Flashback: Samsung Galaxy S III had both brains and brawn

01 December 2019
This shiny pebble was one of the most powerful phones of 2012 with many forward-looking features and became one of the best sellers for the year.

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  • ?
  • Anonymous
  • 3Ag
  • 01 Dec 2019

My friend had the S3 4G was good but after a while it lagged a lot, we rooted it and custome romed it and it works just fine till now as a spare phone!

    • I
    • I'mPhone
    • 61x
    • 01 Dec 2019

    ecaps24, 01 Dec 2019Are you talking about the same timeline? At that time, S... moreThat was because Apple devices were way more expensive and Samsung has some brand image second to Apple. People knew they can get a reasonable device for a reasonable price. Aside from that laggy UI and plastic build.

    Btw I also like that the first smartwatch (Galaxy Gear) came about a year after that (S4/Note 3 era), it was impressive.

      • ?
      • Anonymous
      • 4AH
      • 01 Dec 2019

      My first cell phone ever. I loved it but hated the battery life and the phone ran hot all the time. This was the Snapdragon Canadian edition.......

        • e
        • ecaps24
        • sxr
        • 01 Dec 2019

        Whackcar, 01 Dec 2019A decent phone marred by the worst phone software/UI on the... moreAre you talking about the same timeline?

        At that time, S3 is the best phone and even outsold iPhone4.

          I, for one, really appreciated the plastic design. Because of the removable plastic back, in my opinion, the phone was more ergonomic to hold instead of being boxy, had zero signal problems, had a removable battery (ah 0-100% in about 10 seconds- fastest charging in a way :)), and the phone was refreshingly light which added to its comfort.

          There were cons too. Touchwiz was a lag-fest. The phone was obviously not as premium feeling as HTC or Apple.

            • ?
            • Anonymous
            • pWU
            • 01 Dec 2019

            This was an okay phone with a custom ROM, as TouchWiz was a complete nightmare for me to use. I still remember the faces of people that kept staring at my "big" phone while I was talking, apparently it looked funny according to a friend of mine. :)

              • S
              • Schlauf2
              • 0mU
              • 01 Dec 2019

              At that time S3, had only one major weakness and that is the amount of RAM. 1 GB of RAM on 720p screen and Touchwiz on the top of that, simply wasn't nearly enough for a flagship device, which caused significant lags because a lot of the background processes had to be shut down simultaneously in order to make way for the new ones.

              That was effectively a downgrade from an S2 which had nominally the same amount of RAM, but effectively had more because of the lower screen resolution.

              Samsung was aware of that and attempted to solve that issue by making an S3 Neo which had 1,5 GB of RAM. That solution was successful for the most part.

                • F
                • AnonF-85937
                • fjc
                • 01 Dec 2019

                L973, 01 Dec 2019Dunno guys & gals, never dag this one. The S II was the... moreI had S2, S3, and S4.

                The Galaxy S3 was the best in terms of its design, but yeah the S4 was the more “complete” device. In fact Samsung really found it hard to do anything further after the S4, that phone was filled with all sorts of sensors that are making their way into some phones only now.

                The S4 and Note3 were the pinnacle

                  yes i remember galaxy s3 advert "designed for humans","phone screen shuts down when you fall asleep" the most successfull galaxy....and note 3 first introduced split screen multitasking....my next phone will definitely be a galaxy.....love the new one ui

                    • ?
                    • Anonymous
                    • 3Zm
                    • 01 Dec 2019

                    I had it from 2012 till 2014. It became crazy slow in the end. Camera made good pictures in good light, but was useless in low light (iPhone 5 camera was soooo much better in that regard). I still trust Samsung more than others in Android world, but iPhone is better anyway.

                      • ?
                      • Anonymous
                      • mEA
                      • 01 Dec 2019

                      This looks like it only featsures the best selling phones (regardless if they were any good), I suppose next week we'll be reading about the iphone 6 and 6 plus...

                        • ?
                        • Anonymous
                        • a4W
                        • 01 Dec 2019

                        The design was butt ugly even for that time and the screen looked blueish I went for the HTC one x instead

                          • L
                          • L973
                          • L1p
                          • 01 Dec 2019

                          Dunno guys & gals, never dag this one. The S II was the last of the "classic" guild (well... the S5 tried again to little avail - because the general public was poking fun a lot) and the S III felt more like something unfinished (unfinished S4 if you will - to an extent, same could go for S6 vs S7 and S8 vs S9, except that those looked a bit "fresher" when introduced, even if a bit raw). IMHO.

                          Keep in mind this comes from someone who never had any S series themselves and could only try them out on store shelves or from acquaintances. Personal experience is as follows: dumb phones, Galaxy 3 (not S3), Galaxy 5 (not S5), dumb phones, LG Leon, Redmi 3 Pro, Smartisan M1, Xperia V as a backup. Is all ;)

                            • F
                            • AnonF-85937
                            • fjc
                            • 01 Dec 2019

                            Truly enjoyed my Galaxy S3, to this day it remains one of the most ergonomic devices I have ever owned, it sat in hand so well, it was almost perfect. Battery life was great, and the UI was pretty good for its time, incredibly feature packed.

                            I got the Galaxy S4 after that on launch and wished Samsung had used the S3 design somewhat in the S4.

                              • ?
                              • Anonymous
                              • LQw
                              • 01 Dec 2019

                              S3 and S4 are still the best sellers of all android phones.
                              Now Samsung model barely pass 20 million units.

                                I remember this being the 2012 Summer Olympics phone in London since the Olympics were sponsored by Samsung. It was actually released in May 2012 a little after I saw The Avengers. Let's just say 2012 was a very interesting year for me as it was my first full year living in the Philippines as an adult. And Samsung is extremely popular there. I was working in Accenture around late-July already.

                                I actually prefer this design over the S4. I prefer the pebble-shape almost like it's a Palm Pre without the slide-out QWERTY. One of my uncles who lives in Burbank, CA bought this phone in early-2013 around the time S4 was released. I see him like 3 years later visiting the Philippines and he's still using it! He put one of those ZeroLemon or Morphie Juice battery cases for it. I know the S4 sold better though at 80M but the S III only sold like 10M less. Another uncle of mine got an S4 back in 2013 and I saw him in 2018 and he's still using his! The beauty of having a removable battery.

                                I actually think the most underrated Galaxy S is the S5. It had a Snapdragon 801, heart rate sensor, and was water-resistant. Shame it was ridiculed for poor design and a Band-Aid rear. Now the world is stuck with glass backs, no removable battery, no headphone jack, etc. The S5 is like my G5. Completely maligned when it offered all those legacy features many of us needed. Long live the pre-2015 Samsung flagships and pre-2017 LG flagships when removable battery still existed in them.

                                  • M
                                  • Max
                                  • Lay
                                  • 01 Dec 2019

                                  I'm still using an SII (yes, two) daily - not because I couldn't get something newer but because I see zero reasons to (apart of the system partition starting to get too small for the self-updating and ever-expanding Google Play Services). There's nothing newer sets brought that I see as a worthwhile improvement.

                                    A decent phone marred by the worst phone software/UI on the planet. Touchwiz was terrible.

                                    Also, it's design/build quality was not premium enough. HTC & Apple were far ahead.

                                      • ?
                                      • Anonymous
                                      • 0xU
                                      • 01 Dec 2019

                                      Ahh, who could forget every other post from a rom dev that baisically said "it's not open source enough, we need to use hacks'.

                                        My first Galaxy phone, absolutely fantastic. The usb otg just blew my mind. Good memories :-)