Phones iPhone 4S vs Galaxy S3

[Mac.World]

I received my S3 via UPS this morning and I have to say, this might be the best phone/device I've ever bought. I could list some things I love about it but it's probably along the lines to what's been posted in this thread already by other users. I do not, however, like how quickly it heats up at the bottom, makes it uncomfortable to hold after a bit, but with a giant high tech screen I guess that's part of life. Otherwise, this thing is incredible. Very solid all around.

If you have a bunch of processes running in the background it will heat up at the bottom. Means you are pushing the cpu hard. It will get up to around 118 degrees and not much more. If it reaches much higherthan 125, i'd say there is a problem with the phone. There are a few apps out there with alarms that can warn you if the battery gets to hot, cpu gets to hot, battery getsbelow 5 percent, etc...

For thecar, I have always used an ac vent dock. This way when the ac isblowing it keeps you phone nice and cool. Been doing this since my first iphone. A cool phone is a happy phone.

 

[Mac.World]

Neither does mine.

Then you haven't pushed the cpu. If ypu can do the following and still want to claim your phone doesn't heat up, then keep those phones cause they have some voodoo on them:

Start out by connecting to lte, if no lte them 4g, if no 4g at least 3g. Next open up pandora and let it shuffle music for you, then turn on bluetooth, followed by a local hotspot. Keep email and sms set to push. Finally start up navigation and turn on the traffic overlay.

If you can do that ans after 5 minutes still have a nice a cool phhone, then you should keep it: forever!

 

[cwwilson]

I manage my apps pretty well but I only use LTE. Could it be the LED soft keys causing the problem? I turned them to 1.5 seconds and it seemed to help.

 

[Lord Flashheart]

Does anyone know if I upgrade from my 3GS to the Galaxy S3 on my ATT account will my grandfathered unlimited data plan transfer? I am in a 4G LTE area and would love to keep my unlimited data.

 

[SaleenS351]

Does anyone know if I upgrade from my 3GS to the Galaxy S3 on my ATT account will my grandfathered unlimited data plan transfer? I am in a 4G LTE area and would love to keep my unlimited data.

Mine transfered to unlimited 4GLTE. I'm on AT&T btw.

 

[ilifecomputer]

Mine transfered to unlimited 4GLTE. I'm on AT&T btw.

Did you upgrade at a physical ATT store to make sure and have them keep you on unlimited?

 

[preguntonontrac]

Yeah it gets fully transferred. I am really really impressed how much people are switching to the S3. Lets see WTF is apple releasing i might switch to the next gen android phones

 

[topherg]

I lasted all but 2hrs with the s3 before going back to my Galaxy nexus....

 

[bigsexyy81]

Sold my 4S this morning and got the S3.

Happy with it so far.

 

[wayneholbrook]

I can honestly say I had my S3 for less then 2 hours and drove it straight back to the store.

Did i really give it a shot? NO, i guess I wanted to see what some of the hype was about and when I started playing with it, it felt like all the other Samsung phones; plastic and cheap.

The software was just as crapy as all the other Andriods out there ICS or not, its all the same to me; crapy....

While iOS is also the same old software with some small noticable changes to iOS6, its still clean and simplistic. To some people thats a turn off. To me thats awesome. When you use it for business its reliable and simply works. If you want to use it as a toy as Andriods useres say, well thats up to you.

To me there is no comparison. The key statement is "To me"

it all comes down to user preference. I am not slamming Andriod if thats the platform you like. If it is, good for you. The platform I like is iOS hands down.

I use to love the blackberry users would get so mad if you liked any other platform other then BB. They would call every device a toy compared to the BB. Now look where ther at; BB is as good as Atari now!

 

[joshwithachance]

I can honestly say I had my S3 for less then 2 hours and drove it straight back to the store.

Did i really give it a shot? NO, i guess I wanted to see what some of the hype was about and when I started playing with it, it felt like all the other Samsung phones; plastic and cheap.

The software was just as crapy as all the other Andriods out there ICS or not, its all the same to me; crapy....

While iOS is also the same old software with some small noticable changes to iOS6, its still clean and simplistic. To some people thats a turn off. To me thats awesome. When you use it for business its reliable and simply works. If you want to use it as a toy as Andriods useres say, well thats up to you.

