Latest Update:
I can confirm that after uninstalling all of Samsung's apps, the device works really fast and battery life has improved too. Now, it loses only 10% charge over night, works almost as fast as my iphone and does not need to be restarted 5 times a day.
It's a pity that they had to ruin it all by slapping in rubbish software which can be easily replaced by better stuff for free, from the play store. If that was not bad enough, I also had to deal with their useless tech support and unprofessional service center staff looking to make a quick buck from hapless consumers.
Not only is this phone crap, it is also easily hacked and compromised. DO NOT purchase anything using your credit card on this phone.
https://gizmodo.com/5968879/crazy-new-exploit-can-brick-samsung-phones-or-steal
-all-their-data
At this point, I am quite convinced that such a high rate of defects in the handsets sold in India cannot be a coincidence. Samsung is dumping their factory reject or defective products in India and other third world countries where consumer protection laws are a joke.
Being an old customer of apple and ATT, and having purchased my iphone 3gs from the US, I am now trying get this S3 exchanged for an unlocked iphone 5 through ATT.
I am not sure if this will work out or not, but if it does, it will cost me more or less the same as having bought an iphone 5 from india. I have already spoken with ATT and the possibility exists. They have asked me to present it at the ATT store in Edison, NJ.
*Interesting Side note:
Samsung pays Microsoft between $10 and $15 for every android phone that you buy. Because MS threatened to sue them for copying their patented features.*
https://guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/sep/28/samsung-microsoft-android-licens
ing-dispute
21 Feb 2013:
I still have this piece of junk for a few more days as my friend's travel date has been postponed for next week.
As the service center chappu told me to go to xda and read up, I did. Everyone is saying that the phone is infected with a virus / bloatware called Samsung and anything and everything that says Samsung, or S xxxxx needs to be removed.
So I went to app manager, and uninstalled whatever I could, and disabled the rest. Again, as I am not modifying the phone or rooting it or installing a custom rom, this is not a breach of warranty policies. In some cases, such as calendar and camera, I have installed alternatives from Google play store.
Right off the bat, the battery life has increased significantly and the performance has actually improved.
I had to disable auto updates in play store, as some of this bloatware gets auto downloaded.
19 Feb 2013:
My phone had been untraceable for the past week after I gave it in for service asking for a refund or replacement.
I picked up my phone from the service center yesterday evening. They say that my phone was examined by the head office. The call center says that there is no procedure to examine the phone in the head office. The service center says that the guys in the call center are liars and cheats and fools and have no idea how things are done. . . .
Some wonderful quotes from the service center metric pass engineer with no manners which define my samsung experience. . ..:-
"We will gurantee solve your problems. . ." - To me when I asked if there is a solution to the wifi dropping, apps slow and weird screen colors.
"Tumhara Note2 duplicate hai, tumne naqli fone khareeda hai" - To a sad customer who was wondering why his korean samsung note2 purchased from seoul, korea was not registering on indian networks.
"Tumko anderiod use karna nahi aata hai, jake xda forums pe padho. Yeh electronic device hai" - To me, when I asked him why there is so much delay in launching basic apps such as phone and contacts whereas galaxy ace in my other hand runs the same apps perfectly well.
"Head office check kar raha tha tumhara phone" - When I asked what my phone was doing for the past week in head office.
I am so angry with samsung. the 10000 RS worth galaxy ace runs faster than this S3.
phone application takes 2 secs on ace, and 4 secs on s3.
Contacts take 3 seconds on ace, and 5 seconds on s3.
please note that I have fewer contacts than my friend who owns the ace.
Every app that I could download from the play store runs faster on the ace than on this expensive
piece of garbage.!
I cannot believe that this is quad core. how is it possible?
I cannot believe that a 10k phone is faster and better than this 35K phone.
The camera is crappy, images are distorted, and colors are always excessively bright. The chinese flip cameras on sale at indiatimes.com for 3-4K are better than this.
The screen: What is the point of HD or whatever if the screen cannot display red and magenta colors properly? Most shades of Magenta look brown.
WIFI: wifi is poor, does not receive enough signal. If you hold your hand near the volume keys the signal strength decreases by bars.
youtube: Every video on youtube longer than a few minutes has to buffer on this device from time to time. they work perfectly fine on my laptop.
This happens even if I am sitting right next to my router.
customer service: Run from panipat, their call center execs start with their fake "samsung namashkar" and then proceed to tell you to take it to service center no matter what the issue is. They have no solutions for you.
Might as well replace them with voicemail.
Touch buttons: Always getting in my way. I Cannot operate this phone with one hand.
Volume Keys: always getting in my way.
BOTTOMLINE:
One day the phone runs well, another day it runs slow an restarts. The andriod experience on this phone is inconsistent at best thanks to Samsung's customizations which have ruined a good os.
Service center staff swear that they will solve your problems and then they have no idea where they have kept your phone for the past week.
They do this to every customer who walks in the door. If you tell them that your problem is not solved, then they keep your phone for ages and do nothing. If you question them on anything, they try to turn it around on you and shame you into leaving the store. Like samsung, they too want to make money, and they know that Samsung will not pay them for whatever repairs are needed and they try to take it from you.
Bought your phone overseas? Its a duplicate. Next.
Randomly restarting? It's water damage. You might have taken a bath with it. Next.
You are much better off purchasing a micromax or lava. At least you will lose less money in case something has to happen to it.
I should have known. When this ScamSung can shamelessly copy other company's features and then brand them as it's own, then they will have no qualms in cheating their customers with exaggarated specs and defective products. They simply lack the morals to do the right thing.
