Leaving iPhone... moving to Galaxy S III

[Noir Angel]

The GS3 has a far superior GPU to the GN, it should perform a lot better. Generally Samsung are pretty mod community friendly so you shouldn't have much trouble rooting the device if you'd prefer to use stock Android.

[Rippleman]

as a user of both, hate the feel, primitive look, lack of smoothness, and sheer lagginess of the Frankenstein Adriod OS. Stick with IOS...

[Noir Angel]

It still amuses me that so many people equate flashy animations with smoothness. I always turned off the animations on my Android phones and they were perfectly smooth, very little UI stutter. And this was on the old Qualcomm single core models.

[ApuBo]

Ive moved from Symbian (Nokia N8) to this Android (SG3) cud not be more joyed ;) ... still haven't play with it yet (e.g. root and stuff) but playing with games and music it works and fun :) not to mention love the big screen ;)

[BajiRav]

It still amuses me that so many people equate flashy animations with smoothness. I always turned off the animations on my Android phones and they were perfectly smooth, very little UI stutter. And this was on the old Qualcomm single core models.

Something tells me Google disagrees with you ..you know the whole Project Butter and "war on lag" thing. ;)

[Matthew S.]

There are not many if any apps that are not already on Android, if by polish, you mean the ugly iOS look then fine, but let's be honest and drop the "no apps" lies

Actually to be quiet honest that's why my iPhone is still my primary phone and not my Note. Android app's lack polish and they fact that it's open makes the app store a huge steaming mess on android.

Oh and the fact that my iPhone doesn't require antivirus and a force kill of flash :p

[Stokkolm]

Actually to be quiet honest that's why my iPhone is still my primary phone and not my Note. Android app's lack polish and they fact that it's open makes the app store a huge steaming mess on android.

Oh and the fact that my iPhone doesn't require antivirus and a force kill of flash :p

Or the fact that you don't have ads all over the place in your apps on the iPhone.

[Josh_LosAltosHills]

I imagine OP has what alot of people get, which is iOS fatigue. It's looked the same from the very beginning. Even if you jailbreak it and do the custom themes, it can get very boring. I thought so too and got a WindowsPhone. But to be honest we all use the phone mostly for applications. Which is where iOS shines. Which is why I'm 80/20 getting the new iphone and not another WP. Also I went to look at the S3 and for being a "superphone" that plastic look and feel turned me off right away. Since you have already ordered your phone I'll just say good luck and I hope you like it.

[sanctified Veteran]

Guys, the OP already made his decision. He does not need you to convince him. If you can help him choosing an Android device please do it. If not, please, move along.

[CronicHazel]

I really enjoy both the Android and WP platforms, but I do have to admit that Android as a whole does not have the polished feel of the iOS and WP platforms.

Jellybean is definitely a step in the right direction, though, and I really can't wait to try it out =)

Good luck with your GS3, it's gonna be the top Android phone for a while

[JaykeBird]

Go for it! Android 4.0 has an excellent interface... (although iOS is pretty good too...) I would just suggest that you get vanilla Android on your phone... The one thing I hate is OEMs putting on custom interfaces, like Samsung's TouchWiz.

[myxomatosis]

Tried to make the switch once, by replacing my iPhone 4 for a Galaxy S2... Had a hard time. I went back to my iPhone 4, and now use a iPhone 4S.

Android is a great OS, but I prefer iOS personaly.. I guess I would say the same thing about Android if I'd used Android for so long instead of iOS ;)

[techbeck]

Thanks guys. I've been hearing some things about the GS3's reception problems... not sure if it's related to the Sprint version (which is out already) or if it will affect the GS3 on Verizon too. I'm happy my 2.3 apps will work.

I've played around with the galaxy nexus, and while I'm impressed at its speed and the software, I think i'm going to stick with the GS3, solely for the fact that the nexus I played around with (a friends, not even a store model) had screen burn in like crazy. I had chrome open on a white background, and I saw some nasty remnants of his application tray. I know the screen in the GS3 is essentially the same... I just hope that doesn't happen.

