yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S III General] Zabalba:
Since following this at the start, this thread seems more like "Why the International S3 is better than the ATT version. Please give us your opinion in here and not the other 9000 threads that exist discussing the same thing." vs actually talking about the benefits.

Both trolls and feeders for them should be ashamed! :crying:

Can a mod come in here and clean this up? I would like to read the latest happenings with my phone on the ATT network. Not this virtual pissing contest.
[Galaxy S III General] paulavetta:
Nice chart BarryH and you made some very good points. I think it's important that people weigh the pros and cons of both versions to decide which option is best for them. Both choices have positives and drawbacks. Personally, I will always buy the unbranded international phones but I can definitely see why some would choose carrier branded and that's ok too.
[Galaxy S III General] BarryH_GEG:
There's one thing I forgot too. As the lawsuit-fest continues, U.S. devices are likely to have their features hobbled to get around Apple's patent claims. For example, the international One X has the standard "app picker" which pops-up when you tap on selected text so you can choose from multiple actions. The U.S. version has a settings table where you have to preset a single option that executes when you tap a selection. This was to get around whatever Apple patent held HTC's phones up at the border. You can get around it if your root your phone but with all the warranty-voiding that's happening or could happen that's not an option for everyone. Just food for thought.
[Galaxy S III General] neyenlives:
That only affects stock phone users, as you alluded to.....anyone here will be rooting and romming, yes even us USA users. Even the Verizon variant already has custom cleaned up and rooted roms. Nobody here cares much about a warranty because they know how to put it back to stock before returning. The lawsuits only impact stock users who don't care or know anything changed anyways...LOL

Like my wife, whos Razr Maxx updated to ICS last week. She said it was no big deal really".....it still does the same thing so who cares what it is...."
[Galaxy S III General] locoboi187:
Lol at those who say 2GB is better. The galaxy nexus has 512mb of RAM and is buttery smooth for after memory intensive tasks and heavy multitasking. CPU triumphs over memory usually and 1GB is more than enough on this phone. Memory management just needs to be optimized for this phone and that's all. I'm in America and bought the international..couldn't be happier. We get updates first and we have more development right now. Don't listen to others and think you made a bad choice with the international. I know this is off topic to the thread but I just had to say it.
[Galaxy S III General] dasistsparta:
Exactly!
[Galaxy S III General] racerex:
Galaxy Nexus has 1GB of RAM. Not 512MB as you stated.

Also, the next Nexus will have 2GB of RAM.
[Galaxy S III General] graffixnyc:
I was unaware they announced the manufacturer(s) of the next Nexus, much less it's specs... Care to share your source for that or are you just speculating it will have 2gb? I too think it will, but saying it will and I think it will are two different things ;)
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
You are completely on topic sir with the development stuff related insights; however, I'd like to mention that galaxy nexus does have full one gig of ram.

☞ sent from my GS3
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
+1 I'm interested in this as well.

Regardless of the fact how much ram it will have I'll get the next nexus anyway :P

☞ sent from my GS3
[Galaxy S III General] graffixnyc:
another thing to consider.. It's been reported by US users that the system takes about a gig and there is about a gig free. On the international there is what? close to 800 free (someone with an international chime in here) So in actuality the US version only has a couple hundred MB more than the international available. Something to think about, which I'm surprised no one mentioned yet.. I'm also going to cross post this in the 1gb v 2gb thread
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
Ummm... let me correct you there friend...

I checked both the versions just now. My ATT version has over one gb used and about 500-600 MB free (too lazy to put a screen shot.)

And

My international version has about 300 MB free:

☞ sent from my GS3
[Galaxy S III General] graffixnyc:
:) So like I said there is only about a couple 100 more free on the US version. Not a HUGE difference there, Not as much as "1gb vs 2gb" sounds..
[Galaxy S III General] BarryH_GEG:
The carrier's being added based on the SIM identifying what network the device is currently using. I have a "Vodafone One X" according to Play when I'm using their SIM when I'm in the UK.
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
You are completely right there friend. I tried to switch to the att one giving it a fair chance but it is not worth it. Reverted back to international version in a couple of hours. Gonna sell this att one next week for 500.

