and they all say their battery life is terrible. Do you have some extended battery or some power saving app installed?

Node Man

Hi Everybody,
Often super short battery life is an indication of excessive background apps running. I would recommend turning off wifi and see if that alone improves battery life at all.

N2IT

Really?

This didn't seem to effect the iPhone 4. I am curious if the tech and black disable wifi when they aren't using it.... Maybe this could be the reason why they get longer battery life.

Blackout

N2IT wrote: »

I don't understand how you all are getting good battery life. I have asked several people and they all say their battery life is terrible. Do you have some extended battery or some power saving app installed?

Nope I do have a habit of killing running applications that im not currently using.

t3ch_guru

N2IT wrote: »

Have you ever owned an iPhone?

Just wondering what you are comparing this phone against?

Yes, I've owned an IPhone 4. Honestly, I am loving my phone. I can't wait to see what they come up with on S4 on March 14th (If they actually release information on it that day).

t3ch_guru

Also, I don't use an extended battery.

N2IT

Have either of you tried the Iphone 5 yet? I've used my friends and played around with it and the phone is awesome. It fits your hand nicely and the download speed off of LTE is great. I also like the fact the phone has been built with aluminum and not glass on the back. No need for a case anymore.

Blackout

N2IT wrote: »

Have either of you tried the Iphone 5 yet? I've used my friends and played around with it and the phone is awesome. It fits your hand nicely and the download speed off of LTE is great. I also like the fact the phone has been built with aluminum and not glass on the back. No need for a case anymore.

I had a 6 hour time to mess around with the iPhone 5 and honestly I wasn't impressed with it. I loved my first iPhone, but my GSIII is the best phone I have ever owned. I would go into all the things I love about the GSIII but the post would be huge. I love the camera, I love the bigger screen so I can read books without getting a headache, I love the NFC ability, just to name a few. the LTE speeds are awesome, I don't have any complaints or regrets switching to the GSIII. I don't hate on the iPhone Its just not for me anymore.

Bokeh

My contract was up, and was time to look for new phones. I played with S3, the Iphone 5, and a few others. Didnt get none of them, got a Google Nexus 4. VERY happy with the performance of the phone, getting great speeds on TMobile with a prepaid plan. No more contracts for me!

jmritenour

I love my S3. My battery life varies though. At home, when I'm connected to my wifi, I can go 1&1/2 to 2 days between charges. Seriously.

Now, I don't connect to the wifi at work on my phone for several reasons, and it kills my battery a lot faster to be running off of 3G (Sprint doesn't have 4G in office area yet), but I could still go 24 hours between charges easily.

I don't run a bunch of crappy battery draining apps on my phone, however. I have facebook on it, mostly for syncing contact photos, but I don't let it pull any updates on it's own. I don't do twitter, pretty much my gmail is all that is allowed to sync without my intervention. I also have my corporate email account on, with a limited subset of rules for what sends to my device.

I don't get how people complain about this phone. My wife has a S2, and she's very happy with, and I've had my S3 since November, and it's best android device I've used, hands down. My only complaints are the physical properties - it's slippery as an ice cube, so I had to use case for texture, which added bulk to what *was* a very slim, low profile device.

The screen is big, vibrant, and I love the envious looks iPhone users get on their face when I pull my S3 out. I've been watching NetFlix on it at the gym the past few days - that makes me wish somewhat that I had gone for the Galaxy Note 2, but honestly, that was more bulk than I felt like dealing with for something that is mostly used as a phone.

SteveLord

Since it came up I wanted to note that on iOS devices, having a ton of apps running does NOT drain the battery. HUGE myth.

N2IT

It seems everyone loves the S3 - I however do not and will be switching back. I just wanted to see the response which is shocking. I grew up on the iPhone and probably will always stay with them.

Thanks again for the input. I may have an S3 available for nothing soon lol.

RomBUS

I have the phone and love how fast and responsive it is! Best phone I've owned. And the call quality is off the charts incredible...

