I recently upgraded my phone to a Samsung Galaxy SIII (S3), this phone is a lot bigger than my last one, how-ever I wanted something that was going to be reliable. My old phone was heavy although it was small and the graphics were always pixelated on it. The battery had to be charged every single day and I had it repaired 3-4 times over the 2 years of having it, this was a fault and not something I had done with the phone itself. I have had many Samsung phones in the past and have always been very pleased with the quality of them and the life of the battery. I often check my e-mails on my phone and use other sites such as Facebook and Ebay so I wanted to be able to install an app on my phone where I could quickly access these.

~ The Phone in General ~
I have read many reviews about this phone and some people have said that it's better than an iPhone and Blackberry. I personally hate the style of the Blackberry phones anyway so wouldn't have even considered one of these phones. The phone is available to buy in 2 colours including Pebble Blue & Marble White the blue is more of a dark blue and looks blacker from a distance. I decide to go for the white one as when looking at this phone in my local Vodafone store the screen seemed to stand out more on this than on the blue one. The phone's come with either 16GB or 32GB. I opted for the 16GB as this was good enough for me and I didn't have a huge amount of contacts or other information on my phone anyway. The phone has lots of different features which will appeal to many people; some of these include the following:

* The phone has a Smart stay feature which recognises when you are looking at the phone so the screen will stay lit. It's not until you put the phone down that the screen will begin to darken. This is great if using the phone to read e-books.
* Pop Up Play - You can watch an HD video whilst sending a text message or e-mail.
* When using the camera the phone automatically takes a bust of 8 shots ensuring you never miss a smile or catch someone when they are blinking. This guarantees the best shot every time.
* S-Voice - You can call people or tell your alarm to snooze. You can even reject calls, turn the volume to music up or down or even tell the camera when to shoot. This is all done by voice.
* Smart Alert - If you've been away from your phone and missed any messages or other alerts as soon as you pick up your phone it will vibrate to tell you that you have missed an alert.
* 4.8 HD Super AMOLED - The screen is a 4.8 inches high definition display with true colours and faster response times with HD video playback for a sharper picture. It's also energy efficient and very thin too.

I have listed a few of the Specifications that I think are most important. I didn't want to fill the review up with all this information:
* Dimensions (mm): 136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6
* Operating System: Android Icecream sandwich 4.0
* Screen Size (inches): 4.8
* SimType: MicroSim
* Weight (g): 133
* Processor: Quad-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A9
* Network Region: Quad-band
* SatNav; Google Maps Navigation
* Image Resolution: 8 Megapixels
* Camera Zoon: x 4
* Camera Self Time & Auto Focus
* Music Player & FM Radio
* Picture/Video Messaging
* Built in speaker
* Conference calling
* Web Browser: Google Proprietary
* Supports Adobe Flash
* Also has Alarm Clock, Calculator, Calendar, and Stopwatch/Timer

~ Included in the Box ~
Samsung Galaxy S3 Phone - This should be the colour that you choose.
Battery - This fits into the phone very easily.
Mains Plug & Cable - This is great as the middle pin is folded into the charger. You need to simply pull this out and then in the box is a piece of strong plastic with the other 2 pins on. Simply slide this in to make the mains charger. The cable can be plugged into the charger and then into the phone or it can be plugged into the phone and then into the computer as its USB.
Earphones - There is pair of white earphones and also a selection of 3 different rubber ear-pieces in which you can put on the ear-phones for a more comfortable fit when listening to music.
Leaflets - Warranty Leaflet and a Quick start guide. The quick start guide is worth having a look at as there may be some useful information in there.

~ Using the Phone ~
The phone does take a smaller Sim card similar to the size that you would get in an iPhone, this means that you can't simply take your phone out of your old one and put it in this one. I am with Vodafone and they set up the Sim/Phone for me, including transferring all my numbers over to my new sim ready for me to use the phone. As well as doing this for me, the staff member in Vodafone also ensured that the phone was up & running before I left the store. This was fantastic as I didn't have to try and do this myself, it did how-ever only take a few minutes anyway. When holding the hand in my phone for the first time I was surprised at how light it actually was. The phone did feel bigger than what I was used to, as my old phone was small but much heavier. The phone did have some charge in it; how-ever as soon as I got home I put it on charge so the phone could charge fully before I started playing around with it.

Main Menu - The phone will lock itself after a while of it being put down. To unlock the phone you simply press the button on the bottom of the phone which is in the middle and swipe the screen to unlock it. On the main screen there is the current weather for my local area and the time and date is also displayed. This part of the phone is really nice and colourful as all this information is stored in a box at the top of the screen and the current weather is pictured as a background in this area. On the bottom of the screen are 5 different touch buttons which include Phone, Contacts, Messaging, and Internet & Apps. You can change the wallpaper and the way the main menu looks by going into setting which can be found under Apps.

