VFM phone Samsung Galaxy 3 at 6-7K

sriganesh

Disciple
While browsing websites for buying a new phone, I noticed that Samsung Galaxy 3 is up for grabs at 6399 (after discount coupon) on letsbuy. Does this make the best VFM mobile in this price range considering its capacitative screen, android, decent camera, and samsung brand. Please comment and advise if you have any other phone in mind in this price band that competes with this.
 
Thanks everyone for your opinions. This is my (a novice) first hand experience about what entailed in buying a phone. This may be elaborative but please bear with me. Those who do not want to read everything can know that I had decided to buy Galaxy 3.

I had wanted to change my sub-3000 Nokia phone (I really do not know the model!!) that I have been using for the past three years (this was three months ago). I started doing my research, 95% of it through surfing the net and 5% asking other people, but people around me are as new to smart phones as I am, so the net is the sole way I did my research. I kept my budget (6-7K), started reading about Symbian, smart phones, camera phones, screen resolution, dedicated keys, music phones, touch screens, and what not. The interest in learning about mobile phones and the latest technology increased in me and I was reading about phones that do not come in my price range. At different points during researching, I thought I would buy Nokia C5, SE Elm, SE Hazel (cos of camera), Nokia X3-02, Nokia C5-03, Samsung Corby series, and many others, but I could not make up my mind. By going though forums like TE, I had found that android is THE OS (or at least one of the) that has a future and wanted to buy phone that has android, but my budget was less, so I in a fix – whether to buy Nokia C5-03 or increase the budget and go for an android phone.

While this is going on and when I had almost decided to buy Nokia C5-03, one day I found out that Galaxy 3 is available at sub-7k on letsbuy. I thought that my day had come and just confirmed through the forum whether it is a good buy and decided to buy it. Unexpectedly, this friend of mine came into the picture and asked me to increase my budget and opt for O1. Again, I was in a fix. I was thinking about this and thought that letsbuy coupon expires by June 30th and have to make a decision by then. However, since the coupon does not actually expire by June 30th I wanted to take some more time to decide (natural tendency!!). I have no first-hand experience of any mobiles till now other than the sub-5000 Nokia and Samsung phones. So, the inquisitive nature in me led me to Univercell stores again to have a practical experience of these phones for the first time. There, the store fellow increased my confusion and asked me to take Samsung Galaxy Fit (Rs. 10699), or SE Xperia (I think 10) as opposed to O1 (10499) giving advantages of 5 MP camera, Samsung apps and android apps, multi zoom (is this correct term?), good looks, less weight etc. I have read in forums about better resolution of O1 than Fit and others, and people asking to buy O1 instead of the Fit, but seriously when I saw the phones and had touch experience, the Fit had better touch than O1 and for resolution, well for me who has no prior experience, both looked the same!!!!. I even liked the Galaxy Pop, which did not have good reviews in forums. I had then thought that for a newbie, everything seems to be the same!!!

With all this in the back of my mind, I decided to stop researching and searching and do some buying now. I decided to go for Galaxy 3. The main reason for going for this is it is available cheaper than others and for less than 7k I can experience how being on android is like, what can be done, what apps are available, where they are available, how to experiment with it, etc. May be when I change the phone the next time, I can judge a phone based on the software/hardware specs of the phone better.

I think many who are upgrading to a better phone and have no knowledge of the technology and how it effects the phone will go through the same (difficulty in making a decision) that I had gone. I hope Galaxy 3 will be the one for me. I just wanted to summarize my experience till now. Thanks darkangel, aka911, emmarbee, roxysmile, doubtfire, greenhorn and others for your inputs. Thanks to the TE forums for helping me increase my knowledge about cell phones.

Ha ha ha, does this seem like a farewell speech!!!! Sorry guys, but really thanks to all. I will get back with my experiences about Galaxy 3 and queries again.

PS: On letsbuy, the price increased by Rs. 200 today, I would not waste time now and order this now.
 
Excellent choice and good write-up. The G3 is the best sub 7k phone out there now and you will get a decent android experience on it. It can handle casual games, and is going to get froyo too (maybe already got). The res is better than that in the fit and wildfire, and not bad for a phone of that price. It will last you quite some time, dont worry. :)
 
Weather you are opting for online payment or COD?

Waiting for your feedback on Letsbuy experience.

I am really perplexed, how Letsbuy / Filpkart are able to sell G3 for around 7.5K against 12.0 K in Univercell.
 
^That phone is a mid range Android from last gen. it has a decent processor but very poor GPU. The MSM7227 with Adreno 200 is much better. The resolution of the phone is also WQVGA.

So it was replaced by the Ace, Gio (This would have be a good sell @~11-12k but Samsung didn't release it in India :|) So AFAIK the G3 was out of stock for sometime. Now they are trying to capture the low end Android market ~7k and also clear the inventory may be ;)
 
sriganesh said:
I have read in forums about better resolution of O1 than Fit and others, and people asking to buy O1 instead of the Fit, but seriously when I saw the phones and had touch experience, the Fit had better touch than O1 and for resolution, well for me who has no prior experience, both looked the same!!!!. increase my knowledge about cell phones.

