Samsung Galaxy SIII

The Galaxy SIII is probably the best Android device on the market as of now, though it has some competition with Google's new Nexus 4. The device has some of the best specifications for an Android device that you can get at the moment, and user reviews for this phone are phenomenal. The device features LTE on several major US carriers, T-Mobile being excluded (though you do get dual channel HSDPA with 42 Mbps speeds on T-Mobile). The device has a 4.8 inch 720p display, which is great because some manufacturers just give you those huge displays without actually improving the resolution much. Corning Gorilla Glass 2 is also featured, so you won't have to worry about buying a screen protector for this on. The device does have TouchWiz installed, which is mostly a negative. Some good things about this, though, are that you get that you get S-voice and Smart Stay eye tracking, which keeps your screen on while you are looking at it. You get various quantities of internal storage on this one, though it is expandable. The device features 2 GB of ram, so you won't be seeing any lag on this sucker. As mentioned previously, you do get HSDPA+ with 21Mbps down, as well as LTE on some models, and on T-Mobile you get dual channel HSDPA with 42Mbps down (in case you were wondering, the T-Mobile version is the T999). Needless to say, the device also includes WiFi 802.11n. The camera has been notably upgraded to an 8MP shooter with 1080p video recording, as well as a front facing camera with 720p video recording. The processor is decent, a 1.5 GHz dual core, though Google's Nexus 4 does beat it with a quad core. Surprisingly, their benchmark scores are very similar. The Galaxy SIII does upgrade all the way to Jelly Bean, and will likely continue to get upgraded for a while. You get 10 hours of talk time with the battery, which is quite a bit considering the gigantic screen. Below we've included some user reviews, but feel free to share your own experiences in the comments.

"Towards the end of summer I bought the Galaxy SIII, and I have to say that I absolutely love the phone. Prior to the purchase I was still using the original Motorola Droid. I had been using it for about two and a half years. While the Motorola Droid was a great phone, and I was pleased with it for a long time, I started having problems with it towards the end of my two year contract. It started to have technical problems, such as the phone not unlocking, or the browser constantly freezing up. The technical problems, and software problems, coupled with the fact that new applications have such high requirements now, really made it feel like I was being limited in what I could do, and I probably was. When my contract ended earlier this year, and the Samsung Galaxy SIII came up for preorder I immediately jumped on it. I got the phone sometime towards the end of summer, and despite all the hype, I was still extremely impressed with it. Firstly, the speed of it is out of this world. Apps run smoothly, and I can run multiple apps without any problems. There is a wide range of apps for it, and I have yet to run into any app that the phone cannot run. I am even able to watch movies while texting, and despite it being a drain on the batteries I haven’t experienced any lag at all. The interface is easy to use, and highly customizable. The resolution is brilliant, HD looks perfect on it; YouTube, Vimeo, etc. It also comes with so many cool features, like the S-Voice, which is like the iPhone’s Siri. Although when it comes to the S- Voice, I find that I would rather use Google’s voice search than it, Google’s is a bit more effective, and the voice sounds better, smoother. One of the best things about the SIII is the many different ways I can interact with the phone, I can talk to it, and I can swipe the screen to take screenshots, and one of my absolute favorites is where I can tap the top of the phone and it automatically scrolls up to the top of any page that I am viewing, great for long threads. Physically the phone is lightweight, and thin, but also has a huge screen. I would have to say that the size of the screen was what awed me when I first received it. Prior to the SIII I thought the Motorola Droid was a decent sized phone, but the size of the SIII just dwarfs it, and many others. Just the size of the screen is almost bigger than my droid. I really like the weight of it as it doesn’t feel heavy at all, and despite being bigger, is lighter than some other smaller phones. My Droid feels like a brick compared to it. The only downside to the SIII physically is the battery panel. Instead of having a hard plastic or metal plate, it’s a snap on rubber cover. Although it isn’t so bad, it feels kind of flimsy and I worry about breaking it whenever I have to take the cover off. Also it being so lightweight makes me handle it with a little more care, and definitely made me pick up a case for it as soon as I got it. The camera for the phone is out of this world. I got the phone shortly before I went on a trip to Hawaii, and as with any trips one of the things that people do is take pictures, so I had plenty of opportunities to test out the SIII’s camera. It is amazing. The shutter speed is amazing; I can take a picture in less than a second. There are a ton of awesome features, such as burst shot which is when the phone takes anywhere from 8 to 20 shots in a row, and you can pick which shot you like best, or keep them all. My favorite camera feature would be the Panorama shot. It takes several shots, and pastes them together to form one gigantic photo; it was a godsend in Hawaii. The quality of the pictures is amazing as well, almost every picture I take I am more than satisfied with, even macro shots which I take a lot of. Finally, though this might not be specific to the SIII, I am under Verizon and the 4G speed is amazing. It is noticeably faster than 3G the moment you use it, and even though I have WIFI I never bothered to tether it to my WIFI as it is fast enough already. Pages load almost instantly for me, and I can download most apps in less than 10 seconds. I really was impressed with the speed when I tether my laptop to the SIII. The speed is almost as good as my homes connection, and I have FIOS at home. I don’t have any problems with Skype, or downloading stuff when I tether, so it’s great for when I’m traveling. Especially since Verizon has service in a lot of places in the US. So all in all I love the Samsung Galaxy SIII, and haven’t really considered getting any other phone, even though the Galaxy Note II looks pretty amazing as well. I paid $250 for the SIII, and although that’s a bit steep I have no regrets, as it is an amazing device."

