yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S III General] IFireflyl:
1. Nobody can know that for sure, but most likely not. The Nexus runs spectacularly with only 512MB of RAM. 2GB at this time is pretty unnecessary for most.

2. You can't buy the international version in any US store. Look online. I got mine on Amazon. Others have gotten theirs through various online stores. Take your pick.

3. Check warranty information from the place you're buying from.

4. No. It's a UK warranty. US warranties are what you can expect in the US (unless the place you buy from says otherwise).

You cannot currently get HSPA+ speeds with the International version with T-Mobile. If you're getting the International version you'll need to go with AT&T for now.
[Galaxy S III General] rohitruls:
Thanks Alot :)
[Galaxy S III General] insomnia:
international version > att version. Period.

i <B international version.
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
How much are you getting the international version for? Keep in mind the exchange rate of rupee is on high these days. One USD is 55.5 Indian rupee.

This makes your cost as about Rs. 36,500 if you buy an international version in USA. You will for sure get warranty from expansys if you buy from USA if you are concerned about that.

Also by that time prices may drop by another fifty bucks. You may also see if you can get a cheaper one from craigslist or ebay if you wanna explore those avenues.

Btw, you sound like a new MS student coming here for graduation, I may be completely wrong on this. :p :)
[Galaxy S III General] neyenlives:
So if I had the Intl. version and the charging jack stopped working and I needed it repaired or replaced what is that process like in the US?

I suppose it would be something along the lines of having to contact Expansys or Samsung or whomever you got it from....if it's something you notice on Saturday morning you're likely waiting until Monday morning to even talk to someone. Then there will obviously be a back and forth email or phone call exchange to get all the info. Then they will tell you where to send it to so you will have to ship it and wait. Then they will either repair or replace it and send it back. It seems to me a good two weeks without your phone......but I don't know, which is why I ask.
[Galaxy S III General] crashck:
James have you ever dealt with Samsung in the USA? I had to ship off my Captivate to them... 3 weeks for the whole process and the power button they "fixed" only lasted a week before it went bad. So ill try my luck with international customer service... Verizon/ATT warranty sucks for the five dollars a month or so that it is. 5*12=60*2=120. Negrielectronics offers 2 years of warranty for 95$ and they will ship a replacement the day you file for a claim. Or you can still go the traditional route and still just send it to Samsung or through expansys/Negri... But it will only be marginally longer than if you went with US Samsung...that's just my viewpoint
[Galaxy S III General] garyd9:
Nope. I call up squaretrade, ship the phone out (overnight) the same day, and I have my phone (or a replacement) within 3-5 days. This is only slightly worse than my "repair" experiences with AT&T, so I'm good with it. In the meantime, I have a few older handsets I can use.

It's strange, though - of all the "unlocked" phones I've owned over the years, if they have a problem, they always seem to have it very eary when I can still cross-ship a replacement with the company I bought it from. With the phones that have had AT&T's logo, the phone always seems to break AFTER the first 90 days. Odd...

So, are you grasping at straws now for reasons to troll in here? Hopefully a moderator will suggest that you go elsewhere.

Take care

Gary
[Galaxy S III General] neyenlives:
see I am on topic asking completely on topic questions and you went there.....whats wrong with you? I am asking the questions you guys don't want to hear but by doing so it is providing information to those who come looking for all the information. Don't act as if everything is perfect and all rainbows and lollipops with this. There are benefits and there are drawbacks. Be real, don't misrepresent, be fully open with people. When you say Squaretrade gives you great warranty service, make sure to mention that you paid for that...

...which is an optional separate cost to get, something like $70 or more per year and must be paid for two years in advance I think....so $130 on top of the cost of the phone and must be purchased within the first 30 days to get complete coverage and still has the $100 deductible as typical carrier insurance.

that essentially increases the price of the phone by $130 does it not? i don't pay for any carrier insurance so for me it certainly would

I specifically asked if I was to get the Intl. version through Expansys or other seller....how do I go about getting a problem warrantied? Do I go through Expansys or Samsung? How does that process go? These are questions someone pondering this wonderful world of International GSIII owning is going to want to know the answers to.

