What phone now?

**jibij** · 10-08-2012, 10:23 AM

I haven't considered any other phone other than iPhone since iPhone 1. However, I'm 95% sure that I'll be replacing my iPhone 4 with a Galaxy S3 on Wednesday. I've done the research and played with both. The S3 is just too cool too ignore.

**Dantheman** · 10-08-2012, 11:01 AM

If anyone happens to have a TMobile or ATT smartphone they are not using or getting rid of soon shoot me a PM. Lost my nearly new Galaxy Blaze last week

**iceman** · 10-08-2012, 01:53 PM

Jibij, the phones are cool but the battery is driving me nuts with my Nexus. I had been working around it, grabbing bits of charge here and there, in my car, wherever, but twice recently I went to zero and I needed my phone. Maybe the S3 is better? If not, think hard about your usage patterns.

**jibij** · 10-08-2012, 02:13 PM

The battery is my biggest concern with the S3. However, it looks like with apps like Juice Defender that it's pretty manageable. Worst case is that I buy an extended life battery and have a slightly thicker phone.

Here's some comparative info I found:

"Battery life on the Samsung Galaxy is better thanks to its 2100mAh capacity, compared to the 1750mAh of the Nexus. You should get around 2 more hours of talk time with the S3 than you would with the Nexus."

**iceman** · 10-08-2012, 04:59 PM

Well more is better than less and I haven't had huge problems, just a couple of kinda critical ones recently. If it's better, and you're willing to pay attention to it, fine. It should be great.

But don't use any of the cool stuff on the phone if you don't know when you can get back to charging it, it takes a lot of power to run that big screen. But you gotta pay to play in this world, so be it.

**Yonder_River** · 10-08-2012, 05:10 PM

Originally Posted by jibij

I haven't considered any other phone other than iPhone since iPhone 1. However, I'm 95% sure that I'll be replacing my iPhone 4 with a Galaxy S3 on Wednesday. I've done the research and played with both. The S3 is just too cool too ignore.

Thanks, I think I'm there with ya.

I just heard that the s3 will most likely be available on black friday for $50 for those renewing 2yr contracts. Wish I had the patience since that is much better than $200.

**systemoverblow'd** · 10-08-2012, 05:52 PM

There are some things on all these phones to help save battery life. I used to have push enabled for my emails every 5 minutes. Now, I only get emails when I check.

Next, turn off wifi when you aren't using it. Your phone will constantly be checking for a signal. Same goes with bluetooth.

With a little management you can see definite battery improvements. If you do all that and your battery still sucks, well your battery sucks.

I listen to "tunein radio" at least 4 hours a day, along with web surfing, emailing, watching YouTube and playing games all for the same period. Radio is playing and ill do one of the others at the same time. I am good for the whole day, but I certainly need to charge every night. Right now I am at 41% and will be down to 20 by the time I plug in and hit the hay.

**toast2266** · 10-08-2012, 07:06 PM

I got an s3 about a month ago. All of my previous phones have been stupid so my point of reference is skewed, but the s3 is impressive. As long as I start the day with a mostly full battery, it's fine for my purposes. Wouldn't say that I spend a lot of time on battery intensive stuff though. The quick chargers do a good job - I can add around 20% to the charge on my 15 minute drive to work.

**bmg97** · 10-08-2012, 07:23 PM

Originally Posted by jibij

I haven't considered any other phone other than iPhone since iPhone 1. However, I'm 95% sure that I'll be replacing my iPhone 4 with a Galaxy S3 on Wednesday. I've done the research and played with both. The S3 is just too cool too ignore.

I have been the exact same way and just bought the GIII about 2 weeks ago. I couldn't be happier. It felt good to get away from the iphone. Takes some getting used to but I really like it.

**b dubya** · 10-08-2012, 07:35 PM

Originally Posted by systemoverblow'd

There are some things on all these phones to help save battery life. I used to have push enabled for my emails every 5 minutes. Now, I only get emails when I check.

Next, turn off wifi when you aren't using it. Your phone will constantly be checking for a signal. Same goes with bluetooth.

With a little management you can see definite battery improvements. If you do all that and your battery still sucks, well your battery sucks.

