Hey guys, my contract expires in a month and I am looking at a couple of new phones to buy. I currently own a Droid Incredible, and I absolutely love it. The only thing that I don't like about it is that it has poor battery life, and it's kind of slow. Things that I do like about it are that I have a plethora of roms to choose from and it has great development support. Some phones that I am looking to buy are the Droid Razr Maxx HD, Samsung Galaxy S3, and the Google Nexus. Can you tell me about the pros and cons of the S3? How is the developer support for this phone? I appreciate any help!
How great is this phone?
- Thread starter ra9b
- Start date
Developer support isn't the worst but it isn't the best, the Exynos 4412 is Faster than it needs to be, don't go for a Snapdragon S4 Quad just because its faster... the differences are minimal.
If I was you I would get the Nexus 4 over the Galaxy Nexus if you were to get a Nexus device.
Cons:
Not much.
If I was you I would get the Nexus 4 over the Galaxy Nexus if you were to get a Nexus device.
Cons:
Not much.
everything is great with this phone, developer community, xda support community is good, frequency of software updates from samsung is also good compared to other OEMs at the moment...overall phone experience is excellent and you will not be disappointed...however, sgs3 suffers from two issues...
1) stock Contacts & Phone App lags, takes 3-4 seconds to open for the first time and will not stay in memory for a long time for fast opening..this sucks...work around is avaliable like Exdialer app from play store or Jkay mod for SGS3 to keep contacts and dialer app in memory always.
2) heavy apps installed from market cannot be moved into external memory (memory stick)...work around available though I guess..!
1) stock Contacts & Phone App lags, takes 3-4 seconds to open for the first time and will not stay in memory for a long time for fast opening..this sucks...work around is avaliable like Exdialer app from play store or Jkay mod for SGS3 to keep contacts and dialer app in memory always.
2) heavy apps installed from market cannot be moved into external memory (memory stick)...work around available though I guess..!
If you are comfortable flashing a custom rom, kernel or mods, then it's a wonderful phone.
Stock experience is good but has some shortcomings like mentioned before.
Overall, I think it's the most balanced device right now. Removable battery and micro sd slot surely give it an edge and it's not as large as a Note.
Xperia Z would be also a great choice if you decide to wait. Seems that it would be a better choice IF you can wait a month or two.
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Stock experience is good but has some shortcomings like mentioned before.
Overall, I think it's the most balanced device right now. Removable battery and micro sd slot surely give it an edge and it's not as large as a Note.
Xperia Z would be also a great choice if you decide to wait. Seems that it would be a better choice IF you can wait a month or two.
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@TheCraig: what do you mean it isn't the best? Like, the dev support for the droid incredible is great. The phone is 3 years old but we still have about 5 jelly bean roms, and 2 4.2 unofficial nightly roms which is great!
@gchindi: well, i am not too worried about the contacts and phone apks taking a while to load. and how big apk files are we talking about?
@drakester09: yeah, i am addicted to flashing. I have a gtab 2 so i'm familiar with the rooting process for samsung devices as well. i don't like the stock interface too much. i can't stand touchwiz for some reason lol.
thanks for your help guys. can one of you upload a screenshot of your battery usage graphs too? just for comparison with my battery life. i'd greatly appreciate that.
@gchindi: well, i am not too worried about the contacts and phone apks taking a while to load. and how big apk files are we talking about?
@drakester09: yeah, i am addicted to flashing. I have a gtab 2 so i'm familiar with the rooting process for samsung devices as well. i don't like the stock interface too much. i can't stand touchwiz for some reason lol.
thanks for your help guys. can one of you upload a screenshot of your battery usage graphs too? just for comparison with my battery life. i'd greatly appreciate that.
haha let me clarify. i was telling him what the dev support is like on the dinc so that he could compare it to the dev support on the gs3.
I meant to say the dev support for the Galaxy S3, which isn't massively impressive compared to the Nexus, but that's expected as AOSP is made for Nexus.
Ohh OK. I was going threw the development forum and it looks pretty good.
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It's has great hardware but horrible software specially Ram Management.
For example, you wanna enjoy some tracks while browsing web ?
Forget it, the songs start to shutter .
For example, you wanna enjoy some tracks while browsing web ?
Forget it, the songs start to shutter .
Easily fixed with a new kernel or ROM.
Worst thing about Samsung bloatware, but that isn't as bad with the I9305 and its 2G ram.
I'd wait for the SGS4!
LG, Lucky Goldstar anything but...
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Yeah, I'd hold off for a few months if you can - get a discount off your monthly bill from your service provider, save that money, then pull the trigger on a brand new S4 when that comes out. S3 is a great phone, and there's nothing else I'd rather have at the moment (except maybe the i9305 with more RAM, although a much weaker dev scene). But with the S4 release within spitting distance now, you'd be mad not to wait. Unless cost is an issue, in which case I'd still say wait, cos the S3 will drop in price quite a bit when the S4 is released. Might as well get yourself synced up with the Galaxy S release cycle now, cos once you have one you're unlikely to want to go elsewhere. I did buy myself a Nexus 4 when that came out, but the only benefits that had was the software (if you're into vanilla Android) and two gigs of RAM. EVERYTHING else was inferior to my S3, so I ended up sending the N4 back.
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Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
i was thinking about waiting for the s4 but i don't know when exactly it will come out. regardless, i probably won't buy it since i personally think that it might be too over powered and the battery life will take a hit, but hey, you never know. you're right about the S3's cost dropping though. i was looking at the nexus 4, but the no microSD card
(at least that's what i've read) was a complete turn off for me.
40 million S3 units sold, having come from HTC I can see why just on the quality of components Samsung uses in it's phones. I had a choice between the new nexus and the S3, the removable battery and sd card sold it for me but I'm very impressed by how well the software works. All my phones up to now had AOSP, this is the first that has ( albeit a stripped down version) a stock ROM onboard after three months use.
Yeah the s3 is pretty great. I've played around with it and I really like it. Is the battery life good with touchwiz or is it better with cm10.1?
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Its all about choice. I have a nexus 7 which is a bigger version of the Google nexus in theory. Do you mean Google nexus or the nexus 4? I have to say that I love the jelly bean on the nexus and especially the user interface which I think is very simple to use on my nexus7. The RAZR maxx has the best battery life out of any phone I have seen on the market. My friend has one and funnily enough I have a s3. The s3 is brilliant you can really feel and see the quality Samsung put into making their phones. I came from HTC myself after having alot of issues with the one x . I would recommend either the nexus 4, simply because of the software and easy access and the s3 because of the removable battery and SD card which is what made me go for the s3 rather than the nexus
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Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
I highly doubt this will be the case - the battery life will be no worse than the S3 (most likely better). Chances are it will have a bigger battery as well as a better CPU (which will have better power management). The possibly larger screen and 1080P will obviously have a negative effect. This is obviously basing off rumour specs (and no one will really know until the phone is released), though point is, just because the phone is more powerful doesn't mean the battery life will be worse. The S3 is more powerful than the S2, though has better battery life (for me anyways).
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Yeah, the Nexus 4. What was wrong with your One X? But yeah, I think I'm going to go with the S3. It has a lot of roms (so that beats out the raxr) and it has a micro SD(beating put the Nexus). Having a rooted droid incredible has kind of made those two things a necessity for me.
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