Nice Size Screen, Snappy ICS 4.0, Great Phone July 15, 2012

Reviewer:  electronicnut 

The US version of the phone differs as it has a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Processor with 1.5 GHz Dual-Core CPUs, while the the rest of the hardware specs are the same as the international version.

I switched from an HTC EVO 4G to get this phone and so far it's been great! Here are the things I like about the phone:

* The phone is a nice size, it's lighter than my HTC EVO 4G.
* The processor is one of the fastest US released Android phone, and it comes with 2 GB of RAM.
* I played around with the camera and video camera and the quality is great in my opinion. (I'll post some pics or a video later.)
* The ICS 4.0 is really snappy and it opens up applications quickly.
* It comes with Google Wallet. I signed up and got a free $10 to use. (I'm going to McDonald's to test it out!)
* I've only use the S Voice application a few times, but it seems to be just like Siri on my wife's iPhone 4S.
* It comes with a micro SD slot in case more space is needed to save pictures, videos, etc.
* You can change out the battery if needed.
* Battery life last twice as long compared to my HTC EVO 4G.

Now for some cons:

* This is carrier related and not the phone itself, but the 4G LTE is not all in all areas so be sure to check your carrier if internet speeds is a deciding factor in purchasing this phone. If not you'll be stuck with 3G speeds.
* The phone is so nice, that I baby it all the time!

I was on the fence about getting this phone or the HTC EVO 4G LTE aka HTC One X. The main things that I like over the the Samsung Galaxy 3 over the HTC EVO 4G LTE is that it comes with the Micro SD slot and also the battery can be changed if it ever goes bad.

I love this phone! :)

Awesome phone October 10, 2012

Reviewer:  Mark D. Schnittman "mschnit"  (Rocky Point, NY USA) -

I just upgraded from an original Droid X running Android 2.3.4 (Gingerbread) to this beast -- it's a big step up. I loved my Droid X -- it was very well made, it had great call quality as a phone, and I really like Android, the Droid X being my first Android phone (I was a die-hard Palm user from the old days). Over time, I had figured out how to make my Droid X mimic the functionality of a PDA, but the old girl was starting to show her age. The single core processor was having a tough time keeping up with the stuff I was doing. I rarely have time to play games -- the phone to me is my electronic briefcase while I'm on the road away from my laptop. At first, I thought the GS3 was too big, but on subsequent trips to the stores it started to grow on me. ICS is really nice compared to Gingerbread -- lots of bugs fixed, lots of added niceties, and a much smoother and logical UI. The phone is more than capable of running whatever you throw at it without so much as a hiccup -- the processor is very fast, it has a lot of memory, the screen is possibly better than the Apple's, and the battery life is pretty good when using the power saving features that Sammy supplies. I've been using the phone for about a week, and I'm still impressed every time I pick it up and use it. The build quality isn't as high as the Motorola, but that's not to say that the phone isn't well made. I purchased a Seidio Convert case for the phone, which is excellent, and really compliments the whole package. The 4G screams compared with 3G, and the call quality is excellent, although the volume isn't as loud as the Droid X. Moving my data from the Droid involved a number of steps, but everything worked fine (non-root user here). The contacts were pulled directly from Google, my apps were restored using My Backup Pro from my SD card, as was the app data. It took me about 2 days to get the phone setup to the point where I felt comfortable using it on a daily basis. The battery life is pretty good, and I do see a big difference in power consumption when on WiFi (home, work) as opposed to 4G. Using it moderately on predominantly WiFi, the phone will still have 50 - 60% of a charge left in the evening. With the same use on 4G the phone will be down to 30 - 40% by evening. Considering the processing power, that's pretty close to what I would get from my Droid X at less than half the speed. All in all, a great package that should serve well for quite a few years. The phone reeks of the sweat that went into creating this monster, and it's a pleasure to use. Recommended.

** 10/13/2012 Update **

The battery life is better than I originally thought. The Samsung power saving feature really squeezes every last bit out of the stock battery. At home, on WiFi all day, with the phone on from 7am until 11pm, the battery has a 60 - 70% charge left. Out and about using 4G, the battery will have 50 - 60% charge by evening. Using it very heavily during the first week of ownership, the lowest the battery ever reached was 35%, and that was after 2 hours of constant WiFi transmission while I was backing up my phone apps + data to my main rig at home. The stock battery performance blows away the high output battery of my old Droid X (1750 mAh), which I have routinely killed before getting home -- and I'm not a heavy user on a regular basis. I'm impressed.

