- Display: 4.8-inches
- Camera: 8-MP
- Processor Speed: 1.5 GHz
- OS: Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)
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Samsung Galaxy S III 4G Android Phone, Blue 16GB (AT&T)
$39.88 - $499.99
Technical Details
Product Details
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Product Description
Amazon.com
Optimized for peak performance, the Android-powered Samsung Galaxy S III from AT&T offers one of the most sophisticated interactive mobile experiences to date. You'll be able to send photos, videos, and information easier and faster than ever while staying in close connection to friends and family members from wherever you are.
 Intuitive, stylish, and simple to use (view larger). |
 8-megapixel camera with burst mode and Full HD 1080p video capture (view larger). |
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Delivering impressive processing power to allow more applications to be accessible simultaneously, the Galaxy S III also features a brilliant 4.8-inch display that extends to an ultra-thin bezel to maximize the viewing area. The expansive display is also protected by Gorilla Glass 2.0 to guard against cracks and scratches and provide enhanced touchscreen responsiveness.
Running on AT&T's ultra-fast 4G LTE network, the Galaxy S III also offers Wireless-N Wi-Fi connectivity. And with AT&T's Mobile Hotspot service, you can connect additional Wi-Fi-enabled devices to the phone's mobile broadband signal (requires appropriate data plan).
The Galaxy S III runs the Android 4.0 operating system (a.k.a., Ice Cream Sandwich), bringing a redesigned user interface with enhanced multitasking, notifications, full Web browsing experience, and more. You'll also enjoy innovative, next-gen features such as Face Unlock, which uses facial recognition to unlock the Galaxy S III, and Near Field Communications (NFC) capabilities.
Going beyond simple point-and-shoot photography, the 8-megapixel rear camera offers a Burst Shot mode that captures still pictures at a rapid-fire pace at three images per second with zero shutter lag, and its Best Shot feature recommends the best picture to keep based on colors, lighting, and clarity. It also records Full HD 1080p video with a backside illuminated sensor that improves performance in low light environments--and you can even capture a photo while shooting video.
Other features include Wireless-N Wi-Fi connectivity with mobile hotspot capabilities (enabling you to connect up to 10 devices to your AT&T 3G/4G mobile broadband), Bluetooth 4.0 with stereo audio streaming, 16 GB internal storage, memory expansion via optional microSD cards, and up to 9.2 hours of talk time.
Simple, Instant Sharing
The Galaxy S III has enhanced features that both you and your contacts will enjoy. It's designed to make sharing easy and more direct so your friends and family can experience every moment with you, regardless of your location.
Connect Through Touch: With S Beam, just place two Galaxy S III phones back-to-back and you can transfer photos, videos, documents, and more. In just three minutes you can successfully share a 1 GB video file--it's fast, easy, and you don't even need a Wi-Fi or cellular signal.
Send Pictures in a Flash: Thanks to Buddy Photo Share, the Galaxy S III recognizes the faces of your friends, so it can share photos with them right away. And with Share Shot, you can send photos to all your party guests so everyone leaves with snapshots of the event.
Access Content on Multiple Devices: Through AllShare Play, you can share files with other devices and access those files on various devices, such as documents or multimedia files between your Galaxy S III phone and a tablet, PC, or television. With AllShare Group Cast on the Galaxy S III and a Wi-Fi network, you can share and collaborate on documents, presentations or images in real-time with multiple friends or co-workers without loading the file separately.
Intelligent and Intuitive Interaction
Smart enough to detect your face, voice and motions, the Galaxy S III provides a more convenient and natural way for you to interact so it fits seamlessly into your daily routine.
Let Your Eyes Control the Display: Thanks to the Smart Stay feature, the screen display will remain bright as long as you're looking at the phone. Set it down, and it dims instantly. Because the front-facing camera can identify your eyes--while reading an e-book or browsing the web, for instance--it recognizes how you are using your phone and provides a bright display accordingly.
Tell Your Phone What to Do: The S Voice feature enables the Galaxy S III to actually listen and respond to your words: tell it to wake up, snooze, take a photo, answer a call, send a text message, or play a favorite song.
Don't Miss a Message: If you've been away from your phone, the Smart Alert feature will give you a vibrating nudge to let you know about missed calls and messages.
