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Samsung Galaxy S III hands on: fast, thin, and a little bit cheap feeling
- wacomt 14y agoSamsung finally stopped copying the iPhone following a new design language: http://versusio.com/en/samsung-galaxy-s3-64gb-vs-the-body-shop-shea-soap http://versusio.com/en/samsung-galaxy-s3-64gb-vs-the-body-sh...
- rwmj 14y agoTouchWiz ... oh dear, an immediate turn off. I have a Google Nexus S with stock Android 4, and that works perfectly. I also have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 with TouchWiz which I seriously regret. The interface is terrible, and unless you reboot it every couple of hours it just grinds to a halt on its own. And there's no CM9 for the Tab yet ...
- daleharvey 14y agoFully agreed, I had the same setup of phones, went from a HTC Desire with SenseUI to a Nexus S with stock android, to a SGS2 with TouchWiz, the Nexus S with stock ICS was by far the best. I now use a galaxy nexus with stock ICS, imo the best phone around, the SGS2 is purely got Boot2Gecko work now The Galaxy Tab 10.1 felt pretty terrible with Honeycomb + touchwiz, I would be interested in what a stock android tablet experience feels like, although with androind tablets the lack of apps was also a pretty big factor in why it felt terrible compared to an Ipad
- ajray 14y agoIt seems like we're due for a new Google Flagship Tablet device soon, though I haven't seen any news to that effect yet.
- Zariel 14y agoThere are nightlies, which are pretty solid and usable. http://get.cm/?device=p4wifi http://get.cm/?device=p4wifi
- rwmj 14y agoThanks for the tip. I have now rooted and installed CM9 p4wifi on my Tab. It's like having new hardware, it's that much better.
- msh 14y agoDisappointed by the plastic finish. I did not buy the sgs 2 because it felt cheap and flimsy and this looks to be the same.
- mrich 14y agoThe S II does not look cheap to me. The plastic backside prevents the phone from being slippery, which is a big problem with the iPhone. Dropping it on the ground is also no problem, the plastic is perfect in absorbing that. After a couple of falls there is still no damage to be seen on my model (it even fell _into_ water once - it is still working flawlessly)
- msh 14y agoMy SonyEricsson phone is also plastic, but feels much more well built. The cheap feel of the plastic was what made me not buy the SGS2.
- tluyben2 14y agoI really like my SII but the toy feeling is obvious next to my Lumia and iPhone. It's a great phone and of my phones, outside app testing, I use it the most. However for the cheap plastic feeling the intuition says it should be at least $300 cheaper. Seems SIII is the same that way, so i'm wondering if only techies notice this as the SII did so well everywhere.
- danielhunt 14y agoI'm a techy, on a bill plan (Ireland) and have moved from the SI to the SII not so long ago. I don't get the 'cheap' feel from the SII at all. It's considerably better than the SI from a look/feel point of view, and genuinely feels good to me. I've never really understood the fascination with build materials though. If it feels good in my hand, I'm happy. If it doesn't, I'm not. And the SII is definitely a winner in my book. Also, I am looking forward to seeing what the SIII is like in person - I'll upgrade to that if I have the option. (note: I haven't paid outright for a device in a few years. Not a single one of them represents good value to me, when paid for in a lump sum)
- Tichy 14y agoHow does upgrading work in Ireland? You probably pay for it even if you upgrade, right? As an example, I am currently shopping around for a new operator in Germany, and one I looked at offered the Galaxy Nexus. However, summing the base fee over 24 months it would cost >540€, whereas the Galaxy Nexus is already available for 360€ on Amazon. So the operators might not always offer the best deal. (In Germany you can actually find operators with a monthly fee of zero, obviously no phone included).
