Samsung Galaxy S III Verizon User Reviews

I have the Samsung Galaxy s3 for Verizon Wireless. The phone is excellent except for the battery life. On average I get less than 1.5 hours of screen on time. I use a portably charger to keep it from dining before I get home. This seemed to have happened after the 4.4.2 update that came in July.

I bought the phone jumping from the Galaxy Nexus because it had terrible reception - I should have just changed brands. I have friends and colleagues who are also on Verizon and when my phone drops a call, theirs keeps working. The pda side of the phone is great but if you use a lot of minutes - avoid Samsung phones on Verizon. The HTC DNA and RAZR get great reception so I know it isn't Verizon's network but something not well suited in Samsung's current design.

I would have rated the reception at zero or .5 but 1 was as low as I could go.

If you just text it is a great phone but it is my business and personal phone and I use about 3000 minutes per month. You easily find out what phones work well as phones and which don't.

PS DON'T ever ever fall for the nonsense I did on the forums telling you that a firmware fix would take care of the reception issues. That is like saying a firmware fix will take care of a cracked screen.

While I'll try to keep my excitement to a minimum, my experience with this phone is leaps and bounds better then running android 2.3 on the Droid x-2. ICS really makes a huge difference in overall software performance. I should note that I'm reviewing a Verizon GS3 which just recently received it's Jelly Bean update. While I am very impressed with this phone, it is not flawless. Onto my review!

This phone is absoulutely amazing. The only CONs can be fixed simply by rooting it and changing the system to another ROM, but overall, even on stock, it's an AMAZING phone. See my below Pros, Cons, and Separate feature ratings for more info.

Love the phone. I was holding out for a nexus phone or the note 2 but I decided on the GS3 because the note was a little too big and the nexus 4 (no verizon, no sd slot) kinda disappointed.

I don't like touchwiz and all the verizon crap but with a new launcher, the phone is great. I like the large screen and despite the size it fits in my pocket with ease.

I personally love this phone! I honestly have a very hard time finding things that can be improved with the S3. Battery life is a amazing, web browsering is EXTREMELY fast (CHROME) and lastly multi-tasking is wonderful! If you have an iPhone 4s this is a huge improvement!!

I traded in my Droid Razr for this phone a few months ago and I couldn't be more satisfied. I was strictly Motorola after I had purchased the Samsung Droid Charge and was completely disgusted with it. But that has changed. I can't really find one thing with this phone that would make me consider getting rid of it. Its here to stay!

I originally had a Samsung Galaxy Nexus which was an amazing phone, then I upgraded to this. What an absolute disappointment this was. Samsung has put more money into advertising the phone than they have actually making a good phone. I exchanged it for a Droid RAZR MAXX HD and I am very happy with the exchange.

First the build quality of the Galaxy S3 is the cheapest plastic I have ever seen in my life, this gently fell from a height of less than a foot and the back cover cracked. The power and volume buttons wiggle and feel like they're ready to fall out at anytime.

The reception is horrible, it could barely maintain a connection, the data would fluctuate from 1X to 3G to 4G to nothing, most of the time it would be at 1X or nothing. I don't know about the internet as I could hardly get a data connection where ever I went. The call quality was scratchy and staticy, even in areas where I had full bars. In comparison, my RAZR MAXX HD gets full 4G and I live in the boonies.

The multimedia will override the volume each time you plug in a headphone jack regardless if you're using Google Play Music, Samsung's junk player or Pandora. So you have to raise or lower it to your preferred setting every single time. Also it makes the Google Play media apps useless, forcing you to use Samsung's apps that are terrible.

The UI is slow, sluggish and stutters when transitioning from screens. When you download apps they don't rearrange themselves alphabetically and if you want them to be arranged alphabetically you have to do it yourself. When moving an icon from one screen to the next it never registers your finger at the edge of the screen, meaning you need to drop the icon by the edge, pick it up again and then move it to the next screen and if you want to kep moving it over, you have to repeat that process of dropping nad picking up.

