The Galaxy S3 was a device of quite a few “firsts” for me. It was the first device I ever got on a contract, being an expensive device and being on a low wage in my first job in 2012 I would’ve struggled to buy it outright. It was also the first flagship phone I ever owned, a trend that carried on from this uninterrupted for almost a decade.
Functionally it was another big leap from the Galaxy Y and although that was only a budget device the technological leap between two devices released only a year apart was huge.
This phone had a beautiful high resolution, AMOLED screen that still looks great to this day (I own this device again so I can still see it!). The screen and overall device was much bigger than the 3 inch device I was coming from, and yet it was still slimmer.
I consider devices from this time period up until around 2019 a golden era for Smartphones. Manufacturers were cramming everything they could into their phones, and trying new features in every generation. They couldn’t yet rely on their brand name and image alone yet so they actually had to put some effort in. We still had removable batteries, we had headphone jacks and SD card slots and still managed to have sleek devices.
This was around the time I discovered how Samsung short change their European customers. Apart from a couple of exceptions (2023 and 2025) customers in Europe, and most locations outside of the US get devices with Samsung’s in house “Exynos” chipsets. They use these chipsets in all of their products from smart TV’s to their Fridges. This maximises profit margins for them as they don’t have to pay out to Qualcomm or Mediatek. This would be acceptable if it weren’t for the fact the US customers get a better deal. They get Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chipsets in all of their S series devices. Not only are the Exynos chipsets inferior (with notorious poor performance, overheating and worse battery life), developers only really focus on the Snapdragon versions of the phone. As someone who was still really keen on custom ROMs and customisation this was extremely disheartening to discover after I’d made my purchase. I could see hundreds of fantastic ROMs available but they weren’t compatible with my device. I am quite vocal about my disdain for this practice and after having suffered these devices a couple more times leading up to the current day I’ve vowed never to buy Samsung again. However that’s a story for another day.
Other than that I owned this device for nearly the entirety of the 2 year contract. I was very happy with it for the most part. The camera took great photos, I no longer had storage and limited RAM issues and the phone just worked. I liked it that much I even bought one of those bulky Otterbox cases to keep it safe. Battery life was still an issue on phones like this though, and at only 2600Mah capacity with an Exynos chipset draining it things were never great. I had an extended battery for this phone, with a bulkier back cover that remedied the issue. However it meant I couldn’t use a protective case as none would fit.
At some point I dropped the phone and cracked the screen. It was a small singular line and nowadays I’d probably just leave it be until it got to the point I couldn’t avoid repairing it. At the time though I was a fresh faced young man just getting my feet into the IT industry. Being naive and overly keen I decided I could get away with just replacing the glass (Even today I wouldn’t attempt a repair like this, with much more knowledge and equipment). Armed with a replacement top layer glass piece, some UV resin and a pen knife I attempted the repair (this feels ridiculous even typing it 13 years later). Needless to say I never got as far as even getting the old glass off before I’d caused irreparable damage.
The S3 met it’s untimely demise at my hands, and that meant it was time for a new phone!
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