"Test Driving" a Galaxy S3

revaaron · #1 (**permalink**) 09-12-2012, 09:55 PM

coming from the epic 4G. people here have read all my issues with the Epic. I'm using this GS3 for the 14-day trial. If my network issues clear up, I will happily keep it. It doesn't look good so far...

before upgrading today
1) 10-20 minutes to download a .89MB file. Speed test shows 67kbps down, 90Kbps up.
2) took 20+ minutes to get a txt

I had to drive to 2 different stores to get a galaxy, but when I went to the one that had a galaxy blue. At the second store, a mom and a guy were in front of me. The mom started chatting and pointed out a lot of the network issues that she had seen. The guy saddles up and he did basically the same thing I did dealing with the sprint network and he was there to get his refurbed phone to sell it on ebay and pay off his ETF. He has been on sprint for ever and went through every phone trying to get reliable service.
"Sprint doesn't care about a back water like New Hampshire"
I guess he talked to sprint customer service and they said how great sprints network was going to be... but when asked what he could do to be kept, his answer was "free phone until the network works". at both stores, everyone behind the counter seemed to agree that the network was terrible right now.

I have a feeling I will be back on the epic on 9/28/12. Too bad with how awesome this phone is so far.

FYI: insurance went up $3/mo and the deductible is $150 now.

revaaron · #2 (**permalink**) 09-13-2012, 12:48 PM

7am to 12:40pm = 53% battery life.

revaaron · #3 (**permalink**) 09-14-2012, 12:41 AM

well, the network doesnt seem any better... but i did get 13+ hours out of the phone!
weird not hsving a kb and just trusting.

the other weird thing is the phone says it is 10:58pm when it is like 12:30am...

revaaron · #4 (**permalink**) 09-15-2012, 01:06 AM

ok, only 5 txts that haven't sent... hm...

revaaron · #5 (**permalink**) 09-19-2012, 09:56 AM

So this phone is pretty amazing... I just find that I don't type as much or create as much collateral on it as I was before.. OSK is pretty damn good and all, but it is still limiting me.

With Battery Defender, Last night over 6hrs was only 23% down on the battery.

At home, I have horrible service. Sending/receiving just sucks. Also on monday, I had to send some MMS's a bunch of times and reboot.

revaaron · #6 (**permalink**) 09-25-2012, 09:06 AM

I'm restoring my old phone to ginderbread and rooting...
Then backing up my GS3 and having them put me back on the epic 4g.

I must say, the GS3 brought my 35-45% experience to a 70% experience with sprints network. I only missed a couple phone calls, sms, and only a few MMS didn't send, but I'm not going to be tied for another 2 years to a 7/10 network experience.

My biggest problem was all the time that I would have NO DATA access where my verizon phone worked 100%.

EyeB · #7 (**permalink**) 09-25-2012, 10:40 PM

just wondering but did you try the hack/fix that disables 4g and sets 3g only?

there is a post over on xda on how to do this, but from my take of it, if phone is in a 4g area but 4g isnt strong, phone will default to 4g even if the 3g is at full strength

revaaron · #8 (**permalink**) 09-25-2012, 11:47 PM

I never, not a single time, ever saw a 4G area ever.

EyeB · #9 (**permalink**) 09-26-2012, 09:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by revaaron

I never, not a single time, ever saw a 4G area ever.

that's part of the problem, phone thinks there is 4g and tries to connect to it, so it ignores the 3g data and you end up with bad speeds

revaaron · #10 (**permalink**) 09-28-2012, 12:14 PM

I had the phone doing CDMA only and not LTE.

Anyhow, I'm back on my epic (stock fc09 rooted) and I've already missed many phone calls where my phone just didn't ring. I also rarely have any 3G data even when it says I do.

Also, TXTs have a lag of about 5 minutes... more at night.
Makes convos unbearable.