The Samsung Galaxy S3 is the best Android smartphone on the market right now. It is a quad-core beast with a gorgeous screen and it can do all sorts of wondrous things. Sadly, not all of those things are immediately obvious, and some handy features are turned off by default. Let’s run through some Samsung Galaxy S3 tips and find out how to get the most from this delectable device.
Security
We’ll kick off with security because a lot of the handy features on the S3 are only available if you don’t engage some of the tougher security lock options. It’s an unfortunate trade-off between convenience and security. Although, you can always just set up an unlock pattern or password and only turn it on when you go out.
Go to Settings > Security to begin and select Screen lock. Motion is the handiest option as the phone will unlock when you tap and hold the screen and tilt it towards you. Swipe is equally easy but neither offers any real security.
The gimmicky options are Face Unlock and Face and Voice. To set them up you use the front facing camera to record your face and if you want the voice too then you record a phrase or command. If someone looks or sounds similar they can unlock your phone and it can be fooled by a photo as well, but more often you’ll find it doesn’t recognize you and it’s annoying to have to run through the process every time you want to unlock your device.
Pattern unlock is still the best option for a mixture of security and convenience. For real security nothing beats a PIN or password. You can make the pattern unlock a little more secure by going to Settings > Security and turning off Make pattern visible. That way if anyone is peeking over your shoulder it won’t be quite so easy for them to see your pattern.
Motions and gestures
The Samsung Galaxy S3 features all the usual gestures that you’re used to with Android such as pinch to zoom, flick to scroll, and tap and hold to drag. There are also some pretty nifty motions and gestures you might be less familiar with. Go to Settings > Motion if you want to activate them.
Options include a vibration when you pick the phone up to indicate you’ve missed a message or call, shake to update your email list, turn over face down to mute, and sweep your hand across the screen to capture a screenshot. There are quite a few other options.
Particularly handy is the ability to tap and hold the screen when it’s locked and rotate to landscape to launch the camera (only available with screen lock set to swipe). You can also call someone when you are viewing a call or a message from them, or if you’re viewing their contact details just hold the phone up to your ear.
Customization
If you go with swipe lock for unlocking the phone, you can customize the lock screen which gives you super-fast access to whatever you want. Go to Settings > Security and tick With swipe lock and then you can check out the Lock screen options and decide what you want on the lock screen. Options include shortcuts, quick camera access, clock, weather, and a few more.
You can also set up a wake-up command and different functions using S Voice via the Set wake-up command option at the bottom of the Lock screen options menu (more on that later).
All the usual Android customizations for your home screen are present and correct. Tap and hold icons from the apps or widgets screens to drop them on a home screen. You can also long press on a space to change the wallpaper or create a folder.
Display
One of the best options is in Settings > Display. Tap to tick the box next to Smart stay and the device will check to see if you are watching the screen before timing out. You can also set how long it takes your screen to timeout if there’s no activity.
Remember to go to Screen mode if you want to play around with color saturation. You can also change your default font style and size in the Display menu.
Sound
By default, your S3 will be noisy, emitting a tone every time you touch the screen. Go to Settings > Sound and tap Touch sounds. You can decide when you want sounds to play and how much vibration feedback you want in here as well. If you go to Device vibration you can select Create at the bottom and make your own vibration pattern.
There are a range of sounds to choose from in Default notifications and you’ll find a few ringtones in Default ringtones. The chances are good that you’ll want to use your own sounds and ringtones. It’s easy to set a general ringtone, a ringtone for a specific contact, or an alarm. Just find the track you want and long press until the menu pops up. Select Set as and choose Phone ringtone, Caller ringtone, or Alarm ringtone. If you pick Caller ringtone you’ll be taken to your list of contacts to select one.
If you want to set your own notification ringtone for the Samsung Galaxy S3 then you will need to put the track or sound you want in the right folder. Go to Apps > My Files and then navigate to wherever you put the file you want to use. Long press on it and choose Copy or Move then go to Apps > My Files > sdcard > media > audio > notifications and click Done at the top right to place it. Now when you go to Settings > Sound > Default notifications you should see it in the list.
Battery saving
The Samsung Galaxy S3 has pretty impressive battery life but it’s always worth doing what you can to help prolong it. There is a Power saving option in Settings which allows you to limit the CPU performance, reduce frame rate and brightness, change background color and brightness, and turn off haptic feedback. It’s a tradeoff between having your phone perform at top level and prolonging the battery life.
You can also go to Settings > Battery and get a percentage read out of how much power is left and see a breakdown of exactly where it went. If you like to see the percentage of power left then you can also go to Settings > Display and choose Display battery percentage to have it appear at the top right all the time.
In simple terms, the more things you have turned on, the faster the battery will drain. Get into the habit of turning off anything you aren’t using. You can quickly access Mobile data, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS by dragging the notifications screen down, and you’ll also find the Power saving mode in there for quick and easy access.
If you want to automate the process then look into getting an app like Tasker. You can use it to automatically switch to Wi-Fi and turn off Mobile data when you get home, silence alerts when you are sleeping, or even limit email download to specific days and times. The right combo will enable your battery to last a lot longer.
Voice commands with S-Voice
Just double tap the Home button to bring up S-Voice. If you ask “What can I say?” you’ll get a full list of potential commands. You can call people, check the weather, schedule events in your calendar, dictate text messages, play music, and lots more. You can also set a Wake up command so you can activate S-Voice by speaking but it will drain your battery faster.
It’s fun to play around with but far from perfect. If you’re in the car or your hands are busy then you should give it a try.
Data limits
Since unlimited data is a thing of the past and you don’t want hefty overage charges you should take advantage of the ability to set data limits. Go to Settings > Data usage and tick Set mobile data limit. You can change the time period to match your billing and then set a warning level by dragging the orange line and a hard limit by dragging the red line. If you check back you’ll see how much data you have used and you can also see a breakdown of which apps are eating it up.
Miscellaneous
Here are a few other handy Samsung Galaxy S3 tips you might find useful:
If you end up with multiple entries for a single contact then long press on the one with your preferred photo or name and select Join contact then tap on the entry you want to merge.
Face tag is on by default because the S3 has a social tagging feature that can identify and tag people from your contacts. If you want to get rid of it just tap Settings when you are looking at a photo and you’ll see the option to turn Face tag on and off.
You can share files easily with other capable devices by accessing S-Beam or Android Beam via Settings > More settings.
In Settings > More settings you’ll also find a Nearby devices option which allows you to share files with network connected DLNA devices such as your PlayStation 3 or your Smart TV. You can also use Samsung’s AllShare Play app to remote access your computer and share files with other devices.
As long as your carrier has opted in (no luck if you’re with AT&T or Verizon) you can get 50GB of free DropBox space. You can also set up Camera upload so your photos and videos are automatically uploaded to your DropBox account and shared with your computer.
That’s all for now but if you have any tips of your own for Samsung Galaxy S3 owners then please post a comment.
If you run into any problems or you have questions then the Phandroid forum is a great place to find answers.
