Is the S3 a worthwhile upgrade - Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi all
I currently own a Galaxy Note N7000 but ive got the chance to upgrade to S3 I900 from O2 (uk).
To all you experienced users is it worth upgrading to S3 or would S4 be a better choice?
I am a bit of a flashaholic between CM/AOSP and touchwizz but i prefer touchwizz.
I only want to root and debloat, so is the S3 still future proof for a while yet?
cheers

Depends on how much the upgrade costs, S4 is minimal specification increase over S3 and smaller user base at present (so not as much support on xda).
First thing you'll do is turn off all the fancy gimmicks, if the S4 is much more expensive then I'd stick with the S3.

jock11 said:
Hi all
I currently own a Galaxy Note N7000 but ive got the chance to upgrade to S3 I900 from O2 (uk).
To all you experienced users is it worth upgrading to S3 or would S4 be a better choice?
I am a bit of a flashaholic between CM/AOSP and touchwizz but i prefer touchwizz.
I only want to root and debloat, so is the S3 still future proof for a while yet?
cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I900 is not SGS3 .
Future proof always depends upon what the future brings .

JJEgan said:
I900 is not SGS3 .
Future proof always depends upon what the future brings .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah sorry my typo, meant to say I9300.
looking at the specs n7000 has same amount of ram as the I9300, but i assume suppose
it has quad-core 1.4.
bottom line is i can get s3 cheaper than s4, but will the s3 be better performing than my GN1?
cheers

i9300
If you are the fan of Big Screen and SPen features you must go for Note 3
If not S3 (i9300/i9305) will be the winner for support, ROMs, Kernels.
For S4 some users have a feeling of orginal ROM is smoother than any custom rom. But S4 has more RAM, more CPU Power, Full HD AmoLED, Bigger Battery.
I love custom ROMs and Kernels with Max Tunables so I am sticking with i9300 S3.
My feelings but your choice.

kadiremrah said:
If you are the fan of Big Screen and SPen features you must go for Note 3
If not S3 (i9300/i9305) will be the winner for support, ROMs, Kernels.
For S4 some users have a feeling of orginal ROM is smoother than any custom rom. But S4 has more RAM, more CPU Power, Full HD AmoLED, Bigger Battery.
I love custom ROMs and Kernels with Max Tunables so I am sticking with i9300 S3.
My feelings but your choice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah, i seem to be heading towards S3, its cheaper and although S4 has more ram both seem to be faster than my GN1.
Also after reading XDA, seems more flashing options for S3 at the minute.
What it comes down to for me is performance, as long as it performs better than my GN1, I think i will go for S3.
cheers

Related

S2 or the Galaxy Nexus?

I`am in doubt, i can trade my S2 for a new Galaxy Nexus, should i do it?
I want to and don`t want to, you know what i mean.
Can anyone provide me with any advice/clarity!
Thanks in advance
Do it, you'll receive all updates from Google directly. this will save you lots of nerves. And personally I believe it is nicer.
gee2012 said:
I`am in doubt, i can trade my S2 for a new Galaxy Nexus, should i do it?
I want to and don`t want to, you know what i mean.
Can anyone provide me with any advice/clarity!
Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i will personally say to you that DONT DO IT.....s2 is much better....
In a heartbeat.
I had the s2 and loved it.. but when I got the gnexus my s2 becomes my girls toy.
The screen is so much better.
I now have a HTC one x but keep my gnexus as second phone.
Its perfect to play with.
So many good roms for it.
Sent from my Polar Bear in warp 9.3
To me specs are everything
The Galaxy Nexus is a good phone, but S2 is much better
The Nexus has a slightly larger screen, and a slightly (very slightly) better battery
i have a friend with a rooted and optimized Nexus, and my rooted SII owns it in performance comparisons
The SII also has a vastly superior camera
there is more info here if you are still undecided
S2 has a better camera, USB OTG support, external SD support, albeit a slightly smaller screen, plus some amazing ROMs. Keep your S2 and save for S3.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA
Get the gnexus.
Better software, updates straight from google, and great custom rom community.
well thats imo...
U culd always just wait for the s3
Zamrock said:
To me specs are everything
The Galaxy Nexus is a good phone, but S2 is much better
The Nexus has a slightly larger screen, and a slightly (very slightly) better battery
i have a friend with a rooted and optimized Nexus, and my rooted SII owns it in performance comparisons
The SII also has a vastly superior camera
there is more info here if you are still undecided
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Smartphone11/362
Just read the forums, specs, price, and make the decision yourself.
Closed

