Takaharu

My fiancée's iPhone's microphone packed up recently and as she's in need of a phone next week during the holiday I decided to fork out for a sim-free handset. Repairs on a mic, unfortunately, can't be done in time. I figured I'd buy a new phone now and when my contract's due for renewal I'll get an upgrade and sell it on.

I'm no Apple fanboy, I chose the iPhone 4 for my first contract phone for simplicity reasons. I later got a 4S on a second contract and gave the 4 to my fiancée.
This time, I thought I'd try Android. The Galaxy S3 is about £50 cheaper than a 4S and is newer tech. People rave about Android and in a recent video I watched of JellyBean (S3) vs iOS6 (i5), JellyBean worked quite well for itself, particularly with voice commands.

So far, I prefer Windows Phone 7 and I'm not a fan of that. It's ok to use as a phone but I wouldn't use it long-term (I borrowed a Samsung WP7 phone whilst my phone was being repaired a while ago).

When I started up the phone I signed up for Samsung. Next, I signed in to Google. Next, I signed in to Dropbox. Eventually, I saw a home screen.
The home screen is... meh. Thus far, I can't see what all of the fuss is about with the widgets. I might grow into them, might not. So, I'm not going to pass judgement there.
The sounds were the first to go. Annoyed the heck out of me.

So far, I'm finding that I have to take extra steps to do things that were a couple of buttons away. Yes, I know that it's possible to create widgets for common tasks but I'm not there yet.

To call one of my contacts I need to open the phone app (obviously), then change from the dialpad to the contacts list, scroll to my desired contact, select them then select the phone icon next to the number that I want to ring. Why is the keypad shown first? Can this be changed?
On the iPhone, I open the phone app, it shows the most recent contact that I last selected, I tap that then the phone number.

The voice activation is APPAULING!!!
I tried asking for it to phone my fiancée. Spelling wrong, no contact. Duh. Six times I tried, all spelled incorrectly, contact not found. Can't it use an ounce of logic and pick the contact that sounds similar that's, dare I say it, actually in my contacts list? Yes, she has an unusual name but seriously? Siri got it in one. I closed it, went back to it and it tried searching for her name - still spelled incorrectly. I gave up after the third attempt there.
Set a reminder? What's that? I asked it five times to remind me for the same thing and all it could say was "I didn't catch that".

Is there a quick way to uninstall an app? At the moment, I open the apps section, tap & hold the app, drag it to app info them press uninstall.

So far, not too impressed. I'm holding out though... just. I haven't used it for long.

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Judas

my samsung Galaxy S3 always shows the last person i dialed or wrang as well as shows the last person that called me.. making it a single click thing.. as far as contacts.. instead of hitting phone just hit contacts and pick your contact.

the iphone 4s/5 could not understand a word i said, even my dads new uconnect dodge truck understands me better which isn't saying much as uconnect isn't exactly stellar.

The android voice recognition is about as accurate as siri's... Do i even both using it... no.. why?

I was introduced to the iphone first and got to play around with it, after checking it out.. and playing with the android.... a few specific cases require an extra 1 or 2 buttons/clicks/slides... but aside from that.. it also grants a whole lot more to toy around with if need be.

I only changed the ring tone on the phone to something more "phone like"... the rest i haven't bothered, good enough for me.. but i do know you can import your own sounds as well as create on the fly your own too.

I've already managed to record up to a 58gb 1080p video which happened to work out to approximately an hour and a half give or take. (using a class 10 64gb Micro SD card) which still leaves me with 32gb on it.

Personally i don't know what all the fuss is about either phone. The calls are excellent, and the s3 has much much much faster G4/LTE then the iphone 5 in my area, I'm pulling figures that make my DSL connection look like crap.

I did a full 2 hour skype video call 2 days in a row using the LTE network while driving about 30km without a break in the video or connection. That i thought was pretty awesome.

It all depends on what your going to use it for in the end.

Mine is strickly calls/video calls, but having a video recorder doing 1080p and good quality to boot, plus pictures.... 3 three things are the most useful. The internet is more of a cool extra that has it's advantages at time. Beyond that i haven't used it to play games really, 99% of them suck on both iphone and android.... most of the apps are total shit on both too.

I've cleaned up my apps list to the bare essentials i need.. and when i hit the resume button, everything is right there at a single touch.

What i thought was pretty damn awesome is beam and being able to stream without a cable any video or actually anything that was being displayed on the phone to any tv that supports it.

Even getting a printer to work is far easier..... vs the iphone or ipad which is a royal nightmare unless it's apple certified or you buy the extra adapters or connections setup that allows apple air support.

I forgot to mention that i don't use google + or sign in or any of that other crap.... dropbox.. bleh..

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blibbax

I got an Android phone for the first time last week. I transitioned from a Nokia 6700.

Like you, I found myself very slow at first. But as I get used to it, I'm finding that I do most things a lot quicker than I did before.

The only thing I've got a third party app for is sound settings (meeting, silent, outdoor, etc.).