Screen burn is because your friend either didnt have a screen timeout, or to long of a delay. I have seen screen burnout on all S1s and S2s as well from the SAME person who likes to leave her screen on.

[Guest]

There are not many if any apps that are not already on Android, if by polish, you mean the ugly iOS look then fine, but let's be honest and drop the "no apps" lies

I put forward my experiences and they then become lies? These are my own personal experiences, I am quite right to have my opinion. I also love how you are quoting "no apps", please point out where I made that statement. Pathetic.

[giantsnyy]

I actually agree... a lot of Android apps do lack the "polish" of the iOS apps. I have a few side by side on my D-X and my 4S. iPhone definitely wins there.

It's definitely iOS fatigue. I'm tired of the same OS. Nothing's changed, and from playing with iOS 6, it seems like it won't change for a while.

Also... Every single iPhone I've had has been replaced at a minimum of 3 times. Each has their own hardware fault. My first 4S wouldn't hold a bluetooth connection for more than 5 minutes, my second wouldn't stay connected to wifi, and my third (and final 4S) will randomly drop service in the middle of a phone call, switch to "Searching..." and stay there for 3-5 minutes. My 4 and 3GS (both Verizon 4 and AT&T 4) have had massive issues. In fact... my 3GS was replaced 6 times. Way too much if you ask me.

[Noir Angel]

Something tells me Google disagrees with you ..you know the whole Project Butter and "war on lag" thing. ;)

War on lag? Oh you mean the fact that they're adding GPU rendering to improve performance. You know building performance improvements into products is part of most companies normal development processes, right?

I never said there was *no* UI lag, I'm just pointing out that it's an issue that has been blown out of proportion to sound FAR worse than it actually is. And if you disable the animations almost all of the lag goes away, that is a fact.

Or the fact that you don't have ads all over the place in your apps on the iPhone.

Really? heard of iAd? Besides you have the option to just not install applications with ads in them.

[Charisma Veteran]

The SIII is a really awesome phone. My friend just got one and although I love what I have, I'm kinda jealous of his. I hope you enjoy it, and that the fun of having a fresh, new, highly customisable phone will help outweigh some of the negative at the start of having to get used to a new interface. Once you learn it, I'm pretty confident that you will be pleased with your decision :) Enjoy!

[Jan Veteran]

Thread cleaned. Try to remain on topic and help OP instead of blathering on about what phone is best.

[BajiRav]

War on lag? Oh you mean the fact that they're adding GPU rendering to improve performance. You know building performance improvements into products is part of most companies normal development processes, right?

I never said there was *no* UI lag, I'm just pointing out that it's an issue that has been blown out of proportion to sound FAR worse than it actually is. And if you disable the animations almost all of the lag goes away, that is a fact.

war on lag is Google's term and mentioned in The Verge's 4.1 review. ;)

As Matias Duarte put it, Google "declared a war on lagginess," and it shows.

My point being if Google felt like making a primary bullet point in their keynote and continue to highlight it, it was(is?) a real problem. If you have to disable OS eye-candy to get it functional, it's not a good experience.

[Rippleman]

War on lag? *** almost all of the lag goes away, that is a fact.

lol, this made me laugh.... if there is no lag, then why disable the animations, why improve performence to get rid of something they don't have, AND why does only "most" of it go away if none of it lags at all?

[Noir Angel]

My point being if Google felt like making a primary bullet point in their keynote and continue to highlight it, it was(is?) a real problem. If you have to disable OS eye-candy to get it functional, it's not a good experience.

Eye candy? Flashy animations don't improve the usability of a phone in any way, they're completely unnecessary.

lol, this made me laugh.... if there is no lag, then why disable the animations, why improve performence to get rid of something they don't have, AND why does only "most" of it go away if none of it lags at all?

