Maybe I'm a malcontent. I don't know: Perhaps I just can't be satisfied no matter what I do.
I recently got myself a Samsung Galaxy S3 when my Nokia Lumia 822 -- which I honestly only got because it came free with my Verizon plan (at least that's been treating me well, I must say) -- continued to conk out on me (after Day Two) and indeed couldn't live up to the app variety we all know (including Microsoft and Nokia themselves) iPhones and Android phones rock so hard.
I've loved my Samsung Galaxy S3. It's been great. It didn't take too long to learn how to use, I was able to quite quickly get all the apps I needed and transferred over my contacts in a jiffy. My inebriated Fassbinder picture is there as my lockscreen, and my photo of Doug and Skeeter playing video games is there as my wallpaper.
The Samsung Galaxy S3 is my phone now, to be sure. And, again, it's been terrific. I especially love the Swype feature of the keyboard (yes, it does work and works damn well; I probably use it more than traditional typing).
But there's one problem I keep having, and it's starting to exhaust me. That's the fact that the Samsung Galaxy S3 has the World's Worst Battery Life, in my humble opinion. Even the damn Lumia 822 lasted longer than this thing.
First of all, I'm not much of a "power user." I use my phone to talk on occasionally -- with the infrequent interview for stories I'm writing -- and I use it for the usual emails, text messages, chatting and weather reports. Nothing special. I barely use Facebook, I barely use Twitter. I don't play video games, I don't watch movies on my phone, I don't download music or listen to music on my phone.
I use my phone as a phone. I know it may be strange, but that's me. I have a Nexus 7 and a laptop (which, admittedly, is starting to get shoved to the side for the former devices as the boy eventually shoved aside the Velveteen Rabbit) for everything else.
So why in the hell does the battery start to die after less than half a day? And I know it's not just the unit itself. I know I'm also not the only one.
Back in early March, Digital Trends published a piece that talked about the biggest problems people were reporting about their Samsung Galaxy S3. And "Battery Drain" was right there at the top. Again, I'm clearly not the only one having these issues.
Granted, the Samsung Galaxy S3 does a lot, but I have most of that crap turned off. No Wifi, no Bluetooth, no GPS, no gratuitous apps running in the background. I know what I'm doing. I've talked with friends, I've talked with Samsung, I've talked with Verizon, I've read up on this stuff as you probably have yourself.
And I'm here to tell you from a regular, garden variety user, that the Samsung Galaxy S3 has an awful, awful battery that makes me worried I'll be out in and about in labyrinthine New York City one night and won't be able to find my way back because my damn smartphone will have died three hours earlier. (And if you expect me to use a regular map, you're clearly older than 45 and have no compassion for those of us raised on the Internet.)
The real concern for me now is that we're already hearing that the Samsung Galaxy S4 is burning up in people's damn hands and having battery drain issues already. Good God. Get with it, Samsung!
I love my Samsung Galaxy S3 - I'll say it again and apparently just did - but I don't love its battery. It's bad enough my laptop conks out on me even after I've charged it fully after about twenty minutes; but that's why it's getting bypassed for my Nexus 7 and, when it's not dead, my S3.
We have a Samsung Galaxy S4, and when it's my turn to play with it, I'll be writing a full detailed report on how it differs (or doesn't) from the Galaxy S3. Hopefully I find that the battery drain issues of that device isn't as veracious as the problems not just I have been having the S3.
Last time: It's a great phone. It runs well, it's fast, it's well-crafted, well-designed, has some amazing apps and gets the job done. But while I've been writing this story, it's also lost 10 percent of its battery power.
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