This review is from: Samsung Galaxy SIII UK Sim Free Unlocked Smartphone – 16GB – Pebble Blue (Electronics)
Update 13/06/12 – If you head over to Blog Clove, you will see a PS3/XBOX 360 controller, USB keyboard and most importantly USB storage in the form of flash and hard disks being able to be connected directly to the device! Once I’ve managed to try out storage I will update the review.
Update 17/06/12 – USB OTG works, means you can connect to a usb stick or hard drive to use additional storage. You’ll need a micro usb adapter connect, but media files work flawlessly.
My Galaxy S2 was lost a few weeks ago and I decided to ditch my contract and go for the S3. My only regret in buying the phone was that I didn’t wait until the 64GB version came out, I’ll explain why a bit later. Here are the improvements over the S2 and should answer some questions people have about the phone.
Positives: 1. Form factor, feels much better built than the S2, not in the same league as the HTC One or Iphone. Fits easily into a trouser or jean pocket, it only weighs a few more grams than the S2. Today in the office the new one has been weighed and compared to nearly every other phone out there and no one has remarked it is too big.
2. Indicator light, there is a flashing indicator light that can indicate missed calls, messages and charging status. This can be controlled by software to when it comes on and I prefer phones with this functionality as it saves powering the screen on and off, so saves battery life.
3. Speaking of battery life, it is nearly 5PM here and the phone is at 68% battery. I’ve listened to a few albums, played a few games, read the paper on the train and shock horror actually used it for a few phone calls. I took the phone off charge at 8AM this morning and it has lasted a lot longer than my S2. Impressive.
4. Screen is brilliant, as mentioned above being able to read media on the train is even better now with the larger resolution screen. Not sure I would chuck my Kindle just yet due to sunlight, but a brilliant screen with Flipboard included on one of the home screens. Eye tracking software means the phone doesn’t lock when reading articles unlike the S2. Playing Cut The Rope is also easier, the bigger screens makes the action more precise.
5. SD card slot, neither the Iphone nor the HTC one have expandable memory.
6. Big enough to replace your TomTom or Garmin Device for the car or on foot. And the phone based application seems to make better routes than the desktop application which may be due to the GPS plotting your location more accurately.
7. Finally, the biggest improvement, enough to justify the upgrade over the S2 is the audio chip. I used to crank up my S2 on the tube, train and it wasn’t loud enough. The S3 chip is a Wolfstone (used in the S1) and it outshines my Ipod Classic. I’ve listened to FLAC and 320KBPS MP3 files and the sound is crisp and dynamic and almost analogue like (I’m a vinyl fan). And for that reason, I’m kicking myself for not waiting to get the 64GB version with a 64GB microSD card to hold all my music. Once the new SD card arrives I will be listening to all my favourite tracks to hear how they sound, it is that good. The Ipod is now sitting on Ebay and I’ll cross my fingers for an 128GB SD card or resist the urge to trade this in for an S3 64GB when they come out. Audio calls are crystal clear.
8. Seems to notify you of where an incoming call is coming from. I’ve only seen it recently so not sure if it is a new feature with revised firmware.
Negatives: 1. It is expensive not on contract, £500 could buy a tablet/laptop, MP3 player and low range phone, granted that is three devices to lug about but £500 is a lot of money.
2. Battery still needs to improve if this is to be a true multimedia powerhouse. It’s an improvement over the S2, but I still think the smartphone market has much more work to do here.
3. Privacy concerns over Android. As I was updating the software for the apps I had linked to my S2 quite a few had manual updates stating that applications would have the ability to take pictures or/and video at will. The smarter the phone, the more of our life is on there and the more precious our data becomes. The standalone devices mentioned in point 1 would not have those issues (bar the tablet). Android and Apple still lag behind the corporate security standards of RIM devices. So you’ll have to check your (manual) updates frequently to see if there are opportunities to take data from the phone without your consent.
Conclusion: It’s a brilliant device, as close to a convergence device as you can get right now. These devices will never compete with a camera for pictures or video, sensor size will always be a limitation. But for reading, video, games and most importantly for me music, one device can serve those functions and the S3 is the best device to do that currently.
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This review is from: Samsung Galaxy SIII UK Sim Free Unlocked Smartphone – 16GB – Pebble Blue (Electronics)
Previous S2 user, before upgrading to S3 I have tried HTC one X, Nokia Lumia 710, and Iphone 4S to make sure that Android is the best operation system and Samsung is the best android handset provider. Now I am sure that it is the best smartphone.