** Update 12/3/2012 **

Amazing phone. Learning curve was about 1 or 2 weeks, coming from Gingerbread. Plenty of processing power, beautiful display, great call quality, gorgeous design, decent battery life, great OS -- what more can one ask for. The phone is a pleasure to use. It's good to be king.

Nicest phone that I've owned July 26, 2012

Reviewer:  JS in FP 

Pros:
* Large, beautiful Screen
* Very Light
* Fast response
* Great connection speeds, so far
* MicroSD expansion
* User-replaceable battery

Cons:
* Radio app not included, unlike international version
* Expensive
* Virtual keyboard can be touchy (but probably more me than the phone)

Overall I really like the phone and plan to use it for years to come.

Like it October 14, 2012

Reviewer:  Laram "Laram"  (Illinois) -

I like this phone a lot. I have had Android phones and a tablet, so I am familiar. My biggest beef, I won't say problem, is the lag with touch. I hate touching something with the intent of it working, and it doesn't. So I touch it again and it opens and shuts. That seems to be a Samsung thing more than anything else. NOT a deal breaker, and any suggestions would be welcomed. The ever annoying predictive crap is easily turned off. I never found it to randomly change time like someone else said, but I did find the iPhone 5 to do this 3 to 5 times a day. I took that back, like this one better. One problem I have encountered is from the open phone keyboard when I try to select something from a list of contacts, it goes black each time I try to touch it. This has happened twice with no explanation. Then it works again. Some of the preinstalled crap I could do without, but that is also easily disabled. My biggest problem was the battery life. The first week I would charge and by 6 pm it would need to charge again. Once charged I would unplug it and it would sit till morning. With no use, by morning I lost 30% of the charge. Then it started going dead at 4 hours, and upon recharge it was down 50% in 2 hours. I did some Googling, and found many people with this problem. One person said there is a bug that won't allow it to go into a deep sleep, not sure I know what that is, and it will cause an app to remain open and drain battery. That suggestion was to reboot immediately after charging. I did so, and right now my phone has 33% remaining after 38 hours. Woohoo! Screen is beautiful! I like it. Any suggestions from anyone who's figured some of this stuff out are welcome.

Love my 32GB Galaxy S3...even with problems August 8, 2012

Reviewer:  BelleBelle  (Charlotte,NC) -

After much research and waiting impatiently for my iPhone... I switched to the Samsung Galaxy S3. I selected the 32 GB phone because I love to load up with music and apps.
The phone feels great in my hand...I do recommend a cradle for it in the car. I can easily see my screen, and do almost everything intuitively...almost like an iPhone. I am a woman with average size hands and the way this curves in my hands feels great.It does not look or feel "cheap".
It does have the Corning Gorilla Glass 2...I researched this a great deal and finally got a Verizon person to confirm this before I made my purchase. The online people at Verizon said no...but I knew I read about the Corning Glass 2 in several reviews. I even called the Corning Glass people. :)
It is fast, the calls are clear, calls are easy to make...The screen is HUGE...my father can even hear on this phone and has the chance to play with the camera and video recorder.
Problems:
1. Took me a while to figure out how to turn off the T9 and just do regular keying in on the board.
(2 days...That's all...and I figured it out without going to a teen or calling in support! :)
2. In low light the photos are not good at all...maybe with some more playing with it I can figure out the proper way to solve the problem.
3. The alarms are not loud enough...I need loud alarms to wake me...and to notify me of messages.
4. The screen kept going dark after 30 seconds when first out of the box...Drove me batty but I figured it out quickly.

Would I choose this phone again? I think so, Yes, I like it better than the iPhone but I am really waiting to see what the new iPhone will be like.

I have had the phone for a week...I will come back in three weeks and do a further update.

Right now...I love this phone.

Way cool! September 29, 2012

Reviewer:  Dean Barnes  (Anchorage, AK United States) -

I have owned the SIII for about three weeks and absolutely love it. I upgraded from an SII.

Hardware:
Pros:
The size of the phone is great! It fits in all the pockets I want to put it in and fits nicely in my hand.

The screen is large a very easy to read even from a cradle on the dashboard of my car.

This phone is fast. I perceive almost no lag when switching between applications on this phone.

The GPSa receiver/software is outstanding. I'm AMAZED at how fast if finds where I am and routes me to where I want to go. I can be on the move, use the voice input to tell it where I want to go and almost instantly the phone has a route up and ready for me with the best voice turn-by-turn directions I have ever seen on a GPS and I owned an SII before so I've used very recent GPS technology. Yes, I know this is just as much Google as Samsung, but the phone still has the display up quickly and finding where I am is the hardware.

