Samsung Galaxy S3 Review: Best and worst features

The 4.8in device is one of the most highly anticipated Android devices of 2012. We go through the top five features of the Galaxy S3 and also point out its niggles.

IT Pro Verdict

We've found the positives far outweighed the negative aspects of the S3. The performance, screen and gestures are ahead of other Android devices on the market and make this the number one competitor to the iPhone 4S. In time we envisage Samsung will also be able to improve S-Voice as it's a server-based system and it should accumulate knowledge to answer questions. With the S3 available for free from as little as £26 per month, even the price is more than reasonable.

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So far, we've established the S3 is a great device, but it does have a few niggles. Saying that, we still struggled to come up with five major flaws.

WORST

5. Design splits opinion

Unlike the iPhone 4S, which is universally lauded as beautiful handset, the S3 splits opinion. Although the author finds the device to be well crafted, other members of the team don't like the plastic look.

"It's too big," most agree. Whilst another member of the team said it also felt "too light".

The S3 has a plastic feel when compared with unibody handsets such as the iPhone 4S and HTC One X. There is no escaping this. However, the general consensus seems to be the white version looks far superior to the pebble blue edition.

Samsung Galaxy S3 - White and Blue

The 'Pebble' blue colour has been delayed due to production problems

Our blue handset is not yet available as Samsung has been having production problems with the colour, but Vodafone assured us it will be soon.

4. Fiddly brightness controls

A feature we found to be particularly irritating was the "auto adjusting screen power", which regularly adjusted the brightness of the screen depending on the lighting. We found this to be too sensitive, especially when using the device on the train and in a car.

To make things more complicated the internet app has its own brightness controls. We found the automatic brightness setting to be inadequate so we changed this manually. The good thing is that this just has to be done once.

3.Wireless charging not available

The S3 supports wireless charging, but the kit has been delayed until September. When it eventually pops up, the charging kit is unlikely to be cheap either. This is disappointing and Samsung could have been the manufacturer to usher in wireless charging out-of-the-box.

2. Still no use for NFC

The Google Nexus S was the first device to be released with NFC technology back in Christmas 2010. Over 18 months on and little has changed when it comes to the UK's NFC infrastructure. Banking apps that use NFC functionality have yet to take off, so there is still not much call for it.

Sharing via NFC is also limited. S Beam allows content to be shared, wirelessly but only works with Galaxy S3 devices at this time and the existing Android beam feature that was debuted in ICS is sparsely used.

So what's our biggest problem with the S3?

Khidr Suleman
Khidr Suleman is the Technical Editor at IT Pro, a role he has fulfilled since March 2012. He is responsible for the reviews section on the site  - so get in touch if you have a product you think might be of interest to the business world. He also covers the hardware and operating systems beats. Prior to joining IT Pro, Khidr worked as a reporter at Incisive Media. He studied law at the University of Reading and completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Magazine Journalism and Online Writing at PMA Training.
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