75 replies to this topic

[+Fus10n]

I have been using my Samsung Galaxy S3, while you can do A LOT on it, more on it than an iPhone.. But.. I keep having issues with my battery.. sometimes it works for 12 hours, sometime it works for 4, I can't stand the media players.. drives me nuts.. The best one I could find is Music Folders, but I have tired ALL the high rated ones.. I finally got a good keyboard (Swiftkey, but I prefer the iPhone keyboard better). My apps crash, and my phone freezes.. I have wiped my phone and started over..after a few months boom same thing..

What I do like about the S3,
-Emulators (Don't really play them
-Newsgroup Downloading (Don't really use)
-File System Access (Nice to have to email files to others)
-FTP Downloading (there might be an iPhone app for this


What I use my Phone for 98% of the Time,

Texting
Facebook
Twitter
Emails
Talking
Web Browsing
Camera

Thats it.

I like how the iPhone has the built in "iPod", I find it much better than any android phone I have had.. (HTC Hero, Samsung EPIC, HTC Thunderbolt. HTC Evo, Samsung Moment, Galaxy S2 SkyRocket, Galaxy Note, Galaxy S3,)

I am always back and forth on phones.. These are all the phones I have had this year,

iPhone 4S > Galaxy II Sky Rocket > Galaxy Note > iPhone 4s > Galaxy S3 > possible iPhone 5

What are your thoughts? Has anyone owned both? Which has the better camera? I have looked at comparisons and some look better than others..

[Intrinsica]

Fus10n, on 20 December 2012 - 14:55, said:

What I use my Phone for 98% of the Time,

Texting
Facebook
Twitter
Emails
Talking
Web Browsing
Camera

Thats it.

Either phone will do all of that. From the sounds of it you'll either need to think about what the other 2% usage is, or consider other options like whether you would want to jailbreak/root the device that you buy or not. Do you like the ability to customise your phone and so on?

I have the S3 and love it. I've briefly used an iPhone 5 at work and...well, it's an iPhone. I didn't notice anything remarkably different between the iPhone 5 and the other iPhones we have around, although as I said I wasn't reviewing it in-depth. There could be under-the-hood improvements that a regular iPhone user could tell you about that went over my head.

[]SK[]

4S user here. Agree with the above the 5 offers nothing new. Issue I have though is I dislike Android so overall my choice would be the iPhone 5. Shame its just so boring

[+Fus10n]

Intrinsica, on 20 December 2012 - 15:01, said:

Either phone will do all of that.

Right, but it sounds like since that is what I really do most with my phone, the more stable, more contestant battery life, would be a good trade off.. I am just trying to give myself the voice of reason to buy it since I have to buy it without a contract.

Yes, the iPhone is just like the last 6 iPhones and it is boring. But, I never really had issues with my iPhone unless I jailbroke it

[ingramator]

I'm going to be honest, if it was out of those two then the iPhone 5 is the best choice because of app responsiveness, battery life and for you, the keyboard is more suited. If you were to broaden your horizon just a little I would consider a Lumia 920 (possibly 8X) because WP8 makes it easier to do all the things you listed with the benefit of the best smart phone camera available on the market I've actually used all 3 and the Lumia 920 wins straight out (except when I'm doing some serious power user stuff, thats the SIII's league).

Oh and one more thing, you will never experience lag on a Windows Phone

[Luis Mazza]

Fus10n, on 20 December 2012 - 15:08, said:

Right, but it sounds like since that is what I really do most with my phone, the more stable, more contestant battery life, would be a good trade off.. I am just trying to give myself the voice of reason to buy it since I have to buy it without a contract.

Yes, the iPhone is just like the last 6 iPhones and it is boring. But, I never really had issues with my iPhone unless I jailbroke it

The Galaxy Note 2 has the best battery in the market. It lasts more than a full day with non-stop use. Also, the additional battery is very cheap. I have one of those, but I never used it as the battery that comes with the phone always takes care of the work until I have to recharge it.

[Intrinsica]

Fus10n, on 20 December 2012 - 15:08, said:

Right, but it sounds like since that is what I really do most with my phone, the more stable, more contestant battery life, would be a good trade off.. I am just trying to give myself the voice of reason to buy it since I have to buy it without a contract.

Yes, the iPhone is just like the last 6 iPhones and it is boring. But, I never really had issues with my iPhone unless I jailbroke it

Well, we're making progress. But now you've raised a couple more points to consider which bring me back to my earlier comment about jailbreaking/rooting.

I would say that if both phones are untouched (no rooting, no jailbreaking) then the iPhone will offer you longer battery life. I could probably squeeze two days of battery out of my S3, but I think the iPhone could do 2 days more easily. Maybe an iPhone user could confirm that, though.

However, if you went for the S3 then you could easily root it and install a custom ROM on there that could help increase the battery life.

But if you root the device, there is the potential for the system to be less stable. Note that I say, "potential" as there are plenty of perfectly stable custom ROMS out there.

And you're right. The iPhone may be similar to previous iPhone devices, but you know what they say. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

For me the decision boiled down to tinkering. I like tinkering, and it is easier to mess around with an Android device than it is an iPhone. That's my opinion, at least. Others may disagree with me.

