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Phones Nexus or the S3?

bitfactory

bitfactory

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 22, 2002
346
390
Please, no trolls in this thread. I'm a lifelong Apple fan, but more importantly, I'm a lifelong tech fan, who decides to buy things that I admire rather than blindly buying everything that a corporation decides to build.

There, with that out of the way...

My wife and I both have IP4s - and have each owned an iPhone since the beginnning. Our whole house is filled with Macs (Pro Early 2008, MBAir 2011, MB Pro 2012, original iPad, and iPad2), but I've been curious as to what Android has been up to, and the Jelly Bean presentation pushed me over the top.

I've been close to just buying the Nexus - it's 350$, but it's unlocked - so I can just put my IP4 sim in it and go. If I didn't like it I could just go back to my IP4 and sell the Nexus. The reason I didn't pull the trigger is I read the camera sucked. Big time. Not that I'm taking a bunch of family photos with it, but I'm a bit spoiled with the IP4 camera.

Next was my flirtation with the S3. The wait to get JB was just going to annoy me - but the specs of the phone look nice. I also don't want another UI pasted over JB, which is why I was originally looking at the Nexus.

Can anyone with a bit of experience with these headsets give me some advice?

Thanks!
 
B

batting1000

macrumors 604
Sep 4, 2011
7,451
1,840
Florida
Nexus if you want fast updates and stock Android.

S3 is you want a better camera and don't care about having updates right away (or ever).
 
D

Dunbar

macrumors 6502a
Jun 25, 2010
557
114
Los Angeles, CA
I'd either get the S3 or wait for the next Nexus phone. If you already owned a Galaxy Nexus I'd say keep it but I don't see the point of buying one at this point unless you're really impatient. Jelly Bean is cool but I think the novelty will wear off pretty fast when you realize you're using an 8 month old hardware. In addition to the camera the battery life isn't great on LTE and I don't see the point of buying a new phone without LTE at this point (if you're using it on a carrier other than Verizon.)
 
AustinIllini

AustinIllini

macrumors G5
Oct 20, 2011
12,682
10,517
Austin, TX
bitfactory said:
Next was my flirtation with the S3. The wait to get JB was just going to annoy me - but the specs of the phone look nice. I also don't want another UI pasted over JB, which is why I was originally looking at the Nexus.

Can anyone with a bit of experience with these headsets give me some advice?
Click to expand...

The GSIII is an absolute beast. The phone is lightning fast and the LTE is pretty impressive. You can get a launcher that mimics android closely, and the updated Touchwiz is pretty impressive.
 
ChazUK

ChazUK

macrumors 603
Feb 3, 2008
5,393
25
Essex (UK)
Being so late into the Nexus' life cycle it is difficult to recommend alongside the S3 hardware wise. It's the Nexus' unfettered access to the latest version of Android that makes the device shine.

The S3 snapdragon based version has already got a decent community of custom firmware developers behind it and projects like CyanogenMod may let you have that Nexus like experience with the better hardware (I'm using CyanogenMod 9 on my international S3 which I prefer to the TouchWiz based stock S3 Rom). Getting dirty with custom firmware is entirety up to you though.

The camera is fantastic when compared to the Nexus, it really is no contest. If you were going to go for a U. S based S3, I'd suggest against the Verizon version thanks to the locked and encrypted bootloader.

The thing is, we are only a few months from a new iPhone and most likely the next generation Nexus so if you can wait, that is as good a reason as any.

Good luck with choosing what's right for you though. Quite a difficult decision to make as both devices have some big benefits over the other.
 
bitfactory

bitfactory

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 22, 2002
346
390
ChazUK said:
Being so late into the Nexus' life cycle it is difficult to recommend alongside the S3 hardware wise. It's the Nexus' unfettered access to the latest version of Android that makes the device shine.

The S3 snapdragon based version has already got a decent community of custom firmware developers behind it and projects like CyanogenMod may let you have that Nexus like experience with the better hardware (I'm using CyanogenMod 9 on my international S3 which I prefer to the TouchWiz based stock S3 Rom). Getting dirty with custom firmware is entirety up to you though.

The camera is fantastic when compared to the Nexus, it really is no contest. If you were going to go for a U. S based S3, I'd suggest against the Verizon version thanks to the locked and encrypted bootloader.

The thing is, we are only a few months from a new iPhone and most likely the next generation Nexus so if you can wait, that is as good a reason as any.

Good luck with choosing what's right for you though. Quite a difficult decision to make as both devices have some big benefits over the other.
Click to expand...

Great info - thank you. I just may wait a couple of months and see what happens.
 
J

jedivulcan

macrumors 6502
May 15, 2007
424
60
The bootloader for the Sprint, T-Mobile, and AT&T versions are unlocked, opening the potential for a more stock Android experience (and plenty of tweaks) with CyanogenMod. Verizon version has a locked bootloader, which sort of hinders the potential there (and though Verizon is selling a "developer" unsubsidized version with an unlocked bootloader).

The breakdown for me is price and whether I want to commit to AT&T anymore. $200 for a locked, contract Galaxy S III or $350 for the unsubsidized, unlocked, and T-Mobile/AT&T band compatible Galaxy Nexus. I think the only real downside with the Google Play Galaxy Nexus is that it's upfront $350 + tax + shipping, whereas, for a student or someone that doesn't want to sink their expenses up front, you can do interest free payment plans at some local retailers.

I also hate dealing with carrier upgrades.

