So, these smartphone things

[rogerzilla]

It might be useful to check e-mail during the day, bid on fleaBay auctions and log onto YACF at lunchtime.  Given recent cautionary tales I am less and less inclined to use the Internet at work for any purpose other than the BBC site (to which there are live links from our intranet anyway, so pretty legit).

What does the panel think of the Galaxy SIII?  T-Mobile have an deal where you get it for £29 and then pay £33 a month, with unlimited usage of everything.  I'm currently with Orange (been out of contract for about 10 years) but the network coverage is the same now they've merged and all the Orange deals are shite.

[Woofage]

Before you lock yourself into a contract, have a look at the data (assuming that's your main reason for buying a smartphone) packages from Giffgaff and Tesco. I use the latter and pay just a fiver a month for a data package (capped, but plenty).

[dasmoth]

Galaxy SIII is pretty well regarded.  I'd go for the Galaxy Nexus in preference, but it seems that there are people who've used Samsung's firmware updater and lived to tell the tale.

If you want to use it at work, it's probably worth researching which network gives best coverage.  May not be either Orange or T.

[geraldc]

I've got some unlimited deal with 3, through tescos, same phone, no money up front, unlimited data (and I mean unlimited), and the contract says £32 but I'm only charged £27 for some reason.

They also allow tethering and using my phone as a mobile hotspot.

I love the S3, and I was a committed iPhone user.

[Feanor]

I have one, and it is nice and shiny and all, but it's awfully big.
It's also thin, and I suspect it's only a matter of time before I snap it in half by sitting down on it in my back pocket.
Also battery life is poor, like most smartphones.

Mine's begun playing up ( powering itself off, and not being able to power back up again for a few days ), but that may be related to it's bid for feeedom round the U-bend of a toilet.
Fortunately, the liquid-damage tell-tales did not get wet, so it might be going back to the shop in a week or 2 if this continues.

I do have insurance for the handset ( via our house insurance, required specific notification ), so I have that base covered.
I'd advise you to get insurance cover in place, they are furiously expensive to replace otherwise.

I do like the shinyness, tho.

[rogerzilla]

Yes, it's mainly for data.  I practically never send texts, although I'd make a lot more voice calls if they were inclusive (back in the 1990s, I was on Everyday 50 and used the 50 minutes most days).

Orange works well for voice in the office.  No idea what data is like.  Generally I have found Orange very good for coverage over the last 13 years or so.

[L CC]

SIII is too big. My hands are too small for it. I have an SII which is cheaper (seeing as it's superceded by a big Brother) and just as righteous.
Chris has the SIII, but he has big hands.

[geraldc]

The jellybean update for the S3 should be out shortly, but it's up to the network to see if they release it. Reminds me iOS6 should be out now.

[Chris S]

SIII is too big. My hands are too small for it. I have an SII which is cheaper (seeing as it's superceded by a big Brother) and just as righteous.
Chris has the SIII, but he has big hands.

I wouldn't want to handle anything bigger. Fnaar fnaar!

The Galaxy Note must be ridiculous. The SIII is substantially wider and longer in profile, but much thinner than the iPhone III (having compared to No1 Son's iPhone).

[Feanor]

The jellybean update for the S3 should be out shortly, but it's up to the network to see if they release it. Reminds me iOS6 should be out now.

You can put jellybean on it now, if you want to hack it using cyanogen mod or similar.
http://get.cm/?device=i9300

I'm running cyanogen mod  9 stable, which is based on Ice Cream Sammich.
cyanogenmod 10 ( jellybean ) is still on nightly builds, and I CBA with that.

[Jacomus]

I rejected the Samsung Galaxy SIII in favour of the HTC One X.

Contract wise, I'm with O2 and had zero desire to change thanks to their customer service, which really is amazingly good.

The phones themselves are a hairs breadth apart.

The Samsung has Teh Shiny, it is super sleek - it is glass shelled like an iPhone where the HTC is standard plastic backed. I didn't like the extra Shiny.

The Samsung has modded Android OS which I though was almost, but not quite, as good as the HTC variant.

The Samsung has an SD slot, which I disregarded as I don't keep music on my phone and both phones have incredible storage capacity. Eg I have 4 games that are over a gig each, plus 300+ full res pictures and my phone hasn't even blinked.

Going back to the contact side of things, they aren't inherently evil. O2 told me my average data use and helped me pick the lowest contract for that. 250mb per month easily deals with my work and personal emails plus maps and general web surfing. Also, if I suddenly needed more, I can buy either a temporary or permanant bolt on.