 Seamlessly share videos, calendar, apps, and more. |
Vital Statistics
The Samsung Galaxy S III weighs 4.7 ounces and measures 5.4 x 2.8 x 0.3 inches. Its 2100 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 9.2 hours of talk time. It runs on AT&T's 4G LTE and HSPA+ networks (850/1900 MHz; HSPA+/HSDPA/UMTS) plus international 2100 MHz 3G networks. It's also a quad-band GSM phone (850/900/1800/1900 MHz GPRS/EDGE).
What's in the Box
Samsung Galaxy S III handset, rechargeable battery, charger, USB cable, quick start guide
AT&T 4G LTE Network
AT&T's 4G LTE network allows for quicker access, smoother media streaming, and faster web experiences. LTE technology is capable of delivering mobile broadband speeds up to 10 times faster than 3G. Additionally, LTE technology offers a faster response time due to lower latency--the processing time it takes to move data through a network--vastly speeding download times for web pages as well as improving services such as mobile gaming and two-way video calling.
By the end of 2011, AT&T plans to launch its 4G LTE network in 15 major metropolitan areas, covering at least 70 million Americans. Coverage will continue to expand in the next few years and is planned to be largely complete by the end of 2013.
And when combined with 4G HSPA+ technology, AT&T is capable of delivering a quicker, more consistent mobile broadband experience than ever before. AT&T has deployed HSPA+ to virtually 100 percent of its mobile broadband network, which enables 4G speeds when combined with enhanced backhaul (via Ethernet or fiber). Backhaul is one of the major pieces of a telecommunications network. Think of it as the limbs connecting AT&T's cell towers with AT&T's backbone network that provides access to the Internet.
Tech Talk
 | LTE = Long Term Evolution Advanced wireless technology capable of increasing AT&T's already-fast network speeds. Now in select markets with deployment ongoing. |
 | HSPA+ = High Speed Packet Access Paired with enhanced backhaul--the accelerated pipeline between our network backbone and cell towers across the country--this technology boosts network performance. |
Android Ice Cream Sandwich Operating System
The Galaxy S III runs the Android 4.0 operating system (dubbed Ice Cream Sandwich), which adds powerful new ways of communicating and sharing while improving on the best Android features: easy multitasking, rich notifications, customizable home screens, resizable widgets, and more.
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The new Ice Cream Sandwich interface features an onscreen navigation bar that replaces the hardware buttons for Back, Home, and Menu found with older Android-powered phones. And with Google+ integration, you can video chat with groups of up to 9 friends as well as easily upload and share photos and videos. Other features include:
Face UnlockYou can now unlock your phone with just your face using the Face Unlock option. It takes advantage of the front-facing camera and state-of-the-art facial recognition technology to register a face during setup and then to recognize it again when unlocking the device. Just hold your phone in front of your face to unlock (or use a backup PIN).
And the lock screen now lets you do more without unlocking. From the slide lock screen, you can jump directly to the camera for a picture or pull down the notifications window to check for messages. When listening to music, you can even manage music tracks and see album art.
Home Screen FoldersQuickly access related apps right from the home screen by organizing apps and shortcuts into folders--just drag one app onto another to create a folder.
MultitaskingMultitasking is even easier and more visual in Android 4.0. The Recent Apps button lets you jump instantly from one task to another using the list in the System Bar. The list pops up to show thumbnail images of apps used recently--tapping a thumbnail switches to the app.
Voice InputThe new voice engine in Android 4.0 lets you dictate the text you want, for as long as you want, using the language you want. You can speak continuously for a prolonged time, even pausing for intervals if needed, and dictate punctuation to create correct sentences. As the voice input engine enters text, it underlines possible dictation errors in gray. After dictating, you can tap the underlined words to quickly replace them from a list of suggestions.
