Samsung Galaxy S3 - Opinion & Problem Sharing

[Brycie]

Hey all,

I noticed there's a few forum members now using the S3 (even some iPhone converts) so I wondered what everyone's experience has been so far. I'm massively impressed with it so far, the speed, screen size (just right as you can use the phone one handed & reach all the icons, but big enough to watch video streaming comfortably), picture quality and innovative features such as Smart Stay are fantastic. Possibly I'm a little more in awe of it however as it's my first smartphone & I have no basis for comparison.

The downsides? Well as I've said earlier this is my first smartphone, so maybe my judgement isn't as informed as that of more experienced users. I have had some annoying glitches so far. Two or three times the phone has frozen, gone a darkish colour and I've had to restart the phone. Whilst it's been frozen a dark grey/light black, I've seen a few (what can only be described as) blotches on the screen. These blotches aren't apparent when the phone's in use fortunately.

Another fault that I had to consult Samsung Helpline about, was that while web browsing, the phone would just suddenly decide to close the web and return to homescreen with no notice or error message. This could happen dozens of times in a row - usually each time it woyld happen just as I got to the thread/page I wanted to read. The first time I reported this problem, Vodafone or Carphone Warehouse advised me to do a hard reset (phone off, battery & sim out, battery back in without sim, turn on for half hour & then sim back in). The second time it happened, Samsung themselves had to advise me to restore the phone to factory settings (Grrrr, I lost all my apps and progress on said apps and I had to re-register all the Samsung accounts, but thank God for dropbox). Both times I had this 'auto web closing' problem, I also noticed that the keyboard wasn't very reliable. Sometimes I'd be in the middle of answering a post on the forum & the keyboard would just disappear for minutes at a time.

Overall very happy & am interested in the thoughts of others. Also interested in whether anyone else has noticed any of the problems.

[Brycie]

I realised just how easily pleased I was yesterday when the wife came in & I was beaming ear to ear. I'd discovered a new security feature. To unlock the screen, instead of just swiping, you can have it use face recognition software, so if it doesn't recognise you, you can't use the phone. Makes me feel like I'm in a sci fi movie or something lol.

This may be old hat & on every smartphone out there, but as a new user it did tickle me.

[neilos100]

Hehe...yeah it's on my one x too....got sick of looking at my ugly mug everytime I need to use the phone though! :eek:

Sent from my phone...

[Brycie]

Haha, those front mounted cameras never are too kind - probably why video calling hasn't been the success 3 thought is was going to be about 10 years ago. It'll tide me over til the next novelty comes along anyway.

Weird thing with Sky Go too, not been able to use it at all recently, what a shower they are.

[neilos100]

Pah...still not even an app yet on Yeh One X....very annoying...:banghead:

Sent from my phone...

[Ben]

you can install new keyboards and browsers if you find the stock ones are unreliable.

[Brycie]

I did a hard reset or whatever it's called & the problem hasn't recurred, but I'll do that if I have the problem again. Thanks for the tip.

[Brycie]

Pah...still not even an app yet on Yeh One X....very annoying...:banghead:

Sent from my phone...

Sky Go got an update today so it works on Jellybean platform (looks like I lost it when I updated from ics) and should work on the HTC One X as one of the reviews on there was from a One X user who said it worked on his. Give it a try Neil.

[neilos100]

Nice one....thanks Paul. Now I just have to remember my sodding log in details! :banghead:

Sent from my phone...

[pookster]

Hi Guys first post, I have nothing but good things to say about the S3, fast, slim easy to work, since my update I now have a multi screen as well so im well chuffed.

[Brycie]

Do you mean watching video & able to browse the web at the same time in a different screen? It is a nice touch. I'll be away for 3 days on a residential training course, so that should come in handy while watching Sky Go. How do you get it to split the screen though? Just pinch it to a smaller size?

[pookster]

No , there is a toggle on left hand side of the screen, look at your drop down menu..wifi Bluetooth etc far right hand side there is one for multiwindow. great addition I think anyway!

[Brycie]

Ah, nice one. Look forward to trying it out over the next few days then, cheers.

