I confess: Seeing Online reviews, I bought this phone dreaming of Android 2.1 and Galaxy. When I bought the phone, I showed off to my friends, I started off on high note. I was proud to have made a good decision considering the features of galaxy 3.
But having used galaxy 3 for 3 months, Now I realise the bad things on this phone which are huge enough to discard off as unimportant.
Good things:
I love the apps of Android 2.1. Tremendous collection of various apps of all kinds. Phone is feature rich
Phone camera is decent.
Video player is extraordinary -it plays avi format without even converting.
Music player is also good.
Bad Things:
I was using Nokia E51 before, got used to fast processing speed in all. Here everything was slow. I dont know what the 600 MHz processor is doing in Galaxy 3.
If you have to call, you will have to press atleast 5 buttons before calling ( with processor being slow, it was bad). Long drawn process to just make a call.
As I roam too much under the sun, I find that I could not see anything on the screen. Visibility under the sun was too bad.
Typing with Swype was not easy to learn. If you learn it would be faster or else you will have to struggle sending sms
The touch screen is crazy. If you keep the phone over your cheek when you talk, by chance - touch screen buttons like mute, speaker etc.. are getting activated.
The button placement of volume control is also weird. When you hold the phone naturally your hand touches the volume control on the side. Slightest hold on the button will make your phone in silent mode and you will be missing calls forever till you see the phone.
As you know, normally in most phones Mic would be active, even when you connect your 3.5mm to speaker. But in Samsung Galaxy 3, when you connect your speaker to 3.5mm. you can hear what the other person is saying over the speaker but what you speak they cant hear. This default feature is missing here.
If you switch on GPRS, all apps will access GPRS without your consent. But your battery will run dry in two hours. Leave alone the charge you pay for data usage.
For The battery to get charged completely - you will have to charge atleast 4 hours. Its longer than most phones. And it would run dry quicker than most phones. Amazing feature.
Awesome video player - I loved it. But try to see one movie in it, you wont even complete watching it, your battery will go dry.
Without any reason, your call would get cut. The other side would not be hearing anything.
Headphones - very uncomfortable
CONCLUSION:
I accept this is a budget phone- I dont expect bullet speed, etc.. etc...
But what is default in most phones as basic as decent speed, battery, call reach, mic active even when connected to speaker and visibility under sun are missing leaving you disappointed.
Richness of feature should never compensate for the basic fundamental requisites we expect out of a phone.
MY RECOMMENDATION: Dont buy and you will not be disappointed!