Discussion on:

10 things you should know before buying a Galaxy S III smartphone

Bought two Galaxy S-III's on August 9th. One for wife and one for me. Wife's is still working perfectly for her. Mine has been frustrating, to say the least. It works great when it works! But sometimes it simply locks up totally. I took it back to Verizon a few days later and they told me it was *my* fault for installing bad apps. Huh?? I only installed the usual, popular apps. So they did factory reset and it worked again.

I learned how to do the factory reset and had to do it about five times over four weeks. I went back to the Verizon store. Now they said the phone is defective and are sending me a replacement, which should arrive today. We shall see how this unfolds.

It is very frustrating to come off the plane, turn on the phone, and find it fully locked up. Cannot even turn it off. I hope I just got a "lemon" and the next one will actually work. For $200 plus contract I was hoping for a better experience.

Debra,

I don't think that a week of usage can give you enough experience to summarize the good and the bad of this device. Full reviews of this phone have been done for other journalists but they have spent more time with the phone.

I have been using my GS3 for 8 weeks now and, yes, I have found some issues that I do not like. Also, there are many many other things that I do like about this device. When someone ask me about my impressions I am cautious about the not-so-good things because I do not want them to think this is a phone they should avoid. They should get it because it's great!

I just hope you spend more time with your devices before giving a professional review of them.

PS: No wi-fi problems at all with my device.

I forgot to mention, Have only been able to get Kies to work once. And that's with three different phones using three different computers.

I joined this so I can learn how to use my new
Samsung Galaxy S III. keep posting new tips
I appreciate it.

Wow, I just read some of the other comments and the take away is that this phone release is subject to lots of quality control issues. Look back over the reviews eliminating the ones reflecting personal taste. What you find is a list of performance issues that point at poor quality control. WiFi, reception, 3G connectivity issues, its a list. Some good and enough bad to take notice
As for living with a phone longer before forming an opinion I would respond with a caution. Keep it that long and youll never get rid of an expensive piece of junk

I, too, must commend you on this article. Well written and fair, it seems you actually tried to figure things out and didn't just quickly dismiss as a failure anything that didn't go your way. And it seems you put each of the negatives into a proper perspective of relative importance.

(And for me, the microSD card treatment is a real deal breaker, so thanks for that bit of info. I'm glad my G2 is good enough for now. If I had to buy a phone now, I would lean toward the SIII, and my gut tells me this is not the phone for me. This just helps confirm that gut instinct. Sadly, there is nothing else out there that is really compelling for me.)

Thanks for a good article, and I look forward to reading more of your stuffs.

.. is a common "feature" on all devices running Android 4.0, as the internal SD card is now shifted to /data/media instead of /sdcard as before, so that the entire internal storage can be used to install apps, as is seen on the Galaxy Nexus as well as the Optimus 4X HD. So that is a feature you will have to live with on any Android smartphone that comes with Android 4.0/4.1 out of the box, as there is no way to mount the internal storage as a physical partition. More details are here: http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/11/18/impromptu-qa-session-with-android-engineer-dan-morrill-brings-to-light-reasons-behind-galaxy-nexus-lack-of-usb-mass-storage/
So I'm not really sure that should be included as a bad thing. Since the entire 11GB space is available for installing apps, that's quite good, though people will have to be told to keep the internal storage empty, haha. But again, that will be common on all new devices now that come with internal SD card. The external storage should by default be allowed to be connected in mass storage mode as it is still a physical partition, but it seems not everyone is allowing it to be.

Otherwise, great article.

I'm currently using Jellybean on my old MyTouch 4G, and I can say with certainty that once the S3 updates you'll be able to just use google's voice search for anything you want to do. Three days in and I have never once had it misinterpret my words, even on complex queries.

i like the article i will request you please to do one about the nokia Lumia 920 when it hits the market.