[pookster698]

No probs anytime

[ChA6dders]

Hi Brycie I've just seen this thread I've got an S3 I like it a lot but!! I've just down loaded a software update which changed a few things that I've had to change back to how I wanted it not a major issue. However the battery life now drains away like you can'r imagine I've got a juice defender app which supposed to save battery power.
Just wondering if you've had the same update or anyone else on here find this an issue.

[Brycie]

If I'm on the web pretty much constantly, I can probably get through a full battery charge in 4 or 5 hours. If I hardly use it at all (which is rare for me), it'll probably last a day, give or take. That is definitely the downside to it being so slim. My work phone, an S2, lasts a lot longer.

[ChA6dders]

If I'm on the web pretty much constantly, I can probably get through a full battery charge in 4 or 5 hours. If I hardly use it at all (which is rare for me), it'll probably last a day, give or take. That is definitely the downside to it being so slim. My work phone, an S2, lasts a lot longer.

Ah cheers just realised mine is the S2 Doh!!! :biglaugh: but it still doesn't seem to last long it's this new software down load I reckon might have a dig around the tinternet

[Brycie]

Yeah I would, because my S2 isn't bad actually. I don't use it too much admittedly, but I probably get 2 days standby betwen charges.

[AaryaSiddharth]

There are some problem arise in my Samsung galaxy s3. I have switched from iPhone 4. I get some problem in reception and dropped calls. Also sometime application hang so i have to restart daily once.

[Brycie]

My reception is generally pretty good & never have calls disconnected except for in areas where reception is poor for all phones. I have had the internet close itself & kick me back to the homescreen, but a hard reset fixed that, may be worth a try? Just make sure you back up all your files/numbers etc first.

[lougib82]

S3, what a mint phone! Definitely better than Iphone. I am thinking of getting the new S4 active, any users on here?

[Inkblot]

...I probably get 2 days standby betwen charges.

When I got my A6 and discovered the phone holder in the armrest I dug out my old Nokia dumbphone to see if it fitted, which it did. I fully charged it and was toying with the idea of getting a SIM for it and using it as a dedicated carphone although I quickly decided against that. About 4 weeks after charging it I happened to turn it back on - it still had 50% charge! I had forgotten just how good those old phones were. If all you need is to make/receive calls and texts there is a lot to be said for a phone that lasts a week in normal usage and only needs charging every 6-8 weeks if you leave it off most of the time (although that does limit its usefulness as a phone of course :biglaugh:)

[Brycie]

This is the trouble, people want long battery life & a million apps from a phone about the depth of a few sheets of paper. Wireless charging will hopefully be developed further.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[Inkblot]

This is the trouble, people want long battery life & a million apps from a phone about the depth of a few sheets of paper. Wireless charging will hopefully be developed further.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Wireless charging is an option on my Nexus 4. Far more effective though is a USB charger permanently plugged in on my desk at home. Another one on my desk at work. Another one in the car. Another one in the kitchen. Another one by the side of the bed. Oh, I also carry one in my laptop case just in case I get a low battery but still have a laptop with power :)

In fairness, it's mostly as a result of buying a number of USB charged phones over the last few years - I think I have only ever purchased 1 additional charger, the rest came with my/wife's phones over the years.

[Brycie]

That's a lot of USB's!!! Mind you, I wish I had that many, but we've only got usb charging phones recently. My S3 charger lasted about a month before developing a faulty connection.

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[Garry_M]

Having owned 2x iphones I moved to a Samsung S2 then an S3 mini and even a Samsung Tab2.0 7" and I can't see past Android.

You may like to have google chrome as your computer internet browser (instead of Microsoft internet explorer) if you run this on PC, it saves all your internet passwords and favorites so when youy use chrome on your Android device the history, favorites passwords are all there waiting for you. Google calender is good also.

I particularly like NOT having to use itunes anymore, the amount of time I wasted fixing mp3 duplicates created by having itunes on desktop & laptop.

My wife has an ipad and I never got to like it either. I don't see the point of paying a premium for a brand that is limiting.

