what DON'T you like about s3

[ldivinag]

1) It cannot transport me through a wormhole to a distant galaxy.

2) It cannot enable me to time travel back to 1984.

3) It has no app to suggest more than 3 bad features.

My att version allows #1. Working on #2 and 3. It will be a non rooted version though...

 

[GoldenDiamond]

1. battery life. little more juice would be nice, wouldn't mind it to be a little thicker.
2. GPS sometimes goes nuts and stays on forever until you manually turn it off.
3. it does not do my homework for me.

 

[kopkiwi]

My own issue would only be the build quality of the phone. If it was made to the same quality of the HTC One X. Winner winner chicken dinner.

 

[mobits]

Good to know there are others seeing and commenting on some of the same things I have been seeing.

From a functional standpoint: [FONT=&quot]

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1. I don’t always receive MMS messages when someone sends them to me. My wife and a couple different friends have sent me pics in the past and I don't get them. They are all using iPhone 4S.
2. Battery life – I get about 8 hours (on the average) of battery life before needing to charge it again. From what I read before buying, my expectations were more in the 10-12 hour range. And I don’t feel like I’m a heavy phone user. All email accounts are set to manual sync, except work email which is set to push between the hours of 7a-6p M-F. I even have the Juice Defender app (paid version) running and configured for optimal power saving.
3. I get a fair amount of lockups of the OS, where everything has to close and re-load and/or the home and menu keys are unresponsive.
4. There is no stock visual voicemail utility, just a single “Voicemail” button. If I want to listen to a previous message, I have to navigate through others. The iPhone had a visual voicemail feature where you could tap on a specific message to preview and listen to just that message at any time. Additionally, the AT&T Visual Voicemail app is not compatible with the S3. As a result, I’ve downloaded the AT&T Messages app which integrates call logs, visual voicemail, and SMS/MMS messages into one location; but the layout and functionality of this tool is sloppy at best.
5. There are multiple volume controls (e.g., one for the ringer, one for notifications, one for alarms etc.); I’d like just one main control.
6. On the iPhone, when listening to music, a condensed music player menu would come up at the lock screen so you could stop/forward/rewind a track without having to unlock the phone. I am surprised the S3 does not have this functionality.
7. I'm not crazy about TouchWiz, and I know there are popular alternatives (like Apex). The problem is that in order to use one of these alternatives, your phone has to be rooted, which voids the warranty.

From an architectural standpoint, I don't like the following:

1. It is hard to see the screen outdoors, even on the brightest setting. One needs to be in the shade or indoors to see the screen easily.
2. I don’t care for the plastic-ish feel on much of the phone, especially the back cover. It gives a bit of a cheap feel to it, and seems to conduct heat easily, especially when charging the phone – it can get very hot to the touch.
3. The physical placement of the volume buttons on the left side of the phone and the power button on the right side of the phone was not well-planned. I tend to hit the power button while trying to hit the volume buttons, and vice versa.
4. The placement of the speaker on the very back is also not well-planned. When listening to music or talking on speaker phone, the sound is muffled when setting the phone down.

To be fair, I know it sounds like I'm bashing the s3, but that's not necessarily the case. My list for the iPhone was at least twice this long!

 

[barryl85]

Really though, what's the point of "superior build quality and far superior materials" if the battery can't be replaced? The battery is the achilles heel of the iPhone... Depending on usage and environment, you're looking to get about 1-3 years of solid performance. And you better not accidentally leave the phone in your car in summer, or else that extra heat will reduce the life even further.

Why make the hardware of the device able to last 10+ years when the device itself is hard limited to last much less than that.

I actually really like the materials used on the GS3... The frame, although plastic allows the phone to take accidental drops without much of a problem. Plus the plastic seems to be fairly high quality.

Ive had 3 different iPhones and NEVER not once had a battery issue.


Theres already threads regarding the plastic chipping / peeling / fading - its not high quality and my battery cover is cracked in a few different places just by removing / replacing.

 

[akita]

Just choose advanced setup when instaling.

Oh, well kind of embarassed I overlooked that. I'll check that out tonight

 

[SUroot]

Ive had 3 different iPhones and NEVER not once had a battery issue.

To be fair, he said 1 to 3 years usage. If you've had 3 iPhones, its not possible to have had each for over 3 years. He also put in the ambiguous "solid use" clause, meaning there is a counter argument for any comeback you have, because solid use has not been defined.

That said, in IT its ingrained to do battery pulls so that's reason alone to dismiss anything thats not got removable batteries

Theres already threads regarding the plastic chipping / peeling / fading - its not high quality and my battery cover is cracked in a few different places just by removing / replacing.

