*so for those mentioning custom ROMS: you are correct, they’re great and would absolutely be necessary if you were to use an S3 nowadays. However, I wanted to look at the phone as Samsung would’ve intended, so hope you all enjoy :) I think it's fair to say the Samsung Galaxy S3 kicked off the smartphone maker's glory days, as the phone would go on to sell 70 million units alongside ridiculous sales numbers from the upcoming S4 and S5. Did any of you ever have an S3? How did you like it back in the day? Join the discord! --- discord.io/91tech
I bought an S3 back in late 2012. It was my first Galaxy phone, with many more coming after it. It was a major step up from LG Optimus V that I had before it. After using it, I was sold on the Galaxy brand and over the years I've had many others, including; S4, S4mini, S5, S7, S9+ and I'm currently using the S10. I've also owned some of the lower tier phones that came free with new phone plans, and many galaxy tablets too. When I got my Galaxy Tab S, with its massive 10.1 inch screen in 2015, I was blown away.
I do still have my Samsung Galaxy S III GT-i9300 White and it has no burnin at all. It was my daily driver between the Samsung Galaxy S GT-i9000 and Samsung Galaxy Note III SM-N9005.
I had an S1 and later an S3. The improvement from the older phone was massive. Phones were really fun back then. Even if you upgraded every few months, the improvements on the new phone would be incredible. Samsung released this phone at the perfect time because smart phones were starting to see mass adoption and the S3 was a relatively inexpensive phone that worked well.
I very clearly remember reading a pc magazine while sitting on the toilet at 12 years old, being baffled at how huge that 4.8" display was and how amazing those specs were... good old times
My Dad, may he rest in peace, bought one of these in 2012 but he could never master it and we kept getting random calls from him at various times of day.
Just like my dad, but it happened until now with iPhone 6 that was bought like 3 months ago. And we choose that so he doesn't need to relearn newer iOS. We'll always end up as tech support for our parents, but still blamed for everything else unrelated. RIP for your dad tho.
@@RinaldoJonathan He had an old brick Nokia before that, probably should have stayed with that, but Dad being Dad, he had to try something new. Thanks mate. 🙂
I remember the S3 was so much more of an aspirational phone vs the iPhone 5 at the time. Samsung’s achilles heel really was just its lack of longer term software support.
TouchWiz was pretty bad too. I remember feeling like it was suprisingly laggy. The first thing I would do when I bought a Samsung phone back then was root it and install a custom rom. This was a great phone running cyanogenmod and since Samsung sold so many and so many users hated touchwiz, it had a lot of custom rom support. I miss the replaceable battery. You could get a battery charger and carry 3 full batteries with you.
@@meandmyEV yeah. After I got my note 4, I rooted my 2gb snap dragon s3. Actually had it on 6.0 through cyanogen. It still ran significantly better than 4.4.2 paired with TouchWiz
@@nighttimestalker One downside I remember with the Note is that all of the S Pen functions and software were built into the Touchwiz overlay so you would lose them if you installed vanilla android. That said, I loved my Note 3. At the time the screen seemed massive and I have never been a big S Pen user anyway
@@zac-1I agree. it was worth the slowdown in the OS. 😂 it is actually amazing that it worked at all. Just a couple of years prior I had a G1 which was barely capable of showing a still wallpaper.
@@seriouslyproductions6903 I miss the SD card slot. Super cheap storage. There was no need for it to disappear. Maybe things'll improve with pull out screens and the like.
That's funny. Can't believe how Samsung still keeps that around with more moderninzed versions more ethereal. But right there with you. That sound beginning my day was horrifying.... Even nowadays visiting a ringtone site like Zedge just to explore some different varieties, so many of their sound files are mislabeled or unlabeled, and I will tap and hear Morning Flowers and would scramble to kill that sound asap, it really IS traumatic ! * Speaking of which, they also had Over the Horizon, equally traumatic... but did you ever hear one of Samsung's special versions of it that had LYRICS--- it's like CIA torture sounds played to enemy combatants at Abu Ghraib
I never ever could use it. My first samsung phone I was already using Nova Launcher which saved me from that monstrosity, those pukey teal and aqua colors combined.
I loved my S3, made me stay with Samsung. It was comfortable in hand, the plastic didn't feel cheap, camera was good. If they brought it back but with no bezels and current tech, I'd buy again
I still have this phone and I've been using it as my daily driver since 2012. This phone is insanely durable. I've dropped it from 7ft 5 times and it came unscathed
My Google Pixel 5a died and I went to the parts bin, charged up the S III and it was if it had just come out of the box -- light, durable, easy to use.
I had a friend that had a S2. It seemed ok. I somehow bought into the hype of the S3, and bought one. I absolutely loved it. Screen was bigger than the iPhone, and was just right for the time. Spent a ton of time playing games on it, especially Subway Surfers. I had always been an apple guy at heart, so when the iPhone 7 came out with the larger screen, I made the switch and never looked back.
My dad got a Galaxy SIII in 2012 or 2013. He kept it around for so long because he would use it as a media player in the garage for a really long time. Now it's gone and I'm sad, years of history in that phone.
Man... I remember getting the S3 as an upgrade to my S2 way back when it was released, and it felt like magic. The screen size, display, battery life and specs blew my frigging mind and I remember it being such a conversation piece whenever I brought it out in the first two or three months of its release. I still have mine to this day for the nostalgia factor.
My Galaxy S3 still works perfectly fine to this day, no burn in, only the battery is shot. My dad temporarily used it as his phone when his HTC died when he was swapping to working for Apple. He was made fun of for using a really old phone at a company where they give you cutting edge ones.
I still have a great apreciation for the SIII (Initial Model). Using a custom ROM of either LineageOS or a Debloated Stock rom, the experience is good today, as long as you consider the bottlenecks of only having 1 gigabyte of RAM could bring. The screen is also great with the only actual problem it has is the limited brightness control.
Haha. Always been a Samsung user myself, as I always inherited my Samsung fanboy dad's old phones. When my S6 unfortunately died because of a tiny crack at the very corner of the screen, I veered of in the direction of Xiaomi as I did not have much money at the time, and I definitely did not have a good time with it. I was thinking of swapping it for the OP Nord, as I've always wanted a OnePlus ever since the 3T days, but alas, the S20 FE not only had the same specs but on top of that has 30 whole hertz more on the screen which is something I totes wanted. I feel however that this is my last Samsung phone as I am not at all happy about them ditching MicroSD slots.
