Samsung Galaxy Axiom

[PNWDweller]

Because of being fed up with my ancient HTC Hero's poor data peformance, I drove down to my local US Cellular store to see what all they had in the line of Androids.

After looking at some Motorolas and more HTC phones, landed on the Axiom which for me, was quite impressive in form and apperance. I didn't get it but am thinking about getting one maybe next month down the road when my financial picture finally reveals itself. (I am temp laid off and am waiting for decision on when I start my new full time position hopefully next week - long long story not for here).

Does anyone have any experience with this device yet? I have looked online and have basically seen everything point to it being a mini version of the Galaxy S III with the only difference being the screen size down to 4" which is fine for my purposes. We have 4G LTE here in my area and got to see how fast that was which made me green with envy. (should have worn red that day so I could have been Christmasy!) :) I know it has a lower camera spec (5MegPixel), but don't really care too much about that to be honest, I rarely use my phone camera anyway.

I am mainly interested in battery life, durability of the display glass (can it withstand being shoved in a pocket with keys for up to a day and not show any signs of co-existing with them) as I sometimes have to wear a back brace which prevents me from using a holster that I normally use, NFC performance (IF there is any such thing), etc..

I have had a lot of hard times with the Android platform, but am stuck in the 2.3.7 area so know that has to do with some of it. Am running CM7 on the Hero which helps, but it seems like I am constantly re-installing the OS because of permissions issues and random reboots (I have run the scripts to fix permissions with no luck sometimes). So, will be looking forward to moving into the 4.x series of Android OS.

[Draconian Guppy]

apparently screen size isn't the only difference:

S3

Type Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors

Size 720 x 1280 pixels, 4.8 inches (~306 ppi pixel density)

Multitouch Yes

Protection Corning Gorilla Glass 2

- TouchWiz UI

No gorilla glass! this is one of you main concerns, so stay away!

Type TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors

Size 480 x 800 pixels, 4.0 inches (~233 ppi pixel density)

Multitouch Yes

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_axiom_r830-5144.php

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_i9300_galaxy_s_iii-4238.php

[Muhammad Farrukh]

Get a 920

:shiftyninja:

[LUTZIFER]

I think Samsung needs to start working on some more Windows phones. Not that I have something against Android, as I've owned tons of Android phones and not one Windows phone, but c'mon, they got one Windows phone and what... 1000 Android phones? Not to mention every other cellphone maker and their Android phones.

[Beyond Godlike]

I was entertaining the idea of WP recently, am an android user. WP just misses too many features and apps, on my next upgrade ill look at it again.

I recommend a S3

[dnast]

Are you choosing between the Axiom and the S3 or are you just asking if the Axiom is worth buying?

Just looking at the specs of the Hero and the Axiom, I think you would be more than happy with the upgrade. The Hero has a 320x480 screen with a 528MHz processor and 288MB RAM (ouch!) while the Axiom has a reasonable 480x800 screen, solid 1GB RAM, and a nearly top of the line dual-core S4 @ 1.2 GHz. Like Draconian Guppy mentioned, this phone doesn't appear to have a Gorilla Glass screen, but if it's truly a glass screen keys should not pose a problem (I didn't come across any info about what type of "glass" this phone has).

Other than the screen's durability one caveat is that there might not be much dev support behind the phone. You mentioned that you use CM7 on your current phone so I assume you are used to flashing. The Axiom appears to be exclusive to US Cellular, so it might not get much support from devs let alone Samsung. Also, the black levels on the screen won't likely be that great, though if you haven't spent much time using an AMOLED device you might not even notice.

If you are deciding between the Axiom and the S3 then it depends on the price. It looks like the prices for these phones change depending on your location (which is very odd to me). I only tried 2 locations so I can't really give an educated opinion, but based on the couple of locations I've tried, the biggest price difference was $99 on contract (1 cent Axiom vs. $99 S3). For $100 or less difference there's no reason not to choose the S3. It's superior in every way (possibly besides battery life) and is not only more future-proof as far as the specs, but is almost guaranteed to have better support from both Samsung and the dev community.

[nekkidtruth]

Realistically, there are a lot more differences than just the camera. It's not just smaller per se, it's lower spec'd across the board.

http://www.gsmarena....9&idPhone2=5144

For even more information, here is the Axiom compared to the actual S3 Mini:

http://www.gsmarena....ni+cdma#results

The Axiom and the S3 Mini are very similar. Personally, I won't ever buy anything that isn't either the flagship device, or a variation of the flagship device (Such as the S3 Mini in this case) as I've always been extremely frustrated with lack of support in the development communities as well as from the manufacturers. For those reason, I stay away from all of the other devices. Sadly, the Axiom falls under that category for me personally.

A lot of people (not saying you specifically), buy the cheaper devices thinking they're going to get full experiences and be kept up to date with the latest and greatest and that's just not true. In the end, they look at either the manufacturer or the operating system in general in a negative light, when in reality it was the low price tag. It's akin to buying a Honda Civic because the body might look a little bit like the BMW you truly want. It's just not the same thing.

Anyway, I'm ranting now. For me personally, it's a no-brainer. I'd aim for the S3 without a doubt. That being said, the Axiom is close to the S3 Mini (the true small version of the flagship devices) but there are some distinctions that should be noted.

- Chipset, CPU and GPU are different. This could be due to any number of things (price, bands, availability of hardware).

- The Axiom is on Android 4.0.4. Some might argue how important this might be however, there is a significant boost in performance/smoothness in 4.1 over 4.0+.

- Although neither indicate whether they have Gorilla Glass, it's possible either could. It wouldn't be the first time it wasn't specifically named in the specifications, but was actually used. The chances of the S3 Mini having Gorilla Glass is higher than the Axiom though.

All of the above may not even matter to you, but I have a tendency to dig quite a bit when it comes to my phone and other electronics. I hope this helps in some way! :)