I don't have this issue but it looks and feels cheap. I'd swap it for a metal one if I didn't know it reduces signal

 

[Bearsyzf]

1 For some reason my S3 is not receiving or sending out text messages .

2 my number is restricted and when i call or get a call it doesn't show the persons name even if they are in my contacts.


I just picked the GS3 up yesterday BTW.

 

[Deleted User]

My biggest complaint is location of lock and volume buttons. Kinda matches right up there with apples antenna-gate

Not sure how Samsung could think the button placement was good.

Battery isn't the greatest but it gets me through the day and I always have charging sources available.

Remainder of my gripes are software related and could possibly be solved by other means, I just haven't had time to research.

 

[kurtyyyyyy]

Only thing i can think of is the phone in the sun issue. Hard to see the screen

 

[brnewmeg]

1. There is a bug that prevents upload to Picasa when you have more than one account synced with your gmail address. Have to remove other accounts with that address for upload to work.
2. I don't like the way the gallery organizes photos
3. I cannot view or download attachments from the stock e-mail app which I use for Exchange. Other Exchange apps do not work on my S3, but could be my server.
4. GPS seems weak. Have to be outside, will not lock whatsoever inside. This might be normal but I find it annoying. It will lose signal in the car if it's in my lap and not directly in the path of a window.
5. Battery. Have to do too many mods/tweaks to get acceptable battery life, and still need to charge to get through the day.
6. I get a decent amount of lockups and restarts of the OS (not sure exactly what this is called- where everything has to close and re-load)
7. How could I almost forget the notification light. I want to be able to turn it off at night. Maybe this can be done with Tasker or something but I haven't tried. I just turned it off altogether.

It might sound like I don't like my S3, but I do. Just needs some modifications with the next OTA or maybe some will be fixed with Jelly Bean.

Just wanted to update my own post because this thread inspired me to fix some of my issues. For the battery, I got Better Battery Stats app and ran what my partial wakeups were and then tweaked a lot of settings in my apps for notifications and syncing. The only thing I have on push now is gmail, and for google sync just gmail and calendar. I have to say it's been nice the past couple days not having so many notifications. Also, I've been using wifi when I can when I never was before. I guess I didn't realize what a battery suck 4G is. I installed an app that allows me to switch to 3G if I want which helps too.

I already had the brightness turned down to about 1/3 but I did install a toggle for my home screen that allows switching very easily (hated going into the settings to adjust). I also finally resigned myself to not using a live wallpaper even though I really like them. I can live without for the sake of longer battery. I would estimate my battery went from 8 hours max to 12 hours. Pretty good, at least it allows me to get through the day without needing to charge. I'm not really sure how some people get over 24 hours on battery, but I always charge mine overnight so it doesn't matter.

I'm trying QuickPic for my photos.. a little better than stock gallery but still won't let me upload to Picasa.

Two biggest issues for me are the weak GPS and not being able to open or view attachments in the stock e-mail app. A coworker can't do it either on her S3. Maybe it's a server issue but I never had problems before on my HTC Incredible.

 

[CuBz]

- battery life is terrible
- GPS is weak compared to other phones
- case Build quality/material is amazingly cheap
- external speaker is garbage compared to other premium supersmart phones

Every single one of them is BS!

- Battery life is brilliant compared to other Android devices
- GPS is very accurate and it's brilliant compared to other devices.
- The back cover is a bit cheap but that is all.
- External speaker is just perfect, couldn't ask for better tbh.

 

[mobits]

I installed an app that allows me to switch to 3G if I want which helps too.

I already had the brightness turned down to about 1/3 but I did install a toggle for my home screen that allows switching very easily (hated going into the settings to adjust).

What apps did you get for the 3G switch and for the brightness toggle?

 

[galaxyphonezz]

3 gripes with my Verizon S3:

1. Loose volume rocker that shakes everytime I move my phone from portrait to landscape, i have a case on so i dont hear it with it on but still i just wish it was more solid

2. A tiny bit of light leakage in the home button when your in a dark room or with little light, my home button is sturdy as hell, but just a tiny bit of light leakage which isnt really that big of a problem just wish it was made with a bit more quality

3. Connectivity issues, its a known issue with the Verizon version of the phone, im hoping a fix is on the way

Thats it though i love this phone alot and i love the pebble blue finish on mine. For a phone that doesnt have a unibody design, it still is made extremely solid

 

[galaxyphonezz]

3 gripes with my Verizon S3:

1. Loose volume rocker that shakes everytime I move my phone from portrait to landscape, i have a case on so i dont hear it with it on but still i just wish it was more solid

2. A tiny bit of light leakage in the home button when your in a dark room or with little light, my home button is sturdy as hell, but just a tiny bit of light leakage which isnt really that big of a problem just wish it was made with a bit more quality

3. Connectivity issues, its a known issue with the Verizon version of the phone, im hoping a fix is on the way

Thats it though i love this phone alot and i love the pebble blue finish on mine. For a phone that doesnt have a unibody design, it still is made extremely solid

 

[Jon Davis]

On my old HTC Desire when you were listening to music on it the player came up at the lock screen so you could skip a track / pause it without having to unlock the phone - I would have liked that on the S3.