@@fenn_fren Samsung wants to be apple removing sd cards and charging 1000 dollars for plastic phone that has 2 years of software update. Just buy an iPhone Pro.
I absolutely love the S3! It was my first proper smart phone. It was also the first phone that got me into rooting / custom ROMs. I bricked it the very first time. I then was able to instlled stock android 4.4.4 KitKat. I loved it!
Felt like this phone was one of more well marketed ones in Samsung's lineup in the last decade. Remember seeing the ad's and billboards for this phone at every train stop in the mta and on TV. At the time, it was beautiful UI, especially that clock/weather widget
I had 2 S3’s. They were great devices, but they got to be impossible to keep batteries charged. Towards the end, I was carrying spare batteries and changing them during the day.
Indeed, the battery in that thing was just terrible. Mine died after 2 years of use and I just bought a new phone. My dad replaced his battery two times, but it always died within a year. (The Lenovo phone he bought in 2017 still serves him to this day and keeps decent charge) Was definitely some flawed technology, I recently turned on phone from 2005 (to look up a number) and it still held a charge.
@@rayquazahere8529 iPhone had shitty battery life back then too. (Worse than a new S3, it had joke capacity like 1200 MaH) It just didn't degrade as fast as faulty S3 battery did.
Remember seeing these in the fairly new Westfield in London on display for the first time and absolutely falling in love with the whole look of the phone. Led to me really wanting a Samsung and have been an android user all this time in part due to this day.
I used an S3 Neo (more ram, newer cpu and Android KitKat) for a while in 2016 before getting my S7, and it felt really good and snappy for everyday usage. Samsung used to be better than now.
On the contrary, I have an A series tablet from the S6 era, and while the UI is actually smooth and responsive, most apps weren't, and the bloat on it (I don't need Samsung Kids, why did every tablet come with it?) took up a very large portion of the device storage. I could fit many times more apps on my 32GB iPad 2, despite it being only having twice the storage.
I really appreciate your videos Josh, you have a unique perspective. Most people are concerned with the newest, hottest tech, but to me it is very interesting to look back and see what led us to the present, where the successes and failures were and how things have changed over time. Keep up the good work!
The Galaxy S3 used to be my main phone for a long time. I remember loading custom ROMs on it after it stopped receiving major updates, even after I got an iPhone, just so I can experience new Android versions. Now I'm rocking the Galaxy Note 9.
I've only just retired my S-III in June (well, it retired itself really) Bought it when they were first released so it lasted nearly 10 years. A great phone for business use, not gaming obviously and, here I disagree, still today a very good still camera regardless of the meg numbers. I'll be flashing a custom ROM soon to bring it back to life I hope.
I don't understand why people don't like plastic phones. It's cheaper and more resistant, and I don't think they look bad at all. About the camera, I think the photos look great. For my basic use of it, I would be perfectly happy with it. The S3 neo is also way better than the normal edition, I have both and the neo actually feels usable today, especially with the still mainteined LineageOS build for it, while the old variant is a lot slower. About software updates, even though you got less updates, apps keep supporting old versions of android for way longer than iOS. WhatsApp, for example, still supports Android 4 and the S3, while in iOS it needs iOS 12, which is 6 or 7 years newer. While this is worse than actually providing updates, it's not as bad as it seems.
The last samsung smartphone for me it was the Samsung Galaxy S4. But the S3 was the peak for me. Year's later I rooted the S3 and It was incredible the customizing options I had at the time. Now those options are default on any other smartphone today.
I love my S4 so practical, but just stop accepting the sim card. Bought A34, very capable, but does what i do on a computer. A34 to me too big, gone silly sizes. Full of bloat ware.
Got my S3 in white just like this one in 12, it survived and served 3,5 *hard* years for me till 2015 flawlessly. Goddamit I actually loved that phone, my very first smartphone😍
I have my s3 running android 7 on a custom rom & it's really good! I really love the size of this phone, although I dont use it anymore due to situations with 3g i think samsung should do a nostalgic phone bring this back with all updates hardwares & firmware lol
I#ve had an S2 like a decade ago and I really loved it. Was my first smartphone and to this day, the best I've ever had (relative to the standards of the respective time ofc)
Lucky my blue galaxy S3 won’t turn on even connecting it to a cable won’t work. Some days I wish I can get it fixed and go look at my old text messages
My parents bought me a Galaxy S3 for my first smartphone( it was the latest brand new phone) when I was 6th grade. It was one of the happiest moments of my life
I had the purple sprint model for one of these. That sucker took a dip in the PACIFIC OCEAN and still worked for another year after that. I graduated high school with this phone, it was phenomenal.
Replaceable battery was so cool. I bought a 8500mAh for my Note 3. It increased the thickness by more than double but I just didn’t care. I got 3 days of medium usage out of it :D
Dang. I remember people mostly flocking for Samsung smartphones and mostly ignoring the others. LG was somewhere up there too i think. And also the commercials for the Galaxy S4 and S5 too. I actually got the Galaxy S3 for free. I found it on the floor in excellent condition within a big grocery store. I tried to find the owner, but I never did after a long time looking for it, so I formatted it and decided to use it. I remember thinking "this screen is huge!" and now here we are with tall screens with a little notch.
I used the Galaxy S3 from when it came out in 2012 until 2014. It was the phone that swayed me towards the Samsung/Android ecosystem. Had so much fun with it.
Bro, do a video about the galaxy s5 mini, or do a video where you install custom roms on devices like this. Really interesting video tho. The Galaxy S3 was my first smartphone but I dropped it back in the day so I bought a second hand S3 after your previous video about the new S3 you bought. Keep up the good work man! Your content is really unique.