DoubleD

I love this phone better than apple any day

jamthat

I have the stock battery and get awesome battery life. I'm rooted and have tried AOKP, Synergy and CleanROM. AOKP was cool, battery life went to crap a few weeks in so I switched back to TW and tried Synergy. Same thing as AOKP, great for a few weeks then awful. CleanROM has been holding strong for 2 months+..easily go a full day with heavy use. This is the first time I haven't had to worry about carrying a charger since my first Android phone

it_consultant

My wife pre-ordered the SGS3 over the summer. When we went to pick it up from the fedex sorting facility there was a long line of people waiting to pick up their SGS3's as well. She has had a great experience with her phone, the latest android update (I forgot which firmware version) improved it a little bit. I was given an iPhone 5 at work which I gave back in favor of the Samsung because I like the screen size better and lets be frank, once you get used to how android or iOS works you don't really want to switch. I prefer google maps and navigation and I prefer the google search application [I was shocked the first time it reminded me of an upcoming flight that it noticed in my gmail]. Now every time I get ready to go home for the day it tells me if there are any delays on my route. It learns the times I leave and come home from work and it learns my preferences for sports, movies, etc from essentially mining my search, gmail, and gchat history. Sometimes this is annoying because I ordered my nephew a Flyers jersey for Christmas and then it started telling me the scores to every Flyers game - not perfect but pretty awesome.

My experience with iPhone to Android switchers is that they spend too much time comparing it to their iPhone and not enough time actually learning how the heck the thing works. I am not saying that is what N2 did, it has just been my experience.

tpatt100

When I switched to Android it was back in the Gingerbread days and I was wanting to switch back asap. Now it is not that big of a deal to me either way. I do spend more money in the iOS app store but that is due to my iPad, I find myself using my phone more as a feature phone now a days, guess I am over the "smartphone" craze due to my tablet.

I experience terrible battery drain on my Droid Razr (original) and I think it is due to trying to use data when I am in a store that is built in a way that gives me timeouts when using data. So my phone keeps retrying to connect and I "think" sometimes even when I close Chrome and give up my phone keeps trying in the background or something.

A few times in two different movie theaters my phone goes from full charge to in the red and almost dead before the movie is over. I now put my phone in airplane mode if I remember to help preserve battery because who knows what is trying to connect to what and kills my battery. I tried resetting my phone to factory default a couple of months ago due to wanting to see if it was an app but even at almost stock it happened. Then again I have a bunch of crappy Motorola apps on my phone that I cant get rid of.

A while back I experienced an issue with Google Sync where my data kept trying to sync and failing but the constant attempts was killing my battery on the Nexus 7. I had to download a sleep/awake app to see that my device never went to sleep because Google Sync was constantly trying to sync and fail but never let me know, I had to check Chrome on my desktop to see this issue. I ended up having to delete the sync data and recreate it and this fixed my issue.

Sometimes I think the third party junk on Android phones can cause problems in the background. The vendors are terrible about supporting their stuff because profit margins are from selling new phones where as Apple might want to support their stuff longer because they control the phone and app/music store which is some profit over the life of the phone.

I have my original HTC Incredible from a few years ago that I use for podcasts and music only and I got an OTA update for reported bugs from over two years ago.... I was like "wtf is this update?" My Razr still has not gotten any updates for security issues from last year which Samsung fixed for the Galaxy line.

prtech

I'm waiting for my contract to end before I get an S3 or maybe wait for an S4. I used to have an iPhone but I didn't like that it didn't have widgets. I thought I wouldn't mind but I got annoyed at how inefficient it was.

tpatt100

Oh wow, maybe third party Android phone makers will take security more seriously. iOS sucks at it also because you don't get regular patches unless it is part of an operating system upgrade. I really hope eventually phones are viewed as computers and a patching method becomes available that is way more reliable than the mess we have now. 20 years of audits lol....

Maybe this why I suddenly got that OTA update for my three year old phone .....

HTC America Settles FTC Charges It Failed to Secure Millions of Mobile Devices Shipped to Consumers

HTC America Settles FTC Charges It Failed to Secure Millions of Mobile Devices Shipped to ConsumersCompany Required to Patch Vulnerabilities on Smartphones and Tablets
Mobile device manufacturer HTC America has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that the company failed to take reasonable steps to secure the software it developed for its smartphones and tablet computers, introducing security flaws that placed sensitive information about millions of consumers at risk.


The settlement requires HTC America to develop and release software patches to fix vulnerabilities found in millions of HTC devices. In addition, the settlement requires HTC America to establish a comprehensive security program designed to address security risks during the development of HTC devices and to undergo independent security assessments every other year for the next 20 years.


