Samsung Galaxy S3
Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2012 7:48 am
So a few days back I got a Samsung Galaxy S3 online on Black Friday from AT&T. I have had an Android tablet (the Asus Eee Pad Transformer) for some time now, and have really come to like Android. I like how it is more like a PC than an electronics device, such as how you can simply plug it into your computer and move files to it like a flash drive rather than having to go through something like iTunes or Zune (iTunes was the bane of my existence for several months when I was struggling to make it work on a PC for my iPod Touch 4th Gen).
Anyway, this phone is simply amazing. Like many Android devices, it has a MicroSD slot so you can double or even quadruple its storage for much cheaper than buying the next highest storage model. $100 more for the 32gb instead of the 16, or buy a 64gb MicroSD for $55. Not much of a decision there lol. Internal memory is no faster or more privileged than a MicroSD in mobile devices since the internal memory basically is a MicroSD, so there is really no reason to buy the 32gb model.
All my tablet apps were already installed and waiting on my GS3, which is quite refreshing compared to many other platforms/devices which expect you to buy them again, or at least manually redownload them. The screen is crystal clear, audio is great through a good pair of headphones, and the multi-touch is fast and responsive. Speaking of fast, this has to be the fastest phone I have ever picked up. Everything just seems to happen instantly, including opening large video files. And speaking of video files, that is another thing I love about this device, and really Android more generally. No file conversions! It seems to be able to happily run essentially any major video or audio format without any conversion or additional applications. I have run both AVIs and MKVs on it, including MKVs with subtitles and it handles them all exactly how a PC would (actually, I don't know if even Windows or Mac handle subtitled MKVs without a codec installation).
My wife and I both upgraded essentially at the same time, but she went with a Windows Phone 8 Nokia Lumia 920. I have to keep most of the comments about my phone to myself, since she is quite jealous of mine lol
She is having issues that plagued Windows Phone 7 devices, such as having only 1 unified volume control versus having separate app, ringer, notification, etc. volumes. It is still a great device, but I feel it has a long way to go before it can compete with the GS3. I am sure Windows Phone 8 will get better, since it is only a few weeks old, but I just can't express how happy I am with mine so far. About the only complaint I have is that the "S-Voice" component which was made to compete with iPhone's Siri is really not on Siri's level. You can basically pick up an iPhone and just talk normally to Siri and it seems to make sense of most of it, whereas S-Voice just gives you a long list of commands you can try. Most anything else will stump it, but what is there works well.
If you are in the market for a new smartphone, I wholeheartedly recommend it, and they are still probably in the ~$50 range over the holidays on most carriers!
Anyway, this phone is simply amazing. Like many Android devices, it has a MicroSD slot so you can double or even quadruple its storage for much cheaper than buying the next highest storage model. $100 more for the 32gb instead of the 16, or buy a 64gb MicroSD for $55. Not much of a decision there lol. Internal memory is no faster or more privileged than a MicroSD in mobile devices since the internal memory basically is a MicroSD, so there is really no reason to buy the 32gb model.
All my tablet apps were already installed and waiting on my GS3, which is quite refreshing compared to many other platforms/devices which expect you to buy them again, or at least manually redownload them. The screen is crystal clear, audio is great through a good pair of headphones, and the multi-touch is fast and responsive. Speaking of fast, this has to be the fastest phone I have ever picked up. Everything just seems to happen instantly, including opening large video files. And speaking of video files, that is another thing I love about this device, and really Android more generally. No file conversions! It seems to be able to happily run essentially any major video or audio format without any conversion or additional applications. I have run both AVIs and MKVs on it, including MKVs with subtitles and it handles them all exactly how a PC would (actually, I don't know if even Windows or Mac handle subtitled MKVs without a codec installation).
My wife and I both upgraded essentially at the same time, but she went with a Windows Phone 8 Nokia Lumia 920. I have to keep most of the comments about my phone to myself, since she is quite jealous of mine lol
She is having issues that plagued Windows Phone 7 devices, such as having only 1 unified volume control versus having separate app, ringer, notification, etc. volumes. It is still a great device, but I feel it has a long way to go before it can compete with the GS3. I am sure Windows Phone 8 will get better, since it is only a few weeks old, but I just can't express how happy I am with mine so far. About the only complaint I have is that the "S-Voice" component which was made to compete with iPhone's Siri is really not on Siri's level. You can basically pick up an iPhone and just talk normally to Siri and it seems to make sense of most of it, whereas S-Voice just gives you a long list of commands you can try. Most anything else will stump it, but what is there works well. If you are in the market for a new smartphone, I wholeheartedly recommend it, and they are still probably in the ~$50 range over the holidays on most carriers!
