Samsung Galaxy S3 (Pebble Blue) £447.00 @ Asda Direct
Whilst the white version of the S3 can be found for sub £450 from both Play and Amazon, the blue version still commands an additional premium (presently £482.66 from Amazon and £499.99 from Play).
This is the cheapest I can find the blue version of the S3 from a mainstream UK retailer.
Edit: Now price matched by Amazon (thanks abzzyy).
Out of stock as of 17/08/2012 19:30 - there is a link available to "tell me when it's back in stock'
- anooobist
All Comments (80)
Jump to unread Post a CommentFor me the 2 things lacking were the quality of apps and the fluidity that I was so used to with the 4s .
Out of the box the s3 was fast but still not as fluid as the 4s, saying that I have just rooted the phone and installed super nexus rom from xda which runs jelly bean 4.1.1 and boy am I impressed . The whole think is so fluid now with no jerkiness at all especially the browser .
Just the quality of apps now which are getting there but still a fair bit behind apple.
Overall very happy with the s3
The Tegra 3 has always sucked. Great for a budget device, but its definitely not high end.
The A5 / A5X rape it, yet you still get loads of android idiots bleating that the Tegra is superior because it has 12 GPU core, when I bet half of those idiots dont even know what a GPU is.
In fairness the galaxy S3 brings nothing new to the table either. Loads of the features that have been added have simply been copied from the iPhone 4S. Even one of the main features, the scrollable toggle widgets in the notification bar, was taken from a group of people who created 3rd party Android mods, who now actually work for Samsung.
Its far from the perfect device. Don't get me wrong its fantastic to use, but there are far too many problems with it that hinders any real sense of a premium feel that you'd get with a more refined OS such as Android Vanilla or iOS. The S3 should scream in terms of speed with 4 cores, yet the touchwiz crap bogs the whole system down. Heck, when you do anything intensive and press the home button, it can take up to 5 seconds for your widgets to re-appear. Quite depressing for a £500 phone if you ask me. And the battery life is abysmal. With no apps from a clean restore and the latest update, and with no use whatsoever, I still had to charge it every night. There are huge threads about the battery issues on various android forums.
As I said earlier, the software on this thing is very much a beta. Instead of adding a load of useless "me too" features like S-Voice, they should have concentrated on optimising the OS. Quite frankly, the quad core CPU in this thing is absolutely useless with the samsung software sprayed over the top. Best thing you can do it throw a stable custom ROM on it.
You must have had a faulty unit because I received mine on a Thursday, charged it up and played with it a bit before hardly touching it for 4 full days (main contract was just finishing, had to wait) and when I went back to it it was still on 30%. That's with no use whatsoever, so I can only assume you had something weird going on. It was on wi-fi and was synching a Google account the whole time, but that's not much.
Even now after charging it on Tuesday night and actually using it (that's multiple calls, SMS, web and wi-fi enabled 24/7) I have 54% battery left. It will have lasted 2 days of moderate usage by tonight, so the battery life in my experience has been outstanding, definitely better than my S2. I don't play games or videos or much music on it so I can't provide any info from that perspective, but so far I have in no way had any issues with battery life.
Edited By: hollger on Aug 09, 2012 13:27
You must have had a faulty unit because I received mine on a Thursday, charged it up and played with it a bit before hardly touching it for 4 full days (main contract was just finishing, had to wait) and when I went back to it it was still on 30%. That's with no use whatsoever, so I can only assume you had something weird going on. It was on wi-fi and was synching a Google account the whole time, but that's not much.
Even now after charging it on Tuesday night and actually using it (that's multiple calls, SMS, web and wi-fi enabled 24/7) I have 54% battery left. It will have lasted 2 days of moderate usage by tonight, so the battery life in my experience has been outstanding, definitely better than my S2. I don't play games or videos or much music on it so I can't provide any info from that perspective, but so far I have in no way had any issues with battery life.
Gotta agree, my S3 is outstanding for battery, my desire hd was once a night jobby, then the 4s was better but still I charged it most nights, and now the s3 which is just crazy when you think how big that screen is.
I have 3g on all day, wifi when I get in and bluetooth on all the time for my car handsfree.
Its a great phone, Brings nothing new, ha ha , rubbish, the screen blows the retina iphone screen away, and the s2 looks like an old arcade classic compared to the s3.,(my missus has one) what about watching videos etc on screen whilst browsing or playing, its brought multitasking to a new level.
The redrawing on the going back to home can happen and is a bit of a let down, but the next update will solve that. is software not hardware and the reason for owning an android is to be able to change the software if one wishs.
Can other operating systems do that.
Smartphone newbie = get an iphone - want the next step with the best device = get an s3. FACT (I own both right now)
You must have had a faulty unit because I received mine on a Thursday, charged it up and played with it a bit before hardly touching it for 4 full days (main contract was just finishing, had to wait) and when I went back to it it was still on 30%. That's with no use whatsoever, so I can only assume you had something weird going on. It was on wi-fi and was synching a Google account the whole time, but that's not much.
Even now after charging it on Tuesday night and actually using it (that's multiple calls, SMS, web and wi-fi enabled 24/7) I have 54% battery left. It will have lasted 2 days of moderate usage by tonight, so the battery life in my experience has been outstanding, definitely better than my S2. I don't play games or videos or much music on it so I can't provide any info from that perspective, but so far I have in no way had any issues with battery life.