To me there is no comparison. The key statement is "To me"

it all comes down to user preference. I am not slamming Andriod if thats the platform you like. If it is, good for you. The platform I like is iOS hands down.

I use to love the blackberry users would get so mad if you liked any other platform other then BB. They would call every device a toy compared to the BB. Now look where ther at; BB is as good as Atari now!

Then your opinion is invalid.

 

[Zaft]

I think moving the release to October has let Samsung capitalize on people wanting to upgrade.

 

[MonkeySee....]

Then your opinion is invalid.

First impressions etc

 

[wayneholbrook]

Then your opinion is invalid.

Well put, a true professional. My point is now proven!

 

[kevinof]

You only spent 2 hours with a new phone and OS and were therefore looking for any fault in the OS, looking for a reason not to like it.

If you look other threads on this forum you will see people from both camps - those who switched to the S3 and liked it and are staying with the S3, and those that tried it and after giving it a decent shot decided to go back. The difference between them and you it that they are open minded.

I can honestly say I had my S3 for less then 2 hours and drove it straight back to the store.

Did i really give it a shot? NO, i guess I wanted to see what some of the hype was about and when I started playing with it, it felt like all the other Samsung phones; plastic and cheap.

The software was just as crapy as all the other Andriods out there ICS or not, its all the same to me; crapy....

While iOS is also the same old software with some small noticable changes to iOS6, its still clean and simplistic. To some people thats a turn off. To me thats awesome. When you use it for business its reliable and simply works. If you want to use it as a toy as Andriods useres say, well thats up to you.

To me there is no comparison. The key statement is "To me"

it all comes down to user preference. I am not slamming Andriod if thats the platform you like. If it is, good for you. The platform I like is iOS hands down.

I use to love the blackberry users would get so mad if you liked any other platform other then BB. They would call every device a toy compared to the BB. Now look where ther at; BB is as good as Atari now!

 

[mjpearce023]

I can honestly say I had my S3 for less then 2 hours and drove it straight back to the store.

I don't see a problem with deciding in 2 hours. If you know right off the bat that the phone is not going to work for you then why waist time setting everything up just to return it in a week or two? I have gone to AT&T before and spent 10 minutes with a phone and knew it wasn’t for me. I feel like you should be in love with a product when you first buy so if you already don't like it after a couple hours then it’s not for you. I upgraded from an iPhone 4s to a HTC One X and after 2 hours I was loving it but after a couple weeks I decided it wasn’t for me. If I didn't like it off the bat I would have returned it immediately.

 

[cynics]

I don't see a problem with deciding in 2 hours. If you know right off the bat that the phone is not going to work for you then why waist time setting everything up just to return it in a week or two? I have gone to AT&T before and spent 10 minutes with a phone and knew it wasn’t for me. I feel like you should be in love with a product when you first buy so if you already don't like it after a couple hours then it’s not for you. I upgraded from an iPhone 4s to a HTC One X and after 2 hours I was loving it but after a couple weeks I decided it wasn’t for me. If I didn't like it off the bat I would have returned it immediately.

I said the same thing about my iPhone. Few weeks later and then I really enjoyed it. No one can learn a new OS in that amount of time to give it a fair chance.

I'd give it more time then that even if it was an issue of size just to see if it was something that needed some getting used too.

 

[cwwilson]

This phone has been an absolute blessing. I can't even imagine going back to a 3.5 screen as a daily driver after having a high definition one that's nearly 5". The phone is fast, responsive, smooth, and most of all, a lot of fun. Of course, any new toy is going to be exciting for the first week or so but I feel this device has true lasting potential and staying power. The battery life, even on LTE, is top notch, the hardware begs to be pushed harder and plus, there's 2GB of RAM onboard. Jellybean could make this phone even more amazing since that allows 60fps graphics all around. Android has matured well since I used it last (EVO and Epic 4G) and the app selection is also much improved. I think I'm going to be holding on to this bad boy for a long time, well until the GSIV arrives that is.

 

[DarwinOSX]

Hi, First of all i think both phones have its own speciality, i love iPhones but i also love smart phones that can play Flash[swf].

You do know that Adobe has eliminated flash for mobile devices right? because they finally admitted they can never get it to run well.

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Hmm so my faster, smoother, larger screened, more capable phone is a China town knock off? I'm sure I'll live with it

I have both. The S3 is not faster and smoother. I see lag all the time. I do like the big screen but text is sharper on the iPhone 4s which is using a 2 year old display. Tell me what is more capable about the S III that I can't also do on my iPhone 4s.
Not everyone here only has experience with iPhones so think before replying.

