yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S III General] normallywho:
People will put a higher value on different features, so to each their own. For me, I prefer a smoother UI. The S4 may consume less power, but any difference is likely going to be eliminated by LTE. I don't think the RAM difference really comes into play. I mean, my tablet has 1GB of RAM and no matter how many apps I open it never gets anywhere close to the limit. I don't anticipate being able to hit that 700-something MB RAM limit on the SGSIII Int'l version.

I did come across a benchmark that compares the variants over at TheVerge.com. I can't post a link, but it was posted 6/20/2012 under the title "Samsung Galaxy S III for AT&T: impressions and benchmarks".

Assuming I'm reading this right, the S4 US versions do great. The Int'l version does AMAZING (at least where it's important to me).
[Galaxy S III General] jaesun:
I would probably get the Int'l version, but being that I am going to be using TMo's prepaid plan, I think I will have to get the TMo version. If TMo would release their 1900 network, then I would be fine, but considering that it won't be released until the end of the year, I don't think I can wait that long (and I have been waiting for a phone for awhile now already).
[Galaxy S III General] Tomatoes8:
I agree. Judging by all the Samsung Galaxy variants, the ones that used the Samsung processor has always been superior in performance for some reason, even when rooted so that rules out software to a certain extent. This applied to the GS and GS2. I think it is a safe bet that this will apply here as well.

Also it doesn't hurt that the Exynos quad wins in benchmarks and my experience with Qualcomm S4 handsets also reinforces my perception that the Exynos quad is better.
[Galaxy S III General] jkforce:
I know what you mean...

As a previous owner of SGS II skyrocket and Galaxy note (Current), I know exactly what you mean. I have the same gut feeling like you. It happened to skyrocket and note. I cared less about processors but then phones with S4 somehow loses fluidity that I felt on int'l version phones which some of my friends have. Int'l version also has sooooo much more roms & devs support than US ones. In fact, most of time, US ones can use more of custom roms than int'l imo. Anyway, this time, it is a bit different. Samsung threw 1 more GB of ram and that never happened in the past so I am holding off to purchase int'l version yet, but personally I think this extra 1 more GB ram is just marketing. Aron's Phonedog already did a review on ATT version GS 3 and darn, he mentions about ATT version losing fluidity slightly over int'l version. This fluidity thing could be something that only sensitive people or enthusiast can spot so most of people may not notice a difference. But the problem is I FREAKING NOTICE THIS EVERYTIME and it really bothers me. I am really impatient in terms to technology. What is the point of getting new tech toys if it is running slow or almost same speed as your last model. I really hope S4 is as fluid as Exynos because I benefit more from S4. (But all in all, this fluidity is the most important factor for me and I plan to stay on stock rom this time. No more flashing, backing up, restoring, etc etc...darm tired.)

---------- Post added at 02:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:41 PM ----------

Aaron from Phonedog reviewed ATT version and it shows around 1.6, but he was already using 1.2 somehow. It could be that memory cap is expanded due to increased ram of 2GB, but we will see.

http://www.phonedog.com/videos/at-t-samsung-galaxy-s-iii-video-review/
[Galaxy S III General] Goose_506:
It's tough to call right now because in the future 4 core will be the norm but so will 2gb of memory to run the programs. I honestly think going with the fast dual core right now with the 2 gb will support you better in the future. By the time google and the industry has quad-core optimization/standard you will have the galaxy 5.
[Galaxy S III General] boominz28:
well i just preordered the verizon version and didnt research it well i guess , i thought the verizon was going ot be quad core , but seeing as the quad core can not be used on lte i cant complain.
[Galaxy S III General] Tomatoes8:
Looks like I wrongly accused HTC and sense 4.0 on this. It seems like the Qualcomm S4 is the culprit. I wonder if the international HTC One X stutters like my Canadian one did.

http://www.phonedog.com/videos/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-challenge-day-15/

I think I am going to try and hunt down a tegra 3 phone and see if it stutters. Might be difficult though since they are pretty rare in Canada.
[Galaxy S III General] SlimJ87D:
Thank you. Summary
[Galaxy S III General] S_Dot:
IMO, LTE is not all it's cracked up to be, if you don't have unlimited data then it's not really worth it. I'm not going to sacrifice faster CPU/GPU for a 2GB cap LTE.

