Hey guys, so I’ve finally found a little time to write a small review on my International version of the Galaxy S III (I9300). This review is going to be short and right to the point.
Things I Like and Love About This Phone:
- Screen is amazingly sharp despite the pentile screen, it doesn’t take away from the wow factor.
- The front facing camera clocking in at 2MP is the most clearest front facing camera I’ve ever seen. I could actually see the pours of my skin and realized how ugly I really was… That’s why I spared you the picture lol.
- The back main camera at 8MP is as clear as you would expect from a Galaxy device. Samsung’s Galaxy devices have a reputation of being arguably one of the best mobile phone cameras on the market, and now that the Galaxy S III includes the best picture function where it snaps 8 pictures within about 1 second, you’ll never again have to miss out on those special moments with blurry pictures taken in haste. The camera also has the zero shutter lag that many people were freaking out about with the Galaxy Nexus, although they have improved on it greatly and you really realize the power you have within your hands.
- Samsung got smart with the Galaxy S III and included a very big and bright LED light that is hidden beside the front speaker on the left. A LED light is what Samsung’s Galaxy S series phones had been missing all this time, many rooted users took on apps to use the touch key lights as notification lights to makeup for the missing LED light that always should have existed. Though there isn’t much in terms of LED customization built in to the phone, apps such as Light Flow will help you get you on the right track.
- The speakers front ear piece as well as the back sound amazing. The both produce a loud and clear sounds which any speakerphone music lover will get a kick out of. Samsung has moved the speaker beside the camera rather than at the bottom back of the device, I totally love this change as it keeps your hand from muffling the sounds as your holding your device.
- Battery life, one of the primary concerns of the common Android user. I’m happy to report that the Galaxy S III i9300 has one of the longest lasting batteries I’ve used on an Android to date. We are not at the point were we can challenge the iPhone, but in the world of Android, Samsung is taking steps in the right direction. You’ll have no problem getting a full day of moderate to heavy use on this phone, unless your a gamer of course.
- The overall performance of the Galaxy S III is breath taking. No matter what punish meant I put my device under, it handled it like a champ with little to no hesitation. It’s totally what I expected from a quad-core device, anything less and i’d be severally disappointed.
- TouchWiz, the amazing platform you love, or the curse you wish Samsung would ditch. No matter what side of the playing field you stand on, I have to admit it has greatly improved since previous versions. I find myself using the stock launcher over my normal Nova Launcher I have on all my phones. Samsung has put a lot of thought in to some of the features you’ll find in the Galaxy S III such as Smart Stay and its numerous new motion gestures.
Things I Feel Could Use Improvement:
- TouchWiz. Yeah I know I praised it 20 seconds ago, but the general UI could still use a little work. The functionality of TouchWiz has more features than one could want, but the theme styles Samsung chooses to use ensures that it will never win any beauty pageants.
- Physical design is hit and miss in my opinion. The front of the device looks beautiful, but flipping it over to the back just looks like a brick, with not much to look at. Also color availability is a little odd to me, not having the standard black as an option I think is a flaw.
- This particular model of GS3 doesn’t have LTE as it’s the international version and not the North American version, trading LTE for a real quad-core device is a no brainer to me, though some others may disagree.
I may have not covered then entire device and all of its awesomeness, I was forced to write this review on the fly. As some of you may know, I recently took a couple steps back from AndroidinCanada to deal with family and our new born baby which doesn’t leave me a lot of time to get writing done.
Reviews are based on my personal opinions and may or may not agree with some of our readers, If this is the case feel free to input your own mini review down below in the comments.
If you feel I missed something or you have additional questions, feel free to hit me up on Google+ and I’ll be more than happy to answer what ever questions you have about the International Galaxy S III to the best of my abilities.
