Upgrading Phone - S3 or S4?

[Azwizzard]

My wife and I are due for phone upgrades with Sprint. I am currently running a S2 and the wife has an original HTC EVO.

I was planning on upgrading to the S4 for both of us ($219 each) but I just saw they dropped the price of the S3 to $39 each.

So my question is, is the S3 still a viable and good option to upgrade to for $39 each or should I spend the money and go with the S4??

Are the advances in the S4 worth the extra $180 each? Will the S3 continue to be supported for the next 2 years? Etc, Etc, Etc.....

We usually keep our phones for the full 2 years before upgrading (or whatever Sprint's upgrade cycle is.)

 

[The WheelMan]

The S3 sold millions, was the most popular phone last year, and isn't quite a year old yet. It's not going anywhere any time soon. I mean even the S2 is still being sold.

You can find some videos on YouTube comparing the two phones, which might help.

 

[taylorz_412]

Both are great and will be supported but my money goes to the s4, it's better in every single category

 

[phippsy84]

Get the S4 if you are in for an upgrade you are going to reup for 2 years at the end of that the S3 will be a three year old piece of hardware.

 

[neebi007]

Which phone to upgrade... Difficult question. You due for upgrade then best of looking for offer available from other providers and wot thy offering for s4. if you find some cheaper contract from different provider note down all details and ring up you're current provider. Tell them you'll move to new provider unless thy "beat" this offer. Alot of time your current provider make up special discounts for good customers due for upgrade. Give it a shot.
As for phones s4 is better then s3 in specs. But both does same thing, run on same OS.

:*:N33b1:*:

 

[meyerweb#CB]

I would suggest reading the reviews of the S4, then reading the S4 forums, and deciding if the new features of the S4 really matter to you. Also go to a Sprint store and compare the two. My son and I did that recently, and he decided the S4 was not worth the additional money. Personally, I feel the same way. But one or more of the features the S4 offers may really grab you, or your wife.

The S4 seems to have a few teething problems, but that's pretty typical for new high-end phones and I'm sure they'll be fixed with an OTA or two. If you want to root and play with custom ROMs, there are lots of choices for the 3. Eventually I'm sure there will be custom ROMs for the S4, too, but not yet. OTOH, the S4 will certainly get upgraded to Android 5.0 (or whatever the next major upgrade will be). The S3 might be, but that's less certain. At some point the S4 will continue to get upgrades while the S3 won't.

For me, the S3 does everything I need it to do. While the extra features of the S4 are cool, and I'm sure I'd use some of them if I had them, I don't feel I'm really missing something important. Other people feel differently, no doubt.

 

[Raymond Tan]

Most phones have support about 2yrs after initial release. During the phones life it will probably get 2 serious updates to android. So hopefully S3 will get the Key Lime Pie Update but the S4 definitely will. The phone will still work fine even after support has ended. I had a Droid X up until last year, and it worked fine. It was still on Ice Cream Sandwich. It was just a little slow and I had issues with running some of the current apps, but it was released in 2010.

As far as comparing the S3 to the S4 it's not a huge difference. It really depends on how you use your phone. I honestly think that the average person has a more powerful phone and/or computer than they need. If your just checking your email and surfing the internet you won't really be able to tell the difference. You also may not even use any of the new software features of the S4.
Big advances in phones technology usually happen every other version(or 2yrs.) I think the biggest advance has been the connection speeds(3G,4G), and seeing that the S3 and S4 both have 4G its not a huge jump in technology. The processor speeds have increased but your taking about opening an app 1 sec faster. It is running a newer version of android which may improve battery life.

I just recently got an S3($250 used) to keep my unlimited data plan. The only reason I did not wait, go for the S4 is that I didn't want to pay $700 for an out of contract phone.

Having said all that, if someone were to offer me to exchange my s3 and $180(making the total for me $430) for an S4, I would probably take it, but I'm a techy so I'm biased like most people who would be visiting this kind forum.

In the end you can think of it this way. The S4 came out one year after the S3, so you'll get one more year out the S4 than the S3. I perfectly happy with the S3(except that on Verizon theres no multiwindow) but the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. If you get the S3 you'll always be wondering if you should have gotten the S4, but I doubt it would be the same the other way around. You could always just wait for the S5,S6 etc....etc... They'll be even better.

 

[ttwiitch]

If money is not that big of an issue, go for the S4....

I still have one upgrade for my FAM plan and waiting for a deal alert of $99-150 to get the S4

Do I need it? No. I just got new S3's on Christmas.....but the phone just blew me away when I went into the store to compare it with mine and also HTC One.

Sent from my Galaxy S3?

 

[Azwizzard]

Well I was at Costco today and I can get the S4 for $199 + they give me a $35 credit on my bill + some free accessories (car charger, etc) so it is like getting it for $165. I think I will be going this route since I will be keeping them for 2 years.

 

[taylorz_412]

Well I was at Costco today and I can get the S4 for $199 + they give me a $35 credit on my bill + some free accessories (car charger, etc) so it is like getting it for $165. I think I will be going this route since I will be keeping them for 2 years.