With Verizon I walk in and walk out with a phone unless it's something that is covered under the insurance in which case they give you the same type service as Squaretrade, a week or so turnaround.

---------- Post added at 03:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:09 PM ----------

I haven't had to warranty a Samsung device myself in the USA yet no. They have all been very solid. I have had to deal with Sony. They suck at customer service. But thanks for the info. So for the SGSIII Intl. owner the manufacturer warranty sounds like it would be a nightmare based on your experience. The "Negrielectronics " 2 year warranty for $100 sounds ok. What is the deductible? How many people are ok with trusting their device with "Negrielectronics" though. The first thing that comes to mind is a Nigerian businessman...lol.

I am simply comparing and contrasting US carrier insurance/claims to the experience of having the Intl. version in the US and having to make a claim.

Either way it sounds like a more expensive longer process to me.
[Galaxy S III General] SmiLey497:
I bought my International SG3 from Negri electronics. Negri is the owners last name.
[Galaxy S III General] Sango2:
Best to go with International overall. Better resale value as opposed to a regional version.

I use my phone with AT&T, Rogers and Fido.
[Galaxy S III General] garyd9:
And the answer, which has also been given already, is that it depends on who you buy it from (and how long since you purchased it.) Buy it from expansys, for example, and you can send it to them and they'll process any warranty. Several US based sellers will cross ship a replacement if purchased the phone recently. Then there's always squaretrade and similar companies if you want to go that route.

In some cases, there are even "local" companies that do things similar to squaretrade. There's one here in western PA that will do most repair work "while you wait" and (same as squaretrade) will give you the cost of the phone if they can't repair it.

Now, take the answer for what it is and don't attack it.
[Galaxy S III General] suleiman.aql:
So I called AT&T and gave them my IMEI number of my European S3 and they said GTFO that's an S3! ... I didn't get the unlimited data -_- ... please update the OP :(
[Galaxy S III General] neyenlives:
Yeah, I guess I was looking for more specifics. If i were someone looking to import an Intl. SGSIII I would be wondering where to get it. The warranty service would be a huge factor. If I have to wait three weeks for instance to get a warranty return from Expansys, I would want to know that going into it. If there is extra cost in going with a Squaretrade warranty, I would want to know that too.
[Galaxy S III General] graffixnyc:
Well how I see it is this. I usually get insurance with my phone(always make one claim throughout the year)That's what 7.99-9.99 a month (I forget exactly) I don't hold onto a phone longer than a year. With the international I can but the negri care plan for 69 bucks and be covered for the year against defects, accidental/water damage, and lost or stolen phones.

So if att charges 7.99 a month that's about 96 bucks for the year..so going with negris care plan on the international actually saves me 27 bucks a year and the deductible is only 75 bucks which is more than 50% less than the deductible from att which I think is 199
[Galaxy S III General] SlimJ87D:
The warranty works like any other warranty (I'm not talking about insurance). Except I for instance would send the phone to Expansys USA who in turns sense it to Samsung overnight shipping.

Also because I purchased the phone in full with my CC, I get double the warranty thanks to Visa.
[Galaxy S III General] veyka:
I would like to remind everyone to stay on topic and keep things constructive.

Also, if you have nothing positive to add to the discussion, or if you just enjoy winding people up I would advise you not to post.

Thank you.
[Galaxy S III General] neyenlives:
See post below, sorry.
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
Thanks for making it clear veyka, I just want to know two things from James since he started his new set of trolling campaign.

James,

1. Why do you need to know about the international version? I thought you had a Verizon which doesn't support gsm? Given that there is no similarity between international and USA s3, do you go to every other international phone forum to ask this question?

