How is development for the SIII?

octahedron · Feb 16, 2013

So I'm due for an upgrade and I was wondering about this phone as it's the only one I really want. I currently have a motorola phone that was a flagship when it was first released(Atrix 4G) and while it was a decent phone, Motorola didn't really support it and stick to its release schedules with the phone. Normally this would not be a bad thing since there is the development community that one can fall back on, but this hindered the development community since developers needed to rely on Motorola for drivers and kernel along with Nvidia because the processor in the phone was a Tegra and I'm sure you guys already know how much Nvidia and open source don't go well together lol.

Anyways I was wondering if the SIII has(or will have) any sort of issues in the same area due to closed source or Samsung not releasing drivers,etc... to developers after major releases. I would wait for the SIV, but the phone is getting into screen size territory I'm not comfortable with and I don't want a Nexus 4 because the battery life doesn't seem to be as great as the SIII. Basically once I get my next phone, I want to be able to hold onto it for a few years without feeling the need to upgrade because of out of date software. The hardware in the SIII seems more than sufficient to be future proof.

Another side question: would there be any mods that retain some of the software features found in touchwiz or add any such as multitasking? Not a deal breaker, but just wondering.

aybarrap1 · Feb 16, 2013

octahedron said:
So I'm due for an upgrade and I was wondering about this phone as it's the only one I really want. I currently have a motorola phone that was a flagship when it was first released(Atrix 4G) and while it was a decent phone, Motorola didn't really support it and stick to its release schedules with the phone. Normally this would not be a bad thing since there is the development community that one can fall back on, but this hindered the development community since developers needed to rely on Motorola for drivers and kernel along with Nvidia because the processor in the phone was a Tegra and I'm sure you guys already know how much Nvidia and open source don't go well together lol.

Anyways I was wondering if the SIII has(or will have) any sort of issues in the same area due to closed source or Samsung not releasing drivers,etc... to developers after major releases. I would wait for the SIV, but the phone is getting into screen size territory I'm not comfortable with and I don't want a Nexus 4 because the battery life doesn't seem to be as great as the SIII. Basically once I get my next phone, I want to be able to hold onto it for a few years without feeling the need to upgrade because of out of date software. The hardware in the SIII seems more than sufficient to be future proof.

Another side question: would there be any mods that retain some of the software features found in touchwiz or add any such as multitasking? Not a deal breaker, but just wondering.

Seriously doubt Samsung will "prevent" users from being able to mod unofficially. This is one of their two flagship devices. However, it is the carriers that should worry you more. Remember that there are different hardware versions of the SIII as well. Most likely the international versions will be always ahead in getting new updates. On a carrier such as AT&T you are most likely to be the last to receive an update, if you get it at all. Ultimately, if you want guaranteed updates, Nexus 4 is the only sure way to go.

And seriously, read before you ask about mods. Yes and Yes to both questions. Read through and you will find a lot.

zelendel · Feb 16, 2013

aybarrap1 said:
Seriously doubt Samsung will "prevent" users from being able to mod unofficially.

This is not completely true. Samsung has already angered alot of the top developers by not releasing the proper info on the exynos chip in some phones. Even after saying they would. Even some CM maintainers have sworn off Samsung until them come threw. But they still have some of the best tract records for android. Even though Sony is moving up fast.

@OP you will always find something about one company or another that wall cause issues with open source development. This is due to the phone OEM not owning all the software code for the devices. Take CDMA phones. They use a closed sourced phone to work on the network. Nothing Samsung can do about it as it is not theirs. We won't even start on the WiFi and BT chip.

In the end. Get a phone that does what you want and need. Development should never be a first choice. That is just a bonus.

octahedron · Feb 16, 2013

aybarrap1 said:
Seriously doubt Samsung will "prevent" users from being able to mod unofficially. This is one of their two flagship devices. However, it is the carriers that should worry you more. Remember that there are different hardware versions of the SIII as well. Most likely the international versions will be always ahead in getting new updates. On a carrier such as AT&T you are most likely to be the last to receive an update, if you get it at all. Ultimately, if you want guaranteed updates, Nexus 4 is the only sure way to go.

And seriously, read before you ask about mods. Yes and Yes to both questions. Read through and you will find a lot.

I seriously doubted Motorola would have had issues with the Atrix seeing as how it was their flagship device as well. Seeing as how I've never had a Samsung smartphone, I'm not sure how they handle their updates and it has nothing to do with the carriers as much as it had to do with their Nvidia and Motorola because of Tegra and the fingerprint scanner/lapdock.

And "seriously" I've browsed through the developers forum before to see how active it was. All I wanted was a quick confirmation to my question instead of scanning each thread for a phone I may or may not get.

octahedron · Feb 16, 2013

zelendel said:
This is not completely true. Samsung has already angered alot of the top developers by not releasing the proper info on the exynos chip in some phones. Even after saying they would. Even some CM maintainers have sworn off Samsung until them come threw. But they still have some of the best tract records for android. Even though Sony is moving up fast.

@OP you will always find something about one company or another that wall cause issues with open source development. This is due to the phone OEM not owning all the software code for the devices. Take CDMA phones. They use a closed sourced phone to work on the network. Nothing Samsung can do about it as it is not theirs. We won't even start on the WiFi and BT chip.

In the end. Get a phone that does what you want and need. Development should never be a first choice. That is just a bonus.

Gotcha and thank you.

Deggy · Feb 16, 2013

Hello fellow Atrix owner! I'm a former Atrix owner myself. I can you tell right now, this place is hoppin' compared to the Atrix. You won't be disappointed with the choices with ROMs here! Got a couple of former devs from the Atrix over here as well making ROMs!

Sent from my SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app

CamFlawless · Feb 16, 2013

I have 4.2.2 running almost flawlessly already. Even the nexus devices are just having this update rolled out. I think that goes to show the quality of the S3 development. There certainly isn't a lack of ROMs to choose from in this community.

octahedron · Feb 18, 2013

Deggy said:
Hello fellow Atrix owner! I'm a former Atrix owner myself. I can you tell right now, this place is hoppin' compared to the Atrix. You won't be disappointed with the choices with ROMs here! Got a couple of former devs from the Atrix over here as well making ROMs!

Sent from my SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app

CamFlawless said:
I have 4.2.2 running almost flawlessly already. Even the nexus devices are just having this update rolled out. I think that goes to show the quality of the S3 development. There certainly isn't a lack of ROMs to choose from in this community.

Well this is good to know

dxwilliams40 · Feb 18, 2013

I rooted and had neutrino running on my wife's atrix. Samsung phones are easy compared to that process. There are plenty of stock based and aosp roms available. I have flashed at least 20 different roms since October. I will be jumping on the S4 though when it arrives.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium

y0yerrj0sh · Feb 18, 2013

The samsung was easy to root and there seems to be plenty of rom choice comparatively to some other android phones i've owned.

cjranucci · Feb 18, 2013

y0yerrj0sh said:
The samsung was easy to root and there seems to be plenty of rom choice comparatively to some other android phones i've owned.

S3 is easy to hard brick too if you aren't paying attention to what you are doing. Just saying.....

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How is development for the SIII?

octahedron

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aybarrap1

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zelendel

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octahedron

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octahedron

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Deggy

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CamFlawless

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octahedron

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dxwilliams40

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y0yerrj0sh

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cjranucci

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