☞ sent from my GS3
[Galaxy S III General] locoboi187:
My bad haha. Either way nexus tackles apps well with 1gb of ram. Just a memory management issue on our end.
[Galaxy S III General] racerex:
I work in the industry.
[Galaxy S III General] BarryH_GEG:
Or that in the stock SGS3 ROM Samsung's fleet of "S-Apps" are consuming gobs of RAM they're reserving for themselves. There's a reason the home screen rescan's fixed when people disable S-Voice. Comparing a pure Google phone to any skinned phone with "added features" is like racing two identical cars and wondering why the one pulling a trailer is slower.
[Galaxy S III General] racerex:
US version has 1.62GB "free" on stock AT&T ROM. So yes the S4 chipset uses more system RAM than the Exynos 4412 but after it's all said and done it still has much more free memory. See attached screen shot.
[Galaxy S III General] Sword Fish:
I bought the International version soley because most of the development will be here instead of the NA version. Just check out the forums, hardly nothing in the i747 threads.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Xparent Purple Tapatalk 2
[Galaxy S III General] BarryH_GEG:
Have any of you read how multitasking is truly supposed to work in Android (I'm not being parochial, it's interesting)? If app developers followed the spec and their apps correctly retained and recalled state, we wouldn't be having these conversations. With S4, Exynos Quad, and Teg3, properly written apps should feel almost the same being recalled from memory as recalled from state.

http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/04/multitasking-android-way.html

Dianne Hackborn's pretty cool and participated in the Prime forum when tons of questions came up about the seemingly slow screen painting. I'm going to invite her in to this discussion on RAM and multitasking. If she accepts, be nice. ;)
[Galaxy S III General] racerex:
That would be awesome if she'd stop by. Thanks for reaching out to her.
[Galaxy S III General] david.furniss:
Is this legal?
[Galaxy S III General] henrybravo:
Being a salesperson at a cell phone store doesn't count.
[Galaxy S III General] racerex:
You're funny. Try mobile semiconductors.
[Galaxy S III General] Zabalba:
No laws are being broken. However you are knowingly exploting a loophole in ATT's policy when it comes to data plans for smartphones.

If they catch you they will just bump you up the $30 3GB dataplan.

Worst case, they cancel your account. They will let you know so you can port out your number in time.
[Galaxy S III General] bricky23:
Using the unlocked version in the U.S. is there a need to change the csc? If so to what?
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
No need to change anything.

☞ sent from my GS3
[Galaxy S III General] foehammer92:
I was wondering if i HAVE to purchase and international phone. Would this work if i got a t-mobile galaxy s 3 and unlocked it? Or would AT&T be able to recognize my phone, and would there be any other issues like not having the required bands etc...

Thanks!
[Galaxy S III General] SlimJ87D:
Short answer, no one knows for sure as the first few IMEI numbers seem to be the same for all SGS3s of all variants.

Next, why would you use T-Mobile on ATT network? The data will suck...
[Galaxy S III General] foehammer92:
Well i wanted to get a tmo gs3 because they are easier to find an much cheaper than an international one! But i guess it doesn't work so im going to have to get an intl one!

EDIT: It seems that the user fender22 has gotten it to work on his tmobile gs3:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1725920

Anyone else confirm?
[Galaxy S III General] vinvam:
Another person has confirmed that the T-Mobile GS3 works on AT&T's 3G.

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=28459214&postcount=36

The phone does have the correct bands - it's just a matter of whether AT&T will recognize the IMEI. I highly doubt they will considering they haven't swept T-mobile IMEIs in the past.
[Galaxy S III General] Vulgotha:
Hey guys! I've been reading through this thread and am intrigued by the possibilities offered by the international version..

I've been holding off of grabbing a smartphone for some time due to my general disgust as the price raping that goes on here in the states by the major phone companies (looking at you Verizon!).

What finally pushed me over the edge, though, is that I'm a web developer and designer and have a strong need to test alot of my work on a mobile device. Hilariously, where I am employed at has no official mobile testing hardware (i.e. company smartphones or what not). Even though our biggest client happens to be a rather large midwestern loyalty rewards program for restaurants.. That made the switch to pure mobile (in place of physical cards, they use an app now).

