Samsung Galaxy S III (16GB - blue, Sprint)

Pros: super fast performance; light;

Cons: plastic build feels even less premium than the SII. screen bightness or lack thereof. Oct 2012 and still no LTE on sprint in most areas.

Summary: so this was my first foray into the world of android, after 3 iphones between the original and the iphone 4.

i only have a few concerns or complaints: the plastic body feels less than premium. i'm not sure how they went backwards here; my girlfriend has the s2, and although it's still a plastic build, there was just something substantial about the weight and how it sat in the hand that made it feel sturdier or higher quality. i do like the light weight aspect, but the phone just feels like it's going to break sitting in my pocket. the glossy batter cover around back is slick and sometimes makes the phone difficult to hold. i suppose this is all fixable with a case, though. i agree with many reviewers who have found that the screen is too dim, particularly for use outside. also, sprint has been really slow with the LTE rollout - this isn't samsungs fault or responsibility, but it's something to consider if you're dying for LTE.

otherwise, the phone has been great. the 2GBs of ram really keep the performance zippy, and i imagine it will get even smoother when i'm able to upgrade to jellybean. for the most part, i skip out on using samsung's proprietary apps aside from calendar. aside from the brightness issue, i think the screen is pretty brilliant -- not the pixel density of other phones on the market, but i'm not reading novels on this thing so it's not really made a difference for me. i do wish the home button was a little thicker -- it's a thin bar and i sometimes worry that the frame around it will wear down and break.

otherwise, a great phone. not sure where i will go when i'm due for an upgrade, but i'm very happy with the G3