My thoughts on the S3

[G+_Marlon Thompson]

My thoughts on the S3

 

Remember when apple came out with the iPhone 4s and the Legion of press and Android fans came out saying is just nothing more than a spec bump, apple has lost it etc. I was one of those persons who encouraged people who had the iPhone 4 to give another phone a try. I realized then that the iPhone had matured and all that could be done was just iterate and keep your customers happy. Yesterday Samsung launched the S4 and yes it seems like a really powerful phone and I am amazed at the amount of sensors they crammed into it (which for me was the lost highlight of the event) but for owners of an S3 it was a just a spec bump as most of their features will make its way to the S3.  But personally I felt it was a lost opportunity for Samsung and note I haven't used the phone so my opinion may change but here are some quick reasons why. 

 

Touch wiz basically looks the same as the touch wiz that came out on my Galaxy S 3 years ago. We point fingers at apple for having the same row of icons but Samsung has stayed basically the same and some of the improvements of ICS and JB are not implemented well (suchj as the creation of folders) If I look at the Sense UI from the same time period or even stock you can see the changes but Samsung has stayed the same.

 

All those S features look nice but trust me only a few really work well in practice. I like the innovation but coming from an S3 I can tell you will only use a few of them and forget the rest. I was hoping that Samsung would focus more on some core elements rather than throwing a ton of things at you. With that said the biggest thing I think was S health that I would be interested in seeing develop further.

 

Finally, and this is nit picking but, the design of the phone and the plastic case. Samsung has gone on record as saying they like to use polycarbonate because its cheap and easy to produce but I really wanted an HTC level of design with the phone maybe out of aluminium. Yes I'm being totally superficial but I would have plunked down money for the phone today if it was more premium looking (I know that's sad).

 

So there you go my thoughts, can't wait to hear Jason Howell , Ron Richards and Gina Trapani impressions on Tuesday.

[G+_Tom Gehrke]

Touch Wiz has had some incremental changes. Even what was shown on the S4 looks "different enough" from what I see on my S3 to count. It's evolutionary, not revolutionary.

 

And if it's what people want, why change it in a major way? I'm running CM10.1 on my S3, but my wife is perfectly content with Touch Wiz on hers. The experience is largely customizable so as long as she has the ability to add widgets to her home screen, it's all good. I think she probably represents the average consumer pretty well.

 

The S features are kind of gimmicky, but they're a value-add item. Sure you might not use them, but they're there if you want them and the other guys don't have them at all so...

 

I agree that S Health is probably one of the more interesting new features.

 

Completely agree with you on the plastic (sorry... polycarbonate) case. My one gripe moving from the iPhone was that the S3 just does not feel "premium". Put the S4 internals in an HTC One body and I'd be more tempted.

[G+_Tom Gehrke]

That's a fair point and "premium" is a highly subjective term. I've owned and loved every iPhone model excepting the 5. My complaint with the plastic of the S3/S4 is the same complaint I had when the iPhone body went from metal to plastic. I was thrilled when they went to glass with a surrounding metal band.

 

Plastic body aside, I switched to the S3 after the iPhone 5 came out. The iPhone 5 is the best design of them all, IMO. It brings to mind a piece of jewelry. That's the feeling I'm talking about when I use the word "premium".

 

The use of a case is also a good point. The irony there is that the iPhone feels like it needs to be protected in the same way you don't just throw an expensive watch in your junk drawer. My S3 generates no such feeling and I carry it bare.

 

The warmth of plastic is yet another good point that I can appreciate. I think it's the kind of plastic that bothers me more than just the material itself. It feels like a "cheap plastic". If it were a little more substantial that might change my mind. A rubberized coating would even add a bit more warmth as well as addressing the fear that many people have that the darn thing will just slip out of their hands like a wet piece of soap. It would change the tone of the conversation from premium vs cheap to extravagent vs practical.

 

TLDR: Hate the plastic used in the S3/S4. Love aluminum and glass. Place importance of the OS & ecosystem above the materials. Ergo I love my S3. :)

[G+_Robert Nazarian]

Samsung has become Apple in every way. Through marketing they have created a loyal following and they have built their own echo system by adding their own features like S Beam, S Voice, etc. They even have their own set top box for cloud sharing with family and friends.

 

Samsung isn't selling specs or quality, they are selling features. The GS4 event was 50 minutes long and they only spent 5 minutes on the specs. The rest of it was all about the new features. One could argue whether they are useful or not, but one thing for sure is that the majority of them will look good in commercials, and will continue to drive consumers to their phones.

 

Sure, those features are coming to the GSIII, but most GSIII owners are stuck with a contract and can't upgrade anyway. The GS4 is for the GS2 owners coming off contract and for those that insist on upgrading every year.

 

The HTC One is the better phone, but it's not as marketable.High quality won't get the job done to convince mainstream consumers. Apple's phones are made of very high quality, but you don't see them pushing that in their commercials. You see them pushing features like Siri. HTC has Boom Sound, Zoe, and HTC TV. I don't count BlinkFeed since it's a gloried Flipboard or Pulse app. Are these enough? It might be enough to get things going, but if they ever want to put a dent into Samsung, they better come up with more features (Samsung showed over 10 new features) and not worry so much about if Sense has a carousel animation or not.

[G+_Marlon Thompson]

Nice comments  Robert Nazarian, totally agree

[G+_Marlon Thompson]

btw Robert Nazarian since you were at the event was it as awkward as it looked and I assume you got a chance to hold and use the phone, what did you think

[G+_Robert Nazarian]

Marlon Thompson For me it wasn't so awkward. Mostly because I was really concentrating on all of the new features. After, when I was driving home, I listened to the recording from the twit live events, which gave me a completely different perspective. I guess they felt people would be more wowed with actual demonstrations in an entertaining way, but it was done with a little too much cheese.

 

As to the phone, it's hard with a crowd like that, but it felt like a Galaxy S III with a better screen. I have never been impressed by Samsung hardware and nothing has changed. I will say though that it is impressive that they were able to put a removable 2600mAh battery in a 7.9mm body. That might be the most underrated thing about the phone.