The Samsung Galaxy S III is one of the most advanced smartphones currently on the market. It'll get even better when it gets Samsung's Premium Suite upgrade. It's a little bit on the large size being that it is 4.8 inch smartphone. Apple's iPhone is a better size at 4 inches in our opinion, but it suffers growing pains. It's like watching an analog video on an HDTV, black bars show up when old apps are used on the new larger iPhone 5. No matter the size of the device, Android doesn't have this issue. While Apple improved iOS with the notifications shade, Android has long had this feature. What separates Samsung's Galaxy S III from other Android phones and even the Apple iPhone are motion gestures. One of the motion gestures we really like is Samsung's Smart Stay. It keeps the display on when you're looking at and turns off the screen when you're not. It makes a whole lot of sense compared to the display sleep setting. This is especially useful when reading an e-book. Apps either use the sleep setting and turn off the display while you're reading, or it forces the display to stay on and drain your batteries. With Smart Stay, the smartphone only needs to keep the display on when you are looking at it. Another neat motion gesture is Direct Call. Just pull up the contact and take the phone to your ear and it'll automatically call that contact. What happens if you miss a call? If the phone is face down and the screen is turned off, Smart Alert will vibrate the phone when you pick it up to let you know that you've missed calls. There are even more motion gestures but these are the ones we liked. The Galaxy S III also has other features such as Google Maps. It's practically on every Android phone, but the S III's large screen makes it easier to use. It's one of Google's crown jewels and there isn't a better solution unless you're talking about actual GPS navigation devices like Garmin's Nuvi. Apple Maps is like beta and in its infancy, but Apple is working on improving it. Another feature the Galaxy S III has an advantage over iPhone 5 is NFC. We're actually surprised and not surprised that Apple did not include NFC with the iPhone 5. We're not surprised thou because Apple seems to like proprietary solutions, and their war on Android is probably another reason why they didn't include it. With NFC, the user can tap to pay if they're using Google Wallet or ISIS. Another way NFC is used is Samsung's S-Beam. S-Beam is where the user taps the phone with another Samsung smartphone with NFC to share pictures and files. With a powerful processor, microSD card slot, user replaceable battery, and a multitude of neat and innovative features, the Samsung Galaxy S III is our pick for best overall smartphone on Sprint.
Sprint has some other great smartphones to choose from. The LG Optimus G is powerful and has a beautiful display but an embedded SIM and battery and no microSD slot is disappointing. Another smartphone to consider on the Sprint network is the Apple iPhone 5. The iPhone 5 has grown compared to the 4S and now has a 4 inch display. The larger display allows an extra column of icons on the home screen. Despite some growth, it's still smaller than the LG Optimus G or Samsung Galaxy S III, so it's easier to hold. If you don't mind being locked into Apple's ecosystem, the iPhone 5 is a great smartphone for making calls, listening to music, and watching videos. The iPhone use to have a bigger selection of apps then Google's Android, but they've caught up. There's pretty much no difference in selection of apps for Android and iOS. Another issue as we mentioned earlier is that Apple Maps is still in its infancy and looses out to Google Maps. The iPhone 5 also currently no longer has a better selection of accessories then Android either since the roll out of the new lightning connector. The bottom line is if you don't mind being locked into Apple's ecosystem and investing into proprietary accessories then the iPhone 5 is beautifully crafted smartphone with an equally beautiful Retina display.
UPDATE: The new Google Maps app has made it to the iTunes App Store on 12-12-12.
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