Connectivity
Communications & Internet
|  Hardware
Memory
Camera
Multimedia
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Also Available for This Android Device
 | Amazon Appstore for Android |  | Kindle |  | Amazon MP3 |
 | IMDB |  | Audible |  | Amazon Mobile |
Product Description
The alluring AT&T Samsung Galaxy S III 65250 Cell Phone boasts an Android 4.0 operating system that lets you run multiple tasks simultaneously. You can also view your contents like e-books, games, videos on its large 4.8-inch Super AMOLED Touchscreen. With its 16GB of internal memory, hundreds of your files are accommodated. Plus, through its 8MP camera, you can capture images in a flash! The AT&T Samsung Galaxy S III 65250 Cell Phone also allows you to connect to the Internet wirelessly.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
146 of 161 people found the following review helpful
By Bigknows
(Network AT&T - US Version via Amazonwireless.com)
I purchased this phone for my wife to replace her beat up Motorolo Razr Flip phone. This was her first smartphone and I was a little afraid she would have a hard time using it. I tested the phone before she got home from work and there were many bells and whistles that are very cool and innovative, which made me worried it would overwhelm a simple user like my wife.
After my wife played around with the phone for couple of days, she loves the phone and has started customizing the phone the way she likes it.
I myself own a Samsung Galaxy S Captivate, and have been pretty happy with the phone until now because of the SIII. I am so impressed with the phone, that I will be purchasing one for myself.
Pros:
- Screen: Some say iPhone's Retina Display is better, but I am convinced it is just personal preference. If you like images and the screen to pop out and be lively, Samsung's AMOLED screen is the way to go. If you like softer tones, you may enjoy the iPhone. I personally like the crisp and sharp contrast of the AMOLED screens. Also the screen is pretty large which to me is a plus.
- Battery: I have not benchmarked the battery, so this is not a technical comparison, but since we just got this phone, my wife and I have been using the phone pretty much non-stop and the battery lasts the whole day. I have not seen the battery level go down below 50%.
- Weight: The phone feels really light holding on to it.
- Performance: The phone runs smooth. I'm very impressed how fast the phone downloads files and streams vidoes over AT&T's 4G LTE network (Orange County, CA). I really can't tell the difference between the mobile data speeed with my home's Cable Modem using a Wireless N+ router. It's pretty fast.
- Camera: the rear facing camera takes pretty sharp pictures and videos.
Neutral
- I've read some complaints about the casing feeling cheap. I honestly don't get that. I thought it feels nice and makes the phoen lighter. I didn't know people liked heavy phones so much.
- Over heating? I kid you not, we are constantly using this phone. I personally was using the phone for about an hour straight and didn't feel any uncomfortable heat. My Captivate however feels like it's going to melt. And I've played around with iPhone's. Those get pretty hot also.
- NFC. I think this will only be useful when it becomes more commonplace. For now, it feels gimmicky.
Cons:
- The pen that Samsung makes for this is pretty pricey (for a pen).
- S-Voice. Kind of gimmicky. I don't like Siri to start with, but S-Voice is even more useless.
- S-Suggest. You can disable it, but still find it useless.
Overall, I'm very happy with the phone, and happy that my wife is using it, and having fun with it! I'm planning on getting the blue one soon.
I purchased this phone for my wife to replace her beat up Motorolo Razr Flip phone. This was her first smartphone and I was a little afraid she would have a hard time using it. I tested the phone before she got home from work and there were many bells and whistles that are very cool and innovative, which made me worried it would overwhelm a simple user like my wife.
After my wife played around with the phone for couple of days, she loves the phone and has started customizing the phone the way she likes it.
I myself own a Samsung Galaxy S Captivate, and have been pretty happy with the phone until now because of the SIII. I am so impressed with the phone, that I will be purchasing one for myself.
Pros:
- Screen: Some say iPhone's Retina Display is better, but I am convinced it is just personal preference. If you like images and the screen to pop out and be lively, Samsung's AMOLED screen is the way to go. If you like softer tones, you may enjoy the iPhone. I personally like the crisp and sharp contrast of the AMOLED screens. Also the screen is pretty large which to me is a plus.
- Battery: I have not benchmarked the battery, so this is not a technical comparison, but since we just got this phone, my wife and I have been using the phone pretty much non-stop and the battery lasts the whole day. I have not seen the battery level go down below 50%.
- Weight: The phone feels really light holding on to it.
- Performance: The phone runs smooth. I'm very impressed how fast the phone downloads files and streams vidoes over AT&T's 4G LTE network (Orange County, CA). I really can't tell the difference between the mobile data speeed with my home's Cable Modem using a Wireless N+ router. It's pretty fast.
