Those of you following this blog know that I shocked my Apple friends and family when I ditched my iPhone 4s (actually, I gave it to my wife) in favor of a Samsung Galaxy s3. It’s been nearly three weeks. Here are my impressions.
As nice and as smooth as the Android platform is- my phone is currently running ICS- Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.4- it’s not iOS 6. Without going into great detail let me just say that the droid OS is a bit glitchy at times. Nothing serious but it is noticeable. I guess the trade off is the abundance of customization you can do with your phone. I love to tweak menus, images, lock screens, home screens, etc… and the android platform allows you to do that to your heart’s content. Only way to do that on an iPhone is to jailbreak it. I’ve discovered there really is “an app for that” even in the android universe. The ONLY app I miss is the JEFF 92 app. I’ve taken to using a live365 app to monitor the radio station online, but I do miss the JEFF 92 app…Jack Klink can you hear me?
It’s taken a bit of getting used to not needing to use iTunes. Where my 4s used to sync wirelessly through iTunes, the Galaxy works through Google and basically does the same thing. Even pictures I take with the phone show up in Google+ sort of like photo stream works with iOS 6. I have a variety of apps and software that allow me to sync photos and music to the phone.
I absolutely love the display on the Galaxy. It is beautiful to look at, and the size of the screen is fantastic. I can easily read my emails and texts without have to change font sizes like I did on my iPhone. This is also true for web pages and just about everything else I look at. You might think that with the larger screen the Samsung would chew through battery power much faster. Not so. In my limited experience I would say that they are about equal on the battery consumption issue. Here are some other things to note about my Galaxy s3:
>LED notification light lets you know when you’ve gotten an email or text without the screen being on
>motion wallpapers- these are truly cool to look at but they do gobble battery power.
>file folders! I can actually look at all the “stuff” on my phone at the directory level and copy, paste, and move items as I see fit.
>SD card- the Galaxy has 16 GB of internal storage. I added a 32 GB card and upped total storage to 48. While most apps cannot run from the SD card, all my pictures, music, etc… can be stored there.
>Google Play store- It’s the equivalent of iTunes. One stop “shopping” for apps, music, movies, etc…
>True multi-tasking- I can watch a video- start an app- and the video shrinks to a corner image and allows me to work in the app. Pretty cool.
> S Voice- Yes, it’s a Siri ripoff (really Samsung- Siri/S Voice?- no wonder Apple is suing you!) Not nearly as elegant and scores a big fat zero when I ask about sports scores compared to Siri in iOS 6. Using S Voice as the input for email and texts works very well however. I am using that feature much more on this phone than I ever did on my iPhone. Not sure why.
Anyway- the bottom line is I really like my Galaxy, and yes- I do miss the simplicity and elegance of iOS and my iPhone. But this was never about disliking my iPhone. It was about trying something new. Check back in several months and I will let you know how things are going.
Speaking of how things are going I guess I should provide an update to my colonoscopy adventure. I had to do a two day prep- which meant no solid food for nearly 3 days. Procedure itself was uneventful, and I really liked the drug they gave me to knock me out. Propofol. It was lights out for me and I don’t remember anything about the procedure. And yes, propofol is the drug that Michael Jackson used to help him sleep. The doctor snipped two polyps and told me everything looked good. Heard from them today and was told the polyps were “totally benign.” The doctor suggested I get another colonoscopy in 5 years. I bet Dr. Harb doesn’t have me wait that long.
And speaking of long…this may be a record entry. If you are still with me, thanks for reading and I hope you visit again.