Neowin Member Reviews: Samsung Galaxy S3

It's that time of the week again, where we showcase a review submitted by a member in our forums. Remember that we consider all reviews that are submitted here. Who knows, your review might make the front page next week!

This week mrk makes another appearance, this time reviewing a Samsung Galaxy S3.

Introduction

Following on from my popular S2 review I thought I'd post an S3 review, I'll be actively updating this as always but to note, my Pebble Blue S3 isn't due until later in June due to that manufacturing delay that you guys will have read all about so my initial review and impressions are on the Marble White version belonging to my dad which landed today.

Editor note: The Pebble Blue S3 landed before this review was selected for main: link

I will be comparing most things with the S2 (naturally) but I won't do a comparison on daily usage differences until I've had my own S3 a full working week so will only cover things that are immediately obvious and comparable.

Firstly, let's get the bad stuff out the way.

You cannot change brightness by sliding the notification bar like on the S2. This is rather lame and I can't wait to root my handset and get a custom ROM with that feature baked in.
Auto brightness is rather conservative compared to the S2. Even in normal lighting the brightness is a bit low.
2b: This part would not bother me as I adjust brightness via sliding the bar up top but since auto brightness isn't as aggressive as I'd prefer, custom ROM is the way to go (for me).
The Galaxy S2 MHL cable does not work on this. I tried multiple chargers, the S3 charger outputs 1amp vs 750mA of the S2 and even that didn't work. Looks like MHL dongle owners of the S2 will want to sell up and upgrade to the S3 one.
~~Using the "antishake" mode in the camcorder causes the video to zoom in slightly regardless of video resolution used.~~ - I understand why this is now, just a slight annoyance that it has to be this way as I'm used to IS on my DSLR but of course it's not possible to bung gyros into a phone sized shell. Or practical for that matter
The LED and button backlights do bleed through the white chassis surround, the same is visible on the white S2.
The music volume via headphones at max level 15 isn't as loud as 15 on the S2 by a value of about 1.
There is a wake delay of about 1 second from when the screen is off and the phone in deep sleep, just like on the S2. Some people dislike this while others don't care either way. I'm in the latter group.
The home button delay is there too, just like on the S2. This I didn't expect to go because it's by design. The delay is to allow the home button to be double pressed for waking up S-Voice.
You can't long press the notification toggles to access settings for those toggles. You couldn't do this on the S2 either but custom ROMs and themes allowed for this. Since Samsung adopted a lot of tweaks from S2 custom ROMs I would have expected them to adopt this too as it gives quicker access to settings for specific things instead of having to go through the main Settings menu each time.
On my dad's handset the screen had a redder tint compared to my S2. Now here's the thing, I think this is the S2 panel lottery scenario at play here again. Some screens have varying amounts of tint toward a certain colour compared to other handsets. My dad's S2 has a screen that's more blue than mine, for example whereas mine is closer to natural daylight white (6500K). I reckon the S3 is going to be exactly the same here. Without putting phones side by side you'd never tell the difference though unless you're used to using a certain colour tone on a screen for years on end or something I guess. I'll be able to confirm this theory once I put his S3 next to mine later this month.