So testing is, obviously, a must.

Anywho!

I have a PS Vita (3G edition) that comes with an AT&T SIM. However it is 'dumb' in the sense that it cannot make calls or texts, but it still has a number associated with it.

I don't suppose taking out its Simcard and putting it in my S3 would do the trick now would it?

Can I count on you gentlemen to 'be there' for me if something bizarre happens as I try to use an international unlocked phone lol?

I was thinking of picking up on from Amazon.com (they have several listed) but I'm unsure if they come with warranties..
[Galaxy S III General] graffixnyc:
So I ordered my pebble blue 32gb international today. I thought I was going to have to wait but my ex gf laid out the cash for it. ;-) Placed my order though negri and got the 1 year care plan. 2 day shipping so it should be here by Wednesday :-) :-)
[Galaxy S III General] BarryH_GEG:
Assuming the app you're testing is for general B2B/B2C use, you should pick up a single-core phone running 2.3. Testing on a phone that's in the top one percentile performance wise and running an OS that's only on 10% of deployed devices isn't going to give you real-world results. It's that pesky lowest common denominator thing.

Data-only plans don't support voice. Tablet-plan SIMs can't make voice calls when they're put in a phone so I'm guessing the Vita's can't either. You need to have the plan changed to get voice. The crux of this thread talks about using an international phone to get unlimited HSPA+ data, messaging, and M2AM calling for $30 a month on a voice plan as low as $39 a month. Read up.
[Galaxy S III General] lude219:
Ok here it goes...

The GF just got her Verizon S3 and this is the part that separates the International from the US variants. You know that pop up video (Wonders by Natures) player that they demonstrated? Well guess what, there's a good reason why there wasn't a demo video on her Verizon S3. Anywho, I did the popup player on my I9300 and let it play the whole video, when I exit the video and get back to my home screen and scroll around, absolutely NO lag. Since there wasn't a demo video on her Verizon phone, I did the S-Beam and send the mp4 file over to her phone. I did the popup player and let it run through the whole video, when done, I exited and proceed to scroll around the homescreen and HOLY HELL...it stutters more than anything.

I think the combination of a dual-core and Adreno 225 would have something to do with it. But hey, that's my 2c.
[Galaxy S III General] graffixnyc:
be careful, the trolls might smell your post and come out and put you in your place and say how much better their US device is and that you must be biased :P
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
Haha, he who's name shall never be taken... lord voldemort!

☞ sent from my GS3
[Galaxy S III General] lude219:
LOL! I just woke up 2hrs ago and stomach full, I can troll with him for the next 4hrs.:p
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
Haha ok I'll let you take over from here. I'm heading off to bed now. Don't let the troll troll!

☞ sent from my GS3
[Galaxy S III General] graffixnyc:
Is it Wednesday yet? haha **** I need to 1. either get a sim cutter by wed or 2. get a micro sim from att, tell them I'm buying a GS3 from someone and it doesnt have a sim or some story like that..
[Galaxy S III General] lude219:
just freehand that ****, bro. I tried printing out the template but i dont have the exact 4x6 (or whatever size) paper and it just wouldn't come out right. I then watched a few youtube vids and start taking my scissor to it.
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
I recommend getting a sim cutter and a 3g sim.

☞ sent from my GS3
[Galaxy S III General] mobius999:
I don't wanna make this a comparison post, and I just picked up my ATT 3S today so no expert, but I have to ask...

Why is it, in every single thread about the two versions, people post a screenshot of the memory available for the int version, and not the US? And I am talking about those who supposedly have access to both...

The reason I ask is because I see people trivializing the difference in actual available ram between the two, claiming the US uses so much more, but I never see a US screenshot in these posts.

My ATT S3 has 1.3gb of available ram running stock. So I'm using about half the ram the person I quoted and others I've seen making claims seem to be.
[Galaxy S III General] graffixnyc:
Yeah but wont be able to get a cutter here by wed. I'll stop off at some of those small cell phone shops all over the city, one of them is bound to cut sims for the isheep
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
Well international version is my daily driver so I post pictures from it only.