2. Once you lost the 's4 is better than exynos quad' battle, you are coming up with 'my warranty is better than yours'. We all understand what you are trying to accomplish here. Worst part is you fail to understand that you are making a fool out of yourself. When you know that no one likes you in the international forum then why don't you get the warranty information by googling it? Did you even Google it before asking, if you did not then you are trolling. Why don't you call Negri or Expansys and ask them what are the options instead of getting bashed here by everyone. Do you have any self respect at all? If anyone else asks this question we know that he is genuine but you have a bad track record of demeaning the international gs3 so quit it now.
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
I cannot update the OP because we do not have any background information on what you did to get your imei blocked?
[Galaxy S III General] neyenlives:
So in effect you are figuring the money someone would spend on the warranty is spent on the insurance if you bought a US version. I can see the logic there. Although for someone who would normally buy a carrier phone and not buy insurance it would be an additional cost no?

Has anyone here ever done an exchange through Expansys?

It would seem like a several week process. File claim, wait for RMA number, pay shipping to Expansys, wait for Expansys to deal with Samsung, wait for Expansys to ship back to you.. it just seems like a long time when one is comparing it to a same day turnaround during initial warranty or a 3-5 day turnaround on a Squaretrade deal.
[Galaxy S III General] IFireflyl:
I'm not sure what you're doing here. On page 67 of this thread I answered the warranty question with my first post on that page (answer number 3) which said to check warranty information with the place you buy the phone from. Different places will have different warranty replacement times, procedures, etc. Drop the warranty subject and just look at the warranty information for the individual company in question. Do your own research. We're not here to debate warranties. That's not the purpose of this thread.

P.S. The OP didn't say to share your thoughts on how the US version is better/worse than the International version. The point he made when saying give thoughts on if you agree or disagree is on the benefits he mentioned to getting the International version for US buyers. He didn't intend for this thread to become a competition. It was to provide an alternative for US customers. That's all.
[Galaxy S III General] neyenlives:
I am asking the same questions other potential buyers are asking. Sorry to bother you with subject matter questions. There are probably a lot of people hesitant to buy an Intl. device and if they understood how a warranty issue would be handled in more details, or better yet knew which importer is best to buy from taking into consideration warranty claims then they may find this info useful and helpful and a positive contribution to the thread.

No competition here bro, the cons outweigh the pros for me but others are still undecided. Guess Ill leave them with your recommendation of "go figure it out for yourself".
[Galaxy S III General] graffixnyc:
I've heard they are pretty quick with it when you are in your return period. and let's face it honestly if there is a defect you will notice it right away or at least before the return period ends. I think if you are in the RP you can just send it back to them and they send you another right away after they confirm it's defective. If it's after the return date then you send it to them and they ship it off to samsung. I'm not sure how long that process will take.

Also with the Negri care you dont have to buy the phone from them as long as yo buy the plan within 30 days of buying your phone. For anyone who uses carrier insurance I would suggest this route instead. It's cheaper and the deductible is much less for the same amount of coverage

Since it's not linked to the carrier in anyway I bet it would be pretty easy to say you lost your phone and get a new one (if you did shady stuff like that) and not be paranoid about them catching on.. So buy the phone for 650ish get the care plan for another $69 claim a lost phone in a few months, get a new one for 75 and sell the "lost" one for $500: 650+69+75= 794 - 500 and boom you just paid $294 in total for a $650 phone. lol I believe in karma so I wouldnt do it but I'm sure many do and get away with it a lot more than when they go through carrier insurance.
[Galaxy S III General] Gu3ssWho:
Well, I would send the phone off for repair under the extended warranty and get my OG Atrix back online, while the other phone is fixed.

Sent from my GT-I9300 w/ CF-Root 6.3 -SuperSU + CWM 5.5 + CWM Manager
[Galaxy S III General] garyd9:
Without metioning any particular person...

Some people are like a roach problem - they just won't go away once they settle in.

To the OP:

I posted earlier that I also found that AT&T is able to identify the phone I'm using as the i9300. It seems that they may have updated at least one of their databases with IEMI numbers of at least European i9300's.

