Today, in a spur of the moment decision, I returned my 3 day old Galaxy S3 and joined back up with team iPhone. My last blog explained why I left in the first place and now I’m going to explain why I am going back.
It should be said that the Galaxy S3 is a beautiful phone that is extremely powerful and fully customizable. However, for me this was more of a curse than a blessing. For the past 3 days I have noT put down the GS3 and I have been incessantly searching through tons of forums figuring out how to make my phone do what I wanted it to do. Fundamentally there were problems with the phone that did not have good work arounds or that just didn’t have work arounds at all.
Here were my key issues with the GS3:
Battery life
When I used an iPhone I would charge it at night and that charge would last almost a full 24 hours. However, the GS3 didn’t have anywhere near the same power despite having a larger battery that takes longer to charge. Even with an overnight charge on a 3 day old phone by 2 pm I was down to 40%. I was constantly vigilant of closing out applications and that still did nothing for my cause. This was a major issue that I really couldn’t get around.
Group Messaging
I never liked group messaging when I had it. Frankly, I thought it was pretty annoying. Then I got the GS3, which has absolutely no good way to group text and I realized how much I actually used it. From what I hear there might be some really crappy work arounds but I’m not really willing to have to deal with that. You may be annoyed by group texting too, but think about coordinating what you’re doing on a Friday night with your friends. I always use group texting for that and it just makes my life significantly easier.
Phone Calls
First off, I could not see the phone at all in the sunlight. I know this is problem with the iPhone as well, but I felt like it was significantly worse on the GS3. Today, when I got a call while I was on the phone I couldn’t instantly figure out how to put the phone on hold. This was 1) because it was bright as hell and 2) it wasn’t an intuitive design. You have to slide up to do something and then press something else. I know this sounds whiny, but it’s a culmination of little things like this that bring down the phone. Also, for me, the most intrinsic placement of the end call button would be at the bottom of the screen in the middle. On the Galaxy, this is the mute button. I’m sure with time I would have gotten adjusted, but I was already mad about everything else.
Receiving Photos
Sometimes, and by sometimes I mean 7/10 times, when you receive photos from iPhone users (you know, basically - the world) it displays the photo like a video. It’s hard to explain this. You select the photo and it starts playing like a video. It literally has a play pause button and a ten second time bar at the bottom. You can not enlarge the photo from this screen. After some research I found out that this was just an android bug that they have yet to fix. I could have gotten another texting app, but I liked EVERYTHING else about the factory texting app so it wasn’t really worth changing.
Voice Control
The Samsung GS3 uses SVoice for it’s voice control software or you can download Iris (haha stab at Siri). I tried both of them. Any online review will tell you that Siri is way better at voice recognition that SVoice and I’ll confirm that it is completely true. SVoice had a big delay in reacting to my commands and it often didn’t understand me. I know that most people think voice control is a waste and pretty useless. However, I use it all the time. I used an iPhone 4 so I did not have Siri- but I wish I did. When I am on campus using my phone I typically always use it with my headphones and I control my calls with voice commands. I do the same when driving. So, a good voice recognition software was something I was really looking for.
Camera
The camera was not by any means horrible, but it was not as good as the iPhone camera. The pictures were not as clear and the focus capability took a lot longer to work. I also have the feeling that if I handed it to a stranger to ask them to take a photo for me it would probably never come out good, ever.
Factory Headphones
A lot of people rave about the GS3 headphones for their wonderful sound canceling ability. However, sound canceling is not what I was looking for in my phone’s headphones. When you are making calls with them it sounds like you are talking with earplugs in, which is just plain aggravating. Also, when I am wearing headphones at work I need to be able to know what is going on around me and hear when someone walks up to my desk or knocks on the door- these headphones made that impossible. I know this is a minor complaint because I could just use new headphones. All the same, you may just suggest that I just use the iPhone headphones (which I love) but, those headphones only work on iPhones. They still play sound, but the mic and volume control do not work on the GS3.
Flexibility for Customization
Like I explained in my last blog, if you don’t like something about the GS3 chances are that you can find an app to fix it. However, this is a double edge sword. For me, customizing my phone to the best fit for me turned into almost an obsession. I spent all of my free time (and class time) researching the phone and experimenting with new ways to organize it. To put it simply- the phone legitimately stressed me out. This may be my mild self diagnosed OCD coming through, but for me this was a serious problem.
Frankly, what I really realized is that fundamentally ease of use is the most important feature to me in a phone. Yes, it was wonderful being able to do incredible customization with my phone, however it was overwhelming. As soon as I returned to iPhone I felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. I need a phone that makes my life easier, not more stressful. I need it to come out of the box capable to make my life easy, not ready to make my life easy after days of customization. I don’t want to be glued to my phone. I just want it to work for when and how I need it to.
I ultimately liked the size of the GS3 and the light-weight feel of it. Honestly, it’s a little rough going back to the stubby iPhone 4 after that. Also, I really could use a good voice control. Because of this I’ll be moving up to the iPhone 5 sometime this week.
Well y’all - I can’t lie. It’s pretty good to be back. #teamiphone
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