Candid first impression vs Evo 4G LTE

[carlos516x]

I got my blue GS3 last night. I actually like the color a lot.. The first thing I did was put on a screen protector and tpu case. However, my phone came with a defect.. I had a slight hairline nick/scratch just above the light sensor... Wtf!!! In any event, below are my thoughts.

1. I prefer Sense over touchwiz so far..
2. Speed wise both are smooth and multitasking is a lot better on gs3.
3. Display is Way way better on the EVO.. The auto brightness on the GS3 is atrocious.. It auto defaults to an extremely dim setting. And the auto brightness stepping is bad.. It changes very crudely and doesn't change fluidly like EVO. Also EVO blows aways the GS3 when it comes to viewing the screen outside in direct sunlight.. The GS3 is borderline unusable in direct sunlight.. Can this auto brightness issue be fixed via software? It is really bad and basically forces you to turn off auto brightness and crank display up to max thus affecting battery life. I can see this as a deal breaker for some people.
4. Battery life has been comparable
5. GS3 gets hot.. The back bottom half of the unit gets very hot sometimes. I don't recall evo ever feeling hot
6. No fm radio :'(
7. Quandrant score is lower compared to EVO. With evo I would always get above 5000. But with GS3 it is always below 5k.. Between 4600 and 4800.. Dunno why.

 

[Ingry79]

So from by what you have so far observed it seems Evo is the better phone? I am in the middle of the two, either way at the end its going to be a good phone either one I end up with, they will both have bugs, so in the end its user preference. At this rate I will forever stay in the middle line going back and forth on the two. *sighs*

 

[geauxlsutigers]

I returned the SGS3 and kept the EVO LTE, for some of the same reasons you described and others, mainly radios, build quality, camera and software, Sense is way more refined and professional than Touchwiz and HTC's camera with the dedicated ImageSense chip is superior IMO. The EVO is typical HTC build quality, like a tank, and the radios on the SGS3 were not even close to the EVO's in performance (speed and range). I also thought the SGS3 would perform better with the 2GB of RAM but I consistently got better benchmarks with the EVO LTE.

I read and watched alot of reviews and comparisons between the HTC One X and the SGS3 and most sided with the SGS3, I think the EVO LTE has the few extras the One X lacked that put it over the SGS3. Most reviews of the EVO LTE vs. SGS3 reflect this.

Dont get me wrong, both are great phones, I just think the EVO LTE edges it on a few things.

Phonearena.com has a good comparison between the two phones, the EVO wins almost every category.
Samsung Galaxy S III vs HTC EVO 4G LTE

 

[storino03]

FM radio is a negative? I've had FM radio features on my past phones and never used it *shrugs* streaming radio has taken that over.

 

[Ingry79]

How about the cameras? Which phone has the better picutres and videos? And also what about speakers? I know that Evo LTE has the beats audio how does it compare with SG3?

 

[jfenton]

I',m a little jaded since I went through three EVO LTE's in a week...all did the spontaneous shut down, restart and die stuck on lock screen.

Now...while they did work I found the screen to be very clear but it was just plain drab. Text reading was a pain due to the lowered black levels and it was just simply drab color wise with no punch at all for my eyes.

For my photographers eyes, the S3 wins. Granted, I don't go out in screaming daylight to see how well I can read it.

Don't like th auto brightness? Turn if off!

Wifi on the EVO was really poor. It constantly would hang up a quarter of the way into a page and just sit there and get stuck.

Phone radios were fine. GPS was very fast. Sound quality on the earpiece was excellent and that's a big deal for me since I have poor hearing and wear hearing aids.

I don't game so I could care less about some test scores

Personally, I didn't care for the shape. Build quality was excellent but it felt much larger than the S3 and was tougher for my hands to use comfortably.

Sense was good but honestly...how many of you stick with the stock launcher???

I was really under impressed with the camera. Something about the images it produced, even when viewed on my computer was just boring. It was plenty sharp and clear. Fast as you'd ever need on a phone.

S3 radios when looking at bars appear less than the EVO did and less than my spare Blackberry Tour but know what? When you go into "about phone" and look at the signal strength they are all within a couple points of being identical. I have yet to drop a call or have one garbled even when showing no bard in my office. Typically, it's pulling -92 dbm at that point which exactly what the EVO LTE got sitting on my desk.

S3 Form factor (I have it in a TPU) is much better for MY hands.

I love the screen for MY EYES.

GPS is nearly instantaneous and both are on par with one another.

S3 for what I do "seems" to perform faster and without the slight lag the EVO showed.

Rear speaker on my S3 is a fair bit better than the EVO was. Earpiece is every bit as good.

Battery life is better on the S3.

So far, the S3 is the clear winner for the reasons stated above and the fact that I've been on the same one for over a week rather than multiple units and it runs like a charm...just like a high end pricey phone should.

 

[carlos516x]

Just to add to some of the comments in this thread.

1) As far as camera quality, the EVO cam is slightly better outdoors and in good lighting. I think the GS3 is much much better in low lighting. One question.. I noticed for the GS3 that 8MP mode doesn't go full widescreen like in the EVO. Why is that? Is there a setting i'm missing?I would have to drop down to 6MP for full widescreen. I've attached a sample pic from the GS3 but it was through the windshield of my car.

