Review: Samsung Galaxy S III for Sprint

I had been looking at the S3, the EVO 4G LTE, the Galaxy Nexus, and the possibility of a new Nexus phone later this year. My EVO 3D was decent, but the camera was always a weak point and the whole phone was feeling a bit long in the tooth, so I was considering an upgrade. After a bunch of research and finally trying the phones in-store, I found myself hopelessly wanting the S3. Sure, I may kick myself in a few months when the next Nexus comes out, but the S3 will easily keep up with hardware coming out within the next year. I also believe that Samsung will be inclined to keep the S3 up-to-date with Android for a little while considering the popularity of the phone.

After picking up the S3, I can't help but wonder what some people have against it. I think the design is nice - slightly conservative, but still visually and tactilely appealing. It's light while not feeling flimsy. I like it, and it seems that quite a few others around the world do as well.

I was nervous about making the switch to Samsung's Android software stack after being exclusively an HTC user since my Touch Pro. As it turns out, TouchWiz is a breath of fresh air compared to Sense. It's a great UI, offering some nice improvements to ICS. There are some things that I'm not a fan of, but overall those are so minor that I don't feel the need to change away from the stock UI. Of course, being an Android phone, that's always an option if TW isn't your style. Oh, while I'm thinking of it, the Home button hesitation is simply a pause to see if the user will press the button again to activate S Voice. Launching S Voice and changing the settings to disable that feature removes the delay. It's quite nice once that is disabled.

tl;dr - The S3 is a fantastic phone. Despite being a long-time HTC user, I rate the S3 well above the current EVO. While I can see how some people wouldn't be as fond of a couple features of the S3, you truly have to be a hopeless, die-hard iPhone fanboy to think that it's a bad phone. If Samsung has been tapped to make a new Nexus, the S3 shows that they have the potential to make a fantastic phone. If you can't wait for the next Nexus, get the S3.