[Q] Should I get the S2 ? advice plz !

hello I'm in a bit of a problem here ! , my xperia x10 motherboard is damaged and cant be fixed and I'm in the market for a new smartphone I willing to pay 400-450$ and I really like the S2 and the S3 looks amazing , so here it is : Should I get the S2 or wait awhile a long while to get the S3 (but maybe a used one !) , also could the features in the S3 be ported to the S2 ? advice plz what should I do ? thx in advance
cool_007 said:
hello I'm in a bit of a problem here ! , my xperia x10 motherboard is damaged and cant be fixed and I'm in the market for a new smartphone I willing to pay 400-450$ and I really like the S2 and the S3 looks amazing , so here it is : Should I get the S2 or wait awhile a long while to get the S3 (but maybe a used one !) , also could the features in the S3 be ported to the S2 ? advice plz what should I do ? thx in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
S3 is better than the S2, you want the best phone get the S3, you can't afford it, get the second best the S2. You're loosing 5mm on the screen size, some dpis (quite a bit actually ) and two cores.
Get an iPhone.
Seriously tho, get a Nexus. The last thing you want is to have anything to do with Samsung's ****ty firmware (even if it's only for a few hrs on the day you actually buy the phone). Samsung's refusal to play ball with developers has constantly made SGS2's devs lives difficult.
Wezi said:
S3 is better than the S2, you want the best phone get the S3, you can't afford it, get the second best the S2. You're loosing 5mm on the screen size, some dpis (quite a bit actually ) and two cores.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so u think the S2 is the second best ? is it the best I can get for 400-450$ ? thx again
MistahBungle said:
Get an iPhone.
Seriously tho, get a Nexus. The last thing you want is to have anything to do with Samsung's ****ty firmware (even if it's only for a few hrs on the day you actually buy the phone). Samsung's refusal to play ball with developers has constantly made SGS2's devs lives difficult.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought the S2 had many custom ROMs , also what would be the difference in software between the S2 and the Nexus ?
cool_007 said:
I thought the S2 had many custom ROMs , also what would be the difference in software between the S2 and the Nexus ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
S2 DOES have many custom ROMs. The issue isn't that...
I believe the issue is the inherent difficulty in getting ALL the hardware features supported with AOSP/AOKP builds due to how Samsung implemented their framework.
So though there are a lot of ROMs, both based on Samsung stock, and also AOSP and AOKP, the AOSP/AOKP ROMs don't support everything. I believe TV-out via MHL and FM radio are still not supported on AOSP/AOKP on the S2.
If you want the Android experience the way Google intended, get a Galaxy Nexus, as MistahBungle suggests.
They're a bit cheaper than the S2 right now anyways.
The only downside as far as I'm concerned about the GNex is the lack of external SD card support.
I was being facetious (well, sort of). What I meant was Samsung make a dog's breakfast of their firmware. Yes, there is plenty of custom firmware for the SGS2 which is its saving grace. However, Samsung stuffing up their firmware still makes life hard for devs. It makes it difficult for devs to get some features to work on custom roms (TV Out, WiFi Direct anyone ?). Ask people like Entropy512 & Codeworkx what they think of Samsung & their approach to firmware ;-D
With the Nexus it's Google firmware. Google don't seem to have an anti-dev stance like Samsung seem to have.
The only reason I got an S2 was due to the slightly better specs & the SD card capability. If I'd known about the firmware thing at the time, I might well have got a Nexus.
Put it this way, when I'm due to get another phone next year (assuming I don't kill my S2 in the meantime), if Google's phone at the time has a micro SD slot, I'll be getting it.
Edit - CTMG, read my mind ;-)
cool_007 said:
I thought the S2 had many custom ROMs , also what would be the difference in software between the S2 and the Nexus ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont know I'm a bit confused right now , I like the Nexus and I dont care about the SD card capability but I think the spec. of the S2 is a bit better like MistahBungle said and I want a phone that can hold on with me another year or two , so would i feel the difference between the Nexus and the S2 in the spec. ?
cool_007 said:
I dont know I'm a bit confused right now , I like the Nexus and I dont care about the SD card capability but I think the spec. of the S2 is a bit better like MistahBungle said and I want a phone that can hold on with me another year or two , so would i feel the difference between the Nexus and the S2 in the spec. ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They both have their strengths and weaknesses. I personally like the feel of the S2 over the Nexus, but you may think differently.
If you're talking about performance, it will depend on what angle you're looking at. The TI OMAP in the GNex is better than the Exynos in the S2 in some areas, and vice versa in other areas.
From most reports, the two phones are pretty neck and neck, each edging the other out slightly in some areas.
The camera in the GNex is 5MP vs 8MP in the S2, but megapixels isn't everything when it comes to picture quality. The sensor in the Nexus is slightly bigger, and has zero shutter lag, which compensates for the difference in pixel count.
So in conclusion... it depends.
Your best bet is to go to a store that has both models on the floor for demo units, and to play with them both to see which one you like.
I´d buy the S3 if I had the money tho, but S2 will be enough for at least this year.