The rear camera is quite good. I own a Nikon D7000 as my real camera, but the SIII works for when I don't have my Nikon. I find all phone camera's to be lacking. As far a phone camera the SIII is the best I've seen.

The retina scanning to keep the phone's display on while you're looking at it is a great first attempt, but in low light it doesn't work very good. Samsung say's that, so I'd like the phone to revert to a timer when in low light rather than try to perceive if I'm looking at the screen.

The touch screen is very sensitive. At times it seems like I barely have to wave my thumb over the screen or get close to the screen to be registered. While I list this a pro, I'll admit this took about a day to get used to.

I love that I can have a spare battery around to slap in the phone.

MicroSD slot, need I say more.

Con:
The only con on the hardware is the volume rocker. I have to say, I think I'd prefer the iPhone style buttons better.

I'm not that fond of the hardware home button. I wish Samsung would have gotten rid of that as Google spec'd, but I'm sure there are millions of people that would have complained about it going away if Samsung had removed it. I want that space used for an even bigger screen without making the unit bigger.

Software:
Pros:
This is a fantastic upgrade to the SII. I liked the SII but there were a few things that annoyed me.

I like that the save buttons have moved to the top of the screen so that I don't have to first hide the keyboard before I save an update, like to a contact.

There are a thousand minor but nice upgrades to the user interface, too many to list or remember.

Here are some notable upgrades to earlier Android/Samsung software:
The voice commands on the GPS. The turn-by-turn directions on the GPS are outstanding. (yes, I know, I said this under hardware too) Very clear and easy to understand. They come at the perfect time to get you where you need to go without being intrusive and repetitive.

I like the new contacts form. I like that there is no first last name. I prefer just one name box.

I like that the Samsung widgets are combine with Googles instead of off on a separate page. Yeah, this is one of those minor items, but it just makes more sense than the SII.

Voice commands are recognized very well.

Like I said above, there are a thousand things I like better about the software over earlier Android phones, even the SII, most of them small but very nice to have.

Cons:
Predictive text. My friends laughed at my texting when I used the predictive text features. They got a real kick out of the words the SIII would put in for me in my message that were not what I meant to have in my text.

Related to predictive text, is the Samsung keyboard. I miss having punctuation on the hold feature of the letters. I don't like that I have to go to the symbols keyboard just to type a "?" or "!" or ":-)".

Overall this is the first smartphone I've owned that I thought actually deserved the designation as a 'smartphone.' The SII was good and I liked it, but the SIII is great. I really enjoy this phone.

Decent phone... horrible battery life March 26, 2013

Reviewer:  Tim  (Jersey City NJ) -

The phone is OK. We also tried a Droid RAZR MAXX HD. By comparison, the galaxy feels much better in my hands as I found the size of the RAZR to be a bit awkward. The display is great, very vibrant. The case is incredibly flimsy - I thought I was going to break it when I tried to pry it off to insert the battery. Compared to the RAZR, this phone seems like a kids toy. We invested in some Otterbox cases which might not have been necessary with the RAZR. The camera is very good, phone is fast and the battery lasts about 1/2 - 3/4 of a day with normal use. You definitely need a back up battery or a place to plug in for a few minutes. It does quick charge very fast which helps.

I also have an issue connecting the bluetooth on this phone to my 2013 Subaru Impreza. I need to manually connect the phone to the bluetooth each time I start the car - it's really annoying.

beats an iphone October 17, 2012

Reviewer:  Thomas E Sykes Jr 

I debated between this and the iPhone 5. I went with this mainly for the bigger screen and back and menu buttons that android has. I probably should have just went with the 16GB version since there is a mini SD card slot. I have had it for over a month and still find new features all the time that continue to amaze me. Highly recommend.

Excellent Android Phone Could Use Two (Small) Improvements October 31, 2012

Reviewer:  joel k  (Berkeley, CA United States) -

All things considered, the Samsung Galaxy S III is probably the best 'smartphone' (Android or iPhone) available. Even the best phone has some drawbacks, and this has two relatively small ones:

- Apps cannot be moved to the external memory card
- The display can be a bit too 'washed out' in direct sunlight

These really are very small 'issues'. All your photos, videos, music, & other files can be moved to the external card. And the large display's brightness, clarity, & usability are beautiful.

The most common complaint I hear from other users of this phone is that they'd like its rear-facing camera to be better. In my opinion, the camera is excellent - if you need higher-quality pics or video, carry a good point-and-shoot camera. Keep in mind this is primarily a smartphone that does a plethora of things exceptionally well - it's not primarily a camera that also does phone calls :-)

Enjoy!

