[Galaxy S III General] DeadSOL:
Review time for the latest leak!

ROM

: Coming from XXEMH1 (4.1.2) and flashing the latest leak (XXUGMJ9).

WARNING

: Flashing this ROM will wipe your data.

Differences

:

Lock screen: You get a lock screen with

widgets

(swipe left or right). Additionally, you can activate

Daydream

. You can also set your own lock-screen message. The

Music Player

now comes on the lock screen when playing music. See Settings below for more stuff in the lock screen settings.

Notification bar: The notification bar is transparent. Also, Android 4.2 notifications are present when you press the icon in the notification drawer (taken from the S4). One finger expandable notifications are also present. The icons are newer and much cleaner.

Camera: There is a new "sound & shot" mode.

Calculator: It gets a brand new facelift. It looks beautiful! The features are the same.

Clock: It also gets a facelift and looks much cleaner.

Contacts: It has a cleaner S4-esque look. Scrolling is absolutely smooth.

Gallery: Complete overhaul. It looks sexy, it's faster, and I am in love with it. The only thing missing is a transparent top bar when viewing pictures in landscape (so as not to hide the pictures). You can "change player" (wireless display). You can also hide the content in Picasa now! Phew!

Group Play: Brand new Group Play. You have to open the application and download it before you can use it.

Music Player: It gets a complete overhaul. Now it looks and feels like the one on the S4. It looks a lot better and gets additional features such as

Smart Volume

and

Voice Control

(which was included in S-Voice previously). Also, the Music Player now appears on the lock screen when playing music. There are new equalizer settings and the volume seems to be louder, too.

My Files: It gets new folder icons and new icons for Device Storage and SD Memory Card.

S-Voice: We get the updated S-Voice (taken from the S4).

Video: The video player looks really sexy now. Awesome update!

App permissions: App permissions are cleaner; Jellybean 4.3 style!

Partitioning: Since this is Jellybean 4.3, your partitions will be changed.

Clear Defaults: New menu option for clearing default applications. Accessible by long pressing the menu button.

Move-to-SD-card: Samsung have given us the option to move apps to the SD card in the Application Manager.

Gear Manager: For connecting to Galaxy Gear.

Animations, icons, and text: Newer and more slick animations and icons throughout. The text has been changed, too. They look much cleaner.

Video drivers: Video drivers have been updated.

Android 4.3 goodies: You get all the goodies that come with Android 4.3. For a complete list, see the official Android website.

RAM: Total RAM available is 832mb.

Settings: The settings menu has been completely revamped and it looks like the tabbed settings menu in the Galaxy S4.

Lock Screen: You have only one unlock effect;

Ripple

. You can choose between a

personal message

and a

clock

. You can enable or disable

multiple widgets

.

Display: You now have

adaptive display

and professional photo display in Screen Mode.

Daydream

is included here.

Sound: Samsung keyboard settings seem to be implemented here, too (vibration and key sound).

Call: Call settings finally get a proper place under Settings.

Hands-free mode: A new hands-free mode is under My Device in Settings.

Smart Screen: Smart Stay and Smart Rotation are included here.

Voice Control: It is now listed under settings.

Battery: Display battery percentage is also an option under Battery.

Samsung keyboard: It is brand new and improved. It now comes with extra options (Auto replacement) and a more-organized options menu.

Things Not Included

:

Touchwiz update: Touchwiz did not get the proper S4 update.

Newer Widgets: Unfortunately, widgets have not been updated.

Camera update: The camera app has not been updated to look like the Galaxy S4 one. Additionally, you don't get the extra modes that you get with the S4 (except for Sound & Shot).

Missing apps: S-Health, Smart Scroll, Smart Pause, Air View, S-Travel, S-Translator, Samsung Link, and Photo Reader.

Samsung Knox: Samsung Knox isn't implemented in this leak.

Negatives/Unresolved Issues/Bugs

:

New: After your screen has been off for a while, it may take 3-5 seconds to open up again (it's one of the most annoying things in the world).

Bloat: All the bloat can be removed and/or disabled.

Multitasking with games is still broken. You can't run two or more medium/heavy games in the background. One of them eventually restarts (if not instantly). NOTE: This also happens with a single game running but I've used two as a quick example.

Contacts and Phone don't open instantaneously.

Widgets drawer still has the initial loading lag.

Shadow redraws on Touchwiz icons occurs when the phone is low on free RAM.

Touchwiz can restart when the phone is low on free RAM.

(Will take some time to test) Recent Apps Tab still randomly forgets the most recently minimized application.

(I shall test this bug in a while) When recording a video, left and right audio is switched.

Recommended or not?

:

Depends. I think that the final firmware is a week away (or maybe two). If you can wait that long, it's always better to wait for the official firmware.

Otherwise, this firmware looks fantastic. If you want to flash it, I'll urge you to do so. It looks close to what we'll probably see in the official release. You'll definitely fall in love with your phone all over again! :good:

EDIT

: Well, the new bugs that have surfaced really do strike a nerve with people who need a stable and fast functioning phone (that includes me). If you don't want to go through the hassle of backup/restore just to try this firmware, I'd recommend staying with 4.1.2. Apart from a few visual changes, there are no game-changing features here that you're missing out on.