Like I said, I had it running as a fresh restore for around a week, nothing installed, no syncing going on apart from push email.
Luckily, I have actually had to return it for a replacement anyway, as for some reason the back cover had been creaking at the top and bottom from any sort of light pressure, and had been getting progressively worse. Hopefully things will change. From what I monitored, the battery was draining at up to 10% an hour. The battery status menu indicated that 'cellular standby' was soaking up something like <95% every time, but apparently that is just a glitch in the software reporting much higher usage than it actually is, which leaves me puzzled as to what the real issue is.
You must have had a faulty unit because I received mine on a Thursday, charged it up and played with it a bit before hardly touching it for 4 full days (main contract was just finishing, had to wait) and when I went back to it it was still on 30%. That's with no use whatsoever, so I can only assume you had something weird going on. It was on wi-fi and was synching a Google account the whole time, but that's not much.
Even now after charging it on Tuesday night and actually using it (that's multiple calls, SMS, web and wi-fi enabled 24/7) I have 54% battery left. It will have lasted 2 days of moderate usage by tonight, so the battery life in my experience has been outstanding, definitely better than my S2. I don't play games or videos or much music on it so I can't provide any info from that perspective, but so far I have in no way had any issues with battery life.
Gotta agree, my S3 is outstanding for battery, my desire hd was once a night jobby, then the 4s was better but still I charged it most nights, and now the s3 which is just crazy when you think how big that screen is.
I have 3g on all day, wifi when I get in and bluetooth on all the time for my car handsfree.
Its a great phone, Brings nothing new, ha ha , rubbish, the screen blows the retina iphone screen away, and the s2 looks like an old arcade classic compared to the s3.,(my missus has one) what about watching videos etc on screen whilst browsing or playing, its brought multitasking to a new level.
The redrawing on the going back to home can happen and is a bit of a let down, but the next update will solve that. is software not hardware and the reason for owning an android is to be able to change the software if one wishs.
Can other operating systems do that.
Smartphone newbie = get an iphone - want the next step with the best device = get an s3. FACT (I own both right now)
So what if its better than the iPhone screen? It doesnt change the fact that its nothing new. Oh, and whilst the contrast is outstanding, as all super amoled screens are, its nowhere near as clear as most LCD screens due to it being pentile, which leaves text and icons looking a bit fuzzy. But no doubt Samsung will be saving amoled+ moniker for the S4.
The battery life on the galaxy S2 is notoriously bad, so I just assumed most of the S3s were similar.
I too find TW a bit jerkie and laggy sometimes, particularly when you press the menu softkey from the home screen.
The battery life on the galaxy S2 is notoriously bad, so I just assumed most of the S3s were similar.
The S3 screen despite being pentile is still very good, definitely not fuzzy. The S2 on stock is nothing special. The S2 on Westcrips 2.6.1 is pretty special. I use Siyah kernel for performance, light use will get me 2 days max, but that's not how I generally use it. I charge every 1.5 days on average. If I want better battery performance then I'd use a different kernel. I'm on Siyah with a 1.5GHz overclock. I can't take the lag of the cheap Android phones. Single core Android would be generally horrible for me as I have a couple of hundred apps installed. Has to be dual core for me on Android.
Edited By: fishmaster on Aug 09, 2012 17:19
I too find TW a bit jerkie and laggy sometimes, particularly when you press the menu softkey from the home screen.
Looks like I definitely had something dodgy then.
+1
Now add on a contract of some sort with some data and it works out pretty poor compared with a decent contract (unless you REALLY don't want or cannot get a contract).
If you go to the below link, you can buy one of these at £26/month with 600m, unlimited txt, and 250Mb data (ample for browsing - not enough for streaming video etc) on T-mobile (using orange network too).
HERE
I think you had all the facts but came to the wrong conclusion!
The amount of minutes you are listing is worth less than £8 a month on a SIM only basis (for instance, I am getting 600 min and unlimited internet on T-mobile for £5.50 a month), plus having a top of the range smartphone with 250MB data per month does not make sense. You will largely exceed that amount, even without streaming videos. Therefore, it is still cheaper to buy the phone separately and get a SIM only deal, unless you can get a pay monthly deal for £24 a month or less, which includes a reasonable amount of data. Generally, you can only get those deals for an S3 with some cash back, which is never guaranteed.
Fair comment IF (and only IF) you can get a SIM only deal such as yours - which is only when you're an existing customer and on a retention - however it also relies on having the £450 to stump up rather then effectively paying a minimal extra for spread payments.
Also, 250Mb I have found is ample for browsing, social networking, and emails and ANDROID apps. With T-mobile they don't include browsing from your allowance anyway. Checking usage stats for my family my daughter is the only one who uses more and even she uses under 500Mb (and she has a suitable contract with Virgin)
how do you get a couple of days out of it?
is there a big difference in battery life between the s2 and s3?
im thinking of upgrading it already
how do you get a couple of days out of it?
is there a big difference in battery life between the s2 and s3?
im thinking of upgrading it already
This depends entirely on setup and use, obviously. I leave bluetooth on all the time, turn the phone off at night, only put wifi on when I want to check emails or go on sky sports news etc. No very often do I have data on. I get about 2 days at the worse out of it and it would push 3 days if I had light use.
What I have found is that the last 30% or so of the battery lasts a lot longer than the S and S2 did for some reason.