[Brycie]

I was shopping around for my first ever smartphone a year or so ago & was quite open minded abut whether it would be an iphone, android, windows etc. So I wasn't biased at all. However, since owning an S3 & the Wife later getting an iPhone 5, I wouldn't cross over to Apple now. If wifey buys a song on itunes, she can't just use it as a ringtone, she has to buy it again specifically as a ringtone - I was gobsmacked by that, what a rip off. We also can't bluetooth from iphone to a non apple device (I've got around that with an app called Bump, mind you). It's just very limiting.

Another gripe is that we spent hours & hours transferring music from CD to itunes when we got an ipod a while ago. Now I have my S3, I can't tranfer that music from itunes to my S3 (or at least I can't figure out how), so I'll need to go through the whole thing again transferring from CD to another media player on my computer - oh joy! Mind you, even if I do transfer all my CD's onto my phone, I still won't be able to stream it to the car as I have a crap media system in the car that won't allow music streaming. Lol, I just can't win.

[invisiblekid75]

. If wifey buys a song on itunes, she can't just use it as a ringtone, she has to buy it again specifically as a ringtone - I was gobsmacked by that, what a rip off.

Another gripe is that we spent hours & hours transferring music from CD to itunes when we got an ipod a while ago. Now I have my S3, I can't tranfer that music from itunes to my S3 (or at least I can't figure out how), so I'll need to go through the whole thing again transferring from CD to another media player on my computer - oh joy! Mind you, even if I do transfer all my CD's onto my phone, I still won't be able to stream it to the car as I have a crap media system in the car that won't allow music streaming. Lol, I just can't win.

Not had iPhone for a year or so and it was jailbroken (100% for homebrew only NO PIRATED APPS!!!) so the ringtone was an easy workaround. But there is also an easy workaround for that too. Just google/youtube it.

What did you convert the cd's to when you ripped them to iTunes? If it was mp3 then surely you can just drag and drop them into your phone?

I recently replaced my girlfriends Samsung Galaxy Nexus with stock Android to an S3 PAYG as I saw zero incentives to buy an S4 sim free for well over £400. She doesn't hate it, but it's much slower than the Nexus with all the Samsung garbage TouchWiz injected into Android.

I left my iPhone 4S for the Nexus 4. Apart from the screen size, I miss my iPhone. I had no probs with iTunes tho, naming or otherwise, but also run an iMac so it just runs better on them anyway. Contract runs out when the 5S will be released, but I'm sick of paying £35 for txts and minutes I never use but love 3's totally unlimited data. Would love an HTC One but with stock Android but can only get those in the USA for now unless you root it.

[Brycie]

Oops, forgot to reply to this.

I'll sit down with the other half & youtube the process of saving music as ringtones on an iPhone.

Trying to muster up the motivation to work on this transferring music issue. I may just take the easy option & copy a few of my favourite CD's onto my computer under a different media player. Any suggestions as to which media player is best or the easiest way of transferring music from CD to S3?

[Guest 2]

I assume your S3 has some sort of memory card in it?

Plug that not your computer and just drag and drop or if you have a USB lead for your phone, plug it in and it might pick it up as a mass storage device, again just drag an drop. Should be a Music or multimedia folder.

[Brycie]

It has a micro SD card, but I also have a usb lead. I'll give it another go. Cheers. Watch this space for frustrated screaming & swearing later.

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[fat controller]

If you get stuck Brycie, drop me a PM and I will try it with my S3 and send you some screen shots along the way if it helps?

[Brycie]

Thanks very much FC. I had work-related tech issues this afternoon (tech is the bane of my life I think), so didn't get time to try it. I may very well take you up on that offer, so watch for a PM.

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[Guest 2]

Just think of any remaining man-points before posting! :p

[Brycie]

Haha, I am refusing point blank to let the Wife do it for me - that would just be too shameful, even for me.

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[Brycie]

Thank God for that - I managed it! It was easier than I thought too. Just opened iTunes & clicked Send To → Documents, then went to Edit, Move To → Samsung I9300. I was obviously over-complicating matters before trying to transfer between iTunes, Windows Media Player & Samsung Kies. Thanks for the pointers & offers guys.

What a forum, eh? Doesn't matter if you're looking for help with selling stuff on ebay, saving music to your phone, consumer advice, installing light fittings in your house - there are always people willing & able to help. I hear people even get advice about their cars too!