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Verizon Hands on Thread

Captain Sexy

Android Enthusiast
Somebody asked in another thread for those of us that have the Verizon model to make a separate thread so here you go.

Phone arrived yesterday morning. It came half charged, before turning it on I charge the rest of it which took about an hour.

I tried to activate it (porting number) and it didn't go smooth, had to go to Verizon and have them do it, but 20 min later good to go.

This thing is fast no doubt.

I spent the day getting things setup and downloaded. I had 4g on, blutooth, GPS and NFC, the phone lasted 5 hours (sounds bad but I think that's good). I spent all the 5 hours with the screen on, and those radios and downloading and streaming music.

I ran speed test and got 17k (I think that's a bit high but still 4g is fast).

I ran quadrant standard and got 4500. So lower than the quad for sure, but I tell you it's fast.

Reception is great I have 5 bars in my house, 4g is solid not cutting out or anything.

I don't like the notifications that come with it, so I'm looking for new sounds.


Bloatware? Yeah it has some. Non deletable.

Not sure what else you guys might want to know?



Day 2 updates ( A more typical day)

I unplugged the phone at 8 am, I used GPS, 4g, wifi (when available) and blutooth all day. The phone was at 5% at 10pm. I would say that's a pretty strong battery life. This includes normal emailing (around 100), light internet browsing, S voice, 20 txt messages, 26 phone calls, downloading some apps.

Overall I'm happy with the battery life. I think it would serve the average user well.

Cell reception here in Charlotte, NC has been great 5 bars mostly.

4g reception tested a few times again over 17,000 kbps. I don't know if it's really that fast but it's fast. It is faster than my wi fi.

I reran quadrant standard and got a 4950.

Is there any lag? Maybe a touch here or there, but that's me nit picking.

Things I don't like? The stock calendar sucks, replaced it with Business cal. The stock email client is ok, but could be better, not sure what to replace that with. I took the keyboard back to the 2.3 keyboard which I like better. But it's a bit of a stretch to use in landscape because the phone is pretty big.

It's so light and thin it can feel a bit cheap yet not if that makes sense.

Overall, i'm really just nitpicking I'm happy with it and I think most people would be too.
 
I ran speedtest in Norcross, Ga. My office is notorious for poor verizon coverage so I get about 2 bars. (in the bathroom my droid 1 would drop to 1x). I got 10 mbps down and 1.2 up.

legalkill-albums-legalkill-picture6464-screenshot-2012-07-06-10-13-13.png


I live in Kennesaw and the reception was as good as my Wife's Bionic. So radios seems decent if not good. I did not run speed test at home yet.

One thing that bugs me: WIFI toggle is not in the top with the others but is down in the notification panel. Can this be changed?

legalkill-albums-legalkill-picture6465-screenshot-2012-07-06-10-29-33.png
 
Somebody asked in another thread for those of us that have the Verizon model to make a separate thread so here you go.

Phone arrived yesterday morning. It came half charged, before turning it on I charge the rest of it which took about an hour.

I tried to activate it (porting number) and it didn't go smooth, had to go to Verizon and have them do it, but 20 min later good to go.

This thing is fast no doubt.

I spent the day getting things setup and downloaded. I had 4g on, blutooth, GPS and NFC, the phone lasted 5 hours (sounds bad but I think that's good). I spent all the 5 hours with the screen on, and those radios and downloading and streaming music.

I ran speed test and got 17k (I think that's a bit high but still 4g is fast).

I ran quadrant standard and got 4500. So lower than the quad for sure, but I tell you it's fast.

Reception is great I have 5 bars in my house, 4g is solid not cutting out or anything.

I don't like the notifications that come with it, so I'm looking for new sounds.


Bloatware? Yeah it has some. Non deletable.

Not sure what else you guys might want to know?

Can you be more specific regarding the bloatware?
 
Can you be more specific regarding the bloatware?

Comes with Verizon apps, my verizon mobile, v cast tones, video player, voice recorder, voicemail, vz nav, s suggest, s memo, music hub, music player, media hub, amazon kindle, gallery, color, guided tours, play movies and tv. and of course google apps you'd expect


Note that I don't consider all these bloatware, just trying to lay it out for you and everyone.
 
Comes with Verizon apps, my verizon mobile, v cast tones, video player, voice recorder, voicemail, vz nav, s suggest, s memo, music hub, music player, media hub, amazon kindle, gallery, color, guided tours, play movies and tv. and of course google apps you'd expect


Note that I don't consider all these bloatware, just trying to lay it out for you and everyone.

Can you disable or uninstall these like on the Gnex?
 
Comes with Verizon apps, my verizon mobile, v cast tones, video player, voice recorder, voicemail, vz nav, s suggest, s memo, music hub, music player, media hub, amazon kindle, gallery, color, guided tours, play movies and tv. and of course google apps you'd expect


Note that I don't consider all these bloatware, just trying to lay it out for you and everyone.