- danielhunt 14y agoUpgrading usually means you pay some fee (around the 100e mark, maybe 150e if the device is highly desirable), and then you renew your contract with your carrier for another 12/18/24 months (again, depending on your own situation) Adding up the total cost of the bill is, in my eyes, the wrong calculation to make. A phone (particularly a smartphone), by itself, really isn't worth all that much. You need a data plan, and to a lesser extent, a call/text(sms) plan too. If you pay the (say) 360e for the Nexus on Amazon, how will you use it to receive calls while walking through Dublin city centre? How will you check your emails on it while on the bus? You'll need to take that 360e, and add the cost of a plan that will suit your needs. Lets say it's 20e per month (a common pre-pay plan in Ireland). That's 20 * 12 (yes, I know, no obligation to stay for 12 months), which is 240e. Added to the 360e, you're looking at 600e for 12 months usage. Please, don't use the bill amount as the main part of an argument here - it really shouldn't be. There's a massive draw to specifically not spending 5-600e up front on a device.
- nodata 14y agoNot interested at all. Unless it's a Nexus - reflashed to get updates from Google - I'm not playing the "waiting for updates" game any more.
- stuartmemo 14y agoWhy do you have to reflash it to get updates from Google?
- Blara 14y agoBecause Google only provides updates for certain builds (jakju), other builds (jakjuxw for example) needs to be tested by carriers in other countries (or some such) and the last stamp of approval comes from Samsung IIRC. If you flash the phone with factory build jakju you get updates from google when they're released otherwise there is 1-1.5 months wait for updates
- hackermom 14y agoThey forgot to mention that it's a little bit too big to feel alright, even as a smartphone.
- kristianp 14y agoSmartphone screens seem to be like cars, each new model has larger than the previous one.
- afsina 14y agoSlipping the word "cheap" to the title? Careful that author is known for his strong MS bias
- ajray 14y agoHe doesn't appear to back it well in the article other than as a quality of the plastic. Reviews are subjective, and as the next Google Flagship device, the S3 will be getting lots more reviews soon enough. Personally I like the Verge's Android phone reviews.
- ajray 14y agoFor me the biggest turn-off is the pentile display. I think for now I'll just keep the HTC One X.
- teoruiz 14y agoAre you actually happy with the HTC One X?
- scopendo 14y agoI'm happy with it. Coming from a SE Xperia X10, I was worried I made the wrong choice simply because of the One X's size. But the display is, to my aging eyes, fantastic. The camera is very quick to launch and the photos just fine for me. Edit: "X10's size" --> "One X's size"
- kayoone 14y agoisnt that thing like 3 weeks old and has basically the same specs as the S3 !? Why should you switch anyway ?
- andybak 14y agoHave you seen it in the flesh? Surely at this ppi, it takes a magnifying glass to see any pentile related deficiencies?
- jahewson 14y ago11 different fonts/sizes on the home screen - oh Android, why? Edit: 12 if you count the Samsung logo on the phone.
- ajray 14y agoIf you're counting the Samsung, Google, AccuWeather, and ChatOn logo's, sure. Without those we're left with a still diverse set, but I think reasonably varied. If I could make one change it would be to make the clock font match (style-wise) the rest of the non-logo fonts, probably at a much lighter weight (ultralight serif).
- mquander 14y agoIs this Engadget? Why is this here? Are there no things to read which are more interesting than the launch of yet another 10% more efficient iteration on a five-year-old phone design?
- fpp 14y agothere were a couple of rather interesting features introduces - so if you're doing mobile development it certainly is interesting to know what the Android leader of the pack is doing or planning to provide for your next development platform.
- kayoone 14y agoThe size of these things is getting pretty ridiculous. Has every new version to be bigger than the previous one ? Where will that end ?