Thanks! Yea I'm never sure how much to talk about bootloaders/roms and stuff because some people like it, some want me to talk about the phone as is, in this video I just didn't mention it alotogether which may have been a mistake. But some kind of a video looking at older devices on custom Android roms could be interesting... Thanks for the feedback!
cheers for the up. here's a tip if you're afraid that the micro usb port eventually breaks. there are magnetic plug charging cables you can buy. that minimizes the wear
S3, s5, s7, s9+ and now the s20+, I'm not really a brand loyalist but this video just made me realise I've been rocking Samsung for almost a decade! By the end of a 2 year contract the batteries are always ass, they tried SO hard to make bixby a thing and failed, the previous 3 Samsung lost the use of their charging ports towards the end of the 2 years (which was workable once wireless charging became a thing). Wish battery's and software support would get me closer to the 5 year mark. When they work they're usually still beasts, but I think this my last Samsung.
This phone was the first big smartphone, today it's considered tiny. For me it's the perfect size once you fill the bezels with screen. I have since moved on to the similarly sized S4, S7 and S10e, the latter of which has the perfect screen size and is still my phone, but is now a thing of the past... And even the iPhone mini is probably going to be discontinued next year.... Please someone make a great under 6in phone for people like me (and many others) !
I have an S III GT i9300 with Lineage OS 14.1, Hybrid Kernel, 200MB of Zram, no apps in the background and a CPU overclock to 1704MHz and GPU overclock to 700MHz. It’s actually usable. However despite even the Zram, the device still suffers because of the 1GB of RAM. If it had 2GB in EU too, this phone would run exceptionally.
Just found my brothers old S3, it was missing the back cover, so I ordered one off Amazon for less than $7, and once it arrives, I'll try to power the phone up, and if all goes well install lineage OS on it.
damn this is my 1st phone i bought with my own money. and i love it so much even there is note 2 at that day, but my heart always into this s3. thanks for the memories !
the widget being a few hours behind might be due to your time zone setting, as the widget's time is accurate to the location you entered for weather services
I actually checked this in settings, the timezone is correct, and the top bar is showing the correct time- but the widget is out of wack even though it's showing Vancouver. My theory is it's because it was a US based phone and for some reason it's still giving the time from where it came from (even though it was never activated).
Ah. This was my first try smart phone. I had the red one with 2gb of ram and 16gb of storage. I remember buying a large battery for it lol. I also rooted it after I bought my note 4. Had it running Android 6. And it actually ran better than it did on it's final kit Kat update
@@fred-youtube I broke it eventually. Getting off the bus from school and was walking up my driveway and I tripped. And the screen was already a replacement so it was more fragile. And it killed it when I dropped. Still wish I had it and my old note 4 just for the nastalgia lol
@@Darth001 Same. Toichwi was well. TouchWiz. So I ran nova off it. But I felt special getting that phone as a Christmas present back them. It was better than pretty much anything my other class mated had when I was in the 11th grade lol
cant you replace the scree- oh well no parts it is very rare to find a screen for it or just buy a 2nd hand one and sell the one you used! that is probably the only way!@@nighttimestalker
I bought the mini version recently for £30. I wanted to use it on holiday in Barcelona. People were saying there are pick pockets in Barcelona. I remember owning one in 2012 then I went to iPhone 5S. I have used the camera and then transferred the photos to my s22 ultra via Bluetooth. I’m finding it fascinating, I would love to have a modern phone this size.
It is hard to believe that Samsung S III is a phone used to break your bank just a decade ago. It feels like it is just yesterday. 10 years ago, I am so envious of people around me who do have it. You look rich for having it back then. It is still useful if you flash it with the latest custom rom cuz it has 4g like many of the newer budget phones. It maybe not a worthy everyday phone today but it can still be useful if you are a lightweight user and want a small but capable smartphone with a removable battery.
i remember how horrible the experience was with this phone, i switched back to iPhone just after like half a year. i could not stand the phone just lagging when getting a phonecall. Now with samsung s21 ultra i switched to android again and im pretty pleased :)
People always said the software (TouchWiz) was bad. I never understood that - it was FINE. I used it for about year a few years back, even took it on holiday. IT WORKS. Multi window, quick toggles and others that we now have as standard Android, are FROM THIS PHONE.
I used to have a Galaxy S3 mini. it was my first smartphone, got it in 2013 since my mother switched over to an iPhone 5C. great phone, used it as my main until 2015, then I switched to a 5C which I got used for £175. had that phone until late 2017, which then I switched to an iPhone SE from my aunt as she upgraded to a larger phone, likely 6 or 6S Plus. In February 2020, I upgraded to an iPhone 7 Plus, as my mother upgraded to an 11 Pro Max. I had that phone until December 2020 as it had major hardware issues (a screen replacement would fix it but decided money was better spent on a new phone), so I got a Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro 6GB RAM/128GB Storage. I'm still using that phone now, and I've never had an issue with it. I'm hoping this will last me another 3 years at least as I don't think there will be anything major for that price point until then. oh and if you are reading this, sorry for rambling on about every phone I've owned, and how I upgrade far too often.
lol i didnt change any of my tablets and phones for 8 years only 1 time where my samsung galaxy tab 3 10.1 got its motherboard fried in 2015 and in early 2016 i bought a samsung galaxy tab e 9.6 still works fine at android 7.1.2 with custom roms
@@eylemuyavul3055 seems like your phones and tablets have gotten a pretty long life, custom roms are honestly a great way to make an android device usable for way longer, if my S3 mini had more storage and I still had it, I'd totally be using it still. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro that I mentioned in my original comment is still going strong, it's still on its original rom too, which is Android 10 based, and I can upgrade to Android 12 on this phone. It has been nearly 3 years since I got this phone, and it has just worked, no problems at all. I am starting to think about upgrading now that 5G is available in my area, and because I'm in the UK and on an unlimited data plan, I get truly unlimited 5G data. Considering I use cellular as my main internet connection it might be worth doing. Sorry for rambling on again, I really shouldn't be treating the RUclips comments section like they are forum threads...
@@whitebeartigtig yeah and now im typing from this tablet and i see that android 8.1 rom came out 2 months ago for this i will consider a android update when apps stop supporting android 7.1.2 most of them are still in android 6.0 but some of them is at android 7.0 minimum android versions of apps so i will probably going to update to 8.1 probably before 2024 ends i will update it a few months later but hows your redmi note 9 pros performance İs it still really good? Like my s7 edge has some really nice performance in android 10 one ui 2.5 i can play games at high graphics smoothly unless if the phone gets too hot then it laggs so i put a fan behind to it
@@whitebeartigtig i use this tablet with a 16 Gb sd card + 8Gb internal storage but i set the sd card to be the internal storage so photos texts videos and apps that support working with sd card and i put some apps forcefully by enabling it from developer settings and its really usable!