Needless to say I got international version.

Edit: Also the S4 isn't as battery efficient as the native exynos, so you are going to see battery life shortened whether or not you use your LTE. These aren't things I'm willing to sacrifice. Just me, though. Others might be different.
[Galaxy S III General] incubus26jc:
it is all that when u do have unlimited with 30mbit
[Galaxy S III General] S_Dot:
Yes. At what cost, though? Are you on verizon?

I signed up for MVNO At&T. HSPDA speeds. $40 a month, unlimited everything.

It's fits my budget.
[Galaxy S III General] neyenlives:
I'm sure he is, as am I. The cost is nothing really. $150/mo covers two lines with unlimited 4G data and more than enough voice and texts

also the battery hype is just that, hype. I had a Droid Charge and remember when 4G LTE first launched. I used it so much I had to grab myself a desktop dock and second stock battery for $35, and boy was it worth it......i just hammered the crap out of my Charge over the last year and never even worried about a battery and sold it for enough to pay for the SGSIII so an easy win.

The Exynos Quad and S4 run so close to each other today it makes virtually no difference. If you don't play games on your phone and you use it mostly for productivity and web type stuff, then you would have to be crazy to not go with the LTE model. Besides, I think the S4 has a bit of hidden potential due to it's superior instruction set and more memory. There are a lot of possibilities on the horizon and you can't go wrong either way.
[Galaxy S III General] S_Dot:
Not enough for me at that cost, and I'm allergic to contracts at this point in my life. :D

At the end of the day, the whole discussion is pointless, the differences are minuscule and boil down to personal preferences.

Bonus: Here is a video from PhoneDogg talking about just that.
[Galaxy S III General] Tomatoes8:
One thing I recommend every Qualcomm GS3 owner do is to get a replacement back cover. The GS3 looks amazing in person but I think the giant AT&T or Sprint in the back and that huge Samsung Galaxy S3 logo ruins the minimalist look that Samsung was going for. Worth the 20 spot IMO.

That is if you are going naked of course. If you are covering it with a case it's all good.
[Galaxy S III General] Baldilocks:
Yeah, my white one with just the very hard to see SAMSUNG label on the back looks pretty good. (Even though I have a gray ROCK case on it.)
[Galaxy S III General] neyenlives:
the voice and texting part is not worth much anyways......., but having an always connected broadband connection all the time in my pocket that is faster than my 20mbit home broadband is what makes it worth it.....

also when we go on trips across several states, I want my phone to work everywhere with the fastest data possible. my daughter has a Kindle Fire that needs a surrogate internet connection. I can let her directly connect to my phone and she can have 3G and 4G data for the entire trip.

once you have it you would never want to do without it, it's one of those things you have to have done it a while and gotten spoiled

hey look, it's a Exynos Quad imploding!

http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/20/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-melts/?a_dgi=aolshare_twitter

lol, bound to happen when you build millions of something, but it happens
[Galaxy S III General] SlimJ87D:
But was it the phone or battery? It's close to nearly impossible for any kind of mini capacitors to explode.

From my knowledge, it has to be the battery and not the phone. The battery has a built in chip as well that is suppose to regulate charging, something was wrong with it. Note the area where the burn marks are, yep where the battery is.
[Galaxy S III General] Baldilocks:
It was being charged or used in a car docking station in what was probably a non OEM device. Meh, not worth the risk.
[Galaxy S III General] neyenlives:
there is a thread here already on this topic i just saw....but according to the ifixit pictures it is some sort of component, not the battery, and not the CPU although in the general area of it, apparently the device was able to power on afterwards but had no reception. I think there is some sort of power amp component near there that seems to be the culprit. He said it was not plugged in from what I read but he was using the GPS in a windshield mount but the charger was not connected, he was just using the mount to hold it.
[Galaxy S III General] SlimJ87D:
A fair warning to everyone here. The majority of heat transfer in the world actually comes from radiation. Docking your phone in a car is a serious risk as radiation is not like convection where it heats objects with its surroundings. Radioation from the sun heats directly onto objects surfaces, followed by conduction from objects that touch each other.

