{"id":343,"date":"2013-01-05T17:37:38","date_gmt":"2013-01-05T22:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulbegley.com\/2013\/01\/samsung-galaxy-s3-quick-review\/"},"modified":"2013-01-05T17:37:38","modified_gmt":"2013-01-05T22:37:38","slug":"samsung-galaxy-s3-quick-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/?p=343","title":{"rendered":"Samsung Galaxy S3 &#8211; quick review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My original Motorola Droid was approaching four years old and over the holidays the 3G crapped out.&#160; It was a serviceable phone, but some apps started to weigh down the phone, and if I used Navigation, I had to have it on a charger.&#160; I was also debating the cost\/benefit of keep my \u201cunlimited data\u201d plan versus Verizon Share Everything Plan.<\/p>\n<p>After doing some online R&amp;D and talking with friends, I upgraded to the Samsung Galaxy S3.&#160; First impressions were the same as most people \u2013 it\u2019s pretty big (4.8\u201d screen), it\u2019s fast (dual core, 1.5GHz and 2GB RAM).&#160; Further observations \u2013 the display is very good, the Samsung add-on apps appear to be very useful.<\/p>\n<p><strong>First day impressions<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Much larger than the Droid, which requires I hold it in a less secure fashion, which means I\u2019m looking for a case with \u2018grip\u2019.&#160; I never had a protective case for the Droid, and never needed one \u2013 I kept it in a case with a belt clip.<\/li>\n<li>Much, much, much faster than the Droid.&#160; Apps like Waze, Google Maps (with Navigation) that stressed the Droid, drained the battery, and made it too hot to hold run smoothly on the S3.&#160; S3 is the honeybadger of smartphones.&#160; S3 don\u2019t care, it just runs apps and sips the battery.<\/li>\n<li>First day battery life very good, but not mindboggling.&#160; I ordered a 4200 mAh battery and case combo as well as a \u2018honeycomb\u2019 cover.<\/li>\n<li>Bluetooth pairing, WiFi all faster.&#160; The S3 reports 64Mbps connect speeds with my 802.11n home router (Buffalo).<\/li>\n<li>Software <\/li>\n<ul>\n<li>Less crapware loaded by Verizon than other phones I have seen.&#160; <\/li>\n<li>Samsung software interesting, also installed GALAXY SIII User\u2019s Digest \u2013 online, interactive manual for phone<\/li>\n<li>Switched to Minimalist theme and Nova Launcher<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Second and third day impressions<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Installed MobileIron (corporate ActiveSync proxy for Exchange).&#160; Client install was simple, and Samsung supports full device encryption (but not the USB card).&#160; Synching 30 days of mail, and I\u2019m using the built in \u2018Corporate Email\u2019 application.&#160; I have the option to merge mail and calendars, but I\u2019m keeping them separate now.<\/li>\n<li>Battery life still good, but I will need to charge it each night.&#160; This isn\u2019t a problem, because I\u2019ve been doing this for years.<\/li>\n<li>Used Waze while commuting, and it really helped on two occasions \u2013 295 North one morning someone self-reported a major, multi-vehicle accident in the fast lane.&#160; Police weren\u2019t on the scene yet, but we were able to get in the slow lane and got around it pretty quickly.&#160; Second time was coming home, 295 South was&#160; backed up for about 100 miles, and Waze directed me to use the NJ Turnpike.&#160; <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>First week impressions<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Installed the extended battery.&#160; It\u2019s *huge*, but the battery fits in fine, as well as the humpback whale \u201cPebble Blue Back Cover\u201d.&#160; <\/li>\n<li>Installed the \u201cHoneyComb Case\u201d is a very tight fit, but it goes on fine.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I really like the extended battery.&#160; Battery was 90% at noon on the first day, 66% at the end of the day (18 hours).&#160; Day two was a Saturday, less mail volume, but used GPS, Google Maps, etc extensively.&#160; Battery at 41% after 36 hours and holding.<\/p>\n<p>The case is nice.&#160; It fits well, and I have a much more secure feel when using and handling the phone.&#160; The down side is the HoneyComb case covers the power and volume buttons, and the cut out on the bottom of the case fouls the micro USB connector when charging the phone.&#160; I\u2019m using an X-Acto knife to clean things up tomorrow.&#160; I took test photos, and even with the deeper case for the extended battery and the case cover, there is no interference when taking photos.&#160; Also, all other ports (front sensor, speaker, microphone) are not blocked from the case.&#160; Overall, I\u2019m very, very pleased with the combination of the extended battery and HoneyComb case.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Reference Links<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Hyperion Samsung Galaxy SIII 4200mAh Extended Battery + Pebble Blue Back Cover   <br \/><a title=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B008GWIVTQ\/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i01\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B008GWIVTQ\/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i01\">http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B008GWIVTQ\/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i01<\/a><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">Hyperion Samsung Galaxy S III Extended Battery HoneyComb TPU Case -Black     <br \/><\/font><a title=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B008MMZUZS\/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B008MMZUZS\/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00\">http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B008MMZUZS\/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My original Motorola Droid was approaching four years old and over the holidays the 3G crapped out.&#160; It was a serviceable phone, but some apps started to weigh down the phone, and if I used Navigation, I had to have &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/?p=343\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-android-2","tag-android"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6YWFc-5x","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}