The only phone that you can actually compare with S3 is HTC One X, both of them are very nice phones. I am not going to explain everything here (you can find plenty of reviews and comparisons on-line) I chose S3 (I paid almost £75 more) mainly because of:
1.Better battery,
2.Better grip; Because both phones are relatively large, when you want to wake them up with one hand, on HTC it is almost difficult as you should press the top of the phone but on Samsung it is on the side of the phone and is hassle free (from my view). In addition to that the curves on Samsung make it to feel smaller in hand than its actual size.
3.From my experience generally S3 is faster on everyday use and I think (not sure) it is due to the fact that HTC sense is heavier than Touchwiz. On HTC if you check your task manager regularly you can see that usually about 70-80% of the ram is used but on Samsung it is usually 50-60%
4.I love the hardware home button on Samsung compared to touch home button on HTC.
5.In case you want to sell your phone in future, Samsung showed historically that it does not lose value as much as HTC does.
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Well let me just start off by saying I was previously a blackberry user until I upgraded four weeks ago to a S3. After a months worth of usage I am now able to tell you why this phone is worthwile and you will be a fool not to get it. After wanting an S2, simply because that too is a brilliant smartphone, I got an S3 instead as I was eligible for an upgrade. So I don’t have much experience to compare the iPhone4s with Android phones such as HTC and other Samsung phones, so I can’t really say that this phone is better than that, however I do know that based on thorough research and looking at videos on how the phone performs I decided I wanted an S3. And that decision was one of the best I have ever done! I have obviously realised that technology has improved since a few decades ago, especially mobile phones. Any type of smartphones are simply mind blowing and most definitely appeals to young adults and working class people. So this phone? After seeing people on the Tube playing on their iPhones or S2’s and looking at reviews you never appreciate how GOOD these things are. When you first open up the packaging and use the phone for the first time it feels as light as a feather and yet the size of it is huge! The colour of the phone (Marble White) looks really astonishing and personally I prefer white phones over black after previously owning six black blackberries( Yes they are that bad! Do not buy- personal experience) I wanted to try something different. After hearing that the Marble Blue was faulty and some manufacturing was needed (friend told me, if that is true or not I don’t know) I wasted no time in going to the phone shop and was very eager to get my S3. When you first turn the phone on the ONE thing that blew me away and will most certainly blow you away is the screen- The screen is SUPER HD AMOLED screen- Let me tell you something I have never experienced a screen so crisp in my life (apart from a really expensive SMART TV). For a smartphone that is pretty darn impressive! (reading from the packaging: Quad Core 1.4GHz processor, 4.8″ HD SUPER AMOLED, 8MP camera at the back on the phone with LED flash and a 1.9 MP camera at the front. It is capable of recording and viewing videos in 1080p. It has a 2100mAh battery- which means the battery life is pretty good!) Now by reading all this, this is extremely impressive for a phone to produce something of this quality. It also has 1GB of ram. This can live up to a specification of a decent netbook- Personally I am impressed.
Now on to the review: Pros: * Battery life- Many people look for battery life in a smartphone- For some that is the main reason why people chose a phone based on fantastic battery life. I think that the battery life is fantastic, comparing it to a blackberry which is the only phone I have that I can compare it to, the blackberry life drains much quicker than the S3 despite the less apps and game usage. I always charge my phone every night because that’s just me, but if your careful with your battery usage you can get up to I’d say… 20-22 hours worth in 2 days if you don’t make much phone calls, don’t play apps for a long period of time and don’t waste your time watching films on the phone (not saying its a bad thing). I can say now that I took the phone off charge at around 10AM this morning and now being 01:40 the charge is at 48%- 14hours 33mins and 28seconds as I speak. I will be charging, but as you can see, the S3 has very good battery life as I only played an app for 5 minutes and texted a few people but that is it.
* Convenience- I love how the phone is convenient. The home button is at the bottom of the phone where as I have heard that the HTC is a touch at a bottom. The option button is on the left of the button and the back button is on the right. The only problem is though, is that I find that the buttons are very sensitive and what makes it worse I have very big fingers so it takes practise to not erase a long message you have carefully constructed and then only to find that its gone!
There are a myriad of things I can say that I love about the S3 and are no negative things about it and Im not being biased because I do like Apple, but in terms of smartphones- Samsung have really upped the game here and it will be interesting to see what the iPhone 5 will be like- doubt it will change dramatically.
