Help What factors about the the S3 should I know before buying?

Geordie Ahmed · Jul 5, 2012

I love the phone and would recommend it to people without hesitation

There are little things that I would prefer are existent BUT it doesn't overly concern me, like scrollable wallpaper and if I badly wanted it I can use another launcher

The main thing I don't like is the lack of text reflow, coming from a HTC Desire I loved that feature, made internet browsing so much easier. Aside from that there isn't anything else that "sucks"

CrimsonPride · Jul 5, 2012

only thing i am not a fan of so far is the physical home key, im used to the capacitive buttons on the previous 2 galaxy s phones ive owned

zaffa · Jul 5, 2012

My Palm swipe screen shot stopped working after a week and how the hell do you turn off face unlock ,,,annoying toy

PeteyNice · Jul 5, 2012

No quiet hours? I thought this was an ICS feature? I was running CM9 before this and that was one of my favorite things.

finn5975 · Jul 5, 2012

This phone is amazing. I have one gripe, but for me its kind of a big one. I hate that the colors are not accurate. If I am looking at pics I have taken with the camera, on apps like Instagram or Facebook, or on websites like the Chive.....colors are so over-saturated and unrealistic. I understand it makes for nice deep blacks and all that, but the colors are off. I cant be sure what the pictures I take truly look like unless I view them on a PC. Frustrating.

Ramzes13 · Jul 5, 2012

finn5975 said:
This phone is amazing. I have one gripe, but for me its kind of a big one. I hate that the colors are not accurate. If I am looking at pics I have taken with the camera, on apps like Instagram or Facebook, or on websites like the Chive.....colors are so over-saturated and unrealistic. I understand it makes for nice deep blacks and all that, but the colors are off. I cant be sure what the pictures I take truly look like unless I view them on a PC. Frustrating.

if you go into settings\display\ and turn off "'auto adjust screen tone", this should help your color accuracy greatly. and when viewing photos i also turn off auto brightness.

finn5975 · Jul 5, 2012

Ramzes13 said:
if you go into settings\display\ and turn off "'auto adjust screen tone", this should help your color accuracy greatly. and when viewing photos i also turn off auto brightness.

Thanks. I went into settings and found it was already off. Its probably just me. I'm used to looking at the iphone screen for 4 years. I held both phones side by side while viewing facebook. It's as if the S3 is using almost neon colors at times. Oh well.

Tware · Jul 5, 2012

CrimsonPride said:
only thing i am not a fan of so far is the physical home key, im used to the capacitive buttons on the previous 2 galaxy s phones ive owned

came here to say this. I dont see the point of it being a physical button

Stormlight · Jul 6, 2012

gwlaw99 said:
If you root, you can use titanium backup to force move apps to the sd card.

Unfortunately that's not quite correct, I think. Check the overview of your Titanium backup. The internal memory and sd card are exactly the same used/free data. The Galaxy S3 considers the SD card and the internal memory to be the same.

bvbull200 · Jul 6, 2012

Tware said:
came here to say this. I dont see the point of it being a physical button

It makes it so that you can press the home button to wake up the phone. At least that is my guess.

For the first few days, I didn't like it either (came from Evo 4G and 3D), but now I dig not having to use the power button to wake the phone up. If it were a capacitive button, there'd be far too many false positives.

Noodlez · Jul 6, 2012

I don't like the location of the back button. So many times i am just scrolling a web page and i go too low and hit it. Just need to get use to it.

I also hate that when i am opening a picture message the phone tries to play it. I had to get a 3rd party sms to get around this

Ramzes13 · Jul 6, 2012

Noodlez said:
I don't like the location of the back button. So many times i am just scrolling a web page and i go too low and hit it. Just need to get use to it.

I also hate that when i am opening a picture message the phone tries to play it. I had to get a 3rd party sms to get around this

the picture message issue is technically not the phone, but how the phone receives the message. most smart phones i have had did what you describe, it happens mostly when friends of mine use their iphone to send me a picture as an mms, and it automatically creates a slideshow (even if its only one image), but if a friend sends me an image using and android based phone, it comes through as just an image.

dragon0978 · Jul 6, 2012

So my last two phones were htc (evo 4g then 3d), with the last one (3d) using gingerbread over sense...so it's a little difficult for me to say that the crappy User interface is a problem I have with touch wiz (coming from sense) vs ICS (coming from GB)....but I'm guessing here that it's mostly touch wiz and this UI almost ruins the phone for me...what I hate most so far is the calendar (very user unfriendly IMO) and the redundancy of having multiple apps that seem to do the same thing (ex 2-3 apps to watch videos or play music...each!!)

Crafty · Jul 6, 2012

dragon0978 said:
So my last two phones were htc (evo 4g then 3d), with the last one (3d) using gingerbread over sense...so it's a little difficult for me to say that the crappy User interface is a problem I have with touch wiz (coming from sense) vs ICS (coming from GB)....but I'm guessing here that it's mostly touch wiz and this UI almost ruins the phone for me...what I hate most so far is the calendar (very user unfriendly IMO) and the redundancy of having multiple apps that seem to do the same thing (ex 2-3 apps to watch videos or play music...each!!)

Hmm, I dont have multiple video / music players, maybe your carrier loaded the phone with junk ?
If you don't like the calendar app just disable it and download another

Damar1979 · Jul 6, 2012

verdikt said:
For me, the worst flaw in this phone would have to be the fact that I have to stick the phone near to my cheek in order to make myself heard by others in a call.