"Right now I currently own the Samsung Galaxy SIII. I've two of these phones over a period of one year now, and overall I feel it is a decent phone. There are a few things that I find very irritating though. The camera takes very good quality pictures, however, the speed of taking a picture is very long. It makes it hard to capture an "in the moment" picture, because by the time the shutter is activated, the moment has already passed. I do love the front facing camera though, and my three year old daughter loves it to. We often sit together and take pictures of ourselves. I really wish it had a flash. While the pictures are typically good quality, you can't get a decent picture if its dark. Also, the flashlight applications do not work very well on this phone. They only light up the screen, which isn't enough light to really do anything. Another issue I have had with this phone is that sometimes when I am trying to send a message, or make a call, the phone "backs" its way to the home screen. Meaning, I can push the button for my contacts or messages, and I can see it reverse its way back to the home screen. When this happens, in order for me to make a call or send a message, I have to restart my phone. I find this highly aggravating when I'm in a hurry to send a text or make a call. This has been an issue with both phones. I found that Samsung Galaxy S is pretty durable. The cover I use with it was just a flimsy gel cover. There was one situation where I put the phone on top of my car and drove off. I didn't find it until the next day after it had rained, and it was laying in a puddle. After replacing the battery, it still worked. The battery life seems like it is pretty good. I can go about 2 days without charging it if I don't use it very often. The phone also freezes up randomly when I am using certain applications. I can almost guarantee if I am playing certain games for longer than 15 minutes that my phone will freeze up and I will have to take the battery out and restart my phone. I have already went through 2 SD cards, although I am not sure if this is a problem with the phone or the cards. But there has been two occasions that my phone has not recognized my SD card, or randomly says that the SD card has been damaged or the phone is unable to read it. On a more positive note, the screen is very large, and I love that. The phone also is pretty smooth and quick when it is working properly. There typically doesn't seem to be much lag. I like the design of the phone. I think it's very sleek and elegant looking. Overall, on the days that my phone is NOT reversing back to the home screen when I'm trying to make a call, I'd recommend the Samsung Galaxy SIII to all of my friends. But on those days (probably twice a week) that I've had to restart my phone due to this issue, I definitely wouldn't suggest anyone buy this phone."