Was waiting for this statement from someone. I very well knew this. Cause I've seen Galaxy 5 many times and haven't noticed the resolution problem. So I was under the impression that, the resolution thing is subjective.
But after watching several videos from igyaan and other websites. Ive noticed one thing, the screen in the Fit looks very dull against the colorful and crisp O1 and XCD35. Earlier, when I see such a difference in display, I used to think about the brightness and display technology and haven't considered the resolution thing. But now I'm thinking that, it's the RESOLUTION that matters. THat's making the O1 so crisp (colorful and contrast) compared to the Dull looking Fit.

Since you've told that, you've checked out both the handsets in Univercell, I guess, I ll check these devices too...

BTW, can you tell me in which univercell you get to have these mobiles on hand?
 
Sorry to barge in.

I do have Samsung Galaxy 3 5801.

Need some decent apps on this one.

Video Player

SMS

Audio Player

and some nice customization widgets.

Oh BTW Its my first Android phone and I never updated it to 2.2. Never wanted to miss swype feature as reported by others....but badly missing SD installation.
 
I guess you can install swype after installing froyo (if it is not there in that froyo ROM). Swype beta is now open. Register with them and install it from mobile.
Video Player - try mobo player
Audio - winamp
SMS - i use handcentsms

customization widgets?
 
sriganesh said:
Yes, I prefer a full touch phone. also letsbuy says it ships with a 1GB card, but the box of samsung galaxy 3 says 2GB included. Any idea why letsbuy says 1GB.
letsbuy Samsung Galaxy 3 page
Buy Samsung Galaxy 3 i5801 (Deep Black) at Best Price in India - Also find Specifications, Photos, Features & Reviews
Yeah I too was worried about the same.And guess what I purchased it 2 days back got it delivered and found that there was no card in it.Neither the 1 GB card nor the 2 GB one.
 
The box was fully packed sealed and intact with the Samsung seal.May be it was a packing problem by Samsung.This was my first Smartphone purchase and first time through internet.I was under peer pressure of not buying through net as no one in my family had tried it before and also internet shopping was not safe in their minds.

But who could resist this offer; a 12k android mobile at 6k(It could be this reason that they resisted me to buy online).

So I read feedbacks,opinions on letsbuy,flipkart etc. and was surprised that many lads really shop online.I was fully confident that letsbuy is safe after majority of guys in TE mention it over here.

So I purchased it and every one in my family was stunned with the phone.But I didn't told them about the memory card coz otherwise I would have been deprived of my internet connection so that I could not buy online anytime.:eek:hyeah:
But letsbuy responded saying they will contact me again after 2 days.
Letssee what Letsbuy does.

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

?dOuBtFiRe? said:
Was the box opened prior to your receipt. B'cause my friend had received the same phone with all accessories intact.
Hi.Can you tell me what memory card did your friend get?This people(letsbuy) started arguing with me that I will be getting 1GB and not the 2GB card:mad:
It was printed on the box as 2GB free memory card inside and on the letsbuy website as 1GB.So I am in a fix.
Whoever purchased this phone please do comment on this.
Thank you very much.
 
Ha!, sort of an anticlimax sort of thing happened. will try to keep it short and brief

I was ready to order the phone by letsbuy when I noticed one thing, the same thing as prohank pointed out.
Code:
This people(letsbuy) started arguing with me that I will be getting 1GB and not the 2GB card
It was printed on the box as 2GB free memory card inside and on the letsbuy website as 1GB.So I am in a fix.
Whoever purchased this phone please do comment on this.

I called letsbuy and they told me I will be getting a 1GB memory card while the box itself says I will get a 2GB memory card inside. Letsbuy people very confidentally told that I will be getting only a 1GB card. How can this be possible, when there is a 2GB card inside the box.
This is my first online purchase, I want to go for credit card only and not COD option and here letsbuy is creating doubts in me. While I was thinking what to do, the price on letsbuy increased to 7899 (6899 after coupon). This all happened on Saturday. I have read in the forums people suggesting to go for COD option on letsbuy and some complaints about their customer care. With all this in mind, I did the next best thing I thought. I ordered the phone for 7499 through flipkart (I had to pay Rs. 600 more overall, but I did not want to have any sort of hassles, this is my first purchase online and if something happens, it is bound to play on my mind for a long time). I ordered on Saturday afternoon, went on a vacation, came back Tuesday morning, and by 11:30 on Tuesday, the flipkart person delivered the phone to me in a fantastic condition, fully packed (four layers on top of the box), with intact box containing 2GB memory card. The phone is looking good, felt happy. I am now in the process of getting familiar with the phone as I have never used one of this sort before. Overall fantastic service by flipkart and I am happy.

I do not know at 7499 it is VFM or not, but I bought it at that price and the mobile came to be within 2 working days.
 
@sriganesh Please try out the apps in the Android Market Place and see which apps work on this and mention that in this thread too.

Since the G3 has a non standard resolution, I want to know how many apps run on it.
 
@sriganesh, I too went for G3 from Flipkart and really impressed with their service. Good packing and fast delivery.

Looking for some good apps from market place. You could find any reference threads on the same?
 
@hotshot05
I used to have a galaxy 3. most market apps are compatible with the phone. I never faced a problem where I require a particular app and its not available.
the only problem I faced was with Skype and some 3d games. most 2d games including angry birds work acceptably. also I think launcher 7 and metamorph don't work

apps recommended for g3
free
mobo player
launcherpro
sha plus mobile info
angry birds
speed x 3d
paid
root explorer
act 1 video player
music player pro

regards.
 
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