The Messages app is a travesty, once your gmail account is synced, every email address that you've ever sent an email to will be in the messages app. So if you want to send a text message to someone you have to scroll through all the email addresses that you've ever been in contact with to find the person that you want to text. And you can't delete them from the phone, you have to go into your gmail from your computer and delete them from there. I find it silly that I had the phone took all these emails that I only sent once to people that I never had contact with after that one time and put them in my phone.

The text input is hands down the worst I have ever had to deal with. The predictive text is very intrusive, it will form a word for you as you type and the word is never the one you want. And going back to fix a word is just impossible, you're better off deleting your message and starting over. Samsung's version of Swype is so terrible that it's unusable, it just doesn't work at all. This phone needs a physical keyboard if you want to type.

Had this phone for 2 weeks, had it replaced once and finally gave it back. The phone has issues downloading emails from Verizon.net accounts. Most of the VZW reps deny the problem, but finally a supervisor admitted that it's a known issue.

These issues gave me flashbacks to the issues that I had with the Blackberry Storm and Storm 2 phones.

Overall, if the emails aren't coming thru properly, the phone is useless.

I originally had the Motorola droid 3 and after having that POS for less thanks year, I was glad to take advantage of Bestbuys $100 sale on the Galaxy S3 for Verizon. So far everything is amazing except two things, the predictive text is a nightmare and I miss the power control that my moto droid 3 had. It also would be nice if it wasn't so slick on the back because I've almost dropped the phone several times lol. Other than, I am incredibly satisfied!

This is a extremly good phone on the inside. I really am pritty picky about my phones but this phone I really had no problem with while using it for the first month. But then after about a month of use my phone started cracking on the sides of the case buy the volume and power buttons, and never once did I drop my phone and by the 2nd month there were 9 cracks around my phone and I know several other people that are having the same issue. Then my phone ended up falling out of my pocket while i was squating down and fell maybe a foot on to the ground and shattered my screen. To me this was rediculese and show poor build quality "Cheap". So I would strongly suggest buying a different phone with a non plastic case such as the razr or even the iphone 5 can't be worse then this and I never owned an apple phone because I see all the screen cracks.

yes GS3 has some amazing stats. but it is just not friendly enough to make it worth it. i'm returning the phone. I gave it a full 10 days...and I have tried to overcome the bads. upgraded from a moto Droid 2 gloibal.

Swype does not work nearly as good as a motorola. I spend more time editing then i do swyping. i spend more time tapping then i do swyping. i never had an DamnYouAutocorrect moment with my motorola samsung i've had alot.

signal strength: this is only my personal experience: at work and home I get worse signal then i did with my motorola.

TEXT WRAP!!!!!! gs3 does not automatically wrap the text around to fit the webpage. motorola does. try reading a text based webpage like a news article. its got to be big enough to read but then you have to move the page side to side to read every sentence! i don't care how fast 4g is. I would rather load a slower page and then just read the whole screen top left to right bottom before scrolling down more.

weight: big phone plus LIght weight: cheap feel plus easier to drop it.

The number on complant I have heard about this phone is build quality I just dont understand people. The phone was built just like the RAZR you need to put a case on it. More and more phones are going this route and I like it. Look most people put a case on a phone anyway so why build up the out side of the phone to just put more plastic/another case on it. I have seen the drop test with the I Phone 5 its stupid and meaningless if you walk around with a 650 dollar phone with out something on it to protect it GS3 or any iphone. So you can drop your Iphone from 6 feet and scratch the s**t out of it OR put a case on it. Its a 600 dollar phone really your not going to put a case on it.... But for real this is a soild phone its very fast scores over 5000+ on quadrants and on LTE in Boise I get 32.55Mbps down and 18.14Mbps up with Verizon. Did i mention i can talk on the phone watch youtube and get a picture message all at once you cant do that on ANY Iphone. Really people samsung is steping up this is really the first time the Iphone cant just be crowned the end all best phone. S voice is kind of a joke i wont lie HOW ever with Jelly bean almost out for the GS3 and the new Voice softwear from google on JB google voice search will smoke SIRI on anything. Besides how stupid do you have to be to ask your phone "do i need a jacket today" if your head is so fare up your ass you dont know what the weather is gonna be like with the 15 bazzlion weather apps and widggets on the market today i really dont know what to tell you. GS3 best I have ever owned btw i get around 18 hours out of my phone thats texting and reading pulse and GPS adress for my job.

