Gela Pampolina is a freelance Multimedia Artist. She graduated with a Bachelor's degree of Arts in Multimedia Arts at Asia Pacific College. Her primary interests are web & graphic design, photography, motion graphics and video editing. She also runs a personal blog.
This post is Gela's personal review of the Samsung Galaxy S3 and while she do not hate iPhone or any Apple products, she used the iPhone as a product comparison vs her smartphone.
Editorial: In this "People say" series of articles, people share a personal view on their smartphones. The opinions are based on their experience and may contain little errors or omissions that should not detract from the overall content. Don't expect a large number of technical details but an honest, down-to-earth writing that contributes to understand the success (or failure) of a particular device.
Gela wrote:
It has been roughly 3 months since I first got a hold of my very first smartphone. No, it’s not an iPhone as everybody seem to own an Apple related product these days. I’m talking about the Samsung Galaxy S3. It took me a while to finally jump from a simple qwerty phone that has faithfully given me a decent mobile experience thus having only simple functionalities and usage for the past two years to one of the most talked about smartphones today. I have finally opened up myself into experiencing a whole lot more on smartphones.
The keypad
I used to say that I would never like a touch keypad because it would always give me a hard time whenever I want to correct my typo errors. When using a qwerty phone, it’s easier to back space or erase a few typos because the keypad is tangible and it’s easier to press.Having been used to my GS3 for the past three months, I must say I’ve never been this impressed. The accuracy of the keypad is almost the same as using an actual qwerty phone. This was the first thing that I’ve noticed with my GS3 because for me, the keypad is one of the main features of a great smartphone. It’s almost as good as saying that a car isn’t a great car if the engine doesn’t function too well, right? Makes sense.
The User Interface
I’m a graphic designer so it’s important to me that I actually like what I’m looking at. Function alone does not make a smartphone a great phone because it must also be visually appealing to the user.A great UI adds a better experience to the user. This is what GS3 has given me so far. I thought that the UI of the iPhone is also great but then again, form cannot be greater than the overall functionality of the phone. It has to be balanced. This is what makes a UI experience a whole lot better. It doesn’t give you a headache and it makes you want to go back for more. Now, the UI of GS3 is simple and clean. The icons are user friendly, at least for me. I’ve seen a lot of improvements with the UI since the release of the ICS version.
I also love that you can personalize your phone just the way you like it. Don’t you just love the widgets? I don’t like having a messy space so I try not to fill my home screen with too much app widgets that aren’t necessary. Besides, it eats up your battery life.
The drop down menu
This is a particular feature that I like the most from any Samsung phone because iPhone didn’t have this until recently with the unveiling of the iOS5 (if I’m not mistaken).It is helpful especially when you’re inside an app and you don’t want to have to keep on pressing the “back” button just to check on any unread notifications or if you simply want to access the wifi, sound, bluetooth, power saving and other settings much faster. There’s nothing much to it really but it’s very accessible.
The camera
Again, visual quality is important to me as I also love to take lots of photos and videos. This phone has given me tons of really great shots and 1080p quality videos. I cannot compare this to my Nikon SLR because the camera isn’t really its main function but the fact that it is able to give me really awesome and quality shots is good enough for me. A bit grainy sometimes because of the high ISO but settings can easily be adjusted.The hardware
I love the size of this phone. For me, it’s not too big and it’s not too small, just perfect for me to carry it around. How I love the big screen and the placing of the physical buttons.The back arrow key at the bottom right and the menu/settings button at the bottom left are just what I need. These buttons were placed exactly where they should be. The internal storage and external memory are also a huge plus for me. Since I take a lot of photos and videos, obviously I need a lot of storage space for my files. The external memory can be extended up to 64gb of space. I was able to buy a Sandisk 64gb from a friend that is a perfect fit to my GS3. Now, that’s a lot of memory space. Just exactly what I need.The Operating System
Last but not the least, the Jellybean OS. Google is a genius. Actually, the entire community of developers behind all this hard work are the geniuses. The OS updates are free and the OS itself is free. Why pay so much when you can get this for free? Nothing much has changed compared to ICS but you can still feel the difference. The developers have given so much effort into creating this operating system that is more than just an eye candy. They just keep on getting better and better and I hope that they will continue to provide great products, great services and even come up with more brilliant ideas in the years to come.I’m not going to leave you saying that, “This smartphone is perfect!”. Of course, nothing is perfect. This smartphone also has its flaws and I was able to jot them down too. My next review will be a bit of a downside on the Samsung Galaxy S3. It’s nothing too negative though, just a personal opinion.
If you're a Samsung Galaxy S3 user or thinking about getting one, let me know your thoughts too! If you liked this post, please share it to your friends using the social buttons below, or have your say in the comments section below.