S3 Fanboy here. Its a great phone but gestures are just stupid, as is asking your phone dumb questions that you could type into google just as quickly and far more precisely. The flip to mute is the only gesture of any use to anyone I know. Pop up play, not found a use for it yet, too small. As a photographer I've tried most of the camera / post apps. Stick with stock, easily as good as anything else and way better than most. I've settled on Photoshop Express to manage the images and upload them to adobe.com, You can manipulate in the app but you will get astounding results using Lightroom 4, forget trying to render new images with no grunt, you're just jumping on an overcrowded and very droll bandwagon. WiFi is fantastic, best I've had. I can get a signal when the ipad is scanning itself flat although a Nexus 7 I saw was even better than the S3 - bargain of the year that surely. I use Airdroid to transfer files, no point using a cable. Connects in less than five seconds and is very fast

I assume it's still there. It was on my Galaxy S II and now on my Galaxy Note.

You don't need a cable. Just turn on wifi and all you need is an Internet browser in your PC, or even the browser in another phone! This will allow you to navigate and access all the files and folders in your phone.

WRT USB:
The phone works for me as a USB drive. I can push files onto it and pulls files from it. No problem.

WRT WiFi:
I have not had any problems with WiFi. It sees networks that my iPhone 4 didn't and connects without a problem and without dropping.

Yup, you must be doing something wrong. Plug the phone into my Windows 7 64 bit and it automatically shows up with 2 'drives', one for internal storage, one for the internal SD Card.

Svoice does stink. Actually most voice activation features I've tried on most phones isn't as efficient as homescreen shortcut options. That being said, the new Google voice to text keyboard is awesome

The Samsung Kies doesn't require you to install anything on your pc. You enable it on your phone and goto the url and port it assigns, then are able to access the phone via your browser. It is only accesable on your private wlan. I've used it and seems fine, can be slow if the phone is busy.
I also use an app called Light Flow. Pretty cool, it displays different color LED Notification lights based on the app .. so for example, gmail produces Green LED, Blue when bluetooth is on. I agree S-Voice is weak, but it's the same engine as Siri (vlingo).
Try Robin for voice asst (like s-voice and siri). The Google Voice to txt asst also works great .

Emails pile up; I think I have 300 or 400 that I haven't bothered to delete. Emails have to be individually deleted; you check the box & can do multiple screens at once but it's a real pain. They need a checkbox for "select all".

I'm with DaveTR. I haven't seen any problems with accessing either the sdcard or extSdCard folders on my computer in USB mass storage mode.

Ive noticed my S3 gets less cell reception than my wifes phone. She has a droid4, both on verizon.. In talking with verizon, I havent been to get a solid answer why, but they are blaming the cell towers needing to be upgraded in some way, but that doesnt make any sense.

Debra...I think I will keep my Galaxy S2, as it seems to do all that you wish the S3 doesn't do.

I have the Verizon Nexus.
I find the antenna is very weak in fringe areas, where I spend most of my time.
In a strong 4G area it works fine. In a weak 3G area nothing. I have to revert to my old Alias to make a voice call and my USB 720 for internet. The Nexus was supposed to replace both.
Is the S III any better?
Why doesn't any one review the the ability of these phones to actually connect. That is the MOST important feature of any phone, to me.

This is a well-done article. I would have to say that my experiences in several of the areas you talked about have been different. I don't have the problems with the web pages, nor do I have to use Kies to connect to my Windows 7 Home computer or my Windows XP computer. I have had it for nearly 6 weeks and myy battery life is good if I keep it on the power saver mode as well. These differences could be due to the user more than the phone itself.

The Verizon manual says "By default, files that you download, or that you create with
your device, such as pictures and videos you capture with Camera, are stored to your devices memory. For more storage capacity, you can set the memory card as the primary storage location for apps with the apps options." Could have sworn we verified this on a guys S III here in the office.

90% of the time i have this phone connected to WIFI and have never had any problems with WIFI connections. I totally disagree with your '....noticed that Wi-Fi was just plain wacky'.

Check the forums, hundreds of posts on it. I had one myself which they replaced no questions asked as soon as I told them what was wrong. A batch with bad wifi got out. You can disagree but it doesn't change the fact it's a reality. Be glad you got one with no wifi problems.