I, personally, haven't used anything except the original iPhone and the iPhone 4. I played around with a Galaxy Nexus and loved it. I'm still fickle about some build quality issues inherent in all electronic devices. The plastic is something to get used to, as well as the HD AMOLED display of the Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy S III. To be honest, I just don't like AMOLEDs at low brightness because they're a bit grainier than the IPS tech in the iPhone 4/4S and even the HTC One X series.

Best bet is to try it out and return it if you don't like it.
 
MacBH928

MacBH928

macrumors G3
May 17, 2008
8,322
3,718
I want to know what is thedifferencebetween google nexus, s3 , and htc one.
Also i think there is a phone called samsung nexus too.

I hear they have different gui? Also if a new android released can we just update like we update from iOS 4 to 5 or what?
what is stock android?

Any new s3 competitor coming out soon that we should keep our eyes out for before I buy the S3?
 
iosuser

iosuser

macrumors 65816
Mar 12, 2012
1,003
748
jedivulcan said:
The bootloader for the Sprint, T-Mobile, and AT&T versions are unlocked, opening the potential for a more stock Android experience (and plenty of tweaks) with CyanogenMod. Verizon version has a locked bootloader, which sort of hinders the potential there (and though Verizon is selling a "developer" unsubsidized version with an unlocked bootloader).

The breakdown for me is price and whether I want to commit to AT&T anymore. $200 for a locked, contract Galaxy S III or $350 for the unsubsidized, unlocked, and T-Mobile/AT&T band compatible Galaxy Nexus. I think the only real downside with the Google Play Galaxy Nexus is that it's upfront $350 + tax + shipping, whereas, for a student or someone that doesn't want to sink their expenses up front, you can do interest free payment plans at some local retailers.

I also hate dealing with carrier upgrades.

I, personally, haven't used anything except the original iPhone and the iPhone 4. I played around with a Galaxy Nexus and loved it. I'm still fickle about some build quality issues inherent in all electronic devices. The plastic is something to get used to, as well as the HD AMOLED display of the Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy S III. To be honest, I just don't like AMOLEDs at low brightness because they're a bit grainier than the IPS tech in the iPhone 4/4S and even the HTC One X series.

Best bet is to try it out and return it if you don't like it.
Click to expand...

The S3's screen is nicer to look at than the Gnex'. It doesn't have the ugly graininess of the Gnex when on low brightness, and the colors, while still very saturated, is not as unnatural like it is on the Gnex.

With the exception of the S3's 2GB RAM allowing for much more apps to be kept opened, the Gnex running Jelly Bean is faster than the S3. Jelly Bean is fast and smooth all the time everywhere, I see hiccup in the S3 here and there but it's not terrible. The Gnex though even without much opened it keeps reloading my browser tabs. The S3 always keeps the tabs..

I still have both phones, having a tough time deciding which to stay with.
 
A

alex2792

macrumors 65816
Jun 13, 2009
1,125
2,973
GS3 is far better than the Nexus(at least the LTE version) in my experience. You will definitely get jellybean on the GS3, and the hardware is just way better compared to the Nexus. But the biggest thing is battery life, it's just WAY better on the GS3(Verizon LTE version). The reason I went back to the 4S from the Nexus is horrid battery life, which made LTE useless(the phone would die in 2-3hrs literally) but GS3 goes all day with 4G on stock battery.

Software wise I'm not a big Touchpiss fan(who decided to remove stock ICS folders function?), but installing Nova launcher solved that problem real quick. I'm just waiting for a stable version of CM10 before I take the jellybean plunge though. Overall, GS3 is really a no brainer IMO...
 
onthecouchagain

onthecouchagain

macrumors 604
Mar 29, 2011
7,382
2
I'd wait for the next Nexus or just get the S3. I'd pass on the current Nexus, if it's really between the two.
 
D

Destroysall

macrumors 65816
Feb 28, 2012
1,293
85
United States
While the S3 is a great phone, the Nexus should have better Google support as it practically is sold by Google themselves. So the Nexus could probably be your best bet.
 
Last edited:
Z

zbarvian

macrumors 68010
Jul 23, 2011
2,004
2
Wait for the upcoming batch of Nexus devices due later this year. I would never buy a non-Nexus Android phone, then you have to worry about crappy, bloated skins, instability, and a potential lack of support in the future.

Plus Jelly Bean looks way nicer than any skin I've ever seen. Personal opinion, though.
 
R

RMXO

macrumors 6502a
Sep 1, 2009
875
41
You can't go wrong with either but it's not true about the S3 not getting updates. There have been plenty of Samsung stock updates.

The best place to go for these information is xda-developers. There are custom ROM's from devs that you can install if you want to walk on the wild side compared to running stock.

My best advice to you when going to Xda-developers is to use the "search" & "next & previous page" function because if you have a question, it's probably already been asked & answered especially for new folks.
 
I

IO01

macrumors member
Oct 20, 2011
73
0
bitfactory said:
I've been close to just buying the Nexus - it's 350$, but it's unlocked - so I can just put my IP4 sim in it and go. If I didn't like it I could just go back to my IP4 and sell the Nexus. The reason I didn't pull the trigger is I read the camera sucked. Big time. Not that I'm taking a bunch of family photos with it, but I'm a bit spoiled with the IP4 camera.

Next was my flirtation with the S3. The wait to get JB was just going to annoy me - but the specs of the phone look nice. I also don't want another UI pasted over JB, which is why I was originally looking at the Nexus.

Can anyone with a bit of experience with these headsets give me some advice?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Is space an important issue for you? The Nexus has either 16GB or 32GB, with no microSD slot. The S3 has either 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB, and a microSD slot where you can add up to an additional 64GB. For me, since I listen to a lot of music and watch a lot of video on my phone, if I were to choose between the Nexus and the S3 it would be the S3, hands down.
 
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