2) FM Radio. This is not necessarily a con for me but a lot of folks were asking about it and I had to mention it. Evo has FM radio and GS3 does not. I tried downloading a 3rd party FM Radio app and it does not work on th GS3 where it works fine on the EVO.

3) Auto brightness can be fixed by simply turning it off. You would have to turn it off in the web browser too since it has a seperate brightness setting. However, it sucks that you have to manually crank it up depending on lighting conditions. I have it set half up but when outside on a sunny day, you have to max out the display. I just figure the auto brightness should do its job on a high end phone like this.

4) Rear speaker is much better on GS3. It seems a little too low for me on the EVO.

5) GPS is awesome on both phones as stated already.

6) I need to point out that Sense on the EVO does some heavy MMS compression and I truly hated it.

 

[elvis1935]

I have both phones and I really like the gs3 better and there is nothing wrong with the radios in the gs3 that I can see.Also I like the photos I take from the gs3 better.the evo had lag and sence loves to reboot all the time and I don't have that problem with the gs3.and multitasking on the evo does not work but on the gs3 it works great.I can get 14 hours off the battery and that's with some use I like to use my phones also you need to ask your self does a Quandrant score really matter it does not to me and android central and I can live with out a fm radio if you can't then you know the evo is for you then.So for now I have them both and I like my gs3 better.

 

[elvis1935]

Just wanted to post a photo of my battery life I could probably get 15 hours off of it.

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[mcross72]

Hey guys i'm stuck between getting the S3 or the Evo Lte. I'm leaning to the S3 because a non removable battery just kills the Evo for me but I can't help wanting the Evo. I have the S2 right now and its not bad but I hate it compared to the original evo I upgraded from. My biggest gripe is the touch sensitivity on the S2 sucks too me. I have to take time to purposely tap the home, back and such buttons before they respond. Same thing as hanging up the phone after a call. I have to sometime hold the end call button to hang up. The main reason I can't help to want the Evo is because I listen to music and watch video more than anything else on my phone. Whats your opinions. Should I go with evo becahse the screen is awesome, it has Beats audio. Or get the S3 because its just as awesome and has a removable battery? I'm buying one of the phones tomorrow. Any opinions would be great. Right now i'm getting the S3 but.....

 

[Mercury81]

Someone brought up a good point in another thread that was really logical. How many lap tops have a removable battery in them .... Mine doesn't and for four plus years it works fine. If you keep you android phone that long I'm sure you'll be fine if thats thre only thing for your making a decision.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

[mcross72]

Thanks Mercury, it's not the only reason, it's just the biggest reason for me. It's just so easy to put in a second battery and go. No leaving my phone in the truck to charge. I do commercial roofing and sometimes work really late and have 3 kids. Having my phone available at all times is important.

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[malikshuman]

I got both and decided to stick with the evo. To me the screen is better, sense is so much better than touch Wiz, and if you use your phone for music beats audio is great.

Sent from my EVO using Android Central Forums

 

[pcotton]

There is an .FM radio on mine, I'm listening to it now.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Android Central Forums

 

[elvis1935]

Beats is just a fancy eq. And battery life is great on both phones. And for the help said she said for the screen is think the s3 has a better screen. Also. For sence and touchwiz I would not worry about that sence loves to reboot all the time.

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[Mercury81]

Thanks Mercury, it's not the only reason, it's just the biggest reason for me. It's just so easy to put in a second battery and go. No leaving my phone in the truck to charge. I do commercial roofing and sometimes work really late and have 3 kids. Having my phone available at all times is important.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

Ok, are you familiar with external chargers, there are several different ones available and they are really compact. I know amazon has a 5000 mah thats like really cool.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

[malikshuman]

Sense has yet to reboot on me

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[sandman132]

I am currently using both phones, one on my business line and one on my personal. I love both phones but yes there are pros and cons to each device. If you have specific questions let me know

I've taken over 500 pictures with both devices in all different lighting settings. Outside both take great pictures but when it comes to inside pictures and low light the s3 wins that category hands down. I'll post pictures to show the difference.

Evo has much better ui and much easier to upload pictures to fb. However my Wi-Fi is better on the s3. If Samsung might a few changes on the camera ui it would be sure winner. Living in Oregon indoor pictures are needed maybe if I lived some where it's sunny more it wouldn't matter as much.

S3 video looks smoother.

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[Ingry79]

Hi Sandman,

I wanted to know if the s3 snapped pictures quicker than the evo lte. Also have you encountered any dropped calls or no internet from either phone. I don't use FM radio since I love Pandora, the speaker audio quality is either one better louder for both voice calls and music. Thank you I am going to buy one of these tomorrow.

 

[sandman132]

Hey ingry,

The speed is about the same, some say Evo is a little quicker but they are so close hard to tell. The thing about s3 is you don't need to really use the burst feature as much because it takes quick and very steady shots where I find myself using the burst on the Evo to get that good shot.

If your big on taking pictures of kids or family I suggest s3. Purely outdoor shots it's pretty close.

I have not dropped a call on either phone nor lost internet on either. But talking about calls the speaker phone on the s3 is much better then the Evo.

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