My homescreen is just my most commonly used apps, rather than any widgets.

I'm not bothering with leaving it signed in to Gmail, Facebook and Dropbox. Facebook messenger is enough for me, for now.

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Dyre Straits

My Samsung Galaxy Epic is very similar in appearance to your S3. The main difference is that I have a slide-out keypad.

On my home screen I have only 4 icons: Phone/Contacts/Messaging/Applications.

Although I do not place...or accept...any voice calls, I do have a Log of the calls that were incoming as well as my outgoing messaging calls. I touch the Phone icon, and then I can touch the Logs option. The last six phone calls are listed. Then there's a Favorites option there, too.

I haven't actually, manually placed any contacts in the Favorites category. But, the most frequent numbers used get placed here by default.

Other than this, I'm not that thrilled at all with the service I'm getting. Lost signal...no Internet popup....4G Disconnected/4G Connected...over and over and quite often when I haven't budged from the location.

I'm not sure if it's the phone or the carrier. But, I tend to think the carrier is at fault. (Sprint)

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Judas

if there is one thing i hear most frequently.. is that the carriers in the states and in eastern canada are utterly terrible...

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blibbax

Should be nationalised then.

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Dyre Straits

One of my sons had a fella (who claimed to have been a cell tower installer) tell him that these carriers have the towers on a rolling power cycle. That is, they don't keep the power on 24 hours a day but do a rolling power outage. His claim was they do this to keep costs down. It wouldn't surprise me since I can lose signal sitting in the very same spot for any length of time. But, I have no firm source that I can find to check the validity of the claim.

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Takaharu

I think I'm starting to get the hang of Android but I'm definitely missing Siri. The ability to phone someone without taking the phone out of my pocket whilst walking along is exceptionally handy for me. The reminders feature is also a god-send. I downloaded Life Reminders but you have to pay to unlock certain features.
I've even turned the predictive text back on to try and get the hang of it.

The vibration is a pain in the butt. I'm sure there must a way to customise it but having a really long vibration for an email message seems really stupid for me. The first time I received an email I thought I was getting a phonecall. iOS got it down-pat in my opinion - the shortest vibration for an email, a quick nudge for a text and repeated vibration for a phonecall.
My main gripe with the phone that I think I found a workaround for is the fact that I touch the volume rocker every time I pick up the phone from the side. The workaround? Picking up the phone by gripping the front and back instead. Kinda makes me nervous, given the cost of the phone and how fragile it's reported to be.

I'm slowly getting the hang of it. Not convinced I'll keep using it, particularly because the reminders on the iPhone really make it that worth it for me. Plus, my favourite headset would work with all of its features (the volume buttons don't work on the S3 - that's a common problem) and I have a Powermat for the 4/4S, which is exceptionally useful.
One of the biggest pulls to carry on using the S3 (paying for it aside) is the fact that I hate the design of the iPhone 5 and it seems redundant to order a new 4S when it has been superseded.

On a related note, I hate the design of the iPhone 5, not because of the looks or the need for a new adapter, but the fact that the headset port is on the bottom of the phone. Seriously, the bottom? HOW did they expect that to work for people who carry phones in their pockets? How?!!??!! That's like pointing the barrel of a gun 90° up so that it can't fit in any holster.

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ferret

This is my personal opinion but I don't think anyone new to android should get a Samsung phone because of the way Samsung's TouchWizz interface is. Extra steps to carry out tasks and a whole array of niggles that shouldn't exist. HTC Sense or stock google interface for anyone new to android.

How technically skilled are you Takaharu? I am thinking that you would benefit from sticking a custom ROM onto your phone if you're willing. A custom ROM will change the interface but also give battery and speed improvements in some cases where unneccessaary application are ripped out.

Takaharu

I think it's because I've become so accustomed to iOS that I'm finding it more difficult than I would otherwise feel trying to become accustomed to Android.
Another weird on that I find is when I'm part-way through typing a paragraph on a forum the predictive text just gives up; it stops and won't come back.

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ferret

There is that but I do feel that your problems are due to design more than your accustom to iOS. I went from old school Nokia > HTC DHD > Samsung GS2. You would expect I would get used to it having come from an android phone before but I still do not get along with TouchWizz.

Can I recommend the Swype or Swiftkey keyboards over the Samung one?

Have you considered joining an Android users forum?

Takaharu

Wow, that actually comes across terribly; paying for an app to cover the shortcomings of something as simple as a keyboard and joining a forum to assist in the use of my phone.
The more I get into this Android malarkey the more I seem to miss iOS. I didn't have any trouble coming to grips with the 4.

Is Android really worth it?

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ferret

You're right and it is terrible. However I hope you do try another android phone before you cross them off completely. I recommend either a HTC because their "Sense" interface makes sense. Or a Nexus for the stock android interface.

I strongly beleive the problems you're having is because of the way Samsung designs things and not android.

Veridian3

Saw this post a while ago but have only just had the chance to test things on my S3 and see what happens.