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Nearly the perfect all in one device for reading, music, videos and games.,
Update 13/06/12 – If you head over to Blog Clove, you will see a PS3/XBOX 360 controller, USB keyboard and most importantly USB storage in the form of flash and hard disks being able to be connected directly to the device! Once I’ve managed to try out storage I will update the review.
Update 17/06/12 – USB OTG works, means you can connect to a usb stick or hard drive to use additional storage. You’ll need a micro usb adapter connect, but media files work flawlessly.
My Galaxy S2 was lost a few weeks ago and I decided to ditch my contract and go for the S3. My only regret in buying the phone was that I didn’t wait until the 64GB version came out, I’ll explain why a bit later. Here are the improvements over the S2 and should answer some questions people have about the phone.
Positives:
1. Form factor, feels much better built than the S2, not in the same league as the HTC One or Iphone. Fits easily into a trouser or jean pocket, it only weighs a few more grams than the S2. Today in the office the new one has been weighed and compared to nearly every other phone out there and no one has remarked it is too big.
2. Indicator light, there is a flashing indicator light that can indicate missed calls, messages and charging status. This can be controlled by software to when it comes on and I prefer phones with this functionality as it saves powering the screen on and off, so saves battery life.
3. Speaking of battery life, it is nearly 5PM here and the phone is at 68% battery. I’ve listened to a few albums, played a few games, read the paper on the train and shock horror actually used it for a few phone calls. I took the phone off charge at 8AM this morning and it has lasted a lot longer than my S2. Impressive.
4. Screen is brilliant, as mentioned above being able to read media on the train is even better now with the larger resolution screen. Not sure I would chuck my Kindle just yet due to sunlight, but a brilliant screen with Flipboard included on one of the home screens. Eye tracking software means the phone doesn’t lock when reading articles unlike the S2. Playing Cut The Rope is also easier, the bigger screens makes the action more precise.
5. SD card slot, neither the Iphone nor the HTC one have expandable memory.
6. Big enough to replace your TomTom or Garmin Device for the car or on foot. And the phone based application seems to make better routes than the desktop application which may be due to the GPS plotting your location more accurately.
7. Finally, the biggest improvement, enough to justify the upgrade over the S2 is the audio chip. I used to crank up my S2 on the tube, train and it wasn’t loud enough. The S3 chip is a Wolfstone (used in the S1) and it outshines my Ipod Classic. I’ve listened to FLAC and 320KBPS MP3 files and the sound is crisp and dynamic and almost analogue like (I’m a vinyl fan). And for that reason, I’m kicking myself for not waiting to get the 64GB version with a 64GB microSD card to hold all my music. Once the new SD card arrives I will be listening to all my favourite tracks to hear how they sound, it is that good. The Ipod is now sitting on Ebay and I’ll cross my fingers for an 128GB SD card or resist the urge to trade this in for an S3 64GB when they come out. Audio calls are crystal clear.
8. Seems to notify you of where an incoming call is coming from. I’ve only seen it recently so not sure if it is a new feature with revised firmware.
Negatives:
1. It is expensive not on contract, £500 could buy a tablet/laptop, MP3 player and low range phone, granted that is three devices to lug about but £500 is a lot of money.
2. Battery still needs to improve if this is to be a true multimedia powerhouse. It’s an improvement over the S2, but I still think the smartphone market has much more work to do here.
3. Privacy concerns over Android. As I was updating the software for the apps I had linked to my S2 quite a few had manual updates stating that applications would have the ability to take pictures or/and video at will. The smarter the phone, the more of our life is on there and the more precious our data becomes. The standalone devices mentioned in point 1 would not have those issues (bar the tablet). Android and Apple still lag behind the corporate security standards of RIM devices. So you’ll have to check your (manual) updates frequently to see if there are opportunities to take data from the phone without your consent.
Conclusion: It’s a brilliant device, as close to a convergence device as you can get right now. These devices will never compete with a camera for pictures or video, sensor size will always be a limitation. But for reading, video, games and most importantly for me music, one device can serve those functions and the S3 is the best device to do that currently.
Was this review helpful to you?
|The best smartphone,
Previous S2 user, before upgrading to S3 I have tried HTC one X, Nokia Lumia 710, and Iphone 4S to make sure that Android is the best operation system and Samsung is the best android handset provider. Now I am sure that it is the best smartphone.