Summary: Having your device in the sun is a bad idea as it already produces heat internally. Be careful when exposing it to radiation heat from the sun and doing something intensive.
[Galaxy S III General] Totòòò:
To me it seems he burnt it himself. If it exploded then you wouldnt see the marks of the fire go up exactly the same as if u used a lighter to burn it.
[Galaxy S III General] DarkAdonis:
Dual Core S4+2gb ram > Quad Core+1gb ram

Slap anyone who tells you different.
[Galaxy S III General] Baldilocks:
While it may be so for you, not for everyone. I dare someone to slap me. :)
[Galaxy S III General] Totòòò:
Oh yeah?
[Galaxy S III General] ciscostud:
Enjoy your slower dual CPU and slower GPU

http://m.gsmarena.com/samsung_galax....php?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews
[Galaxy S III General] neyenlives:
The only thing most people will do with a phone that its appreciably slower doing is playing games and AnTuTu synthetic benchmarking. There are many advantages to the newer Cortex A15 based S4 architecture that may not have been fully utilized yet compared to the older A9 based design of the Exynos. Both have their qualities but I feel I can safely say that nobody with either one needs to feel like they got a less capable system. I dont believe even modern dual core cpu's are fully utilized well in the Android environment and third party apps, let alone a quad. The Mali GPU is better again, for games and benchmarks, but 99% of uses the Adreno is more than capable.

Lets not forget we havent scratched the surface on custom tweaked kernels, roms, overclocking headroom, etc......

So if I were you I wouldn't puff my chest up too big over your older quad or try to belittle those with the newer duals. We have a LONG road ahead and much will change. In six months you might find out that the S4 architecture ends up being more efficient with more up to date code and apps. More cores is one of the least important features right now. Its better to have a higher througput per core in IPS right now as well as memory bus bandwidth. Unless I am mistaken the S4 has the edge in those departments.
[Galaxy S III General] Totòòò:
tmobile ram usage posted from another member of xda
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
Darn it... best buy is not delivering gs3s today. I was the first one on preorder. Can't do ant comparison yet.
[Galaxy S III General] Simonetti2011:
It is NOT S4, people. Stop calling it that. It is a variant of the S3, specifically for the 4G networks.

It is not up to the user, like it's been said already. If you plan on use 4G networks, get the dual-core version, otherwise forget about it and get the quad-core version.
[Galaxy S III General] Totòòò:
lol what u mean is not s4? can you explain?
[Galaxy S III General] incubus26jc:
Uh.... What? It's a Qualcomm Dual Core Snapdragon S4 Krait
[Galaxy S III General] SlimJ87D:
He's just one of those people that read the last two pages and wants to come in and try and sound smart and get attention.

We all obviously know that it's not a SGS4, we're talking and comparing the processors. Play some catch up before you go and try and be a smarty pants.
[Galaxy S III General] pewpewbangbang:
Wth are you talking about. Know what your saying before you speak.

