Was the SIII the best Android phone of 2012?

[BigCiX]

It's funny that you would say that. The last 4 months I've see more friends, family and co-workers pick up an SIII or G-Note 2 than an Iphone.

People finally realize that the iPhone really hasn't changed in years. Design & OS.

 

[Gmash]

Best phone with removable battery and sd card slot, which is important to me. Otherwise I'd say Nexus 4.

 

[davoid]

Best phone with removable battery and sd card slot, which is important to me. Otherwise I'd say Nexus 4.

Kind of agree although I would say HTC DROID DNA if it had removable battery and sd card slot... quad core Krait, 1080p screen... awesome

... but as it is, the S3 wins because of it's expansion capabilities and Smart Stay

 

[Liamo_210]

What happens when you run out of storage? Where do you put data like offline maps, music, movies, game data, nandroid backups, etc., etc?

I use cloud storage and still hoping a USB otg cable will come available for it.

 

[davoid]

I use cloud storage and still hoping a USB otg cable will come available for it.

Can't you use any old USB OTG cable? They're not manufacturer specific afaik.

I agree you can use cloud storage, but if you're in a situation where you don't have data you're screwed. Notice that Szadzik mentioned offline maps, so that you can use your mapping applications without data access. Offline maps take a large amount of storage space.

Also if you like to play high quality FLAC audio instead of average quality mp3 then you would need a very stable and high speed data connection in order to stream your music as those files have a much higher bitrate.

And you can't listen to your music on the Underground or Metro if you have no data connection, and this is where a lot of people listen to music on their daily commute. And also when you're in Airplane mode - i.e. when you're on an airplane...

 

[Liamo_210]

Nope currently otg cables are NIR supported on the nexus 4.

 

[Gmash]

Kind of agree although I would say HTC DROID DNA if it had removable battery and sd card slot... quad core Krait, 1080p screen... awesome

... but as it is, the S3 wins because of it's expansion capabilities and Smart Stay

I was going to mention the DNA. It probably is technically the best phone right now, but it's too big for my taste.

 

[Shocky]

Yes.

Nexus 4 should have taken it but Google messed up, 16GB (11GB usable) is not enough without an sdcard.

If Google ever want us to take them seriously they need to up the internal storage or give us an sdcard slot.

 

[Fuzzy13]

Can't you use any old USB OTG cable? They're not manufacturer specific afaik.

I agree you can use cloud storage, but if you're in a situation where you don't have data you're screwed. Notice that Szadzik mentioned offline maps, so that you can use your mapping applications without data access. Offline maps take a large amount of storage space.

Also if you like to play high quality FLAC audio instead of average quality mp3 then you would need a very stable and high speed data connection in order to stream your music as those files have a much higher bitrate.

And you can't listen to your music on the Underground or Metro if you have no data connection, and this is where a lot of people listen to music on their daily commute. And also when you're in Airplane mode - i.e. when you're on an airplane...

Gotta remember that not everyone uses their phone for the same reasons you do. Only up until I got the Nexus did I realize, I never used my SD card. The only thing I put on there was backups to apks, ROMs and kernels and I can easily do that cloud storage. 16gbs is more than enough for the average user. Hence why there is an 8Gb model for the N4.

 

[Jookbox]

I'm very happy with mine, although the Nexus 4 with it's plain vanilla Android, and up to date software is attractive. I'm not too crazy about the hardware home button. It's hard to press with my case. I think they shouldn't have messed with the UI. Other than that, I'm impressed. My previous two phones were iPhones.

 

[davoid]

Gotta remember that not everyone uses their phone for the same reasons you do. Only up until I got the Nexus did I realize, I never used my SD card. The only thing I put on there was backups to apks, ROMs and kernels and I can easily do that cloud storage. 16gbs is more than enough for the average user. Hence why there is an 8Gb model for the N4.

I agree and didn't forget that. Any reply to the OP is going to be subjective, because we all have our favoured usage that will make one phone the best of 2012 over all others. For me personally it is the GS3, and I can only explain why it is the best for me, not the objectively best phone.

But I do think that as the trend towards technological convergence increases, where one single device does everything, people will be using phones instead of ipods and other mp3 players so as not to carry two devices (just my speculation, by the way) and larger onboard storage will become more necessary (ipods are like 160GB aren't they?). Obviously Apple won't give their customers the option to store more music on their iPhones because they want them to buy additional iPods... but it seems to make sense to me for Android devices to compete with the iPod by greater convergence, meaning their providing the capacity to store large amounts of audio data.

But again, I understand that people who already own an iPod would most likely be happy with a phone with a fixed 16GB or 8GB internal memory. Or people with a fast unlimited data plan with good coverage who never travel underground or on aircraft. I see this thread as an invitation to discuss which phone is considered the best and why, and we will no doubt all benefit from the shared learning process.

But purely on the grounds of more advanced technology, I think I would tout the DROID DNA, even though it's not the best phone for me. And I also like the Nexus 4...

 

[Szadzik]

I use cloud storage and still hoping a USB otg cable will come available for it.

You do not travel then. Try cloud storage when you're roaming

 

[KOLIO]

Any phone w/either or both quad-core or 2GB of RAM are worthy of best phone of 2012.

I myself have the SGS III on SPRINT & am very satisfied w/the overall experience.
W/that said, if the RAZR MAXX HD or the OG RAZR MAXX were available on SPRINT, I'd more than likely be in one of those right now. Lots to be said of the excellent radios & battery life that the RAZR MAXX/HD offer.