Galaxy S3 incoming (4S user). What to expect, tips, experiences.

[Joeytpg]

Ok, I'm an iPhone 4S user, it was my first iPhone even though I've been in the apple environment for almost 10 years now.

let me clarify first: I'M NOT REPLACING my iPhone 4S with the S3, I'm trying the S3 which will probably end up replacing my wife's S2. But for some months I wanna use the S3 to enjoy Android on a phone (I'm not new to android as I have a Nexus 7 tablet. But Android on phone is not quite the same as in a tablet)

I've used my wife's S2 plenty of times but it's never been customized to my liking and to what I do, which leads me to tell you what I do with the phone:

-Internet surf
-Moderate youtube streaming
-Social media (Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Etc)
-Take A LOT of pictures and play with filters and stuff using Camera + and now iOS7 filters.
-Messaging

I DON'T listen to music on the phone, I don't watch movies on the phone and I hardly game. I used to game more in the past, and can get into a game or two with the new S3 big screen but overall, not much gaming.

So there you have it, I'm looking for UNBIASED, NON FANBOY opinions please. I love apple but I can also see some great stuff in Android which is why I'm trying the S3 while apple comes out with a bigger screen on the iPhone 6 (fingers crossed). If I like android on the day to day experience of using a phone then I might even switch and get a Note 3 or the new Nexus 5 which looks appealing.

Shoot people, what to expect, any tips for the crossover (MUST HAVE apps, Tips on how to clean the phone from the pre installed garbage it comes with, etc etc)

Cheers.

 

[DGPMaluco]

Why would the experience from a tablet be so much different? Especially on android where most tablet apps are stretched phone apps

 

[Joeytpg]

Why would the experience from a tablet be so much different? Especially on android where most tablet apps are stretched phone apps

on the table I don't message (whatsapp, sms), I don't take pictures and share it among my social media profiles, I don't make/receive calls, there are a lot of apps that work on the tablet but are maximized for the android phone experience, and in this particular case, I own a Nexus 7 which run a different version of Android. At least my wife's android is not the same as the nexus.

 

[DGPMaluco]

Galaxy S3 incoming (4S user). What to expect, tips, experiences.

With the nexus you will get always the latest pure android.

With the galaxy s3 you get android with a different launcher, Samsungs launcher called touchwiz

Idk if the S3 still gets updates, probably not, if it still gets updates, it will get probably one more

 

[nick_elt]

With the nexus you will get always the latest pure android.

With the galaxy s3 you get android with a different launcher, Samsungs launcher called touchwiz

Idk if the S3 still gets updates, probably not, if it still gets updates, it will get probably one more

it "should" get 4.3 later this month. After that id expect you would have to look for unofficial versions.

 

[chagla]

s3 is fairly recent phone. Samsung updated carrier flavored s2 to jellybean. so i definitely think they will upgrade s3 to next two iterations of android. that's for "official" upgrades. however IF you choose, you can root it and enjoy stock android, other roms etc. S3 has excellent developer support. check out XDA forum.

as far as apps, you should try these apps on my signature. they are pretty cool and useful.

 

[TacticalDesire]

It's a great solid phone but it'll probably get stuttery like touchwiz phones often do.

 

[sbddude]

My wife got my s3 when I upgraded to the s4. She previously had the 4s and wasn't interested in switching.....until she tried it. Now she loves android and won't switch back.

She is running pure android CyanogenMod without the Samsung touchwiz skin.

 

[Stuntman06]

-Internet surf

I primarily use Chrome browser instead of the stock browser. I think they all perform about as well. I liked Chrome when I first started using it, so I stuck with it. Chrome does not have Flash support. I switch to the stock browser or Dolphin if I need to view Flash content which doesn't happen that much (once a month maybe). I don't think you can get Flash officially now from Google Play. You have to find it from other means if you really need it.

-Moderate youtube streaming

YouTube streaming is excellent.

-Social media (Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Etc)

I do a lot of social networking as well. I have no issues other than the fact that I don't like the Facebook app for various reasons. The latest one seems a bit slower than the one from a few months ago. I got the lastest FB app because it had some features I wanted, but I find it feels a little slower than before. That's FB. Google+ is excellent. I use Seesmic for Twitter and it works fine.

-Take A LOT of pictures and play with filters and stuff using Camera + and now iOS7 filters.

I don't take many pictures. I would say the phone is adequate, but I'm comparing it to my DSLR camera.

-Messaging

Text messaging is great. If the message needs to be split into multiple messages, I find it gets split and put together in order. My last phone (HTC Desire Z) had the order reversed for texts that span across two messages.

I DON'T listen to music on the phone, I don't watch movies on the phone and I hardly game. I used to game more in the past, and can get into a game or two with the new S3 big screen but overall, not much gaming.

I listen to music a lot. The default music player does not have gapless playback, so something like a live album will have a split second pause between tracks. I shuffle all of my music, so this isn't a concern of mine.

I don't game much. The most graphics intense game I play is VirtuaTennis. I have no issues with playing this game on my phone.

Shoot people, what to expect, any tips for the crossover (MUST HAVE apps, Tips on how to clean the phone from the pre installed garbage it comes with, etc etc)

Personally, I recommend an alternate launcher. The stock TW launcher is a 4x4 grid for each home screen with a home screen indicator below followed by the app dock on the bottom. The phone has a large screen and I find that TW does not make efficient use of the screen real estate.

I personally use Nova Launcher Prime. I use it to get rid of the dock and have each home screen have 6 rows of objects. Doing this allows me to reduce the number of home screens I use from 7 to 5.

The pre-installed apps I don't use, I just don't place on my home screen. Some people are way more fussy about them and take the effort to remove them which is way more effort than I am willing to put in.

I personally don't like the stock Samsung keyboard. I prefer to use Kii because it has a better split layout in landscape. The phone is quite big, so when typing in landscape, I find it uncomfortable to stretch my thumb to reach keys in the centre of the keyboard. The Kii keyboard has a split layout in landscape where the letter keys are moved closer to the sides and within easy reach of my thumbs. If you only type in portrait, this may not be an issue.

I had my SGS3 since last July. There have been a few updates since then. The latest one came out a couple of months ago. Overall, this phone has been very reliable and smooth.