- Camera: the rear facing camera takes pretty sharp pictures and videos.
Neutral
- I've read some complaints about the casing feeling cheap. I honestly don't get that. I thought it feels nice and makes the phoen lighter. I didn't know people liked heavy phones so much.
- Over heating? I kid you not, we are constantly using this phone. I personally was using the phone for about an hour straight and didn't feel any uncomfortable heat. My Captivate however feels like it's going to melt. And I've played around with iPhone's. Those get pretty hot also.
- NFC. I think this will only be useful when it becomes more commonplace. For now, it feels gimmicky.
Cons:
- The pen that Samsung makes for this is pretty pricey (for a pen).
- S-Voice. Kind of gimmicky. I don't like Siri to start with, but S-Voice is even more useless.
- S-Suggest. You can disable it, but still find it useless.
Overall, I'm very happy with the phone, and happy that my wife is using it, and having fun with it! I'm planning on getting the blue one soon.
59 of 66 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best phone I've had to date (at the time of this writing of course)
October 9, 2012
By Justin D.
To preface this review, I've had the following smartphones most recently in this order:
iphone 3gs
iphone 4
HTC inspire
Samsung Galaxy s2 skyrocket
Samsung Galaxy s3
PROS:
- screen size and resolution. 4.8"beast 720x1280.
- Screen clarity is amazing. I can clearly read the screen in broad daylight with no strain.
- Processor is blazing fast. No lag with multiple apps open and switching between them.
- size, shape, and weight are all perfect for me. This phone is surprisingly thin.
- speaker phone is loud and clear
- cell phone reception and internet speed are exceptional
- call clarity is excellent
- GPS works MUCH better than the HTC inspire, and as good or better than the skyrocket
- battery life is better than the HTC inspire, and about the same as the gs2 skyrocket (make sure to fully deplete the battery as soon as you get this phone. Then give it a 100% charge without taking it off the charger. Android OS needs to calibrate the battery.)
- built in task manager works very well.
- bottom app bar is customizable.
- camera takes excellent pictures.
- music player sounds great and is very responsive.
- physical home button is nice to have
- typing and playing games are both great experiences due to the huge, super responsive touch screen
- Android 4.0.4 runs MUCH better on this device than it did on the galaxy S2 skyrocket
- Shutter speed on the camera is very fast
- I reliably(so-far) use the built-in clock/alarm app as my everyday wake-up alarm. The smart alarm feature is really cool too!
- Comes with headphones with in-line controls. They are good for the gym, but the sound is a bit lean.
CONS:
- battery life still isn't as good as the iphone4. This is primarily with regards to standby time.
- Touchwiz doesn't seem to have as many pretty widgets as htc sense, but I've found some 3rd party replacements (extended controls, beautiful widgets, etc)
- no more touch-search-button (only menu, back, and home buttons now). I actually liked having that button.
- phone is massive, so one-handed use is very difficult depending on what case you use.
- S-voice is a joke, but you can use a different app...
- Camera photo quality isn't quite up to par with apple's newer offerings, but is still very respectable.
- Over a period of a few months, the samsung branded software keyboard will start to get VERY sluggish. I recommend downloading the stock ICS or Jellybean keyboard from the Google Market!
OTHER:
- I recommend the "Llama" app to setup cell phone tower profiles. When I enter my work's cell phone area, my phone automatically turns off wifi and gps, as well as mutes my phone. When I leave work my phone automatically turns my volume back on. When I get home I have it turn wifi on and gps off, and when I leave home it turns wifi off. VERY useful and it saves battery life.
Honestly, this is the best phone I've ever used. Battery life may be a consideration for some people, but the micro USB charging port makes having (or borrowing) chargers pretty convenient. The size of the phone is awesome for me, but you may want something smaller.
iphone 3gs
iphone 4
HTC inspire
Samsung Galaxy s2 skyrocket
Samsung Galaxy s3
PROS:
- screen size and resolution. 4.8"beast 720x1280.
- Screen clarity is amazing. I can clearly read the screen in broad daylight with no strain.
- Processor is blazing fast. No lag with multiple apps open and switching between them.
