Galaxy S3, from an ex-iPhone 4 user

[EndlessDissent]

arent all the antenna at the bottom of modern phones because of the risk of brain cancer?
on my s3 its the middle of the phone that heats up when i push it hard

global s3, UK. Ask me anything and ill reply even if its just an intelligent (or stupid) guess

I'm not sure about your international S3, but the Sprint S3 (and I'm assuming the Verizon and AT&T also) has three antennas: one LTE/EVDO antenna at the bottom, one 1x antenna at the bottom, and one LTE-only antenna at the top.

Source: (UPDATED) Samsung Galaxy S3 passes FCC muster, launch imminent? - Sprint 4G Rollout Updates - Page 2

Also, the iPhone 5 has glass at the top and bottom because it has antennas in both places.

The middle heats up because that's where the battery is.

 

[seoulbrova]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions all, it's great to hear a helpful community. I know my post was long, I was trying to be sarcastic but it doesn't come through too well in text. I will say, however, to the comments about my "accusations" towards the vocal Android users I see on forums, that I understand it goes both ways, and iMore.com sure has an aggressive community, but I'm talking about the comments I see on mostly journalistic sites that attempt (key word) to be unbiased. iMore is clearly an iPhone site, so it's expected, but on many tech news sites, I can only tell you what I saw, and what I saw was very demeaning, aggressive, and ignorant Android fans coming out in droves. And blaming that on lawsuits is ill-conceived I think, courts ruled and it's well within Apple's rights to file the suits, just as it is Samsung's. But enough about that...

So it seems from the comments that I might have a slightly off-kilter unit. My unit gets warm pretty frequently, moreso than what many of you are describing. As for the lagginess, I don't have any power-saving features enabled, and yes, Google maps seems to be working okay when GPS is not enabled, so it may be an antennae issue. I've been eagerly awaiting Jelly Bean so I can see if that improves my performance, but I think I'm going to go in sooner than later and see if the unit is performing below standards.

I will say that when this think works well, I love it and am very happy with the switch. I sort of missed my iPhone for the first 2 weeks, but now, I feel like this is my phone, and as Android improves with each release, that might be the case going forward. We'll see.

Thanks everyone for your help, and any further comments are more thane welcome. I'll update after I bring the phone in for a check.

have you been on BGR, gizmodo, or the verge?
those are all supposed to be tech sites, but you could easily confuse them to be apple sites.
read the iphone 5 review on BGR...it's absolute garbage.

Also, when you state that android users who never used iphone comment that's not actually true. I upgraded by EVO4g to an Iphone 4s. I tried to use it for a month and couldn't stand the closed system and lack of freedom to set up my screens. I ended up giving it to my wife and buying an Epic Touch off contract.

I currently use the Galaxy S3 and recently upgraded another line in my family account for an iphone 5. I had a chance to use that as well and besides being a faster, prettier version of the 4S, the lack of freedom was stifling.

In my household, the less tech savy enjoy the simpleness of the iphone and I dont have problems with that.

 

[ungibbed]

While I have yet to decide if I want to make the jump to the GS3 due to uncertainties like in this very topic. I do own a galaxy S2 (SGH T-989) which after buying was far different than the other Galaxy S2 models on other carriers. I also have a unlocked iPhone 4S. Comparing app speeds on my two phones have produced mixed results but surprisingly some major ones when comparing games or any other apps that tax both the processor and GPU.

My S2 has been updated to the latest carrier release of ICS and the iPhone on iOS 6.

Apple Maps vs. Google Maps: most everyone here has heard the nightmare of Apples decision to drop Google Maps (and a official YouTube app which was released by Google but no iPad version. Grr...

Both perform basic navigation well by car but Google Maps is a clear winner in my situation as I can't drive! So I must rely on mass transit. A feature that Apple's new maps app lacks. Both perform well when using standard maps instead of satellite view as the iPhone is stuck on EDGE on T-Mobile. My Galaxy S2 will easily pull 14Mbps using HSPA+

The ugly... That makes me a sad Panda: Games! I love gaming if its on my computer, PS3, Wii, Vita, or my phones. When comparing these two phones I used two games. One visually taxing on the GPU and the other is a CPU killer. These were NOVA 3 and Angry Birds Space.