☞ sent from my GS3
[Galaxy S III General] grkn:
Could someone verify that my math checks out, I'm currently on ATT, but not on contract.

1. Get Samsung S3 from ATT and pay $199 on 2 yr contract

2. Buy S3 international from expansys $645

3. Sell the ATT S3 for $550

4. Call ATT and ask them to change to a standard phone unlimited data plan and give them my Inter. S3 imei?

I'll pay $300 up front, and save $20 a month going forward from the 3gb data plan I'm on. I will be limited to HSDPA+ (which to me is not a problem).

Alternatively, could I just get the S3 from ATT, and also get a cheapo standard non ATT phone and switch to unlimited with that? Then I would save $100 up front and keep LTE. If jailbroken it would still work in Europe, correct?
[Galaxy S III General] graffixnyc:
:) It will be here tomorrow I paid the extra for next day.. I WANT this phone...

Ted - NegriCare

At this time your verification has been recieved and processed.

Your unit is set to ship out as of today.

Once your unit ships we will contact you via email with your tracking details.
[Galaxy S III General] graffixnyc:
Nice found a guy on craigs list that is in chinatown. He sells sim cards and says he cuts them, so I emailed him to find out how much to cut my sim card and he says he doesnt do it as a fee service, he does it for free if the person buys a sim card but said if I stop by the store he will do it for free for me. WIN! I'm going to throw him a few bucks for sure though

So has ANYONE been successful on getting on the medianet plan lately? I'm trying to think about my stratagy now. I do have a dumb phone IMEI but it's sim locked to trac phone so it wouldnt be able to register on the ATT network. I'm trying to think of the best plan of action to get the media net plan and not get flagged for having a GS3 like people have been lately
[Galaxy S III General] dasistsparta:
Im disappointed by negri. I thought they only sold units made for uk market but in fact they are like the other retailers
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
Negri is a reputed seller but my experience with them has been bad... hopefully it works out good for you.
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
Can't wait to get jelly bean on our phone. I temporarily switched to galaxy nexus and jelly bean is awesome!
[Galaxy S III General] graffixnyc:
Yeah, honestly I never dealt with them before and always thought they were a bit more expensive than expandsys when I looked at stuff in the past. Never thought I'd ever buy from them. They actually beat expandsys' price by a couple of bucks. Got shipping notification :)

Since it's the first import I have bought I will be sure to look it over with a fine tooth comb and if I spot anything back it goes for a replacement. lol
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
Yup sure. Just let us know when you receive it.
[Galaxy S III General] graffixnyc:
will do :)

Still have to come up with a strategy to get the media net plan.
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
We'll make sure that you get that.

☞ sent from my GS3
[Galaxy S III General] foehammer92:
I think you should go pick up a cheap at&t dumbphone to be safe and give them that phone's IMEI number instead of your tracphone's or your intl s3's IMEI. Regardless, thanks for being the guineau pig for many :P
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
We can set everything in order to make sure everything works perfectly for you.
[Galaxy S III General] BarryH_GEG:
If the math is what's driving some of your decisions be careful. AT&T already knows: 1) the plan associated to your SIM s/n, 2) the make and model of your phone based on the IMEI when it registers on the network, and 3) what device you "claim" to be using per your account profile. At any time they can start to see that 2+1 isn't equal to 3. They've haven't yet, but all the ingredients are there. It's just some coding and database work; a lot of which seems to already have been put in place on the prepaid side of the house.
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
+1 it worked for many of us doesn't mean that it will always work for all of us. Chances are slim but if att catches this they can revert us back to the smartphone plan.
[Galaxy S III General] BarryH_GEG:
My only concern is that this used to be a small cottage group of folks paying more for devices and taking risks with warranty and support that the masses wouldn't even consider. Now with all the media coverage of "the good stuff's not available in the U.S." and reviewers publishing that AT&T's network supports international devices, what once flew below the radar may suddenly be on it. When you're manipulating the system you can't ***** when the system eventually catches up. ;)
[Galaxy S III General] lude219:
Totally hear ya on that.