Good decision IMO you won't be disappointed

 

[Golfdriver97]

I was going to suggest getting the S4 for the reason that the S3 is about a year old, and the possibility of the S3 getting Key Lime in my opinion is slim. Here is my logic: Samsung phones are almost always an OS version behind, I am excluding any custom ROMs. With Google announcing that there will be a version 4.3, that means that 4.2.2 will be coming to the galaxy series eventually. Now consider the time between OS version releases, and also the delay in the Galaxy series getting the prior OS versions, that is more time that the S3 will age. Major OS versions tend to be several months to about a year apart. I really think 4.3 is going to be the most updated Android version the S3 will get officially.

 

[meyerweb#CB]

You could be right, but no one really knows. The much older S2 has gotten Jellybean, so I expect the S3 to get KLP. Time will tell.

 

[dominick]

I know it's hard to do, but don't get into the trap of getting an upgrade as soon as your 2-year is up... you can always do your research and mull your decision over while you have your "old" phone.

If time is a factor (expiring discount/promo), I would go for the S4. Does the S4 come with a free micro sd?

cheers/dom

 

[QWIKSTRIKE]

My wife and I are due for phone upgrades with Sprint. I am currently running a S2 and the wife has an original HTC EVO.

I was planning on upgrading to the S4 for both of us ($219 each) but I just saw they dropped the price of the S3 to $39 each.

So my question is, is the S3 still a viable and good option to upgrade to for $39 each or should I spend the money and go with the S4??

Are the advances in the S4 worth the extra $180 each? Will the S3 continue to be supported for the next 2 years? Etc, Etc, Etc.....

We usually keep our phones for the full 2 years before upgrading (or whatever Sprint's upgrade cycle is.)

I'd wait to see what the note 3 is packing. I hear that Sprint will be offering the 800mhz LTE phone by the years end. The note seems to always come with all frequencies and has a killer antenna radio. I think the note 3 will be relevant for quite some time even if you just use it a as a phablet for web and taking "notes" in the future.lol

 

[Ntchwaidumela]

If it's not too late to interject my 2 cents, here goes. Everyone who commented here has excellent info and all are valid points. (That's what makes AC forums so valuable) In your position, since you keep your phones for the entire contract time, I would get the S4. Even though you may not feel you need all the extra features now, it just makes sense. You'll have all the S3 features, plus all the new ones. Any updates will come to the S4 first, with no guarantee that many of them will even be available to the "older" S3, even though Sprint is always on top of this (and almost always ahead of the other carriers). So, I think if you're looking for devices that are going to take you through the next several years of a new contract, the S4 would be the best bet. In the long run, the extra cost may offset other issues. BTW, the 32GB and 64GB versions are being released. So, if storage is an issue, you may want to wait just a bit for either of those.

 

[The WheelMan]

One other thought. As even some reviewers are now pointing out, cellphones like the S3 have so much power now that the difference between them and the newer, "better" phones isn't so big. You can get the S3 and use it for years as long as you're not a "latest and greatest" junkie. If a phone like the S3 does everything you need and suits you, then there is nothing wrong with getting it and keeping it as long as you want. I just got my S3 used off eBay instead of waiting for my upgrade next year primarily because I had to get away from my BB Torch now. It just wasn't performing well. Maybe next year I'll use my upgrade on the S5, or maybe I'll wait for the S6. As long as the S3 performs as well as it is now, I won't have any need to change phones any time soon.

 

[Azwizzard]

Just a quick update - Costco called today and stated that they received some of the Sprint S4's in today so I went down there. Walked away with 2 new phones. Wife got the white one and I got the black one. Went home and spent the next couple hours setting up both phones and re-downloading all our programs.

So far, the little I got to play with it, I really like it. Much faster than my S2 and A LOT faster then my wife's EVO.

I know the available storage is only 9(ish) gigs, but that's plenty for us. We both have SD cards for the little bit of music we have and the photos we take. Heck, with 2 gigs available on the S2 I still had 1.2 gigs free with all my apps on my phone.

Thanks for all the suggestions / help!

 

[BergerKing]

Just a quick update - Costco called today and stated that they received some of the Sprint S4's in today so I went down there. Walked away with 2 new phones. Wife got the white one and I got the black one. Went home and spent the next couple hours setting up both phones and re-downloading all our programs.

So far, the little I got to play with it, I really like it. Much faster than my S2 and A LOT faster then my wife's EVO.

I know the available storage is only 9(ish) gigs, but that's plenty for us. We both have SD cards for the little bit of music we have and the photos we take. Heck, with 2 gigs available on the S2 I still had 1.2 gigs free with all my apps on my phone.

Thanks for all the suggestions / help!

Glad to see you went with the S4,which I went in to test drive the other day, since I had time on my hands. Best Buy had set up a dedicated Samsung Center, as they seem to be doing in a great many stores, now. Couldn't help but notice the better screen and feel of the phone, overall. Camera took some nice pics that I WiFi Direct shared to my S3, played with the Note 2, and checked out their growing selection of accessories. I may decide to grab a Note 2 when the price goes down, but I do like what they've done with the S4. Good show!

 

[Vladabeast]

S3 is still a good option if your on a tight budget, but if you have the money to pay for the s4 then get it.

Sent from my Galaxy SIII