Found my old Samsung GS3, what should I do with it?

Roland00Address

Platinum Member
Dec 17, 2008
2,196
260
126
So I found my old Samsung Sprint Galaxy S III, I thought it was stolen about 15 months ago. I have since replaced it with a S4, so now I have a spare phone that is still quite powerful.

I plan on keeping the SIII as a spare phone (I am dropping my S4 insurance), but what should I do with it now that I have an expendable toy?

  • Root it and put some custom os on it? If so which one? (It must still work as a phone for this will still be a back up)
  • Use it as a dedicated Emulator/Rom player with the Moga Pro I already own?
  • Use it as a dedicated music player at the gym?
  • Something else?
 

Roland00Address

Platinum Member
Dec 17, 2008
2,196
260
126
give it to me...

use it as an expensive remote for chromecast
I have real htpc and thus have very little need for a chromecast. Downstairs connected to a vga projector is a htpc, upstairs is my main pc, as well as multiple tablets through out the house.
 

CuriousMike

Diamond Member
Feb 22, 2001
3,044
543
136
Why do anything to it if it's realistically going to sit in a drawer?

Sell it.

If/when you need a backup for your S4, deal with it then.
 

Zaap

Diamond Member
Jun 12, 2008
7,162
424
126
^ Yup. Sell it.

Otherwise losing your S4 will become almost a self-fullfilling prophecy. :D
 

bearxor

Diamond Member
Jul 8, 2001
6,605
3
81
Switch your main phone over to the SGS3 and use the SGS4 to replace it if/when you lose it!
 

gmaster456

Golden Member
Sep 7, 2011
1,877
0
71
Use it a GPS in the car or an MP3 player for working out. Nightstand alarm, email, whatever device. Really you can do anything you want with it but the fact that you have to ask probably means you don't have much of a use for it. You could try selling it.
 

Raduque

Lifer
Aug 22, 2004
13,140
138
106
Did you report it stolen? Cause if so, that pretty much eliminates its use as an actual phone, unless you do the google voice/wifi only thing for calls.
 

Megatomic

Lifer
Nov 9, 2000
20,127
6
81
I'm using my wife's old Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G as my "iPod". I flashed the phone to CM 10.2.1 (JB 4.3.1) and added a 16GB uSD card to it, plenty of room for music and it is really fast on wifi so Google Play Music all access works great with it. It sits plugged into my inMotion Sansa dock by aux cable and is perfect for the task. Your GS3 would be even better though.
 

Roland00Address

Platinum Member
Dec 17, 2008
2,196
260
126
I do not want to sell it guys. I don't want to deal with the hassle of swappa even if I can make a $100 dollars off it.

I also like the piece of mind, of not having to worry about the phone breaking or getting stolen, If my phone breaks/gets stolen I may not upgrade to a new phone, or if I do upgrade I can wait till we get something worth the wait (nexus 6 or whenever qualcomm comes out with 20nm chips.) If it does break or get stolen I also do not having to worry about 5 days of downtime (or so) waiting for a new phone to come in the mail. Think of this as self insurance, I already bought the samsung s4 brand new out of pocket right when it first came out when I lost the s3 for $650. Now I do not have to worry about doing that again unless I choose to get an upgrade.

Did you report it stolen? Cause if so, that pretty much eliminates its use as an actual phone, unless you do the google voice/wifi only thing for calls.

I don't believe I reported it stolen, for my insurance (best buy geek squad) did not cover stolen.

-------------------------

I see this now as a back up, that is also a toy, I am just asking how is the best way to play with my new (really old) toy.
 

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
27,730
8
0
I do not want to sell it guys. I don't want to deal with the hassle of swappa even if I can make a $100 dollars off it.

*Snip*


I don't believe I reported it stolen, for my insurance (best buy geek squad) did not cover stolen.

I've bought and sold on Swappa a dozen times now without any hassle or issues. If you didn't report it as stolen, then the IMEI is good and it'd be better just to sell it off while its still a viable phone. Wait a year, and it'll be valued so low it won't be worth the cost of shipping to sell it.
 

Zaap

Diamond Member
Jun 12, 2008
7,162
424
126
If you're gonna keep it, then just ROM the heck out of it!
 

PowerYoga

Diamond Member
Nov 6, 2001
4,603
0
0
If you don't want to sell it then give it to a friend or family member. Or use it as a testing bed for app development and roms.
 

cronos

Diamond Member
Nov 7, 2001
9,380
26
101
This is one of the allowed phones for Ringplus, I think. So maybe it can be a backup phone of sort, or a kid's first phone, or something.

Plans as low as $2/month + tax (50 minutes, 10 sms).

http://ringplus.net/
 

gmaster456

Golden Member
Sep 7, 2011
1,877
0
71
If you don't want to sell it you could use that as your main phone and keep the S4 for something better to move on to for when the S3 bites the dust.
 

Red Storm

Lifer
Oct 2, 2005
14,233
234
106
Or you could keep the S3 and sell the S4 instead. Or go crazy and sell both and get something more awesome. ;)
 

nOOky

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2004
3,043
2,050
136
I always keep my old phone for a back-up. Seems every time I sell it I wish I had kept it.