S3, S4 or Note II?

soggy biscuit · 27-03-2013 3:48pm #1

I've decided to make the bold move and get my first proper smart phone. Just wanted opinions on whether to go forr the S3 or Note II now or wait 'til April at some stage and get the S4. Think I read somewhere mid-April it's out. Anyone know this? What kind of prices would I be expecting to pay?

p.s. I will be going pre-pay as opposed to bill-pay.

Thanks

27-03-2013 4:07pm

I don't know where to start, you have given us too much information on what you want from a phone.

How comfortable are you holding a 7 inch tablet in one hand? Do you already own a tablet? Why is it that you only want a Samsung device? What do you want from a phone? What don't you want from a phone? There is a reason that both the Note II and G3 exist: it is because one suits some people more than the other and vice versa. We cannot tell which one is better for you without at least some info.

Yes G4 will be out around then, will be about the same price as the S3 was at launch.

soggy biscuit · 27-03-2013 4:12pm

Hahahaha. Good man the dan. Basically I want a phone that's good for email, internet and music. I just posted with all the samsung phones as i've been hearing good things on them. Few of my friends have the S3 and they seem to love it, but i have also heard very good things on the Note II. What i don't want from a phone is one that has terrible battery life. Sick of having to charge my phone nearly twice a dya now. Heard that the iphone is very bad for battery usage. And ya i'd be fairly comfortable holdig a tablet.

27-03-2013 4:27pm

soggy biscuit wrote: »

Hahahaha. Good man the dan. Basically I want a phone that's good for email, internet and music. I just posted with all the samsung phones as i've been hearing good things on them. Few of my friends have the S3 and they seem to love it, but i have also heard very good things on the Note II. What i don't want from a phone is one that has terrible battery life. Sick of having to charge my phone nearly twice a dya now. Heard that the iphone is very bad for battery usage. And ya i'd be fairly comfortable holdig a tablet.

If that really is all you want from a phone, get a G300 or something similar. You don't need to spend so much money if you're just using it for email, internet and music.

The majority of smartphones have the same-ish battery life (although the Note II's is supposed to be a bit better.) To make it last longer you just need to remember to turn off wifi etc when not needed, or to get an app that does it for you. If that's still not good enough, you can get an extendable battery for a lot of phones that have removable batteries.

Alpha Dog 1 · 27-03-2013 4:36pm

+1 for the g300.
Got one delivered yesterday.
80 pound with free delivery happy days.

soggy biscuit · 27-03-2013 5:29pm

Whats it like Alpha dog?

Nolimits · 27-03-2013 6:07pm

If you're going to go high end I'd go for the HTC one (out this Friday) over any of those Samsungs

biebiebie · 27-03-2013 6:18pm

Nolimits wrote: »

If you're going to go high end I'd go for the HTC one (out this Friday) over any of those Samsungs

Just wondering why you're recommending the htc over the samsungs?

Meesared · 27-03-2013 6:20pm

biebiebie wrote: »

Just wondering why you're recommending the htc over the samsungs?

The Note 2 blows anything else on the market here out of the water when it comes to battery life, and the screen is great!

Alpha Dog 1 · 27-03-2013 6:24pm

soggy biscuit wrote: »

Whats it like Alpha dog?

Cracking phone, 4" screen, good size, decent camera, good battery, looks nice. Running ice cream sandwich aswel.
It's a superb phone for the price. Got it unlocked for 5 euro on ebay.

Almost go so far as to say it's nearly as good as friends iPhone which set him back 700 big ones.

Nolimits · 27-03-2013 6:34pm

biebiebie wrote: »

Just wondering why you're recommending the htc over the samsungs?

I'd recommend it over the Samsungs because, especially the S4, it just seems like all of their new features are gimmicks that you'll probably never use.