- size, shape, and weight are all perfect for me. This phone is surprisingly thin.
- speaker phone is loud and clear
- cell phone reception and internet speed are exceptional
- call clarity is excellent
- GPS works MUCH better than the HTC inspire, and as good or better than the skyrocket
- battery life is better than the HTC inspire, and about the same as the gs2 skyrocket (make sure to fully deplete the battery as soon as you get this phone. Then give it a 100% charge without taking it off the charger. Android OS needs to calibrate the battery.)
- built in task manager works very well.
- bottom app bar is customizable.
- camera takes excellent pictures.
- music player sounds great and is very responsive.
- physical home button is nice to have
- typing and playing games are both great experiences due to the huge, super responsive touch screen
- Android 4.0.4 runs MUCH better on this device than it did on the galaxy S2 skyrocket
- Shutter speed on the camera is very fast
- I reliably(so-far) use the built-in clock/alarm app as my everyday wake-up alarm. The smart alarm feature is really cool too!
- Comes with headphones with in-line controls. They are good for the gym, but the sound is a bit lean.
CONS:
- battery life still isn't as good as the iphone4. This is primarily with regards to standby time.
- Touchwiz doesn't seem to have as many pretty widgets as htc sense, but I've found some 3rd party replacements (extended controls, beautiful widgets, etc)
- no more touch-search-button (only menu, back, and home buttons now). I actually liked having that button.
- phone is massive, so one-handed use is very difficult depending on what case you use.
- S-voice is a joke, but you can use a different app...
- Camera photo quality isn't quite up to par with apple's newer offerings, but is still very respectable.
- Over a period of a few months, the samsung branded software keyboard will start to get VERY sluggish. I recommend downloading the stock ICS or Jellybean keyboard from the Google Market!
OTHER:
- I recommend the "Llama" app to setup cell phone tower profiles. When I enter my work's cell phone area, my phone automatically turns off wifi and gps, as well as mutes my phone. When I leave work my phone automatically turns my volume back on. When I get home I have it turn wifi on and gps off, and when I leave home it turns wifi off. VERY useful and it saves battery life.
Honestly, this is the best phone I've ever used. Battery life may be a consideration for some people, but the micro USB charging port makes having (or borrowing) chargers pretty convenient. The size of the phone is awesome for me, but you may want something smaller.
62 of 71 people found the following review helpful
Earlier this year I slipped off to Evo-land and had a great experience with the HTC Evo One X, but at the end of the day, AT&T's version of the One X was too limited: smaller space (16GB instead of 32), no added storage, sealed battery, too much pre-loaded junk, too much data-gobbling. I wasn't ready to live that much in the cloud.
Thus far, the Galaxy S III has been the answer to all of my problems. It has none of the senility of my Galaxy I (which got really weird there at the end), it is far snappier than the Galaxy II I played with, and the Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" OS has me giddy with its response time and smooth transition from one program to another. Yes, the Galaxy S III really can multi-task, and is happy to do so. Best of all, I slipped in my 32GB SD Card and we were ready to go. The HTC One X consumed just over 6GB of its built-in 16GB. This means an AT&T Evo One X has only 9 GB of room. Out of the box, the Galaxy S III takes up a little over 4GB of the native 16, but will allow you to slot in an SD card of up to 64GB in size for even more room. If the battery stops holding a charge one day, I'll just open the case, pop it out, and put in a new one--how handy!
I've seen some people have battery problems, but so far I've managed to go up to two days without having to charge. It all depends on what I'm doing, but even with what I consider to be heavy activity (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, several calls, lots of surfing), I don't have to charge the phone more than once a day.
INTERFACE AND SETTINGS
With the Galaxy S III's interface, there are a LOT of options that let you customize your phone to be just as you want it: it's as if the makers of both the Galaxy III and the Droid OS decided to bend over backwards and hand you the keys to pretty much every feature you can think of. For example, if you hate eating data when someone e-mails you an attachment, you can set the phone to only pull down attachments when on Wi-Fi, or not at all. Check for new messages anywhere from 'continuous' to 'daily' to 'never' (which means 'manually'). Hotmail works much better now that Exchange is supported--my Galaxy I would take forever, drop out, freeze, or give me nagging, 'Too many requests' messages.
