Help - Want to move back to android from iphone 4s

Me? I did. The Galaxy S3 is the best phone, but when you're a fussy git with certain requirements, exceptions have to be made...

If you want the best phone, get the S3.

If you want the best smaller phone, get the One S.

If you want HTC Sense and an awesome screen, get the One X.

Simples.
 
I want the best phone, which is the GS3. So bought that.

I have the HTC One X as well (which I had before the GS3), but the battery life let it down (mainly, among other things).
 
Was it literally just the battery life of the X you hated?

I wanted the best phone which is why I purchased the GS3 in the first place, but I did find it a little big.

You guys say go to the shop and have a play with both, well they won't let you here. Admittedly the GS3 is on display and working but the One S isn't. The dummy phone does feel nice in the hand though!
 
Here's my final, and fairly short review of the One X. You'll see why ultimately I don't like it as much as I did originally, and some of the same issues are on the One S, too.

The main one being the 3 dot menu, but HTC are fixing that in the next update, which should be out fairly soon.

Robbo said:
So, having used the phone for a few weeks, some thoughts. I've kept it very simple as people who want this phone have probably got it already and everyone else will be waiting for the S3, or not bothering with either.

The Good:

  • Looks and feels great, an aesthetically pleasing device overall
  • The screen is excellent, aside from the black levels it's pretty much perfect
  • The camera is great, there's effectively no shutter lag and the interface and HDR functions are superb
  • The battery life is comparatively a step up from HTC devices of old
  • Audio quality is surprisingly good
  • Wifi and phone signals are both very strong, and call quality in general is great

The Bad:

  • Build quality issues plaguing many devices, mine is fine but many are not
  • The phone does not feel like a quad-core phone, performance is not all that impressive
  • HTC Sense, despite having some nice features, is very badly optimised, the launcher for example has some bad stuttering and it's quite annoying
  • The HD video recording isn't nearly as good as it should be
  • The battery life could still be better, it won't survive a day of really heavy use
  • It takes far too long to charge, 3 hours on the mains and 6 hours on USB is just awful
  • The limited storage, despite being reasonably fine could still be better
  • The volume buttons feel cheap - typical HTC
  • The power (wake) button isn't that easy to reach with one hand, Samsung putting it on the side is far better
  • The phone is slippery in nature, you could drop it easily due to the size
  • Tegra 3 seems pretty rubbish and has been used as a marketing tool

The Ugly:

  • The 3 dot menu at the bottom of all of the apps effectively ruin your screen estate - utterly bizarre and extremely annoying
  • Rooting (to fix the menu for example) is guaranteed to void your warranty, something which you don't want to do given the poor quality control HTC seem to have
  • The capacitive multi-tasking button was a bad choice due to the above
  • The camera ring isn't great looking and is badly exposed
  • Unlike the iPhone, many apps aren't optimised for the resolution, meaning things don't look as sharp as they should much of the time

Some of the above can be addressed by HTC, but there have been several updates so far and nothing to get excited about. Samsung have taken a far more sensible approach with the capacitive menu button option, which avoids the awful 3 dot menu problem.

So, I've been quite ruthless as you can see. While this is a great phone, it's far from perfect and it should have been so much better. I'm not so much disappointed with mine... well, I sort of am really.
Click to expand...

Now, don't get me wrong, the battery life isn't terrible. It will survive a full day of fairly heavy use, but not a hammering.

The Galaxy S III, surprisingly, gives it a good kicking in most areas, and you've read my review of that too. You'll see that it reads very differently.

The S3 is the first Android phone that I'd consider to be head and shoulders above the iPhone of the same era; that it's replacing. For example, the GS2 wasn't that much better than the iPhone 4, and the Desire wasn't that much better than the 3GS. The S3 is just epic, it's blisteringly fast, the screen is great, the battery life is awesome, it has great storage options, it performs well as a phone, etc. Okay, the iPhone 5 could pip the lot, but we don't know quite when that will land, the next 3 months or so.

Lastly, the size will become a non-issue. It may throw you a bit at first, but you'll get used to it before long and then the iPhone will seem too small. You'll have to take my word for that.

The choice is yours. :cool:
 
Thanks for that mate, I'm waiting for cpw to email me back to arrange a postal pick up and replacement. I would go back into the store again as the manager was a smarmy git but I don't really want the agro! :(
 
Just to take what Robbo said about the X there and apply it to the S in my perspective:

Robbo said:
The Bad:

  • Build quality issues plaguing many devices, mine is fine but many are not

    Apart from the chipping issues along the sides and top (for the black model), there aren't really any build quality issues (and the chipping issue has been fixed now anyway, a new design so the edges are smoother)

    Although some people don't have the chipping issue on the older designed devices

  • HTC Sense, despite having some nice features, is very badly optimised, the launcher for example has some bad stuttering and it's quite annoying

    There is no stutter/slow downs on the S and overall sense does appear to be better optimized for the S/XL

  • The HD video recording isn't nearly as good as it should be
  • It takes far too long to charge, 3 hours on the mains and 6 hours on USB is just awful

    I don't have any exact figures, but definitely does not take that long for me :eek: I imagine this might be to do with the battery being bigger though, therefore would the GS 3 not take even longer to charge since it is 2100mAh?

