Not a real review. There are lots of those. But after 4 days with it, some things are apparent;
Display - Wow. The reviews whine and cry about the pentile display. And while it was pretty obvious on the Razr Maxx, it isn't on the S3. The display is as sharp and clean as my iPad3. No pixelation, great color, just beautiful. it's also a good size. I have a Samsung Player 5 with of course a 5" screen which does duty as a pocket carry tablet. The S3 screen is big enough to take over for it, so now I just need one device.
Sound - also amazing. I wear hearing aids, and placement of the handset by my ear is nowhere near as fussy as it is with the Razr. Sound is loud and clear. Speaker phone is also very good.
Keyboard - sucks. Utterly sucks. It's pure frustration. It often insists on inserting a word I don't freaking want and I can go back and change it as often as I want and it will change it right back. Holy CRAP is it bad. I am used to miserable Samsung keypads, but this one is the bottom of the barrel. I downloaded the beta of Swype and as bad as the stock keyboard is, the beta Swype is good. Get it.
Camera - haven't used it yet. It gets good reviews. I am happy with the Razr camera, which doesn't get good reviews. So I am assuming I will be satisfied with the S3 camera.
Performance - niiiiiiice. Everything is much quicker and more fluid than on my Razr.
Size - I like the heft and feel of the Razr better than the S3. It feels more solid. I can't find anything specific to complain about on the S3, but it just feels less substantial than the Razr Maxx. It' slimmer and fits my pants pocket better, and it's lighter. So that's a plus. And I realize that the build is just as tough as the Razr. It just doesn't feel like it. Maybe they should have made it from armor plate to make me happy
Battery - uh oh. Man, this thing goes through battery fast. I disabled some of the cycle-grabbing background crap I will never use and that seemed to help a little. What helps a lot is putting thing thing into power saver mode. While that does help - and I repeat, it helps a LOT - it also gives you a major performance hit. All that smooth goodness is gone. While the phone is useable, it's no longer what you paid for in terms of performance. Things stutter and hesitate that don't normally. I wish there was a widget to change modes, but it's not too hard to get to since it's on the power bar.
Radios - all seem to perform well, but really I'm in a good area. Oddly, Painesville seems to be very well covered and they have great LTE - not to mention fiber everywhere for cheap In Painesville, Ohio! Go figure.
S-Voice - yeah.... If it worked it would be good. But it just complains about unable to reach the network. I tried to work, but after a couple of commands it just croaked. Sorry, it's no Siri. Or even the other apps, like Eva or VLingo.
Display - Wow. The reviews whine and cry about the pentile display. And while it was pretty obvious on the Razr Maxx, it isn't on the S3. The display is as sharp and clean as my iPad3. No pixelation, great color, just beautiful. it's also a good size. I have a Samsung Player 5 with of course a 5" screen which does duty as a pocket carry tablet. The S3 screen is big enough to take over for it, so now I just need one device.
Sound - also amazing. I wear hearing aids, and placement of the handset by my ear is nowhere near as fussy as it is with the Razr. Sound is loud and clear. Speaker phone is also very good.
Keyboard - sucks. Utterly sucks. It's pure frustration. It often insists on inserting a word I don't freaking want and I can go back and change it as often as I want and it will change it right back. Holy CRAP is it bad. I am used to miserable Samsung keypads, but this one is the bottom of the barrel. I downloaded the beta of Swype and as bad as the stock keyboard is, the beta Swype is good. Get it.
Camera - haven't used it yet. It gets good reviews. I am happy with the Razr camera, which doesn't get good reviews. So I am assuming I will be satisfied with the S3 camera.
Performance - niiiiiiice. Everything is much quicker and more fluid than on my Razr.
Size - I like the heft and feel of the Razr better than the S3. It feels more solid. I can't find anything specific to complain about on the S3, but it just feels less substantial than the Razr Maxx. It' slimmer and fits my pants pocket better, and it's lighter. So that's a plus. And I realize that the build is just as tough as the Razr. It just doesn't feel like it. Maybe they should have made it from armor plate to make me happy
Battery - uh oh. Man, this thing goes through battery fast. I disabled some of the cycle-grabbing background crap I will never use and that seemed to help a little. What helps a lot is putting thing thing into power saver mode. While that does help - and I repeat, it helps a LOT - it also gives you a major performance hit. All that smooth goodness is gone. While the phone is useable, it's no longer what you paid for in terms of performance. Things stutter and hesitate that don't normally. I wish there was a widget to change modes, but it's not too hard to get to since it's on the power bar.
Radios - all seem to perform well, but really I'm in a good area. Oddly, Painesville seems to be very well covered and they have great LTE - not to mention fiber everywhere for cheap
In Painesville, Ohio! Go figure.S-Voice - yeah.... If it worked it would be good. But it just complains about unable to reach the network. I tried to work, but after a couple of commands it just croaked. Sorry, it's no Siri. Or even the other apps, like Eva or VLingo.
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