The Lie From Samsung February 22, 2013

Reviewer:  SamsungLie 

[[ASIN:B00812YWXU Samsung Galaxy S III/S3 GT-I9300 Factory Unlocked Phone - International Version (Ceramic White)]][[ASIN:B0080DJ6CM Samsung Galaxy S III / S3 Unlocked GSM Smart Phone (Marble White)]][[ASIN:B009PLBLQC Samsung Galaxy S III Mini I8190 8GB Unlocked GSM Phone with Android 4.1 OS, Dual Core, Super AMOLED Touchscreen, 5MP Camera, GPS, NFC, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, FM Radio and microSD Slot - Blue]][[ASIN:B009T9QCWI Samsung Galaxy S III 4G Android Phone, Black 16GB (Verizon Wireless)]][[ASIN:B008HTJLF6 Samsung Galaxy S III 4G Android Phone, Blue 16GB (Verizon Wireless)]]

I was so excited when I received my Samsung Galaxy S3, I had been waiting patiently for it to come out. Having had a previous Samsung phone I had really high expectations for the new phone. Now if you are just a below average user I can see this phone being a great one, but if you like apps (like me) then it's a really bad choice.

The moment I received it I started setting it up, all excited. But, it wasn't long before I realized that you are unable to move any apps over to your SD card. When I contacted Samsung about the issue, the "customer service" agent said that it's not a Samsung problem but the app makers are at fault and that all the apps are not made compatible with the Galaxy S3 because they were created before the S3's release.

Which is a load of bull !

I have had Motorola's, Iphone's, LG's, Nokia's, and previous Samsung phones and have never had issues with moving apps to the SD cards. Plus, three of the apps that were movable that I was trying to put on the SD card only came out a few days ago. LIARS ... that it is an issue with the apps and not their phone!

The agent then went on to try to pacify me by saying he is a consumer too, and owns a S3 and he doesn't see an issue with Samsung not notifying the public that their phone is not up to par. If I had been told or read something from Samsung, when looking for a new phone, and found out that I was going to be unable to move any apps to the new 32GB SD card I just purchased, then I would have purchased a different phone.

Another issue I encountered with my S3, is that my phone is supposed to be 16GB internal memory, but it's not ... it's only 12GB. Already hurting for space, I really needed those 4GB's. So with two movies and apps for work, school, weather, and personal enjoyment it's pretty much completely full. At least I can move my music and pictures over, but it's not that much help. In my head I keep hearing this repeating sentence, "What a waste of time and money !"

When I requested a refund or even just a different phone as a replacement the agent told me that Samsung is unable to do so, and that I'm sh** out of luck. In their minds they don't see anything that they have done as wrong and believe their phone to be perfect ! In my mind if you don't inform someone of a flaw and don't do anything on your end when they do discover that flaw ... then you have purposely deceived, committed fraud, and lied to that individual(s).

Now if you just need a basic phone and don't have a lot of apps then this phone I'm sure would be a perfect fit for you. But, if you are like me and love your apps, movies, and other items then you either need to purchase the 32GB internal memory Galaxy S3 phone or move on to something else.

Best of Luck to all you App lovers !

Great Expectations, became Great Disappointments!! August 5, 2012

Reviewer:  Joe From Kokomo "joe_from_kokomo"  (Gainesville, FL) -

We already owned an Iphone 4s before I plunked down $250 with Verizon to get this exact model about 20 days ago. I liked the features, the color and thought it would be an outstanding phone. However, while it has some great features, I have found it to be over-hyped and disappointing, and now wish I had gotten the Iphone instead. Here are the CONS, since they are the primary reason I am writing this review in the first place:

1. I am a software validation analyst and found a bug in the Phone applet that causes the numeric keypad to lock up and refuse to display when the phone goes into "sleep mode" from the Recent Numbers screen. When it wakes up you can see all the recent numbers you dialed but are unable to get the keypad up to dial any number. Great if you are being mugged in a park or are in a car accident, or other life threatening emergency. This has happened to me two or 3 times already, (the bug, not the mugging), so on the 2nd instance, I reported it to Verizon Tech Support, who noted at least one other identical report, escalated me to Level 2 Support, and contacted Samsung to report the problem. To me, it's the smartphone version of a runaway Toyota with a stuck accelerator!

So, SAMSUNG now knows that their phone software has a serious bug in it that causes the phone to become non-operational without a warm restart, at random. Seems to me that the very least that a smartphone should do is to work as a PHONE without any life threatening BUGS in the basic phone app. The phone app should be robust and iron-clad, but it is not.

