Although none of us have had our hands on the AT&T version of this phone yet, I just wanted to share with you my brief time with the international version of the phone and how it might translate into what we get on AT&T. A friend of mine recently got back from London (he's in the reality television business) and brought back a marble white S3. I got to use it for about a half hour on WiFi. Having used the One X on AT&T with the same S4 processor, I was able to draw a few comparisons on what I believe the S3 will perform like.
-The UI is extremely, extremely smooth. The One X, although not often, would sputter a little bit in screen transitions when I had some apps open in the background, specifically the home screen. With TouchWiz being less heavy on 3D effects and with an additional GB of RAM, I would say you're going to see roughly the same performance on the AT&T version as you do on the international. Having said that, you won't be disappointed.
-Load times for apps and even cold boots are extremely fast. The camera app launches very quickly.
-There is something satisfying about unlocking this phone. The pool effect, the sounds, everything. I laughed when I heard the "inspired by nature" tagline, but even just the lockscreen makes that worthwhile.
-Flipboard is awesome. The end.
-TouchWiz as a whole really isn't that bad. If you're drawing your conclusions based on what they have on the S2, keep an open mind. If you detest what you've seen so far, slap Apex on this thing and use stock ICS. He has it on his phone and it's like using the Galaxy Nexus, only faster.
-When you look at the phone, it's understandable to think it's cheap looking. In hand, though? Not at all. The gloss finish is actually a really nice touch.
-There's a gap between the Galaxy Nexus and the One X when it comes to their displays. The S3 is in that gap, closer to the One X. The One X is not so much better than it would be the determining factor on whether you chose one or the other, though.
-If you've seen S Voice demos on Youtube, you're more than likely thinking it's stupid or doesn't work. It does work, actually very comparably to Siri (I've used Siri extensively). Once you learn exactly how to state the commands and you annunciate the one sentence you're giving it, it's actually not bad at all. The only thing true to life that the demos on Youtube show is that it is slower than Siri. I'm sure updates will fix some of the issues, but definitely not bad for it's first version. And while it is gimmicky and a lot of people may not use it, it's a stepping stone to making this phone more popular. Pull S Voice out at a family gathering or a party and use it in front of everyone. When they realize you're not holding an iPhone, they'll be intruiged.
-Direct Call works. Probably won't use it much, but it works.
-Smart Stay works, too. If you're someone who eats lunch and reads articles (me), this will be useful.
-I saved battery life for last. I have no idea in 30 minutes what this phone can do. He said he gets a day out of it, but we all know everyone uses their phone differently and without doing it yourself, it's hard to know. I live in the Baltimore area in Maryland and I'm just on the outside of AT&T's LTE coverage. So on HSPA+ and WiFi with the One X, I was able to get about a day and a half. That's with auto brightness on, roughly 2-3 hours on screen time, 45-60 minutes of voice calls and texts going all day. With how efficiently this phone runs and them having the same processor, I'm going to say that AT&T S3 will probably be comparable to that. Now some of you might point out the battery size difference and think the S3 will be better. It might, but I'm accounting for what that extra GB of RAM will do, plus variable uses of all the features the S3 has and the One X doesn't. The huge difference is the fact that it's removable. If you've never used a spare battery charger and cycled 2-3 batteries, you're missing out.
So all in all, I know a lot of you are upset that you're not getting the quadcore Exynos. When I first heard that they were going with the S4, I was a little disappointed. I'll be getting the AT&T version of the S3 and have no qualms with it whatsoever because I fully expect it to be on par with the international version I just recently used.
The general consensus for the S3 is that it's not the world-beater the S2 was last year. I disagree. I feel that other companies are just stepping up. The One series is very impressive and to some people, the One X is better than the S3. I feel the S3 is better, but not but a lot and that's the fun part. There's a lot of you who want this kind of performance, but don't like Samsung or hate TouchWiz. You have an alternative now. That's exactly how I view it, though; the One X is an alternative. The S3 is still the king and in hopefully in about a week, we'll all have one.
-The UI is extremely, extremely smooth. The One X, although not often, would sputter a little bit in screen transitions when I had some apps open in the background, specifically the home screen. With TouchWiz being less heavy on 3D effects and with an additional GB of RAM, I would say you're going to see roughly the same performance on the AT&T version as you do on the international. Having said that, you won't be disappointed.
-Load times for apps and even cold boots are extremely fast. The camera app launches very quickly.
-There is something satisfying about unlocking this phone. The pool effect, the sounds, everything. I laughed when I heard the "inspired by nature" tagline, but even just the lockscreen makes that worthwhile.
-Flipboard is awesome. The end.
-TouchWiz as a whole really isn't that bad. If you're drawing your conclusions based on what they have on the S2, keep an open mind. If you detest what you've seen so far, slap Apex on this thing and use stock ICS. He has it on his phone and it's like using the Galaxy Nexus, only faster.
-When you look at the phone, it's understandable to think it's cheap looking. In hand, though? Not at all. The gloss finish is actually a really nice touch.
-There's a gap between the Galaxy Nexus and the One X when it comes to their displays. The S3 is in that gap, closer to the One X. The One X is not so much better than it would be the determining factor on whether you chose one or the other, though.
-If you've seen S Voice demos on Youtube, you're more than likely thinking it's stupid or doesn't work. It does work, actually very comparably to Siri (I've used Siri extensively). Once you learn exactly how to state the commands and you annunciate the one sentence you're giving it, it's actually not bad at all. The only thing true to life that the demos on Youtube show is that it is slower than Siri. I'm sure updates will fix some of the issues, but definitely not bad for it's first version. And while it is gimmicky and a lot of people may not use it, it's a stepping stone to making this phone more popular. Pull S Voice out at a family gathering or a party and use it in front of everyone. When they realize you're not holding an iPhone, they'll be intruiged.
-Direct Call works. Probably won't use it much, but it works.
-Smart Stay works, too. If you're someone who eats lunch and reads articles (me), this will be useful.
-I saved battery life for last. I have no idea in 30 minutes what this phone can do. He said he gets a day out of it, but we all know everyone uses their phone differently and without doing it yourself, it's hard to know. I live in the Baltimore area in Maryland and I'm just on the outside of AT&T's LTE coverage. So on HSPA+ and WiFi with the One X, I was able to get about a day and a half. That's with auto brightness on, roughly 2-3 hours on screen time, 45-60 minutes of voice calls and texts going all day. With how efficiently this phone runs and them having the same processor, I'm going to say that AT&T S3 will probably be comparable to that. Now some of you might point out the battery size difference and think the S3 will be better. It might, but I'm accounting for what that extra GB of RAM will do, plus variable uses of all the features the S3 has and the One X doesn't. The huge difference is the fact that it's removable. If you've never used a spare battery charger and cycled 2-3 batteries, you're missing out.
So all in all, I know a lot of you are upset that you're not getting the quadcore Exynos. When I first heard that they were going with the S4, I was a little disappointed. I'll be getting the AT&T version of the S3 and have no qualms with it whatsoever because I fully expect it to be on par with the international version I just recently used.
The general consensus for the S3 is that it's not the world-beater the S2 was last year. I disagree. I feel that other companies are just stepping up. The One series is very impressive and to some people, the One X is better than the S3. I feel the S3 is better, but not but a lot and that's the fun part. There's a lot of you who want this kind of performance, but don't like Samsung or hate TouchWiz. You have an alternative now. That's exactly how I view it, though; the One X is an alternative. The S3 is still the king and in hopefully in about a week, we'll all have one.
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