The HTC has the awesome speakers (something missing on every other phone),an aluminium body so it will feel great and not plasticy, and the Zoes actually look decent if again a little gimmicky. Blinkfeed I think is neither here nor there, would be handy for checking facebook/twitter etc at a glance though to be honest I'd probably turn it off.

Also, I know launchers can solve this, but touchwiz looks really, really ****. Whereas Sense actually looks alright for the most part.

Saying all of that though, I won't be getting either, waiting for the X phone or Nexus 5

Nolimits · 27-03-2013 6:37pm

As for people suggesting the G300, it's a great phone for the money but the key there is for the money. I bought my sister one for Christmas so I have nothing against it but a budget phone will always compromise in some areas.

Meesared · 27-03-2013 6:40pm

Nolimits wrote: »

As for people suggesting the G300, it's a great phone for the money but the key there is for the money. I bought my sister one for Christmas so I have nothing against it but a budget phone will always compromise in some areas.

It is a little weedy in the CPU and RAM department

27-03-2013 6:40pm

Nolimits wrote: »

As for people suggesting the G300, it's a great phone for the money but the key there is for the money. I bought my sister one for Christmas so I have nothing against it but a budget phone will always compromise in some areas.

It has only been recommended as the OP has stated he's doesn't need his phone for more than the basics.

Tar.Aldarion · 27-03-2013 6:43pm

S3,note2,s4,xperia z, HTC one. I think you'll love any of them tbh. S3 is getting cheaper

Nolimits · 27-03-2013 6:49pm

Meesared wrote: »

It is a little weedy in the CPU and RAM department

The screen resolution is quite low and obviously doesn't look as well as higher priced phones (not that I would expect it to) the touchscreen responsiveness isn't as good as top phones. It won't get any more updates. I was never very impressed with the camera.

Again, I'm not particulary trying to put it down, I don't know how they can sell it at the price they do, it's outstanding value for money. Just making sure the OP hears the good and bad before he/she makes his/her decision.

Deleted User wrote: »

It has only been recommended as the OP has stated he's doesn't need his phone for more than the basics.

I assume the OP play the odd game on it, which will mean he'll use his phone for most of the things we all use our phone for. Nobody needs a quadcore phone, we like them though.

MikeD22 · 27-03-2013 7:24pm

Alpha Dog 1 wrote: »

Cracking phone, 4" screen, good size, decent camera, good battery, looks nice. Running ice cream sandwich aswel.
It's a superb phone for the price. Got it unlocked for 5 euro on ebay.

Almost go so far as to say it's nearly as good as friends iPhone which set him back 700 big ones.

I have the g300 at the moment and i thought this at the beginning. I have it a few months and its running very slow, apps keep crashing, messages failing to send.

I know of one other that had similar problems after a few months ownership. there a good phone for the price but to be honest if i could go back i'd probably just spend the extra money and pick up a samsung. S3 mini will probably replace this g300.

niallharty · 02-04-2013 1:01pm

The Galaxy s3 is on cyberport.de for €399 now and it might drop another 20 or so when the galaxy s4 is released at the end of April... That's brilliant value in my opinion!

crazygeryy · 02-04-2013 1:08pm

niallharty wrote: »

The Galaxy s3 is on cyberport.de for €399 now and it might drop another 20 or so when the galaxy s4 is released at the end of April... That's brilliant value in my opinion!

have you used cyberport?are they legit?and yes it is brilliant value.
do they deliver to ireland?the website is all in german so i cant see if they do.

crazygeryy · 03-04-2013 11:29pm

niallharty wrote: »

The Galaxy s3 is on cyberport.de for €399 now and it might drop another 20 or so when the galaxy s4 is released at the end of April... That's brilliant value in my opinion!

cheers for the reply there niall.

irishpancake · 07-04-2013 2:58pm

MikeD22 wrote: »

I have the g300 at the moment and i thought this at the beginning. I have it a few months and its running very slow, apps keep crashing, messages failing to send.