I am looking at S III for my phone but have not seen anything on video connections like Iphone (my kids have this). Any suggestions on what to use for compatibility and/or S III connections?

are you sure ? Samsung devices require that you select the mode before connecting the cable, after which you need to confirm USB storage mode (as others have mentioned).
As far as the wifi probs are concerned, are you using a Dlink router ? Have you tried a different wifi network and get the same wifi probs? If yes then you might have a faulty device ? I've not checked to see if this is a known fault with the SGS3. My Nook Color has the exact same wifi probs with my Dlink router but works fine on every other network. I added a Belkin wireless gateway to my network and the problem disappeared.

Agree with all the reviewer said, like all phones it has the odd problem for me:(1) Could Samsung put a slot in for the second simm card, the galaxy is so good I would like to use the one phone for both private and business?
(2) please please give us a better loading computer to phone system other than Kies!.
Why not have Bluetooth on Kies after all the phone runs Bluetooth! You need to be able to walk near the computer and it automatically updates. Also I have difficulty with the Kies system isolating all my email addresses and downloading them on to the phone as separate to my normal addresses, frustrating! Yep battery only lasts a day but with usb facility to charge I have plenty of options.

If you think your Texan accent is a problem, you should try my Western Australian one with this and other voice recognition systems!

1) Anything is better than using bloated iTunes!
2) With the issues Siri has had, you can't really complain that S Voice ain't great. At least [well sas of today, maybe not Wednesday] S Voice is a released product. siri is still listed as beta on the Apple web site [yes fanbois and fangurld, you are a beta tester for Apple and not paid for it - you are poaying].

My daughter has the Galaxy S III, and has experienced a few traumatic episodes of data loss.
The phone has a photo edit tool, and she had been playing with this on a couple of pix of her children, when she later went to access the photos, the originals and the modded ones had completely vanished. I ran some data recovery tools over the SD module and only discovered a few pix she had purposely deleted - but not the folder of pix she had wanted to keep.
And , no the Samung KIES app was also useless .
Also it appears the Galaxy S III has a problem with the SD card slot.
Have purchased a couple of different brand SD modules and only after a couple of days, it is showing errors trying to access the SD card.

You forgot to mention another not-so-good. The Galaxy S3 uses a micro SIM.
This might not be a problem for people migrating for an iPhone, but for the rest of us, particularly those of use with multiple phones, it is a real problem.

I can see why Apple sued Samsung - Samsung copy everything, even the bad stuff like the stupid micro SIM idea. The bloo#y things are so small you need tweezers to handle them!!

I have an SII rather than the SIII, but it was a recent, long-overdue upgrade from my Blackberry 8900. From a performance and features standpoint, it is a huge step up. Nevertheless, I assume the SIII has the same or better features as my SII, but the principal caveats I offer to anyone making that jump are these: Be sure and turn off your applications (including email and messaging) when you're not using them. I never worried about that with the Blackberry, but with AT&T, at least, those programs remain active on the SII and probably SIII in the background and chew up data from your plan. Further, don't succumb to the temptation to set the phone to check for messages/email constantly - same problem. Unless you have an unlimited data usage plan, this can get expensive.

Interesting article. I moved from a HTC Desire to the Samsung and found the hardware spectacular but the software not as intuitive as the HTC which was a real breeze to get a handle on.

Having used the Samsung for several months now, have worked out where settings are and it is great.

USB mode works fine for me on Win7 Pro.

Also no issues at all with WiFi, in fact the WiFi performance has been really good for me. Could it be your router?

As a suggestion I would ensure I checked on forums etc before presenting your experience of the device as a definitive reflection of the specification or performance. Inaccuracy on such things don't reflect well on a professional blog.

Three things...

1. The SIII DOES support mass storage onto the phone and SD card
2. It DOES support moving apps to the SD card.
3. WiFi issue? I'm positive this is not a common problem with the SIII. All I've sold haven't had this issue

Most of your bad points are invalid. GG

I use Samsung galaxy note. I was really worried when Samsung launched S3 as note technology is going to be outdated but when I compared both these devices, I really feel very relaxed as both technologies are like two different segment and they can't be compared.