It is Qualcomm snapdragon S4 krait. Built on the 28nm fabrication process. New architecture and a hell lot faster.
[Galaxy S III General] neyenlives:
On paper its faster right now, and if the OS and apps were coded to properly utilize the architecture it should be faster in use. But right now they are throwing more cores at ****ty code to make it run faster. Or perhaps the SoC has another bottleneck but it also has the same or faster memory interface as the A9 based Exynos so I am more inclined to say its software inefficiencies. Thats my opinion not fact. Core for core, clock for clock, the S4 is more efficient.
[Galaxy S III General] pewpewbangbang:
I meant it was faster than snapdragon s3 but I do also believe it edges out the quad core in daily use just because for almost 97% of the time 1 to 2 cores are being used and it has a lot more similarities to a15 than the exynos. It's great on battery also.
[Galaxy S III General] DarkAdonis:
When we say S4, we're not talking about the device itself. We're talking about the snapdragon processor which is indeed called an S4. Make sure YOU know what you're talking about first before trying to correct a whole topic of people.
[Galaxy S III General] ciscostud:
You guys are dreaming.... I saw a video comparing the two side by side in daily use. Quad was much faster and snapper in loading apps, browsing etc. Dual looked like it was running in slow motion. Will post source once I find it.
[Galaxy S III General] neyenlives:
another good reason to go with the dual on Verizon is of course LTE compatibility and their network is steadily expanding. I am thorough-ally pleased with the LTE network and glad I have UNL data.
[Galaxy S III General] neyenlives:
Today, at launch, with no updates or third party development, yes, the quad is milliseconds quicker in the menu. No way in hell thats worth giving up LTE or other potential benefits of the S4 long term.
[Galaxy S III General] incubus26jc:
Actually the S4 is quicker. It just that it stutters a bit from time to time. I'll take the s4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME9NPl5JSOw&feature=plcp
[Galaxy S III General] voyager_s:
I have neither but personally I would go with s4 and 2 gigs of ram. No doubt the exynos is the more capable processor but the s4 is no slouch, and 2 gigs of ram is better than 1 all the way.

In fact that's the only thing I would change of my galaxy note if I could.

Some will say we do not need 2 gigs of ram...I beg to differ. Apps are getting more demanding and more memory is always a good thing. It should help the device run more things at once and specifically keep more active apps in memory instead of reloading where u left off and such things.

More ram is the number one priority in terms of internal specs in my opinion, now that we have good enough multi core cpu's and gpu's.
[Galaxy S III General] ciscostud:
All I saw was a dude waiving his phone in the air...?
[Galaxy S III General] SlimJ87D:
The dude also says that the Exynos is faster... I don't know what the above poster meant by showing that video that the S4 is faster.... here's his summary.

The challenge series continues! Aaron switches over to the AT&T-branded Samsung Galaxy S III in the latest video installment of the 30-day challenge. The AT&T Galaxy S III has a 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, and while it's incredibly close to the international version in speed, the quad-core Exynos edges it out ever-so-slightly. The battery life is a little bit less glamorous due to the 4G LTE connectivity, but the network speed boosts make it worth it. Stay tuned for the second half of the challenge!
[Galaxy S III General] nativestranger:
Yup 4 cores definitely results in a much smoother phone. Can't wait till we have 16 cores in tomorrow's smartphones. Battery life and speed will be tremendous. At least according to nvidia.
[Galaxy S III General] SlimJ87D:
My friend is in the research department for batteries. Believe it or not but they are finding other types of batteries to use besides lithium based ones... Other than that... they're pretty close in the Endurance department.

Having more cores doesn't' necessarily mean less battery life when 4 CPUs can all run at low frequencies. Take the Tegra 3 for example, all 4 cores running at the same high frequencies as the single companion core results in the single companion core draining more battery than the other 4 cores.