HTC America, Inc., a leading mobile device manufacturer in the United States, develops and manufactures mobile devices based on the Android, Windows Mobile, and Windows Phone operating systems. HTC America has customized the software on these devices in order to differentiate itself from competitors and to comply with the requirements of mobile network operators.

Until at least November 2011, respondent engaged in a number of practices that, takentogether, failed to employ reasonable and appropriate security in the design and
customization of the software on its mobile devices. Among other things, respondent:
(a) failed to implement an adequate program to assess the security of products it shipped
to consumers; (b) failed to implement adequate privacy and security guidance or training
for its engineering staff; (c) failed to conduct assessments, audits, reviews, or tests to
identify potential security vulnerabilities in its mobile devices; (d) failed to follow wellknown
and commonly-accepted secure programming practices, including secure practices
that were expressly described in the operating system’s guides for manufacturers and
developers, which would have ensured that applications only had access to users’
information with their consent; and (e) failed to implement a process for receiving and
addressing security vulnerability reports from third-party researchers, academics or other
members of the public, thereby delaying its opportunity to correct discovered
vulnerabilities or respond to reported incidents.

As a result of its failures described in Paragraph 7, HTC introduced numerous securityvulnerabilities in the process of customizing its mobile devices. Once in place, HTC
failed to detect and mitigate these vulnerabilities, which, if exploited, provide third-party
applications with unauthorized access to sensitive information and sensitive device
functionality. The following examples in paragraphs 9 to 15 serve to illustrate the
consequences of HTC’s failure to employ reasonable and appropriate security in the
design and customization of the software on its mobile devices.
PERMISSION RE-DELEGATION
9. HTC undermined the Android operating system’s permission-based security model in its
devices by introducing numerous “permission re-delegation” vulnerabilities through its
custom, pre-installed applications. Permission re-delegation occurs when one application
3
that has permission to access sensitive information or sensitive device functionality
provides another application that has not been given the same level of permission with
access to that information or functionality. For example, under the Android operating
system’s security framework, a third-party application must receive the user’s permission
to access the device’s microphone, since the ability to record audio is considered

JasonIT

I switched after 3.5 years with an iPhone. I have to say I like the bigger screen. IMO, Apple has been missing the boat with screen size. Other than that, I would take back my iPhone in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, my employer switched us to Android, so I have no choice.

+1 for iPhone

J

rsutton

I'm on my second SIII, have had nothing but good experiences. Albeit, I came from a Windows phone

N2IT

it_consultant wrote: »

My experience with iPhone to Android switchers is that they spend too much time comparing it to their iPhone and not enough time actually learning how the heck the thing works. I am not saying that is what N2 did, it has just been my experience.

There could be some truth to this. I am very comfortable with how the iPhone works and really don't want to learn another OS.

@ tpatt

I'll try airplane mode when I am not using it and see if that helps extend the battery life.

wd40

A co worker has too many issues with his Galaxy Note II, only because his phone is rooted.
He was "the" Apple/iphone guy, even with the issues he is having with the note he is not switching back to iphone soon.

The point is, only root your Galaxy if you have to.

MentholMoose

I'm happy with my SGS3 on AT&T. With a 2 year contract extension it was $50 with a $100 Best Buy gift card, and AT&T refunded the activation fees. Battery life is good enough for me. If I'm out all day, I will probably need to charge it at the end of the day, otherwise I charge it every other day (normally the case since I telecommute). If you're having battery life issues, make sure to update to the latest OS version available since the issue may have been addressed.

SteveLord

wd40 wrote: »

A co worker has too many issues with his Galaxy Note II, only because his phone is rooted.
He was "the" Apple/iphone guy, even with the issues he is having with the note he is not switching back to iphone soon.

The point is, only root your Galaxy if you have to.

Really? Many make it seem like this is the only way to get a decent Android phone. Either that or wait a few years for a decent OS (Honeycomb > ICS > Jellybean)

But even for iPhones, when I ask the question "Why jailbreak?" I never get a clear answer for what the advantages are....beyond changing the theme. ooooooo

wd40

Here people Jailbreak iphones to get free apps, this is true for 99.99% of the cases.
My son has an ipod and an ipad, neither jailbroken , if the game is free I download it for him, if not he should find another one.

For Android, Samsung did a great job on the S III and Note II, I only know that 1 person that had to root the Note II, and just because he wanted to, there is no good reason to do that IMO.