[Luis Mazza]

Fus10n, on 20 December 2012 - 15:13, said:

and I have the Galaxy S3 now.. Did you even read my post?

I did. But this is so weird that I couldn't possibly understand why get new phones in such short time. Unless you're a dev, that's not normal at all.

[reactionary007]

If you have a Galaxy S III already - then why not just stick with it and spend the money on a vacation? Drive to a near-by big city and visit a museum or something - spend the night in a hotel - sit in the hot tub. I have a Galaxy S III and love it. I also read blogs and think - I should buy an iPhone or a Lumia or an 8x, etc., etc. But I know the second I would go out and get it - I would think - I shoulda got a One X+ - or a Note II. It never ends

[+Fus10n]

I enjoyed rooting my Android Phones, most of the time I got better results after flashing.. but I had a lot of problems with Custom roms with my Skyrocket and nightmares on the Note.. That is why I haven't flashed my S3.. I guess I could find a clean Android rom and start from there

[.Neo]

]SK[, on 20 December 2012 - 15:03, said:

4S user here. Agree with the above the 5 offers nothing new.

So far every iPhone 4/4S owner I came in contact with has been amazed by how much lighter and thinner my iPhone 5 is. On top of that it's blazing fast and the larger screen a welcome change. All in all in feels like a totally different phone. The only thing that could use a refresh is iOS' interface. Apps in general are still of way better quality and more polished than those running on Android.

How anyone can say with a straight face the iPhone 5 offers nothing new is beyond me really.

[ingramator]

Intrinsica, on 20 December 2012 - 15:14, said:

Well, we're making progress. But now you've raised a couple more points to consider which bring me back to my earlier comment about jailbreaking/rooting.

I would say that if both phones are untouched (no rooting, no jailbreaking) then the iPhone will offer you longer battery life. I could probably squeeze two days of battery out of my S3, but I think the iPhone could do 2 days more easily. Maybe an iPhone user could confirm that, though.

However, if you went for the S3 then you could easily root it and install a custom ROM on there that could help increase the battery life.

But if you root the device, there is the potential for the system to be less stable. Note that I say, "potential" as there are plenty of perfectly stable custom ROMS out there.

And you're right. The iPhone may be similar to previous iPhone devices, but you know what they say. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

For me the decision boiled down to tinkering. I like tinkering, and it is easier to mess around with an Android device than it is an iPhone. That's my opinion, at least. Others may disagree with me.

For battery your suspicions are correct, the iPhone has far greater battery life then the GS3 under normal usage. As for jailbreaking/rooting, it completely depends on what you're installing. If you're just installing installous or a couple of non-service dependant apps then battery is going to be fine. Start installing stuff like Activator, frameworks and services- expect to suffer from battery life and performance. As for custom ROMs on Android increasing battery life, this isn't going to make much of a difference. Even skinning out services and/or applications in run time the main drain is from core components, video decoding but mostly WiFi, Bluetooth and Cellular connections (screen if you have it maxed out as well).

[+Fus10n]

Luis Mazza, on 20 December 2012 - 15:16, said:

I did. But this is so weird that I couldn't possibly understand why get new phones in such short time. Unless you're a dev, that's not normal at all.

Some people just like to have new stuff.. Some people like to buy new guns, I like to buy new Phones.. If you don't have anything productive to post, please don't.

[.Neo]

Luis Mazza, on 20 December 2012 - 15:06, said:

But if you don't know what to get, you should stay with the iPhone 5. It's made for people like you

Luis Mazza, on 20 December 2012 - 15:16, said:

I did. But this is so weird that I couldn't possibly understand why get new phones in such short time. Unless you're a dev, that's not normal at all.

If you have nothing constructive to add to this thread it's best you stop wasting everyone's time with these pointless posts. No offence meant.

[shakey]

Since most of what you will be doing revolves around typing and reading text, I would go with either the S3 or Note 2, as they provide bigger screens that will be easier for what you are looking for. Not only that, but they provide actual multitasking, so you can watch a movie and text as the same time, or other things.
The Iphone5 is a great phone, but isn't much of a difference from the 4s, and is so small compared to the Samsung S3/N2 that it really can be a deal breaker. When the whole size of the I5 is the size of the S3's screen, you will understand how much of a difference it is.
Personally, after getting the S3, I wish I had waited a month for sprint to get the Note 2. While it is huge, you get used to it, and the extra power, size, and stylus makes a world of difference.
As for battery life on the S3, mine is stock. I get about anywhere from 18-48 hours of use, depending on how heavy I use it. If it is just for some texting and calls, I can easily go over 2 days. If I start youtubing it, or playing some need for speed, it will normally last around 20ish hours before I feel it needs a charge. I've never had my phone die on my within a day though. Good thing is though, you can get higher amp batteries that will make it last even longer, as long as you are fine with custom back cases. But on a normal day, I'll stream about 2 hours of Hulu while I do my paperwork, stream some music while going to the bank and other activities for about 2 hours, facebook/reddit/text for about 2 hours, and then other random things during the day, starting at 9am with a full charge. By 6pm, I'm normally around 58%. Just to give you some what of a clue on how well it actually does.