NOVA 3 looks simply amazing on the iPhone 4 as I expected. On the other hand on my Galaxy S2, it looks pretty awful with no detail textures and other shaders that just are not being used. The GPU on my GS2 is the Adreno 220. It's great for encoding and playing back full 1080p video and was a great update a year before the T-Mobile GS2 got this combo with the Qualcomm Snapdragon series 3 processor. Dual core at 1.5 Ghz.

Angry Birds Space: Both phones ran this game well and due to the major physics going on both phones were getting rather toasty. My GS2 did start getting rather warm as the processors cranked up the speed, the iPhone 4S did warm up a bit as well. Battery drain was more noticeable on the iPhone due to one issue I will explain later.


Both these phones I have are now yesterday's news but nowhere being down for the count and tossed out for recycling like an old Nokia. Screen brightness is an issue at all times and OLED screens are more power efficient. The largest problem however with OLED is when displaying white, the OLED needs more power than the LCD and the opposite when displaying black where the LCD needs to block the backlight to display black when the OLED simply turns the power off to the visible area.

If you use the web a lot during your travels, the white background and black text are a good way to drain the battery on any device with a OLED screen my GS2 included.


Anyone here playing NOVA 3 on the GS3? How do the visuals look compared to the images on Google Play? It shows my GS2 can't handle the shader model or it's just badly ported.

My only reason for using my iPhone right now is due to a issue with ghost files popping up at random for all my media. Music, videos, pictures. I know how to clear it out but I shouldn't have to be doing this so often. The Jelly Bean update promised by Samsung and T-Mobile is one I'm impatiently waiting for or should I just give up on it and get the GS3? The small iPhone display is hard to type on after getting spoiled with an inch more of space but at a lower resolution.

 

[htabbach]

I went the other way, from Android to iOS and I can tell the OP, the fascination with the customization and the openness of Android will wear out and you will be left with LAG and instability, Android maybe more open and Android phones stack many bells and whistles but at the end of the day, iPhone performs much better than any Android phone. Take it from someone who had used Android for years before I got fed up with the LAG and fragmentation.

Just my personal opinion.

 

[LegalAmerican]

I went the other way, from Android to iOS and I can tell the OP, the fascination with the customization and the openness of Android will wear out and you will be left with LAG and instability, Android maybe more open and Android phones stack many bells and whistles but at the end of the day, iPhone performs much better than any Android phone. Take it from someone who have used Android for years before I got fed up with the LAG and fragmentation.

Just my personal opinion.

I think the largest problem with the phone world, is that some people refuse to be honest with one another. Android has major fragmentation that is by far the biggest achilles heel of the company. It also does have lag. But iPhone's have lagged countless times when I have used them. Especially when leaving an application using the home button, and then swiping the homescreens from side to side to look through the apps.

I am so happy with my S3, so I do not spend even twenty seconds on Apple forums. If you are happy with your device, the ONLY reason you'd examine Android forums is because you want to start something. If you aren't happy with Apple, then you're probably sizing up your options. So be honest with us htabbach. Are you simply trying to be a trolling nuissance, or are you less happy with Apple than you profess?

Android customization is not an experience that will grow stale. It's impossible to get bored when you have countless options and things to tweak. By very definition, boredom does not exist in such an environment. You're confusing your emotions. You may not LIKE to customize, or you may get frustrated by things, but that does not mean Android is boring or the experience will "wear out". If you prefer iPhone, that's awesome. Good for you. But why come here and try to diminish the love that other people have for their Android devices? Hopefully this doesn't just get looked over by the OP who earlier made it sound like Android fans are the only ones needing to be reeled in.