I don't know if they'll trap an account already using the media net service, or if they are only stopping people from switching over. I need to find a very cheap GSM "dumb" phone to switch my SIM into in order to get swapped and will see what happens...

I'd suggest updating the OP with a note that reflecting that AT&T seems to have updated at least some of their data and if an i9300 IEMI is currently being used on the number, they likely won't switch it over. (Once its switched over, it might be safe - I don't know.)

Take care

Gary
[Galaxy S III General] NIK516:
The best thing about the international s 3 is that you will get jellybean sooner if you don't root the phone. Its why I'm waiting for the price to drop a little then I'll buy it, if I go with telsta in Australia I will get the update one year later lol
[Galaxy S III General] IFireflyl:
There is a Q&A section for questions. My point is that you've made it abundantly clear that you're not getting the International version because it doesn't work best for you. Now that you've stated that, there is no reason for you to continue to be in here coming up with reasons that you feel the US version is better (as you've now moved on to warranty support) because that is NOT THE POINT OF THIS THREAD. The point, again, was just to give US customers an alternative. That's it. Hence the title of the thread, "Benefits of International Samsung Galaxy S3 for US (AT&T) users". It didn't say the International version is the best. The OP wasn't comparing versions. That's what you're doing, now stop it. It's creating pointless debate.

There's a problem with getting a dumb phone and giving AT&T the IMEI. AT&T (like T-Mobile) has a system in place that can tell which IMEI is currently being used (although the system might be behind a day or two in catching the IMEI currently in use). If they do see that the IMEI you have is a smartphone then you can't get around that. You can change your data plan to a "dumb phone" data plan, but once AT&T's system sees the IMEI currently in use is the smartphone it automatically changes your plan back to a smartphone plan. I could be mistaken here, but I'm pretty sure that's how they operate. Out of curiosity, is your phone a branded or non-branded phone?
[Galaxy S III General] garyd9:
Unbranded. However, the original firmware code was "BUALE6" and came up in German - so probably Vodafone in Germany. This was purchased from amazon.

Take care

Gary
[Galaxy S III General] IFireflyl:
Could you find the amazon link to the exact one you bought so I can take a look at it?
[Galaxy S III General] garyd9:
That's harder than it sounds...

This is the amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007VCRRNS/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=

However, the actual seller changes frequently between several who allow amazon to fullfill for them.

In my case, the actual seller was "Global Mobiles." If you go to the link provided, immediately below area that says "Want it delivered by XYZ, order it in the next ABC hours and select next day..".. there's an little thing saying something like "10 new from $670." Click that, and then select the radio button for "Prime offers only" (assuming you have amazon prime) and it should be easy to find the exact "global mobiles" one I ordered.

This link MIGHT work to go directly to the one sold by global mobiles and fullfilled by amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Galax...1A0163V84UKHW&qid=1341192521&s=generic&sr=1-1

Take care

Gary
[Galaxy S III General] IFireflyl:
I found the phone you got. The only difference I can see in the different phones is that they have different model numbers and different ASIN numbers. Maybe that has something to do with it. I haven't heard of anyone else having the same issue. That's so weird.
[Galaxy S III General] daveop:
Do any of you guys actually use phone warrantees? I have never once had a phone break down in almost 20 years of phone owning, and that covers 6 lines in the family. I had no idea this was a widespread problem as James seems to think it is. Like others, I'd probably go the Square trade route and get it covered if I felt it would matter. The added shipping time is worth it to me for all the advantages we have.
[Galaxy S III General] neyenlives:
I never have either, but I personally would like to be able to stop in a Verizon store to resolve an issue on the spot. If my signal reception is crappy, I want to be able to stop in and have them look into it, and replace the device if it is the culprit. I do not feel waiting for a couple weeks would be an acceptable solution. I do not want to be told "sorry sir we cannot help you with THAT device, you're on your own".

