Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
108 of 110 people found the following review helpful.
Fastest phone you can get with poor battery life (resolved with extended battery)By Draker
Gotten say this is the best screen and processor there is out there. Nothing beats it in comparison!
1- Speed: Definitely the most optimized UI out there compared to other Android I tried. For the closest experience to iPhone, this is it! Throw any games at it and it will trash it. The best part is that you can run full blown desktop webpage and still runs butter smooth! You definitely cannot do this with other phones such as HTC or LG I tried from my friends. If you came from S2 phone like myself, then this is truly a worthy upgrade
2-Camera - Fast! Takes picture like a lightning! Lots of option to choose from and realty easy to just pull out and shoot for those brief moment shots
3- Construction- lightweight plastic. Its quite prone to break if dropped but if you are careful with a sturdy case, this won't be a problem. I am using an extended battery and have a case to attest to this statement
4- Sound- i used parrot zik and shure SE535 and they work like a dream on this. NFC sync to my zik so easily!
5- Screen- Simply the most colorful screen out there. Samsung really put out a lot of work on the amoled screen and it paid off. The colors are truly incredible and the size is simply perfect for videos.
CONS
5- Battery Life - with beautiful screen and superb performance comes at a price of battery life. With my type of drainage use , it goes at 8 hours and its done. Mainly from the poor reception of 4G with my carrier. However this is easily fixed with an extended battery purchased that I also reviewed about. The battery life now is not a problem with 2 day use easily.
Overall a masterpiece with a slight flaw that can be easily solved. If want to jump ship to android from the boring iOS that has no change for past 5 years, this is the ticket to do so:)
226 of 243 people found the following review helpful.
Samsung you have made a masterpiece!By Raichama
I was a previous iPhone user, until I switched from the 4 to a Galaxy S2, and I loved it, but there were alot of things wrong with the S2, Samsung has listened to user feedback and used their experience to make this 4.8 inch masterpiece. Why do I love this phone so much?
1) Performance - Scrolling is buttery smooth, gaming is buttery smooth, even throwing NOVA 3 at it will not phase that quad-core Exynos 4212 and the improved Mali-400 beast (oh I mean chip) inside this phone. It blows the Tegra 3 and the Snapdragon S4 clean out of the water, sorry One X owners.
2) Audio - The S2 has okay audio quality, it's Yamaha chip was fine for...most people, however it was a bit disappointing compared to even the iPhone's sound quality, so I always used software decoding for listening to music. The S3 has seen Samsung's return to the Wolfson audio chip, and it is absolutely stunning especially with the new SoundAlive system which allows Bass Boosting, Clarity, and Virtualization out of the box.
3) Camera - The S2's camera was good, the S3's camera is even better. It may be a 'measly' 8MP, but Samsung has played around with the software in order to create a camera with zero shutter lag, a definite plus. Now it can take great looking photos, quickly.
4) Battery Life - The GS2 has a notoriously horrible battery life, it was basically essential to root and install custom ROMs because of the battery life. The GS2 had a 1650 mAh battery, the S3 has a 2100 mAh battery. It may have even more power than the S2 but the battery life is definitely improved, I just watched over 2 hours straight of 720p video and the battery meerely went from 85% to 70%. If this was my GS2 it would have gone from 85% to 60 or even lower. Battery life while using data has also been improved, an hour of internet browsing hit my battery only 10% rather than the 20 or 30 that would have been seen on the S2
5) The feel - The S2 was made out of plastic, very light plastic that felt cheap. Of course I know better than to judge how "cheap" a phone is by lightness, but many other reviewers hated it for this very reason. Samsung answered by making the S3 out of poly-carbonate, the same material as a One X. As a result, it feels solid and light in my hand, amazingly it managed to be 5g heavier than the One X while feeling so much lighter.
6) The "new" TouchWiz - I know TouchWiz has had alot, I mean alot of hate over the years. I hated TW3 myself, and didn't enjoy the orignal TW4, only enjoying it's lock screen. The new Touchwiz shipped out with this phone that has a nature feel to it feels great. The ripple effect on the unlock is very enjoyable and I enjoy the Galaxy Nexus inspired app drawer. As a plus I am so grateful to Samsung for removing the horrible Social and Media Hubs.
Of course however...in everything there are things you don't like, and this is no different. The HD Super Amoled screen is great, but, I really wish that for this phone they would have created the Plus version. The Pentile matrix is just inferior to the RBG RBG layout. The ppi is high enough however to stop the picture from being blurry, so its just a nitpik. The things like SmartStay and S-Voice are frankly gimmicks though, and while they seem to have potential they don't really...work. Frankly Iris is better than S-Voice.
352 of 401 people found the following review helpful.
iPhone or Galaxy S3? no way!!By Luca Cascianini
I got the S3 yesterday, since I owned a iPhone 4S here the comparison:
DESIGN: Galaxy S3 design is stunning, the feeling on hands is incredible. The ergonomics makes all the difference. The iPhone 4S is very squarish and definitely more solid but heavier too (way heavier);
SCREEN: Galaxy S3 screen is wonderful with vivid colours and sharp imaages, 4,8 inches vs 3.5 of the iPhone, after you make the transition you wont never come back, impossible.
OPERATING SYSTEM: S3 usability is a boom. iPhone is good but never at the level of the S3, way way slower.
BATTERY: S3 gets full day + 30% remaining battery, iPhone last till four or five PM;
GPS: Galaxy S3 gets locked in less than 10 seconds inside a building, iPhone searches and searches with no success;
CAMERA: they are very similar, S3 is faster and iPhone is may be a bit better in term of quality. No dramatic difference.
S-VOICE vs SIRI: they are both very basic and more fun than usefull.
USB-BLUETOOTH: iPhone only works with iTunes, no Bluetooth, no radio. Galaxy S3 can be usb-connected to computers and flashmemory, it has easy bluetooth connection and yes ... it has an amazing radio :)
APPS: to be sincere, all relevants apps in iPhones are present in Android. They have better design but they are at payment while in Android are always free. No mayor differences.
Galaxy S3 is an extraordinary good purchase. Recommended for all ex-iPhone users. You wont regret, there is a world outside iTunes :)