 

[funkylogik]

While I have yet to decide if I want to make the jump to the GS3 due to uncertainties like in this very topic. I do own a galaxy S2 (SGH T-989) which after buying was far different than the other Galaxy S2 models on other carriers. I also have a unlocked iPhone 4S. Comparing app speeds on my two phones have produced mixed results but surprisingly some major ones when comparing games or any other apps that tax both the processor and GPU.

My S2 has been updated to the latest carrier release of ICS and the iPhone on iOS 6.

Apple Maps vs. Google Maps: most everyone here has heard the nightmare of Apples decision to drop Google Maps (and a official YouTube app which was released by Google but no iPad version. Grr...

Both perform basic navigation well by car but Google Maps is a clear winner in my situation as I can't drive! So I must rely on mass transit. A feature that Apple's new maps app lacks. Both perform well when using standard maps instead of satellite view as the iPhone is stuck on EDGE on T-Mobile. My Galaxy S2 will easily pull 14Mbps using HSPA+

The ugly... That makes me a sad Panda: Games! I love gaming if its on my computer, PS3, Wii, Vita, or my phones. When comparing these two phones I used two games. One visually taxing on the GPU and the other is a CPU killer. These were NOVA 3 and Angry Birds Space.

NOVA 3 looks simply amazing on the iPhone 4 as I expected. On the other hand on my Galaxy S2, it looks pretty awful with no detail textures and other shaders that just are not being used. The GPU on my GS2 is the Adreno 220. It's great for encoding and playing back full 1080p video and was a great update a year before the T-Mobile GS2 got this combo with the Qualcomm Snapdragon series 3 processor. Dual core at 1.5 Ghz.

Angry Birds Space: Both phones ran this game well and due to the major physics going on both phones were getting rather toasty. My GS2 did start getting rather warm as the processors cranked up the speed, the iPhone 4S did warm up a bit as well. Battery drain was more noticeable on the iPhone due to one issue I will explain later.


Both these phones I have are now yesterday's news but nowhere being down for the count and tossed out for recycling like an old Nokia. Screen brightness is an issue at all times and OLED screens are more power efficient. The largest problem however with OLED is when displaying white, the OLED needs more power than the LCD and the opposite when displaying black where the LCD needs to block the backlight to display black when the OLED simply turns the power off to the visible area.

If you use the web a lot during your travels, the white background and black text are a good way to drain the battery on any device with a OLED screen my GS2 included.


Anyone here playing NOVA 3 on the GS3? How do the visuals look compared to the images on Google Play? It shows my GS2 can't handle the shader model or it's just badly ported.

My only reason for using my iPhone right now is due to a issue with ghost files popping up at random for all my media. Music, videos, pictures. I know how to clear it out but I shouldn't have to be doing this so often. The Jelly Bean update promised by Samsung and T-Mobile is one I'm impatiently waiting for or should I just give up on it and get the GS3? The small iPhone display is hard to type on after getting spoiled with an inch more of space but at a lower resolution.

just a couple of things that jumped out at me mate. the cpu and gpu on s3 are far superior to the s2 and im sure handle those two different type of game flawlessly.
and theres a widget to make all colours negative so not only is it easyer to read text on a browser but saves battery life. even the AC app can be set to white on black (how i prefer it) and another few apps ive noticed, AppyGeek for example

global s3, UK. Ask me anything and ill reply even if its just an intelligent (or stupid) guess

 

[smooth4lyfe]

I think the largest problem with the phone world, is that some people refuse to be honest with one another. Android has major fragmentation that is by far the biggest achilles heel of the company. It also does have lag. But iPhone's have lagged countless times when I have used them. Especially when leaving an application using the home button, and then swiping the homescreens from side to side to look through the apps.

Problem Solved lol...somewhat of a disk defragmenter
https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...HMuYWR2cmFtb3B0aW16ZXJwYWlkIl0&token=LVG8NTsP.

 

[htabbach]

I think the largest problem with the phone world, is that some people refuse to be honest with one another. Android has major fragmentation that is by far the biggest achilles heel of the company. It also does have lag. But iPhone's have lagged countless times when I have used them. Especially when leaving an application using the home button, and then swiping the homescreens from side to side to look through the apps.