Getting around is smooth swiping with the Gorilla Glass on the Galaxy S III's face, but I still went with a so-so Steinheil screen protector. Either way, SWYPEing is easier: not only is the onscreen keyboard huge, with the keys generously spaced wherever possible, but the SWYPE interface draws your swipe line cleanly and it is easy to see what word you are SWYPEing. Word suggest is still annoying--tap out the word "text" and get "Texas" inserted--but once I turned this off, everything else worked well. If there's one disadvantage to the Galaxy S III, it's that both the phone and the screen are a real fingerprint magnet: the Evo X picks up stains and smudges, but was just a bit better about not getting as much smeariness on the glass. Still, with either device the problem is solved by a quick swipe across your shirt.
APPS AND WIDGETS
Android phones now use the Google Play Store instead of the Droid Market and it works fairly well: enter your Google account info and you're ready to go. AT&T customers still get CRapplications they can't remove, but your own third-party apps can also be side-loaded after changing one setting in the options. You can't root the phone (yet, anyway), but I'm not seeing the horrible performance drag of all that AT&T stuff like I used to. I'm especially fond of the side-loaded Amazon App Store, which nimbly pushed all my apps down with no complaints, security warnings, or performance drops (take that, ol' Galaxy I!)
Applications now come in two form factors: Apps and Widgets. When you tap the 'Applications' button from the home screen, the resulting screens are tabbed between a list of Applications and a list of Widgets. Think of an 'App' as meaning "An icon I tap to launch a program" and a 'Widget' as "A thing I may launch, or may just interact with at the screen and never need to open separately" (like the Weather, the media player, or the flashlight). When you swipe from one home screen to another, adding Widgets now gets a Windows Phone like twist: some widgets are double-wide like a Windows Phone 7 tile, and some (like the media player or the clock/weather on the main home screen) take up half the screen--the variety of sizes also resembles the coming Windows 8 Metro interface. Instead of feeling crowded, it reminds me of how much fun it was to play with my first desktop gadgets in Windows Vista.
NETWORKING AND DATA
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are very responsive: connecting to various networks or pairing is quick. If you connect to the type of network that requires you to open a browser and agree to something/provide a user ID before you can connect, the Galaxy S III will prompt you accordingly and automatically open the page you need. There is also a button right on the pull-down menu to turn off packet data so you can conserve your data plan--I like that feature VERY much.
MULTIMEDIA
Multimedia playback is excellent: while my Galaxy I would take quite a while to open and respond to me, the Media Player Widget makes my music quickly accessible. True to form, I get album art, artist/title/album searches, and a very good quality of playback over the included earbuds.
CAMERA
The Galaxy S III has two cameras: one in the front and a much better one in the back. Both are for taking photos and shooting video. The camera on the back is for the serious picture-taking and has a very high-output flash for such a tiny LED. Picture-taking is so fast I find myself accidentally snapping multiple shots! The gallery of my Galaxy S I might take a while to show me newly-snapped photos, but with the S III they are not only instantly available, I can go straight into the Gallery from the Camera and not have to step out to the home screen. Flash can be adjusted on and off, switching cameras is as easy as tapping one icon, and there are a variety of easy-to-access options, from three focus modes (Auto, Macro, Face detection) to generic 'shooting mode' settings: Single shot, burst, HDR, "Smile Shot", Beauty, Panorama, Share Shot, and Buddy photo share. Settings includes the ability to adjust the exposure value, and what's more there are scene modes for sports, night, party/indoor, etc.
CALLS
The feel of the Contacts and Phone Dialing interface haven't changed much, but the look certainly has: icons, contact pictures, and menus are larger on the Galaxy III's generous screen. I found myself making fewer mistakes trying to nudge and poke my way through the touchscreen when I needed to look up a contact or merge their information. Call quality is excellent, and answering the phone is easy. As with all new phones, there are many ringtones, alarms, and message sounds to choose from: I was very pleased with the variety of options this time around--the many sounds you can choose from for your calls range from soothing and tranquil to jarring and noisy.
