Looking at buying my first Smart Phone.

[Whydmer]

Been reading about the galaxy S3 since May, went to a Verizon store yesterday and looked at it. The size did not overly intimidate me. The cost is manageable, but of course more than I have ever spent on a phone before. Previously I was a stick in the mud about getting a smart phone, but once I changed my perspective to a smart phone being a pocket computer with phone capabilities I became suddenly much more interested.

My question for you all is whether the S3 is a good first smart phone? obviously it is a good to great phone. And I have no desire to buy an iPhone. In other words I have no previous experience with smart phones or Android to bias me. Nothing that I have to unlearn. I am capable enough with technical devices, especially when they catch my interest. Is there anything that I should think about, or reasons that I should look at a different phone? Or should I look at a 7" tablet like the Nexus 7?

Thank you all in advance for your feedback.

 

[kalnel#WN]

I can't think of any reason why it wouldn't be a good first smartphone, unless you have an interest in building custom ROMs or something.

I'm curious why you don't want an iPhone, though. Is there something about the way it operates or what it does that you don't like? I'm not pushing the iPhone -- I much prefer Android -- but you might want to make sure the SIII doesn't have the same issues. For instance, if you don't like working with apps, that would be an issue on Android or iPhone.

 

[Whydmer]

I have purchased iPod touches for both my sons, and played with them a little, my mother-in-law has an iPhone and I have played with that. (yeah it is totally embarrassing that my mother-in-law has a smart phone before I do as I am the tech-geek in the family) Anyway, part of it is the smaller size, I want to have some screen real estate to watch videos/play games etc., part of it is that I want to be able to tinker with it and customize a little bit, but then again not too much. I am fairly conservative/cautious in nature so that I would like to individualize but I don't think the Verizon bootloader issue would really effect me, especially for my first smart phone.

Apps are of course going to be new for me, and I am sure I will be back here with many questions about what is good and the like, but they don't put me off at all. I have good wi-fi at home and at work, so I will be mainly on wi-fi. I live in a small town that does not have 4g yet, probably not until next year, so data should not be an issue at this time.

 

[ibcop]

I just moved to Android from being a BlackBerry user for many years. I have tried many other Android devices to include the Razr, T-Bolt, Inspire, and a few others. I have to say the S3 has exceeded my expectations thus far. Battery life on a Droid has been subpar until the release of the Razr Maxx. That being said, I am pleased with the battery life of the S3 - it gets me through the day. I think you'd do just fine with the S3 plus you'd have the 14 day window to try it on for size. I got the16gb version but now going to get the 32gb as soon as my local store gets one in - not that a 16gb version won't suit me but I am thinking long term and when it comes to re-selling it.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[Forgetful]

Yes. A great one in fact. If you're technology smart it'll be no issue. But if you're 50+ and don't know how to run a computer well you might have a issue. Just read the manual and watch some YouTube videos on how android works in general. There will be a slight learning curve for a day but after that you'll love it and won't be able to put it down. And you have the Forums if you have any questions.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Whydmer]

Just miss that 50+ cut-off... And I am a gamer and reformed tech geek (I have forgotten more than care to think about).

 

[Whydmer]

Sorry for the double post, but I bought it. Best Buy honored Radio Shack's $50 discount.
We used Bluetooth to migrate my contacts from my old phone, (I had never set up the Backup Asst.) and then the phone started slowing down/acting up and shutting down TouchWiz. Happened on two phones, didn't do that when just connecting to Bluetooth, and doesn't do it if I manually enter contacts. They called Samsung support and they were not aware of an issue with that either, but both phones were fine when that wasn't done and TouchWiz was not happy afterwards on both of them.

Anyway I am now patiently or not so patiently waiting for it to fully charge.

Now I will go off to try and learn about how to use it and use Android.

 

[Forgetful]

Very cool congrats. After you get all your apps and settings fixed up give it a reboot to help everything settle.