I am so happy with my S3, so I do not spend even twenty seconds on Apple forums. If you are happy with your device, the ONLY reason you'd examine Android forums is because you want to start something. If you aren't happy with Apple, then you're probably sizing up your options. So be honest with us htabbach. Are you simply trying to be a trolling nuissance, or are you less happy with Apple than you profess?

Android customization is not an experience that will grow stale. It's impossible to get bored when you have countless options and things to tweak. By very definition, boredom does not exist in such an environment. You're confusing your emotions. You may not LIKE to customize, or you may get frustrated by things, but that does not mean Android is boring or the experience will "wear out". If you prefer iPhone, that's awesome. Good for you. But why come here and try to diminish the love that other people have for their Android devices? Hopefully this doesn't just get looked over by the OP who earlier made it sound like Android fans are the only ones needing to be reeled in.

Chill dude, the OP was asking a question that involves the iPhone and I used both so I have the right to give him my opinion, you like it or not, does not matter one bit to me.

 

[ungibbed]

just a couple of things that jumped out at me mate. the cpu and gpu on s3 are far superior to the s2 and im sure handle those two different type of game flawlessly.
and theres a widget to make all colours negative so not only is it easyer to read text on a browser but saves battery life. even the AC app can be set to white on black (how i prefer it) and another few apps ive noticed, AppyGeek for example

global s3, UK. Ask me anything and ill reply even if its just an intelligent (or stupid) guess

There's one major difference with the International version of the Galaxy S3 and the US models which are all on Qualcomm chipsets as opposed to the quad core model found in the UK and elsewhere. I've seen videos of the quad core Tegra just crushing games like a monster PC compared to a budget box with on board video.

 

[smooth4lyfe]

I went the other way, from Android to iOS and I can tell the OP, the fascination with the customization and the openness of Android will wear out and you will be left with LAG and instability, Android maybe more open and Android phones stack many bells and whistles but at the end of the day, iPhone performs much better than any Android phone. Take it from someone who had used Android for years before I got fed up with the LAG and fragmentation.

Just my personal opinion.

You must have been using a 1990 Android phone lol The S3 does not lag at all and customization never gets old...I guess it depends on the person though

 

[LegalAmerican]

Chill dude, the OP was asking a question that involves the iPhone and I used both so I have the right to give him my opinion, you like it or not, does not matter one bit to me.

I'm not upset. I'm simply asking for honesty. I don't expect you to care what I do or don't like. I just assume your opinion would be more useful to OP and everyone else if you were honest. What keeps you here if you are so pleased with iOS? Is your opinion tainted due to your desire to troll, or are you here because iOS isn't as great as you say.

Sent from my Galaxy S3

 

[apollooff320]

You must have been using a 1990 Android phone lol The S3 does not lag at all and customization never gets old...I guess it depends on the person though

How about telling some truth. Yes the S3 does lag but does it lag as much as other phones? the answer is no...but it also depends on apps too. I installed Jelly Bean Roms on my S3 and still expereice lag from certain apps because they are built funky. JB makes the phone UI smooth and not apps that are already buggy and laggy. It's up to the develpers now to stop coming out with buggy and laggy apps.

 

[xlDeMoNiClx]

How about telling some truth. Yes the S3 does lag but does it lag as much as other phones? the answer is no...but it also depends on apps too. I installed Jelly Bean Roms on my S3 and still expereice lag from certain apps because they are built funky. JB makes the phone UI smooth and not apps that are already buggy and laggy. It's up to the develpers now to stop coming out with buggy and laggy apps.

I'm pretty sure every device will lag at some point. Even the most advance device in the world isn't perfect and something will always cause it to perform less than flawlessly. This includes the S3, iPhone 5, Note 2, etc.

 

[htabbach]

I'm not upset. I'm simply asking for honesty. I don't expect you to care what I do or don't like. I just assume your opinion would be more useful to OP and everyone else if you were honest. What keeps you here if you are so pleased with iOS? Is your opinion tainted due to your desire to troll, or are you here because iOS isn't as great as you say.

