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| Thread ID: 126608 | 2012-09-07 08:25:00 | Galaxy S3 | icow (15313) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1299585 | 2012-09-07 08:25:00 | So a Galaxy S3 turned up at my doorstep today and I'm quite impressed. My first thought was "holy **** the touchscreen doesnt suck balls". Which is probably expected when you consider the price point. It's nice to actually use a phone that is on android that has a touchscreen that seems as responsive if not more responsive than an ipod touch/iphone (haven't used anything very multitouch intensive). Still not too keen on android, don't like the homescreen, but that's just me. Also the S3 is soooo dammmmmn thin. Closest device in terms of thickness is probably a 4th gen ipod touch, I find phones that are thin with the curved edge thing going on to be infinitely nicer to use/hold than the more rectangular flat edged design that Nokia and Apple seem to be leaning towards. The screen is nice and big without it seeming like you are holding a full sized tablet to your ear, the display seems nice and crisp as well. Now if only I had $850... (phones not mine) Nice work Samsung :thumbs: If you have $1000ish to spend this phone is definitely worth a look (along with the other regular $1000ish phones e.g. HTC 7, Nokia Lumia 900 ($600), iPhone) |
icow (15313) | ||
| 1299586 | 2012-09-07 08:41:00 | I was waiting for the Nokia Lumia 920...but they skimped on the camera(only 8.5 MPixies :( )...so it's either the Lumia 808(41 MP) or the Galaxy camera phone (16 MP), maybe. | KarameaDave (15222) | ||
| 1299587 | 2012-09-07 09:01:00 | Homescreen is controlled by the launcher and (in the S3's case) Samsung's TouchWiz UI, which just happens to be god awful and forced one to every samsung phone. My S2 is running an AOKP build of Jellybean and previously ran Westcrip's Resurrection ROM (based on AOSP and samsung's firmware). The main benefit to westcrip's ROM (other than the bug fixes and performance/battery fixes) was that it aimed to retain all samsung specific features such as Swype, Samsung app store etc. This was nice but I was having issues with the Kernel in JB (ICS was nice and stable) so I switched to a Vanilla AOKP ROM. Some love it but I think TouchWiz is a hideous UI, the messaging app, contacts app etc all reflect this. Stock Android is great now, previously TW and HTC's Sense were really good additions to the Android OS but now they are cumbersome, ugly and soak up development time. They don't add much (if anything) to the droid experience. If you (or the end user) are interested Westcrip does a ROM for the S3 (www.resurrectionremix.com) It uses the Aurora installer which is a really nice touch based GUI. The main benefit is it helps the ROM flashing process feel less daunting to the new CROM flasher. My main pros for the galaxy line up are the fact they are AMAZING to take apart. It's a very tidy and minimal layout inside (unlike iPod touches which pack lots of bits and FFC cables everywhere) For my S2, pop battery cover, remove a few Philips screws and the mainboard is exposed. From there unclip 4x MOLEX connectors and remove 3x screws and mainboard comes away from screen/bezel. When doing a screen replacement all you do is drop the main-board into the new screen/bezel body and reattach the MOLEX cables. The best part about this is the fact that its VERY hard to damage/tear the FFC cables making accidental damage during replacement much less likely. They are also highly resilient to bricking, I accidentally flashed an S3 ROM to my S2, it wouldn't boot or go into clockwork but it got into download mode OK, from there I re flashed Clockwork and installed the right ROM and I was away laughing. Others have said the same, it's hard to brick an Galaxy accidentally, even on purpose it's kinda hard. Usually a USB JIG will fix em up. Bear in mind though, it CAN happen!! Personally I never buy smartphones new or from NZ for that matter. NZ's market prices are inflated substantially. With a new phone you get a warranty (and no scratches) after a year you will have no warranty and scratches. Especially on phones, after a year if something was wrong it would usually have broken so most post year old phones will work for a good many years. Screen damage or water