I know of one other that had similar problems after a few months ownership. there a good phone for the price but to be honest if i could go back i'd probably just spend the extra money and pick up a samsung. S3 mini will probably replace this g300.

Man, the phone doesn't slow itself down, it's whatever you are running on it....

what ROM you got, I would put something like Stock + on if you have ICS updated....

but, if you want optimal speed and performance for this phone, I would probably stick with Gingerbread, there are several good GB Roms, even Stock is not too bad, if you get rid of Bloatware....

and it can be o/c'd easily, also use Zepps V6 SuperCharger Memory Management Script, which is built into Stock+ ROM. It will make this phone fly.

Android does manage RAM pretty good, and it will kick stuff out if it needs the memory, but V6 just makes it better.

Apps crashing and messaging failing is another thing, perhaps you should do a "fix permissions" if you got a Custom Recovery, and clear the dalvik cache....

these functions are also available with V6!!

get a cache cleaning app, like this.....

The phone is restricted as to what it's got, but it has a lot for the price, which can be as low as €75, and its got a very active community on Modaco.

niallharty · 13-04-2013 3:33pm

crazygeryy wrote: »

have you used cyberport?are they legit?and yes it is brilliant value.
do they deliver to ireland?the website is all in german so i cant see if they do.

Sorry about not replying but if you've still not got a new phone I can tell you cyberport should be trustworthy. I haven't used it now but here is my reasoning
1. http://www.scamadviser.com/is-cyberport.de-a-fake-site.html 100% good on scam adviser. (note scam adviser only considers a website safe if it is 100% safe)
2. Many people have bought on it before that I know and on boards.ie with success and fairly quick delivery around a week
3. They are shop based. As in they have retail stores in Germany

Hope that helps

the whole year inn · 14-04-2013 6:22am

Nolimits wrote: »

I'd recommend it over the Samsungs because, especially the S4, it just seems like all of their new features are gimmicks that you'll probably never use.

The HTC has the awesome speakers (something missing on every other phone),an aluminium body so it will feel great and not plasticy, and the Zoes actually look decent if again a little gimmicky. Blinkfeed I think is neither here nor there, would be handy for checking facebook/twitter etc at a glance though to be honest I'd probably turn it off.

Also, I know launchers can solve this, but touchwiz looks really, really ****. Whereas Sense actually looks alright for the most part.

Saying all of that though, I won't be getting either, waiting for the X phone or Nexus 5

What's the X phone?

Alpha Dog 1 · 14-04-2013 8:45am

The x phone is Google's first Motorola phone.
Probably won't be released until autumn.

deckie27 · 14-04-2013 10:00am

I had a s3 was waiting for s4 was disappointed when it was Launched so went for a note 2
Battery in note2 last about 50% longer than s3. Has more ram, processor runs a bit faster and larger screen. Outside that iit's almost identical to the s3
Note 2 for me.

biebiebie · 14-04-2013 11:56am

deckie27 wrote: »

I had a s3 was waiting for s4 was disappointed when it was Launched so went for a note 2
Battery in note2 last about 50% longer than s3. Has more ram, processor runs a bit faster and larger screen. Outside that iit's almost identical to the s3
Note 2 for me.

Don't forget the s pen on the Note 2. Although I don't find myself using it too often, and often forget it's even there. However I find it very useful for some websites that are otherwise impossible to navigate. e.g. mega drop down menus.

MuppetCheck · 14-04-2013 12:40pm

biebiebie wrote: »

Don't forget the s pen on the Note 2. Although I don't find myself using it too often, and often forget it's even there. However I find it very useful for some websites that are otherwise impossible to navigate. e.g. mega drop down menus.

After 6 months or so with the Note 2 I started using if for hard to navigate websites recently and I'd agree, it's most useful for browsing as opposed to writing with.

deckie27 · 15-04-2013 9:03am

Wow

Thanks lads. I never really used the pen.
It's mega for getting around the likes of boards drop down menu.

S3, S4 or Note II?

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