@@eylemuyavul3055 I see, yeah for some people a small amount of storage is fine, but I actually do need quite a lot of storage, mostly for pictures and things like that. I'm currently using 86.5GB/128GB, so quite a lot. I do still have the option of putting a MicroSD card in here though.
I loved my S3! So much so I still have it 💜 Used it for years as a music player. Sadly the battery finally went caput and trying to find a decade old battery in good shape proved to be impossible for me. But i still loved that phone!
Ah, the Galaxy S3... Honestly, the 3 and 7 were the best Phones to me in my opinion. My current Note 10+ is fine, but it misses some Charm that both the 3 and 7 share...
I had a Huawei back in 2012, then upgraded to an s3. I was hooked and since then and I have only used galaxy s phones. I now have an s23, but I still have my s3 for nostalgic reasons.
This is still, to date, my favorite phone of all time!! I switched to iPhone and regret it. My favorite aspects of this phone were small details, like how the red light would blink when I had a text, the button at the bottom for functionality, and the plastic backing. If I could use this phone today, I absolutely would.
Damn, I remember my dad bought this phone alongside my Uncle who bought a Note 2 together. Those phones were revolutionary, They are amazing phones, 9 years later I still have my dad's old S3 in my collection Also the "Over the Horizon" ringtone, My God that was the best time
this was my first phone. I begged my parents for it and I don't regret it a single bit, as it got me hooked on Android and now I have my favorite phone I've ever had, a galaxy note 10 plus.
Both my mom and dad has an S3 at some point and I was BLOWN away by these phones all I did was want to watch RUclips and I thought the swipe to unlock with the water effect was magical.
welp flip phones are back at least the modern version like motorola razer or samsung z flip searis,but those were the good days whit s3 and s4 which I owned and they surved me well then I upgraded so s7edge and last samsung z flip.
Memories! This was my first Samsung smartphone. Then Note 2, Note 3, Note 5, Note 8, Note 9, S10 5G, and now S22 Ultra! I can't believe myself why I am so into Samsung smartphones! Haha
Unfortunately I never owned the s3 but I have been a loyal samsung user since 2013 and my first samsung was the samsung galaxy s4 plus and I'm currently using the samsung galaxy s20 ultra.
I really think would be cool to do a video about the Galaxy core prime. I used to have one and it's basically a gimped version of the S4. It lasted me about 3 and 1/2 years, and I did have to a battery swap, but once I got my first pixel I was so happy to get rid of that thing.
My S3 i got launch day still works okay...its funny that back then it was the cutting edge and the screen seemed huge...watching this on my fold 5 and amazed how far tech has come in a decade. Would be nice if they added back the SD card slot though, these 1tb devices are hella expensive here in Canada
I am actually writing this comment with my old samsung galaxy s iii, using the opera browser. It is slow af, but it is still neat, and it is giving me a nostalgia trip.
*so for those mentioning custom ROMS: you are correct, they’re great and would absolutely be necessary if you were to use an S3 nowadays. However, I wanted to look at the phone as Samsung would’ve intended, so hope you all enjoy :)
I think it's fair to say the Samsung Galaxy S3 kicked off the smartphone maker's glory days, as the phone would go on to sell 70 million units alongside ridiculous sales numbers from the upcoming S4 and S5. Did any of you ever have an S3? How did you like it back in the day?
Join the discord! --- discord.io/91tech
I have an S2
I bought an S3 back in late 2012. It was my first Galaxy phone, with many more coming after it. It was a major step up from LG Optimus V that I had before it. After using it, I was sold on the Galaxy brand and over the years I've had many others, including; S4, S4mini, S5, S7, S9+ and I'm currently using the S10. I've also owned some of the lower tier phones that came free with new phone plans, and many galaxy tablets too. When I got my Galaxy Tab S, with its massive 10.1 inch screen in 2015, I was blown away.
I do still have my Samsung Galaxy S III GT-i9300 White and it has no burnin at all. It was my daily driver between the Samsung Galaxy S GT-i9000 and Samsung Galaxy Note III SM-N9005.
I had an S1 and later an S3. The improvement from the older phone was massive. Phones were really fun back then. Even if you upgraded every few months, the improvements on the new phone would be incredible. Samsung released this phone at the perfect time because smart phones were starting to see mass adoption and the S3 was a relatively inexpensive phone that worked well.
I had an S3….. and then I dropped it two days after I got it….. and the AMOLED display cracked, not the glass the actual display cracked
I very clearly remember reading a pc magazine while sitting on the toilet at 12 years old, being baffled at how huge that 4.8" display was and how amazing those specs were... good old times
Ahh, back in the day when people read magazines on the toilet instead of scrolling through their phone. Truly a lost art
How was it doe?
Wasn't that huge. The Note was already out and was much larger
@@jamesjames7601 Yeah but most phones were like 4.3' at that point lmao
@@Generationalwealth94 uh the Galaxy Nexus was 4.65. htc one x was 4.7. so no, 4.8 wasn't big lmfao
My Dad, may he rest in peace, bought one of these in 2012 but he could never master it and we kept getting random calls from him at various times of day.
That’s adorable!
May your dad rest in peace!
Just like my dad, but it happened until now with iPhone 6 that was bought like 3 months ago. And we choose that so he doesn't need to relearn newer iOS.
We'll always end up as tech support for our parents, but still blamed for everything else unrelated.
RIP for your dad tho.
@@RinaldoJonathan He had an old brick Nokia before that, probably should have stayed with that, but Dad being Dad, he had to try something new.
Thanks mate. 🙂
You should've turned the font size up, turned in easy mode and disabled the google apps he wont use
I remember the S3 was so much more of an aspirational phone vs the iPhone 5 at the time. Samsung’s achilles heel really was just its lack of longer term software support.
TouchWiz was pretty bad too. I remember feeling like it was suprisingly laggy. The first thing I would do when I bought a Samsung phone back then was root it and install a custom rom. This was a great phone running cyanogenmod and since Samsung sold so many and so many users hated touchwiz, it had a lot of custom rom support.
