After a week with the GS3, I have some impressions. Some are specific to VZW, some to the phone, some are just general ICS whatever.
I'll start with complaints.
- VZW turned off the easy access to 4G toggle. I would really like to disable 4G on the fly when I want to increase my battery life for whatever reason. You have to go and get an app to do it. GFYVZW. Nevermind the encrypted bootloader.
- Some of the google integration creates usage issues. I'm sure this can be undone but for unsophisticated users they are going to get hit with data charges pretty hard. The biggest one to me is that the gallery app now opens your picasa/g+ galleries, and is therefore tapping data everytime you open the gallery. Since they look like they are right there, you can use up a lot of data just flipping through. Also there is the G+ instant upload. Again, these are all things that can be turned off, but it's kind of annoying. My usage of this phone has been much the same as my X for the first week, and I have used 2x my normal rate of data. I installed all of my apps over wifi so it's not that either. That said, since I am on unlimited data, I actually like these features.
- Battery life really is meh. Everyone in the world talks about it being great, so I feel sorry for people with other 4G LTE phones if this is an example of a long lasting one. Part of that may be my intermittent 4G at work - I may just try a day of turning off all mobile data or logging into our guest wifi and see how it does. Cellular standby is usually my second largest power consumption after screen.
- The screen size can be an issue. Not because it should be, but because all of the latest updates to apps seem to assume you are going to use two hands for your phone. You can get away from this with settings, but it annoyed me for instance to have to turn on single hand zooming in google maps.
- The "auto haptic feedback" feature is not ready for primetime. Too many apps are not programmed for it and it creates all kinds of weird shit. For instance, the phone vibrates constantly when using Spotify unless you turn this off. Some other apps have had issues as well.
- I preferred the Motorola interface for placing calls. This is stupidly minor and I will get used to the new one.
- I'm not impressed with my 4G LTE. Perhaps because my work signal is not great and I am on wifi at home, and otherwise I am moving in and out of coverage. But I haven't seen the crazy speeds to make me say "whoa" when doing things on the internet. Hopefully as the network expands this will be more impressive.
- If you are going to drop a weather widget right on the home screen of the device when you first turn it on, that widget shouldn't suck. I actually want to use this thing, I think it looks nice, but it doesn't auto-update for time and position. Right now, my phone is still displaying the weather from Sunday afternoon in Amherst which is the last time I manually refreshed it. How stupid.
- Anything that is "S" branded is basically useless. S-voice is worse than the standard google voice input. S-memo is a nice idea that is done better by third party apps. S-suggest is lame. I expected this, and I am not the target audience for these types of things either.
Things I like:
- I know a lot of people really hate the Pentile display but I really like it. I also have no complaints about the brightness, though it is less bright than some other phones. I think Apple probably still "wins" here for whatever that's worth, but I like this display and the size is great for photos, etc.
- The camera is fantastic. Easily as good as my little Sony Point and Shoot other than the lack of physical zoom. Nighttime and HDR are ten times better than the X and comparable to my friends 4S, although they each have different strengths.
- I actually have quickly gotten used to the glossiness of the phone. I was hesitant at first. Now I like the feel, and I also think it helps with the size for getting into pockets, etc. I loved the slightly rubberized surface of the X but it would get hung up on pocket fabric, etc. The physical button has a nice feel.
- Samsung doesn't automatically push their own music player on you by default every time you make a headphone or bluetooth connection. This was my largest complaint with MotoBlur.
I realize the like list is smaller, but basically it is easier to complain than praise, and I am really happy with this phone. I would be happier if VZW had just delivered it the way all of the other carriers did.