1. The phones provided by different carriers are not the same. They have different groups of software (bloatware) installed and different features disabled and blocked, so the phones may behave differently in those areas and these might even affect other usages.
2. The phone service in different areas where I live differs greatly. Something that works great at my home may not twenty miles away, and vice versa.

So sometimes it's not a defective phone or even a defective user that makes a difference.

Since writing the article, I've discovered the Samsung Photo Editor that can be downloaded from the Google Play store. It is a pretty decent little app that supports many adjustments and special effects (I mostly wanted to be able to adjust exposure, contrast and color sat, but it does a lot more) and best of all, it integrates into the Gallery so that you have the Edit option from within a photo when you click on the picture in the camera app immediately after taking it. Maybe this comes preloaded on other carriers' phones but was not there on my Verizon model.

Ice Cream Sandwich is the culprit for the mass storage mode issue. Even my Galaxy S2 had this issue after updating to ICS. Connect your phone to a PC via USB, if you're having this issue you'll see a notification titled "Connected as camera...", touch that notification to change the type of connection to "Media device (MTP)", browse the phone as mass storage.

I didn't know TouchWiz 4 has added so many functionality but I have a permanent scepticality towards TouchWiz so I rooted my wife's unit and installed MiUi onto it. Although I did that I don't seem to experience anything about the WiFi connectivity, perhaps you should send your unit to your nearest Samsung Support Centre. About battery life, I think it applies to all smartphones but I kinda managed to fix them by installing custom Kernel and downclock it using the app SetCPU. And you have to manage what you sync and be aware of apps that actively give you advertisement in your notifications.

I found a useful tip for fixing the GS# wifi problems here:

http://galaxys3reviews.net/samsung-galaxy-s3-wifi-problem-fix

It involves turning off a power-saver mode for the wifi. It seems to have done the trick for me.

Encountered issues viewing photos received via text message. If there is text included, they appeared as a video. After a couple of hours with Tech Support at both Verizon and with Samsung, I was told that was a feature and a Android Operating System issue, but it only happens with Samsung phones. Resolved it by using Handcent for messaging.

I am not sure why someone that only has one week S3 experience should even think of writing a detailed review of pros and cons. I can understand if the review was about how it feels, how it looks but this one was an absolute failure. At least the author should have read some other reviews and technical specs before publishing this review and then trying to correct the review mistakes in comments. This article should have been published in MythRepublic not TechRepublic.

I still love my nexus better because i have the pure google experience and as for space everything is uploaded on google so what do you need space for? Voice commands work awesome on Nexus with Jelly bean...oh yeah S3 has no jelly bean and is running the ancient ICS OS on it. I got Jelly bean pushed to me 2 months ago and it changes everything for the better.

I will wait for another Nexus device before going S3. Don't get me wrong, its a great phone but I just love my custom Nexus car dock with 3 pin connection so I don't ever have to plug a cable in.

I just got this phone a few days ago, and had only minor issues with number 7. I plugged it in via USB, and while it was not recognized on my XP workstation, it was recognized on my Windows 7 workstation. I was able to easily transfer music files from my workstaiton to my phone. I've had only minor issues with WiFi, but it's similar to what I've seen on my android tablet, but not as bad. I'll turn on the wifi and it doesn't seem to recognize a signal, so I turn it off and back on, and it's running fine. An annoyance to be sure, but a relatively minor one compared to my android tablet.

To me this article seems more like pro iPhone, it has comparisons with iPhone in many places, I wish you also write about positive of using Samsung Galaxy s3 over all other smart phones(Not just iPhone).

Athar

I have my own Galaxy S3. It was working nice. But after sometime it used to create some problem in wifi connection, Was not working. I had checked my router setting also but the problem was in handset. But now I am glad to say that i got a solution which worked great for me at http://howmobile.net/samsung/2291-wifi-problem-galaxy-s3.html and I thought that I should also contribute from my side to help people Who having the same problem I had. Hope The given procedure will work.
Thanks!

this is such a nice and useful information for us...i appreciate urs word

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