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What? You really have no clue what your talking about so why do you even comment on these topics?

Explain how he is wrong then or your comment has no credibility.

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What is also missing is the fact you can re-size your screen grid with launchers like Nova/Apex. You can overlap widgets, and there are also widgets that let you place four apps in a small grid in the place of one.

I have used Android phones alongside iPhones for years and never use widgets. They take up resources and screen space. if I use an app all the time I launch it from an icon. Why would I want to page through screen just to hit a bigger icon?

 

[nooaah]

I've owned the S3 for two days now. About the only advantage of seeing right now is the bigger screen. I really, really love it. However, it's not as sharp as the iPhone's.

I'm on VZW, so the bootloader is locked. Shame. The OS is kind of a clusterf*** to me at the moment. I'll give it some time, but my new device euphoria has worn off as I'm noticing things that are just plain annoying. The scrolling in browsers isn't as fluid as iOS. This is probably fine for most, but I'm used to the screen precisely following my finger.

The S3 apparently doesn't play nice with bluetooth car stereos. There's a workaround for this. There shouldn't be a need for workarounds. You can't answer calls if headphones are in and a music app is playing. You have to pause the music, answer the call, then talk into the handset even if the headphones have a mic.

Spotify does not have an option to download its saved songs to an SD card. I spent over an hour finding a workaround for this. Visual voicemail doesn't come stock for the VZW version. I'm having issues still setting up Google Voice for this. I guess what I'm getting at is that even if iOS is kind of vanilla, it just works. There's zero learning curve.

I have 60 days to return the S3 to Best Buy. I'll give this phone a good chance but if there isn't significant improvement in usability by August, it's going back to BB. At this point, I've already concluded that all the iPhone really needs to make me love it again is a bigger screen. Even last night I was all about putting my iPhone on CraigsList - the novelty of the S3 wore off pretty quick, unfortunately.


Edit: Also, the S3 does not play nice with OSX at all. Mine is also showing some lag now. I'm not even using a different launcher. The biggest change I made to the phone was to install SwiftKey3 and a stock ticker widget. I am killing apps in the task manager...Not sure what I'm doing that's causing the slight hiccuping.

As a positive, the battery life is superb. Definitely beats the iPhone, which I wasn't unhappy with at all.

 

[redred]

Edit: Also, the S3 does not play nice with OSX at all. Mine is also showing some lag now. I'm not even using a different launcher. The biggest change I made to the phone was to install SwiftKey3 and a stock ticker widget. I am killing apps in the task manager...Not sure what I'm doing that's causing the slight hiccuping.

Killing apps is most likely doing you more harm than good.

I have three friends who returned their SIII's and went back to using iPhone's.

 

[cynics]

You do know that Adobe has eliminated flash for mobile devices right? because they finally admitted they can never get it to run well.

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I have both. The S3 is not faster and smoother. I see lag all the time. I do like the big screen but text is sharper on the iPhone 4s which is using a 2 year old display. Tell me what is more capable about the S III that I can't also do on my iPhone 4s.
Not everyone here only has experience with iPhones so think before replying.

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Explain how he is wrong then or your comment has no credibility.

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I have used Android phones alongside iPhones for years and never use widgets. They take up resources and screen space. if I use an app all the time I launch it from an icon. Why would I want to page through screen just to hit a bigger icon?

Keep hearing that about Adobe. When is that going to happen? Its been being stopped since Gingerbread now its last version is for 4.0.x ICS. Last app update was 7-11-12 (two days ago) and of all my apps it seems like its getting updated the most. It will linger around for quite a while before it dies off.

And by more capable do you mean hardware things like NFC and LTE or software related things like USB hosting (I can't believe when you plug a mouse into IOS device nothing happens) and changing software keyboards?

 

[Vegastouch]

I don't see a problem with deciding in 2 hours. If you know right off the bat that the phone is not going to work for you then why waist time setting everything up just to return it in a week or two? I have gone to AT&T before and spent 10 minutes with a phone and knew it wasn’t for me. I feel like you should be in love with a product when you first buy so if you already don't like it after a couple hours then it’s not for you. I upgraded from an iPhone 4s to a HTC One X and after 2 hours I was loving it but after a couple weeks I decided it wasn’t for me. If I didn't like it off the bat I would have returned it immediately.