Sent from my Galaxy S3

I am not trolling, I still visit this site as I still visit webOS sites( webOS is even better than Android and iOS) although I am not a webOS user anymore, I like technology!

 

[htabbach]

You must have been using a 1990 Android phone lol The S3 does not lag at all and customization never gets old...I guess it depends on the person though

I was at the Sprint store the other day and thought i would compare the iPhone5 and the S3 cameras, I don't own either of these phones. I picked up the iPhone and closed all opened apps and took a picture, I then picked up the S3, closed all open apps and fired up the camera, 7 seconds later I walked away when the camera app has not opened yet. This is not specific to the phone, it is Android, it has this massive random LAGs regardless of the phone make and model, I experienced this with 3 different Android phones. Does the iPhone lag, maybe, but not in the 8 months I have been using it. This is not a hate or fanboy post, this is experience.

 

[xlDeMoNiClx]

I was at the Sprint store the other day and thought i would compare the iPhone5 and the S3 cameras, I don't own either of these phones. I picked up the iPhone and closed all opened apps and took a picture, I then picked up the S3, closed all open apps and fired up the camera, 7 seconds later I walked away when the camera app has not opened yet. This is not specific to the phone, it is Android, it has this massive random LAGs regardless of the phone make and model, I experienced this with 3 different Android phones. Does the iPhone lag, maybe, but not in the 8 months I have been using it. This is not a hate or fanboy post, this is experience.

My camera app take like 1.5 seconds to open so that unit isn't the best example. And I have the Evo 3D. Nowhere near as powerful as the S3.

 

[evperry]

The GS3 is a better phone.

The iphone however is without a doubt more for the masses.

And if we are all honest here Android 4.0 is the first Android incarnation that beat out the iphone. Jelly bean begins to blow it away and by the time we hit 5.0 it will be world's ahead.

I should point out every computer in my house is an Apple.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

 

[smooth4lyfe]

Here is a recent comparison with the Samsung Galaxy GS3 with Jellybean compared to the iPhone5 with iOS 6
Samsung Galaxy S III with Jelly Bean VS. Apple iPhone 5 with iOS 6 [Full Comparison] | Josephws's?Blog | YouMobile

 

[LegalAmerican]

I was at the Sprint store the other day and thought i would compare the iPhone5 and the S3 cameras, I don't own either of these phones. I picked up the iPhone and closed all opened apps and took a picture, I then picked up the S3, closed all open apps and fired up the camera, 7 seconds later I walked away when the camera app has not opened yet. This is not specific to the phone, it is Android, it has this massive random LAGs regardless of the phone make and model, I experienced this with 3 different Android phones. Does the iPhone lag, maybe, but not in the 8 months I have been using it. This is not a hate or fanboy post, this is experience.

I'm 99% certain this is not accurate. I would love to visit a sprint store with you and see if you could recreate this. The bad thing about the Internet is that anyone can claim something. I could say it took 10 minutes to kill the battery on my iPhone 5 while my S3 battery has never needed a charge in the 3 months I've owned it, and no one could prove me wrong. How come NO ONE complains about their camera app taking upwards of ten seconds to open, yet an Android hater somehow got three phones to do it at Sprint?

Sent from my Galaxy S3

 

[dphorgan2#AC]

I bought an iPhone 5 on launch day coming from a Nexus with 4.1 on it with a Nexus 7. I'm going tomorrow to switch back to my Nexus. I CAN'T STAND the iPhone, you can't do 1/10th the stuff you can do on Android. That is not my opinion. Its fact, I went into the iPhone with no opinion and a clean slate. I got the iPhone for the great battery life and undeniable beautiful HW. But with 2 chips in the aluminum only after 3 days of extreme babying and the list of "can't do this, can't do that" adding up, I got to the point I decided to dump it. Not saying the iPhone is crap, it just doesn't fit MY needs. Infact I just now have to add to my long list of can't do list lol. I was on my Nexus phone and wanted to switch to my tablet. So I just NFC'd the page over lol.