If you're looking for a new Android Smartphone, the Galaxy S III is a fantastic choice. Its screen is bright, colorful and generous, the OS runs smooth and fast and the screen is very responsive to touch. The number of features at times seems endless, but more importantly, Samsung have executed those features well: this is indeed a great phone.
Thus far, the Galaxy S III has been the answer to all of my problems. It has none of the senility of my Galaxy I (which got really weird there at the end), it is far snappier than the Galaxy II I played with, and the Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" OS has me giddy with its response time and smooth transition from one program to another. Yes, the Galaxy S III really can multi-task, and is happy to do so. Best of all, I slipped in my 32GB SD Card and we were ready to go. The HTC One X consumed just over 6GB of its built-in 16GB. This means an AT&T Evo One X has only 9 GB of room. Out of the box, the Galaxy S III takes up a little over 4GB of the native 16, but will allow you to slot in an SD card of up to 64GB in size for even more room. If the battery stops holding a charge one day, I'll just open the case, pop it out, and put in a new one--how handy!
I've seen some people have battery problems, but so far I've managed to go up to two days without having to charge. It all depends on what I'm doing, but even with what I consider to be heavy activity (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, several calls, lots of surfing), I don't have to charge the phone more than once a day.
INTERFACE AND SETTINGS
With the Galaxy S III's interface, there are a LOT of options that let you customize your phone to be just as you want it: it's as if the makers of both the Galaxy III and the Droid OS decided to bend over backwards and hand you the keys to pretty much every feature you can think of. For example, if you hate eating data when someone e-mails you an attachment, you can set the phone to only pull down attachments when on Wi-Fi, or not at all. Check for new messages anywhere from 'continuous' to 'daily' to 'never' (which means 'manually'). Hotmail works much better now that Exchange is supported--my Galaxy I would take forever, drop out, freeze, or give me nagging, 'Too many requests' messages.
Getting around is smooth swiping with the Gorilla Glass on the Galaxy S III's face, but I still went with a so-so Steinheil screen protector. Either way, SWYPEing is easier: not only is the onscreen keyboard huge, with the keys generously spaced wherever possible, but the SWYPE interface draws your swipe line cleanly and it is easy to see what word you are SWYPEing. Word suggest is still annoying--tap out the word "text" and get "Texas" inserted--but once I turned this off, everything else worked well. If there's one disadvantage to the Galaxy S III, it's that both the phone and the screen are a real fingerprint magnet: the Evo X picks up stains and smudges, but was just a bit better about not getting as much smeariness on the glass. Still, with either device the problem is solved by a quick swipe across your shirt.
APPS AND WIDGETS
Android phones now use the Google Play Store instead of the Droid Market and it works fairly well: enter your Google account info and you're ready to go. AT&T customers still get CRapplications they can't remove, but your own third-party apps can also be side-loaded after changing one setting in the options. You can't root the phone (yet, anyway), but I'm not seeing the horrible performance drag of all that AT&T stuff like I used to. I'm especially fond of the side-loaded Amazon App Store, which nimbly pushed all my apps down with no complaints, security warnings, or performance drops (take that, ol' Galaxy I!)
Applications now come in two form factors: Apps and Widgets. When you tap the 'Applications' button from the home screen, the resulting screens are tabbed between a list of Applications and a list of Widgets. Think of an 'App' as meaning "An icon I tap to launch a program" and a 'Widget' as "A thing I may launch, or may just interact with at the screen and never need to open separately" (like the Weather, the media player, or the flashlight). When you swipe from one home screen to another, adding Widgets now gets a Windows Phone like twist: some widgets are double-wide like a Windows Phone 7 tile, and some (like the media player or the clock/weather on the main home screen) take up half the screen--the variety of sizes also resembles the coming Windows 8 Metro interface. Instead of feeling crowded, it reminds me of how much fun it was to play with my first desktop gadgets in Windows Vista.
NETWORKING AND DATA
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are very responsive: connecting to various networks or pairing is quick. If you connect to the type of network that requires you to open a browser and agree to something/provide a user ID before you can connect, the Galaxy S III will prompt you accordingly and automatically open the page you need. There is also a button right on the pull-down menu to turn off packet data so you can conserve your data plan--I like that feature VERY much.