Seems to me this shoots down your theory. I cant imagine diciding something sucks after only 10 minutes. Hec 2 hours and you took it home only to discover some time later it wasnt fo you. You contradicted yourself bigtime on this one....lol

 

[The iGentleman]

You do know that Adobe has eliminated flash for mobile devices right? because they finally admitted they can never get it to run well.

That's not true. They didn't "eliminate" anything. They just discontinued mobile support, nor did they admit they can't get it to run well. Please don't make the story up...

I have both. The S3 is not faster and smoother. I see lag all the time.

Where did you see this lag? What exactly were you doing? What was running? Specifics please.

Tell me what is more capable about the S III that I can't also do on my iPhone 4s.

A short list:
-Fully functional bluetooth.
-Pair with real video game controllers for console gaming on the phone
-DLNA. Yes Apple has airplay, but that isn't DLNA compatible (which encompasses many more devices)
-Change keyboard to whatever you like best. For example, many people swear by swype.
-Change my default browser to whatever I like.
-Send multiple attachments (of different file types) in one email.
-App Integration. I can integrate any app I want so that it's incorporated into any part of my phone. For example, I can take a picture, then tap share, and share it in dropbox.

I can honestly say I had my S3 for less then 2 hours and drove it straight back to the store.

Did i really give it a shot? NO, i guess I wanted to see what some of the hype was about and when I started playing with it, it felt like all the other Samsung phones; plastic and cheap.

A bit of a ridiculous statement don't ya think? ...that's definitely one of the less reasonable statements I've seen in this thread.

While iOS is also the same old software with some small noticable changes to iOS6, its still clean and simplistic. To some people thats a turn off. To me thats awesome. When you use it for business its reliable and simply works. If you want to use it as a toy as Andriods useres say, well thats up to you.

So does the GS3, but you wouldn't know that, because you only kept it 2 hours.

 

[Vegastouch]

I've owned the S3 for two days now. About the only advantage of seeing right now is the bigger screen. I really, really love it. However, it's not as sharp as the iPhone's.

I'm on VZW, so the bootloader is locked. Shame. The OS is kind of a clusterf*** to me at the moment. I'll give it some time, but my new device euphoria has worn off as I'm noticing things that are just plain annoying. The scrolling in browsers isn't as fluid as iOS. This is probably fine for most, but I'm used to the screen precisely following my finger.

The S3 apparently doesn't play nice with bluetooth car stereos. There's a workaround for this. There shouldn't be a need for workarounds. You can't answer calls if headphones are in and a music app is playing. You have to pause the music, answer the call, then talk into the handset even if the headphones have a mic.

Spotify does not have an option to download its saved songs to an SD card. I spent over an hour finding a workaround for this. Visual voicemail doesn't come stock for the VZW version. I'm having issues still setting up Google Voice for this. I guess what I'm getting at is that even if iOS is kind of vanilla, it just works. There's zero learning curve.

I have 60 days to return the S3 to Best Buy. I'll give this phone a good chance but if there isn't significant improvement in usability by August, it's going back to BB. At this point, I've already concluded that all the iPhone really needs to make me love it again is a bigger screen. Even last night I was all about putting my iPhone on CraigsList - the novelty of the S3 wore off pretty quick, unfortunately.


Edit: Also, the S3 does not play nice with OSX at all. Mine is also showing some lag now. I'm not even using a different launcher. The biggest change I made to the phone was to install SwiftKey3 and a stock ticker widget. I am killing apps in the task manager...Not sure what I'm doing that's causing the slight hiccuping.

As a positive, the battery life is superb. Definitely beats the iPhone, which I wasn't unhappy with at all.

I guess you just arent used to Android yet. I never use Touchwiz. I always get another launcher. Maybe thats your problem.

The GS3 and other Androids work fine with OSX. Dont know why you cant figure it out.

I dont really care for Spotify. I jus use EasyMP3 Downloader and then drag the song(s) over to my card. Im sure there is even a better way but at this point for me, im not doing a bulk transfer. I dont understand why people ned visual voicemail. I use Youmail as my voicemail and i think its much better than the carrier voicemail. Better for the people on the other end and i just listen to it if i have one...which isnt that often. Who leaves voicemail these days?