Essentially, HTC won because of durability and simplicity. You don't need any proprietary software.   

[Kim]

Yes, it's mainly for data.  I practically never send texts, although I'd make a lot more voice calls if they were inclusive (back in the 1990s, I was on Everyday 50 and used the 50 minutes most days).

Back in the early 2000s I was on Everyday 50 and used the 50 minutes most days.  For HSCSD dial-up.   

[Feanor]

Hmm, when I came back from 1st year uni, I had a 300 baud modem and an Apple ][ with a serial card.

I ran a secret phone extention to the bedroom, where I could dial-up the university system, to play Dungeon!
This nearly got rumbled when an incoming call made it ring.
I had to pretend I was doing something with an old alarm clock.

I wrote my own very simple terminal emulator on the Apple, and it worked well enough for the purpose.

It all went pear-shaped when my parents got a phone bill for several hundred pounds!
I said nothing, and they complained that it must have been in error.
BT took something off, but claimed it was correct.

I then got a copy of Zork I on a massive floppy, and that was a better option than the dial-up.

[rogerzilla]

More recently (early 1990s) I was a member of a private NNTP group which was being run from an ancient laptop literally hidden under someone's desk at work (he once posted a photo of The Server) and leeching off his employer's bandwidth.  As he worked in the IT department he could get away with it.

[Hillbilly]

Perhaps worth bearing in mind that the current S3 is not G4 ready.  A future model will be.  Depending on where you live and your hunger for  the latest thing, timing of purchase might need some thought.

S3 is a very good unit though. I am typing this into mine.

[henshaw11]

I'd *almost* convinced myself to buy an S3 til I realised
a) I might want to wait til the Note2's available (yes I know they're huge, a colleague has the std Note but I rarely make phone calls, whereas I do want something decent for browsing)
b) 4G's getting nearer (if not in terms of service, at least in terms of handsets becoming available)

However, if you're looking for an S3, simplyelectronics has 'em, and the price has dropped 20-30 quid in the last 2 or 3 weeks - about 380 now for a 16g blue 'un:
http://electronics.simplyelectronics.net/search?currency=gbp&w=galaxy%20s%20iii&asug=

[Chris S]

And if you get the blue one, people won't think you're gay flamboyant Italian .

 

[ian]

SIIIs are big enough to snowboard on, a previously unrealised feature of a smartphone.

I'm PAYG on my own phone via T-mobile. The internets are £20 for six months unlimited data. As such I only need to top up for calls and texts every few months.

[L CC]

b) 4G's getting nearer (if not in terms of service, at least in terms of handsets becoming available)

I can't make calls from my house. 4G aint coming to this neck o the woods any time soon.

[mcshroom]

b) 4G's getting nearer (if not in terms of service, at least in terms of handsets becoming available)

I can't make calls from my house. 4G aint coming to this neck o the woods any time soon.

Having recently bought a Galaxy Ace (my first 3G enabled phone), I've discovered we don't do 3G really out here (or even normal 1/2G quite often) so I think I'll pass on 4G for a decade or two.

[henshaw11]

I barely make calls anywhere !

3G's pretty ropey at our place unless you're right by a window, and sometimes not even then - so I've got wifi on the router enabled. But like Ian, I'm going the same  PAYG route with t-mobile 20-quid/6 months (as my OH uses already) - if *I'm* paying for the handset I have every intention of using it in excess for the usual ££-contract malarky of 2 years

>And if you get the blue one, people won't think you're gay flamboyant Italian .

Aye, but you'd never find it again if you dropped it at a gig !

[mrcharly-YHT]

go into a store and bargain.

I got an HTC Sensation XE, not long after they were released, free on £18.50 pm contract.  150 minutes, 500 texts, 100mb data (which I can increase at any time).

You  can always get bolt-ons to contracts, but it is damn hard to reduce them.

I like the phone a lot.

[rogerzilla]

Using Tapatalk on the Siii.  Not too bad.

[Phil W]

Don't forget you can get free wifi in many places now, including all Tesco Extras and rolling out to superstores. So the need for data contracts may diminish; unless you need to be "always connected". just pop down the nearest cafe / supermarket.

[Oscar's dad]

I have had an iPhone, have an Android HTC for work and a BlackBerry for personal use. I like the BB best. All the options have compromises but I like having a proper keyboard, e-mail works well as does Facebook.