The only phone that you can actually compare with S3 is HTC One X, both of them are very nice phones. I am not going to explain everything here (you can find plenty of reviews and comparisons on-line) I chose S3 (I paid almost £75 more) mainly because of:
1.Better battery,
2.Better grip; Because both phones are relatively large, when you want to wake them up with one hand, on HTC it is almost difficult as you should press the top of the phone but on Samsung it is on the side of the phone and is hassle free (from my view). In addition to that the curves on Samsung make it to feel smaller in hand than its actual size.
3.From my experience generally S3 is faster on everyday use and I think (not sure) it is due to the fact that HTC sense is heavier than Touchwiz. On HTC if you check your task manager regularly you can see that usually about 70-80% of the ram is used but on Samsung it is usually 50-60%
4.I love the hardware home button on Samsung compared to touch home button on HTC.
5.In case you want to sell your phone in future, Samsung showed historically that it does not lose value as much as HTC does.
Was this review helpful to you?
|Can any phone beat this?,
Well let me just start off by saying I was previously a blackberry user until I upgraded four weeks ago to a S3. After a months worth of usage I am now able to tell you why this phone is worthwile and you will be a fool not to get it. After wanting an S2, simply because that too is a brilliant smartphone, I got an S3 instead as I was eligible for an upgrade. So I don’t have much experience to compare the iPhone4s with Android phones such as HTC and other Samsung phones, so I can’t really say that this phone is better than that, however I do know that based on thorough research and looking at videos on how the phone performs I decided I wanted an S3. And that decision was one of the best I have ever done!
I have obviously realised that technology has improved since a few decades ago, especially mobile phones. Any type of smartphones are simply mind blowing and most definitely appeals to young adults and working class people. So this phone? After seeing people on the Tube playing on their iPhones or S2’s and looking at reviews you never appreciate how GOOD these things are. When you first open up the packaging and use the phone for the first time it feels as light as a feather and yet the size of it is huge! The colour of the phone (Marble White) looks really astonishing and personally I prefer white phones over black after previously owning six black blackberries( Yes they are that bad! Do not buy- personal experience) I wanted to try something different. After hearing that the Marble Blue was faulty and some manufacturing was needed (friend told me, if that is true or not I don’t know) I wasted no time in going to the phone shop and was very eager to get my S3.
When you first turn the phone on the ONE thing that blew me away and will most certainly blow you away is the screen- The screen is SUPER HD AMOLED screen- Let me tell you something I have never experienced a screen so crisp in my life (apart from a really expensive SMART TV). For a smartphone that is pretty darn impressive! (reading from the packaging: Quad Core 1.4GHz processor, 4.8″ HD SUPER AMOLED, 8MP camera at the back on the phone with LED flash and a 1.9 MP camera at the front. It is capable of recording and viewing videos in 1080p. It has a 2100mAh battery- which means the battery life is pretty good!) Now by reading all this, this is extremely impressive for a phone to produce something of this quality. It also has 1GB of ram. This can live up to a specification of a decent netbook- Personally I am impressed.
Now on to the review:
Pros:
* Battery life- Many people look for battery life in a smartphone- For some that is the main reason why people chose a phone based on fantastic battery life. I think that the battery life is fantastic, comparing it to a blackberry which is the only phone I have that I can compare it to, the blackberry life drains much quicker than the S3 despite the less apps and game usage. I always charge my phone every night because that’s just me, but if your careful with your battery usage you can get up to I’d say… 20-22 hours worth in 2 days if you don’t make much phone calls, don’t play apps for a long period of time and don’t waste your time watching films on the phone (not saying its a bad thing). I can say now that I took the phone off charge at around 10AM this morning and now being 01:40 the charge is at 48%- 14hours 33mins and 28seconds as I speak. I will be charging, but as you can see, the S3 has very good battery life as I only played an app for 5 minutes and texted a few people but that is it.
* Convenience- I love how the phone is convenient. The home button is at the bottom of the phone where as I have heard that the HTC is a touch at a bottom. The option button is on the left of the button and the back button is on the right. The only problem is though, is that I find that the buttons are very sensitive and what makes it worse I have very big fingers so it takes practise to not erase a long message you have carefully constructed and then only to find that its gone!
There are a myriad of things I can say that I love about the S3 and are no negative things about it and Im not being biased because I do like Apple, but in terms of smartphones- Samsung have really upped the game here and it will be interesting to see what the iPhone 5 will be like- doubt it will change dramatically.
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|