Moving from 4S TO S3. Convince me!

Lumia 920.

I'm not one for getting sucked in by marketing, but this pretty much says it all :pac:

mickoneill30 wrote: »

1: Really customisable. I've changed my dialler, my SMS app, my keyboard, my web browser and even my launcher to ones I prefer. It's very simple to change all of those apps if you want.
2: Bigger screen. I've no problem with the size of the S3. Playing video on a 4S beside a S3 makes the 4S look tiny.
3: Widgets. Lots of people don't see the point. That's fine. I've 7 on my home screens that I use frequently. They're useful to me.
4: MicroSD card slot. You want more memory, pop in a new card.
5: Micro USB cables. I've a billion USB cables all over the place. When I go to various sites transferring files to my phone is as hard as finding a standard micro USB cable and plugging it into a USB slot on the nearest PC. No faffing about.
6: I dislike ITunes. I've always managed to manage my music using folders. I still do that with my phone.
7: Torrent client. I can download my latest ehm "Ubuntu ISO" straight to my phone. This has been handy when I've been abroad for long periods of time.
8: I can play video straight from a standard share on my home PC without messing about. Maybe you can do this on an iPhone too. I don't know.
9: Price. The latest and greatest Android can be gotten cheaper than the latest & greatest iPhone (well it could be when I was buying mine).
10: Sharing from any app. In nearly any app I can click a button and share info to Facebook, notes App, calendar, text app, email app etc. I don't think it's quite as good on iPhone (it may have improved since I saw that last).


Things I prefer about iPhone.

1: When they bring out a new OS, you can get it pretty much straight away. With Android we either have to wait for the carrier or root the phone.
2: There are more apps for iPhone. I've a couple of mates that have apps that I'd like to see on Android. I probably will eventually but developers seem to develop for iPhone first and Android second.

This nails it, although I haven't delved into rooting or torrents.

I'll add a few other things I like about the S3 (I traded up to it last June after nearly 3 years on iphone, btw):

1. Using a launcher like GO, I can set the screen to rotate, so when I put the phone in landscape for my car holder, all the icons rotate by 90 degrees. No more sidewards headed use like I had with the iphone.

2. I like the smart stay feature, and it seems to work better now with JB update.

3. I like the way you can swipe right to call a contact, swipe left to text them or just put the phone to your ear and it automatically calls them when you're in contacts view.

4. Better control of battery usage: I installed Juice Defender and it allows me to control what the phone is doing with the battery without me having to think about it. For example, I've set up JD to kill off 3G data and wifi while the screen is off. Works wonders for battery life, And as soon as you unlock the screen you get connectivity switched back on pretty much instantly.

5. Maps and navigation work brilliantly. Enough said

6. Google Now is very handy. It picks up what I'm saying pretty much 100% of the time. Some functionality is lacking at the moment, but I think that's because I don't have the latest official release of jelly bean. So, while it understand me perfectly for web searches, weather etc., it isn't able to set up a calendar event. It'll do a reminder alright, and it will send a text. And you can always try out S-Voice and any number of alternative apps that more or less do what Siri can do.

7. The "back" button is always in the same place!

8. No messing with itunes or kies (samsungs "version" of itunes). If you want to load up some music, just connect it up and drag and drop. Or put it all on the SD card and pop it in the back.

Things I (used to) miss about iPhone:

1. I used to miss the integration between the iphone and Cloud for syncing calendar entries, but then I found out how to do it using google

2. Some apps that I liked are not available (yet) on Play Store. Games in particular, but I can live without that.

3. I used to use my iPhone as a bluetooth remote controller for showing slides on my ipad. That was a cool thing to be able to do, but not life-threatening that I can't do it now.

Bottom line: There's very little to choose between say the iPhone5 and the S3. They're both fine phones and you'll be happy with either. If like me you're just bored with iOS, then just grab the S3 and after playing around with it to get it set up exactly as you like, you'll probably find yourself telling all your mates how much better is is than an iPhone.

jenno86 wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice!

I have a Macbook book, will that hold me back much?

I see you can root with a Macbook so I presume it is not too bad!

I have a mac mini at home and a pc at work. I found that transferring stuff through a cable was difficult with the mac. It sometimes wouldn't recognise the phone even with drivers and an app called android file transfer installed. It wouldn't open as a drive that I could explore and drag and drop to.

On the pc it opens as a drive just like a memory stick.

Easiest way round that is to buy an sd card and put that in the mac, load it up with whatever and then stick it in the S3. That's how I got my music from the mac, and it works fine.

I couldn't get ODIN to work with the mac, so any sneaky upgrading that you're thinking of doing might be tricky. This isn't an issue if your happy to wait for firmware updates ota from Samsung or your network provider.

No offence but if you really find it necessary to ask this question so someone can wave a magic post and convince you, then you're looking at the wrong phone and should stick with Apple.

In any case, if you ask this question to 100 users you will get 100 different answers. A phone is something quite personal and likes or dislikes are VERY subjective.
Best thing? Go on you tube, Android forums, S3 forums. READ articles & watch videos about the phone. Then go to an outlet and actually play with a working model of the phone. I know some Vodafone shops have models that you can test.
After this, make your decision.

jenno86 wrote: »

Think of changing from iPhone 4S to Galaxy S3 but I need some convincing!

Could someone sell me on it!