Samsung Galaxy S3

I have bought this phone long time ago and I'd say that this phone has given me superb user experience. Earlier I was not sure about Samsung product then I checked all its features at Samsung India site and I was so impressed that I bought this phone on same day. This phone is having superb features like 4.8 HD Super AMOLED Display, 8 MP camera. Over all its still good choice over others phone available in market.

i love love love my s3, i went from an iPhone to an android and was a little skeptical at first but im so glad i did, i love it! nice big clear display, very easy to use and very light.

the only downside i have is that the battery is awful! was ok at first but within a few months it doesn't last a whole day! i then bought a spare battery and then also a larger battery online and now that is pretty useless too, still doesn't last all day, nowhere near, lucky if i get to 11am! i do use my phone a lot, music, games, etc which does drain the battery but it is still shocking how poor it is!

another note also is how hot the phone gets, (even if im not using it!) specifically at back near battery cover and charge point, ive noticed this a lot more recently, (nearly 18month old) quite worrying when phone is in your pocket or on bed etc!!

despite all this im hoping to upgrade to the s5 in a couple of months, android all the way for me!

Having owned this phone on contract for 15 months now, I'm due an upgrade rather soon and so the Galaxy S3 will be replaced by a shiny, new phone. Whilst trawling the web for my next handset and weighing up the values of what I need vs what i want, it's also a good time to reflect on my ownership experience with the S3 and how it's performed compared to my expectations. I'll keep it rather brief, because I don't want to bore you however this phone has been all over the world with me, and has performed great as much as it has let me down. Firstly, the pro's;

+ The music player is simple to use and features an equaliser for optimising sound to get the most out of headphones

+ The camera (for a mobile phone) has taken some brilliant medium to close up pictures, clear, detailed and perfect for editing with filters etc

+ The screen is bright and well detailed, showing everything in fine clarity

+ I love that i can pull a drop down menu from the top bar and switch wifi, bluetooth and other utlities on and off and adjust screen brightness with ease and quickly.

+ The side buttons are easy to press and feel good

+ By being made of plastic, back covers are very cheap to replace, the battery and SD card is easily accessable and screens can be purchased and fitted atthe kitchen table.

+ Absolutely tonnes of apps available on the play market

+ Battery when listening to music for extended periods (ie several hours) is exceptional

And now for the not so greats...

- The user interface (ie the screen menus, icons, options) seem a bit chincy and overly complicated, not sleek and simple

- The alarm has let me down a few times, much to my bosses annoyance. I even showed them at work how I can set an alarm, set the alarm volume to full and set the phone to 'loud' profile but it still doesn't make any audible noise when it goes off

- The GPS signal likes to turn itself off, very inconvieneant when your relying on it to get home over a hundred miles away

- The standard keyboard is designed for children with cocktail sticks for fingers, I'd highly recommend any adult with average size hands to download a 3rd party keyboard app

- Just because the phone is switched to 'silent' mode, does not neccesarily mean the phone is silent, as I found outduring numerous meetings

- If the battery runs flat, your playlists that contain tracks from an external SD card will be deleted. Very irritating when you spend a lot of time compiling playlists, I would recommend a specialist app to backup playlist files.

- Removing the SD card deletes tracks in playlists from an SD card. It cannot rememberit was in the playlist for some reason.

- The phone lags and slows down a lot. This is due to a lot of gimmicky apps Samsung feel consumers need, such as eye tracking and motion sensing screen tilting. I personally turned them all off, as I never used them in any real-world situation. They seem like the sort of thing you might brag about down a pub when you're showing it off to your mates. However, all this (and more) 'bloatware' just slows down what is a technically fast phone, I wish it was an option to download it if you wanted it and not just uninstallable software taking up precious space.

- The battery could be incredibly unpredictable, sometimes it would last an impressive amount of time, and sometimes it would drain unbelievably just by sitting in the work locker.

- Due to the lag issue, the web browser would load a page and then suddenly shift or jump several seconds after you think it's done (as it loads something else), usually resulting in me pressing the wrong link or picture.