damage isn't covered by warranty anyway so I feel a 2nd hand phone is just as good as a new one if not better. I bought my S2 before the S3 came out in march I think for $415 USD which was about 550 NZD incl shipping. In NZ they were going for about $600 NZ in auction and 7/800 in buynow's on trademe. I could have gotten a better deal if I had hunted around but I wanted the phone. I did manage to break the screen (the AMOLED display actually, not the gorillia glass :D) and installed a replacement costing $180 NZD. Had I bought the phone new I'd be looking at 800-1000 for the phone and 180 for the screen (which is user damage and not covered by warranty) So I feel it worked out well for me. Next device will probably be a WP8 or Nexus, I prefer the more conservative specs of the nexus devices, although I love my S2 I feel it really just pushes itself out too far. Having clean vanillia ROM's direct from google is great and since it's a popular device custom ROM support is great too. It's also much cheaper. The S2 costs about $750 NZD in Beijing but you can get a Galaxy nexus for $500-$600 easily. |
The Error Guy (14052) | ||
| 1299588 | 2012-09-07 09:46:00 | @The Error Guy You should become a journalist, unless you're already one then don't worry. You were a month off the samsung galaxy note 2. |
stratex5 (16685) | ||
| 1299589 | 2012-09-07 09:50:00 | I was waiting for the Nokia Lumia 920...but they skimped on the camera(only 8.5 MPixies :( )...so it's either the Lumia 808(41 MP) or the Galaxy camera phone (16 MP), maybe.Buy a camera | plod (107) | ||
| 1299590 | 2012-09-07 10:50:00 | Buy a camera Got several. |
KarameaDave (15222) | ||
| 1299591 | 2012-09-07 12:38:00 | @icow / The Error Guy, Check out the One X. Hardware wise, it easily trumps the S3. Software wise, stock TouchWiz by Samsung is *way* nicer than HTC's Sense UI, however I've got AOSP Jellybean on my HTC One X. Best of both worlds. It was a nice 'incremental' upgrade from my Galaxy Nexus. I waited until the S3 came out, checked out the hardware (Coz that's all that matters, I'm a HUGE fan of AOSP / stock Android / CyanogenMod so software doesn't matter) and decided against the S3 personally. It's still top-of-the-line without a doubt, but the One X is just that little bit nicer (Screen / ceramic body / camera / Tegra3) |
Chilling_Silence (9) | ||
| 1299592 | 2012-09-07 22:07:00 | $850 **** I paid $1050 from Vodafone end of June. The bastards, they will probably be free in weetbix by the end of the month. Only problem I have it wouldn't bloo tooth with my tom tom gps, bloo tooth fine on everything else so I bought a Garmin GPS much better than the clog one anyway. I love my S3 cant fault with its cool apps cool apps like tide charts, baro pressure, conversion app, compass app for setting up sat aerial in camper, flash light app. I have a protective back case and its fallen a few times from my overall top pocket when I have been crawling along booms on diggers and its survived a few metre fall to the ground. |
prefect (6291) | ||
| 1299593 | 2012-09-08 03:28:00 | @icow / The Error Guy, Check out the One X. Hardware wise, it easily trumps the S3. Software wise, stock TouchWiz by Samsung is *way* nicer than HTC's Sense UI, however I've got AOSP Jellybean on my HTC One X. Best of both worlds. It was a nice 'incremental' upgrade from my Galaxy Nexus. I waited until the S3 came out, checked out the hardware (Coz that's all that matters, I'm a HUGE fan of AOSP / stock Android / CyanogenMod so software doesn't matter) and decided against the S3 personally. It's still top-of-the-line without a doubt, but the One X is just that little bit nicer (Screen / ceramic body / camera / Tegra3) The Tegra 3 is better than the Exynos? I'm sure that the Exynos Quad Core outperforms the Tegra 3. It's weird - my friend has a GNex, and we compared dead trigger on his GNex and my Transformer Prime, and the Nexus just seemed to play smoother than my Prime. Maybe it's a Jellybean thing. The new amazon kindle fire has a TI OMAP that is supposed to outperform the Tegra 3. |
sahilcc7 (15483) | ||
| 1299594 | 2012-09-08 03:30:00 | $850 **** I paid $1050 from Vodafone end of June. Already down to $700 online (pricespy). $850 is retail :p |
icow (15313) | ||
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