[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] katamari201:
I've been holding off buying the S III for some time in hopes of something better, but nothing has come along so I finally bit the bullet. I bought a new white one off ebay for $450, which is on the cheaper side. It came with a rather deep scratch on the bottom right on the chrome, but frankly its hard to notice and the rest of the phone seems to work fine. Wanted to ask a few questions and make a few comments.

1. Screen is the best AMOLED screen period. The lack of reflection and infinite viewing angles puts it head and shoulders above all phone IPS screens I've used. Also on a completely different level to the beta AMOLED screens Samsung was churning out. None of the pixelation, dithering, artifacts, lines, blotches, and crap from the S II or the Note. It doesn't turn to crap when I dim the screen, and looks very nice and even like that. The saturation has been toned down as well and looks better. However, I wish the greens were not so BLUE and the skin tones were less ghastly red/yellow/orange.

2. My volume keys are firm and clicky, but my power button is kind of loose. Will it deteriorate over time?

3. The battery cover is still a horrible design. My left side snaps into place completely, but there is a gap that you can put a fingernail and also feel the seam and slight hump since its not flush. This is normal for Samsung right? My Note also had a battery cover problem. It would ot snap in, and I had to jam it in at a very sharp angle and bend the cover back heavily. At least that was flush. This one is not. Also noticed looseness on the top corners with the S3, especially when you move the phone around or hold it in landscape and either push the corners a bit or hold onto them. I think this is endemic to the S3 since all the display phones at my local store had the same problem, along with the entire cover being taped up since they were coming off of course.

4. The home button is hard to press. I also noticed this on the demo models. Why couldn't it be more like the iPhone's button? The amount of force required to push it, its location at the very end of the phone, and the lightweight nature of the phone means I have to hold the phone firmly down or the entire thing just might bounce out of my hand. I usually have to hold the bottom underneath the button and pinch down with my thumb. That's not very satisfying either, since I am also pushing up into a looser part of the back cover and it flexes a bit, especially since there's that hole where the microUSB plugs into. I try to avoid using the home button and use back all the way if possible.

5. The phone is fast, but not blazingly fast or smooth. It's better than my old One X. Still far from the smoothness of a Windows Phone device. Hopefully Jelly Bean will help a lot.

6. They need to disable the capacitive keys during camera mode. I always end up pushing one or both of them and exiting the camera or getting edit popups. Same problem I had on the Note.

7. Phone looks and feels a million times better without the rim sticking out above the glass surface. It's more prone to damage, but I'll take the look and unimpeded finger swiips any day.

8. The Note had a much much better speaker. The S3 sounds like an S2 without the back cover helping muffle it.