Hopefully, Samsung software engineers will get busy and fix this immediately. In the meantime, if this happens to you, there are two workarounds: a) do a warm restart by holding the power button and restarting the phone (just tell the mugger to pause for a bit while you call the police!) or b) toggle to any other button BESIDES the numeric keypad, then back to the numeric keypad and hope the keypad unfreezes itself (this may or may not work). Incredible!!

2. The initial software settings are not correct, and this phone will drive you nuts for the first week, as you try to sort out why it does odd and bizarre things. Two settings that I found essential to change are these: 1) the phone display setting (the one that blacks out the screen after xx seconds) is set to 30 seconds at the factory. So, out of the box the phone will keep shutting off constantly. 1 minute works much better. 2) there is a predictive text feature that tries to guess the text you are typing that does not work properly and drove me nuts for a while. I finally called Verizon support to find where the setting for this feature was to DISABLE it. It's buried under a keyboard and language input option somewhere.

3. Verizon pre-installed a POS basic voice mail app that will cause you to miss most of your VM for the first 3 weeks you own this phone, unless and until you pay them the outrageous sum $2.99 per month to get the premium voice mail app activated. This same app is FREE on the Iphone!!! Verizon had no good explanation for this difference. I do - its a ripoff.

Do you want to pay $36 plus tax per year for the privilege of having Voice Mail that works? I don't. So, I am experimenting with 3rd party apps for VM service such as Google Voice and YouMail Voice Mail to see which one works with this overpriced boondoggle of a phone. It would be nice if Verizon spelled this out BEFORE you paid $250 for the phone. Outrageous ripoff.

4. The rear camera is a total piece of crap. It takes mostly blurry pictures that are often over- or under-saturated, and the colors are almost always incorrect. Compared to the Iphone camera, this one is junk. I've seen better pics from a disposable camera at Walgreens. I don't care how many megaPixels the specs say this camera has, it's almost impossible to take a good picture with this camera. If this matters to you, TRY ONE IN THE STORE FIRST. Check it out for yourself. IN FACT, I challenge you to prove me wrong on this - the camera is worthless!

5. The battery life, once you load it up with a dozen or more favorite apps is not that great. Also, I tried loading some of the 3rd party apps that shut off unused apps to conserve battery power, but they seem to be incompatible wit this model. Since this is my first Android SP, I hope someone else will advise me if there is a battery saving app that actually works with this boondoggle phone.

6. The ear speaker is not very loud. i have mine set to MAX and it's not loud enough. OK, I'll admit to not having the greatest hearing anymore, but having to use the speaker phone to hear what callers say is a huge negative.

7. Verizon's marketing geniuses decided that we don't need the HUMONGOUS 204 page manual to figure out how to work this phone. Instead, they ship it with the 160+ page warranty booklet (which you will never use) and omit the user manual, providing only a scant little fold out flyer that is equally useless. I had to get the manual on the Verizon website, download it and email it to myself, so that I could read it on the phone to learn how all the features work. Given how feature-rich the phone is, it makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER to not either provide the manual in printed form, or install it in PDF form on the phone before shipping it to the customer. That is, unless Verizon thinks that all of their customers are psychic smartphone geniuses that do not need to know how to use their new Galaxy S III phones, because they already know everything in the 200 page manual. RIDICULOUS!!

8. Because there is no manual, when this phone whistles, chirps and beeps at you throughout the day, (which it does constantly), you'll spend a month figuring out whether it's because you are getting a call, a voice mail, a text message or an email. It's maddening. I have yet to sort this all out, but find it VERY irritating. I did figure out that the whistle sound means I just got a voice mail sent to Verizon Basic Voice Mail Hell. It's especially frustating to find out that I missed 4 or 5 voice mail messages that are 5 days old! Thanks to Verizon trying to NICKEL AND DIME THEIR CUSTOMERS TO DEATH. Argh!!!!!!!!!

9. The screen display changes constantly and I have yet to sort out why it shifts around into different arrangements, not of my choosing. If this kind of overdone bells and whistles nonsense bugs you, an Iphone is a better choice. If you're an Android expert you probably get it already. As for me, I am not, and never wanted to be, an Android expert, so I find the GUI to be completely frustrating for the average user.

THE PROS:

1. The screen is large and beautiful.

2. It may be the best phone for searching the web due to the above feature. I watched two 1/2 hour webinars while on vacation and traveling on I-95 which I found impressive.

3. It's the latest phone, so you get bragging rights if you own it. Period.

Great Expectations became Great Disappointments.