I think you need to do some research before you throw out bold statements like that, no offense intended.
[Galaxy S III General] neyenlives:
Actually if you pay attention he says the S4 is actually faster but comes with a caveat, some small hitching/stuttering at times which makes the Exynos have the smoother overall performance. All things remaining unchanged if they find the source of the stutter, which is undoubtedly in buggy Samsung code, it could easily flip the tables where the S4 is "ever so slightly" nudging out the Exynos. Everybody making all these assumptions that what we have today is what we will have in 6 months or a year are delusional. Thats what i have been saying about the S4, I believe it is simply waiting on better written code to shine. I dont think the smoother Exynos performance has to do with more cores at all other than they are throwing unnecessary cores at ****ty code. I can put a nitro motor(Exynos) in a chevy cavalier(****ty Samsung code) and make it run 5 second passes, or i can tune the right chassis(dev custom rom/kernel) around the more efficient motor(S4 Krait) and do the same thing. Two different means of getting to the same point. The difference is the more balanced method will have much longer legs in the long run.
[Galaxy S III General] incubus26jc:
Did you not watch the video?
[Galaxy S III General] nativestranger:
He mentions in the video that the US versions stutters everywhere compared to the quad core version. But a user in another thread said it was butter smooth. I will tend to agree that the quad core is still better. They don't add in 2 cores for nothing.
[Galaxy S III General] SlimJ87D:
Yes... and I also read his final summary he typed up.

I'm not going to claim it's a fact because all these reviews are coming from other people. When my best friend gets his T-mobile and when I use my GF's ATT version daily, then I can finally make a real judgement. But I think they're pretty neck and neck in CPU use. GPU is a different story, and probably docking the phones to a monitor or using it in a UBUNTU dock @1080P will be a different story.
[Galaxy S III General] neyenlives:
http://youtu.be/ME9NPl5JSOw?hd=1&t=2m20s

this time remove biased earplugs please

---------- Post added at 12:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:53 PM ----------

he said "a little bit from time to time"

not "everywhere"

you guys sure like to embellish in the pseudo facts

---------- Post added at 12:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:54 PM ----------

the Intl' version

may

begin to run out of memory in a Ubuntu dock situation much quicker than the S4 though.....so GPU won't matter than much if the overall system health is lower
[Galaxy S III General] nativestranger:
Yeah I stand corrected.
[Galaxy S III General] SlimJ87D:
From what the people that are making a proper port said, Ubuntu runs on a similar if not same Kernel as Android. They are not programming it to run like it's booting another OS but rather in tandem with it. They then showed it off on an Atrix and ran it pretty well explaining that you are not launching Ubuntu and then having Ubuntu run an app, the Android is opening Ubunutus apps because the Kernels are written to merge.

It was pretty nice. So I don't know how much RAM will affect it, but the SGS3 Int of mine always has 150mb of ram free after opening up 5 apps. If the developers are doing what I think they are doing according to their videos, then it will run most likely run the same.

As for the S4, the problems I can see are that running i 720P benchmarks off screen are putting it down to 55 FPS. I wonder what will happen at 1080P, it will still be usable definitely. I mean the Atrix 2 was doing it, but pretty poorly. THe S4 beats the Atrix by far.

Anyways, I feel kind of embarrassed to keep posting in this topic as it's become more of a reassurance that we all made the right decision when it's pretty clear that the right decision is always the one that works best for you.
[Galaxy S III General] Tomatoes8:
It isn't buggy code. I unfairly blamed HTC and sense, then I blamed possibly a lack of ram but Samsung apparently has done the same. I say it is Qualcomm. The Qualcomm S3 licked and I thought it was suspicious that they suddenly went from chump last year to so far ahead of the pack. Looks like there is some chump left in the krait to me.

We shall see what happens in the future.
[Galaxy S III General] neyenlives:
I am basing that on the developers that have been doing the work on the Fascinate and Charge, the previous two VZW Samsung handsets.

According to them the Samsung code was so shoddy in some instances it was faster and better to start over than to find and fix all the errors. That speaks volumes to me.

Samsungs GUI may work well to the end user, but they have no idea the level of efficiency at the execution level of the code. Thats where the issue *could* be if you ask me, based on the past.
[Galaxy S III General] Tomatoes8:
Anyways, if anyone is interested. I couldn't stop the studder on the One XL with either Nova or Apex. The only two launchers that could remove the stutter were launcher pro, but it does so by taking some screen real estate, and Sslauncher.

I recommend using SSlauncher with a black background, then it looks like Windows but at least the stutter is gone. Launcher pro is nice but the screen real estate loss stinks.

That setup was too limited to me though so I had to sell the One X.