So, we've been using the phones for over a week now. I love the speed of this phone!
I got this case for myself:
http://www.hdaccessory.com/servlet/the-11279/galaxy-s-iii-case/Detail
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I needed a holster and the ability to put the phone in said holster, face-in. This holster allows me to do that. It comes in 2 pieces: one that is essentially a protector for the back of the phone. This adds enough heft and thickness to make it comfortable to hold. The holster piece itself doubles as a kickstand (vertical or horizontal). It seems rugged, but still clean, slim, simple. I feel like it will hold up, but for $10, I'll probably buy a spare.
I also got these screen protectors:
https://www.clarivue.com/samsung-i9300-galaxy-s-iii-screen-protector.html. I'd heard good things about Clarivue and the end-result is awesome. I can't tell the difference in clarity and after 5 days of heavy use (the "new" hasn't worn off the new toy, yet), there's no sign of wear, scratches, or peeling. There's no orange-peel texture. I don't feel that plastic-feel that I've noticed from prior screen protectors. They're also oleophobic, so fingerprints are slighly less than with no protector at all. What I hate about them is the installation. As is probably typical for screen protectors nowadays, the protector comes sandwiched between two protective films. You remove the back film while you apply the virgin protector to your freshly polished, dust-free screen. That was no problem. You then have to peel off the outer protective film (both films have a "handy" piece of tape so you can "easily" peel them free. While the outer film is still in place, you can work out the bubbles without concern for damaging the actual screen protector. The problem is that it was very difficult to remove the outer protective film. The handy piece of tape just kept peeling off. I even tried scotch tape - no dice. Finally, I finagled the outer layer off using a tiny Exacto knife. I had to repeat that process for both phones. However, like I said, the end-result is great. No bubbles, no peeling, no scratches.
By design, most of the protectors for the GS3 do not cover the entire face of the screen given the screen is slightly curved. I then found this newly released product that already has good reviews, so I've ordered them:
http://www.spigen.com/samsung-galaxy-s3-screen-protector-steinheil-curved-crystal.html
As far as apps:
- Epocrates is a must for my job, and the android version is far better than my old Windows OS version. Updates are a snap as well.
- Dropbox. Dropbox is awesome. It allows me to take care of lots of "work" things as well as my treasurer duties for my church. It's a very handy, free app. I've been using Dropbox for a couple of years, but never had access from my phone. It truly opens up a new realm in productivity for me.
- SPB Wallet. I loved this app on my Windows OS phone, and the transition to android was absolutely painless. I didn't even have to uninstall my desktop version and it syncs perfectly with the android phone.
- GTasks was an essential for me. It's the closest thing I found to my task app on my Windows OS. GTasks is perfect in its simplicity and melds with Google Calendar nicely.
- I use the standard Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter apps which are, again, far better and more intuitive than the crippled Windows OS versions I was using previously. Color for Facebook is nice and intuitive as well.
- BeWeather and Widgets Pro is worth 10 times its $1.99 price tag. It's not only beautiful, but it's highly customizable, allowing the user to incorporate any map from the web into its interface. Although the weatherunderground maps they use by default are perfect.
- The games I've installed so far are Solitaire by Brainium, Angry Birds, Words with Friends, Osmos HD, Reckless Getaway, JetCar Stunts, and Shine Runner.
I now get the addictive nature of Angry Birds.
Brainium's Solitaire is perfect (And without adware. It was hard to find a solitaire app that didn't have some kind of adware).
Osmos HD is calming and hypnotic with an incredible soundtrack and imagery.
Words with Friends? Meh, it doesn't update very quickly. It may have just been that one time. I'll give it a chance.
JetCar stunts is fun and takes full advantage of the gyro.
I haven't played Reckless Getaway or Shine Runner much, but they are beautiful to look at and have been fun so far.
- The native video player and music player are powerful and do exactly what I need.
- I love how easily and simply my contacts and calendar sync'd. Completely painless.
- Oh, and the alarm clock. True genius. I love the "briefing" alert. For those that don't know, you can set your alarm such that the alert is an alarm of your choosing followed by an audio briefing of the weather forecast, news headlines, and a summary of your agenda for the day as found on your Google Calendar. Of course setting the alarm is made even easier by using S-Voice: All I have to do is tell the phone, "wake me up at 5 o'clock in the morning", and she sets the alarm without a hiccup. Elegance.
I was a little disappointed that my Verizon-branded GS3 didn't come with some sort of case or even a cleaning cloth. I know the strategy is to incentivise the customer into making another $50 worth of purchases while in the Verizon store, but still I expected something.
The included earbuds are at least as good as my 6-year old Sony MDR-EX71's. Very nice sound.
As for my concerns with the 16GB vs. the 32GB. After all the crap that was natively on the phone along with the crap that I've put on it, I'm only using about 1/4 of the storage. Additionally, with all the crap and pics, videos, and music I have on my 16GB microSD card, I still have 12GB free. I don't see the need to carry around my entire music library, especially when I can unmount the card and connect the phone to my PC and move files at will as if it were a plug-and-play USB drive.
The connectivity of the phone is incredible. I've already tried NFC sharing with my wife's phone, WiFi peer-to-peer. I could even stream (DLNA) to my PS3 movies and pics painlessly. Everything was absolutely intuitive. I know I'm bragging on things that have more to do with the Android OS than perhaps the GS3 specifically, but let me gush a bit. I'm an Android newb and had no idea what I was missing.
Again, I appreciate all the advice I received with regard to this purchase. I usually hate changing phones, but this transition to a new platform was quite painless.
