Which Android? Been about 3 years since..

[MTHall720]

I'm in serious need of advice.

About three years ago I went from an early IPhone to an Android. OMG!! I was a very unhappy camper. Don't recall the model now, but my Android kept crashing, the apps I chose were poor quality, and the reception was fierce. After a while I gave up and went back to the IPhone. Now, I have been giving serious thought to getting a Samsung Galaxy S III. I have been told that the Android OS has come a long way since I had one, and that there are a lot of high quality apps out there now. It is either that or I will get the iPhone 5. I love the screen size of the Galaxy. Also, my experience with the iPhone in the past couple of years has been sometimes good but at other times very frustrating. Right now I have IPhone 4, my wife does, my two girls, do and even their boyfriends do AND every damn one of these phones are experiencing difficulties lately. All at the same time.

Sooo, has anyone here been with Android for several years, and if so do you feel the current OS come a long ways? I am trying to determine if I get the Galaxy III if it will be stable, work smoothly, have some high quality apps available for PIM/calendar, GPS, photo editing, and excellent web browsing.

All input is greatly appreciated.

 

[ocnbrze]

I'm in serious need of advice.

About three years ago I went from an early IPhone to an Android. OMG!! I was a very unhappy camper. Don't recall the model now, but my Android kept crashing, the apps I chose were poor quality, and the reception was fierce. After a while I gave up and went back to the IPhone. Now, I have been giving serious thought to getting a Samsung Galaxy S III. I have been told that the Android OS has come a long way since I had one, and that there are a lot of high quality apps out there now. It is either that or I will get the iPhone 5. I love the screen size of the Galaxy. Also, my experience with the iPhone in the past couple of years has been sometimes good but at other times very frustrating. Right now I have IPhone 4, my wife does, my two girls, do and even their boyfriends do AND every damn one of these phones are experiencing difficulties lately. All at the same time.

Sooo, has anyone here been with Android for several years, and if so do you feel the current OS come a long ways? I am trying to determine if I get the Galaxy III if it will be stable, work smoothly, have some high quality apps available for PIM/calendar, GPS, photo editing, and excellent web browsing.

All input is greatly appreciated.

i think it has come along way, especially now with these amazing processors (dual and quad cores). i have been with android almost since day one when it was first released(htc hero). my friends have iphonies and i will never go to the darkside. i love android and my current phone evo 4g lte is an amazing piece of hardware. i think that you will really like the s3. i almost bought that phone. for me and my phone i have no issues with anything.

but i think you might want to post this question to the s3 guys. we have a forum dedicated to that phone. here is the link:Samsung Galaxy S3 - Android Forums. folks there can answer any questions you have about the phone before you buy it.

good luck and keep us posted.

 

[phinsbama]

I myself was an iphone user from the beginning but last year I switched to the galaxy s3 and will never go back. You will not be disappointed

 

[mikeshadow]

You were probably unlucky with your first android phone.. You have to realize that just because the operating system is the same there will be a lot of differences between phones... While apple release products that are "assumed" to be ready for use and tweaked for a perfect experience, some entry and medium level android phones are released with serious stability issues, mediocre firmware builds, deficient hardware, etc...

The quality of the S3 is top notch... It's one of samsung's flagship products aimed to directly compete with the iphone and imo, it totally crushes it. As for your questions: Yes, the S3 will excel at all of it... Your only problem will probably be adapting to a different OS and your previous opinion of the android... Surpass those issues and the S3 will surpass your current iphone experience.

cheers,
mike

 

[damewolf13]

Android has definitely come a long way in the last couple of years.
Like you, I also had one really bad experience with an Android phone, but it was the phone itself that was glitchy, and every other Android phone I have owned has been amazing.
At present, I have 2 Samsung Galaxy S3's and a Galaxy Note 2, and I absolutely love them!

 

[FrankieJ]

I'm in serious need of advice.

About three years ago I went from an early IPhone to an Android. OMG!! I was a very unhappy camper. Don't recall the model now, but my Android kept crashing, the apps I chose were poor quality, and the reception was fierce. After a while I gave up and went back to the IPhone. Now, I have been giving serious thought to getting a Samsung Galaxy S III. I have been told that the Android OS has come a long way since I had one, and that there are a lot of high quality apps out there now. It is either that or I will get the iPhone 5. I love the screen size of the Galaxy. Also, my experience with the iPhone in the past couple of years has been sometimes good but at other times very frustrating. Right now I have IPhone 4, my wife does, my two girls, do and even their boyfriends do AND every damn one of these phones are experiencing difficulties lately. All at the same time.