I never said there was no lag, I said that THE PROBLEM HAS BEEN OVERBLOWN. Are you trying to purposely be irritating, or are you just that ignorant?

[BajiRav]

Eye candy? Flashy animations don't improve the usability of a phone in any way, they're completely unnecessary.

They do actually (if done properly). ;)

[Joswin]

In same position. iOS fitigue is the main reason like the poster - just a little bored of the OS remaining the same (even if its with good reason - I mean if it aint broke why fix it?).

I tried the Galaxy S2 for a brief period last September, before going back to iPhone (I bought a 4S). The S2 was nice, I enjoyed the larger screen and so forth but I didnt much care for the UI. Widgets seemed a pointless addition even though they are lorded over as a big feature of android (How many ways to see the weather do I need?) and I had a number of apps on my iPhone that were not available in the market place (then). So faced with a TouchWiz'd gingerbread and the prospect of rebuying tons of apps (I invested a lot in the App Store) I called it a bad move and went back. Oh and there was a bit of an annoyance with the S2 not being supported by a number of games and having to go to the dev's site to download them or samsungs own app..... just felt so incohesive.

Seeing Jelly Bean just recently made me want to give it a whirl again. Google Now looks impressive and the entire UI looks much more polished. The S3 looks a nice phone but the UI is touch wiz'd and looks a but of a mishmash, plus the device itself looks rather flimsy. I have no interest in rooting btw. The HTC One X looked really nice, sense 4.0 looks pretty slick. However since none of those phones will be getting Jellybean anytime soon (I heard Q4 2012 for S3) im inclined not to bother.

I have pretty much decided on the Galaxy Nexus. It's pretty cheap compared to the higher end One X / S3 and has Jellybean coming to it this month. Its a pure experience and looks a decent phone (though still a bit flimsy but hey -- its about 40% cheaper than an S3/One X).

[McKay]

I just made the jump from iPhone 4S to Lumia 900. If I was ever going jump to an Android device it would have to be one running unaltered Android 4.0, HTC Sense and Samsung Touchwiz slows down phones and consumes more resources. I have a friend with a Galaxy Nexus and its smooth as butter.

[Glassed Silver]

Yep.. as some have noted.. if having a slick phone is important to you (coming from iPhone) HTC One X is definitely the nicest looking one so far including build materials and so on.

But I would definitely recommend Galaxy Nexus.. you will get Jelly Bean goodness like immediately and enjoy the best and latest Android has. Google Nexus is an excellent phone, so much that I'm really not inclined to buy either HTC One X or GSIII unlike with Galaxy S2 and Nexus S.

This pretty much sums it up.

That is unless you like TouchWiz (yes, there are those who like it :p anti-TW trolls, deal with it! :laugh:)

I personally don't fancy Samsung's adjustments, I like the RAW Android experience, of which - granted - I didn't have THAT much of til now.

I'll definitely get an Android phone sooner or later, but keep my iPhone my main phone.

Android would be for tinkering, similar to what your good ol' PC next to your latest rig is or your server. :p

The Nexus is definitely a clear winner in my book, because it's sleek, powerful and BOY, not to dig too much in Android clich?s, but it's still a rocking phone, still considered powerful and current and will probably be one of the first Android phones to get really long lifecycle OS support, so Google can finally sh** up the trolls who say - rightfully - that Android OS updates are a short road to drive on. :laugh:

Either way, the GS III IS a very very solid phone.

I'd definitely not say it's something you shouldn't get over the Nexus per s?, it just depends on what you need.

Some of the tweaks Samsung put in there (I personally ADORE the picture-in-picure feature!) are quite clever.

Surely some/all of them will sooner or later land either in stock Android builds or be available as apps from Google Play, but yeah, you get the idea.

I think if you really are a happier camper with Android, definitely go with it, as it's matured a lot and still is maturing into something pretty great.

Wish the best of luck and a wonderful experience to you! :)

Glassed Silver:mac

(still happy on iOS :p)