What are the worst flaws you've found?

???????
sooooooo how do YOU make your calls then? I thought for YEEAARRRSS that you had to put the phone near your cheek and ear to make a call.

2horses · Jul 6, 2012

Ramzes13 said:
the picture message issue is technically not the phone, but how the phone receives the message. most smart phones i have had did what you describe, it happens mostly when friends of mine use their iphone to send me a picture as an mms, and it automatically creates a slideshow (even if its only one image), but if a friend sends me an image using and android based phone, it comes through as just an image.

I get this same thing on my Droid X, so yes, it's not the phone but the sender's iPhone. Irritating.

Ramzes13 · Jul 6, 2012

finn5975 said:
Thanks. I went into settings and found it was already off. Its probably just me. I'm used to looking at the iphone screen for 4 years. I held both phones side by side while viewing facebook. It's as if the S3 is using almost neon colors at times. Oh well.

understood, but why use facebook of all things to compare color or contrast, try some photos, maybe a movie or something. I had my wife's iphone 4s next to my gs3, and i actually preffered the gs3 (not trying to be a fanboy). I snapped a picture with my SLR, and emailed it to both phones and I found the detail a little crisper on the Iphone, but the color depth and contrast better on the gs3.

Again though as in other threads/science the Human eye's color acuity can differ from person to person, so honestly its almost a "to each it's own" scenerio.

imho though, i find both screens to be pretty bad-ass

Lock-N-Load · Jul 6, 2012

NineToTheSky said:
My only criticism is that the screen isn't bright enough, even at maximum brightness.

International units just got a fix for that pushed, so I suspect we will as well..... at some point that is

Unseenbeam · Jul 6, 2012

Compatibility issues with Bluetooth and Toyota car radios. Don't buy a Galaxy S3 until you do your homework, you suck Samsung!

RusskiyParen · Jul 6, 2012

S3 is an amazing phone to date, everything runs smoothly, quickly, with 2GB of ram no lags what so ever, which is impressive! I've came from very laggy HTC sense and now im sure ill be a samsung galaxy freak, phone is awsome, sound is loud, very!

finn5975 · Jul 6, 2012

Ramzes13 said:
understood, but why use facebook of all things to compare color or contrast, try some photos, maybe a movie or something. I had my wife's iphone 4s next to my gs3, and i actually preffered the gs3 (not trying to be a fanboy). I snapped a picture with my SLR, and emailed it to both phones and I found the detail a little crisper on the Iphone, but the color depth and contrast better on the gs3.

Again though as in other threads/science the Human eye's color acuity can differ from person to person, so honestly its almost a "to each it's own" scenerio.

imho though, i find both screens to be pretty bad-ass

I just happened to be on facebook and thought it was reasonable to use since every other post in my feed seemed to be a picture someone uploaded. I think that the S3 screen is growing on me though. I find it more crisp in certain situations and the colors are very rich. I just noticed the accuracy, at least to my eyes, was off. A picture of my backyard shows lush green grass on the S3, though we are in a drought and have slightly green grass at best.

But I agree that both screens are bad ass in their own right.

mush10 · Jul 6, 2012

I can't stand the home button. I wish they would have stuck with the Gnex style even if it was still off the screen. If they felt the need to use a physical home button it needs to be bigger. Being flat against the bottom is a pain to reach sometimes. I am sure they were avoiding patent issues, but there has to be something better.

That seems to be my major issue on day one of ownership. Really just an annoyance I will get over. The phone seems fantastic so far overall.

logansowner · Jul 6, 2012

When watching youtube videos in bed (don't laugh, lots of us do this) on my old iPhone, I liked that the buffer bar was at the top where your thumbs were which made for easy skipping of parts you didn't care about. Now on the S3, the buffer bar is on the bottom and with the huge screen, not as easy to adjust.

I know it sounds stupid, but I did notice it to be annoying.

Also, I do find the volume rocker to be super sensitive, which sounds great, until your volume goes to full blast with a slight grazing/accidental touch. Those are the only two things I miss about my iPhone. I liked the separate buttons for volume and that they were not as easy to accidentally push.

Also, a physical button for ringer/vibrate would have been nice.

Just got it today and love it, with only these minor annoyances to get over.

logansowner · Jul 6, 2012

One more thing, if you're going to put a back button, for the love of God put a forward button, at least in the browser.

NewPepper · Jul 7, 2012

so far.... nothing

Help What factors about the the S3 should I know before buying?

Member

Android Expert

Lurker

Newbie

Well-Known Member

Android Enthusiast

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Newbie

Lurker

Android Enthusiast

Newbie

Android Enthusiast

Android Enthusiast

Android Enthusiast

Android Enthusiast

Android Expert

Lurker

Newbie

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Lurker

Lurker

Well-Known Member

BEST TECH IN 2023

Smartphones

Best Android Phones

Upcoming

Best iPhones

Upcoming

Tablets

Best Tablets

Upcoming

Laptops

Best Laptops

Upcoming

Televisions

Best TVs

Upcoming

Game Consoles

Best Game Consoles

Upcoming

Wearables

Best Wearables

Upcoming

Smart Home

Smart Home Tech

Upcoming

Similar threads