Thinking of buying i9300... how's development?

I have an SGS2. I realize the SGS2 has been a pain to develop for because it has no Nexus brother with similar hardware (I'm not talking about the i9100G, the regular GT-i9100).
However, since it's the most popular Android phone in the world, and the Note shared the same hardware, and now the i9300 uses Exynos SOC again, I see that CM9 got up and running on the SGS3 surprisingly fast. I'm not sure where in dev they are, but it seems most of the major features are working. Would I be incorrect to say that SGS2 development helped a lot with preparing the SGS3?
If this is the case, would it be safe to say that jumping from SGS2 to SGS3 wouldn't be a big loss in terms of losing custom rom features. In particular I'm just concerned with CM9. The nicer screen and a notification LED are certainly very important to me.
If you like stock roms or flashing rom then you might get the the Nexus instead, its made for development purposes. The Nexus is way ahead of the S3 in roms availability, and I'm not talking about S3 roms that just rehash Samsung stock firmware. There is a CM10 preview (as of writing) and its running pretty stable.
On performance side, once you run Jelly Bean on Nexus compared to CM10 on the S3, there isn't really much of difference, the S3 might win in some instances. They both can handle 720p MKV videos smoothly. The S3 does have a more powerful GPU so if you mainly play games on your phone, then get an S3. Running FPSE emulator on the S3, I got up to 500frames per seconds in games, that's faster than my in PC. Also the S3 camera is so much better. But if software is your main objective than I'd say get the Nexus, unless you want the Samsung proprietary features.
I had to choose between keeping the Nexus or the S3 and I sold my Nexus, but I will most likely sell the S3 once the new Nexus phones arrive.
Buy sgs3 and flash cm10 to it, it's development goes very fast, one new build per day.
I quess that sgs3 cm9 has same features that on sgs2 cm9.
eksasol said:
If you like stock roms or flashing rom then you might get the the Nexus instead, its made for development purposes. The Nexus is way ahead of the S3 in roms availability, and I'm not talking about S3 roms that just rehash Samsung stock firmware. There is a CM10 preview (as of writing) and its running pretty stable.
On performance side, once you run Jelly Bean on Nexus compared to CM10 on the S3, there isn't really much of difference, the S3 might win in some instances. They both can handle 720p MKV videos smoothly. The S3 does have a more powerful GPU so if you mainly play games on your phone, then get an S3. Running FPSE emulator on the S3, I got up to 500frames per seconds in games, that's faster than my in PC. Also the S3 camera is so much better. But if software is your main objective than I'd say get the Nexus, unless you want the Samsung proprietary features.
I had to choose between keeping the Nexus or the S3 and I sold my Nexus, but I will most likely sell the S3 once the new Nexus phones arrive.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not much point in going nexus over my sgs2 except for software i figure, but the sgs3 is quad with much better battery life too.
i would certainly wait for a next generation nexus but we're still 4-5 months away... heh, and the past 2 Nexus phones seem to be the last of their era... the Nexus S was the same as a 6month old SGS1, and the GNex was about equal to an SGS2 except for the better screen.
Current development will stop Jelly Bean released soon by Samsung .
See XDA tomorrow .
jje

Should I or Shouldn't I get a New SII?

