Verizon Galaxy Nexus to Galaxy S3

[mzdrati]

Hi- I'm new to the S3 forum, and am looking for some assistance.

I just worked out a deal with Verizon to have my long out of warranty Verizon Galaxy Nexus replaced with a "Certified Preowned" GS3. I have had bluetooth problems that basically made hands-free phone use impossible ever since the Android 4.2.2 update in April of this year (which is a deal breaker for me, as I drive a lot for work). I like the Galaxy Nexus fine (except for the software problems that limit its functionality)- but my question is- is there a way to test whether bluetooth handsfree functionality will work with the GS3 without activating the phone? I really want to make sure that works before jumping in and changing phones.

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can offer.

 

[bboykin87]

I made the same change and I use my S3 daily to listen to music and podcasts for 4-6 hours a day sometimes more via bluetooth and it works fine.

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[GSDer]

In answer to your question, no, you'd have to activate the phone in order to make calls so that you could test hands-free.
If you just wanted to pair it with your car bluetooth or your bluetooth headset, and play music, that would work without activation.

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM -0.001 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[drmaf894c]

I agree I think you would have to actually activate the phone to make sure it worked. You might be able to connect the blue tooth (but I doubt it) without activation but to truly know if it was going to work or not you would have to activate and make a call I would suspect. Sorry.

 

[abtxpress]

Yes you can... use hangouts or skype or something of the sort. My S3 Bluetooth works fine.

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[mzdrati]

I appreciate the responses. So the actual answer to my question is that yes- it is easily accomplished. When I started up the GS3 for the first time, I bypassed the setup screen (by pressing the lower left corner, lower right corner, lower left corner, lower right corner then volume up in the language selection screen. The phone behaves as if the mobile radio is turned off, but the rest of the device is fully usable. I inserted a micro SD card that has some music on it and discovered that not only did A2DP work flawlessly, but pairing the phone with my 2003 BMW for hands free phone operation was absolutely successful (the first time) as well.

Getting to play around with the GS3 for awhile without having to change anything about my Galaxy Nexus was a bonus- but knowing bluetooth pairing will be reliable and easy is all I needed to know. I'm keeping the GS3 and sending the Galaxy Nexus back to Verizon

I really will miss the vanilla Android experience. I'm brand new to Touch Wiz, and don't like the animations all that much- but I'll get used to it. The device is much more functional than my stock Galaxy Nexus.

Thank you again for the assistance!

 

[abtxpress]

I gave my nexus to my son and took on touchwiz in full force 4 days ago. I've never been a fan of touchwiz nor the verizon/samsung bloat. But at this point I really don't feel the need to root/rom my S3. I've disabled most of what I can (bloat). With the jb already on the s3 I don't feel like anything is missing, except adaway. Thats the only root app I really used. I've always rooted and just ran a stock rom minus bloat. Good luck with your new s3 :-D

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[abtxpress]

Oh, and holy crap... the battery last most of the day vs my charge 3 times a day gnex.

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[Comp625]

I realize thread is old, but I also wanted to chime in for future users who are looking to have the same question answered.

I had the Galaxy Nexus for over a year, and despite the flexibility of always having updated community software (e.g. custom ROM's), the battery life and limited RAM (750mb) were painful to live with. Transitioning over to the S3 was a dream -- I had to try in order to hit the 2gb RAM wall. Battery life can last me a day on light-to-moderate use (which sounds terrible but it was WAY better than the Nexus's battery life).