Unboxing and First Impressions – Samsung Galaxy S3

This is a confession – I was bitten by the bug. I finally said goodbye to Blackberry and to my friends in my BBM Network. I sent a group message and an individual private message specially to those who are not in my Facebook. I migrated to Android and got the latest Samsung flagship smartphone – the Samsung Galaxy S3 via Globe postpaid plan.

Here to share some of my un-boxing photos and first impressions about the super phone. The Samsung Galaxy S3 is a quad-core smartphone that runs on the latest Android OS – the Ice Cream Sandwich. It has 8MP back camera, 2MP front camera, 16G internal storage, a 4.8inches phone with super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, also equipped with a Gorilla Glass version 2.

White simple box labeled with Samsung Galaxy S3, with additional stickers from Globe where I got this phone under UnliSurf Plan 999.

The package that comes with the Telco’s plan, both Smart Plan 2000 and Globe Plan 1699 wich S3 comes free is the 16G white version of the phone.

The back of the box has the printed specs of the phone.

When you open the box, the S3 will say hello to you with all its plastic protective stickers.

From cold boot, this quad cor phone wakes up in about 17 seconds. You will be greeted with the setup screen immediately. I guess from the manufacturing plant the phone is setup already to what country it is to be deployed.

When you press the next button, it will ask you to connect to available Wi-fi hotspot in the area.

You either skip this procedure or pres next button to proceed to the next setup screen.

The next screen brings you to the time and date settings which are already PH default.

Mandatory to the setup of the S3 is signing up to Samsung Account, if you don’t have one it is suggested that you sign up and login to your phone. You’ll be asked to restore your data, do this if you have previous back up in your Samsung account. I’ve never used this Samsung Account before, I have yet to evaluate and see how it works.

The last few screens requires you to login to your Google account – this will allow you to sync all your settings from your Gmail, Picasa, Google Bookmarks, including your Gmail contacts.

And finally the screen where you put your name as the owner of the phone and then your phone will be up and running.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 is very thin and very light phone amidst its large form factor. When you take off the back cover to install the battery, the back cover is a very thin plastic that is so vulnerable, it may crack if you accidentally put heavy object on it. So be careful.

This is how the back portion of the phone when you uncover it, you will see how big is the battery and two slots for the MicroSD and Micro-SIM. By the way, since I renewed by plan with Globe, they provided me with the micro-SIM for this phone and once activated, my old regular SIM in my BB got de-activated.

First Impressions

Officially this would be my first Android phone. I have tested few androids before but it never occurred to me to switch to android since I am enjoying an easy life with the Qwerty features of the Blackberry. Talk about push email and not to mention the low data plan on BBs – as low as P600 and you get Unli data plan. It is also very convenient to do quick email replies while on traffic on a qwerty phone. Anyway, moving on to S3, the phone is very fast in terms of launching apps, switching screens, and the camera takes photos in a blink of an eye.

I requested Globe to activate the micro-SIM after three days so that I will have enough time for the honeymoon. I have to familiarize myself to the total migration from BB to Android. Surprisingly, the touchscreen is easy to use, very responsive and I did not have hard time typing on it. A little warning though, the phone can turn very slippery because of its glossy finish. If you are clumsy and careless, this phone can slip off your hand easily and break a P32k smartphone easily.

The back camera which is an 8MP camera takes photos very fast and could pass for product and events shoots. Now, I dont need to carry that heavy DSLR on events to take photos. I started using it for the HP Envy14 photos, the Smart Wi-fi Plug It, and the CyberPress Forum. Watch out for my blog about it, photos used there are taken by S3. As for this first impressions and unboxing posts, credit goes back to my Blackberry 9700 which has only 3MP camera on it.

I checked the Galaxy S2 to compare the buttons of the phones, all buttons are on the same spot in the S3. The power button is on the upper right side, I was expecting that it is located on top but what is there is the 3.5mm audio port, the volume rocker is on the left side which is also used to change the font size of your SMS.

The bottom part of the phone has one visible button which acts as the Home button, double tap it and S Voice will be activated. I put the S Voice to test just for fun, I asked about my schedule, the weather, time and launch my Facebook. Like Siri, you tell S Voice what do to by saying “Hi Galaxy”.

There are two other invisible buttons beside the Home button, the right side is the back button and to the left is the shortcut button, it activates shortcut menus for most of the apps.

The basic features of the phone got me happy already – fast phone, fast camera, take good photos and let me mention that if you have Drobpox account, and you use the camera auto-upload feature in your S3, Dropbox will give you 48G additional space for the next 2 years! A real huge space in the cloud!

But there is one big problem for me – transfering my phone contacts from my Blackberry to my S3 is big trouble. BB has a desktop software that backs up your data, phone contacts are encrypted there, so guess what solved my problem? Google Sync. I downloaded the apps in my BB, synced my phone contacts to it and the rest was easy on S3.

I am on Mac, so there is another issue. When I connect the S3 via USB cable to my Mac, I cannot use it as a data storage, so I can’t see the files in the phone. How can I download the pictures? Auto-upload to Dropbox? That is good if you have hi-speed data connection, a USB connection is much faster and handy. The apps called Android File Transfer solved my problem. I downloaded it here, and once installed it worked like magic. Go try it.

Over-all the Samsung Galaxy S3 is phone that will make you happy. Very easy to use, very fast, it becomes a little warm when you are in 3G or HSPA mode and browsing but it is tolerable. The lack of camera button is one of my disappointment though, you have to get used to it to take good pictures and movies.

I have to try and test the other features like when somebody sent you an SMS and you dont like to reply and just call the sender – you put the phone in your ears and it will dial the senders number.