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Okay, I've been living in the stone ages with a non-smartphone as my cell phone . I've finally decided to get a smartphone now. Carrier is AT&T. I have heard/read a lot of good things about the Android OS, and want to get a Samsung Galaxy. Now the problem is: which one? The comparison page on AT&T doesn't give enough details for me to make a decision. There is the Galaxy S3, the Galaxy Exhilarate, the Galaxy Express, and the Rugby Pro. Online reviews mainly compare Galaxy vs Iphone, so that doesn't help much. My question is: what are the main advantages of the S3 as opposed to the other three which are cheaper? Is it just the camera/display resolution? Would there be much difference in using any of them for web-surfing? Are most of the apps supported? I can afford the S3, but would going for a lower-end phone be easier to make the transition from my old phone? Or should I go for the best phone since it will be a 2-year contract? So many questions.... Thanks for any suggestions!
Going for a lower-end phone would make it more difficult, in my opinion. Slower and older doesn't mean easier All of the phones you listed aren't terribly low in terms of specs, and they'll all generally do the same thing. I think they all have LTE. They all have Jellybean or Ice Cream Sandwich, so the operating system is pretty similar between each phone.
Here's basically what it breaks down into:
S3 - 200 bucks - most expensive, better screen, bigger screen, bigger battery (slightly), newest and will receive updates longest, higher resale value Rugby Pro 100 bucks - middle in terms of price, decent screen, slightly smaller battery than the S3 but larger than the exhilarate. Built a little more "tanky" although I'm not sure if that's gimmicky or if it really is more tough than others. Exhilarate freeish (99 cents to 30 bucks) - Cheapest, smallest battery, lowest specs of all the phones, but still competitive generally speaking, it will do navi and web browsing and games, just like any other device with relative ease.
I went with the Note II purely for the battery life, and boy howdy have I loved the crap out of it. Here's my first long battery test, this is with full brightness settings:
33.5 hours on a single charge! Full brightness settings, wifi and gps enabled, I did no power-saving maneuvers at all.
Since you're going with a 2 year contract, if it were me I would get the best phone you can get (within your budget) so that it'll last you those two years. The S3 has a much better screen with higher resolution/pixel density and it has a better camera. It also has NFC. However, since this is your first smartphone, you may not really care about that stuff.
The older phones probably won't get newer versions of the operating system, but the S3 will most likely get updates for at least another year or so.
Really it comes down to cost, but also how big of a phone you want can come into play too.
I would go to the store and play with the phones for a bit, hold them and see how they feel to you.
Also think about resale value if you plan on reselling. The S3 will be much more valuable.
Overall, good choice picking Samsung, they're far and away my favorite manufacturer right now.
Wait until March 14. New Galaxy being announced, the S4, and that should drop the prices on the 3.
Yeah, now I'm torn between the S4 and the S3. Thing is, I probably will only need features in the S3, so that might be a better buy. Any idea if the Galaxy S3 will need to be charged every day if I don't use too many features?
Screen time and phone calls are far and away the highest battery users, GPS following closely behind. If you don't use the phone very much, you may get a day and a half to 2 days out of it. I would recommend charging it daily.
You can also get extended batteries if you want, or just get an extra battery and an external charger, that way you can basically run the phone 24/7 if you wanted, with one battery on the charger and one in the phone at all times.
I'd also get the latest model I could afford, hopefully not older than six-eight months since its release date.
HTC also makes good phones. The One X is nice (reportedly, it has a great camera), the new "One" (no X) is coming soon--that's going to be very nice. HTC sometimes gets slammed for shorter than average battery life though.
HTC, Samsung, and others each add their own enhancements to vanilla Android OS to make your home screens prettier, add features, and hopefully make them more user friendly. Specifically, the dialer (phone app), messaging, email, and the app launchers will look and operate slightly differently, so if you don't like one brand, try another before you dismiss "Android" altogether. It might be HTC or Samsung's fault, rather than Android.
One thing I forgot to mention earlier: Be sure your Android version is 4.0 or higher. 2.3, which is still sold on a handful of low-end phones, is rapidly losing developer support, and has relatively poor performance and stability. Don't even consider a phone with 2.3.
That appears not to be an issue with the phones the OP is looking at, but anybody else considering their first Android should be aware that 2.3 is still out there on some new phones, but it's not worth buying now that there are plenty of low-to-mid range phones running 4.0.
Yeah, now I'm torn between the S4 and the S3. Thing is, I probably will only need features in the S3, so that might be a better buy. Any idea if the Galaxy S3 will need to be charged every day if I don't use too many features?
Most phones need to be charged once a day.
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. I've finally decided to get a smartphone now. Carrier is AT&T. I have heard/read a lot of good things about the Android OS, and want to get a Samsung Galaxy. Now the problem is: which one? The comparison page on AT&T doesn't give enough details for me to make a decision. There is the Galaxy S3, the Galaxy Exhilarate, the Galaxy Express, and the Rugby Pro. Online reviews mainly compare Galaxy vs Iphone, so that doesn't help much. My question is: what are the main advantages of the S3 as opposed to the other three which are cheaper? Is it just the camera/display resolution? Would there be much difference in using any of them for web-surfing? Are most of the apps supported? I can afford the S3, but would going for a lower-end phone be easier to make the transition from my old phone? Or should I go for the best phone since it will be a 2-year contract? So many questions....
Thanks for any suggestions! 