  • The limited storage, despite being reasonably fine could still be better
  • The volume buttons feel cheap - typical HTC

    The volume buttons aren't as sturdy as what they should be especially when you have a lovely aluminium uni-body, but personally I don't see it being too much of an issue, IMO the GS 3 feels/looks far cheaper than either the X/S overall

  • The power (wake) button isn't that easy to reach with one hand, Samsung putting it on the side is far better

    Agree with this in some ways, I personally quite like the power button being on the top of the phone and since the phone is smaller than the X it isn't as much of an issue reaching for the power button as it is on the X

  • The phone is slippery in nature, you could drop it easily due to the size

    Not really an issue with the S due to the size obviously


The Ugly:

  • The 3 dot menu at the bottom of all of the apps effectively ruin your screen estate - utterly bizarre and extremely annoying

    Big pain in the ass, thankfully HTC have released an update for the S (no word on the X update though), and some people in Europe have received it without rooting etc. so we should hopefully get it in the next week or 2 (unbranded that is :p)

  • The capacitive multi-tasking button was a bad choice due to the above

    Won't be an issue any longer for the S (and am sure the X will get the update soon as well) relatively soon and will be better than having a true dedicated menu button like the GS 3 as this is how google want it to be and thus in the future it may play a bigger part? Obviously either way isn't going to be ground breaking etc. :p

  • The camera ring isn't great looking and is badly exposed

    The red metallic camera ring looks great on the S IMO, it is a tiny bit exposed, however, the camera lens sits ever so slightly below the metallic ring, not as bad as the X (I call it the camel hump :D :p), still should be a bit below the rest of the mobile though
Click to expand...
 
That's all fair enough, though the GS3 volume buttons do feel sturdier than the HTC ones, even if you think the rest of the phone feels cheaper. Mike likes the design of the phone, which in turn eliminates 90% of the issues people would have with the GS3, that's good for him.

Also, there's no way you can say the power button is better on the top, it's infinitely better on the side! ;)

As for charging, the GS3 seems to charge quicker, but I haven't timed it.
 
I know, it is all subjective that stuff and I do agree that the volume rocket is more sturdier on the GS 3 :) personally I would rather have the majority of the phone feeling/looking nicer for build quality etc. rather than just the volume rocker, that is what I was getting at when I brought the rest of the GS 3 "feeling cheaper" up :p


hehe, I didn't say it was better on the top ;) :p I personally prefer it that way, but I can see your point, it does make more sense to be on the side (my galaxy spica was the same)
 
What do you prefer about it being on the top? I'm interested to know, I can't think of any reasons that would be better than it being easier/more comfortable to press, especially when you don't have a hardware home button on the HTC phones.
 
I don't know exactly really, just something about having the power/lock button on the top (maybe cause all the old standard phones usually had the power button on the top so I am sort of use to it) and I kind of regard the sides of the phone for the volume rocker and camera button, if that makes any sense :p :o

As I said it is better having it on the side as opposed to the top. If the phone had been any bigger then yeah it would definitely be more of an issue for me.

It is a bit like the micro USB socket, in some ways it makes sense for it to be on the side, however, I would still prefer it to be on the bottom anyway :p
 
That's true about the USB socket, but it doesn't really make sense for it to be on the side, does it? Have I missed something there? :p
 
Regarding the docking station etc. it does in some ways :p as it means you can watch TV catchup etc. play a N64/SEGA ROM etc. game using a controller whilst it is charging at the same time and have the full screen being used :p

Obviously if phones/apps didn't support rotation then it would be a real pita :p
 
I suppose in some situations it could be better there, but I think that generally people have their dock next to their PC so don't need to do those things.

It'd be better to keep it on the bottom and then make some kind of rotating dock, one probably exists already, but I haven't looked.
 
Mine is next to my PC and I still do those things! :p :D :o


Yeah as I mentioned in my review of the dock I have, it has its weaknesses and strengths just like the port being on the bottom.



Hmm, I think mrk or someone linked a dock like that before the GS 3 release, however, iirc it was butt ugly and pretty big :p
 
To be fair I didn't find that the GS3 took very long to charge at all. I can't see why the One X would take too long either.

Do HTC use 1amp chargers now? If so then theory says it shouldn't take too long at all?
 
I think so, there's loads of stuff on the charger and I don't know what it all means. :p

I just noticed that, via USB, it was taking longer than my previous phones to charge, via the mains it's fine.

I haven't noticed the same thing with the S3, though I charge it less frequently, so perhaps it's that.

The One X is a very good phone, to be honest it should probably be between that and the S3, as the two main things you seem to like are the big, quality screen, and HTC Sense.
 
The thing is, if I were to be choosing between the One X and GS3 the decision would be the GS3.

If the battery life is that much worse on the HOX then the GS3 with its better battery life and changeable batteries wins hands down.
 
Yeah, it is quite a lot better. I really have noticed it, big time.

I don't know what more there is to say really, you're armed with all the facts...
 
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