It's important to note that some of that is Samsung bloatware and not Verizon bloatware if i'm not mistaken
 
...sad to say, typically the excess apps can only be uninstalled after rooting the device. I do wish carriers give users a little more control. But, remember them installing X apps is almost like forced advertising ;)
 
...sad to say, typically the excess apps can only be uninstalled after rooting the device. I do wish carriers give users a little more control. But, remember them installing X apps is almost like forced advertising ;)


Not so bad though with ICS, since you can disable most bloat that runs in the background and total space of the bloat is on average is less than 100mb.

Point still valid, none the less.

Added: Yikes, 6,000 post. OCD, yeah you know me.
 
Where is the option to disable?

I've checked Application Manager, and then selected an application, but pressing the menu key doesn't give a choice.

I found it once when I first got my device, I disabled AT&T Messages. But of course, now I can't find it. Honestly...
 
Also, any bloat that gives the option to uninstall updates, do that first and then the disable option should appear. Usually.
 
No matter how many amazing features the SGS3 may have, if it doesn't get decent reception with it's various radios it's value to me (And most people I'm sure) drops like a rock. I hope to see more about radio reception in this thread than I have in others. It seems many people are more concerned with letting us know about the features of the phone than telling us about the reception it gets.

I think I'll be getting my SGS3 delivered Tuesday and my daughter's comes on Monday. I guess we'll find out then how the reception here will be but I'm hoping to know in advance if I'm going to be seriously disappointed with this phone or very happy with it. I don't mind pleasant surprises but I hate having bad news just thrown in my face.

I live in far Northern California about 2.5 hours north of Sacramento. We don't even have 4G here yet and the nearest ETA for that in the end of the year. We get excellent phone and data coverage here though and I'm used to always having a decent signal with my Droid X. Hopefully the SGS3 can match it or at least come close.

Benny
 
No matter how many amazing features the SGS3 may have, if it doesn't get decent reception with it's various radios it's value to me (And most people I'm sure) drops like a rock. I hope to see more about radio reception in this thread than I have in others. It seems many people are more concerned with letting us know about the features of the phone than telling us about the reception it gets.

I think I'll be getting my SGS3 delivered Tuesday and my daughter's comes on Monday. I guess we'll find out then how the reception here will be but I'm hoping to know in advance if I'm going to be seriously disappointed with this phone or very happy with it. I don't mind pleasant surprises but I hate having bad news just thrown in my face.

I live in far Northern California about 2.5 hours north of Sacramento. We don't even have 4G here yet and the nearest ETA for that in the end of the year. We get excellent phone and data coverage here though and I'm used to always having a decent signal with my Droid X. Hopefully the SGS3 can match it or at least come close.

Benny

Might want to have this in the SGS3 reception thread. I feel the same way as you though.
 
Ugh. I'm disappointed that there are no "normal" ringtones on the device by default! Suggestions for sources of normal phone-sounding ringtones?
 
Ugh. I'm disappointed that there are no "normal" ringtones on the device by default! Suggestions for sources of normal phone-sounding ringtones?

Download Zedge from the market and you can have ringtones and notifications from just about any phone.
 
No matter how many amazing features the SGS3 may have, if it doesn't get decent reception with it's various radios it's value to me (And most people I'm sure) drops like a rock. I hope to see more about radio reception in this thread than I have in others. It seems many people are more concerned with letting us know about the features of the phone than telling us about the reception it gets.

I think I'll be getting my SGS3 delivered Tuesday and my daughter's comes on Monday. I guess we'll find out then how the reception here will be but I'm hoping to know in advance if I'm going to be seriously disappointed with this phone or very happy with it. I don't mind pleasant surprises but I hate having bad news just thrown in my face.

I live in far Northern California about 2.5 hours north of Sacramento. We don't even have 4G here yet and the nearest ETA for that in the end of the year. We get excellent phone and data coverage here though and I'm used to always having a decent signal with my Droid X. Hopefully the SGS3 can match it or at least come close.

Benny

I agree, best I can share is I've had 5 bars everywhere I have been so far. Which is shocking, but I did have 1 dropped call. (I'm old school I still spend a lot of time on the phone). Not sure what happened on the dropped call, big area that should have happened.
 
Download Zedge from the market and you can have ringtones and notifications from just about any phone.

I agree, I'm also disapointed by the lack of ringtones and alert sounds. I downloaded Zedge and I got the ring tone i want (a phone). Still trying to find a calander alert I like, and would really like the Ipad cal alert sound but can't find it.
 
When i get a call, my ringtone is about half volume then at about second 3 it kicks in full volume. Does anyone else notice this?
 
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