Day two consisted of fine tuning of what I want my user experience with the Verizon Samsung Galaxy S3. Shout out to FishChoma for a good critique of the day one review. I will attempt to divide the review into sections of hardware and software. So first up I will talk about the hardware.
HARDWARE: Starting with the bad to the good.
1. I am still fighting hitting the volume while mashing the power button. I do believe that the cheap case I bought on eBay has something to do with the problem. It is not the best case in the world. It is just making do while I have better cases on order (to which there will be a review on each of the new cases)…
2. Gonna jump into the good parts of the hardware. Not as many bad issues so far. Coming from the iPhone 4S, the screen and size of the phone is by far the biggest noticeable difference. The HD screen on the GS3 is simply amazing. Its nice not to have then need to hold the phone close to my face so I can just read something on the screen. The iPhone has a clear screen but at times was too small for what I needed.
3. The overall feel of the phone. It feels good in the hand. I have big hands so it is not difficult to manage the screen area. I love the thin sleek design on the phone.
4. One of my main concerns about the GS3 was the plastic parts that Samsung is notorious for making. But the phone does NOT feel cheap at all. It has a peculiar quality build to it.
5. Sounds silly, but I like the notification LED. Its a nice feature to have.
SOFTWARE: Starting with the bad to the good.
1. TouchWiz. Although this is a much better build than of previous devices, it still has some flaws that I do not prefer. For example, I was in class and was playing around with the phone (not advised). I created a folder. Once created I opened the folder and a LOUD voice said “OPEN FOLDER” and then “CLOSE FOLDER.” Needless to say it was rather embarrassing. Fortunately I did not get in any trouble. But I have used other launchers (which I like Apex Launcher) and I have NO voices taking control.
2. The keyboard. The stock is no good to me. It seems like it tries to be too smart for me. I end up backspacing half the time that I am typing. I have tried out a few different keyboards and am still trying to find the one that I like the best. So far the iPhone’s keyboard is much better.
3. Lack of bloatware. There is some, but not NEARLY as much as phones like Motorola. Two big thumbs up to Samsung! There are ways to hide and disable apps. One of things I absolutely hate is the ongoing wifi notification. I want it GONE…Another app I want gone is the BackUp Assistant Pro. Its pointless…and it comes on anytime I take a picture, video or get a new contact. Its just plain annoying.
4. The camera. Getting into the not so bad/good. Took me some tinkering around to figure out some of the features like burst shot. I learned that you have to hold down the camera button for the feature to work. For some reason I thought that once burst shot is enabled, that once you hit the camera button, the snaps would be automatic. Some of the pictures did not come out as clear I wanted, but some came out just fine. I have not really attempted to take many “professional” shots, stay tuned for some in a later post. I will provide some examples in the post.
5. The good! The phone is snappy, very responsive and fluid. Transitions are great. If there is any kind of lag it is not the phone, it would be the blame off an app, data connection and/or wifi connection. For some reason the first day and a half upon activation, a device needs to break itself in. It was till the end of day 2 that I really started to experience the best of the phone.
4. Ice Cream Sandwich aka ICS is a great build of the Android OS. This build with the amazing specs that this phone offers and an amazing combination. My first take is that this is what the Galaxy Nexus should have looked like. Imagine the Galaxy Nexus with these specs with Jelly Bean? I’m really looking forward to the Jelly Bean update coming to the GS3.
VERDICT:
I am still trying to get used to the phone. I have noticed some of the things I do and don’t like. Nice thing about this stage in Android OS is that there is something that you can do to fix things the way you want it. Most of the time. My final thought will be day 7. So stay tuned each day as I try to lay out some different perspectives of the user experience with the Verizon Galaxy S3.