Though I think they have bigger fish to fry in sorting out their plans than to twiddle their thumbs at a minority group of users who leech off of their network. I think all the carriers are more worried about users migrating from expensive voice and data plans to free apps that let them make calls and texts over wifi.

If they didn't bend us over and remove our freedom on how to use our phones, then I'd be holding an AT&T phone at the moment.
[Galaxy S III General] BarryH_GEG:
They could care less... ;)

The age of “phone companies” is officially over.

The wireless arm of Verizon (NYSE:VZ) has long understood the mobile revolution. And as a result, it is

dropping nearly all of its voice plans

and

shifting to data-focused subscriptions

that allow multiple devices, including smartphones, laptops and tablets.

It’s a wise move for the nation’s “largest cellphone company” — if you can even call Verizon that anymore — and a change that competitor AT&T (NYSE:T) likely will replicate very soon.

AT&T already has said that it’s looking at introducing shared-data plans soon. Just a few days ago, it called data-only plans “inevitable,” so while Verizon seems to have beat AT&T to the punch, you can expect its top rival to follow suit.

http://www.investorplace.com/2012/06/verizon-wireless-kills-nearly-all-phone-only-plans-vz-t/​
[Galaxy S III General] foehammer92:
Oh i know how to do it haha my concern is more whether there is something people are doing that is making them get caught. I think the safest way is to:

- Use an At&t dumbphone and tell them it's IMEI rather than the IMEI of your international S3.

- Do not get a MicroSim from At&t but instead get a SIM for your dumbphone, cut it, and use that in your international S3 as apposed to using the LTE capable, at&t given microsim.

Just my 2 cents but i guess we'll find out when graffix gets his device!

Also can anyone tell me what is this "s/n" thing that i keep seeing pop-up in this thread is?
[Galaxy S III General] BarryH_GEG:
Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner! Behind all the marketing and PR BS about how it "better serves the customer's needs" it's all about the Benjamin’s. I bet there's a 12GB spreadsheet created in 64-bit Excel floating around VZW HQ's that calculates the revenue lost in giving away voice and text against the additional revenue generated in data. And not just this year, but out until 2020. It's no different than what's going on in cable with the major providers "just testing" pay-for-consumption models. The more dependent we become on data the more those providing it to us are going to twist the screws. Not unlike your neighborhood crack dealer giving out free samples. Hell, I remember when my cable bill used to be $70 on the “max” plan and Internet was $15. Now they add up to $200.
[Galaxy S III General] knights.JayTana:
Here's the advantage:

http://xdaforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1566

http://xdaforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1685
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
+1 exactly!
[Galaxy S III General] graffixnyc:
Ok, So I got the guy to cut my sim for free tomorrow, So I started looking on CL for a cheap dumb phone so I can call them and have the data plan switched to media net and found an ad for the same guy. He is going to sell me a SGH-a107 flip phone for 20 bucks so win win :)

Now I'm still kinda skeptical this will work. I know ceo said when he did it, he gave his GS3 IMEI, but later on people reported when they gave the GS3 sim it got flagged.

Barry brought up a good point that as soon as I put the sim into the GS3, ATT will know it's a GS3(if they have been flagging when people give them the IMEI) So The whole using a dumb phone IMEI number, then swapping is a bit confusing to me, because the system will know when I put it in my GS3 and then flag it as a smartphone, Unless the flagging is done manually by the person on the phone? and the system doesnt catch it yet but someone's eyes do? get what I'm trying to say? Well it doesnt hurt to give it a try right? what's the worst that can happen? They put me back on the same data plan I was on. lol
[Galaxy S III General] foehammer92:
I have a feeling that if you are not using a Go plan, you aren't going to give your international s3's IMEI, and you cut your dumbphone sim instead of using the att microsim, that you might be using the formula for success. Or atleast the safest way of going about doing this.

Just to keep track of your process: Where did you get your international phone from? And will you be cutting a dumbphone sim or using the microsim they give you?

Goodluck! My future s3 purchase rides on your results :D