Sooo, has anyone here been with Android for several years, and if so do you feel the current OS come a long ways? I am trying to determine if I get the Galaxy III if it will be stable, work smoothly, have some high quality apps available for PIM/calendar, GPS, photo editing, and excellent web browsing.

All input is greatly appreciated.

How about letting the numbers do the talking?
Apple virtually started the smartphone wars 6 years ago when Jobs launched the iPhone. And striking the first concerted blow proved very succesful. iOS owned the market and had about 60% marketshare after one year of the iPhone.
But the tables have turned since. Consumers now have experience with smartphones and know what they want from them. And they don't like someone telling them what they want. So they have flocked to where they could find choice: Android. And today Android has a 70%+ marketshare while iOS has 21%.

So Android must be doing something right!

Oh, BTW, I'm typing this comfortably on a MacBook Pro's keyboard with a 17" screen through Teamviewer for OSX and Teamviewer Quicksupport for Android on a Samsung Galaxy Note.
Apple has its uses.

 

[MTHall720]

I have had an IPhone for several years but am sooooo tempted by the Samsung Galaxy S3 or possibly the Verizon Razr. I will be using the Verizon Carrier I think and need to decide pretty soon. My concerns are that after reading so many people posts about dropped calls not sure what to think. After reading reviews comparing the iPhone 5 vs Galaxy S3 it sounds like it is a matter of preference. Anyone here with Verizon and have tried both the iPhone and the Samsung?

 

[damewolf13]

Welcome to Android Forums, MTHall720!
I have had the S3 with both Verizon and AT&T for awhile now, but have never had an iphone of any kind. I do however believe that they are both good phones, and it really is a matter of personal preference.
Just for the record, I have never had any kind of connection issues or dropped calls with the S3 on either AT&T or Verizon, but that may also depend on the network coverage in your area.

 

[An UrgeTo Dance]

I haven't heard from any of my friends that they had problems on verizon. Out of the two phone you mentioned I would recommend the S3, once again thats just preference though.

 

[DragonSlayer95]

Hey there and welcome to android forums!

I've got a few friends on vzw with both the s3 and razr, none of them complain about dropped calls or anything for that fact really.

I've got the s3 with Sprint, definitely will say if you go with the s3 you won't be disappointed

One thing I'll say is about the razr, it's got fantastic battery life over the s3.

 

[iowabowtech]

Threads merged for content.

 

[pandacookie]

Hello! Welcome!

I owned both iPhone and the S3. Both phones have their good qualities, but I think the S3 blows the iPhone out of the water! Just the motion controls alone make iPhone seem pale in comparison. What are motion controls? I'll give an example: let's say you want to call mom. All you need to do is open the contact page and raise the phone to your ear. That's it! The phone dials your mother's number! Of course, you need to enable these features, but you get that chance when you first use the phone.

I had Android phones as far back as Froyo. Android has vastly improved over those two years. The apps just keep getting better. The functionality is off the charts! It's just more fun to use than iPhone, in my opinion. I had an iPhone 4. But I've played with iPhone 5. There wasn't enough to convince me it was any better than the 4, except for the processor, the camera and Siri. The S3 has Google Now, which is like Siri, but if you really want the Siri experience, there is an app called Jeannie in the Play store that can do things Siri can do, and better.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask! Everyone here is friendly and do their best to help. Everyone is knowledgeable in their own ways.

Hope you rejoin the Android world! And if you do, I hope to see you around the forums!

 

[iTzKPanda]

I had the iPhone 3G, 3Gs and the 4 before I switched to Android. I realized after a while that iOS is, simply put, too boring and plain for me. Sure, they were jailbroken, but that hardly helped. I switched to the Galaxy S2 from the iPhone 4 because it shattered when I dropped it. My contract with T-Mobile was going to expire in two months, so I paid the $50 ETF and left.
I had been doing some research on Android phones for the past few months prior to cancelling and settled for the Galaxy S2. I saw that Amazon was having a penny sale and jumped on the E4GT and switched to Sprint (unlimited data felt good) and I couldn't be happier. And I only upgraded to the S2. I could imagine how much better the S3 is.

The features of Android, in my opinion, beat the features iPhone has. Siri? There's an app in the play store called utter! that is up-to-par, if not better than, Siri.
Android phones with Jellybean (like the S3) have Google Now which is oh so convenient to have. Not to mention the S3's screen is much larger than the iPhone's so you don't have to squint if you want to read anything (bad joke... )

The only major thing I think the iPhone has over android phones is the camera. However, the new phones that have been released recently have been coming pretty close, if not better.

Not to mention that you have this community to come to if you need help

 

[MTHall720]

Thanks so much to everyone for the help and the great welcome you have all given me. Looking forward to joining the Android community.