Phone - If you touch this button it will bring up a large keypad in which you can dial the number to call someone. After the call you have the option whether to save the number to your contacts list or not. The keypad is easy to use as the buttons are large and are self-explanatory.

Contacts - When you touch this button this will bring up your contacts which are split into sections in alphabetical order. This makes looking for contacts easier. Here you can also add new and delete contacts as well as add pictures to go next to the contacts name. To look for a contact instead of scrolling down the page you can type it into the search button and it will find it for you. Simply tap on the name and there will be options whether to call or message the number or to edit details or delete it.

Messaging - When you open this it will display all of your messages in your inbox. They are displayed by the name of the person who sent the message. If you click on the message you can view it and view previous messages from that person. For example I have my messages that boyfriend has sent me saved on my phone. When I click on the one message from him I can scroll up to look at all the previous messaged from him. There will be dates and times underneath the message and will show his messages in green and mine in blue. The messages are displayed in shapes like speak bubbles, just like an iPhone. To create a new message you can click on the envelope sign at the job right hand side and then add a contact and type the message. Typing a message was a lot easier than what I thought it would be. You can choose to turn the phone portrait or landscape and the keyboard will appear beneath the message window. You can choose whether to have predictive text on or not. I chose to have this off, how-ever even when starting to type words, just above the keyboard some word suggestions will appear and I always find the word I'm typing there so I can stop typing the word and just choose it from the small section above the keyboard. You can choose to delete or edit message simply by clicking on the message and then on the touch button which is located to the left of the large button on the bottom of the actual phone. This button lights up so you can see it when using the phone. You can also use the arrow touch button on the other side of this to go back a page. This also lights up when the phone is being used.

Internet -Here you can connect to the internet with a touch of a button. You can connect to the internet either using Wi-Fi or the mobile network connection. Simply touch the internet button and type in or browse webpages.

Apps - In this section is basically everything. You can find Apps, Update your software, access messages, use the calculator and change settings for the phone. There's planner and a few suggestions for Apps already on the phone such as YouTube and other Apps. You can choose to look for more apps simply by clicking on the Samsung Apps button. If you have lots of Apps they won't all be stored on the one page. Simply swipe the screen in order to view the Apps on another page. Browsing Apps is easy and you can do this by searching for a specific App or by viewing new or popular Apps. Some of the Apps are free and some do require payment, it will state this next to the App. To read more about the App and about what other people have said about the App simply touch it to bring up more information about it. You can go back anytime by using the back button which is located on the bottom of the phone next to the main push button.

Camera - The camera is 8 Mega Pixels and can be accessed from the Apps menu. Simply turn the phone landscape way and press the camera button to take a picture. You can edit the photo or delete, copy and send it to another device or to someone else. The camera is very clear and of very good quality. There are different settings for the type of picture you want to take and you may want to experiment with these and play around with them a bit when getting the phone for the first time. You can also take a picture of yourself when holding the camera. You can simply touch a button in the settings which will change the view to behind enabling you to see yourself in the camera so you can take a picture. This feature is really handy as I often take pictures of me and my boyfriend together using my phone.

Learn Motions - In the small book that comes with the phone it will show you different ways to move your phone as it has built-in motion recognition. This includes tilting to zoom in and out, shaking the device to update the list of e-mail messages, double tap to move to the top of a list and more. I haven't got used to all of these motions quite yet and not sure that I will. This will definitely take some learning.

Settings - In this menu you can choose a new ringtone for your phone and change the ringer volume. You can also change the screen saver and the message tone as well as changing the way the phone vibrates. There are a number of different ringtones and alert tones already in the phone and these sound great. Of course if you have music on your phone you can also use music as a ringtone as well. If you want to change or edit anything about your phone you will find it in the settings menu.

~ Overall Opinion ~
As with any phone you need to use it for a little while before you are actually used to the menu's and how the phone actually worked. Although the phone sounds very technical and confusing I have found it very easy to use so far. I'm still not used to the size of the phone; how-ever this will get better the more I use it. I find the phone very quick and the touch screen fantastic. I only need to touch the screen lightly and it recognises the touch. As well using the Internet, Calling, Messaging & Apps, the alarm on the phone is also very good allowing you to choose how many time you can press the snooze button. I also purchased a protective screen cover for the phone to ensure it doesn't get scratched or damaged. The kind staff member in Vodafone actually gave me this free how-ever you can purchase them on the internet from Amazon or specialist phone shops. I will also be buying a protective case for the phone as well, to keep the back protected from any scratches or damage. The design of the phone is fantastic as its light-weight and slim. The only down-side to the phone is that it's large; how-ever the large HD screen makes up for this. I can check my e-mails on this phone quickly and can make calls easily, send and receive messages and even watch things when I am on the train. Depending on how much you use the phone depends on how much the charge will go down. Obviously if you use the phone a lot to use the internet then the battery life wil go down a lot quicker. I give this phone 5 out of 5 stars as I haven't yet had any issues or faults with the phone.


(review may also appear on ciao)