Hi guys,
I was a defy user previously. They I got Nokia N9, bored with it and sold it. Now I want a new phone, not necessarily the latest one, but the one which has a good Custom ROM support, resale value and good VFM. I can't even think about another phone like SGS II. So here are my questions..
1. Is SGS II 's SAMOLED plus screen good enough after 1 + years? I read a Sammy statement of degrading picture quality of SAMOLED Plus..
2. How is SGS II's SQ? Is SGS II a decent Audio player? I was very much disappointed with Nokia N9 though the OS is good. Reading things about Yamaha DAC not being efficient and all.
3. How is the emmc bug doing? Has it been rectified fully at least the newer 2012 batches? I like to flash a LOT of custom ROMs and I don't want to brick the device or lose NAND memory. My previous Defy was a star when coming to ROM flashing even-though it had a locked bootloader.
4. Why there is so much buzz about 720p screens and 300+ ppi lately? I find SII's screen so much sufficient and with full HD playback. Should I go for a phone with full HD screen?
5. Lastly, I'm going to buy this from the US, which variant (GSM) should I get? I'm sure that the International version is better, but I can live with least custom ROMs for a cheaper price tag (like that Walmart deal) and this beautiful screen.
Thanks a ton in advance,
Wolvish
WolVish said:
Hi guys,
I was a defy user previously. They I got Nokia N9, bored with it and sold it. Now I want a new phone, not necessarily the latest one, but the one which has a good Custom ROM support, resale value and good VFM. I can't even think about another phone like SGS II. So here are my questions..
1. Is SGS II 's SAMOLED plus screen good enough after 1 + years? I read a Sammy statement of degrading picture quality of SAMOLED Plus..
2. How is SGS II's SQ? Is SGS II a decent Audio player? I was very much disappointed with Nokia N9 though the OS is good. Reading things about Yamaha DAC not being efficient and all.
3. How is the emmc bug doing? Has it been rectified fully at least the newer 2012 batches? I like to flash a LOT of custom ROMs and I don't want to brick the device or lose NAND memory. My previous Defy was a star when coming to ROM flashing even-though it had a locked bootloader.
4. Why there is so much buzz about 720p screens and 300+ ppi lately? I find SII's screen so much sufficient and with full HD playback. Should I go for a phone with full HD screen?
5. Lastly, I'm going to buy this from the US, which variant (GSM) should I get? I'm sure that the International version is better, but I can live with least custom ROMs for a cheaper price tag (like that Walmart deal) and this beautiful screen.
Thanks a ton in advance,
Wolvish
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should
1. I've had my s2 for over a year and the screen is still great.
2. I don't use it to play music
3. It's a non issue. I flash a LOT of stuff and have never been affected by it. Just do research, there's a lot of information on it
4. You'll be paying for it. To me, it's not worth paying top dollar for the s3 when the s2 screen is more than enough. Especially if you get a good deal.
5. I'm from Canada and have no idea about their variants. Just try to get a 9100
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
WolVish said:
Hi guys,
I was a defy user previously. They I got Nokia N9, bored with it and sold it. Now I want a new phone, not necessarily the latest one, but the one which has a good Custom ROM support, resale value and good VFM. I can't even think about another phone like SGS II. So here are my questions..
1. Is SGS II 's SAMOLED plus screen good enough after 1 + years? I read a Sammy statement of degrading picture quality of SAMOLED Plus..
2. How is SGS II's SQ? Is SGS II a decent Audio player? I was very much disappointed with Nokia N9 though the OS is good. Reading things about Yamaha DAC not being efficient and all.
3. How is the emmc bug doing? Has it been rectified fully at least the newer 2012 batches? I like to flash a LOT of custom ROMs and I don't want to brick the device or lose NAND memory. My previous Defy was a star when coming to ROM flashing even-though it had a locked bootloader.
4. Why there is so much buzz about 720p screens and 300+ ppi lately? I find SII's screen so much sufficient and with full HD playback. Should I go for a phone with full HD screen?
5. Lastly, I'm going to buy this from the US, which variant (GSM) should I get? I'm sure that the International version is better, but I can live with least custom ROMs for a cheaper price tag (like that Walmart deal) and this beautiful screen.
Thanks a ton in advance,
Wolvish
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. My galaxy SII is over a year already and the screen is still prefect
2. Audio quality is just ok, nothing more than that but if you want better sound quality, then you might need third party players like the excellent PowerAmp.
3. Emmc bug only affects the stock ICS 4.0.4 firmware. The bug is present on their stock kernel.
So flashing any custom kernel will cure the problem. Emmc bug wiki never affect you if you know what you are doing, can ask questions, and can read through the sticky threads.
Flashing in galaxy SII is breeze, nothing is locked, thanks to Samsung, and impossible is nothing
4. This one is left to you. You already already said galaxy SII screen is enough for you.
5. Buy At&T variant. It's almost the same thing as the international version and Most of our stuffs still work on it.
Swyped from my Samsung Galaxy SII
I was looking at phones recently and the form factor of the S2 is still one of the msot convenient around, the S3 is truly bigger.
For the flash part, I screwed up did bad flashes bricked it and had no problem fixing it so I guess its not that easy to break
Thank you guys.. I'm really interested in the new Droid Razr M too, especially the size. Is that a better choice than this? I guess it'll cost about the same..
well,im a "late" s2 user myself. i got it 2 weeks or less ago, and all i can say its very nice phone.
screen-wise, yes, you are getting only 480-800 which is maybe a bit pixelated if youre coming from HD/retina screens.
However, the colours and overall touch sensitivity/screen quality is probably the best i touched so far uncomparable to anything actually, amoled is a story by itself.
Other things, you have some really decent hardware still, everything is silky-smooth and phone reacts awesome to any action.
judging from some threads in this s2 forums, it seems to be getting jelly (4.1) in november + you have really really awesome dev support (custom roms etc)
I wld say GO FOR IT. its still an awesome phone.
cheers
Also Galaxy SII HD LTE. And Samsung Galaxy SII X are available in USA i think...
But if you want a big support then choose i9100 or at&t one.. If u choose new variants you wo t get that much support
Peace
Hit Thanks & It will Disappear
Sent from S II Running Official ICS 4.0.4 with Siyah 4.1 [/size]
^^ But HD LTE version has got a PenTile display. I'm not interested. I'm more towards custom ROMs and good multimedia support.
Linky
How about this one instead of regular S II? I would definitely buy it for a better resolution and better DAC..