I had the Samsung Fascinate when it came out and around a year into it's life they released an OTA update that pretty much killed reception. It was a well known widespread issue for that handset. SO widespread that for a period of time, until the next update was pushed out, they were offering to replace your Fascinate with the Charge free and clear with no contract extensions. So it was like a free 3G to 4G upgrade and a better screen to boot. This offer was ONLY available to those who purchased their phone through Verizon. Everyone else was told to go pound sand or if they had the carrier insurance they would replace it with a refurb Fascinate over and over.......no consideration was given for those who had insurance.

So perhaps you understand why buying from the carrier is more attractive on top of all the other reasons I would never buy a non supported imported phone.
[Galaxy S III General] cmd512:
More nonsense. I got plenty of devices I can use as backup in return for 2x the length of coverage. In other words, some of us prefer the 24 month Samsung warranty over your crappy 12 month version.
[Galaxy S III General] ceo.mtcl:
To random someone...

Sent from either International or AT&T GS3
[Galaxy S III General] crashck:
Someone who got caught and is using the galaxy s3 on att does the picture of your phone have a galaxy s3 come up on the att website or does it have a gray drawing of a flip phone
[Galaxy S III General] IFireflyl:
OMFG!!!! Stop. Just stop. Maybe this will clarify things:

This. Is. Not. The. Purpose. Of. The. Thread.

This is not a comparison. I've told you this too many times now. If you keep posting trying to convince people that the US version is better I'll see if a moderator can get you to stop. Seriously. You're not sticking to the topic and people have to read all of this. Everything the OP said works (with rare exceptions such as one reported instance of the International version's IMEI showing up in AT&T's system). That is the purpose of this thread, to educate an alternative. Stop it.

On the subject of how the phone shows up on AT&T, mine is just a gray area.
[Galaxy S III General] crashck:
Is it a gray flip phone or just gray (square?)?
[Galaxy S III General] IFireflyl:
Mine is just a gray square. I think it says "picture unavailable" in it.
[Galaxy S III General] Sango2:
Mine just shows a gray drawing of a flip phone. I had it show the picture of my phone before by selecting it online but then it changes back the next time I log on so I don't know why.

As for the IMEI number, they are not using from my S3. The AT&T rep put an AT&T HSPA+ phone's MEI they had lying in the back so they can put me on the 4G plan (not LTE one) because my phone was like on an 3G EDGE network since the data plan was set when the IMEI from my AT&T Sony Ericsson W518 flip phone was used when I joined AT&T and I was complaining the internet was acting a bit slow.
[Galaxy S III General] crashck:
Different answers :( I have been using galaxy s3 for five days now and it just changed over to a flip phone from my lg vu just trying to figure out if I'm going to wake up tomorrow with the "text of doom" (att telling you they added a 3 gig data plan bc your new phone is too smart to be in the same plan tier as the less intelligently-gifted devices)
[Galaxy S III General] IFireflyl:
There is no difference in the type of data you're getting, no matter what plan you select. If you have an LTE device you could have the $10/month non-smartphone plan and still get LTE speeds. If you have an HSPA+ device (like the International S3) you will still get the same speeds on the $10/month plan versus their most expensive smartphone data plan.

I got that text the day after I put on the $10/month data plan. I called them back and said. "WTF are you doing??" They apologized, put it back on the $10/month data plan, and it's been good ever since (which has been two weeks by the way).
[Galaxy S III General] crashck:
We don't know if the LTE part is true bc aren't we the only country that offers LTE so therefore we cannot guarantee that they don't quickly kick you off the system when you use LTE data and the simple fact that there is no dumb phone with LTE makes it pretty unlikely to work. But as regards to HSPA+ yeah it doesn't matter what plan you have for speeds
[Galaxy S III General] Sango2:
I do have the international S3.

Doesn't the plan affect the APN you can get? I was always on the Cingular 410 but now I can get the phone one by adding it in and was done on the spot in person with the rep.

I guess I could try to switch to unlimited non-smartphone plan and tell them I went back to my 3G phone. The plan I am using now is the 200MB 4G plan.