Decision Making - iPhone Vs Samsung Galaxy S3.
I set out to buy my first smartphone to an AT&T showroom. Confused to choose between iphone and samsung s3. Called up my friends who were using these phones and got their opinions. And finally chose S3 over iPhone because of the following reasons :
- I did not own any of the apple products so I had no compulsion of buying an iPhone to do cloud computing, etc, etc. Also I did not find iTunes user friendly - the syncing up every time, no easy copy - paste files (drag drop like in an usb drive)
- I'm a GPS user, S3 offered two good GPS products free of cost.
- iPhone 5 was not yet released, so the available iPhone 4 would be outdated in a month.
- S3 being the latest smartphone available in the market.
(Probably these reasons might have made S3 the largest selling phone outselling iPhone in the month of August)
What I liked ...
First I start with the good things about this phone.
Design: Its sleek, slim, stylish, big. (Nature inspired curves as claimed by Samsung).
Software: Android Icecream Sandwich. Its fast, the screen resolution and clarity is amazing. The touch sensitivity is very good.
Cool features: There are some cool features as shown in the video commercials like:
- The retinal identity - uses the eye retina to control the screen brightness, awake-ness, etc. (I'm not sure if it really works). Lock /unlock phone using your face. (Don't worry, there is a backup security code feature, if it fails to identify you :-) )
-NFC- Allows to exchange data when touched with another NFC enabled device or samsung NFC posters, etc.
Motion features :
There are some cool motion features like :
- When you swipe your palm across the screen, it takes a screenshot and stores automatically in a folder named "Screenshots" in the Gallery. (Thats how is used the screenshots effortlessly in this blog)
- If you are at the bottom of the page (like end of contacts) , tapping on top of the phone takes you to the top, the first page.
- If you are typing a message / opened a contact . then moving your phone towards your ear calls the contact number automatically.
- If you want to mute the phone - an alarm or an incoming call, turn and keep the phone upside down. Also you can mute a music player by covering the phone with your palm.
- And some image zooming and panning features using motion.
Voice Features : - Similar to the SIRI in iPhone, there is a S Voice in here. But not so impressive.
-GPS - Google Maps, Google Navigator - both are good GPS softwares which comes along with the phone.
-Camera - 8 mp camera with flash is impressive, with HD video recording. It has many features to explore too.
-Android Market -Now as Google Play - Millions of Apps available for usage.
What I didn't...
Its pretty big, - wondering why I'm saying it here again even after I said I like it. Yes its not for small hands. You cannot reach the extreme corner of the screen with your thumb, making it difficult to operate the phone with one hand. If you have a big hand and you are willing to use both your hands at all times, then you may like it. Even though it is big, it is sleek which slips in easily and smoothly into your pockets.
-If we use this phone continuously for more than 15-20 mins, the back of the phone which has a metal casing heats up like anything.
-I also didn't like the headphones, it is kind of earplug model, where we need to insert it hard into our ear holes and it easily falls off. Should have been like the apple's one. Hope samsung was afraid of the patent/ design infringement.
Poor Battery Life issue /bug..
Other than this, I have no complaints with the overall usage of the phone.
BUT... the one thing which I Hate is the Battery Life..
You may find hundreds of people complaining about the battery life on the web. And I'm one of them.
When I searched the net, I found that there seems to be a bug in the battery usage reporting. And Samsung is aware of this and are planning to release a fix soon. I'm anxiously waiting for it.
In the first month, I had no issues with the battery. I don't use the phone much - like always listening to the music, watching videos, browsing the net, playing games, etc. etc. So, it will be always idle and my usage will be around 5-10% only a day. I used to get battery life for 2-3 days in the first month.
Then I installed some applications, widgets, etc. During the night, when the phone is idle, the battery drains out drastically and becomes dried out in the morning even if I had turned off the Wifi , GPS etc.
The Battery report says, the battery usage is more during Cell Standby. But it is not telling which application or widget is using it.
(The steep decline happened during the night, when the phone was idle WiFi, GPS was off)
When I searched the net, many had reported this problem and many suggested that its because Google is trying to Sync the Google+ photos, Gallery, and other Google applications.
So, I tried to turn off them too. Still I was experiencing the same problem.
Then someone advised me to install an app JuiceDefender which will save the battery. I did the same and the battery life was much better now. But during the night I had the same problem. Later I found out that the culprit is the widget "YouBible - Verse of the Day" I had enabled which is trying to access the net even when WiFi , Mobile Data, is off. I uninstalled it immediately.
After that the difference was much better, but still during night, the percentage of Battery discharging is high. Another Samsung S3 user advised me to install an App killer. I have tried that too.
Now I'm thinking to do a Factory Reset, so that I get back my new phone which had good battery life.
But what is the use of a smartphone without the apps !!
The phone is not to be blamed for the battery life, but the OS/ software. If Samsung can come up with a fix to identify the apps which is causing this and optimize the battery life, this would be a great phone.
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