Overall I had mixed feelings about this phone. It left me lost in London with no navigation home, the battery decided to die in Rome whilst I was waiting to meet a friend to find our hotel, it lagged constantly which was unacceptable for an advanced phone and I found I had to try and uninstall the inbuilt Samsung apps and gimmicks and install 3rd party apps to make it more usable. However themusic player suited my passion for music and varied library (once I sorted it), the camera was good for a phone and I loved the variety of apps available.

works great, sufficient battery time for my usage

The only downside is that it sometimes have slow reactions

I have had my Galaxy S3 for about a year, and it's a great phone alot of the time. Around three months after purchase, after a firmware update, it became really slow to charge. Then slowly other problems started coming to light. The internet became increasingly slow with use, until an error message appeared. After re-starting all would be well for a while.

Apps would stall. A re-start would sort this for a while.

Then suddenly my pictures, tunes, and contacts on the phone all vanished. Even those on the memory card.

The retailer sent it away for repair, and told me the faults were due to water damage so it was not covered by the warranty. I can't imagine how water got into the phone, but paid the repair charge.

The phone came back and all was well for around a month.

Slow charging became an issue. Internet again started playing up. Apps stalling. Again re-starting sorts the problems for a few hours.

Then it started dropping calls. "No network coverage. " error message would be a frequent visitor, despite a payg phone on the same network showing full signal. Seven re-starts a day were not unusual, so.......

A second trip to the repair centre and the phone came back working properly.....for a while.

The third trip to the repair centre came about three months later. Charging issues. Internet slow, apps stalling. And again pictures and tunes vanished.

The phone was replaced. Two weeks later and the replacement looks like its just the same. Charging takes ages. Internet sets slower until a re-start. Thursday an app stalled telling me there was no network coverage.

*sigh*

The phone itself has a brilliant screen and lots of features but suffers from realibality issues. About 6 months after purchase the phone went dead one day when I was out shopping. Upon reasearching on the internet I found a lot of 16 GB UK phones are dying due the nand flash eMMC issue. I contacted Samsung and they arranged a repair with ANOVO Norwich. No response after 10 days and I had to call them up myself and was told it is beyond economical repair and they claim it is due to water ingress and can see some moisture near the microphone opening. I am absolutely sure that this phone has not been exposed to any water. When I compare videos of this eMMC issue my phone behaves exactly the same. Even the water damage indicator is intact. I will go to an independent and get a report and sue Samsung. This will be the last Samsung product I or my family will buy, I have a Samsung fridge, tv, printer, tv monitor and atleast 4 previous samsung phones.

The new S3 is a brilliant phone, it works fast and accurately. Due to the fact there are no limitations with the Android software there are many more cool and interesting things you can do on your smart phone. From downloading movies to downloading any browser you feel like using. This is much different from Apple software which limits you to what you already have on the phone when you purchase it.

I would recommend this phone to my friends and family, it's easy to use and handy. The only down side may be the size for some people. It may be a little big, though this is good for people who have trouble seeing text on phones.

Top price and excellent customer service. Got back to me straight away when I had any inquiries. Fantastic option on the free delivery.

Would use again and highly recommend.

I have had my Galaxy now for nearly 6 months and have to say it is the best phone I have ever owned.

The screen is crystal clear so much so that I have even watched full movies on the screen in bed so not to keep my wife awake.

The internet connection is fantastic and far much quicker than my old iphone the only thing I will fault is the charging connection.

I have to spend a lot of time fiddling with the charging point to actually get it to charge, im guessing there is some sort of connector inside that has obviously broken.

Im sure this will be covered by warranty but being without my phone for a hour is bad enough yet alone a few days.

Cant go wrong with this excellent phone though.

Beware -had phone for 6 months from 3 on contract-phone was the best thing since sliced bread and blows the iphone out of the water except last month it was just sitting there lonely so i went to talk and play with it and it did not respond-the black screen of death-the phone had bricked,no amount of taking battery in out could reboot it.Phoned 3 and they said this was becoming a problem with a number of handsets and their mother boards,they would replace/fix straight away (under guarantee still-phew)

/took it into the 3 shop and they told me another customer had brought in his phone that morning too with the same problem,i felt a little better however that was crushed when they handed me a replacement HTC wildfire phone to be getting on with

I waited and waited and it took about 3 weeks to get the phone call that it was back in the shop-they gave me the phone back-without the battery-Doh!! and on forms showed that it had needed parts replacing and soldering done-had to buy a cheap battery from a market stall and hey ho the phone works perfect again-until the next 6 months? who knows