MULTIMEDIA
Multimedia playback is excellent: while my Galaxy I would take quite a while to open and respond to me, the Media Player Widget makes my music quickly accessible. True to form, I get album art, artist/title/album searches, and a very good quality of playback over the included earbuds.
CAMERA
The Galaxy S III has two cameras: one in the front and a much better one in the back. Both are for taking photos and shooting video. The camera on the back is for the serious picture-taking and has a very high-output flash for such a tiny LED. Picture-taking is so fast I find myself accidentally snapping multiple shots! The gallery of my Galaxy S I might take a while to show me newly-snapped photos, but with the S III they are not only instantly available, I can go straight into the Gallery from the Camera and not have to step out to the home screen. Flash can be adjusted on and off, switching cameras is as easy as tapping one icon, and there are a variety of easy-to-access options, from three focus modes (Auto, Macro, Face detection) to generic 'shooting mode' settings: Single shot, burst, HDR, "Smile Shot", Beauty, Panorama, Share Shot, and Buddy photo share. Settings includes the ability to adjust the exposure value, and what's more there are scene modes for sports, night, party/indoor, etc.
CALLS
The feel of the Contacts and Phone Dialing interface haven't changed much, but the look certainly has: icons, contact pictures, and menus are larger on the Galaxy III's generous screen. I found myself making fewer mistakes trying to nudge and poke my way through the touchscreen when I needed to look up a contact or merge their information. Call quality is excellent, and answering the phone is easy. As with all new phones, there are many ringtones, alarms, and message sounds to choose from: I was very pleased with the variety of options this time around--the many sounds you can choose from for your calls range from soothing and tranquil to jarring and noisy.
If you're looking for a new Android Smartphone, the Galaxy S III is a fantastic choice. Its screen is bright, colorful and generous, the OS runs smooth and fast and the screen is very responsive to touch. The number of features at times seems endless, but more importantly, Samsung have executed those features well: this is indeed a great phone.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
It did not come in a shrink wrapped box
It looks like it is returned item. the samsung box was not shrink wrapped and it was in a taped box. I am very disappointed .
There is nothing wrong with the phone. Read more
There is nothing wrong with the phone. Read more
Published 1 day ago by Amudha Ganesan
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great phone and service from Amazon Wireless
It is a great phone and the Amazon price and delivery were fantastic. We bought two of these phones. Came with Jelly Bean already installed. Read more
Published 2 days ago by James T. Greene
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Phone!
The process of upgrading my phone was super easy! My time for a upgrade through AT&T was up so I looked on the At&T store online but at the time they didn't have the galaxy3 in... Read more
Published 4 days ago by jenwhipz
3.0 out of 5 stars
Received a box and phone that appears to be used and then taped back...
Not happy. The actual samsung Phone box was taped shut with packing tape wrapped tightly around box. Phone appears used. It had lint and dirt on back and front of phone. Read more
Published 6 days ago by J. Austin
4.0 out of 5 stars
top-of-the-line, very few faults, $10!
I traded up from a Nexus S (Android 2x, a 3g phone) which I liked just fine, when the Samsung s4 came out and the S3 became available for $10. Read more
Published 10 days ago by Joel Bergsman
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love It!
So happy we bought it. It's a great size and works fantastic. It's a very good phone to have & use.
Published 11 days ago by J. Randall
4.0 out of 5 stars
great phone
i have used atrix for 2 years and most of the features are similar in the SG III. However, the graphics in SGIII is great and a bigger screen is always good. Read more
Published 14 days ago by Richard Rodrigues
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love It!!!
I love my Samsung Galaxy S III...I really like the size of the screen which is not too large to fit in my purse or pocket and yet big enough to enjoy movies. Read more
Published 15 days ago by Sunny
5.0 out of 5 stars
User friendly and fast
This phone is a marked improvement over my previous Windows phone, now I can finally get Apps and enjoy the phone.
Published 16 days ago by Anthony Kane
1.0 out of 5 stars
What a great DISAPPOINTMENT
I purchased this phone and loved it for about a week, things quickly went down from there.
Charge - hold full charge for about 1/2 a day with little use. Read more
Charge - hold full charge for about 1/2 a day with little use. Read more
Published 1 month ago by M. Melodie Copeland
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