For S Voice, I have to say it works fine for me. Just tried calling someone and setting a reminder, both worked fine which is surprising given the trouble voice activation usually has with accents.

On my phone it is the call log that is shown first which generally gives me the number I want to call, if I move to favourites that is the list that is shown next time I open it. Until a reboot. Alternatively I just hit the search box on the main home screen and type the first letter of a contacts name (sometimes the second too) and it is displayed to me.

Uninstalling, I hit Google Play, Menu, My apps and manage whatever I want... having said that I don't really ever uninstall anything because I only install what I will actually use. (Alternatively you could go Settings>Applications> choose whatever>Uninstall)

Also, regarding the comment elsewhere that HTC Sense is better... I completely disagree. I have the One X and S3 both here and by far Samsungs interface is better. Though stock Android may win overall.

Judas

i'm not sure what i see for a difference between the andoid community forums and hacks/jailbreaking and roms and such vs the apple iphone/ipad and such community forums, hacks, jailbreaking etc.

There are plenty of people that really dislike the apple interface, personally it's pretty damn unfriendly personally. But like i said it's mostly personal preferrence, i had a customer in just now with a iphone 4s that he just got cause he was told that the iphone 5 was terrible for many reasons. The issue was that he couldn't get/figure out numerous relatively "should be simple" opperations of the phone, and after dealing with it, noticed that hundreds of if not thousands of people were running into the same basic simple thing that should be there that isn't OR something that is there that shouldn't be. Having had my s3 on hand, i handed it to him and he did the basic things he wanted to right on the phone quick and not more than 5 minutes into using it, he picked up his iphone4s and said "I'm returning this iphone and getting this galaxy"

We all think differently and work differently and have difference of oppinions. Is one better than the other, in some aspects of course... but unless you can make use of it on your own terms.. well that's up in the air. Does every product require a bit of learning or whatnot, do people get used to one interface over another and then dislike the other because it's not one they are used to? Yup, so many diehard fans.. Considering i didn't have either phone and actually got to use the iphone first, i think i had perhaps the most unbiased opinion i could had go into the ordeal.

Having played with numerous other andoirds out of curiosity, i'd pretty much say what V3 said.... the S3's system is pretty neat and tidy and appears to work well.

I had my dad and I sit and play with the voice thing.. and neither of us could make it work very well. But like i said, about 6 months ago when the 4s came around, we got the privilage of trying to ask it things to but it couldn't make out our voices at all, the responces would have been utterly infurriating if we were really serious about it lol. Uconnect or voice activation function in new vehicles do not pick up our voice very well. It's a strange thing. I know when i worked burgerking my voice never ever picked up right on the headsets and people were to busy trying to figure out what was being said. It's not that it wasn't being picked up at all, just no one could understand what was being said. It's kinda weird, PA systems work fine but our voices tend to come out with a LOT of bottom end which on cheap systems is barely understandable.

Meanwhile someone i know with a brazillian accent picked up their S3 and did a voice command that picked up no problem... i could only laugh, Heavy Porteguesse accent for english really ennounciates the wrong letters in the wrong ways yet it picked up what she said just fine lol.

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Liqourice

Never used an iphone so I can't compare to that. Only want to reflect a bit concerning the voice functions.

Now, android doesn't understand swedish yet so I've set the phone to english and tried it that way. It just didn't work, I couldn't make it do what I wanted, and I'm fairly good at english.

As an example. I tried to send text messages. So, saying "Send text to XXXX bla bla bla" ended up with it starting a text message with the text "to XXXX bla bla" and I never ever got it to do it right.

Obviously it understood me since it got the words right, it just didn't do what it was supposed to do. I think I tried about 20 times...

Takaharu

I think the nail in the coffin for me is the lack of reminders in Android (please do correct me if I'm wrong), where I can just ask the phone to remind me for something.

Prime example, I asked Siri to remind me at 11am every weekday to take my pills. I've also had a few times when I've said "remind me in half an hour to check ebay". It notes it in one.
Yes, that one feature would stop me from continuing to use Android.

Other than that, I'm actually starting to get used to it.

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Veridian3

Launch S voice, say "set reminder 30 minutes name ebay". Done.

Takaharu

The guy in the Carphone Warehouse lied (or really just didn't know). I tried it out; it got "email" the first time, "ebay" the second time.

Next question - how do you go forward in Chrome? I go back using the back button.

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Judas

isn't there a forward button? Mine has forward on it.

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Tipstaff

Can't remember if my client had to download something for it, or that he had to have certain features turned on, but when I was using his Nexus 7 I just used 2 finger swipe gestures. At least I think I did. 2 fingers up/down for scrolling, and 2 fingers left right for forward/backards. Think the same thing is viable on Chrome in 4.0 (guess I'll have to dust off my Acer Iconia to find out). One thing I don't remember if it was an edge to edge, or screen swipe.

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Jaswinder

android OS is most favorable for the PCs and smart mobile phone because its features are very good and smart phones users are wide used its mostly