So, I was visited by my cousin yesterday and he recently got the Galaxy S3 on T-Mobile. The phone is very fast, much faster than my old HTC Thunderbolt, and the screen was very bright and its true, the display looks good even though it's got a pentile display, but it's not as good as the iPhone 4/4S's.
The GS3 very big, and I like big devices, but the GS3 simply felt too big. Now, I have large hands, I love phones with large displays (I've owned the Droid X and the HTC Thunderbolt which both have 4.3" screens and it felt just right -- not to big, not to small), but the Galaxy S3's 4.8" screen is just too big. My hand started to feel strained after having to reach the edges of the screen when browsing, clicking on apps, etc. It was very cumbersome. I've never used a 4.5" device, but I feel that if this was 4.3"-4.5", it'd have been a non-issue for me, but it really is just to big, there's no getting around it. For those with small/medium sized hands, I really don't think you'll like the GS3 for this one reason.
Now, onto the speed. The GS3 is very fast, and although it's got a dual-core processor (some versions have a quad-core processor) it still stuttered when scrolling quickly through lists (in the applications section of the Settings app, for example). Internet browsing was smooth, but again, quickly flicking through pages would also cause it to stutter as it scrolled. Little things like this can detract from the experience and make you feel like you're using a sub-par device instead of the powerful device that it could be. I'm guessing this is more of Samsung's TouchWiz UI, and not Android in general as from the reviews I've seen of Jellybean, it scrolls through lists smoothly. Zipping around the homescreen was smooth and fluid, no complaints there. App launching was quick and loading was equally as speedy.
Overall, the device felt very snappy (lol, people hate that word, which is why I used it ), but all jokes aside, the device was very fast, but little things like the scrolling made it feel slower than it is. It's probably the best Android phone out there right now, but if you're on Verizon, I still wouldn't get it because it's the only one with a locked bootloader, so you can't load stock Jellybean on it or anything at all for that matter. In the end, the iPhone is still #1 for it smoothness, fluidity, reliability, and ease of use, and it'll only get better with the next iPhone.
Thanks for reading.
The GS3 very big, and I like big devices, but the GS3 simply felt too big. Now, I have large hands, I love phones with large displays (I've owned the Droid X and the HTC Thunderbolt which both have 4.3" screens and it felt just right -- not to big, not to small), but the Galaxy S3's 4.8" screen is just too big. My hand started to feel strained after having to reach the edges of the screen when browsing, clicking on apps, etc. It was very cumbersome. I've never used a 4.5" device, but I feel that if this was 4.3"-4.5", it'd have been a non-issue for me, but it really is just to big, there's no getting around it. For those with small/medium sized hands, I really don't think you'll like the GS3 for this one reason.
Now, onto the speed. The GS3 is very fast, and although it's got a dual-core processor (some versions have a quad-core processor) it still stuttered when scrolling quickly through lists (in the applications section of the Settings app, for example). Internet browsing was smooth, but again, quickly flicking through pages would also cause it to stutter as it scrolled. Little things like this can detract from the experience and make you feel like you're using a sub-par device instead of the powerful device that it could be. I'm guessing this is more of Samsung's TouchWiz UI, and not Android in general as from the reviews I've seen of Jellybean, it scrolls through lists smoothly. Zipping around the homescreen was smooth and fluid, no complaints there. App launching was quick and loading was equally as speedy.
Overall, the device felt very snappy (lol, people hate that word, which is why I used it ), but all jokes aside, the device was very fast, but little things like the scrolling made it feel slower than it is. It's probably the best Android phone out there right now, but if you're on Verizon, I still wouldn't get it because it's the only one with a locked bootloader, so you can't load stock Jellybean on it or anything at all for that matter. In the end, the iPhone is still #1 for it smoothness, fluidity, reliability, and ease of use, and it'll only get better with the next iPhone.
Thanks for reading.