I miss the replaceable battery. You could get a battery charger and carry 3 full batteries with you.
@@meandmyEV yeah.
After I got my note 4, I rooted my 2gb snap dragon s3.
Actually had it on 6.0 through cyanogen.
It still ran significantly better than 4.4.2 paired with TouchWiz
@@nighttimestalker One downside I remember with the Note is that all of the S Pen functions and software were built into the Touchwiz overlay so you would lose them if you installed vanilla android.
That said, I loved my Note 3. At the time the screen seemed massive and I have never been a big S Pen user anyway
The live weather wallpaper on the s3 was the coolest thing i had seen back in the day lol
@@zac-1I agree. it was worth the slowdown in the OS. 😂 it is actually amazing that it worked at all. Just a couple of years prior I had a G1 which was barely capable of showing a still wallpaper.
Had it. Loved it. Just a good phone, no rounded screens, a replaceable battery, and loads of functionality. We've lost our way since then.
No, we havnt..... The only things we've lost are replaceable batteries, SD slots, and headphone jacks.....
@@seriouslyproductions6903 I miss the SD card slot. Super cheap storage. There was no need for it to disappear.
Maybe things'll improve with pull out screens and the like.
@@seriouslyproductions6903 dont forget repairability and durability.
@@FatNorthernBigot other phones still have them. Xiaomi has some phones with an sd
@@magfal I could actually repair my old Samsung, it was no big deal.
Oh god the ptsd of past, that Morning Flowers still haunts me till this day 😂
That's funny. Can't believe how Samsung still keeps that around with more moderninzed versions more ethereal. But right there with you. That sound beginning my day was horrifying.... Even nowadays visiting a ringtone site like Zedge just to explore some different varieties, so many of their sound files are mislabeled or unlabeled, and I will tap and hear Morning Flowers and would scramble to kill that sound asap, it really IS traumatic !
* Speaking of which, they also had Over the Horizon, equally traumatic... but did you ever hear one of Samsung's special versions of it that had LYRICS--- it's like CIA torture sounds played to enemy combatants at Abu Ghraib
Maybe its just me but god damn, nostalgia really kicks in with the old Touch Wiz UI.
It's nostalgic but i don't like the flat parts of it, skeuomorphic parts are better, like the notes application which had wood
I never ever could use it. My first samsung phone I was already using Nova Launcher which saved me from that monstrosity, those pukey teal and aqua colors combined.
@@quicksite even better install a custom rom since they are really popular on galaxy phones especially the s3
Absolutely hated it, and when people changed the font to comic sans.
@@opraiderman904 Sacrilege.. as is papyrus.
My S3 is still going strong, i watched the unboxing last year, and this video on it. Still usable for nostalgia for sure.
I loved my S3, made me stay with Samsung. It was comfortable in hand, the plastic didn't feel cheap, camera was good. If they brought it back but with no bezels and current tech, I'd buy again
I still have this phone and I've been using it as my daily driver since 2012.
This phone is insanely durable. I've dropped it from 7ft 5 times and it came unscathed
My Google Pixel 5a died and I went to the parts bin, charged up the S III and it was if it had just come out of the box -- light, durable, easy to use.
Which custom rom ?
I Am also using samsung A5 2015
I had a friend that had a S2. It seemed ok. I somehow bought into the hype of the S3, and bought one. I absolutely loved it. Screen was bigger than the iPhone, and was just right for the time. Spent a ton of time playing games on it, especially Subway Surfers. I had always been an apple guy at heart, so when the iPhone 7 came out with the larger screen, I made the switch and never looked back.
My dad got a Galaxy SIII in 2012 or 2013.
He kept it around for so long because he would use it as a media player in the garage for a really long time. Now it's gone and I'm sad, years of history in that phone.
Man... I remember getting the S3 as an upgrade to my S2 way back when it was released, and it felt like magic. The screen size, display, battery life and specs blew my frigging mind and I remember it being such a conversation piece whenever I brought it out in the first two or three months of its release.
I still have mine to this day for the nostalgia factor.
I don't believe your story.
@@mrbojangles9841 why? I still have mine and it works fine just a bit slow.
My Galaxy S3 still works perfectly fine to this day, no burn in, only the battery is shot. My dad temporarily used it as his phone when his HTC died when he was swapping to working for Apple. He was made fun of for using a really old phone at a company where they give you cutting edge ones.
I still have a great apreciation for the SIII (Initial Model).
Using a custom ROM of either LineageOS or a Debloated Stock rom, the experience is good today, as long as you consider the bottlenecks of only having 1 gigabyte of RAM could bring.
The screen is also great with the only actual problem it has is the limited brightness control.
He has the 2gb ram model.
I just learned that there were models of the phone that didn't have 2 GB of RAM lol
OMG the same here what a good days 😭😂👍🏻
The screen is fucking terrible it was never great you could see all the pixel
@@chriswright8074 it's a 2012 phone with an OLED display at 306 ppi. Lower your standards.
Ah, the phone that started my Samsung obsession. Currently on the Fold 3 and I haven't had any other smartphone line since this phone.
Haha. Always been a Samsung user myself, as I always inherited my Samsung fanboy dad's old phones. When my S6 unfortunately died because of a tiny crack at the very corner of the screen, I veered of in the direction of Xiaomi as I did not have much money at the time, and I definitely did not have a good time with it. I was thinking of swapping it for the OP Nord, as I've always wanted a OnePlus ever since the 3T days, but alas, the S20 FE not only had the same specs but on top of that has 30 whole hertz more on the screen which is something I totes wanted. I feel however that this is my last Samsung phone as I am not at all happy about them ditching MicroSD slots.
@@fenn_fren Samsung wants to be apple removing sd cards and charging 1000 dollars for plastic phone that has 2 years of software update. Just buy an iPhone Pro.
Samsung Galaxy S3 My Frist Phone Missing Those Old Memories
I absolutely love the S3! It was my first proper smart phone. It was also the first phone that got me into rooting / custom ROMs. I bricked it the very first time. I then was able to instlled stock android 4.4.4 KitKat. I loved it!
Felt like this phone was one of more well marketed ones in Samsung's lineup in the last decade. Remember seeing the ad's and billboards for this phone at every train stop in the mta and on TV. At the time, it was beautiful UI, especially that clock/weather widget
I honestly wish they'd bring back the train station ads, there's no point, but I always get excited when I see it.