I dislike the "backup assistance" program VZW uses, I have everything on my Gmail account and never set up the backup assistant. I've heard blue tooth can sometimes have a bug so I don't know if that's what you encountered. Update in the future will fix it if there is something. I don't use bluetooth anyways though.


Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

 

[kalnel#WN]

From what you said about your interests, it should be a good phone for you. You mentioned that you're coming from Blackberry, so I wonder if you're also using Exchange email. If so, rather than downloading contacts, you could set up your Exchange account to sync with the SIII.

I sync contacts, calendar, and tasks with the native Android app, and email with Touchdown, a third-party program.

 

[soccerdude2014]

The Samsung Galaxy S3 is my first smart phone too haha. My parents finally let me get a smartphone, but i have to pay them the monthly data charge -_- but anyways i'm young soo im just good with technology, and I quickly got accustomed to the S3. I love how you can customize it, and it isn't TOO much that it'll seem over whelming. Its a great phone and you should stick with it.

 

[lbkiml]

The Samsung Galaxy S3 is my first smart phone too haha. My parents finally let me get a smartphone, but i have to pay them the monthly data charge -_- but anyways i'm young soo im just good with technology, and I quickly got accustomed to the S3. I love how you can customize it, and it isn't TOO much that it'll seem over whelming. Its a great phone and you should stick with it.

+1 on this being my first smartphone.

Just picked up mine at the Verizon store today. First smartphone, only because I can finally pay for my own, and I'm paying for my whole family's phone bill.

 

[peteypab2133]

You get what you pay for with smart phones. The Enlighten, Pro, Rhyme etc will be easy to out grow. Pay a few dollars more and get something reliable and dependible with room to grow into its features.

the phones in order i would buy.

1) Galaxy S3
2) Galaxy Nexus
3) Razr maxx
4) Incredible 4G
5) iPhone 4s

I sell these the most. Stay away from things like the Lucid and spectrum. I see many battery/speaker issues.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Whydmer]

peteypab2133, that is pretty much the ranking I had in my mind prior to buying anything. Very happy so far with my SGS3, so much to learn though. Yesterday was pretty much a lost day in playing with the phone.

One of the nice things about being a complete newcomer is that little things that bug you vets are still nice novelties to me. I even had some fun with S-Voice, though I admit it is faster to do things manually at this point.

And good lord the multitude of choice of Apps, definitely having some option paralysis at times. One of the first Apps I downloaded was a Radar app, we are in the midst of our "monsoon" season here in the southwest and to be able to watch storms rolling toward me on my phone = Awesomeness!

Quick question, if I am not much of a predictive text user is Swiftkey the consensus choice for best keyboard or is Swype the better one?

 

[ansextra]

peteypab2133, that is pretty much the ranking I had in my mind prior to buying anything. Very happy so far with my SGS3, so much to learn though. Yesterday was pretty much a lost day in playing with the phone.

One of the nice things about being a complete newcomer is that little things that bug you vets are still nice novelties to me. I even had some fun with S-Voice, though I admit it is faster to do things manually at this point.

And good lord the multitude of choice of Apps, definitely having some option paralysis at times. One of the first Apps I downloaded was a Radar app, we are in the midst of our "monsoon" season here in the southwest and to be able to watch storms rolling toward me on my phone = Awesomeness!

Quick question, if I am not much of a predictive text user is Swiftkey the consensus choice for best keyboard or is Swype the better one?

Swiftkey will MAKE you a predictive text user... I was a die-hard Swype fan on my Droid X until I tried Swiftkey...

 

[Zhara]

Swiftkey will MAKE you a predictive text user... I was a die-hard Swype fan on my Droid X until I tried Swiftkey...

Same here. Nothing could tear me away from my Swype...until I met SwiftKey. I've been using the 30 day free trial and I'll definitely be buying it as soon as the trial is over.

 

[vr002sh]

+1 for Swiftkey

 

[lbkiml]

Dvorak keyboard layout + predictive text off + stubby thumbs here