Samsung Galaxy S3 Quality Issues Roundup: Build Quality, Camera and Memory Bugs [VIDEOS]

There has been a spate of performance and quality issues marring the user experience with Galaxy S3 since its release. Although a few of them have already been addressed by Samsung, Galaxy S3 users are reportedly having a tough time getting replacements for defective phones.

In an earlier IBTimes UK report, we have covered an extensive performance issues roundup. This piece will focus more on quality issues concerning Galaxy S3. Samsung's flagship smartphone seems to be affected by a series of critical issues ranging from reportedly cheap build quality to nagging performance issues.

Here is a rundown:

Cheap Build Quality

Samsung Galaxy S3's back cover seems to have a tolerance problem, reportedly due to cheap plastic being used on the rear cover. There have been reports of small cracks appearing on the rear cover. Contrary to fan expectations that the phone might feature a premium feel plastic than its predecessor, the Galaxy S2, Samsung appears to have come out with an even poorer body cover.

Earlier, Phone Arena leaked photos of white Galaxy S3 phones, revealing cracks on the battery cover. The unit in question had case covers untouched out of the box, which sheds light on manufacturing defect with the device rather than being a case of accidental damage.

Following this incident, there were several instances of case damage with Galaxy S3 reported by users, though there were no confirmed official numbers. According to tech news site Tweakers, Samsung is now aware of the issue and is investigating the matter.

Samsung has offered replacements for defective handsets with this problem. Users have reported that cracks appeared on the sides and bottom of the handset under normal use. Similar issues were reported with the HTC One S at the time of its launch, when its aluminium shell started flaking off some handsets. HTC immediately addressed the issue and prevented widespread occurrence by replacing the handsets.

Manufacturing problems have been reported with the pebble blue model prompting Samsung to unanimously destroy over 600,000 pebble blue battery covers owing to defects. This incident was later cited as the reason for the delay in the release of blue Galaxy S3 models.

In light of superior build materials used in iPhone 4S, HTC One X and One S, Sony Xperia S, as well as Nokia Lumia 800 and 900, the Galaxy S3 appears to be playing a catch-up game.

Camera Bug

The Galaxy S3 is also reportedly afflicted with software glitches leading to non-functionality of certain components such as the rear camera. One YouTube user has posted a video depicting a workaround for this issue, wherein the user switched from back to front camera and back again to fix the issue. The issue seems to have vanished with the replacement units for Galaxy S3.

Glitch with Flash Video Playback

Another YouTube user has uploaded a video portraying a software glitch while playing flash video. It appears Galaxy S3 could have video decoder issues, wherein the video freezes after some time while the audio continues to play in the background.

Problem with Writing Messages in Word

Problem with composing messages in word has been brought to light by one YouTube user scroubious, wherein the performance of the word system appears buggy and non-responsive at times. The slow response time requires the user to perform multiple attempts while inserting text or moving the cursor.

It is not yet ascertained if any of these software bugs are isolated incidents or known issues with the software. Samsung is likely to fix most of these glitches with its upcoming firmware updates for Galaxy S3. Several users have claimed that either a replacement or a software update seems to have fixed some of their problems with the device.

Memory Bug Problem

Yet another YouTube user claims a bug with memory discrepancy on the Galaxy S3 device.

"After few days of exchanging emails with Samsung MEA, where they could not understand the problem, they have advised me to do a factory reset.. the notification is now gone !" exclaims the user. He continues, "As for the 16gb, my old s1 came with 16gb and had 13gb available! My ipad is 16gb and comes with 13gb too! Why would Samsung s3 be the exception???? ICS is too big!"