"I have been using the Galaxy SIII for a year. The Galaxy SIII works great and does everything that I need it to do. My previous smart phone caused only headaches whenever I went to use it, whether it was by making a call, sending a text or accessing the internet. When I was in the market for a new phone I wanted a phone that was easy to use, had access to all the cool and useful tools and was cool to have. I decided to purchase a Galaxy SIII Android. I love Androids for their access to both free and cheap apps, the speed and agility in using the internet and the design of the phone. I love free apps and my Galaxy SIII has a plethora of free apps that I have ready access to. I have downloaded apps for Navigation, Journal Writing, Agendas, Games, Backgrounds and many more. I particularly love the Navigation App. I do not have to purchase a GPS because my phone is my GPS. I have used my Navigation App to travel to places like New York, Iowa and Louisiana. One of the main reasons that I purchased the Galaxy SIII is the ease and speed of accessing the internet. The smart phone that I had previously owned was notoriously slow at accessing the internet. Essentially I was paying a large data fee for data that I could not access half of the time. Every day some of the things that I do on the internet include reading the daily news articles, checking and updating my Facebook account, checking my email, reading books on my Kindle app and simply searching the internet for useless as well as useful knowledge. The design of the Galaxy SIII was also important in my decision to purchase the phone. I particularly liked the large screen. I like to take photographs using my phone. The large screen makes it easier to see what I am snapping a picture of. The large screen also makes playing games easier. Angry Birds would be hard to see on a phone with a small screen, the birds are small enough to begin with. The large screen also adds to the backgrounds that I have downloaded. It is much nicer to be able to see what the background that I downloaded actually is rather than imagine what it is. On my previous phone my screen was so small that sometimes I could not tell what I was looking at and had to guess. The Galaxy SIII is a smart phone choice for anyone looking to purchase a phone in the Android market. It is a good phone overall. The Galaxy SIII has a sleek design and a large screen, easy and quick access to the best apps currently available and good tools. The tools that come standard on the phone like the camera, calendar, the large amount of storage space and much more make this phone an excellent value. I would definitely recommend anyone who is looking for an Android to purchase a Galaxy SIII."

"This has been dubbed the so-called, “iPhone Killer,” and based on my experiences with the phone the nickname is well deserved. Lets start with the processing speed of the phone. The Galaxy S3 comes with an older version of the android operating system but can easily be upgraded to android jellybean. The phone is blazing fast. Incredibly smooth page-to-page navigation and apps load instantaneously. One little criticism I had with it is the scrolling performance in browsers. It just not that precise based on my experiences with other phones and that is just a shame. As for the graphics and display, let me just be short and say it is beautiful. The colors are just plain amazing. Every color comes to life on the screen. I am a person who does not enjoy watching movies or shows on the phone but this Samsung Galaxy S3 has changed all that. The screen is very large and the colors are so vibrant and smooth that I have started to watch shows on the phone. I like to do YouTube tests on the phone as well to test just how hi-def the screen is. Let me tell you the display can handle any video YouTube has to offer. One of the biggest things I look for in a phone is battery life. This phone has disappointed me in that department. The battery runs out relatively quickly so keep your charger with you. You can buy an hour or two by lowering the brightness and by using a few other power save options but it still isn’t enough. If you are attached to your phone like I am then like I said earlier, keep your charger wherever you go because you will be surprised to see what little battery you have left when you use it for a whole day. The camera is an essential feature for phones nowadays and the Samsung Galaxy S3’s camera does not disappoint. The phone has an 8MP camera and the pictures it takes are flat out awesome. Not only that but it take pictures so quickly! You can press the take picture button like crazy and it will handle it with the greatest of ease. The video’s it takes are also just as amazing. And it also has a really cool feature: you can take high-resolution pictures from the video recorded to get that perfect shot. It really is incredible. Overall, the phone lives up to the hype. This phone has been great to me and I would recommend it to anyone. I used to be an iphone guy and just wanted something refreshing this time and the Galaxy S3 has changed the game for me. I love how the phone looks and the performance is superb. The only problem like I said was battery life, and buying a better battery or keeping your charger on you can combat that. So if you are on the fence on what phone to get, look no further my friend because the Galaxy S3 is the phone you have been searching for."