I had 2 S3’s. They were great devices, but they got to be impossible to keep batteries charged. Towards the end, I was carrying spare batteries and changing them during the day.
i got a ZeroLemon battery back in the day that was huge and lasted for days
Indeed, the battery in that thing was just terrible. Mine died after 2 years of use and I just bought a new phone. My dad replaced his battery two times, but it always died within a year. (The Lenovo phone he bought in 2017 still serves him to this day and keeps decent charge) Was definitely some flawed technology, I recently turned on phone from 2005 (to look up a number) and it still held a charge.
You should've gotten one new high quality battery then disable all the google bloatware (hangouts, google plus, play movies, play books etc)
@@fred-youtube I got a J3 for a year and then switched to Apple…
@@rayquazahere8529 iPhone had shitty battery life back then too. (Worse than a new S3, it had joke capacity like 1200 MaH) It just didn't degrade as fast as faulty S3 battery did.
Remember seeing these in the fairly new Westfield in London on display for the first time and absolutely falling in love with the whole look of the phone. Led to me really wanting a Samsung and have been an android user all this time in part due to this day.
I used an S3 Neo (more ram, newer cpu and Android KitKat) for a while in 2016 before getting my S7, and it felt really good and snappy for everyday usage. Samsung used to be better than now.
On the contrary, I have an A series tablet from the S6 era, and while the UI is actually smooth and responsive, most apps weren't, and the bloat on it (I don't need Samsung Kids, why did every tablet come with it?) took up a very large portion of the device storage. I could fit many times more apps on my 32GB iPad 2, despite it being only having twice the storage.
Omg I remember this one ! Definitely one of my favourite phones ! Used the living hell out of it.
I really appreciate your videos Josh, you have a unique perspective. Most people are concerned with the newest, hottest tech, but to me it is very interesting to look back and see what led us to the present, where the successes and failures were and how things have changed over time. Keep up the good work!
The Galaxy S3 used to be my main phone for a long time. I remember loading custom ROMs on it after it stopped receiving major updates, even after I got an iPhone, just so I can experience new Android versions. Now I'm rocking the Galaxy Note 9.
Me too, this was my favorite phone of all time, i tried loads of custom roms on it, used it for a long time. Now i use Note 8 😀
I dont understand why people say that about Touchwiz.....
I'm still using it in 2022 and the major reason is the touchwiz
I've only just retired my S-III in June (well, it retired itself really)
Bought it when they were first released so it lasted nearly 10 years.
A great phone for business use, not gaming obviously and, here I disagree, still today a very good still camera regardless of the meg numbers.
I'll be flashing a custom ROM soon to bring it back to life I hope.
Super.
Are you using it?
Remembering my S3 mini :')
An old friend of mine had used one of these up until about 2020. Apps barely ran but they somehow got by
I don't understand why people don't like plastic phones. It's cheaper and more resistant, and I don't think they look bad at all.
About the camera, I think the photos look great. For my basic use of it, I would be perfectly happy with it.
The S3 neo is also way better than the normal edition, I have both and the neo actually feels usable today, especially with the still mainteined LineageOS build for it, while the old variant is a lot slower.
About software updates, even though you got less updates, apps keep supporting old versions of android for way longer than iOS. WhatsApp, for example, still supports Android 4 and the S3, while in iOS it needs iOS 12, which is 6 or 7 years newer. While this is worse than actually providing updates, it's not as bad as it seems.
Currently using the S10 Lite and it's the best phone I've ever used. Still in awe of its power, memory and camera quality
I went from the s8 plus which i loved, to the s20 fe which i bloody hate lol
I used to use that one from my first phone to a3 to iphone 6 to iphone 8 plus which is where i am now
Absolutely loving these videos.
The last samsung smartphone for me it was the Samsung Galaxy S4. But the S3 was the peak for me. Year's later I rooted the S3 and It was incredible the customizing options I had at the time. Now those options are default on any other smartphone today.
I love my S4 so practical, but just stop accepting the sim card. Bought A34, very capable, but does what i do on a computer. A34 to me too big, gone silly sizes. Full of bloat ware.
Got my S3 in white just like this one in 12, it survived and served 3,5 *hard* years for me till 2015 flawlessly. Goddamit I actually loved that phone, my very first smartphone😍
My dad had a S1 hard back and a S2 skyrocket. My first smart phone was a S4. Loved those phones
I have my s3 running android 7 on a custom rom & it's really good! I really love the size of this phone, although I dont use it anymore due to situations with 3g i think samsung should do a nostalgic phone bring this back with all updates hardwares & firmware lol
This phone changed the game
I’m an apple user now but I loved my galaxy S3, I really enjoyed that phone.
I#ve had an S2 like a decade ago and I really loved it. Was my first smartphone and to this day, the best I've ever had (relative to the standards of the respective time ofc)
Yeeees the s3. It still turns on and works great for me!
Lucky my blue galaxy S3 won’t turn on even connecting it to a cable won’t work. Some days I wish I can get it fixed and go look at my old text messages
My parents bought me a Galaxy S3 for my first smartphone( it was the latest brand new phone) when I was 6th grade. It was one of the happiest moments of my life
I had the purple sprint model for one of these. That sucker took a dip in the PACIFIC OCEAN and still worked for another year after that. I graduated high school with this phone, it was phenomenal.
Replaceable battery was so cool. I bought a 8500mAh for my Note 3. It increased the thickness by more than double but I just didn’t care. I got 3 days of medium usage out of it :D
This was my favourite era for smartphones, it seemed so exciting. I also liked that every phone came with a mini too.
I installed Lineage OS 18.1 on the S3 Neo , and it's usable.
Even the 4.4 KitKat worked really nice on RUclips
Yes... worked, it doesn t anymore, unless you count in 3rd party apps or using the browser
My mom still has a functioning S3 she uses as a backup alarm clock and white noise machine for when she sleeps
Dang. I remember people mostly flocking for Samsung smartphones and mostly ignoring the others. LG was somewhere up there too i think.
And also the commercials for the Galaxy S4 and S5 too.