- fpp 14y agoFor those not in London - they really shelled out some money yesterday for the presentation (the public parts were also streamed live) - London Metropolitan Orchestra playing, big stage etc. A few more things were mentioned there (not included in the linked article): Eye-movement recognition: It does not lock the phone while you're still looking at it. Besides the Siri like voice recognition also something that - by use of motion detection - e.g. you move the phone towards your ear - initiates a phone call. A similar to the Blackberry introduced burst-shot feature that lets you select the best head shot(s) within a series of portrait pictures (recognizes multiple heads/faces in the picture) Some more advanced uses via DLNA / AllSharePlay and a new AllShare SDK. Bluetooth 4.0, USB supports MHL -> can be used as a HDMI port Flipboard pre-installed, Dropbox integration (free 50GB for 2 years) optional stylus They claimed 0.01ms response time for the OLED display (vs 50-70ms for the avg LCDs I guess) The S3 will become available first in Europe (UK?) as 3G end of this month then Asia, as 4G in the U.S. during summer.
- mparlane 14y ago0.01? Is the period in the right place?!
- fpp 14y agoyes - they even had it on the screen yesterday - nevertheless very low response times are a core feature of OLED displays
- ars 14y agoIt's an LED. That's how long it takes to switch it from one light level to another. (It affects things like ghosting.) It's not the same thing as input lag which measures how long it takes to render things from a buffer (ideally that's 15ms or less, and no more than 30ms).
- bookwormAT 14y agoI find this was a very interesting announcement. Almost the whole presentation was about software, services and addons. Samsung did not talk much about the hardware, and not once used the term "Android" during the whole presentation. This is how I want smartphone providers to make their android-based devices: Either use just AOSP and focus on supporting that well (updates), or make a very unique and improved experience for your customers. Adding differences "just to be somehow different" will only make your phone worse. I don't care much about the gesture stuff, but what they do with the face detection API that came with Android 4 is very interesting. The idea that the screen will not go black as long as I look at it solves one of the most annoying problems I have when using computers. E.g. you think for a few seconds about what you just read on your smartphone, and when you're back you have to turn on the screen again. So annoying. There are also a lot of little nice touches to the ui, like this one: "Pick up the phone when you've got a missed call or text and it will vibrate gently in your hand in combination with the notification light to let you know you're a popular bunny." Or that you can hold the phone to your ear while you're texting someone and it will call the person you're texting. Or that you can select a person in the camera and the focus will stay on that person. Or that you can burst 10 photos with one shot and then have the phone automatically recommend the best picture to you. The wireless charger and the HDMI dongle are also very nice.
- polshaw 14y agoTo be honest, specs wise, while it doesn't significantly move things forward, it is pretty much the best, in pretty much every department. It has a massive removable battery, microSD, quad core, wireless charging and a killer GPU -- all advantages over the Nexus. BUT.. I think people were really hoping samsung were starting to 'get it'- design, desirability and UX (yes, like apple). I thought the s2 was too boxy and now they have gone too far the other way. It's meant to be a flagship phone, but just doesn't look expensive. To make it feel more "natural", you tap the lock-screen and little ripples appear, and splish-splash noises are heard. This is pretty indicative they don't 'get it'. It's a pointless gimmick- just because you can, doesn't mean you should. And my god, they are awful at presentations. Its not rocket science. This is all especially disappointing considering the Galaxy Nexus coming from samsung-- a device that has plenty of desirability IMO. All they had to do was to take this, add a microSD and a slightly bumped specs, and they would have had a winner. A non-pentile screen would have been welcome, but really, it isn't a deal breaker for 99%- OLED outweighs it over RGB LCD, imo. If there is a perverse silver-lining, this is good news for HTC, and perhaps the android ecosystem in the long-term.. it was seeming like samsung were becoming too dominant.
- maayank 14y agoAt some point I really began to cringe with all the "this is all modeled after nature!!!" talk. It really seems like corporate marketing got hold of the design in a very bad way.
- mike-cardwell 14y agoI would literally rather have an Android G1 than this phone. It baffles me that more people don't demand phones with full qwerty keyboards. They're so much easier and faster and more pleasant to type on than a touch screen. I've got an HTC Desire Z at the moment. I'll stick with that until a better Android phone with a qwerty keyboard comes along.