So, the same thing kind of always happens when a new phone launches: usually the media
gets review units before they're widely available, and we get to use them for a few days or maybe
a couple weeks if we're lucky, while we write our review. Then the date and time of the
press embargo arrives, the embargo lifts, everyone posts their reviews and videos at
the same time, it's a huge frenzy, commenters go nuts, there are defenders and attackers
and it's a whole giant explosion of opinion. For about ... a day. And then it all goes
away. Sure, there's followup coverage as people find bugs and more news happens, but after
that initial blast, not a lot of people revisit the device to see how it feels a few weeks
or months later, because we're all onto the next thing already. So let's do something
about it. Let's take a look at a smartphone that, while it?s still setting the market
on fire, definitely isn?t a newborn anymore. I'm Michael Fisher, with Pocketnow.com, this
is the Samsung Galaxy S III, and this ... is Episode 7 of After The Buzz. ?The Next Big
Thing is Here.? Samsung?s marketing tagline kicking off the launch of the Galaxy S III
was bombastic, but quite accurate. You can still see the banners and commercials everywhere
you look, so it?s tempting to say that the Galaxy S III isn?t yet ready for an After
The Buzz segment. But it launched longer ago than you think: 29 May 2012, which means it?ll
soon be creeping up on middle-age for a flagship Android smartphone. The Galaxy S III sold
more than 20 million units in its first 100 days of availability, smashing records and
flooding the globe with the biggest non-phablet smartphone ever. So how?s it holding up so
far? Well, let?s check out the hardware of my Verizon Wireless unit to see how it?s endured
a few months of daily use. In short, pretty well. Honestly, better than I anticipated.
You?ll recall I?ve never been a huge fan of Samsung?s design direction with the Galaxy
S III, and its emphasis on light weight and glossy, flimsy material. If you?re like me
and you don?t like protective cases, the Galaxy S III?s build quality might?ve given you pause
when you first took the device out of the box, no matter how strong the Gorilla Glass
up front or the polycarbonate around back. Fortunately, the device has held up much better
than I expected. The plasticky feel is annoying on humid days, and the hyperglaze coating
on the battery door shows more than its fair share of scratches even despite careful handling,
but the white coloring on my unit covers those up pretty well from a distance. Also, that
same glossy coat has prevented the white polycarbonate from staining or color transfer from denim
jeans or other sources. From far enough away, the unit looks a lot like it did when it first
came out of the box. I still don?t like the physical home button,
which forces me to interrupt my tap, swipe, and flick interaction so I can mash a big
key with my thumb. It?s clumsy and stupid, a departure from the new UX principles ICS
tried to introduce. Also, the capacitive keys flanking it are invisible when not illuminated,
and their position close to the edge of the device makes them very easy to activate accidentally,
especially when you?re passing the phone to someone to take a picture. It?s annoying.
Touching on one last POSTIVIE bit of the hardware experience: though the device spends most
of its out-of-pocket time resting on the protruding camera module, the lens isn?t scratched in
the slightest, which was a welcome surprise. I still wouldn?t trust the Galaxy S III?s
build enough to put it through any significant physical stress, but for daily use in its
case-less, naked state, the Galaxy S III holds up well. Oh, and P.S.: we?ve never fallen
out of love with its big bright notification LED, either. But as we know, hardware isn?t
the only thing that degrades over time in the world of smartphones. Like many SGS3 users,
I?m still stuck running Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich. What?s that like in an increasingly
Jelly Bean-ified world? Not as bad as you might think. Sure, a few days with the Galaxy
Note II got me used to the enhanced notifications and Google Now support baked in to Android?s
latest, but as I mentioned in that review, I didn?t really feel the performance enhancements
of Project Butter ? because the UI is already so smooth on the Galaxy S III running Android
4.0.4. Samsung worked some real magic with the Nature UX iteration of TouchWiz, transforming
the much-maligned Android skin from a laggy mess to a real value-add. Useful elements
like the toggle bar in the notification shade, information-dense widgets, and extensive customization
options have all served to make the Android experience more convenient. I?m running the
custom HD Widgets suite alongside some native TouchWiz components on my device here, and
the two play well together. That kind of customizability is part of the beauty of Android, and it shows
beautifully on the Galaxy S III?s big, bright screen. My device?s app launcher shows I?ve
downloaded 49 apps, the camera tells me I?ve got close to 700 pictures on board, and there?s
over 2000 songs loaded into memory. That?s on a removable 32GB card, and even taking
read/write times into account, the device is still snappy as anything. Sure it bogs
down at times - no device is perfect. Chrome, in particular, seems to strain the SGS3?s
resources at times, and it?s possible to get some UI lag going if you have a busy widget
menu. Also, a lot of the fancy Samsung software customizations don?t serve much use once you
get past the novelty stage, particularly S Voice, which is still just awful. But other
features like Smart Stay continue to prove their worth, and the phone?s core features
continue to shine even after under the fine layer of dust that?s gathered since launch:
the camera is still one of the best smartphone shooters out there (sample images?), battery
life is still better than many similarly-specced devices on the market, and it even makes phone
calls pretty well, if you?re into that kinda thing. Part of the reason After The Buzz exists
(and part of the fun) is because over time, smartphone devices tend to bog down. Their
real errors don?t float to the surface until after weeks or months of use; on Android that
sometimes tends to mean a laggier experience, jittery UI performance, and general grumpiness,
until it?s no longer the Droid you?re looking for. That hasn?t happened on the Galaxy S
III. Granted, this is the US version, with a different processor and RAM loadout than
other models, and we have no idea what?s going to happen when the next few iterations of
Android make their way to this device. But considering the polish Samsung?s brought with
this model, the massive ad blitz surrounding it, and its impressive sales numbers thus
far, SGS3 owners now constitute a hugely important sector of Samsung?s customer base, and the
company is probably going to do all it can to support this halo device for quite a while.
Maybe more so than other flagship devices from other companies, which haven?t enjoyed
the same media exposure. Sure, it?s bound to cut corners - we haven?t seen promised
accessories like the S Pebble or wireless charging pad. But at least those aren?t failings
with the device itself. More than four months post-launch, if we were a financial firm,
we?d still give the Galaxy S III a ?strong buy? recommendation. Guys, this has been episode
7 of After The Buzz. We hope you liked it; leave us a thumbs up here, and a comment on
the post at Pocketnow if so. There are six other episodes of After The Buzz tagged on
Pocketnow.com - go find them there if you want to see our take on other, older devices.
You can hear us every week on the Pocketnow Weekly Podcast as well, and you can follow
us on twitter at pocketnowtweets, you can follow me on Twitter at Captain2Phones, and
you should stay tuned for future episodes of After The Buzz; they're coming soon. Thanks
for watching, and we'll see you next time!