I actually got the Galaxy S3 for free. I found it on the floor in excellent condition within a big grocery store. I tried to find the owner, but I never did after a long time looking for it, so I formatted it and decided to use it. I remember thinking "this screen is huge!" and now here we are with tall screens with a little notch.
I used the Galaxy S3 from when it came out in 2012 until 2014. It was the phone that swayed me towards the Samsung/Android ecosystem. Had so much fun with it.
Bro, do a video about the galaxy s5 mini, or do a video where you install custom roms on devices like this.
Really interesting video tho. The Galaxy S3 was my first smartphone but I dropped it back in the day so I bought a second hand S3 after your previous video about the new S3 you bought. Keep up the good work man! Your content is really unique.
Thanks! Yea I'm never sure how much to talk about bootloaders/roms and stuff because some people like it, some want me to talk about the phone as is, in this video I just didn't mention it alotogether which may have been a mistake. But some kind of a video looking at older devices on custom Android roms could be interesting... Thanks for the feedback!
I love these very calm and unique shots, great work (:
cheers for the up. here's a tip if you're afraid that the micro usb port eventually breaks. there are magnetic plug charging cables you can buy. that minimizes the wear
Who's watching on their s3 in 2021 still runs like butter 🤳 thankx for sharing 👊
S3, s5, s7, s9+ and now the s20+, I'm not really a brand loyalist but this video just made me realise I've been rocking Samsung for almost a decade! By the end of a 2 year contract the batteries are always ass, they tried SO hard to make bixby a thing and failed, the previous 3 Samsung lost the use of their charging ports towards the end of the 2 years (which was workable once wireless charging became a thing).
Wish battery's and software support would get me closer to the 5 year mark. When they work they're usually still beasts, but I think this my last Samsung.
Wow. My S2 battery is still about 83% health
This phone was the first big smartphone, today it's considered tiny. For me it's the perfect size once you fill the bezels with screen. I have since moved on to the similarly sized S4, S7 and S10e, the latter of which has the perfect screen size and is still my phone, but is now a thing of the past... And even the iPhone mini is probably going to be discontinued next year.... Please someone make a great under 6in phone for people like me (and many others) !
I have an S III GT i9300 with Lineage OS 14.1, Hybrid Kernel, 200MB of Zram, no apps in the background and a CPU overclock to 1704MHz and GPU overclock to 700MHz. It’s actually usable. However despite even the Zram, the device still suffers because of the 1GB of RAM. If it had 2GB in EU too, this phone would run exceptionally.
Im still stuck to this phone even in 2022 cant even use the RUclips app anymore
Just found my brothers old S3, it was missing the back cover, so I ordered one off Amazon for less than $7, and once it arrives, I'll try to power the phone up, and if all goes well install lineage OS on it.
I started my YT channel shooting on a Galaxy S3 :)
1st time to your channel...
you are giving awesome content...
keep it up
damn this is my 1st phone i bought with my own money. and i love it so much even there is note 2 at that day, but my heart always into this s3. thanks for the memories !
the widget being a few hours behind might be due to your time zone setting, as the widget's time is accurate to the location you entered for weather services
I actually checked this in settings, the timezone is correct, and the top bar is showing the correct time- but the widget is out of wack even though it's showing Vancouver. My theory is it's because it was a US based phone and for some reason it's still giving the time from where it came from (even though it was never activated).
@@91Tech strange, i thought this might help you since i ran into this problem back when i had my s3 as well, but what can you do i guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Ah. This was my first try smart phone. I had the red one with 2gb of ram and 16gb of storage.
I remember buying a large battery for it lol. I also rooted it after I bought my note 4. Had it running Android 6. And it actually ran better than it did on it's final kit Kat update
Try installing lineage os 18 on it
@@fred-youtube
I broke it eventually.
Getting off the bus from school and was walking up my driveway and I tripped. And the screen was already a replacement so it was more fragile. And it killed it when I dropped.
Still wish I had it and my old note 4 just for the nastalgia lol
S3 LTE model
Loved that phone
@@Darth001
Same.
Toichwi was well. TouchWiz.
So I ran nova off it. But I felt special getting that phone as a Christmas present back them. It was better than pretty much anything my other class mated had when I was in the 11th grade lol
cant you replace the scree- oh well no parts it is very rare to find a screen for it or just buy a 2nd hand one and sell the one you used! that is probably the only way!@@nighttimestalker
this video was awesome. brought back many memories as i am looking at my old s3 right now. this thing was a beast!
My first Galaxy was the s5 and now I own a Note 20 Ultra 5g and I love it to death Samsung Galaxy is my favorite phone
I bought the mini version recently for £30. I wanted to use it on holiday in Barcelona. People were saying there are pick pockets in Barcelona. I remember owning one in 2012 then I went to iPhone 5S. I have used the camera and then transferred the photos to my s22 ultra via Bluetooth. I’m finding it fascinating, I would love to have a modern phone this size.
Great phone I used custom ROM for years!
I still have my original Samsung s 3
It is hard to believe that Samsung S III is a phone used to break your bank just a decade ago. It feels like it is just yesterday. 10 years ago, I am so envious of people around me who do have it. You look rich for having it back then. It is still useful if you flash it with the latest custom rom cuz it has 4g like many of the newer budget phones. It maybe not a worthy everyday phone today but it can still be useful if you are a lightweight user and want a small but capable smartphone with a removable battery.
the galaxy s3 was the first ever smart phone in my house after my dad got it for work,.. me and my sister were blown away by it
1:31 seeing both those wallpapers and old UI gives me a strong wave of nostalgia
i remember how horrible the experience was with this phone, i switched back to iPhone just after like half a year. i could not stand the phone just lagging when getting a phonecall. Now with samsung s21 ultra i switched to android again and im pretty pleased :)
People always said the software (TouchWiz) was bad. I never understood that - it was FINE. I used it for about year a few years back, even took it on holiday. IT WORKS. Multi window, quick toggles and others that we now have as standard Android, are FROM THIS PHONE.