before this device, i had to use droid razr and iphone 4s. and i changed to this phone with 2years contract....it was fine first few days....but after that, it took so long for data and phone itself....
and battery is sux as hell...also using cheap plastics......
dont buy this samsung...if you like android...make choose motorola or htc....

In a word - Spectacular.
If it weren't due to Apple's obnoxious self, it would be a 9.5, but they had to damper down the voice assistance, losing the universal search was one of the saddest days for me. Samsung outdid themselves here, wonderful build quality (even though plastic, it actually helps, less weight = less damage on drop).

Coming from a HTC Incredible the Samsung Galaxy S lll had bigger face of course and I thought the salesman was being HONEST at Verizon store. The way the case is so flexible (cheap and flimsy) that one small drop and screen cracks. DO NOT buy unless you also purchase a case that will protect and wrap on the glass. And, buy and use screen protectors also. I simply don't want to fly again if this is "aviation" glass as the salesman went on about. Now, onto the phone it self...... I am in strong 4G area and I can't get the 4G most of the time. I get bad reception and rarely have over 2 bars. Dropped calls I thought was a thing of the past but I was wrong.
In 14 days the phone became glitchy. Half the time I wait and wait just to unlock it with the finger swipe. It's notably slower than my HTC Incredible 2 (3G). My friend thankfully bought it and taking a phone line that my dad had (now terminally ill), and I borrowed it until my upgrade time was here. I am having it replaced with a NEW one and won't even take it out of the box when it arrives. And, good luck to him.
It does take nice photos and some of the features are pretty cool but SO not worth the design of Gorilla Glass and Samsung. I dropped my Incredible 2 daily and had no case as none were available for double life battery. Also drop my iPod Touch 4th Gen and the glass is not well protected as the HTC design, but small chips on edges that you can only feel and not see. I have carpel tunnel and drop things.
Just know that fragile is the best description for this device. Samsung and Corning were contacted and they could care less. Corning said they might give me 200 for the device IF they decided to take it as a researchable device. I had corning dishes that never broke or chipped.

I wish it had a unlocked boot-loader, and i wish it was a nexus device besides that it is one of my favorite phones i ever had. The other two phones are my samsung omnia wich i thought was the best phone out when it first came out. The other phone is my Galaxy Nexus. Love my Samsung phones. If i can go back and add more to this review i will later i am off too work.

I waited a long time for this phone and it hasn't disappointed. The biggest con I heard against this phone before I got it was that is had bad build quality, however when you actually pick it up and feel it and remove the battery cover you see that it is actually very sturdy feeling and light. Looks a lot cooler in real life than in photos online, especially the white. Reception is crystal clear same with call clarity, picks up 4GLTE if your anywhere close to the area or just does 3G which is still crazy fast with this phone. Internet is amazing with the big screen, super fast never stutters or shows checkered boxes. Multimedia isn't anything to write home about but works very well, headphones the phone comes with are VERY clear! Camera is incredible, especially when you take videos in 1080p. Just last weekend took a bunch of wakesurfing videos and the clarity of the wake is stupid good! UI speed is fast and fluid, phone is fast in every way. For every day usage it is a bit large at times but just takes some getting use to. Text input is good but the predictive text is not, thinking about buying a 3rd party application. Battery is surprisingly good for how incredible this phone is, a lot better than my old Droid. S-Voice works well for calling, texting, or weather but can be confused quite easily (gimmick anyway). S-beam works very well also, super cool feature of Samsungs. Overall this phone is super sick!!