I listen to "tunein radio" at least 4 hours a day, along with web surfing, emailing, watching YouTube and playing games all for the same period. Radio is playing and ill do one of the others at the same time. I am good for the whole day, but I certainly need to charge every night. Right now I am at 41% and will be down to 20 by the time I plug in and hit the hay.

my battery use is kind of similar on my s3 but I leave push emails on, same kind of result but I also stream to my TV which chews a bit.
I'm stoked, the phone options at the moment are stupendous

**systemoverblow'd** · 10-08-2012, 07:37 PM

Agreed! Pretty much any flavor of smartphone out now is pretty amazing to where we were just a couple years ago.

doughboyshredder · 10-08-2012, 09:43 PM

Couldn't be happier with my new rugby smart. Mil spec tough. Waterproof shockproof dustproof. Great sound great battery life. Not the most advanced phone out there but its damn tough.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I847 using TGR Forums

**fool** · 10-09-2012, 08:14 PM

Originally Posted by jibij

The battery is my biggest concern with the S3. However, it looks like with apps like Juice Defender that it's pretty manageable. Worst case is that I buy an extended life battery and have a slightly thicker phone.

Downloaded Juice Defender last night based on this thread and I've already seen tremendous improvement with my S3 battery: thanks.

Anyone have 100% success with the S3 with regards to group text conversations? I use Go SMS Pro which works 95% of the time, but some iPhone messages still come through individually as opposed to in the group text.

**b dubya** · 10-09-2012, 09:07 PM

i thought juice defender was obsolete on the S3 and it's software? At least I've had nothing but great battery life without it and just making sure bluetooth is off when not being used

**systemoverblow'd** · 10-26-2012, 08:42 PM

**Ripzalot** · 10-27-2012, 03:06 AM

**Max Archer** · 10-27-2012, 03:47 AM

I'm really happy with the iPhone 5 I got on launch day last month. I was really torn, I was bored of iPhones and really wanted a Galaxy Note II, but I just got turned off by the shit all my Android-using friends had to deal with, and, aside from the big screen, nobody was ever able to tell me wtf an Android phone would actually do for me that was any better than what my iPhone does.

Seeing you guys talk about getting a day out of a GSIII kinda makes me glad I got what I did. I can forget to plug my iPhone in at night and I'll get through another day with battery to spare, even on an LTE connection with push emails and all of that. Admittedly I don't use it that heavily, but I generally have an hour or more of calls and at least the same of web browsing in an average day.

**fool** · 10-28-2012, 10:23 AM

Originally Posted by b dubya

i thought juice defender was obsolete on the S3 and it's software? At least I've had nothing but great battery life without it and just making sure bluetooth is off when not being used

First time using an Android so I have no prior experience with juice defender, but it's definitely saving me a bunch of battery life on my S3. Go to bed with 40% or so now rather than 15%, if that.

**iceman** · 10-28-2012, 11:08 AM

Yeah I just installed it a couple days ago after jibij mentioned it and it seems to be helping some.

Bobby Stainless · 10-28-2012, 11:30 AM

I have an S3.

Don't drop it.

**Art Shirk** · 10-28-2012, 07:32 PM

Work gave me an iPhone 5. Its a piece of shit.

Hugh Conway · 10-28-2012, 07:55 PM

aren't you married with a kid? that's a plus, right?

the price differences across networks are nuts now.

**gatorboy** · 10-28-2012, 08:16 PM

Originally Posted by Max Archer

... nobody was ever able to tell me wtf an Android phone would actually do for me that was any better than what my iPhone does.

Maps.
Navigation.
SD memory cards.
Much larger screen (GS3).
Send pics directly to Facebook.

**TBS** · 10-28-2012, 10:38 PM

Originally Posted by gatorboy

Maps.
Navigation.
SD memory cards.
Much larger screen (GS3).
Send pics directly to Facebook.

I have both an iPhone 4 and an Android device (HTC running Honeycomb). iPhone is my primary device as well as a test device. The Droid is used solely for testing mobile apps. Shameless spam - our mobile apps are for avalanche safety - see www.ullrlabs.com

Here are some things that make me like iPhones more than Droids.

Unless you need public transport routes, current iPhone maps/nav work just fine. Expect a quantum improvement in mapping for iOS shortly. If you gotta have public trans schedules now, you can download/use Google Maps to the iphone

Onboard iPhone GPS is way superior to any Android app.

There's fewer useful apps available for Droid versus iPhone. That's because writing apps for Android is a PIA due to all of the device configurations.

iOS has onboard voice-text capability without a cellphone signal. That's not available in any current version of 'Droid - gotta be able to talk with Google's servers.

Max SD card available in Galaxy s3 is 32GB. Because of the way some apps store stuff, swapping cards around can be perilous.

You can buy an iPhone 5 with 32gb for the same price as a Galaxy S3 at ATT

I don't know if its still a problem with version 4.X, but older versions of Android are famous for gumming up internal storage - I have to do a complete wipe/reload about every two months because of this known issue.

iPhones just work. My iPhone has locked up once in three years. My Droid crashes about once a week.

The GS3 has a bigger screen but is also a lot bigger overall than an iPhone. And i'm not a Facebook fanboi so I don't care about directly sending pictures.

My $0.02 - YMMV