Re: Sprint Galaxy S III First Impressions/Reviews
I've had my SGS3 for almost a week now. I'm coming from an SGS2, which is now my wife's SGS2. She upgraded from her Intercept, so needless to say she's thrilled with it.
I was quite pleased with the SGS2, so I'm in heaven now. It's lighter, sleeker, and even more of a joy to use. I didn't realize how awesome the screen upgrade would be -- the SGS3 screen is just clear and wonderful. Netflix looks absolutely stunning on it. All on-screen actions are smooth and snappy -- it's really everything I would have wanted in that regard. Touchwiz is definitely improved, though I my jump to another. By default the home screens loop, so I haven't tested to see if I can set it so my wallpapers will scroll -- I hope so, it's one of those things I really like.
The hardware I don't like is the physical button at the bottom. I have no idea why they didn't keep it like all the other buttons. I hate that I have to add an entirely different level of pressure to activate that one item than I do everything else on the phone. And with a case that wraps around the edge, it's even a little hard to get to, esp. with one-handed actions. I find that button quite annoying, and wish it were like all the others.
The phone sounds great, and has great reception. I get a little bit better range with it than the SGS2. The phone graphics are updated and more pleasing, and you can have more than 9 speed-dial options, which I like (though I haven't used yet). The GPS appears stronger than my SGS2, and WiFi does just what it's supposed to without a hitch. Where I live and work doesn't have 4G, but I live near a city with 4G. I am not in the city too often, and when I am I rarely spend much time on apps that depend on heavy data use, so losing 4G wasn't a big issue for me. Naturally, I was told that LTE would be in sometime in the fall, so I figure it'll be here about the time I get the SGS4.
More built-in widgets than before, but nothing that amazes me. Others may have a better appreciation for them. Flipboard has a widget, and I kind of dig that app.
I do believe that ICS is more intuitive in handling cross-application contact information and is much closer to what I loved about webOS. This was very important to me, and the improvement is noticable.
Everything ported nicely from the SGS2 through Gmail and my Sprint account. The phone even started automatically downloading all my apps that I had loaded on the SGS2.
I haven't worked the media too much on this phone, but will soon. The external speaker on this phone is decidedly better than the SGS2, but then it's still a phone speaker.
For me, battery life is WICKEDLY BETTER than the SGS2, and immediately makes this phone a completely worthwhile upgrade for that feature alone.
In all, except for that D#%$ physical center button, this phone is an across-the-board improvement. I'm a happy customer.