Other than that when holding the phone in 1 hand and trying to press the power button I tend to catch the volume buttons, which is annoying. However the problem there is the carbon based operator as opposed to any fault of Samsungs...

Keyboard... Download SwiftKey. All problems with keyboard resolved.

 

[brnewmeg]

What apps did you get for the 3G switch and for the brightness toggle?

The 3G one is called Phone info I am on Verizon, I think I read this works differently by carrier. Switch to "CDMA auto (PRL)" in the app Device Information for 3G and back to "LTE/CDMA/EvDo" for 4G

Brightness toggle is Brightness Toggle Widget There are some different ones out there but I like this one. An actual slider as a widget would be nice but this has 8 levels and can toggle auto-brightness.

 

[Jon_LTD]

I can't seem to iron out a rather annoying niggle - my default vibrate is the horrendous 2 second constant buzz. It's annoying as hell. I've created my own and set it as my notification - but it doesn't seem to change for my emails, google talk, etc.. Is there a way around this? I'm on Checkrom V5!
Also, a couple of niggles too. I don't like the Notification power toggles and how it scrolls for that first half second or so to reveal WiFi. Just annoys me as it's pointless and I wanna hit WiFi as soon as I can. That is picky at best.

 

[Stuntman]

I already had the brightness turned down to about 1/3 but I did install a toggle for my home screen that allows switching very easily (hated going into the settings to adjust).

I used the a screen brightness widget for a while. I removed it since I find the auto-brightness setting to work very well and sets the brightness to a level that I am comfortable with. Also, the latest firmware update has a brigthness control in the drop down notification bar.

 

[hbryder]

Good to know there are others seeing and commenting on some of the same things I have been seeing.

From a functional standpoint: [FONT=&quot]

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1. I don

 

[BraulioB]

I'm loving my phone. I have minor gripes only

1. There's something I don't like about the way the screen looks when I'm connected to a call and I want the dialer numbers to show. I'm not sure what it is, but it bugs me some.

2. My shortcut to Exchange mail shows how many emails I have not read but it doesn't update well. I'll go in and mark read all my emails and the little number shows the wrong number for a long time, usually until I reboot the phone.

 

[rushmore]

Everything is fine IMO, but the absurd power draw in weak reception areas. Far more of an issue than with any of my previous 3G devices. The great 4G battery life is the polar opposite of weak 3G. Previous devices would get warm and drain a little faster with weak 3G, but the GS3 is a new kind of evil.

 

[streetkilln]

touchwiz is still boring.... other than that i really have no other reason. the phone is great.

 

[child_of_bodom]

There is no USB Mass Storage!
Playlists can't be detected by all of my music managers (Winamp, Media Monkey, even Kies!)

I am a music lover with over 22GB of music and a bunch of playlists. It is horrifying to find out that when I create playlists on Winamp, it does not show up on my Samsung Galaxy S3. I am screwed >_<

*no, i don't wanna root.

 

[Aero1]

- battery life is terrible
- GPS is weak compared to other phones
- case Build quality/material is amazingly cheap
- external speaker is garbage compared to other premium supersmart phones

Every single one of them is BS!
- Battery life is brilliant compared to other Android devices
- GPS is very accurate and it's brilliant compared to other devices.
- The back cover is a bit cheap but that is all.
- External speaker is just perfect, couldn't ask for better tbh.

Actually none are "BS". I have been around here a long time, discovered and posted the first fix on the epic GPS (sticked here for a long time) and owned many many phones since the late 1980's.

I am actually noting issues the S3 is well known for.

Battery life is really pretty bad. It is worse than most androids. The screen on the s3 is great, but samsung cutting corners on battery really shows.

The s3 GPS is definitely on the bottom 25% of super smarts. Sat hold, and SNR is on the worse end of the scale tested, and in real life GPS hold and accuracy is lower than phones in its class.

Build quality. It isn't just the back cover. it is the buttons are wobbly, the placement is also poorly engineered and eveyrone who has used a s3 knows this.

The external speaker is about certainly the worst of any supersmart premium phone on the market. that is a stone cold fact.

I own an s3, and i think you are missing the point of the thread. These are issues samsung should address or that buyers should consinder. It is a "cons" thread. Denying problems discussed here, on xda and in professional reviews is silly.

There are dozens of pros to the s3. The OP asking for what people find deficient is legitimate because for some people those cons are an issue and for most of us (me included) the pros outweigh them. But dont come in and deny known issues.