I used to have a Galaxy S3 mini. it was my first smartphone, got it in 2013 since my mother switched over to an iPhone 5C. great phone, used it as my main until 2015, then I switched to a 5C which I got used for £175. had that phone until late 2017, which then I switched to an iPhone SE from my aunt as she upgraded to a larger phone, likely 6 or 6S Plus. In February 2020, I upgraded to an iPhone 7 Plus, as my mother upgraded to an 11 Pro Max. I had that phone until December 2020 as it had major hardware issues (a screen replacement would fix it but decided money was better spent on a new phone), so I got a Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro 6GB RAM/128GB Storage. I'm still using that phone now, and I've never had an issue with it. I'm hoping this will last me another 3 years at least as I don't think there will be anything major for that price point until then.
oh and if you are reading this, sorry for rambling on about every phone I've owned, and how I upgrade far too often.
lol i didnt change any of my tablets and phones for 8 years only 1 time where my samsung galaxy tab 3 10.1 got its motherboard fried in 2015 and in early 2016 i bought a samsung galaxy tab e 9.6 still works fine at android 7.1.2 with custom roms
@@eylemuyavul3055 seems like your phones and tablets have gotten a pretty long life, custom roms are honestly a great way to make an android device usable for way longer, if my S3 mini had more storage and I still had it, I'd totally be using it still.
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro that I mentioned in my original comment is still going strong, it's still on its original rom too, which is Android 10 based, and I can upgrade to Android 12 on this phone. It has been nearly 3 years since I got this phone, and it has just worked, no problems at all. I am starting to think about upgrading now that 5G is available in my area, and because I'm in the UK and on an unlimited data plan, I get truly unlimited 5G data. Considering I use cellular as my main internet connection it might be worth doing.
Sorry for rambling on again, I really shouldn't be treating the RUclips comments section like they are forum threads...
@@whitebeartigtig yeah and now im typing from this tablet and i see that android 8.1 rom came out 2 months ago for this i will consider a android update when apps stop supporting android 7.1.2 most of them are still in android 6.0 but some of them is at android 7.0 minimum android versions of apps so i will probably going to update to 8.1 probably before 2024 ends i will update it a few months later but hows your redmi note 9 pros performance
İs it still really good? Like my s7 edge has some really nice performance in android 10 one ui 2.5 i can play games at high graphics smoothly unless if the phone gets too hot then it laggs so i put a fan behind to it
@@whitebeartigtig i use this tablet with a 16 Gb sd card + 8Gb internal storage but i set the sd card to be the internal storage so photos texts videos and apps that support working with sd card and i put some apps forcefully by enabling it from developer settings and its really usable!
@@eylemuyavul3055 I see, yeah for some people a small amount of storage is fine, but I actually do need quite a lot of storage, mostly for pictures and things like that. I'm currently using 86.5GB/128GB, so quite a lot. I do still have the option of putting a MicroSD card in here though.
my mum was using one of there til last year =D
I loved my S3! So much so I still have it 💜 Used it for years as a music player. Sadly the battery finally went caput and trying to find a decade old battery in good shape proved to be impossible for me. But i still loved that phone!
Third party batteries on eBay are not available?
Ah, the Galaxy S3...
Honestly, the 3 and 7 were the best Phones to me in my opinion. My current Note 10+ is fine, but it misses some Charm that both the 3 and 7 share...
I had a Huawei back in 2012, then upgraded to an s3. I was hooked and since then and I have only used galaxy s phones. I now have an s23, but I still have my s3 for nostalgic reasons.
This is still, to date, my favorite phone of all time!! I switched to iPhone and regret it. My favorite aspects of this phone were small details, like how the red light would blink when I had a text, the button at the bottom for functionality, and the plastic backing. If I could use this phone today, I absolutely would.
When I worked at Best Buy, I had someone from Korea come in that had a TV Antenna on it. So cool.
Still feels that it wasn't that long ago when my stepbrother bought his pretty soon after its release. Over 9 years, damn!
Damn, I remember my dad bought this phone alongside my Uncle who bought a Note 2 together. Those phones were revolutionary, They are amazing phones, 9 years later I still have my dad's old S3 in my collection
Also the "Over the Horizon" ringtone, My God that was the best time
I remember my cousin getting one and my mind blowing... Big, bright and colorful display, great cameras and OMG it was so thin and light!
this was my first phone. I begged my parents for it and I don't regret it a single bit, as it got me hooked on Android and now I have my favorite phone I've ever had, a galaxy note 10 plus.
That was one of the best reviews I’ve seen. You’ll be big
Both my mom and dad has an S3 at some point and I was BLOWN away by these phones all I did was want to watch RUclips and I thought the swipe to unlock with the water effect was magical.
welp flip phones are back at least the modern version like motorola razer or samsung z flip searis,but those were the good days whit s3 and s4 which I owned and they surved me well then I upgraded so s7edge and last samsung z flip.
Memories! This was my first Samsung smartphone. Then Note 2, Note 3, Note 5, Note 8, Note 9, S10 5G, and now S22 Ultra! I can't believe myself why I am so into Samsung smartphones! Haha
Now awesome video bro the S3 is legend of the glory days 😂
Unfortunately I never owned the s3 but I have been a loyal samsung user since 2013 and my first samsung was the samsung galaxy s4 plus and I'm currently using the samsung galaxy s20 ultra.
This was my first samsung/ android phone. Still rocking Samsungs
Wonder how it would be to use one of these in 22 or even in 23. Looking forward to next year's video...
Exactly, ridiculous sizes, that's one of the reasons why I struggle so much when trying to buy a new phone
I still have one along with a original Samsung s and a s5, used them for a long time.
I really think would be cool to do a video about the Galaxy core prime. I used to have one and it's basically a gimped version of the S4. It lasted me about 3 and 1/2 years, and I did have to a battery swap, but once I got my first pixel I was so happy to get rid of that thing.
So many obscure Samsung phones I'd love to do videos on, and that's definitely one of them haha
You should do the Samsung Galaxy mega which was a gigantic smartphone at the time.
My S3 i got launch day still works okay...its funny that back then it was the cutting edge and the screen seemed huge...watching this on my fold 5 and amazed how far tech has come in a decade. Would be nice if they added back the SD card slot though, these 1tb devices are hella expensive here in Canada
I still have my S3 and it still works. I had the purple one and I loved it.
That's my first smart phone that I bought using my first salary! Brings back a lot of memories. I hated it but I used it for almost 3 yrs.
I am actually writing this comment with my old samsung galaxy s iii, using the opera browser. It is slow af, but it is still neat, and it is giving me a nostalgia trip.