choosing android phone

Hi there,
Thinking about getting new phone and its goona be android for sure but cant decide yet which one, the main concerns are cpu, screen resolution and color depth, developers support and multiwindows.
Im reading my reviews about nexus, note2, s3 & s4, htc 1, but can not see any news about multiwindow support in any phones exept samsung ones. Samsung developed multiwindows and its cool stuff but think its just a matter of time when most of phones will support that but can not find any announcements from nexus, lg, htc...any1 here has some news?
Thanks
new-noob said:
Hi there,
Thinking about getting new phone and its goona be android for sure but cant decide yet which one, the main concerns are cpu, screen resolution and color depth, developers support and multiwindows.
Im reading my reviews about nexus, note2, s3 & s4, htc 1, but can not see any news about multiwindow support in any phones exept samsung ones. Samsung developed multiwindows and its cool stuff but think its just a matter of time when most of phones will support that but can not find any announcements from nexus, lg, htc...any1 here has some news?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that SGS3 or 4 will meet your requirements best of all. Or you may wait for a new Nexus device.
eugenerudenko said:
I think that SGS3 or 4 will meet your requirements best of all. Or you may wait for a new Nexus device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with you! :good:
If you like a stylish smart, go to HTC One, performance, go to S4, Lastest Android edition, Nexus 4 or X.
Hey, thanks for replays.
Saw that s4 add when new flexible screen was presented and samsung showed off a phone with bend screen which looked really nice but now on ex: amazon galaxy s4 looks similar to s3, cpu is clocked higher but always can overclocked s3 .
How agout nexus 4 dev support? I know galaxy s3 has many customs roms and is updated often so wonder how does it look like with htc1, nexus?

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