SAMSUNG GALAXY SIII: THE SECOND OF 3 FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Some people go away for the holidays. They might go camping. Maybe they'll stay with relatives. If they're really lucky, they could head off overseas somewhere, perhaps Hawaii, like John Key. If they're really UNlucky, they might end up in Antarctica, like John Key. Me? This year I took a slightly different approach. This year I just spent some quality time... with a bunch of smart phones.

Last week I showed you the Nokia Lumia 920, a very slick, if slightly massive new Windows phone. I loved it, but then I was probably always going to, given I'm not a huge iPhone fan and I'd already spent most of last year loving its predecessor, the Lumia 800.

Turns out, there's another bunch of handsets out there that aren't iPhones either. They're a bunch of phones I've never paid much attention to, but this summer, all that changed.

Here's my first foray into the world of the Android; the Samsung Galaxy SIII. In white...

It's time I came clean. Just like Lance Armstrong, I've been living a lie, deceiving the public for years and if Oprah knew who I was, I'm sure she'd want to interview me about it over 2 gripping episodes. My secret is deep, it's dark and I only hope we can confront it, deal with it openly and move on. Here goes... I was an Android bigot.

By that I don't mean I used to be a racist robot. That really WOULD be news. No, what I'm confessing to here is writing off the world's most popular smart-phone operating system without even really trying it. Very naughty of me really, given that at first glance, Android seems to give me the ability to do the very thing I've always wanted to do; build my phone from scratch.

In my defence, there are a couple of reasons why I have deliberately ignored phones like the Galaxy SIII until now.
1) I knew how to work Apple and Windows products already and couldn't be fagged learning something new and 2) The S3 just looked so huge I wasn't sure I'd be able to lift it.

Let's deal with that last one first. I've seen people using the S3 in public. Hard to miss, given it appears to be the size and shape of your average dinner plate. Obviously I get that bigger screen size makes for a more accessible browsing experience but as I've asked before, if I can't slip it in and out of my pocket, just how mobile IS my phone?

Just goes to show how deceiving appearances can be. The Galaxy would prove to be a veritable bundle of surprises, the first being how easily it passed the pocket-fitting test. Yes, the front is wide, but the whole thing is very rounded and tapered, giving the impression of being quite slim indeed.

I was impressed by how light the Galaxy is too. Unlike the Nokia's heft, which gives them a definite feel of durability, the Galaxy almost strays into the flimsy end of the spectrum - especially when you peel the back off to insert your sim or SD cards. That's literally how you do it, almost like peeling the backing sheet off a bumper sticker. This particular bumper sticker's worth about $850, so ripping it to bits to make it go is a tad nerve-racking.

It all still seemed to work once I'd clipped it back together though. Then it was time to set this puppy up. Turns out, the setup on this particular puppy is a bitch.

I always thought what I wanted was a phone with countless possibilities... any number of ways to set it up... change the lock screen... change the home screen... unique ringtones and text alerts... live updates of weather and social media... Sounds amazing, right?

Nightmare. 

Too MANY possibilities. Too MANY options. This wasn't a Matrix-style, "Choose the RED pill or the BLUE pill" situation, this was a "Here are pills in every colour of the rainbow, plus some colours you've never SEEN before" situation.

I found myself trying out 10 different apps for everything I wanted to do. Then I realised most of things I was trying to do, were things that were already set up FOR you on a Windows phone. Maybe I wasn't quite the freestyling smart-phone user I thought I was. Maybe I really didn't mind having someone tell me what I wanted, as long as they knew what I actually what I wanted. One thing the Galaxy was teaching me fast; I was the LAST person who knew what I wanted.

Over time, a GREAT DEAL of time, I started to whittle down the seemingly endless possibilities. I started to learn the difference between what Google and Android call Apps and Widgets, and I'll attempt to share this wisdom with you in some kind of useful way in a future blog.

Let's just say I made it work. Eventually I could check my emails, browse the web, text and tweet almost the way I was used to. I could sense the potential for greatness here, if I could just cut my way through some of the less-great chaff being thrust at me from every direction. I also rediscovered some of the things I used to like about Apple, are readily available for Android too. Meanwhile, in many cases the Windows phone is still waiting for its version to be invented.

Again, more details for more blogs. As part two of 3 first impressions, I'll conclude by saying the Galaxy looks and feels a gazillion times better than I expected. But... at least SOME of my Android bigotry was well-founded - not due to any restrictions I came up against, rather the LACK of them was just so overwhelming.

I can still hear the Domestic Manager complaining, (totally justifiably) "You're not STILL fiddling with that phone, are you?" The reason I can still hear her say that is, I still am.

I'll try and put it down long enough to give the Nokia Lumia 820 a go for next week's post, but I tell you what; something about this S3 is bloody addictive.